Essays Books

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisWritten in 1890, at the close of William Morris’s most intense period of political activism, News from Nowhere is a compelling articulation of his mature views on art, work, community, family, and the nature and structure of the ideal society. A utopian narrative of a future society, it is also an immensely entertaining novel.This Broadview edition includes a wide variety of contextualizing documents, including portions of Morris’s essays, lectures, and journalism; excerpts from precursor utopian texts; writings on Bloody Sunday, art, work, and revolution; and contemporary reviews.Trade Review“Stephen Arata, through his insightful introduction and his careful selection of documents, has created an invaluable edition of News from Nowhere, one of the seminal texts of the nineteenth century.” — Peter Stansky, Stanford University“This astute and long overdue reappraisal provides a lucid overview and a wealth of contextual information. An excellent resource.” — Shannon L. Rogers, Saint Joseph’s University, Editor, Newsletter of the William Morris Society in the United States“Stephen Arata provides an especially informative account of the social here and now out of which an imagined Nowhere emerged. The rich selection of accompanying texts from British and continental radicals is particularly valuable and full of surprises. This is a fine edition for a new century that invites us to read Morris’s utopia freshly while it provides ample material to help us do so.” — Elizabeth Helsinger, University of ChicagoTable of ContentsIntroductionWilliam Morris: A Brief ChronologyA Note on the TextNews from NowhereAppendix A: Morris on the Platform From “Art and Socialism” (1884) From “How We Live and How We Might Live” (1884) From “The Society of the Future” (1887) Appendix B: Art, Work, and Society Robert Owen, from Report to the County of Lanark (1820) John Ruskin, from “The Nature of Gothic” (1852) Karl Marx, from Das Kapital (1867) Henry George, from Progress and Poverty (1879) James MacNeill Whistler, from “Mr. Whistler’s Ten O’Clock” (1885) Eleanor Marx-Aveling and Edward Aveling, from “The Woman Question” (1886) Mona Caird, from “The Emancipation of the Family” (1890) Peter Kropotkin, from The Conquest of Bread (1892) Appendix C: Utopia/Dystopia Sir Thomas More, from Utopia (1516) Samuel Butler, from Erewhon; or, Over the Range (1872) Richard Jefferies, from After London; or, Wild England (1885) Jane Hume Clapperton, from Margaret Dunmore; or, A Socialist Home (1888) Edward Bellamy, from Looking Backward, 2000-1887 (1888) Oscar Wilde, from “The Soul of Man Under Socialism” (1891) Florence Dixie, from Gloriana; or, the Revolution of 1900 (1892) Appendix D: Revolution or Reform Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, from Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848) John Stuart Mill, from “Chapters on Socialism” (1879) H.M. Hyndman, from England for All: The Text-Book of Democracy (1881) Sergius Stepniak, from Underground Russia (1883) E. Belfort Bax and William Morris, from “Manifesto of the Socialist League” (1885) Joseph Lane, from An Anti-Statist, Communist Manifesto (1887) George Bernard Shaw, from Fabian Essays in Socialism (1889) Appendix E: Bloody Sunday From The Times (London), November 14, 1887 Queen Victoria, from her journal and correspondence (1887) R.B. Cunninghame Graham, from “Bloody Sunday” (1888) George Bernard Shaw, from a letter to William Morris, November 22, 1887 William Morris, from “London in a State of Siege” (1887) Margaret Harkness, from Out of Work (1888) Appendix F: Early Reviews and Responses Lionel Johnson, from a review in Academy (May 23, 1891) Maurice Hewlett, from a review in National Review (August 1891) Peter Kropotkin, from an obituary notice in Freedom (November 1896) Walter Crane, from an obituary notice in Progressive Review (November 1896) J.W. Mackail, from The Life of William Morris (1899) May Morris, from The Collected Works of William Morris (1910-15) Bibliography/Recommended Reading

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisFor many of us, a good, heart-pounding mystery is the perfect escape from real-world confusion and chaos. But what about the writers who create those stories of suspense and intrigue? How do our favorite novelists cope with our perplexing world, and what mysteries keep them up at night? In Private Investigations, twenty fan-favorite mystery writers share their first-person stories of grappling with mysteries they've personally encountered, at home and in the world. Caroline Leavitt regales us with a medical mystery, a time when she lost her voice and doctors couldn't find a cure; Martin Limon travels back to his military stint in Korea to grapple with the chaos of war; Anne Perry ponders the magical powers of stories conjured from writers' imaginations, and more.Exploring all the tropes of the genre--from haunted houses to elusive perpetrators, from respecting the legacy of victims of violence to regrouping after missed signals have derailed their lives--these writers' true tales show just how much art imitates life, and how, ultimately, we are all private investigators in the our own real-life dramas.

Read more less

Book SynopsisHow are voices like places? They move through us as we move through them. Celebrated poet David Mason explores surprising connections in geography and time, considering writers who traveled, who emigrated or were exiled, and who often shaped the literature of their homelands. He writes of seasoned travelers (Patrick Leigh Fermor, Bruce Chatwin, Joseph Conrad, Herodotus himself), and writers as far flung as Omar Khayyam, Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, James Joyce, and Les Murray. In the end, he turns to his own native region, the American West, with Wallace Stegner, Edward Abbey, Robinson Jeffers, Belle Turnbull, and Thomas McGrath. These essays are about familiarity and estrangement, the pleasure and knowledge readers can gain by engaging with writers lives, their travels, their trials, and the homes they make for themselves

Read more less

Book SynopsisA New York Review Books OriginalAn uncompromising contrarian, a passionate polemicist, a man of quick wit and wide learning, an anarchist, a pacifist, and a virtuoso of the slashing phrase, Dwight Macdonald was an indefatigable and indomitable critic of America’s susceptibility to well-meaning cultural fakery: all those estimable, eminent, prizewinning works of art that are said to be good and good for you and are not. He dubbed this phenomenon “Midcult” and he attacked it not only on aesthetic but on political grounds. Midcult rendered people complacent and compliant, secure in their common stupidity but neither happy nor free.This new selection of Macdonald’s finest essays, assembled by John Summers, the editor of The Baffler, reintroduces a remarkable American critic and writer. In the era of smart, sexy, and everything indie, Macdonald remains as pertinent and challenging as ever.

Read more less

Book SynopsisIrish literature''s roots have been traced to the 7th-9th century. This is a rich and hardy literature starting with descriptions of the brave deeds of kings, saints and other heroes. These were followed by generous veins of religious, historical, genealogical, scientific and other works. The development of prose, poetry and drama raced along with the times. Modern, well-known Irish writers include: William Yeats, James Joyce, Sean Casey, George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, John Synge and Samuel Beckett.

Read more less

Book SynopsisWhen the New Yorker writer Rebecca Mead relocated to her birth city, London, with her family in the summer of 2018, she was both fleeing the political situation in America and seeking to expose her son to a wider world. With a keen sense of what she'd given up as she left New York, her home of thirty years, she tried to knit herself into the fabric of a changed London. The move raised poignant questions about place: What does it mean to leave the place you have adopted as home and country? And what is the value and cost of uprooting yourself?In a deft mix of memoir and reportage, drawing on literature and art, recent and ancient history, and the experience of encounters with individuals, environments and landscapes in New York City and in England, Mead artfully explores themes of identity, nationality and inheritance. She recounts her time in the coastal town of Weymouth, where she grew up; her dizzying first years in New York where she broke into journalism; the rich process of establishing a new home for her dual-national son in London. Along the way, she gradually reckons with the complex legacy of her parents. Home/Land is a stirring inquiry into how to be present where we are, while never forgetting where we have been.Trade ReviewA lyrical, often elegiac inquiry into the nature of place and identity * TLS *Exquisite detail . . . [With] many arresting images and diverting anecdotes . . . [Mead] has an exacting eye and a gift for trenchant phrasing. * New York Times *A timely and powerful read...In embracing the complexities and paradoxes of home and belonging, Mead also finds solace, even joy. She captures brilliantly the bittersweetness of being far from home, a way of life whose sacrifices are outweighed by a feeling of living deliberately...a remarkable exploration of how being mindful of the past can enrich and imbue with urgency our everyday lives. * Los Angeles Times *Inventive . . . [Mead] deftly layers historical research with autobiography to unsettle familiar ideas of homecoming - and of memoir-writing. . . . At a time when little feels truly sturdy, Mead's book is a reminder that having a place to return to, and a history to explore, is a luxury * The Atlantic *Beautifully written . . . [Mead's] non-linear approach never disorientates - rather, it invigorates, creating as it does a rich patchwork of overlapping ideas and recollections. . . . This is an artfully crafted memoir which offers a clear-eyed examination of home, roots, belonging, and personal and national identity. * Star Tribune *Unfailingly insightful, precise, and well written . . . Since she hadn't lived in England for more than 30 years, the experience was a curious mix of homecoming and alienation, the distinct strands of which Mead disentangles with nuance and writerly sensitivity. * Kirkus Reviews *In her work at The New Yorker, Rebecca Mead has so often turned her wry, generous, graceful and precise attention to the lives of others - here, in this winsome memoir of departure and reversal, it's such a pleasure to read her excavating her own roots. Home/Land is about unexpected mobility, about historical chance and accident, about the way a series of unknowns accrue into a life; above all, it demonstrates the way displacement and longing has shaped Mead's manner of seeing into a profound gift. -- Jia Tolentino, author of TRICK MIRRORCompassionate, witty, at moments wonderfully exuberant, and at others, melancholy and wistful. Home/Land is a stirring book of memories and meditations, filled with the wild beauty of the English coast, the noise of SoHo's streets, and the great literature that captures the spirit of getting lost and finding home. Rebecca Mead made me fall in love with London and, at the same time, fall back in love with New York. -- Merve Emre, author of THE PERSONALITY BROKERSIt might seem peculiar to describe a book as at once digressive and rigorous, but Rebecca Mead's superb Home/Land somehow manages the trick. This is an elegant, graceful and poignant memoir about decision and happenstance - a reflection upon what we inherit and what we assemble, and how the accidents of our days give way to a life of shapeliness and coherence. -- Gideon Lewis-Kraus, author of A SENSE OF DIRECTIONIn her fine memoir of leaving and returning, Rebecca Mead confronts her American and English identities and explores with a precision at once surgical and elegiac the "questionable gift" of a "lost place to long for." Her journey is personal, full of ambivalence about the "chilly, moated island" she encounters after giving up the New York that freed her, but it is also a subtle exploration of an era when the "buried was coming to the surface." In Home/Land, past and present, loss and reconciliation, exist in exquisite symbiosis. -- Roger Cohen, author of THE GIRL FROM HUMAN STREET

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisGifford's invigorating work of metacriticism and literary history recovers the significance of the "lost generation" of writers of the 1930s and 1940s. He examines how the Personalism of anarcho-anti-authoritarian contemporaries such as Alex Comfort, Robert Duncan, Lawrence Durrell, J.F. Hendry, Henry Miller, Elizabeth Smart, Dylan Thomas, and Henry Treece forges a missing link between Late Modernist and postmodernist literature. He concludes by applying his recontextualization to four familiar texts by Miller, Durrell, Smart, and Duncan, and encourages readers to re-engage the lost generation using this new critical lens. Scholars and students of literary modernism, twentieth-century Canadian literature, and anarchism will find a productive vision of this neglected period within Personal Modernisms.Trade Review"An extraordinary and impressive literary analysis in both scope and presentation, Personal Modernisms: Anarchist Networks and the Later Avant-Gardes is a seminal work that is enhanced with the inclusion of 22 pages of Notes, 20 pages of Works Cited, and a comprehensive Index. Personal Modernisms: Anarchist Networks and the Later Avant-Gardes should be a part of every academic library 20th Century Literary Studies reference collection in general, and the supplemental studies reading lists for students of Canadian Literary Studies in particular." -- Carl Logan"...Gifford makes a persuasive case.... Engaged in a 'struggle against definition,' the Personalists were perhaps victims of their own success. Certainly, they feel like a missing link in the established narrative. In this metacritical study, however, Gifford shows how literary works must always flow through the authoritarian structure of institutions—which might explain why these anti-authoritarian writers have suffered such neglect." -- Ian Pindar * Times Literary Supplement *“James Gifford’s Personal Modernisms is the first in-depth account of the personalist English literary network in the pre- and post-World War II ‘gap’ (xvii). Gifford illuminates the interbellum period, where he argues that artists like Henry Miller, Lawrence Durrell, David Gascoyne, Elizabeth Smart, and Alfred Perlès merit significantly more scholarly attention and readership. Emphasizing the relevance of English literature outside the British Isles, Gifford examines a movement which he calls ‘Personalism,’ and underscores the profound impact that this less renown network made on generations of writers to follow.… With a plethora of detail and history, which contextualizes the personalist network, Gifford’s Personal Modernisms offers something of value to a wide range of readers, from those hoping to discover more about these understudied writers, to others interested in the literary milieu of the 1930s and 40s.” -- Sheena Jarry * ILDS Herald *"James Gifford provides plenty of food for thought in his survey of the poets of the New Apocalypse, New Romantics, Personalist movement. Or should it be movements? They are, as he rightly says, mostly overlooked, either by design or accident, in many works of criticism and in university courses. Opinion may differ about the reasons for that, but the historical record of their existence does need to be correctly established, and Gifford’s book is a step in the right direction." [Full review at http://www.pennilesspress.co.uk/NRB/personal_modernisms.htm] -- Jim Burns * The Northern Review of Books *"Le présent ouvrage prolonge et développe divers articles de l’auteur, dont il faut aussi rappeler son édition de la correspondance entre Henry Miller et Herbert Read. S’il est clair que le terme d’avant-garde fera soulever quelque sourcil chez les anars, comme sans doute aussi cela fut le cas pour certains des personnages cités, on peut se réjouir que l’auteur présente ses propres convictions antiautoritaires et qu’il décrive avec nuance les diverses positions de certains de ces écrivains, leur hostilité à la politique, parfois les réticences à se dire explicitement anarchistes." -- Ronald Creagh * Réfractions No. 35 *"Emphasizing the relevance of English literature outside the British Isles, Gifford examines a network he calls the “personalists” (xi), underscoring the impact of this less renowned, yet incredibly influential group of writers, which had a profound effect on the generations of artists that followed them. Gifford not only diminishes the anonymity of many personalist writers, but also links the artistic production of this trans-continental literary network with a common thread: an antiauthoritarian outlook on life and art.... With a plethora of detail and an extensive history that contextualizes the personalist network, Gifford’s Personal Modernisms offers something of value to a wide range of readers, from those hoping to discover more about this rather forgotten period of literature, to others interested in pursuing more specialized research on late Modernism or the pre- and post-war literary milieu." [Full article at http://inquire.streetmag.org/articles/161] -- Sheena Jary * Inquire Journal of Comparative Literature *Personal Modernisms is an original and thought-provoking study of a network of Late Modernists in Europe, China, and North America.... [Gifford's] examination involves, among other things, a comprehensive overview of the critical blinders that have hampered our understanding of the "Personalists" (a circle of poets, writers, and critics who promoted their tendency as "New Apocalypse," "Personalist," and "New Romantic") in the current literature.... Gifford's purpose is to configure our understanding of Late Modernism through the concerns of World War Two era anarchist-oriented poets, critics, and novelists." -- Allan Antliff * English Studies in Canada *"Gifford’s model of the personalist network...helps tease out the discrete connections among writers and artists exploring surrealist and postsurrealist aesthetics....establishing concrete and original links and networks among writers across nationalities, geographies, genders, and genres." -- Irene Gammel * Journal of Canadian Studies *"James Gifford’s Personal Modernisms is a groundbreaking critical, metacritical and analytic reflexion that delves into an often neglected generation.... The originality of this essay lies in Gifford’s deft analysis of how anarchism...has contributed to a renewed vision of the artist’s role in society.... By revising the literary criticism of the 1940s that relegated those authors in limbo James Gifford also pinpoints the political implications of criticism itself..." [Full review at http://ebc.revues.org/3502] -- Isabelle Keller-Privat * Études britanniques contemporaines *“Personal Modernisms is intended as a starting point for reassessing and repositioning an often-overlooked group of artists who produced a meaningful body of work during the inter-war and WWII period… [B]y altering the perspective through which these personalist writers have been compartmentalized and sidelined, in many cases, he has generated a reformed platform for exploring these anarchist networks.” American Studies, Vol 55, No 2, 2016 [Full review at https://muse.jhu.edu/article/651145] -- Wayne Arnold * American Studies *"Rather than reinforcing lineages, "Personal Modernisms" adopts the concept of the network. Networks are social, intertextual, and material in the sense that the relations themselves express as much as the content itself... The extensive list of works cited records four major nodes, expanding from Herbert Read, Henry Treece, Woodcock, and Duncan. Other figures include Smart and Patchen. The occlusion in literary history of the midcentury avant-gardes owes, as Gifford observes, to a scholarly habit of organizing writers according to region, which does not work very neatly with writers like Miller..." -- Margaret Konkol * Modernism/modernity *"Personal Modernisms convincingly argues for the existence of an anarchist literary network sustained by a complex web of institutions and individuals. It offers new directions for scholars of periodical networks and transnational literary formations between the 1930s and 1950s, as well as affirming the need to seriously attend to the influence of anarchism in 20th century writing." -- Elinor Taylor * Anarchist Studies 26.2 *

Read more less

Book Synopsis"Speaking one language, I submit, is like living in a house with one window only..." From his legendary birth in a snow bank in northwestern Manitoba, through his metamorphosis to citizen-artist of the world, playwright, pianist, polyglot, storyteller, and irreverent disciple of the Trickster, Tomson Highway rides roughshod through the languages and communities that have shaped him. Cree, Dene, Latin, French, English, Spanish, and the universal language of music have opened windows and widened horizons in Highway's life. Readers who can hang on tight-Highway fans, culture mavens, cunning linguists, and fellow tricksters-will experience the profundity of Highway's humour, for as he says, "In Cree, you will laugh until you weep."Trade Review"...a humourous tour through the languages and communities that have shaped the playwright, novelist, and musician as a person." January/February 2015 -- Quill & Quire "An incomparable storyteller with a knack for exaggeration so deft you'll think he's telling the truth, Highway elaborates on how he added Dene, Inuktitut, Latin, English, French and some Spanish to his lexicon... Learning new languages later in life is difficult, but let the power of language broaden your world, Highway encourages. Appreciate that multilingualism can hold this stunning country together--and give your children this gift, too." -- Dianne Meili Alberta Views

Read more less

Book Synopsis“…the proverb says that whoever sees the world from the back of an elephant learns the secrets of the jungle and becomes a seer. I had to be content to become a poet.” —Lawrence Durrell Best known for his novels and travel writing, Lawrence Durrell defied easy classification within twentieth-century Modernism. His anti-authoritarian tendencies put him at odds with many contemporaries—aesthetically and politically. However, thanks to a compelling recontextualization by editor James Gifford, these thirty-eight previously unpublished and out-of-print essays and letters reveal that Durrell’s maturation as an artist was rich, complex, and subtle. Durrell fans will treasure this selection of rare nonfiction, while scholars of Durrell, Modernist literature, anti-authoritarian artists, and the Personalist movement will also appreciate Gifford’s fine editorial work. Foreword by Peter Baldwin. “Gifford’s scholarly command of the archives shows—especially his working intimacy with the unpublished archived words of Durrell’s editors, publishers, and collaborators. I have no doubt that this collection will serve as a starting point for any number of new critical ventures into the life and writing of Lawrence Durrell.” —Charles Sligh, University of Tennessee at ChattanoogaTrade Review"Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, From The Elephant's Back is an outstanding collection of masterfully crafted essays organized into four major sections: Personal Positions; Ideas About Literature; Eternal Contemporaries; and Spirit of Place: Travel Writings. Very highly recommended for academic library collections, From The Elephant's Back will prove to be engaging, memorable, thought-provoking reading, and ultimately rewarding." * Midwest Book Review *"...buy the book for Durrell’s wit, elegance, philosophy, joie de vivre and flaming intelligence." -- Richard Pine * The Irish Times *"A century after Durrell's birth, readers will find Gifford's reconsideration necessary to that century's understanding of itself.""The result is that this edition promises to open up new approaches to interpreting Durrell's more famous work. Durrell fans will treasure the book's selection of rare nonfiction, while scholars of Durrell, modernist literature, anti-authoritarian artists, and the Personalist movement will also appreciate Gifford's fine editorial work." * CAUT Bulletin *"[T]he interest of this volume does not only lie in the immeasurable wealth of Durrellian archives that are brought to the reader’s knowledge: it also sketches out the fascinating portrait of an artist engaged in the creative production of his generation so that readers of Shakespeare, Wordsworth, T. S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas, Richard Aldington, Cavafy, and Seferis will discover fascinating pieces of critical analysis where they may least have expected to.... The final part devoted to travel writing will similarly edify and stimulate both Durrell’s readers and all those who seek to understand the refinements of the genre." [Full review at http://ebc.revues.org/3502] -- Isabelle Keller-Privat * Études britanniques contemporaines *Table of ContentsContents VII Foreword PETER BALDWIN XI Acknowledgements XIII Introduction JAMES GIFFORD 1 From the Elephant’s Back PERSONAL POSIT IONS 27 A Letter from the Land of the Gods 29 Airgraph on Refugee Poets in Africa 37 No Clue to Living 47 This Magnetic, Bedevilled Island That Tugs at My Heart 53 Lamas in a French Forest IDEAS ABOUT LITERATURE 63 The Prince and Hamlet A Diagnosis 73 Hamlet, Prince of China 83 Prospero’s Isle To Caliban 99 Ideas About Poems 101 Ideas About Poems II 103 The Heraldic Universe 107 Hellene and Philhellene 123 A Cavafy Find 129 A Real Heart Transplant into English 135 Introduction to Wordsworth 149 L’amour, Clef du Mystère? ETERNAL CONTEMPORARIES 183 Theatre Sense and Sensibility 187 The Happy Rock 199 Studies in Genius VI Groddeck 225 Constant Zarian Triple Exile 235 Enigma Variations 239 The Shades of Dylan Thomas 247 Bernard Spencer 257 The Other Eliot 271 Richard Aldington 277 On George Seferis 281 Poets Under the Bed SPIRIT OF PLACE : TRAVEL WRITING 287 Corfu Isle of Legend 297 The Island of the Rose 311 Can Dreams Live on When Dreamers Die? 317 Family Portrait 325 Letter in the Sofa 331 The Moonlight of Your Smile 337 The Poetic Obsession of Dublin 347 Borromean Isles 353 Alexandria Revisited 359 With Durrell in Egypt 379 Works Cited 391 Index

Read more less

Book Synopsis"We look around and feel as if book culture as we know it is crumbling to dust, but there's one important thing to keep in mind: as we know it." What happens if we separate the idea of "the book" from the experience it has traditionally provided? Lynn Coady challenges booklovers addicted to the physical book to confront their darkest fears about the digital world and the future of reading. Is the all-pervasive internet turning readers into web-surfing automatons and books themselves into museum pieces? The bogeyman of technological change has haunted humans ever since Plato warned about the dangers of the written word, and every generation is convinced its youth will bring about the end of civilization. In Who Needs Books?, Coady suggests that, even though digital advances have long been associated with the erosion of literacy, recent technologies have not debased our culture as much as they have simply changed the way we read.Trade Review#7 on the Edmonton Journal's Non-fiction Bestsellers list for the week of April 15, 2016 The Edmonton Journal. "[Coady] digs into the recurring social panic that new technology is making us stupid, lazy and unable to appreciate our established cultural forms... Starting with a Sesame Street anecdote and carrying on through Planet of the Apes and 50 Shades of Grey references, she systematically dismantles the common arguments that nobody is reading anymore and our literary culture is dying." Bruce Cinnamon, Vue Weekly, June 9-15, 2016Table of ContentsForeword Introduction The Monster at the End of this Book Good Night, Sweet Prince (of Art Forms) You Maniacs! But What about the Children? The End of Civilization as We Know It Technoserfs We Happy Few

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe verb esperar means to wait. It also means to hope.—“The Past Was a Small Notebook, Much Scribbled-Upon”, Cora Siré Waiting, that most human of experiences, saturates all of our lives. We spend part of each day waiting—for birth, death, appointments, acceptance, forgiveness, redemption. This collection of thirty-two personal essays is as much about hope as it is about waiting. Featuring literary voices from the renowned to the emerging, this anthology of contemporary creative nonfiction will resonate with anyone who has ever had to wait. Contributors: Samantha Albert, Rona Altrows, Sharon Butala, Jane Cawthorne, Weyman Chan, Rebecca Danos, Patti Edgar, John Graham-Pole, Leslie Greentree, Edythe Anstey Hanen, Vivian Hansen, Jane Harris, Richard Harrison, Elizabeth Haynes, Lee Kvern, Anne Lévesque, Margaret Macpherson, Alice Major, Wendy McGrath, Stuart Ian McKay, Lorri Neilsen Glenn, Susan Olding, Roberta Rees, Julie Sedivy, Kathy Seifert, Cora Siré, Steven Ross Smith, Anne Sorbie, Glen Sorestad, Kelly S. Thompson, Robin van Eck, Aritha van HerkTrade Review"A great deal of our lives is spent waiting. As humans we wait for public transit and for food at restaurants and food courts... And we wait for longer, more existential things: the birth of a baby, the progression of an illness, the arrival or departure of a friend or family member, acceptance or rejection of a job opportunity, love. In this edited anthology, a broad array of writers...examine various aspects of why and how we wait." * Quill & Quire *# 2 on Calgary Herald's Non-Fiction Bestsellers list, October 6, 2018 * Calgary Herald *# 9 on Calgary Herald's Non-Fiction Bestsellers list, October 13, 2018 * Calgary Herald *# 2 on Edmonton Non-Fiction Bestsellers list, October 19, 2018"Each of these thirty-two essays is powerful, distinctive, authentic.... I closed this book feeling that I’d been on thirty-two life journeys.... Waiting is not just filling blank time. It is also about courage and love." [Full review at https://www.ottawareviewofbooks.com/single-post/2019/02/02/Waiting-An-Anthology-of-Essays-edited-by-Rona-Altrows-and-Julie-Sedivy] -- Elizabeth Greene * Ottawa Review of Books *"There’s plenty to debate here... These are just a few of the kinds of waiting essayed here, and they are all very much worth reading." Saskatoon StarPhoenix, January 26, 2019 [Full review at https://thestarphoenix.com/entertainment/books/book-reviews-the-literary-history-of-saskatchewan-vol-3-waiting] -- Bill Robertson"Waiting is a universal phenomenon, and in this impressive collection editors Rona Altrows and Julie Sedivy curate a variety of nuanced and distilled personal essays from 32 writers exploring the liminal experiences of people waiting for results, news, change, release or understanding" -- Jannie EdwardsTable of ContentsPreface Acknowledgements Burgeoning 1 | Bill of Fare // Susan Olding 2 | Saturday // Anne Lévesque 3 | Waiting for Now: Four Stories // Steven Ross Smith 4 | The Escape // Edythe Anstey Hanen 5 | Waiting for Alexandra // Glen Sorestad Scope 6 | The Art Hospital, the Floating Hospital, and the Burning House // Elizabeth Haynes 7 | The Past Was a Small Notebook, Much Scribbled-Upon // Cora Siré 8 | Beyond the Horizon // Julie Sedivy 9 | Two Women Waiting // Rebecca Danos 10 | Esperando // Patti Edgar 11 | Currents // Alice Major Moment 12 | Letter of Intent // Rona Altrows 13 | The Next Minute // Jane Cawthorone 14 | Frozen // Lorri Neilsen Glenn 15 | Harder, But Still Not Painful // Robin Van Eck 16 | Alterations // Wendy Mcgrath Soul 17 | Who Will Find Me // Weyman Chan 18 | in the event of // Stuart Ian Mckay 19 | Whisper Talk // Anne Sorbie 20 | Waiting for the Impossible // Aritha Van Herk 21 | On the Pleasure of Waiting // Richard Harrison 22 | Storage // Sharon Butala Irretrievable 23 | Heavy Weight of Silence Lee Kvern 24 | Impressions // Margaret Macpherson 25 | Telling // Vivian Hansen 26 | Tom Petty Just Isn’t There for You: Riffs on Waiting // Leslie Greentree Guts 27 | Wait Training // Samantha Albert 28 | Waiting for a Hero // Jane Harris 29 | Bones, Honey // Roberta Rees 30 | Undeterred // John Graham-Pole 31 | Sa Ta Na Ma // Kathy Seifert 32 | We Come and We Go // Kelly S. Thompson Notes Contributors

Read more less

Book SynopsisAll the Feels / Tous les sens presents research into emotion and cognition in Canadian, Indigenous, and Québécois writings in English or French. Affect is both internal and external, private and public; with its fluid boundaries, it represents a productive dimension for literary analysis. The emerging field of affect studies makes vital claims about ethical impulses, social justice, and critical resistance, and thus much is at stake when we adopt affective reading practices. The contributors ask what we can learn from reading contemporary literatures through this lens. Unique and timely, readable and teachable, this collection is a welcome resource for scholars of literature, feminism, philosophy, and transnational studies as well as anyone who yearns to imagine the world differently. Contributors: Nicole Brossard, Marie Carrière, Matthew Cormier, Kit Dobson, Nicoletta Dolce, Louise Dupré, Margery Fee, Ana María Fraile-Marcos, Smaro Kamboureli, Aaron Kreuter, Daniel Laforest, Carmen Mata Barreiro, Ursula Mathis-Moser, Heather Milne, Eric Schmaltz, Maïté Snauwaert, Jeanette den ToonderTrade Review"Readers with a basic understanding of affect theory, as well as those who are new to the field, will find that this collection opens fascinating avenues for inquiry into the affective possibilities in Canadian literature. It presents an alternative approach to studies in literature- one that considers the integrated nature of thoughts and feelings." [Full review at https://canlit.ca/article/feeling-it-all/] -- Rachel Fernandes, Canadian Literature, Oct. 2021"Le fait de présenter de façon complémentaire des analyses académiques et des points de vue d’écrivaines constitue un atout majeur du recueil, puisqu’il permet au lecteur de voir comment l’affect joue un rôle dans la pratique de l’écriture. S’y ajoutent la réflexion théorique qui constitue un fil rouge à travers les différentes contributions, une attention pour la particularité anglaise, française et autochtone de la littérature canadienne et une inscription engagée dans les débats qui secouent et affectent nos sociétés contemporaines." Alex Demeulenaere, Zeitschrift für Kanada-Studien 2022 [Article complet: http://www.kanada-studien.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/zks_2022_14_Rez.pdf]"The complementary presentation of academic analysis and women writers' perspectives is a major strength of the collection, as it allows the reader to perceive the role affect plays in the practice of writing. Added to this is the theoretical reflection that runs through all the various contributions, an alertness to the English, French, and Aboriginal particularities of Canadian literature, and an engaged participation in the debates that shake and affect our contemporary societies." Alex Demeulenaere, Zeitschrift für Kanada-Studien 2022 [Translated. Article complet: http://www.kanada-studien.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/zks_2022_14_Rez.pdf]Table of ContentsAcknowledgments / Remerciements Introduction Writing Affect in Canadian, Indigenous, and Québécois Literatures / Écrire l’affect dans les littératures canadiennes, autochtones et québécoises Marie Carrière, Ursula Mathis-Moser, Kit Dobson Traduction par Dominique Hétu et Marie Carrière I NEGATIVE AFFECTS / AFFECTS NÉGATIFS 1 | Theorizing the Apocalyptic Turn in the Literatures of Canada: Un/Veiling the Apocalyptic Direction in Affect Studies | Matthew Cormier 2 | Free Will, Moral Blindness, and Affective Resilience in Margaret Atwood’s The Heart Goes Last | Ana Maria Fraile-Marcos 3 | From Disgust to Desire: A Poetics of Subterfuge | Eric Schmaltz II CARE AND AFFECT / SOIN ET AFFECTS 4 | Apprendre à dire la fin: Care et poétique du deuil dans L’album multicolore de Louise Dupré et Nocturne de Helen Humphreys | Maïté Snauwaert 5 | Grand-mère et petite-fille, « des doublons désaccordées » : Réflexions sur une éthique du care dans Mère-grand de Tassia Trifiatis | Ursula Mathis-Moser 6 | Le corps en crise : Littérature et système de santé au Canada | Daniel Laforest III AFFECTS OF MEMORY / AFFECTS DE LA MÉMOIRE 7 | The Circuitry of Grief: Queer Time, Killjoy Politics, and Mourning in Sina Queyras’s M x T | Heather Milne 8 | Vétiver de Joël des Rosiers : Où les souffrances encore affleurent | Nicoletta Dolce 9 | Écrire la blessure, relire la vie: Louise Dupré, Marie-Célie Agnant et Denise Desautels | Carmen Mata Barreiro IV AFFECTS OF RESISTANCE / AFFECTS DE LA RÉSISTANCE 10 | Écriture autochtone au féminin: Savoir affectif et valeurs relationnelles dans Kuessipan de Naomi Fontaine | Jeanette den Toonder 11 | Respect or Empathy? Affect/Emotion in Indigenous Stories | Margery Fee 12 | Jewish Affect During the Second Intifada: Terror, Love, and Procreation in Ayelet Tsabari’s “Tikkun”| Aaron Kreuter V WRITING THROUGH AFFECT / ÉCRIRE AU FIL DE L’AFFECT 13 | Émotion vraie, sensation de fiction | Nicole Brossard 14 | Maladies of the Soul: Field Notes on My Research Imagination | Smaro Kamboureli 15 | Des fantômes dans les yeux | Louise Dupré Contributors / Collaborateurs

Read more less

Book SynopsisUsing the richness of braided essays, Theresa Kishkan thinks deeply about the natural world, mourns and celebrates the aging body, gently contests recorded history, and considers art and visual phenomena. Gathering personal genealogies, medical histories, and early land surveys together with insights from music, colour theory, horticulture, and textile production, Kishkan weaves a pattern of richly textured threads, welcoming readers to share her intellectual and emotional preoccupations. With an intimate awareness of place and time, a deep sensitivity to family, and a poetic delight in travel, local food and wine, and dogs, Blue Portugal and Other Essays offers up a sense of wonder at the interconnectedness of all things.Trade Review"...Kishkan’s writing is lyrical and free-ranging, a true pleasure to read.... In Blue Portugal the essays’ themes are allowed to slip their boundaries; a topic addressed in one essay recurs in later essays, a recognition, perhaps, that thoughts and interests develop over time, shifting slightly as they are put in the company of other thoughts, are seen from different perspectives. The essays in Blue Portugal seem to talk to each other; they interlace in interesting and thought-provoking ways. The book is a fine example of the personal essay at its best." Michael Hayward, The British Columbia Review, August 2, 2022 [Full review at https://thebcreview.ca/2022/08/02/1533-hayward-kishkan]"Kishkan is a prolific, perceptive and gifted writer. Never forgetting her poetic roots, her mind works metaphorically—linking disparate but connectable things in revealing ways…. Blue Portugal and Other Essays is a book to be savoured…” Gene Walz, Winnipeg Free Press, August 13, 2022 [Full review at https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/entertainment/books/2022/08/13/lyrical-essays-bring-musings-on-family-travel-and-more]“Rivers meander but with purpose. So too do the ten loosely connected pieces that make up Theresa Kishkan’s Blue Portugal and Other Essays…. These elegantly braided essays reveal a lifetime of curiosity and contemplation in ways that invite the reader to come along…. Blue Portugal and Other Essays is part of the University of Alberta Press’s literary travel series, Wayfarer—and a poetic journey very much worth booking.” Literary Review of Canada, September 2022"Much pleasure awaits the reader of Blue Portugal, Theresa Kishkan's collection of ten essays that sing individually and re-engage with each other throughout the volume. It is not simply a matter of rebounding colours among 'The Blue Etymologies,' 'Blue Portugal,' and 'Blueprints,' nor the recurrence of journeys dark and light; rather, Kishkan's poetic phrasing and rhythms thread these braided essays with originality of perception, reflection, and a lyric sensibility." Michael Greenstein, Miramichi Reader, September 3, 2022 [Full review at https://miramichireader.ca/2022/09/blue-portugal-by-theresa-kishkan/]"To those of us who’ve been following Theresa Kishkan on her blog for many years, the preoccupations of her latest book, the collection Blue Portugal & Other Essays, will be familiar, the quilts, the homesteads, the memories, the blue. But it’s the stunning craftsmanship of the book, the fascinating threads that weave the pieces together and also recur throughout the text, that make this book such a pleasure to discover. " Kerry Clare, Pickle Me This, September 9, 2022"...[with openness,] Theresa Kishkan, a poet-cum-essayist, tackles the many subjects that make up her new collection: rivers she has known and loved, age-old methods of dyeing textiles, medical problems, the inspiration to be found in Dante, the joy of antique buttons.... Our enjoyment of essays, I believe, depends very much on our sense of the person behind the pen, and Kishkan’s sensibility is an appealing one." Merna Summers, Alberta Views, December 1, 2022 [Full review at https://albertaviews.ca/blue-portugal-essays]"Kishkan’s writing in this collection will be enjoyed by those who appreciate a particular poetics of contemporary creative nonfiction, one that is fragmented, interlaced with visual images, possibly experimental and hybrid in style. It will be equally enjoyed by those who like watching rivers, listening to Janáček, travelling by train, and drinking wine!" Martina Horáková, Central European Journal of Canadian Studies, 2022Table of ContentsPreface 1. A Dark Path 2. The Blue Etymologies 3. We Are Still Here 4. Blue Portugal 5. How Rivers Break Away and Meet Again 6. Blueprints 7. Anatomy of a Button 8. Love Song 9. The River Door 10. Museum of the Multitude Village Acknowledgements Sources"

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisFor over thirty years, Steve Venright has devoted himself to the liberation of the imagination, documenting hallucinatory trips through Southwestern Ontario's deliriomantic landscapes with his signature puns, portmanteaus, and spoonerisms. The Least You Can Do Is Be Magnificent: Selected & New Writings is a generous gathering of Venright's most enduring and extraordinary poems, including the revised and expanded "Manta Ray Jack and the Crew of the Spooner," the most outlandish and hilarious seafaring tale since Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark. This volume also features an in-depth examination of Venright's work by scholar Alessandro Porco.

Read more less

Book SynopsisMontaigne Medal Finalist, Eric Hoffer Awards Against Death&nbspis an anthology of creative non-fiction exploring the psychological shifts that occur when we prematurely or unexpectedly confront death. Against Death is a natural outgrowth of the editor's experience of surviving a vertebral artery dissection and stroke and the subsequent writing&nbspof a long poem memoir about the event. To be "against" something can mean two different things at the same time. "Against" can mean pressed up close to something, yet it can also signify refusal. These texts deal with the affects of this proximity, taking into account any meaning of the word. Rather than showcase only extreme survival stories or difficult biological situations, the pieces in Against Death consider the ways we make sense of death on a personal level and how we integrate that thinking as we continue forward. Against Death articulates the personal experiences of each author's "near-deathness," utilizing fresh and inventive language to represent what "magical thinking" proposes. These pieces are incisive and articulate, avoiding the usual platitudes, feel-good bromides, and pep talks associated with near-death encounters. The writing moves past the sob story and confronts the tough circumstance of facing death with truth and compassion, no matter how ugly or (in)convenient. Contributors include: angela rawlings, Joe Average, Aislinn Hunter, Jennifer van Evra, Maureen Medved, Fiona Tinwei Lam, Bruce Meyer and many others.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThrough&nbspforty-two&nbsppersonal essays,&nbspResonance: Essays on the Craft and Life of Writing&nbspbrings together insights from writers and publishers&nbspacross Canada on the practices that fuel their work, and&nbspinvites readers to join the conversation through a series of engaging writing prompts. The&nbspessays collected here include strategies for pre-writing, writing and revision, as well as&nbspthoughts on the writing life and the world of writing.&nbspResonance&nbspis for any writer of fiction, non-fiction or poetry who has ever wanted a helping hand, a quick chat or a word of encouragement along the lonely road from blank page to published work. Resonance&nbspseeks to build community and&nbspextend the practice of creativity to writers everywhere. Contributors include: Jen Sookfong Lee, Aislinn Hunter, Betsy Warland, Wayde Compton, Caroline Adderson, Kayla Czaga, JJ Lee, Carleigh Baker and Jónína Kirton.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe award-winning author of Afflictions & Departures turns her kaleidoscopic lens on England in the 1970s in Queasy, a series of linked memoirs. While still grieving her father's death and the end of her first romantic relationship, Madeline Sonik moved with her mother from Windsor, Ontario to the seaside village of Ilfracombe in North Devon, England. As a teen at war with herself, nothing could have prepared her for the incredible cultural differences that she would encounter, nor the social and political tumult that was England at the time - trade union strikes, mass unemployment, IRA violence, and crippling taxes. Waiting tables and working as a chambermaid at local hotels, she talked politics among friends and work mates, with hot cups of tea throughout the day and pints of lager in the evening. Margaret Thatcher - the "Iron Lady" - loomed large as opposition leader and was fast gaining popularity, even amongst segments of the working class. The country seemed poised on the cusp of change and a new direction. It was in this unlikely crucible of hope and despair, of promise and discord where the author found the sustenance to fuel her development as a person and as a writer.

Read more less

Book SynopsisPop culture stereotypes, shopping frustrations, fat jokes, and misconceptions about health are all ways society systemically rejects large bodies. Big is a collection of personal and intimate experiences of plus size women, non-binary, and trans people in a society obsessed with thinness. Revealing insights that are both funny and traumatic, surprising and challenging, familiar and unexpected, 26 writers explore themes as diverse as self-perception, body image, fashion, fat activism, food, sexuality, diet culture, and motherhood. These stories offer a closer look at what it means to navigate a world designed to fit bodies of a certain size (sometimes literally) and, in turn, invites readers to ask questions about?and ultimately reconsider?our collective and individual obsession with women?s bodies. Contributors include Simone Blais, Dr. Rohini Bannerjee, Sonja Boon, Layla Cameron, Jo Jefferson, Tracy Manrell, Rabbit Richards, Amanda Scriver, Cassie Stocks, and more.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisA Book of the Year 2019 in The Morning Star. This is a rare glimpse into the inner workings of a small, ambitious press over a period of radical transformation in publishing. Each of Carcanet's fifty years is marked by an exchange of letters - handwritten, typed, and now emailed - between an author and the editor. Beginning in 1969 with the response to an invitation to subscribe to Carcanet for two guineas, the book traces Carcanet's progress and offers insight into the nature of literary editing. At its heart is the personal relationship of author and editor/publisher, the conflicts, friendships and vicissitudes that occur at the nexus between the work, its creator, publisher and reader. Poets are central, but fiction writers, translators, biographers and critics also contribute to the Carcanet ferment and firmament. Fifty Fifty celebrates the writers', readers' and editor's risks, passions and pleasures.Trade Review'A great publishing house!' - Harold Pinter; 'Carcanet's role in our literary culture is both vital and vibrant. The press's seriousness of purpose, eclecticism and internationalism deserve the highest praise and in the world of poetry its status and import are unchallengeable - impossible to imagine literary life in Britain without it.' - William Boyd

Read more less

Book SynopsisIntergenerational conflict is a perennial feature of society and capitalism. One side has the youth, the other side has the lion's share of the wealth, and the good things wealth can bring. In the last few years that friction has reached to dangerous heights. Call it war. And, like all war, it has the risk of doing severe damage. In this fiery polemic the author of the best-selling The War on the Old has switched sides, and now examines the conflict as it must appear to the young. For the first time since the Second World War, younger generations can expect less fulfilled lives than their elders. They may not be their `betters', but in the second decade of the twenty-first century they surely are better heeled. Traditionally society's way of controlling the young has been to send them off to war, or conscript them. They would either die, or learn `duty'. Now we send as many as 50% to university, from which they emerge encumbered with debt. As Orwell observed, there is nothing like debt for extinguishing the political fire in your belly. The War on the Young is lively, provocative and ranges wittily, and at times angrily, over many casus belli from the standpoint of the nation's young people. Things are not getting better. This is a timely and highly readable look at a ticking generational time-bomb.

Read more less

Book SynopsisFollowing on the explorations of culture and politics in his previous collection The Good European, the writings in Zest delve into less obvious but important aspects of social life—into manual work and 'dolce far niente', into ancient vernacular craft traditions and the data stockpiles of modernity. Early in the book we visit the Garden of Eden with Hieronymus Bosch, where we share with him the first fruit. It takes us by way of writers, artists, philosophers, travellers, photographers, musicians and flavours into the world of Zest—how we can find it and what its discovery does to us. Bamforth's sensuous, richly nuanced essays affect us as stories do, each one creating a world in which its arguments live and breathe, laugh and explore. He has written extensively about medicine. He is, more than just a widely travelled European, a world traveller: his work as a hospital doctor and general practitioner has taken him to every corner of the planet, working as a public health consultant in various developing countries, especially in Asia. 'Zest' itself occurs in the South of France, with Tobias Smollett, as picaresque a writer and character as Dr Bamforth himself. He is provoking, digressive and often droll. His diverse interests, from Bible studies to communication theory, from photography to the impact of globalisation, and his shifts from botanising in the Garden of Eden to 'botanising on the asphalt' (Walter Benjamin) always keep in sight the philosophical issue that provides Zest's subtitle—'the art of living'.Trade Review'[Bamforth's] work is rich in perceptual acquaintance,making it not only intelligent but also extremely sensual. To read him makes the patterns of our minds richer.' - Guardian

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe first literary experiences of John Clare (1793-1864) included the tales handed down by word of mouth in his native village, and as a mature poet he reworked them in his narrative verse. This edition, published for Clare's bicentenary, comprises the tales he wished to include in his third collection, "The Shepherd's Calendar" (1827), and previously unpublished poems which show the range of his narrative achievement. The detailed introduction traces the composition of the poems. Clare's own description of local customs, his previously unpublished draft essay on English pastoral poetry, and a full glossary are included. Clare's original spelling and punctuation are preserved.

Read more less

Book SynopsisFord's novel, "Parade's End", has been acknowledged as one of the great British novels about World War I. This book features a selection of Ford's other writings about the war, and should shed light on the tetralogy. It includes reminiscences, an unfinished novel, stories, and excerpts from letters.

Read more less

Book SynopsisWilliam Hazlitt (1778-1830), that most engaging of English essayists, is provocatively and congenially at home in this new collection of his city essays that spark with urbane wit and gossip. Characters from his world come alive: Wordsworth and Beau Brummell, street jugglers and coffee house politicians, the ladies' maid returning from Italy 'as giddy as if she had been up in a balloon' and the literary footmen who 'wear green spectacles' and 'are seen reading books they do not understand at the Museum and public libraries'.Gregory Dart's selection reminds us that Hazlitt is not only an important critic and polemicist, but also a reflective, wry, wise and humorous writer, a man who relished London life. Many of the essays included here are made available for the first time in paperback. A detailed introduction and notes set them in their context and clarify contemporary references.Trade ReviewNicholas Lezard's Choice: The Incomparable Hazlitt Saturday 12th February, 2005 The Guardian Metropolitan Writings, by William Hazlitt (Fyfield, GBP9.95) A reasonably well-educated friend noticed this book peeping out of my pocket one morning and remarked that it was rather heavy reading for such a time of day, or indeed for any time. I do wish people would stop doing this. Because Hazlitt died 170-odd years ago and is not as famous as Wordsworth or Coleridge, they assume that he cannot be an easy read, or even less of an easy read than W&C, or that to read him is more of a duty than a pleasure. If you want a depressing lesson in contemporary cultural memory, go to any average-sized branch of a chain bookstore and ask for anything by Hazlitt. You will notice that it will take the person at the counter four or five goes to get the spelling right (not that the boss of Fyfield Books has managed to spell my name correctly in 20 years' acquaintance, but that's not important). But the primary reason people still read Hazlitt today, once they can get hold of a copy, is that he is so freshly readable. "Fresh" and "alive" are terms of literary praise that are stale and dead on the page by now, but if they were not, they would be applied unhesitatingly to Hazlitt. The more you read him, the more you will marvel at the way he seems to have written his prose in some kind of ink of immortality, one that preserves the writing's vigour through centuries. Marvelling at the perfect, mechanical precision of a juggler, he looks into his own art and finds it wanting. "The utmost I can pretend to do is to write a description of what this fellow can do. I can write a book: so can many others who have not even learned to spell. What abortions are these Essays! What errors, what ill-pieced transitions, what crooked reasons, what lame conclusions! What little is made out, and that little how ill! Yet they are the best I can do." The self-abasement, you'll have noticed, is rhetorical. By the time you get to the word "ill", you may be mentally patting Hazlitt's hand and saying, don't be so hard on yourself. You may also feel like reassuring him that you are reading these abortions nearly two centuries down the line. Yet that "the best I can do" also pulls us up by reminding us that Hazlitt was a professional, and that he knew what he was doing. The timing of it all is impeccable. But I also suspect that Hazlitt always thought he could do better, and that was what kept his words on their toes for so long. He was the enemy of complacency in himself as well as in others; he certainly fell out with Coleridge and Wordsworth on such grounds, as they abandoned their early attachment to social justice. "Mr C[oleridge] used to say he should like to be a footman to some elderly lady of quality, to carry her prayer-book to church, and place her hassock right for her. There is no doubt that this would have been better, and quite as useful as the life he has led, dancing attendance on Prejudice, but flirting with Paradox in such a way as to cut himself out of the old lady's will." (This is about halfway through his essay "On Footmen", which is included here.) Maybe it's this youthfulness, his refusal to abandon his early ideals of justice and intellectual curiosity, that keep him so evergreen. Nothing was beneath his notice; he turned his frank gaze on everything, and it was, among other things, his cat-can-look-at-a-king approach that made the more high and mighty uncomfortable. Yet this is what makes him so familiar to us now. This edition, which concentrates, though not rigidly, on urban matters, claims to contain "many" essays not hitherto available in paperback. My own copies of two different Penguin editions being at the moment unlocatable, I shall give Fyfield the benefit of the doubt, despite the strong feeling that I have seen quite a few of these pieces before. And at 200 pages, this selection is a little on the ungenerous side. But then it is Hazlitt. Even if there were only one otherwise-unobtainable essay here, you should be rushing out to get this. Go on. Laura Keynes, The Times Literary Supplement, 18th February 2005 "In London", writes Hazlitt in his essay "On Londoners and Country People", "there is a public; and each man is part of it...We comprehend the vast denomination, the People, of which we see a tenth part moving daily before us." It is this spirit of equality and conviviality that Hazlitt celebrates in his writings on metropolitan life, collected here by Gregory Dart. This result is the documentation of an urban consciousness that appears "characteristically modern", as Dart puts it, "in its sense of the city as simultaneously the best and worst place in the world." That sense comes form the personal ambiguity felt by the person brought up in the countryside - in Hazlitt's case, at Wem in Shropshire - with a love and understanding for his environment, who is then compelled to move to the city to find the community necessary to sustain an intellectual life. As anyone who has made that move knows, the sense of belonging neither to one nor the other is a painful and irreconcilable part of making a living through critical observation. The relationship with both environments becomes one of a tourist at best, and the only thing giving London the edge is its ability to offer itself freely to any who will come. Generosity of spirit is indeed the main theme underlying all Hazlitt's writings, though Dart identifies many more in his excellent introduction. In contrast to Wordsworth, Hazlitt gives us the city as facilitator of the imagination, increasing our capacity to enter imaginatively into the life of other individuals that we might feel a bond of sympathy between the individual and society. Dart's success in creating this volume is to challenge the thinking of those who associate Romanticism with nature poetry, and those who feel early nineteenth-century literature is irrelevant to an understanding of our environment today. The Independent Review, Friday 4th February 2005 Fiery, funny, urbane, humane; above all, democratic: the wit and zest of these 18 wonderful essays from the 1820s on London life, fashion and entertainment still grab you like a street-cry. Hazlitt hates cant, pomp and snobbery; he loves taverns, theatres, parties and coffee houses as "the only place for equal society". Several pieces (eg "The Indian Jugglers", on talent versus genius) count as classics of English prose. Hazlitt, the great Cockney Romantic, would loathe such a deadly honour.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis'Afflictions & Departures' is a collection of first-person experiential essays by writer and academic Madeline Sonik. Although Sonik explores some of the salient personal experiences of her young life, the essays in 'Afflictions & Departures' are not traditional memoir. In addition to incidents and feelings recaptured from memory, Sonik seeks out connections between the microcosm of of the daily events of her childhood and the social, historical, and scientific trends of the time. 'Afflicitons & Departures' begins by considering the turbulent and changing nature of the world in the late 1950s and early 1960s-the world in which the author was conceived and born. Like many couples of that era, Madeline Sonik's parents focused on shared social and economic ambitions at the expense of authentic personal feeling. These ambitions would erode and, by the 1970s, completely collapse. In 'Afflictions & Departures ' Sonik exercises both intellectual depth and emotional range. The essays are as incisive as they are deeply moving, and leave the reader with a sense of history as it was lived, not as it is codified in countless textbooks. "Startlingly original, Madeline Sonik's moving story of her childhood defies all our expectations of memoir. She captures crystalline moments of childhood memory and links them in a daisy-chain with corresponding events of the tumultuous societal change taking place outside her home. It is North America in the 1960s and 70s and her letter-perfect, child's-eye view of the world brings back that time with such intensity that the reader can almost smell and taste it. Droll, tragic, and absolutely compelling, 'Afflictions and Departures' is a visceral portrayal of a family imploding." -Jury, Charles Taylor Prize for literary non-fiction "Her memory is dustless, capacious, uncanny. With a storyteller's skill and a poet's depth of vision, she recreates her childhood with one eye on her family and the other on the larger world. Significant cultural markers sit side-by-side with the small, painful intensities of her childhood. This memoir is crammed with pathos, yet is written with a light touch. I adore the narrator who never falls into self-pity or narcissism. The clarity of her vision makes the prose gleam and transforms autobiography into art." -Lorna Crozier, author of 'Small Beneath the Sky' "Honesty has to be at the centre of any memoir, and 'Afflictions & Departures' pulsates with raw, straightforward truth. ... Sonikhas overcome enormous challenges and turned them into literary jewels. This book encourages readers to think about family, memory and history - and above all, resilience." - Times Colonist Winner of the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize Finalist, Charles Taylor Prize for literary non-fiction Nominated for the BC National Award for Canadian non-Fiction

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisNicole Brossard is known internationally for her writings on writing, on feminism and on lesbian existence. This edition released for a new wave of feminist outrage is a book full of spirit, energy, insight and chutzpah (or maybe cheek). She is a major voice in contemporary literature with incisive and hard-hitting essays about feminist imagination and culture. I believe there's only one explanation for all of these texts: my desire and my will to understand patriarchal reality and how it works, not for its own sake but for its tragic consequences in the lives of women, in the life of the spirit. Years of anger, revolt, certitude and conviction are in The Aerial Letter, years of fighting against the screen which stands in the way of women's energy, identity and creativity. —Nicole BrossardTable of ContentsSaying the Unsayable Susan Hawthorne Translator's Introduction Marlene Wildeman Preface 2020 Preface 1988 Turning Platform Coincidence The Aerial Letter Critical Appreciation Synchrony From Radical to Integral Kind skin my mind A Captivating Image Lesbians of Lore Access to Writing: Rites of Language Intercepting What's Real Certain Words

Read more less

Book SynopsisLiving is a process of continuous transformation: we have been embryos, children, adolescents, thin, fat, sick, better again. And as humans, we are always at odds with at least one part of our bodies. Have we inherited the family nose? Is there nothing to be done for our finicky stomach or our limp hair? In the Flesh is an intelligent, witty, and provocative look at how we think about--and live within--our bodies. The editors and writers in this collection describe what human bodies feel now. Each author''s candid essay focuses on one part of the body, and explores its function, its meanings, and the role it has played in his or her life. Featuring original essays by Caroline Adderson, André Alexis, Taiaiake Alfred, Brian Brett, Trevor Cole, Dede Crane, Lorna Crozier, Candace Fertile, Stephen Gauer, Julian Gunn, Heather Kuttai, Susan Olding, Kathy Page, Kate Pullinger, Merilyn Simonds, Richard Steel, Madeleine Thien, Sue Thomas, Margaret Thompson, and Lynne Van Luven.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book explores contemporary migration to New Zealand through an examination of 200 personal essays written by 37 migrants from 20 different countries, spanning all ages and life stages. The first book to examine migration through the lens of the personal essay, the book presents migration as a lifelong experience that affects everything from language, home, work, family and friendship to finances, citizenship and social benefits. Like migrants themselves, the book crosses boundaries, working at the intersections of literature, history, philosophy and sociology to discuss questions of identity and belonging. Throughout, Diane Comer, both migrant and essayist herself, demonstrates the versatility of the personal essay as a means to analyse and understand migration, an issue with increasing relevance worldwide.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Fable of the Bees was first published in 1714. The second edition came out in London in 1723 and was Enlarged with many Additions. The third edition (1724) contained further revisions and additions and, as an appendix, A Vindication of the Book. Further editions appeared in 1725, 1728 and 1729. Part II of the Fable (reproduced as volume 4 of the present facsimile collection) was first published in 1729. The 1732 edition of both parts was the last to appear in Mandevilles lifetime.

Read more less

Book SynopsisOccupy, Commons and other social experiments show: New collectivities are invented and tested. Gesa Ziemer enriches this debate through the insight that in the process, the reinterpretation of old forms of joint action can play an essential role. By looking at complicities in art, science and economy, ongoing collectivization is exposed. Complicity means the committing of an act together, so the definition of criminal law. But for a long time now the concept has also been targeted at legal collective actions - mainly in innovative environments. Individuals act jointly in an intensely affective way - albeit only temporarily, bindingly in common - but still individually, inventively - and at the same time in a goal-oriented manner.

Read more less

Book SynopsisCarmen Sylva, when she discovered that I was writing, instead of laughing at me and being ironical about my modest attempts at literature, encouraged me from the very first in every way. She was getting old, her imagination was running dry, and she declared that mine had come just in time to replace hers, which was a generous thing to say. She declared that it was a happy and blessed discovery that I could hold a pen, and no end of kind and enthusiastic things. She spurred me on to write, and each time I had finished a story she immediately wanted to have it so as to translate it into German. Queen Marie of Romania about Carmen Sylva (Queen Elisabeth of Romania). The history of the monarchy in Romania and of its four kings would be incomplete without the story of the queen consorts, who seem to have been even more fascinating personalities than the kings were. Especially the first two queen consorts, Elisabeth (Carmen Sylva) and Marie of Romania, became famous as writers during their lifetime. They both wrote in their mother tongues, Elisabeth in German and Marie in English, and published many of their books, not only in Romania, but also abroad, thus reaching a widespread readership, worldwide publicity, and literary recognition. This affectionately collected, critically edited volume comprises the most precious tales and essays by the queen consorts, either translated into English (Carmen Sylva) or in the original English version (Marie of Romania).

Read more less