Essays Books
Harvard University Press Alexandrian War. African War. Spanish War
Book SynopsisAulus Hirtius, friend of and military subordinate to Caesar (100–44 BC), may have written the Alexandrian War. African War and Spanish War are detailed accounts clearly by officers who had shared in the campaigns. All three works provide important information about Caesar’s career.
£23.70
Little, Brown Book Group What are We Doing Here
Book SynopsisNew essays by the Women''s Prize and Pulitzer Prize winning author of Gilead, Home and Lila. In this collection, Marilynne Robinson impels us to action and offers us hope.''Grace and intelligence ...[her work] defines universal truths about what it means to be human'' BARACK OBAMAMarilynne Robinson has plumbed the human spirit in her renowned novels, including Lila, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award; Home, winner of the Orange Prize; and Gilead, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. In this new essay collection she trains her incisive mind on our modern political climate and the mysteries of faith. Whether she is investigating how the work of great thinkers about America like Emerson and Tocqueville inform our political consciousness or discussing the way that beauty informs and disciplines daily life, Robinson''s peerless prose and boundless humanity areTrade ReviewRobinson urges her audience to stand by what makes us human - "creative, knowing, efficacious, deeply capable of loyalty". The argument is sophisticated and persuasive * Guardian *A bracing, stringent book that continually challenges the reader * Telegraph *There is much rich matter in these essays. They are simultaneously challenging, disturbing and rewarding * Catholic Herald *
£10.44
David Zwirner The Critic as Artist
Book SynopsisIn The Critic as Artist, arguably the most complete exploration of his aesthetic thinking, and certainly the most entertaining, Oscar Wilde harnesses his famous wit to demolish the supposed boundary between art and criticism. Subtitled Upon the Importance of Doing Nothing and Discussing Everything, the essay takes the form of a leisurely dialogue between two characters: Ernest, who insists upon Wilde’s own belief in art’s freedom from societal mandates and values, and a quizzical Gilbert. With his playwright’s ear for dialogue, Wilde champions idleness and contemplation as prerequisites to artistic cultivation. Beyond the well-known dictum of art for art’s sake, Wilde’s originality lays argument for the equality of criticism and art. For him, criticism is not subject to the work of art, but can in fact precede it: the artist cannot create without engaging his or her critical faculties first. And, as Wilde writes, “To the critic the work of art is simply a suggestion for a new work of his own.” The field of art and criticism should be open to the free play of the mind, but Wilde plays seriously, even prophetically. Writing in 1891, he foresaw that criticism would have an increasingly important role as the need to make sense of what we see increases with the complexities of modern life. It is only the fine perception and explication of beauty, Wilde suggests, that will allow us to create meaning, joy, empathy, and peace out of the chaos of facts and reality.
£999.99
Princeton University Press The Dialectic Is in the Sea
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Groundbreaking. . . . Radical and influential, Nascimento’s work is available here for the first time in English."---Karla J. Strand, Ms. Magazine
£22.50
Harvard University Press Discourses 111
Book SynopsisDio Chrysostom (AD ca. 40ca. 120) was a rhetorician hostile to philosophers, whose Discourses reflect political or moral concerns. What survives of his works make him prominent in the revival of Greek literature in the late first and early second century AD.
£23.70
Harvard University Press Ecclesiastical History Volume I
Book SynopsisHistorical works by Bede (672 or 673–735) include his Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, Lives of the Abbots of Bede’s monastery, accounts of Cuthbert, and the Letter to Egbert, Bede’s pupil.
£23.70
Penguin Books Ltd Aesop The Complete Fables
Book Synopsis'Many people are not in the least disturbed at the harm that befalls them, provided they can see their enemies’ downfall first’ In a series of pithy, amusing vignettes, Aesop created a vivid cast of characters to demonstrate different aspects of human nature. Here we see a wily fox outwitted by a quick-thinking cicada, a tortoise triumphing over a self-confident hare and a fable-teller named Aesop silencing those who mock him. Each jewel-like fable provides a warning about the consequences of wrong-doing, as well as offering a glimpse into the everyday lives of Ancient Greeks.This definitive edition is the first translation into English of the entire corpus of 358 unbowdlerized fables. It is fully annotated, with an introduction that rescues the fables from a tradition of moralistic interpretation.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700&Table of ContentsIntroductionA Note on the TextTHE COMPLETE FABLES
£8.54
Harvard University Press Nicomachean Ethics
Book SynopsisNearly all the works that Aristotle (384–322 BC) prepared for publication are lost; the priceless ones extant are lecture-materials, notes, and memoranda (some are spurious). Nicomachean Ethics is antiquity's most influential account of life's Supreme Good.
£23.70
Harvard University Press Library of History Volume XII
Book SynopsisLibrary of History is in three parts: mythical history to the Trojan War; history to Alexander’s death (323 BC); history to 54 BC. Books 1–5 and 11–20 survive complete, the rest in fragments.
£23.70
Harvard University Press Moralia VII
Book SynopsisPlutarch (ca. AD 45–120) wrote on many subjects. His extant works other than the Parallel Lives are varied, about sixty in number, and known as the Moralia (Moral Essays). They reflect his philosophy about living a good life, and provide a treasury of information concerning Greco-Roman society, traditions, ideals, ethics, and religion.
£23.70
Ian Fleming Publications Talk of the Devil
Book Synopsis
£21.25
HarperCollins Publishers Live and Learn
Book SynopsisThis comprehensive edition brings together for the first time three seminal collections by legendary essayist and journalist Joan Didion: Slouching toward Bethlehem, White Album and Sentimental Journeys. Prefaced with a new introduction by Joan Didion.Live and Learn comprises three of the personal essay collections that established Joan Didion as a major figure in the modern canon arranged in chronological order so that readers can appreciate not only the qualities of the essays per se, but also their evolution over time. It also includes a new introduction by Joan Didion herself.The stylistic masterpiece Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968) has become a modern classic, capturing the mood of 1960s America and especially the center of its counterculture, California. The cornerstone essay, an extraordinary report on San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury, sets the agenda for the rest of this book depicting and America where, in some way or another, things are falling apart and the center cannot Trade Review'In her portraits of people, Didion is not out to expose but to understand ... A rich display of some of the best prose written today in this country' The New York Times Book Review 'All of the essays manifest not only [Didion's] intelligence but an instinct for details that continue to emit pulsations in the reader's memory and a style that is spare, subtly musical in its phrasing and exact ... the result is a voice like no other in contemporary journalism' Robert Towers, New York Times Book Review 'Didion manges to make the sorry stuff of troubled times (bike movies, for instance) as interesting and suggestive as the monuments that win her dazzled admiration (Georgia O'Keeffe, the Hoover Dam, the mountains around Bogota) ... A timely and elegant collection' New Yorker 'Didion is an original journalistic talent who can strike at the heart, or the absurdity, of a matter in our contemporary wasteland with quick, graceful strokes' San Francisco Chronicle
£16.19
Penguin Books Ltd Essays Penguin Classics
Book SynopsisSelections from one of the greatest essayists of the Graeco-Roman worldPlutarch used an encyclopedic knowledge of the Roman Empire to produce a compelling and individual voice. In this superb selection from his writings, he offers personal insights into moral subjects that include the virtue of listening, the danger of flattery and the avoidance of anger, alongside more speculative essays on themes as diverse as God's slowness to punish man, the use of reason by supposedly irrational animals and the death of his own daughter. Brilliantly informed, these essays offer a treasure-trove of ancient wisdom, myth and philosophy, and a powerful insight into a deeply intelligent man.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust theTable of ContentsOn listening; how to distinguish a flatterer from a friend; on being aware of moral progress; whether military or intellectual exploits have brought Athens more fame; on the avoidance of anger; on contentment; on God's slowness to punish; on Socrates' personal diety; in consolation to his wife; on the use of reason by "irrational" animals.
£13.49
Harvard University Press Discourses 6180
Book SynopsisDio Chrysostom (AD ca. 40–ca. 120) was a rhetorician hostile to philosophers, whose Discourses reflect political or moral concerns. What survives of his works make him prominent in the revival of Greek literature in the late first and early second century AD.
£23.70
Harvard University Press History of Alexander Volume II
Book SynopsisQuintus Curtius wrote a history of Alexander the Great. The first two of ten books have not survived and material is missing from books 5, 6, and 10. Curtius narrates exciting experiences, develops his hero’s character, moralizes, and provides one of the five extant works that are evidence for Alexander’s career.
£23.70
Harvard University Press History Volume II
Book SynopsisAmmianus, a Greek from Antioch, served many years as an officer in the Roman army, then settled in Rome, where he wrote a Latin history of the Roman Empire. The portion that survives covers twenty-five years in the historian's own lifetime: the reigns of Constantius, Julian, Jovian, Valentinian I, and Valens.
£23.70
Harvard University Press Ecclesiastical History Volume II Books 45. Lives
Book SynopsisHistorical works by Bede (672 or 673–735) include his Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, Lives of the Abbots of Bede’s monastery, accounts of Cuthbert, and the Letter to Egbert, Bede’s pupil.
£23.70
Harvard University Press Politics
Book SynopsisNearly all the works Aristotle (384–322 BCE) prepared for publication are lost; the priceless ones extant are lecture-materials, notes, and memoranda (some are spurious). They can be categorized as practical; logical; physical; metaphysical; on art; other; fragments.
£23.70
Harvard University Press Moralia Volume XV
Book SynopsisPlutarch (ca. AD 45120) wrote on many subjects. His extant works other than the Parallel Lives are varied, about sixty in number, and known as the Moralia (Moral Essays). They reflect his philosophy about living a good life, and provide a treasury of information concerning Greco-Roman society, traditions, ideals, ethics, and religion.
£23.70
Harvard University Press Memorable Doings and Sayings Volume II
Book SynopsisValerius Maximus compiled his handbook of notable deeds and sayings in the reign of Tiberius (14–37 CE). Valerius’s professedly practical work contains a clear moral element and is informative about first-century CE Roman attitudes toward religion and morality.
£23.70
Harvard University Press Apollonius of Tyana Volume III
Book SynopsisIn his Life of Apollonius Philostratus (second to third century AD) chronicles the miracles of first-century AD teacher, religious reformer, and perceived rival to Jesus of Nazareth, Apollonius of Tyana.Trade ReviewThis book, along with Jones's first two volumes, is a well conceived solution to a long-standing problem...This volume will make the study of Apollonius a considerably easier task and, one hopes, a more common one. -- Adam Kemezis * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *
£999.99
Harvard University Press The Greek Anthology Volume V
Book SynopsisThe Greek Anthology (Gathering of Flowers) is a collection over centuries of some 4500 short Greek poems (called epigrams but seldom epigrammatic) by about 300 composers.
£23.70
Faber & Faber Farewell the Trumpets Pax Britannica 3
Book SynopsisFarewell the Trumpets: An Imperial Retreat traces the momentous decline and fall of the greatest of empires - from Queen Victoria''s Diamond Jubilee to the death of Winston Churchill in 1965. With characteristic balance, this masterpiece of narrative history describes the long retreat and final dissolution of the British Empire. The Pax Britannica Trilogy includes Heaven''s Command: An Imperial Progress and Pax Britannica: The Climax of an Empire. Together these three works of history trace the dramatic rise and fall of the British Empire, from the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837 to the death of Winston Churchill in 1965. Jan Morris is also world-renowned for her collection of travel writing and reportage, spanning over five decades and including such titles as Venice, Coronation Everest, Hong Kong, Spain, A Writer''s World and most recently, Contact! ''The British Empire is fortunate in havin
£13.49
Harvard University Press Moralia XIV
Book SynopsisPlutarch (ca. AD 45120) wrote on many subjects. His extant works other than the Parallel Lives are varied, about sixty in number, and known as the Moralia (Moral Essays). They reflect his philosophy about living a good life, and provide a treasury of information concerning Greco-Roman society, traditions, ideals, ethics, and religion.
£23.70
New Directions Publishing Corporation Condition of Secrecy
Book SynopsisFor the first time available in English, a selection of some of Inger Christensen’s most insightful essays and poetic prose piecesTrade Review"Christensen’s scientific and sensuous language resonates with a cosmic vibrancy." -- Columbia Journal"One of Scandinavia’s finest experimental poets, Christensen’s probing, questioning, hopeful voice was an important one and is missed, but we can still hear it in this provocative book. A poet who was definitely not living in an ivory tower." -- Kirkus"What sets Christensen above other poets, moralists, mystics, and scientists is that she rarely instructs by telling how to see, but instead gets readers to experience an alternate way of seeing through the reading of her verse. From one essay to the next, her luminous prose (conveyed in graceful, intimate English by her longtime translator Susanna Nied) confirms what was already evident in the poems: that Christensen was one of the eminent visionaries of the 20th century." -- Los Angeles Review of Books"Condition of Secrecy exudes—and induces—the same fugue-like state induced by the best poems, especially long poems, and particularly Christensen’s own." -- Michigan Quarterly Review"Christensen is at her most intriguing when posing questions, as when she wonders, 'Does art originate from the same necessity that gives rise to beehives, the songs of larks, and the dances of cranes?' and asking whether it is possible to write poetry that is compelling if read 'out loud to a cockroach?' These borderline silly yet profoundly imaginative questions make for a thought-provoking reading experience." -- Publishers Weekly"Like all Christensen's writing, The Condition of Secrecy aims to be a history of no less than everything: the origins of the stars and our souls, the beauty of fractals and of third-century Chinese poetry. It is a book about eating strawberries, witch-burning and the challenge that the soft, scumbled sides of clouds pose to geometry. It’s about standing in the garden and watching yellow slugs 'moving like slow flames' in sunlight. It’s a hectic kind of erudition that could easily seem showy, but in these essays we experience it as a kind of abundance, an outpouring of love for the world. Nied’s clean, musical translation helps. There is nothing knotty, nothing strained. The arguments radiate outward with the measured rhythm of ripples in water." -- Parul Seghal - The New York Times"Inger Christensen manages to make wit, passion and questioning, and astonishing design serve each other’s ends as one, and she does it in a way that is utterly her own." -- W. S. Merwin
£12.34
The 87 Press Beefy's Tune (Dean Blunt Edit)
Book SynopsisDean Blunt is the most important British artist of the current century because he fundamentally does not care about Britain. His importance makes it shocking that such little critical attention has been paid to his work. His indifference explains it. Dhanveer Singh Brar’s Beefy’s Tune (Dean Blunt Edit) looks to initiate a conversation that needs to be had about Dean Blunt, about Britain (through Blunt’s indifference to it), and about Blackness in Britain (through the depth and complexity of Blunt’s feeling for it). Using the 2016 album ‘BBF Hosted By DJ Escrow’ as a means of navigation, Brar hears Blunt in order to access the long contested dream of Britain’s disappearance that was conducted under the name of Black British Arts. Partial (in the sense of his relation to Blunt) and partial (in the sense of unfinished), Beefy’s Tune (Dean Blunt Edit) see’s Dhanveer Singh Brar give the dream a grammar, if not a name.“To encounter BBF Hosted by DJ Escrow through Dhanveer Brar’s ears is to see Babylon through his eyes, and to sense Britain — to uncover with ‘accuracy, brutality and beauty’ the complexities of its meaning — through the social music, social vision and social feel of those who refuse the Britishness that is withheld from them. Brar discerns Dean Blunt’s rightful place in a cultural field where critical discourse and sonic dream are fundaments of a dub university curriculum whose various approaches show the absolute necessity and generativity of stealth, flaw and the resistance to category. Blunt’s “love letter to the blackness of Hackney” deserves the most rigorous, gentle, erudite attention. Happily, Dhanveer Brar is here to provide it.” – Fred Moten
£11.69
The New York Review of Books, Inc The Hall Of Uselessness
Book SynopsisAn NYRB Classics OriginalSimon Leys is a Renaissance man for the era of globalization. A distinguished scholar of classical Chinese art and literature and one of the first Westerners to recognize the appalling toll of Mao’s Cultural Revolution, Leys also writes with unfailing intelligence, seriousness, and bite about European art, literature, history, and politics and is an unflinching observer of the way we live now.The Hall of Uselessness is the most extensive collection of Leys’s essays to be published to date. In it, he addresses subjects ranging from the Chinese attitude to the past to the mysteries of Belgium and Belgitude; offers portraits of André Gide and Zhou Enlai; takes on Roland Barthes and Christopher Hitchens; broods on the Cambodian genocide; reflects on the spell of the sea; and writes with keen appreciation about writers as different as Victor Hugo, Evelyn Waugh, and Georges Simenon. Throughout, The Hall of Uselessness is marked with the deep knowledge, skeptical intelligence, and passionate conviction that have made Simon Leys one of the most powerful essayists of our time.
£17.85
University of Alberta Press Numinous Seditions: Interiority and Climate
Book SynopsisWith Numinous Seditions, celebrated poet and essayist Tim Lilburn investigates inner dispositions that might help us bear the new sorrows of the climate crisis. The book draws from the West’s almost forgotten contemplative tradition in its Platonic, Islamic, Christian, and Zoharic forms. It also explores ideas from modern philosophers Jan Zwicky, Gillian Rose, Dorothy Day, and Simone Weil, and from contemporary poets Don Domanski, Philip Kevin Paul, Anne Szumigalski, and Roberto Harrison. Lilburn suggests that listening, noticing, reading, and stretching our imaginations are all part of an interior stance that can assist with the difficult tasks of forming deep relationships with the land, with Indigenous peoples, and with pedagogy itself. Numinous Seditions is for scholars and readers interested in poetry, environmental philosophy, and in the possibility of a contemplative politics.Trade Review"Numinous Seditions proposes to expand the human imagination with a call to renewed vision. It invites the reader into active, thoughtful engagement with arguably the most crucial question of our time: what can I make of myself, in the world we have made for ourselves?" H. L. Hix, University of Wyoming"Among the book’s ample gifts are its refusal of confected hope and its hosting of a larger conversation. Here Ibn ‘Arabī brushes foreheads with Anne Szumigalski, Andrew Ahenakew’s polar bear shares the sky with the angel of pseudo-Dionysius. In contemplating shards of ancient wisdom, Lilburn seeks the grace needed to grieve the conflagration of the world." Warren Heiti, author of Attending: An Ethical Art“The lucent essays gathered in Tim Liburn’s new book offer what they adumbrate: a ‘refugium for attentiveness,’ opening lines of earthbound thought, enriching our lexicon, and retrieving forgotten practices in order to cultivate a contemplative, compassionate, and creative modus vivendi in the midst of the unspeakable sorrow of ecological unravelling, climatic disruption, and the continuing legacies of imperialist violence. Amongst them is a meditation on lectio divina that might be taken as a guide for reading these essays themselves, many of them tending towards the fragmentary, punctuated with pauses, and all of them replete with invitations to see, feel, and imagine otherwise.” Kate Rigby, author of Meditations on Creation in an Era of ExtinctionTable of ContentsPreface New Sadness Interiority and Climate Change Contemplative Practices, Contemplative Pedagogies Hoping for Something to Appear | The Poetry of Don Domanski Poetry’s Practice of Philosophy | Anne Szumigalski Reading William Chittick Reading Ibn ‘Arabi Happy Incompetencies, the Self’s Other Routes Poverty and the Doom of Acedia Ontological Loneliness and the Balm of Metaphor Two Readings on Snow, Two Readings on Sorrow In the Time of Extreme Heat, In the Time of the Discovery of Unmarked Graves at the Site of Residential Schools Numinous Seditions Dream Coda Glossary Reading Index
£21.59
Penguin Books Ltd Essays Two
Book SynopsisTrade Review'Precise, concentrated, lyrical. No one writes like Lydia Davis, and everyone should read her' * Hanif Kureishi *
£17.00
Penguin Books Ltd Prisoners of Time
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewA bravura examination of political power ... Clark displays [his] brilliance and bracing intellect to exhilarating effect ... The pleasure of Clark's writing is that it embraces an impressive spectrum of thought, without ever losing sight of the historical truth, or of the difficulty in reaching it. -- Andrew Anthony * The Guardian *A resounding success ... [Clark] has a knack for writing accounts of the past that make waves in the present. In Prisoners of Time, Clark brings the same complexity to the subject of history itself ... Erudite. -- Jeremy Cliffe * New Statesman *
£10.44
David R. Godine Publisher Inc Summer Solstice: An Essay
Book SynopsisSummer is fireflies and sparklers. Fat red tomatoes sliced thin and salted. Lemonade and long dreamy days. The treasures of the season are gone much too soon — but they’re captured here, in loving sensuous prose that’s both personal and universal, for you to find any time of year.Experience the most evocative tribute to the meaning of the season, a season whose magical feeling stays with us even in winter. Where does that feeling come from? What is summer made of? The smell of cut grass behind the gasoline of a lawnmower. A crown you’ve made of flowers. Blackberry bush prickers. First hot dog off the grill. Stargazing and sleeping with the windows open. This essay brims with a searching honesty and insight about what this season has meant in our pasts and what it might mean in our lives ahead.Release yourself into the sky and feel, Nina MacLaughlin writes, for a moment: there's time.If summer is the season of your life, if the months between Memorial Day and Labor Day hold your favorite memories, you’ll love Summer Solstice.Trade ReviewPraise for Summer Solstice“For those who cannot safely venture from their homes this season, MacLaughlin’s book can be that breath of fresh air, the nostalgic call back to better days, and the hope for a future when we can safely gather again under open sky... [Summer Solstice is] a brief reverie, short and sweet like the fleeting days it describes.”—Green Mountain Review“One can easily read this sensuous little book in an evening, or dawdle, as I’ve done, over the last week....It offers a vivid contrast to this moment of masks: the immediacy of a season bursting out of itself, elemental and clean.”—Joan Silverman, Portland Press Herald Praise for Winter Solstice “Nina MacLaughlin returns to celebrate the winter solstice, and delivers a most sensual hymn and harbor for the human ability to feel our way through the darkness towards wise, unexpected connections. This ethereal collection offers us a candle at night—it’s an astonishing gift.” —Aimee Nezhukumatathil, author of World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments “Nina MacLaughlin stands shoulder to shoulder with such writers as José Emilio Pacheco and Fleur Jaeggy. In Winter Solstice we are invited into the impending dark, guided through our own, and in the end given just enough light to survive. MacLaughlin’s meditation is both universal and uncommonly distinct. An immense joy to read, Winter Solstice is not so much an essay as it is a vision.” —Matthew Dickman, author of Husbandry “Smart and lyrical—this book makes you feel alive.” —Nicholson Baker, author of The Anthologist
£999.99
Juggernaut Publication Chhaunk On Food Economics And Society
Book Synopsis
£23.62
Harvard University Press Selected Orations Volume II
Book SynopsisLibanius, one of the last great publicists and teachers of Greek paganism, has much to tell us about the tumultuous world of the fourth century AD. His works include Orations, the first of which is an autobiography, and Letters.
£23.70
Harvard University Press Roman History Volume VI
Book SynopsisDio Cassius (Cassius Dio), ca. AD 150–235, was born in Bithynia. Dio’s work is a vital source for the last years of the Roman republic and the first four Roman emperors.
£23.70
Harvard University Press Pro Archia. Post Reditum in Senatu. Post Reditum
Book SynopsisWe know more of Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BC), lawyer, orator, politician and philosopher, than of any other Roman. Besides much else, his work conveys the turmoil of his time, and the part he played in a period that saw the rise and fall of Julius Caesar in a tottering republic.
£23.70
Harvard University Press Prudentius Volume I
Book SynopsisPrudentius used allegory and classical Latin verse forms in service of Christianity. His works include the Psychomachia, an allegorical description of the struggle between Christian virtues and pagan vices; lyric poetry; and inscriptions for biblical scenes on a church’s walls—a valuable source on Christian iconography.
£23.70
HarperCollins Publishers Farther Away
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers The Matter of Black Lives Writing from The New
Book SynopsisA collection of the New Yorkers groundbreaking writing on race in America, including work by James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Hilton Als, Zadie Smith, and moreFrom the pages of the New Yorker comes a bold and telling portrait of Black life in America, with astonishing early work from Rebecca West's account of a lynching trial and James Baldwin's Letter from a Region in My Mind' (which later formed the basis of The Fire Next Time) to more recent writing by Toni Morrison, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Zadie Smith, Hilton Als, Jamaica Kincaid, Malcolm Gladwell, Elizabeth Alexander, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Doreen St. Félix, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Kelefa Sanneh, and more.Reaching back across the last century, The Matter of Black Lives includes a wide array of material from the New Yorker archives ranging across essays, reported pieces, profiles, criticism, and historical pieces. This book addresses everything from the arts to civil rights, matters of justice, and politics, and brings uTrade Review Praise for The Matter of Black Lives ‘An essential volume for readers interested in the Black past and present, as all readers should be’ – Publishers Weekly (starred review) Praise for The Fragile Earth ‘A must-read’ Daily Beast ‘Immersive and engaging . . . Reading three decades of essays on this important and urgent topic, one is appalled that we know so much and have repeatedly done so little with that knowledge, as well as simultaneously hopeful and skeptical that technological solutions can save us now’ Library Journal ‘Illuminating and powerful . . . a memorable book with a resounding message’ Publishers Weekly (starred review)
£13.49
Vintage Publishing Five Moral Pieces
Book SynopsisEmbracing the web of multi-culturalism that has become a fact of contemporary life from New York to New Delhi, Eco argues that we are more connected to people of other traditions and customs than ever before, making tolerance the ultimate value in today''s world. What good, he asks in a talk delivered during the Gulf War, does war do in a world where the flow of goods, services, and information is unstoppable, and the enemy is always behind the lines? What makes news today, who decides how it will be presented and how does the way it is disseminated contribute to the widespread disillusionment with politics in general? In one of the most personal of the essays, Eco recalls experiencing liberation from fascism in Italy as a boy, and examines the various historical forms of fascism, always with an eye toward such ugly manifestations today. And finally, in an intensely personal open letter to an Italian Cardinal, Eco reflects on a question underlying all the reflections in the Trade ReviewA big hitter takes on big ethical issues... Eco sits himself down in the modern marketplace and notices what is really going on * The Times *For the sheer depth and clarity of his learning and wisdom, Eco has no living rival * Harpers & Queen *Eco is one of the most influential thinkers of our time * Los Angeles Times *Cogently argued and periodically sparkles with the kind of wit and insight that readers have come to expect from one of Italy's brightest minds * Library Journal *
£11.67
Vintage Publishing The Common Reader Volume 2
Book Synopsis''He reads for his own pleasure rather than to impart knowledge or correct the opinions of others''.So Virginia Woolf described the ''common reader'' for whom she wrote her second series of essays. Here she turns her brilliant eye on novels and poetry from John Donne to Christina Rossetti and Mary Wollstonecraft as well as many others. This is an informal, informative and witty celebration of our literary and social heritage by a writer of genius.Trade ReviewVirginia Woolf was one of the great innovators of that decade of literary Modernism, the 1920s. Novels such as Mrs Dalloway and To the Lighthouse showed how experimental writing could reshape our sense of ordinary life. Taking unremarkable materials - preparations for a genteel party, a day on a bourgeois family holiday - they trace the flow of associations and ideas that we call "consciousness" * Guardian *Virginia Woolf stands as the chief figure of modernism in England and must be included with Joyce and Proust in the realisation of experimental achievements that have completely broken with tradition * New York Times *Virginia Woolf was a great writer. Her voice is distinctive; her style is her own; her work is an active influence on other writers and a subtle influence on what we have come to expect from modern literature -- Jeanette Winterson
£10.44
Vintage Publishing The Moronic Inferno
Book SynopsisAt the age of ten, when Martin Amis spent a year in Princeton, New Jersey, he was excited and frightened by America. As an adult he has approached that confusing country from many arresting angles, and interviewed its literati, filmmakers, thinkers, opinion makers, leaders and crackpots with characteristic discernment and wit.Included in a gallery of Great American Novelists are Norman Mailer, Gore Vidal, Truman Capote, Joseph Heller, William Burroughs, Kurt Vonnegut, John Updike, Paul Theroux, Philip Roth and Saul Bellow. Amis also takes us to Dallas, where presidential candidate Ronald Reagan is attempting to liaise with born-again Christians. We glimpse the beau monde of Palm Beach, where each couple tries to out-Gatsby the other, and examine the case of Claus von Bulow. Steven Spielberg gets a visit, as does Brian de Palma, whom Amis asks why his films make no sense, and Hugh Hefner''s sybaritic fortress and sanitised image are penetrated. There can be litTrade ReviewMartin Amis's America is funny and horrific * The Times *Perceptive, witty and felicitously written... A terrific book -- Frank Kermode * London Review of Books *He writes brilliantly on novels and novelists. He has a laser-keen eye and an enviable descriptive power, using words with great originality and precision * Sunday Telegraph *As a foreign journalist-cum-essayist on America, Mr Amis has no equal * The Economist *
£13.49
Cornerstone Bit Rot
Book SynopsisIn Bit Rot, Douglas Coupland explores the different ways in which twentieth-century notions of the future are being shredded, and creates a gem of the digital age. Reading the stories and essays in Bit Rot is like bingeing on Netflix . . . you can''t stop with just one.Bit rot' is a term used in digital archiving to describe the way digital files can spontaneously and quickly decompose. As Coupland writes, bit rot also describes the way my brain has been feeling since 2000, as I shed older and weaker neurons and connections and enhance new and unexpected ones'. Bit Rot the book explores the ways humanity tries to make sense of our shifting consciousness. Coupland, just like the Internet, mixes forms to achieve his ends. Short fiction is interspersed with essays on all aspects of modern life. The result is addictively satisfying for Coupland's legion of fans hungry for his observations about our world. For almost three decades, his unique pTrade ReviewCoupland adopts…an Andy Warholish mode, somewhere between mocking, lamenting, celebrating even the most troubling aspects of postmodernity. * Times Literary Supplement *[Coupland’s] new collection has its basis in that rarefied literary form, the art catalogue … [he] is at his best when he muses on new opportunities and challenges presented by technology. * The National *[T]he Vancouver-based tech-seer, critic, author and artist again proves himself to be one of the most entertaining and thoughtful futurologists on the planet. * The Herald *Bit Rot is wry and wise, terrifying and hilarious, and it makes us LOL while still using “LOL” correctly. * i Paper *Every page is full of wit, surprise and delight * Dluxe Magazine *
£9.99
Vintage Publishing Imaginary Homelands
Book SynopsisSalman Rushdie is the author of thirteen novels, one collection of short stories, three works of non-fiction, and the co-editor of The Vintage Book of Indian Writing. In 1993 Midnight's Children was judged to be the Best of the Booker, the best novel to have won the Booker Prize in its forty year history. The Moor's Last Sigh won the Whitbread Prize in 1995 and the European Union's Aristeion Prize for Literature in 1996. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres.Trade ReviewLiterature of the highest order * Michael Foot *A book bristling with intelligence, deeply held opinions, and wonderful flights of fancy * Boston Globe *Playful profound and provocative...Rushdie is never less than instructive. He holds nothing back * New York Newsday *A deft, various, and humane collection -- Christopher Hitchens * Independent *More intelligence and intellectual courage than most writers summon up in a lifetime * The Times *
£11.69
Vintage Publishing Lives in Writing
Book SynopsisDavid Lodge (CBE)'s novels include Changing Places, Small World and Nice Work (shortlisted for the Booker) and, most recently, A Man of Parts. He has also written plays and screenplays, and several books of literary criticism. His works have been translated into more than thirty languages. He is Emeritus Professor of English Literature at Birmingham, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and is a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.Trade ReviewLodge is a clear, sceptical writer, wise about things and a careful reader and in general kind even to people who plainly irritate him -- Sam Leith * Spectator *Lodge’s animating spark is his sedulousness, his ability to marshal the facts, pronounce a judgement and then subtly qualify it -- DJ Taylor * Independent on Sunday *Lodge, too original a writer to set down a conventional autobiography, reveals himself in fragments, an anecdote here, a recollection there. The collection, then, is a kind of trick: portraits of others disguising a book about himself... This is a hybrid work, well-suited to its hybrid author – rooted in fact but entranced by fiction -- Sophie Elmhirst * Financial Times *The shrewd, amused intellect that Lodge brings to bear makes this collection a consistent pleasure… Wise and genial -- Tim Martin * The Times *Generous but discriminating, lucid without sacrificing complexity -- Theo Tait * Sunday Times *
£11.69
Cornerstone Three Complete Novels
Book SynopsisHere, in one volume, are three major novels by the Marquis de Sade, including the only authentic and complete British edition of his most famous work JUSTINE: one of his most daring works, PHILOSOPHY IN THE BEDROOM: and the eighteenth-century masterpiece, EUGENIE DE FRANVAL. Also included is Sade''s famous DIALOGUE BETWEEN A PRIEST AND A DYING MAN, a selection from his letters, a fifty-page chronology of his life, two important essays on Sade, and a bibliography of his work.Trade Review...shines a perverse and revealing spotlight on the entire era of the French Revolution... An important elucidating book * ROBERT LOWRY CHICAGO SUN-TIMES *It is highly important that we have this authentic and definitive edition. * PROFESSOR HARRY T. MOORE *
£17.09
Penguin Books Ltd Golf Dreams
Book SynopsisAs a golfer for almost forty years, John Updike has written frequently about the game. This gathering of his pieces covers everything from the peculiar charms of bad golf and the satisfactions of an essentially losing struggle to the camaraderie of good golf and its own attendant perils.
£14.39
Penguin Books Ltd A Tramp Abroad Penguin Classics
Book SynopsisTwain's account of travelling in Europe, A TRAMP ABROAD (1880), sparkles with the author's shrewd observations and highly opinionated comments on Old World culture, and showcases his unparalleled ability to integrate humorous sketches, autobiographical tidbits, and historical anecdotes in a consistently entertaining narrative. Cast in the form of a walking tour through Germany, Switzerland, France and Italy, A TRAMP ABROAD includes among its adventures a voyage by raft down the Neckar and an ascent of Mount Blanc by telescope, as well as the author's attempts to study art - a wholly imagined activity Twain 'authenticated' with his own wonderfully primitive pictures included in this volume.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series Trade Review“[A Tramp Abroad] is delicious, whether you open it at the sojourn in Heidelberg, or the voyage down the Neckar on a raft, or mountaineering in Switzerland, or the excursion beyond the Alps into Italy.” —William Dean Howells
£12.34
Penguin Books Ltd Daphnis and Chloe Penguin Classics
Book SynopsisA masterpiece among early Greek romancesA tender novel describing eager and inept young love, Daphnis and Chloe tells the story of a baby boy and girl who are discovered separately, two years apart, alone and exposed on a Greek mountainside. Taken in by a goatherd and a shepherd respectively, and raised near the town of Mytilene, they grow to maturity unaware of one another's existence - until the mischievous god of love, Eros, creates in them a sudden overpowering desire for one another. A masterpiece among early Greek romances, attracting both high praise and moral disapproval, this work has proved an enduringly fertile source of inspiration for musicians, writers and artists from Henry Fielding to Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and Maurice Ravel. Longus transforms familiar themes from the romance genre - including pirates, dreams, and the supernatural - into a virtuoso love story that is rich in insight, humorous and ironical in its treatment of human sexual experience.<
£10.44
