Literature: history and criticism Books

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Book SynopsisWhen first published in 1982, A LITERATURE OF THEIR OWN quickly set the stage for the creative explosion of feminist literary studies that transformed the field in the 1980s. Launching a major new area for literary investigation, the book uncovered the long but neglected tradition of women writers and the development of their fiction from the 1800s onwards. It includes assessments of famous writers such as the Brontës, George Eliot, Virginia Woolf, Margaret Drabble and Doris Lessing, but also presents critical appraisals of Mary Braddon, Rhoda Broughton and Sarah Grand - to name but a few of those prolific and successful Victorian novelists - once household names, now largely forgotten. This edition, revised and expanded in 1997, contains an introductory chapter surveying the book's reception as well as a postscript chapter celebrating the legacy of feminism and feminist criticism in the efflorescence of contemporary British fiction by women.Trade ReviewElaine Showalter's proceedings in this book, both as historian and as literary critic, are sane, illuminating, fascinating and wise * A.S. BAYATT, THE TIMES *

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Book SynopsisFor many today the Church stands picturesquely in the background of modern life, but its time-honoured place has always been firmly in the foreground; it has been intimately woven into the unfolding fabric of English society and culture for one and a half thousand years. This may be largely lost to view, but the legacy is everywhere. The people ideally placed to bring this past to life – what it stood for, what it achieved, as well as the upheavals it has caused – are those whose first-hand stories speak directly to us. This anthology has assembled a crowd of witnesses, starting from Christianity’s rugged, pioneering times when its role in the shaping of England was so influential, continuing through the great flowerings of enlightenment and times of turbulence, right up to this present, less certain age. These are the voices of saints and sinners, dignitaries and dissidents, shrewd observers and ordinary parishioners.Trade Review"A wonderful serendipitous collection of the writings of contemporaries about the Church in England from AD 550 till the present day. . . . The book provides a vivid warts-and-all portrait of the nature of religious experience and custom in an established church. As the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Church grow closer in an increasingly atheistic world, I regard this book as useful reading for us English Catholics, indeed, for any English-speaking Catholics to understand what has formed the mentality of the established church and its offshoots in England. . . . One of the many charms of the book is encountering works by names one knows little of like William of Malmesbury, and unknown works by names one knows very well; there are many contributions from 19th-century authors. The book is highly educational if one reads it from cover to cover, and very entertaining to dip into to pick out a selection of its gems." -- Septimus Waugh * Catholic Herald (UK) *“This is a brilliantly chosen anthology, from the inventive Gildas to the enchanting Betjeman, and is a perfect complement for the ‘built word’ of church architecture. A total delight.” -- Simon Jenkins, author of England’s Thousand Best Churches

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisA comprehensive anthology of Chinese poetry since 12th century BC.Trade Review"This magnificent collection has the effect of a complete library rather than of an anthology of poetry... A lyric quality comes through into our own language ... Every page is alive with striking and wonderful things, immediately accessible." Publishers Weekly "Sunflower Splendor is the largest and, on the whole, best anthology of translated Chinese poems to have appeared in a Western language." The New York Times Book Review "This remarkably fine anthology should remain standard for a long time." Library Journal " ... excellent translations by divers hands. Open to any page and listen to the still, sad music ... " Washington Post Bookworld

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Winner of the Otto Gründler Book Prize, The Medieval Institute at Western Michigan University""Winner of the Beatrice White Prize, The English Association, University of Leicester""Winner of the Rose Mary Crawshay Prize, The British Academy""Shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize, The Wolfson Foundation""Longlisted for the HWA Non-Fiction Crown, Historical Writers’ Association""Finalist for the PROSE Award in Biography and Autobiography, Association of American Publishers""One of The Times' Best Literary Non-Fiction Books of 2019""One of the Times Literary Supplement's Books of the Year 2019""One of the Sunday Times' Best Literary Books of 2019""A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year""One of New Statesman's Books of the Year 2020""[Turner has] read his work so intelligently, that even those who thought they knew it all already will find themselves looking at Chaucer with completely fresh eyes. She evokes the times, the politics, the personalities of his contemporaries and, above all, she gets inside this most ironical and brilliant of poets. . . . The book was so richly enjoyable that, once I had finished, I started to read all over again. It is an absolute triumph."---A. N. Wilson, Times Literary Supplement"A quite exceptional biography that with imaginative insight and stylish wit, sets one of the most significant figures in English literary history firmly in a European context." * Wolfson History Prize judges *""It’s very wide-ranging scholarship, but it’s written in a witty, engaging style and it’s very, very accessible. . . . [A] deeply researched and highly readable life.""---Richard J. Evans, Five Books"[Chaucer’s] life in its European context. Fresh glimpses of the great man are everywhere: perhaps most strikingly an account of the instagrammable teenaged Chaucer posing as aristocratic eye candy in a skimpy outfit called a 'paltok', which failed to cover his backside. Oddsbodkins!"---James Marriott, The Times"A European Life feels to me like a radical new take on a man we thought we knew, but whose sophisticated business, military and political career took him criss-crossing the continent."---Andrew Marr, Start the Week, BBC Radio 4"A hugely illuminating book. This is one of those studies that academics like to call 'magisterial', but non-specialists will find much to enjoy here too. Turner's writing is never less than perspicacious, and often slyly humorous. . . . What A European Life does particularly well is to situate Chaucer in the largeness and complexity of his world."---Tim Smith-Laing, The Telegraph (five star review)"Turner charts an uncannily tangible route through Chaucer’s life, binding his ideas and poems to precise locations, often enlivening it with consummate detail. . . . Chaucer: A European Life serves as a compass that allows readers to traverse Chaucer’s London and Europe. At the same time, reading Turner’s book makes us aware of how much our own lives are shaped by the rooms we inhabit and the places we visit. . . . Chaucer: A European Life introduces the 21st century to Chaucer and Chaucer to the 21st century"---Sebastian Sobecki, Literary Review"In this fine biography, Marion Turner gives us new images of the poet. Turner’s biography takes us from birth to death, but focuses on the spaces through which Chaucer moved, in reality and in poetic imagination. This is a clever move, and Turner’s technique means that the poet’s works can be woven organically into an account of his life. The book is elegantly written, accessible to the general reader as well as the scholarly specialist. In suggesting further questions and presenting an array of new images, Turner’s book gives us back an image of Chaucer more melancholy and mercurial than the cosy figure we thought we knew."---Mark Williams, The Times"[A] wholly beguiling, original, vividly written appreciation of the hugely innovative author and his rich cultural and political European background. A parable for our time?"---Robert Fox, Evening Standard"Magnificently scholarly."---Sam Leith, The Spectator"Marion Turner’s exciting new biography explores in breathtaking detail the spaces and places that shaped the imaginative world of this great Anglo-European poet . . . . this momentous biography gives readers a new perspective on the personal authorial journey that culminated in The Canterbury Tales. Turner has produced a stylishly written and carefully crafted book, at times humorous and always lucid, lively, and engaging."---Clare Egan, BBC History Magazine"[Turner pays] carefully nuanced attention to the significance of the places visited, to the mixture of cultures they accommodated, and to the range of experiences they offered to a traveller from London. . . . [Turner’s] processes of expansion, and of interweaving the life with the works, make for enjoyable and consistently informative reading. . . . Although the book’s European emphasis and concluding gestures to the here and now insist on its timeliness, its real focus is on understanding Chaucer’s world through the variety of that world’s records and its remains, and through the imaginative reflection of it in Chaucer’s works."---Julia Boffey, Times Literary Supplement"Marion Turner has had the inspired idea of organising her biography by the places [Chaucer] occupied . . . . So many places, so many points of view. Chaucer's modernity consists in his adoption of many perspectives. This biography provides a wonderful illumination of his art." * Country Life Magazine *"It feels as though new light is genuinely being shed on Chaucer’s life, combining documentary material with sure-footed interpretations of his works, what we know of the people and places he encountered, and social and economic history . . . . The result is a three-dimensional picture of Chaucer from the outside in."---Laura Ashe, History Today"Marion Turner has done a magnificent job. . . . I do not expect to see this biography superseded."---Paul Dean, New Criterion"A meticulously researched, well-styled academic study showing Chaucer as the ‘consummate networker.’" * Kirkus *"This meaty new biography is likely to be the best book on the subject for decades to come."---Steve Donoghue, Open Letters Review"In Marion Turner’s capacious biography – the first since Derek Pearsall’s in 1992 and the first ever by a woman – Chaucer is Bakhtinian and plural, a man of many voices. Much like his Canterbury pilgrims, he is always en route but never arriving. . . . Fittingly, she ends by rejecting the image of Chaucer as the ‘father of English poetry’ and finds his legacy instead in the suppressed and marginalised voices that he licensed to speak."---Barbara Newman, London Review of Books"A rich, thought-provoking and readable work of scholarship. . . . [Turner] has forged a new kind of biography. . . . Her work promises to be definitive for some time to come."---Mary Wellesley, Times Higher Education"[A] great swirl of a biography, one more capacious and more ranging than any of its predecessors. . . . [Chaucer: A European Life] proclaims a hope to bring this canonical medieval poet to life before a broad, modern audience."---Joe Stadolnik, Los Angeles Review of Books"What wonders Turner can work with a word! . . . . I find it difficult to stop quoting Turner, since she puts the life she is following into such intricate yet accessible prose. You need to stick with this long biography to fully absorb the point toward which she is headed. In other words, it becomes a journey just like the many trips Chaucer took for himself and others."---Carl Rollyson, University Bookman"Chaucer has not lacked for biographies, but Marion Turner’s is of a rare ambition and competence . . . [A] very substantial book . . . sustained by a confident erudition and a powerful and controlled narrative flow."---John V. Fleming, First Things"[I]n Marion Turner's brilliant 'Chaucer: A European Life,' you will learn not only about the life of the man behind 'The Canterbury Tales,' you will learn about the bustling, fast-changing world in which he lived and traveled . . . if you are interested in history, poetry or the man who invented iambic pentameter, it's fascinating."---Laurie Hertzel, Minneapolis Star Tribune"Turner's study is itself like a medieval book. It loves exhaustive detail; it loves a careful architectural design; and it is not afraid of exhausting its readers. It's a biography full of rich detail . . . securely grounded in the material and cultural world, instead of the conventional focus on the singular voice of a solitary poetic genius."---Stephanie Trigg, Sydney Morning Herald"Marion Turner's splendid new biography of the poet . . . is wonderfully evocative. [A] magisterial intellectual biography."---Bruce Whiteman, Hudson Review"[Turner's] expansive book is written with an unusual mix of erudition, clarity, and wit: it will be required reading for specialists, an invaluable resource for students, and a rich introduction to Chaucer’s world for the general reader. . . .[Turner's] generous and humane vision is deeply appealing, and offered with a warmth that is hard to resist—a welcome invitation to all of us to broaden our horizons."---Philip Knox, Review of English Studies"Chaucer’s first female biographer provides a fresh, modern perspective, memorably showing us the great poet as a young man dressed by his employer in a skimpy garment designed to emphasise the genitals and buttocks. A richly textured account and an essential addition to Chaucerian scholarship."---Claire Lowdon, Sunday Times"Marion Turner carves out a space for another biography by locating the facts of Chaucer’s professional and writing life within the context of English and European history and material culture…This is a strong biography, well suited to the needs and interests of our own Chaucerian moment."---Lynn Staley, Studies in the Age of Chaucer"[Turner] enchantingly weaves Chaucer’s life and poetry between the local spaces of households, gardens, and inns, as well as the international spaces of French castles under siege, Italian libraries, and Mediterranean marketplaces. . . .[this book] is crucial and rewarding for any current or future student of medieval literature—and luckily for us, Turner’s style both educates and delights."---Leah Pope Parker, Journal of British Studies"[Turner’s] enormous contribution to our comprehension of Chaucer's moves and maneuvers within his culture will alter scholarly contexts."---John L. Murphy, PopMatters"[A] new and brilliant biography. . . . This is a book of the first importance not only for students of Chaucer but for anyone seriously interested in the ways in which history, poetry, life and art generally came about and developed in late medieval Europe." * Heythrop Journal *"Chaucer scholarship has always been awaiting a biography this rich…Among the very many contributions Turner’s biography makes to Chaucer scholarship is to reverse the general presumption that has always animated studies of this kind; rather than write about Chaucer because he was a historically significant poet, Turner shows us what, in history, made this poet matter."---Christopher Canno, Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies"A vivid reconstruction of Chaucer’s 14th-century world and a revelatory exploration of his poems."---Thomas Penn, History Today"Chaucer: A European Life is a masterful appreciation of the first great poet of the living English language—a biography of Geoffrey Chaucer wrapped around a thoughtful study of what Chaucer wrote and what he read . . . A strength of this book is that Turner looks beyond the portraits that Chaucer so emphatically sketched to emphasize the vitality with which he imbued his characters. . . . The genius of the book lies in its valuing of difference qua difference, and its refusal either to collapse those differences or to prioritize saint’s life over folktale, man over woman, knight over miller, marquis over peasant girl, moral truth over poetic line, idea over rhetoric."---The Key Reporter, Allen D. Boyer"A masterpiece."---Simon Winder, New Statesman"This is an invigorating and refreshing book that is by no means a standard biography. . . . this book is an extraordinary achievement. Its erudition and enthusiasm are matched by an enviable eloquence, and it will remain a focus of admiration, reference and discussion for many years to come."---Peter Brown, Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen"Marion Turner does a spectacular job."---Baroness Bennet, The House Magazine

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Book SynopsisInherited through the line of the berserker Angantýr and his war-loving daughter Hervor, the ever-lethal, shining sword Tyrfing and its changes of hands frame the uncanny story of The Saga of Hervor and Heiđrek. A second heroic saga, Hrólf Kraki and His Champions, recounts the daring deeds of the members and entourage of the ancient Danish house of Skjoldung. Passed down orally in pre-Christian Norse times, transmitted in writing in medieval Iceland, and here wielded by the hand of Jackson Crawford, the tales told in this volume retain their sharp edges and flashes of glory that never fail to slay.Trade Review"Hervarar saga and Hrólfs saga kraka are among the best of the Icelandic mythical heroic sagas and are both highpoints of medieval literature. Jackson Crawford’s new translation is eminently readable and with its accompanying Introduction and notes will serve as an excellent introduction to this fascinating material." —M. J. Driscoll, Professor of Old Norse Philology, University of Copenhagen"Jackson Crawford’s devoted readership will welcome this new translation of two lesser-known sagas, which in every way lives up to the standards his previous translations from Old Norse have set. These vivid 'sagas of ancient times,' or fornaldar sǫgur, will be of particular interest to teachers and students of Beowulf." —Martin Chase, Professor Emeritus of English, Fordham University"The two sagas of the title, Hervor and Heidrek and Hrolf Kraki and His Champions, need little comment here: while perhaps not well-known among sagas of the mythical type, they feature all the characteristics that make sagas entertaining and engaging reading, and also afford the reader a glimpse into the complexities of medieval family life, political rivalries, and the overall landscape of a still largely pre-Christian society. The quality of the translation, which successfully captures the poetry of the prose and the alliteration of its verse, is a testament to Dr. Crawford’s careful crafting of the original Old Norse into highly readable English, with the meticulous attention and skill evident in all his translations. Of at least equal interest to the reader, however, is Dr. Crawford’s Introduction to the texts. Without entering deeply into literary interpretation or analysis, Dr. Crawford provides a commentary the breadth and scope of which truly attests to his vast and comprehensive knowledge of not only the language and original texts, but also of the culture, history, values, and unique character of medieval Norse society. The Introduction identifies parallel texts and additional source materials, and includes a helpful list of resources for further reading; the notes on the language provide adequate explanation so as to be accessible to readers with no background in Old Norse, and the pronunciation guide is a useful addition. Overall, the Introduction is thorough in its information, covering a wide range of topics from observations about representations of women in the sagas to a commentary on poetic meter and stanzaic structure. While the sagas can be read and enjoyed without the benefit of reading the Introduction, the background and insight the reader gains through it serves to enrich the experience of reading the sagas, and is a valuable resource as an introduction to Old Norse sagas in general. With its fine balance of an informative Introduction and two exceptional saga translations, Two Sagas of Mythical Heroes: Hervor and Heidrek and Hrolf Kraki and His Champions is a publication that will appeal to both the novice and the experienced reader of Old Norse sagas." —Vicki J. Grove, Teaching Professor of Distinction, Russian and Nordic Programs, University of Colorado Boulder"[T]his accessible and affordable edition with its useful front and back matter offers a great introduction to the world of the fornaldarsögur. It is my hope that other, similarly accessible publications will follow."—Rebecca Merkelbach, University of Tübingen, in The Medieval Review "Jackson Crawford's works present Norse literature in a way that is engaging, approachable, and worth rereading multiple times . . . I highly recommend.” —Phillip Fitzsimmons, Southwestern Oklahoma State University, in Mythlore

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Book SynopsisQueer Cambridge recounts the untold story of a gay community living, for many decades, at the very heart of the British Establishment. Making effective use of chiefly forgotten archival sources ? including personal diaries and letters ? the author reveals a network that was in equal parts tolerant and acerbic, and within which the queer Fellows of Cambridge University explored bold new forms of camaraderie and relationship. Goldhill examines too the huge influence that these individuals had on British culture, in its arts, politics, music, theatre and self-understanding. During difficult decades when homosexuality was unlawful, gay academics ? who included celebrated literary and scientific figures like E. M. Forster, M. R. James, Rupert Brooke and Alan Turing ? lived, loved, and grew old together, bringing new generations into their midst. Their remarkable stories add up not just to an alternative history of male homosexuality in Britain, but to an alternative history of Cambridge itself.

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Book Synopsis“One of Woolf's most beloved novels, To the Lighthouse, finally gets a Norton Critical Edition. In Margaret Homans, To the Lighthouse has an ideal editor, for Homans brings her deep knowledge of the Victorian world Woolf portrays, her long admiration forTrade Review"Margaret Homans’ vision of To the Lighthouse is replete. A magnificent array of contexts complements the annotated text, including familial and literary sources for the novel; a chronology of its composition and reception; early reviews; and scholarly interpretations addressing gender, empire, and the role of the artist. The introduction considers the novel’s debt to philosophy, its structure and style, its revelation of the social changes wrought by World War I, and the effect of its Scottish setting. Having studied Woolf with Margaret Homans as an undergraduate, I am delighted that her thoughtful teaching is now widely available in this wonderful classroom edition." -- Emily Kopley, McGill University

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Book SynopsisFirst published in Taiwan in 1995, The Membranes is a classic of queer speculative fiction in Chinese. Chi Ta-wei weaves dystopian tropes—heirloom animals, radiation-proof combat drones, sinister surveillance technologies—into a sensitive portrait of one young woman’s quest for self-understanding.Trade ReviewNamed a Reviewer's Choice Best Book of 2021 * Tor.com *A Books of the Year 2021 selection * The White Review *Chosen as a Best Translated Book of 2021 * Words Without Borders *Books are all time-capsules, of course, but Chi’s novel offers an exquisite dual experience—because while The Membranes is a modern classic, it hasn’t lost an ounce of its provocative significance. As a gently incisive puzzle-box it works to pry at the readers’ own emotions about the nature of stories and how we’re made of them; as a novel of queer attachment, it explores how we attempt to connect to one another through endless membranes—and often fail to do so. * Tor.com *There’s something very timely about [The Membranes'] play with gender fluidity and the social construction of identity. There’s also something timeless about Chi’s future, because of how it bends and defies time itself. The novel is about how identity is a story we tell ourselves through time — or back through time. And that story, for Chi, is queer . . . English readers who finish it now, 25 years after it was first published, may regret finding it so late, and missing out on all the stories and selves we could have been, even as it seems like it’s been here the whole time. * Los Angeles Times *This rather astonishing science fiction novel is a powerful story about consciousness and connection with other people. It cuts right to the heart of our current moment by way of metaphor, but in a manner that is entirely Chi’s, and thus a new thing for English-language readers. What a surprising and exciting addition to science fiction and world literature. -- Kim Stanley Robinson, author of Red MarsWhat a breath of retro-fresh air! This wicked-smart cyberpunk throwback from the early days of networked digital culture presciently foregrounds issues of gender, embodiment, identity, and technology that have become all the more relevant over the quarter-century since its original publication. -- Susan Stryker, executive editor of TSQ: Transgender Studies QuarterlyReaders will notice prescient echoes of modern life in Chi’s depictions of all-absorbing media consumption and loneliness in the midst of hyper-connection . . . [T]his captivating novel is rich and rewarding. * Publishers Weekly *A fascinating new book. * MIT Technology Review *A mind-blowing book . . . I have NEVER read anything like it. * Literary Infatuation *The Membranes speaks as much to hard-core sci-fi fans seeking an exhilarating read as to regular readers who desire a moment of introspection. -- Stella Jiayue Zhu * Leeds Centre for New Chinese Writing Book Review Network *The Membranes is a welcome addition to the small but growing ranks of international science fiction available in English translation, and is an excellent early example of climate fiction. * Booklist *A plunging submersible disguised as a novel—filled with incisive, inventive peculiarities. * Du Mois Archival Institute, 2021 Reading List Selection *It is almost unfathomable that, in 1995, Chi could have imagined a world so full of the terrors that technological rises inevitably bring, but he does and mostly to devastating effect. Chi’s project is large, as is his vision . . . it imagines the future like the best of our dystopian meditations. * South China Morning Post Magazine *Mind-blowing . . . This 1995 Taiwanese sci-fi with casual queer characters is a short read, but it kept me on the edge of my seat throughout. Way after finishing the story, the questions it posed still linger, surely to haunt me for a long time to come. * Hsinju’s Lit Log *Chi is an excellent novelist and Momo’s story, with the unanswered questions, her mental state and the climate change issues and consequences, all help make this a first-class novel. * The Modern Novel *One of the most profound LGBTQ books of our time. * Books & Bao *An exploration of the contact zones between human and non-human consciousness, corporality, and identity. Reading it feels like peeling off the skin of a fruit, except that when it seems you are getting to the juicy flesh, it turns out to be only another veil—a membrane—and you’ve got to keep going. * Cha: An Asian Literary Journal *Effectively a modern fable, The Membranes creates a punk, dystopian novella set in the near future. It is ideal for anyone who wishes to immerse themselves in a queer future which interrogates the very nature of authentic humanism. * Saoirse Edits *The Membranes is a fascinating and beautifully conceived novel, deceptively simple and alluringly deep, smoothly mediated by the membrane of Heinrich’s excellent translation. -- Astrid Møller-Olsen * Xiaoshuo Blog *[The Membranes] lives up to its reputation as a classic of the genre . . . Compact enough to be read in an afternoon, the novella contains a plot so expansive that it will preoccupy the mind far longer. * Asian Review of Books *A slim, intelligent novella that ambitiously projects a militarised and corporate new world order in the rubble of environmental collapse, Chi’s brand of world-building is equally invested in envisioning new global formations as it is in attesting to emerging sexual subjectivities. It bristles with the emancipatory energy that characterises the novels coming out of post-martial-law Taiwan . . . Beneath its troubling view of a world plunged into crisis, there is still a hint of humanism in the novel’s belief that if selfhood is not an eternal truth but a queer fiction, then we must keep reading, writing, translating, pirating, photocopying, citing, and sharing ourselves into existence. * Asymptote *Whether as time capsule or prophecy, this novel holds up. -- Adam Wescott * Politics & Prose Staff Picks *Originally published in Chinese in 1995, this sci-fi novel is still able to sweep you off your feet . . . Boundaries are softened in this narrative in more than one sense and even 25 years after its debut in Taiwan, this classic of queer speculative fiction still gives us plenty of food for thought. * 24stories *The Membranes is an exceptionally well-conceived and turned science fiction story. Deceptively simple-looking on the surface, it is a truly impressive piece of work. * Complete Review *[This book] is so deliciously weird . . . The plot twist at the end is one of the best I’ve read. * Biblio Obscura *The Membranes rewards repeated reading, growing increasingly poignant as it builds toward its startling – and haunting – conclusion. * ABC News (Australia) *It’s the astonishing intimacy of Chi’s Wachowski-worthy plot twist (and for those who go on to read the book, note that The Membranes predates any Keanu Reeves-helmed cyberpunk by at least three years) that has me still mulling over this book. It’s not a twist that relies on shock and bombast. Chi’s modus here relies on gentleness, on familial love against all odds. Ari Larissa Heinrich does an excellent job translating these complicated plot elements into English, obscuring the truth while making us think we have everything plainly. -- Spencer Ruchti * Du Mois Monthly Newsletter *[I]t’s only when you see later on how all these ideas, old and new, gender-concerned and not, merge together, that the sheer power of this piece comes to the fore. The rug-pulling has been so subtle no seismometer would ever have sensed it, but by the end we’re upended by it all in quite dramatic fashion. * NB Magazine *In Ari Larissa Heinrich’s adept translation, the prose of this Taiwanese 1995 novella arrives direct and declarative, like the semi-confessional writing that internet users committed to sites like LiveJournal around that time. It’s short, propulsive, and deceptively approachable . . . The queer liberation we can read in The Membranes is that we each contain the freedom to define ourselves, using scraps of experience, story, and fantasy in and around us. Recognizing how malleable we are, we can reimagine ourselves as needed. It can be terrifying and vulnerable to let one’s certainties crumble, but in a world that limits or rejects you, it’s the only way to survive. * The World of Chinese *The world of The Membranes is one where consequential new freedoms cohabitate with climate destruction, hyper-corporatization, and militarization, encouraging the reader to dream big while staying vigilant. * Necessary Fiction *A classic that appeared far ahead of the current new wave science fiction in the Sinophone world, The Membranes remains a unique alterity in terms of genre-crossing and gender reflexivity. Chi’s beautiful, mesmerizing, provocative narrative creates a splendid labyrinth of metaphors and significances that leads to a revelation about the (post)human changeability in a matrix of monotonous inhumanity. -- Mingwei Song, coeditor of The Reincarnated Giant: An Anthology of Twenty-First-Century Chinese Science FictionAn extraordinary novella . . . at last available in English in a brilliant translation by Ari Larissa Heinrich. At just 134 pages, its scope is dazzling. Now, from the vantage point of the future, its playful and unsettling insights into digital saturation, the traps of consciousness and labor, and the fugitive fabulations of identity and the self, have only grown more profound. -- Chris Littlewood * The Paris Review Daily *The Membranes presents a future where possibility is not defined only by technologies and economics, where gender is fluid, families are chosen, and the narratives we construct for ourselves are part of what makes us human. -- Ruth Joffre * The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide *Trust me on this — if you have even the tiniest interest in storytelling, you want to read The Membranes. -- Deepanjana Pal * Dear Reader *A pitch-perfect meditation on medical advances, transplantation, advanced technology, loneliness, memory, and love. -- Rachel Cordasco * Strange Horizons *Chi’s rendering of certain surveillance and communications technologies is strikingly accurate. The novel offers a fin de siècle vision of a bleak future, while distilling kaleidoscopic influences into the textured intimacy of a mother-daughter tale that alternately reads as a quest for one’s origins. -- Mike Fu * Public Books *The Membranes (膜) is more than original. It’s extraordinary. -- Bradley Winterton * Taipei Times *The Membranes is not the novel that will teach readers how to deal with climate change. But it does, in its intimate way, show readers how we might live with it . . . [The book] is a climate novel not because it contends with catastrophe, but because it shows that everydayness has a way of proceeding alongside disaster. -- Ariel Chu * The Rumpus *An amazing, wild experience . . . It completely made me rethink the human experience and my grasp on reality. -- Chloe Gong * Viva Magazine NZ *It offers an original, entertaining, and fast-paced vision, translated from Chinese with perfect pitch, and can be pleasantly devoured in a single sitting. -- Josh Stenberg * Australian Book Review *The Membranes is a treasure in that it offers readers something new in each subsequent reading, and it is certain to increase in relevance as we move into our own future. -- Eleanor Keisman * Litro Magazine *The reading experience is like peeling back thin layers of truth, as each chapter reveals the darker and twisted realities that Momo inhabits. Like nesting dolls, or a dream inside a dream, each layer takes hold onto a sublimated anxiety of our collective consciousness. This book is a diamond, it’s a double edged sword, and it’s a bubble ripe to pop. -- Iris Tobin of A Room of One’s Own Bookstore * Literary Hub *An excellent, moving novel. -- Scott Manley Hadley * Triumph of the Now *Table of ContentsThe MembranesPromiscuous Literacy: Taipei Punk and the Queer Future of The Membranes, by Ari Larissa HeinrichAcknowledgments

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Book SynopsisYork Notes Advanced offer a fresh and accessible approach to English Literature. This market-leading series has been completely updated to meet the needs of today's A-level and undergraduate students. Written by established literature experts, York Notes Advanced intorduce students to more sophisticated analysis, a range of critical perspectives and wider contexts.Table of Contents Part 1: Introduction Part 2: The text Part 3: Critical approachs Part 4: Critical history Part 5: Background Further Reading Literacy Terms

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Book SynopsisIn the first days of spring in his eighty-second year, Gerald Murnane – perhaps the greatest living writer of English prose – began a project that would round off his strange career as a novelist. He would read all of his books in turn and prepare a report on each. His original intention was to lodge the reports in two of his legendary filing cabinets: in the Chronological Archive, which documents his life as a whole, and the Literary Archive, which is devoted to everything he has written. As the reports grew, however, they themselves took on the form of a book, a book as beguiling and hallucinatory, in its way, as the works on which they were meant to report. These miniature memoirs or stories lead the reader through the capacious territory Murnane refers to as his mind: they dwell on the circumstances that gave rise to his writing, on images and associations, on Murnane’s own theories of fiction, and then memories of a deeply personal kind. The final essay is, of course, on Last Letter to a Reader itself: it considers the elation and exhilaration that accompany the act of writing, and offers a moving finale to what must surely be Murnane’s last work, as death approaches. Trade Review‘Has any writer ever paraded his aesthetic privacies so shamelessly? It doesn’t matter. These are the ravings of a genius. Ignore them if you dare, literature-besotted unraveller.’ Peter Craven, Australian Book Review ---- ‘The best book about Murnane’s books that anyone is ever likely to write.’ Shannon Burns, The Monthly ---- ‘When looking over the endless paddocks of his fictions, one is also looking out at the mysterious landscape of the soul.’ Dustin Illingworth, New York Times Book Review ---- ‘Murnane, a genius, is a worthy heir to Beckett.’ Teju Cole ---- ‘The emotional conviction…is so intense, the sombre lyricism so moving, the intelligence behind the chiselled sentences so undeniable, that we suspend all disbelief.’ J. M. Coetzee ---- ‘An enigmatic author, possibly the best you’ve never heard of . . . His work insists on the reality of the inner world – perhaps even its primacy.’ Melissa Harrison, Financial Times ---- ‘Immediately arresting . . . Murnane’s writing exhibits what literature should: an insight into a way of seeing that is quite unlike our own.’ John Self, Irish Times ---- ‘As with Proust, the specificities of the images he pursues and catalogues provide their own pleasure [but] the effect of his writing is less about the images themselves, and more about the way thought works in the human mind.’ Chris Power, The Guardian ---- ‘Murnane’s fantasies are many-layered, and the narration weaves between these and his mundane life in thrillingly long, lyrical sentences.” Christian Lorentzen, London Review of Books

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Book Synopsis Antonio Porchia (1886–1968) wrote one book, a slender collection of poetic aphorisms that became a classic in the Spanish-speaking world. With affinities to Taoist and Buddhist epigrams, Voices bears witness to the awe of human existence. Revised and updated with a new introduction by translator W.S. Merwin, this bilingual volume brings back into print one of Latin America’s great literary treasures. He who tells the truth says almost nothing.*I know what I have given you. I do not know what you have received.*Only a few arrive at nothing, because the way is long.*Out of a hundred years a few minutes were made that stayed with me, not a hundred years.*When I come upon some idea that is not of this world, I feel as though this world had grown wider.*This world understands nothing but words, and you have come into it with almost none.*We become aware of the void as we fill it. Antonio Porchia (1886–1968) was born in Italy. After his father died, he emigrated to Argentina with his mother and seven siblings, and as the eldest child, started working at the age of 14. He was self-taught, and his only book, Voices, caught the attention of a noted French critic who assumed him to be a scholar of Kafka and Buddhism, rather than the humble man who loved to tend his garden. Today, Porchia’s aphorisms are published in more than a dozen Spanish-language editions as well as in German, French and Italian. W.S. Merwin’s awards include the Pulitzer Prize, the Tanning Prize, the Bollingen Award, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the NEA. He is the author of dozens of books of poetry and translations. He lives in Hawaii.

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Book SynopsisWhat stands out about racism is its ability to withstand efforts to legislate or educate it away. In The Racist Fantasy, Todd McGowan argues that its persistence is due to a massive unconscious investment in a fundamental racist fantasy. As long as this fantasy continues to underlie contemporary society, McGowan claims, racism will remain with us, no matter how strenuously we struggle to eliminate it. The racist fantasy, a fantasy in which the racial other is a figure who blocks the enjoyment of the racist, is a shared social structure. No one individual invented it, and no one individual is responsible for its perpetuation. While no one is guilty for the emergence of the racist fantasy, people are nonetheless responsible for keeping it alive and thus responsible for fighting against it. The Racist Fantasy examines how this fantasy provides the psychic basis for the racism that appears so conspicuously throughout modern history. The racist fantasy informs everything fTrade ReviewWe confront the world these days with increasing perplexity as old problems resurface from a distant and, we presumed, superseded past. How is this so? Facing squarely one such problem Todd McGowan lucidly explains why racism is so recalcitrant and how it exposes the naivete of prevailing theories of the phenomenon, while offering an extended account of its complex phantasmatic structure. A timely and thorough book. * Joan Copjec, Professor of Modern Culture and Media, Brown University, USA *Rarely is theory elucidated with such clarity or applied with such historical range. By foregrounding fantasy as the frame that structures our enjoyment, McGowan’s The Racist Fantasy baldly positions psychic enjoyment as the unconscious source for varieties of racism, from anti-blackness to antisemitism and anti-Muslim racism. This is a capacious study, able to unveil the function of the racist fantasy not only at the heart of our contemporary capitalist society but also at the root of the Enlightenment thinking that gave birth to our modern world. The Racist Fantasy is a needed corrective to contemporary anti-racist thinking that only nominally invoke the unconscious or that completely ignore its role in structuring the enjoyment that binds us to racism. * Sheldon George, Professor and Chair of Literature and Writing, Simmons University, USA and coeditor of Lacan and Race: Racism, Identity and Psychoanalysis (2021) *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Hiding the Unconscious 1. The Racist Fantasy 2. The Fantasy’s Breadth 3. Racism and Modernity 4. The Variegations of the Fantasy 5. The Violent Issue 6. On the Other Side of Fantasy Notes Index

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This is the second edition of English Literature in Context, a popular textbook which provides an essential resource and reference tool for all English literature students. Designed to accompany students throughout their degree course, it offers a detailed narrative survey of the diverse historical and cultural contexts that have shaped the development of English literature, from the Anglo-Saxon period to the present day. Carefully structured for undergraduate use, the eight chronological chapters are written by a team of expert contributors who are also highly experienced teachers. Each chapter includes a detailed chronology, contextual readings of selected literary texts, annotated suggestions for further reading, a rich range of illustrations and textboxes, and thorough historical and literary overviews. This second edition has been comprehensively revised, with a new chapter on postcolonial literature, a substantially expanded chapter on contemporary literature, and the addition of over two hundred new critical references. Online resources include textboxes, chapter samples, study questions, and chronologies.

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Book SynopsisNew York Times Bestseller“Both deeper and more democratic than The Elements of Style” —Adam Haslett, Financial Times“A guided tour through some of the most beautiful, arresting sentences in the English language.” —SlateIn this entertaining and erudite gem, world-class professor and New York Times columnist Stanley Fish offers both sentence craft and sentence pleasure, skills invaluable to any writer (or reader). Like a seasoned sportscaster, Fish marvels at the adeptness of finely crafted sentences and breaks them down into digestible morsels, giving readers an instant play-by-play. Drawing on a wide range of great writers, from Philip Roth to Antonin Scalia to Jane Austen, How to Write a Sentence is much more than a writing manual—it is a spirited love letter to the written word, and a key to understanding how great writing works. It is a book that will stand the test of time.Trade Review"Both deeper and more democratic than The Elements of Style." -- Financial Times "A guided tour through some of the most beautiful, arresting sentences in the English language." -- Slate "[Fish] shares his connoisseurship of the elegant sentence." -- The New Yorker "Stanley Fish just might be America's most famous professor." -- BookPage "How to Write a Sentence is a compendium of syntactic gems-light reading for geeks." -- New York magazine "How to Write a Sentence isn't merely a prescriptive guide to the craft of writing but a rich and layered exploration of language as an evolving cultural organism. It belongs not on the shelf of your home library but in your brain's most deep-seated amphibian sensemaking underbelly." -- Maria Popova, Brain Pickings "[Fish's] approach is genially experiential-a lifelong reader's engagement whose amatory enthusiasm is an attempt to overthrow Strunk & White's infamous insistences on grammar by rote." -- New York Observer "In this small feast of a book Stanley Fish displays his love of the English sentence. His connoisseurship is broad and deep, his examples are often breathtaking, and his analyses of how the masterpieces achieve their effects are acute and compelling." -- New Republic "A sentence is, in John Donne's words, 'a little world made cunningly,' writes Fish. He'll teach you the art." -- People "This splendid little volume describes how the shape of a sentence controls its meaning." -- Boston Globe "Like a long periodic sentence, this book rumbles along, gathers steam, shifts gears, and packs a wallop." -- Roy Blount Jr. "Language lovers will flock to this homage to great writing." -- Booklist "Fish is a personable and insightful guide with wide-ranging erudition and a lack of pretension." -- National Post "For both aspiring writer and eager reader, Fish's insights into sentence construction and care are instructional, even inspirational." -- The Huffington Post "If you love language you'll find something interesting, if not fascinating, in [How to Write a Sentence]." -- CBSNews.com "[A] slender but potent volume. Fish, a distinguished law professor and literary theorist, is the anti-Strunk & White." -- The Globe and Mail "You'd get your money's worth from the quotations alone...if you give this book the attention it so clearly deserves, you will be well rewarded." -- Washington Times "The fun comes from the examples cited throughout: John Updike, Jane Austen...all are cited throughout." -- Washington Post "How to Write a Sentence is the first step on the journey to the Promised Land of good writing." -- Saudi Gazette "How to Write a Sentence is a must read for aspiring writers and anyone who wants to deepen their appreciation of literature. If extraordinary sentences are like sports plays, Fish is the Vin Scully of great writing." -- Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein, authors of "They Say/I Say" "Coming up with all-or-nothing arguments is simply what Fish does; and, in a sense, one of his most important contributions to the study of literature is that temperament...Whether people like Fish or not, though, they tend to find him fascinating." -- The New Yorker

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Book SynopsisYork Notes Advanced offer a fresh and accessible approach to English Literature. This market-leading series has been completely updated to meet the needs of today's A-level and undergraduate students. Written by established literature experts, York Notes Advanced intorduce students to more sophisticated analysis, a range of critical perspectives and wider contexts.Table of Contents Part 1: Introduction Part 2: The Text Part 3: Critical Approaches Part 4: Critical History Part 5: Background Further Reading Literacy Terms

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Book SynopsisThe inspiration for the annual Pleasure of Reading PrizeA charming and revealing collection of essays from some of our best-loved writers about the pleasures of reading, with royalties donated to the Give a Book charityIn this delightful collection forty-three acclaimed writers explain what first made them interested in literature, what inspired them to read and what makes them continue to do so. Original contributors include Margaret Atwood, J. G. Ballard, Melvyn Bragg, A. S. Byatt, Carol Ann Duffy, Simon Gray, Germaine Greer, Alan Hollinghurst, Doris Lessing, Candia McWilliam, Edna O'Brien, Ruth Rendell, Tom Stoppard, Sue Townsend and Jeanette Winterson, while this new edition includes essays from five new writers, Emily Berry, Kamila Shamsie, Rory Stewart, Katie Waldegrave and Tom Wells.Royalties generated from this project will go to Give a Book, www.giveabook.org.uk, a charity set up in 2011 that seeks to get books to places where they will be ofTrade ReviewA wonderful book for those of us that are addicted to print. A compendium of mostly British authors which lead you through their lives of reading. Sue Townsend mentions that she didn't learn to read before the age of eight and that her teacher was a nasty drunk with a face like a dyspeptic badger! * Jack Coleman, ***** on Good Reads *Really enjoyed this book :) And it brought back so many memories of my early years of reading ... reading a book in bed under the covers at night by torch light ... ALWAYS having a book to hand and being told to “Put that book down!” ... getting annoyed if ever a Birthday or Christmas Day passed WITHOUT A NEW BOOK arriving!!! * Alayne, **** on Good Reads *

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Book SynopsisHeart of Darkness is based upon Joseph Conrad’s own experience in the Congo; “it is,” as he remarks in his 1916 author’s note to Youth: A Narrative and Two Other Stories, “experience pushed a little (and only very little) beyond the actual facts.” Unlike many other editions, this new edition of Conrad’s most famous tale focuses on the time in which Conrad was himself in the Congo, while also exploring the differences between his reported experiences and their reshaping in fiction.This edition includes an extensive selection of Conrad’s correspondence and autobiographical writing, as well as contemporary accounts of the Congo from other writers. Contemporary reviews situate Heart of Darkness in its literary contexts.Trade Review“John G. Peters is one of the most authoritative Conrad scholars in the world. This new, scrupulously edited version of Heart of Darkness, with all the invaluable ancillary material Peters includes, will be for the foreseeable future the definitive text of this novel.” — J. Hillis Miller, Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus, University of California Irvine“As one would expect from John Peters, this is a solid, conscientious, and eminently useful work of textual editing, with the kind of supplementary apparatus one has come to rely on in Broadview editions (including footnotes, chronology, biographical and historical context, and bibliography, all usefully put together for an undergraduate readership). It is a welcome addition to the array of critical editions of Heart of Darkness now available for students.” — Christopher GoGwilt, Fordham University“Peters’ selections do a fine job of situating the text within a series of historical and literary debates, and this is supported by the Introduction, which isolates significant elements or challenges of the text, exploring Conrad’s early life, the political situation in Europe and Africa in light of empire and colonialism, before treating literary and thematic features, such as language, narrative, and women. The text, which follows the first English book edition published by Blackwood’s in 1902 as part of Youth: A Narrative and Two Other Stories, and the accompanying documents are all judiciously annotated, and Peters acts as an authoritative guide to the multifaceted layers of Conrad’s novella and the complex contextual currents that swirl around it.” — Richard Niland, The Joseph Conrad Society UKTable of Contents Appendix A: Maps Appendix B: Correspondence 1. Joseph Conrad to Albert Thys (11 April 1890, district of Kazimierówka) 2. Joseph Conrad to Margeurite Poradowska (15 May 1890, Teneriffe) 3. Joseph Conrad to Karol Zagórski, 22 May 1890 (Freetown, Sierre Leone) 4. Joseph Conrad to Margeurite Poradowska (6 September 1890, Kinshasa) 5. Joseph Conrad to T. Fisher Unwin (22 July 1896) 6. Joseph Conrad to William Blackwood (31 December 1898) 7. Joseph Conrad to Ford Madox Hueffer [Ford] (3 January 1899) 8. Joseph Conrad to R. B. Cunninghame Graham (8 February 1899) 9. William Blackwood to Joseph Conrad (10 March 1899) 10. Joseph Conrad to William Blackwood (31 May 1902) 11. Joseph Conrad to Roger Casement (17 December 1903) 12. Joseph Conrad to Roger Casement (21 December 1903) 13. Joseph Conrad to R. B. Cunninghame Graham (26 December 1903) 14. Joseph Conrad to Ernest Dawson (25 June 1908) Appendix C: Contemporary Reviews 1. Hugh Clifford, “The Art of Mr. Joseph Conrad,” The Spectator (London) 2. [Edward Garnett], “Mr. Conrad’s New Book,” The Academy and Literature (London) 3. “Youth; and Other Stories,” The Graphic (London) 4. “Joseph Conrad,” The Literary World (London) 5. Desmond B. O’Brien [Richard Ashe King], “Letters on Books,” Truth (London) 6. From “Books Worth Reading,” The Times of India (Mumbai) 7. From “Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, and Things of Lesser Moment,” The Evening Telegram (New York) 8. “New Novels,” The Australasian (Melbourne) 9. From “Novels of the Week,” The Commercial Advertiser (New York) 10. Elia W. Peattie, “On Conrad’s Youth and Isham’s Under the Rose,” The Chicago Daily Tribune 11. George Hamlin Fitch, “On the Bookshelves,” The San Francisco Chronicle 12. Frederic Taber Cooper, “Literature, American and English,” The International Year Book 1902 (New York) 13. [Virginia Woolf], “Mr. Conrad’s Youth,” Times Literary Supplement (London) Appendix D: Autobiographical Writings by Conrad 1. From Joseph Conrad, Congo Diary (1890) 2. From Joseph Conrad, A Personal Record (1912) 3. From Joseph Conrad, “Geography and Some Explorers” (1924) Appendix E: Contemporary Accounts of the Congo 1. From George Washington Williams, An Open Letter to His Serene Majesty Leopold II, King of the Belgians and Sovereign of the Independent State of Congo (1890) 2. From Life and Letters of Samuel Norvell Lapsley, Missionary to the Congo Valley, West Africa, 1866–1892 (1893) 3. From Leopold II, “Letter from the King of the Belgians” (1898)

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“Bursting with energy and surprising locutions. . . . Even the most familiar poets seem somehow new within the context of Joy.”—David Skeel, Wall Street JournalSelected as the 2020 Yale Book Award for Eastern Massachusetts“This bold anthology provides readers with a wealth of reflection and insight on the epiphanies, large and small, that help give meaning to our lives. These poems remind us that joy is deep, and necessary.”—Kathleen Norris, author of Acedia & Me and Journey: New & Selected Poems“The force of this wonderful collection (and the wonderful introductory essay) is the recognition that joy cannot be argued away. In the centre of our human nightmares something opens and flowers, completely unreasonably, completely undeniably. That is what is celebrated here.”—Rowan Williams, theologian and poet (Cambridge)“Joy is an indispensable collection that will buoy up the darkest reader. Truly, Christian Wiman is a genius to have ranged so far (and deep!) to gather in one spot so many unforgettable poems to convince this glum bunny there’s more light than dark in our wiggly world.”—Mary Karr, author of The Liars’ Club, Lit, and Sinners Welcome“This is an original, necessary, and illuminating book: it shines a light on an often overlooked aspect of poetry, and on Wiman’s own work, too.”—Paul Elie, author of The Life You Save May Be Your Own and Reinventing Bach

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Book Synopsis'A marvellous celebration of du Maurier's life, work and cultural legacy' SARAH WATERS 'She wrote exciting plots, she was highly skilled at arousing suspense' GUARDIAN 'One of the last century's most original literary talents ' DAILY TELEGRAPH Daphne du Maurier is one of Britain's best-loved bestselling authors. Her writing captured the imagination in a way that few have been able to equal. Rebecca, her most famous novel was a huge success on first publication and brought du Maurier international fame. This enduring classic remains one of the nation's favourite books. In this celebration of Daphne du Maurier's life and achievements, today's leading writers, critics and academics discuss the novels, short stories and biographies that made her one of the most spellbinding and genre-defying authors of her generation. The film versions of her books are also explored, including Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca and The Birds and Nicholas Roeg's Don't Look Now. Featuring interviews with du Maurier's family and a long-lost short story by the author herself, this is the indispensable companion to her work.Contributors include Sarah Dunant, Sally Beauman, Margaret Forster, Antonia Fraser, Michael Holroyd, Lisa Jardine, Julie Myerson, Justine Picardie and Minette Walters.Trade ReviewShe wrote exciting plots, she was highly skilled at arousing suspense, and she was, too, a writer of fearless originality * Guardian *One of the last century's most original literary talents * Daily Telegraph *A marvellous celebration of du Maurier's life, work and cultural legacy; an indispensable guide to the writer and her art -- Sarah WatersA storyteller of cunning and genius -- Sally BeaumanNo other popular writer has so triumphantly defied classification . . . She satisfied all the questionable criteria of popular fiction, and yet satisfied the exacting requirements of "real literature", something very few novelists ever do -- Margaret ForsterA marvellous celebration of du Maurier's life, work and cultural legacy; an indispensable guide to the writer and her art * Sarah Waters *

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Book SynopsisThe Hsu-Tang Library presents authoritative and eminently readable translations of classical Chinese literature, in bilingual editions, ranging across three millennia and the entire Sinitic world.New Tales Told While Trimming the Wick by the talented scholar and poet of the Ming dynasty, Qu You (1347-1433), was the first work of fiction officially banned in China, but also the first internationally acclaimed collection of Chinese short stories. These tales often seem quite modern in their character development and plot intricacies, with characters facing ethical and moral challenges that are just as difficult to navigate today as they were over six hundred years ago. This collection is a crucial and delightful bridge between the classical tales of the Tang dynasty and Pu Songling''s famous Strange Tales from Liaozhai in the Qing. Despite being fiction filled with supernatural elements, New Tales offers fascinating insights into the life and society of China during the turbulent transition between the Yuan and Ming dynasties. Translated in full for the first time, with a contextual introduction to the stories and their author, historical and literary annotations to aid the reader, and bibliographical support, this volume introduces a collection of tales that have had a profound influence on literature across all of Asia.

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Book SynopsisSavvily combines literary themes and cross-stitch designs in [a] visually appealing collection of projects . . . delightful. Publishers WeeklyInside Book Riot''s Lit Stitch, you'll find a number of badass, bookish cross-stitch patterns to let you show off your love of all things literary. Some are for bookmarks, others are for wall decor, and still others can take on a whole host of finished outcomes. What they have in common is their literary bentthe patterns speak to all manner of literary-minded book lovers, who are happy to display their nerdier sides. And what better way than through your own cross-stitch art to hang on your wall, prop on your desk, or even gift to friends and family?Most if not all are beginner-friendly and can be completed in a few hoursinstant stitchification! So grab yourself some excellent embroidery floss, hoops, and needles, and pick out one or more of these great cross-stitch patterns for your next project.

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Book SynopsisOne of the BBC''s ''100 Novels That Shaped Our World''HarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics.It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.'Elizabeth Bennet, full of vivacity and wit, lives a quiet country existence with her four sisters. To the delight of their mother, determined to find her daughters suitable matches, the eligible Mr Darcy and Mr Bingley arrive in the neighbourhood, bringing with them dancing, wealth and opportunity. Unimpressed at first by Darcy's haughty air, Elizabeth vows to have nothing to do with him. But as she makes her own errors of judgement, the pair begin to understand each other, and come to realise that first impressions are not always as they seem.Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen's best-loved tale of marriage and society in Georgian England, continues to delight modern readers with its social comedy, well-drawn characters and subtle nuances.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book Synopsis''The moment I got my job at Virago in 1978 I knew it would be a long time before I would leave. I certainly wouldn''t have had the brazen hope then-only twenty-five and very recently new to Britain-that I would ever become the Publisher, but I did know that I had found my home: where books, ideas, politics, imagination, feminism, and business was the air we breathed . . .''A Bite of the Apple is part-memoir, part history of Virago, and part thoughts on over forty years of feminist publishing. This is the story of how the authors and staff who, driven by passion, conviction and excitement, have made Virago Press one of the most important and influential English-language publishers in the world. Lennie Goodings has been with the iconic press founded by Carmen Callil almost since the start. First a publicist and then for over twenty years, publisher and editor, she has worked with extraordinary authors: Margaret Atwood, Marilynne Robinson, Sarah Waters, Linda Grant, Natasha Walter, Naomi Wolf and Maya Angelou among many others.Virago has been a life-changer for Lennie Goodings - but certainly not only for her. Following the chronology of the press and the enormous breadth of the Virago titles published over these years, she sets her story in the context of feminism, and segues into thoughts on editing, post-feminism, reading, breaking boundaries, and the Virago Modern Classics. Virago lives within the tension between idealism and pragmatism; between sisterhood and celebrity; between watching feminism wax and wane at the same time as knowing so many of the battles are still to be won. This book is about how it felt to be there.A Bite of the Apple is a celebration of writing, of publishing, and of reading.Trade ReviewAn immersive, lovingly written memoir, whose story resonates beyond publishing. * Johanna Thomas-Corr, The Sunday Times *An inspiring book. * Sarah Baxter, The Sunday Times *Pensive and surprisingly poignant...this book glows with the gratitude of doing [the work of an editor], and in doing so, finding oneself occupying a front seat to feminist history...It's a memoir that doesn't merely look backward, but in its form, in all its limitations, gestures at the work to be done. It's a memoir of a Virago reader. * Parul Sehgal, New York Times *Moving and hugely inspiring ... As a cultural history, A Bite of the Apple is clear. As a reminder of female artists' ongoing fight for space and respect, it's necessary. As a riff on writers and writing, it's essential. * Bidisha, The Observer *What Goodings is so good at drawing out are the interrelations between various social and political movements and their correlatives in publishing and literature. Not only does she recover Virago's story, but she loops in the narratives of various authors and movements, building up a rich and textured historical fabric ... An inspiring, entertaining and insightful read, full of the energy and fervour of hard-won wisdom. * Seán Hewitt, The Irish Times *This history has it all: boardroom wrangles, bestsellers, legendary authors ... fascinating stuff on the complex alchemy of talent, political fashion and marketability that propels certain authors forward at certain times, and the loving effort and attention involved in editing a manuscript. * Melissa Benn, New Statesman *What runs through A Bite of the Apple, unifying it and contributing to its charm, is the passion for books you'd expect, but also an impressive idealism about the ways in which the published word can change society and help readers to become the people they want to be. * Mark Bostridge, The Spectator *This little book is as candid and charming as its cover ... One of the most interesting chapters relates to the craft closest to editor Goodings' heart, the craft of editing and the complex relationship between editor and author. * Jane Hailé, New York Journal of Books *[Goodings'] thoughts on the great industry issues of the day are well worth reading. * DJ Taylor, Literary Review *A Bite of the Apple feels effortless, and so alive to the conversations about women's rights today ... [Goodings'] voice is engaging and full of warmth. * Julie Vuong, BookBrunch *Goodings' account of her life at the inkface vividly, and with immediacy, transports us from those poky London rooms where the mouse that roared was born, into the realpolitik of international publishing. * The Sydney Morning Herald *Consistently fascinating ... a book that shows how Virago transformed the world. * Colin Oehring, The Saturday Paper *Fascinating and beautifully written. * Dan Carrier, Camden New Journal *Informative, lively, reflective, and somehow a poignant mix of honest, generous, and forgiving. * Simon, Shiny New Books *All an apple should be: crisp, tart but sweet, steeped in mysterious history and tangled symbolism, and not a bad missile when it comes to alleyway combat. Oh, and delicious! * Margaret Atwood *There is so very much to enjoy -and learn about- in this engaging book. We meet a young Lennie from Canada, in love with books, who lands a job at Virago and over the years survives and steers many of its changes to ensure its safety and vibrancy. Along the way, we track the changes in the publishing industry, feminist practice, and encounter the magnificence of Virago authors. A wonderful memoir and such a great read. * Susie Orbach *An indispensable piece of feminist history; nothing less than the exciting story of how women found their voice and made society listen. I enjoyed it hugely. * Caroline Criado Perez *Lively, frank, fascinating and above all, inspiring. A celebration of boldness: of wanting something better and making change happen. * Sarah Waters *Behind every great book there is a great editor. And behind every feminist press, a remarkable set of women. Lennie Goodings is one of both. * Sarah Dunant *A fascinating, charming and sometimes fierce, but always beguiling memoir... A celebration of the power of women supporting women. * Kate Mosse *Enthralling ...the best book I've read on publishing since Diana Athill's Stet. * Caroline Sanderson, The Bookseller *Table of ContentsPreface Part One: A New Kind of Being 1: First Bites: The early years 2: Setting the world on fire 3: The acceptable face of feminism? Why not! Part Two: The Books 4: The Virago Modern Classics 5: Fuck the Patriarchy!: Nonfiction 6: What Stories Can Do: Fiction Part Three: The Politics: office and otherwise 7: The Dramas 8: Disrupting the old stories 9: Beyond Borders 10: Up, Down and Up Again Part Four: The Power to Publish is a Wonderful Thing 11: The Intimacy of Editing 12: Does any other successful publisher get asked constantly if they are still necessary? 13: Why can't a man read like a woman? 14: Giving and taking courage

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Book SynopsisIn this Very Short Introduction, Peter Hainsworth and David Robey consider Italian literature from the Middle Ages to the present day, looking at themes and issues which have recurred throughout its history and continue to be of importance today. Examining themes such as regional identities, political disunity, and the role of the national language, they also cover a wide range of authors and works, including Dante, Petrarch, Manzoni, Montale, and Calvino. They explore some of the distinctive traditions of the literature, such as its liking for theorizing its own position, its concern with politics, and its secular orientation in spite of the Catholic beliefs and practices of the Italian people. Concluding by looking at the ways in which Italian literature has changed over the last thirty years, they examine the influence of women''s writing in Italian, and acknowledge the belated recognition of its importance. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Table of ContentsPreface ; Introduction ; 1. History ; 2. Tradition ; 3. Theory ; 4. Politics ; 5. Secularism ; 6. Women

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Book SynopsisA pathbreaking genealogy of queer theory that traces its roots to an unexpected source: sociological research on marginal communities in the era before Stonewall.Trade Review“What might we learn about queer studies by exploring its intellectual debts to midcentury social scientists’ interest in underdogs, underworlds, and the dynamics of stigma? Heather Love’s provocative and defamiliarizing analysis asks us to see queer studies—its limitations and its transformational possibilities—anew. A critical intellectual history, teeming with ideas and unlikely engagements.” * Regina Kunzel, Yale University *“Underdogs is a well-crafted, subtle, and beautifully written foray into the worlds of mid-twentieth century social science by a humanities scholar who uncovers, in the fine details of descriptive empirical research, the largely unrecognized precursors of today’s queer studies. With keen focus, Love reveals new possibilities for scholarly, ethical, and political commitments to the defense of outcasts and outsiders. Love makes an impassioned claim that humanists and social scientists need one another—and need to set aside the tenacious methodological dogmas that keep them apart.” * Steven Epstein, Northwestern University *“Underdogs clarifies how the social science of deviance, like the queer theory that superseded it, depended on the figure of the outsider. Love asks queer theory to take social science methodologies, especially ‘underdog methods,’ seriously. At their best, these methods promise to keep queer theory open to surprise and alert to the potentialities of everyday life.” * Elizabeth Freeman, University of California, Davis *"Heather Love’s Underdogs: Social Deviance and Queer Theory (University of Chicago Press) is an intervention into the field of queer studies. But it is also an important work of intellectual history, tracing a surprising new genealogy that locates the origins of 1990s ‘queer theory’ not in literary studies, but in mid-20th-century empirical social research. It will appeal to readers invested in the nascent effort to historicise queer studies, but also to those interested in the history of the social sciences." * History Today *"Underdogs seeks to rethink Queer Theory's ideological contributions through an excavation of the field's unacknowledged predecessors in the postwar social sciences. . . . [Love's] lucid prose and well-grounded interpretations make Underdogs a book that should interest readers who are immersed in Queer Theory and those who are not at all." * Gay & Lesbian Review *"Underdogs presents a thorough argument for queer theorists to understand the way their problematic forebearers have left indelible marks on the field. . . . Underdogs presents a careful, close reading of deviance studies, and invites theorists and scholars to reconsider their intellectual heritage." * LSE Review of Books *"This book concisely addresses the modern queer movement as Love challenges readers to critically consider that holding on to what is most valuable in queer critique may mean letting go of what is not... Highly recommended." * Choice *"This book has important implications for social work and social work education." * Affilia: Feminist Inquiry in Social Work *"Underdogs is a meticulously researched study of postwar social scientific writing and its founding influence on queer studies. Its focus on method provides a potentially productive way to bring questions of politics and ethics back into a field that has lost much of its social and theoretical momentum since the late 1990s. Moreover, the sustained critique of the liberal humanist claim to integral subjectivity forms a timely intervention at the current moment, when younger generations increasingly appear invested in the type of sexual and gender identitarianism that both postwar social science and queer theory, in however diverging ways, have so persistently been trying to overhaul. For this reason alone, Underdogs is a powerful and important achievement." * American Literary History Online *"Underdogs offers a thoughtful and clear analysis. . . a first step in recognizing and untangling queer ideals for a more complete intellectual history on queer thought." * American Journal of Sociology *Table of ContentsPreface Introduction: Beginning with Stigma 1 The Stigma Archive 2 Just Watching 3 A Sociological Periplum 4 Doing Being Deviant Afterword: The Politics of Stigma Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Lest these familiar Foucauldian themes leave readers feeling there is nothing new here, Judith Revel’s nuanced, judicious introduction highlights 'four differences' in apparent contrast to Foucault as he has been received." * Choice *“Reverberations from the forceful impact of Foucault’s thought were first felt by Anglophone readers in the mid-1960s almost entirely through his writings on madness and literature. This new volume gathers several previously unpublished or untranslated texts from this decade on these very themes. Readers will be delighted to revisit or perhaps even indulge for the very first time those ideas and analyses with which Foucault forever shook the future of philosophy." -- Colin Koopman, University of Oregon“The essays collected in this book are as urgent today as they were fifty years ago: provocative, generative, and timely. Each is a bridge connecting Foucault’s histories of the modern subject to different fields of inquiry, from literature to structuralism to the philosophy of J. L. Austin. Anyone interested in literary theory, early modern history, or continental philosophy and its relation to the analytic tradition will find these essays by turns revelatory and inspiring.” -- Richard Neer, University of ChicagoTable of ContentsA Note on the Text Introduction by Judith Revel Lectures and Writings on Madness, Language, and Literature 1. Madness and Civilization 2. Madness and Civilization (Presentation Given at the Club Tahar Haddad, Tunis, April 1967) 3. Madness and Society 4. Literature and Madness (Madness in Baroque Theater and the Theater of Artaud) 5. Literature and Madness (Madness in the Work of Raymond Roussel) 6. Phenomenological Experience: Experience in Bataille 7. The New Methods of Literary Analysis 8. Literary Analysis 9. Structuralism and Literary Analysis (Presentation Given at the Club Tahar Haddad, Tunis, February 4, 1967) 10. [The Extralinguistic and Literature] 11. Literary Analysis and Structuralism 12. Bouvard and Pécuchet: The Two Temptations 13. The Search for the Absolute Notes Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“In Professing Criticism, [Guillory] takes on an even bigger question: What is literary criticism—specifically, the kind of highly specialized, theoretically sophisticated textual readings generated by academic critics—really for?" -- Jennifer Schuessler * The New York Times *"Professing Criticism is a sociology of criticism, an argument about how, during the twentieth century, the practice evolved from a wide-ranging amateur pursuit, requiring no specialist training or qualifications, into a profession and a discipline housed within the academy. . . . The profession of literary study as it is currently institutionalized in the university may not be the place from which the journey toward a future criticism begins. To sit alongside Guillory on his high perch, or maybe a branch or two higher, is not to dream of the past or to mourn the present. It is to scan new horizons for the second coming of the critic." -- Merve Emre * The New Yorker *"The most penetrating, and in some ways most original, study we have of the forces that have shaped the history of literary study, especially in the US. . . . Professing Criticism does not fit any familiar category: it is the work of an original intelligence taking seriously the various responsibilities involved in trying to understand how the present state of literary study emerged out of its history." -- Stefan Collini * London Review of Books *"For those of us who value not only literature but the idiosyncratic legacy of academic literary studies, Guillory does not bring good or welcome news. Of course, that doesn’t mean he’s wrong." -- Evan Kindley * New York Review of Books *"[Guillory’s] goal is to understand how the practice of criticism, which flourished in the journalism of the 19th century, became a university discipline. . . . The questions Guillory poses have a long history but a new urgency before what seems like a precipice: Will literary studies continue as a professional activity, and if so, in what form? And might professionalism itself inhibit the changes that need to happen in the field?" -- Nicholas Dames * The Nation *"Three decades ago, Guillory’s influential Cultural Capital attacked the whole premise of the canon wars. The combatants assumed that it mattered meaningfully for creation of an inclusive social world what people read in literature classrooms. They mistook or substituted the exclusionary classroom for a possibly inclusive social world. These arguments are revisited and deepened in Professing Criticism, which warns against examining 'the school' in isolation from the total world." -- Sarah Brouillette * Public Books *"Professing Criticism will set the terms of discussion about the English department for a long time. But it will resonate outwards, too — historians of the humanities writ large will find in this book enormous resources, though they will need to be translated carefully from one disciplinary setting to others." * The Chronicle of Higher Education *“If there is a more thoughtful, penetrating, insightful, trenchant, acerbic, scathing or original analysis of a scholarly discipline than John Guillory’s Professing Criticism, I have yet to see it. Partly a history and in part a sociology of English as a profession, Professing Criticism is an extraordinary book, truly a landmark work of scholarship and interpretation.” * Inside Higher Ed *“Professing Criticism offers a brilliantly exacting, politically confronting analysis of why the study of literature is unlike other disciplines of the university and what its distinctive history means for its ability to serve a clear social purpose today. Fearless in his account of how and why we practitioners of criticism so often misplace and exaggerate our contributions to political life, Guillory defines the terms for the conversations we need to be having now: conversations about the scope and purposes of criticism in a public sphere where literature is no longer central; about the relation of print to unrestricted digital media platforms; about the diversity of the demand for writing today and our role in teaching it; and about the forms of knowledge we can offer a society in which interpretation of texts is a specialist way of making sense of the world.” * Helen Small, University of Oxford *“Professing Criticism is the distillation of a lifetime’s quest by one of our most deeply learned, searching, and principled literary scholars to understand literary studies in its long history of changing extrinsic relations with society, internal tectonic shifts as a discipline, and current structural diminishment. Guillory’s grand argument about literary studies as part of the sociology of knowledge is sweeping, and his analyses of the perennial confusions about the objects and modes of literary criticism are acute. ‘These conditions must be acknowledged if the professoriate is ever to overcome its tendency to construct literary study as something more than it can be and less than it should be,’ he writes—a sentence that captures the poised essence of his challenge to, yet affirmation of, literary study as a diminished, but not therefore to be relinquished, discipline.” * Alan Liu, University of California, Santa Barbara *"Professing Criticism is ambitious and impressively learned, an extraordinarily deep and illuminating immersion in the history and sociology of professionalism, European literature, and critical theory." -- Michael Stern * The American Prospect *"Professing Criticism offers a rigorous assessment of the major tendencies in contemporary literary studies and a strong argument for the continuing relevance of English in the 21st-century university." * Literary Review *"John Guillory's Professing Criticism is in every way an admirable book. It is deeply learned, sharp in its observations, unquestionably sincere in its effort to rehabilitate and reorganize the study of literature, and above all correct: literary study has indeed lost sight of its original, underlying purpose, has become too dispersed in its curricular organization, and has become helplessly caught in the shifting winds of every new and passing critical trend that comes along." * The Reading Experience *"John Guillory has written a thoughtful and wide-ranging book in which he refuses to let the aura of crisis prompt him to blame literary colleagues who abandoned some supposedly perfect approach to chase critical fashions, or on students allegedly concerned only to prepare for lucrative professions." * Critical Inquiry *"An exhaustive and careful history of the institutional study of literature that contextualizes its roots from ancient Greece to the modern American multiversity." * Law & Liberty *"Professing Criticism is a thorough and complex work of scholarship. It’s also a bracing call for literary scholars to significantly reform how they think about their profession and its relationship to their students and the reading public in general. At its core is a challenge that is simultaneously reasonable and radical: professors of literary study must be more modest in their aims and promises to suit the realities of their field in the twenty-first century." * Public Discourse *"Professing Criticism is so comprehensive an analysis of the field of criticism that it even contains an argument in defense of scholarly projects that are thirty years (or thereabouts) in the making. This is a book that aspires to see the profession of literary study steadily and see it whole: from the origins of academic literary study to the 'method wars' of the past two decades, from the difficulties besetting the evaluation of scholarship in the humanities to the collapse of the academic job market and the consequences of that collapse for graduate programs, from the place of composition in English departments to the rise of global English, Professing Criticism has an argument for you." -- Michael Bérubé * Cultural Critique *"It deserves to be read and pondered by everyone teaching in departments of English and modern languages." -- Ritchie Robertson * Modern Language Review *"A very knowledgeable and incisive analysis of the state of literary studies today." * Australian Book Review *"One of the most brilliant recent accounts of our subject. . . Guillory’s reading of the reciprocity of document and monument is genuinely illuminating and important when it comes to literary research." * Modern Philology *"John Guillory has produced a virtuoso display of what scholarship at its most honest, self-aware best can accomplish." * College Literature *Table of ContentsPreface Part One: The Formation and Deformation of Literary Study Chapter 1 Institution of Professions Chapter 2 Professing Criticism Chapter 3 Critique of Critical Criticism Part Two: Organizing Literature: Foundations, Antecedents, Consequences Chapter 4 Monuments and Documents: On the Object of Study in the Humanities Chapter 5 The Postrhetorical Condition Chapter 6 Two Failed Disciplines: Belles Lettres and Philology Chapter 7 The Location of Literature Chapter 8 The Contradictions of Global English Part Three: Professionalization and Its Discontents Chapter 9 On the Permanent Crisis of Graduate Education Chapter 10 Evaluating Scholarship in the Humanities Chapter 11 Composition and the Demand for Writing Chapter 12 The Question of Lay Reading Conclusion: Ratio Studiorum Acknowledgments Index

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Book SynopsisRegina M. Janes proposes a new theory of the origins of the hereafter. Drawing on a variety of religious traditions and contemporary literature and film as well as cognitive science and evolutionary psychology, Inventing Afterlives shows that in asking what happens after we die we define the worlds we inhabit and the values by which we live.Trade ReviewThis engaging and thought-provoking book has a capacious range that includes those who believe there is no afterlife and spans time from the ancient Greeks and Egyptians to our current scientific, psychological, and religious thinking about what we imagine—or hope—happens after death. -- Paula R. Backscheider, Philpott Stevens Eminent Scholar, Auburn UniversityRegina Janes has written a brilliant, inquisitive, polymath essay to explain why the afterlife required inventing and what the results may show about the diversity and consistency of human nature. For adventurous wit on a forbidding terrain, this book has no precedent and will allow no imitator. -- David Bromwich, Yale UniversityInventing Afterlives is an intensively researched and brilliant book. The question of what humans have made of the afterlife is fascinating and Janes, who knows more about this subject than any scholar living (or, dare I say it, dead), has achieved something like completeness in her survey of the material. -- Blakey Vermeule, Stanford UniversityRegina Janes’ Inventing Afterlives is a breezy but well-informed romp through the ages as cultures from those of primitive humans to those of the digital age do what the title of this manuscript states, invent afterlives, telling their members what to expect, or, as in our own age, telling them what cannot happen even if the space or site of the afterlife gives writers a perfect setting to stage righteous justice or cynical evasion. -- Daniel T. O'Hara, Temple UniversityThere is no doubt that Janes’ book will be of interest to scholars of religion, particularly those who focus on the areas of death and immortality studies, religion and literature, and religion and popular culture since it contains a cache of literary and cinematic references. -- Cynthia A. Hogan * Reading Religion *This book, which travels time and disciplines, cannot be ignored. Scholars and students of sociology, anthropology, religion, and cultural history will find Inventing Afterlives particularly useful for developing new approaches to conceptualizing and interrogating beliefs in the hereafter. Janes’s study strips away theological and anachronistic understandings about belief in life after death, leaving us with a productive framework with which to question the validity of both our own assumptions about the afterlife and those of other scholars. -- Camille Grace Leon Angelo * Religious Theory *Table of ContentsPreface 1. Concerning the Present State of Life After Death 2. Impermanent Eternities: Egypt, Sumer and Babylon, Ancient Israel, Greece, and Rome3. Touring Asian Afterlives: Eternal Impermanence4. Pursuing Happiness: How the Enlightenment Invented an Afterlife to Wish For5. Wandâfuru Raifu or Afterlife Inventions and VariationsNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisA fascinating journey into the life of H.G. Wells, from one of Britain''s best biographersHow did the first forty years of H. G. Wells'' life shape the father of science fiction?From his impoverished childhood in a working-class English family, to his determination to educate himself at any cost, to the serious ill health that dominated his twenties and thirties, his complicated marriages, and love affair with socialism, the first forty years of H. G. Wells'' extraordinary life would set him on a path to become one of the world''s most influential writers. The sudden success of The Time Machine and The War of The Worlds transformed his life and catapulted him to international fame; he became the writer who most inspired Orwell and countless others, and predicted men walking on the moon seventy years before it happened.In this remarkable, empathetic biography, Claire Tomalin paints a fascinating portrait of a man like no other, drivTrade ReviewYou put down Tomalin's book knowing you have met a living author * The Times *Richly informative... Tomalin admits that, although she set out to write about the young Wells, she has followed him into his forties because she found him 'too interesting to leave'. The same can be said of her book * Sunday Times *

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Book SynopsisAn exploration of historical memory and networks of meaning in the context of today’s crises of extremism and polarization.As authoritarianism continues to rise around the world, the stories we tell ourselves about what has happened and what is happening become ever more relevant. In Memory, Edited, Abby Smith Rumsey examines collective memory, how it binds us, and how it can be used by bad actors to manipulate us. Bringing forward the voices of a rich cast of Eastern European artists from the past two hundred years—from Fyodor Dostoevsky to Gerhard Richter—Rumsey shows how their work and lives illustrate the devastation wrought by regimes dependent on entrenched lies to survive. This hijacking of the narrative polarizes communities even as it commandeers our future.Through an interdisciplinary lens that includes the best thinking from history, the arts, cognitive science, psychology, and political philosophy, Rumsey lays bare our na

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisA lively intellectual history that explores how prominent midcentury public intellectuals approached Zionism and then the State of Israel itself and its conflicts with the Arab worldTrade Review“Original. . . . Interesting. . . . Important. . . . Urgent.”—J. J. Goldberg, New York Times Book Review“Linfield explores her theme through the writing of a galaxy of intellectuals.”—David Feldman, Financial Times“The book is a brilliant, intellectual, sociological exploration of eight popular, prolific thinkers and writers.”—Harold Goldmeier, American ThinkerNamed one of two Fall 2019 Natan Notable Books, sponsored by The Jewish Book Council “The Lions’ Den is a brilliantly incisive commentary on eight intellectuals who wrote about the Israel/Palestine conflict. Susie Linfield is herself the ninth intellectual in this book, with a strong and persuasive position of her own.”—Michael Walzer, author of A Foreign Policy for the Left“You don’t have to be enthralled by the Left, Judaism, or Zionism to enjoy this riveting book. Wherever you stand on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this is a must for devotees of fascinating, intriguing, exhilarating, and exciting debates.”—Hussein Agha, coauthor of A Framework for a Palestinian National Security Doctrine“Why have some of the brightest minds in the American and European Left been unable to understand Jewish nationalism? The Lions’ Den is a fascinating, uniquely incisive inquiry into the limits of the intellectual Left as it tries to deal with the harsh realities of our world.”—Zeev Sternhell, author of The Founding Myths of Israel: Nationalism, Socialism, and the Making of the Jewish State“How has the stormy yet often devoted marriage of the Left and Zionism devolved into a minefield of acrimonious disputes? Susie Linfield approaches this polarizing subject with her customary brilliant vision and generous spirit. An original and essential contribution.”—Ruth Franklin, author of A Thousand Darknesses: Lies and Truth in Holocaust Fiction“The Lions’ Den is an exemplary intellectual history that comes to grips with both the tragedy of Zionism and the way in which anti-Zionism became a touchstone for the global Left. It is scrupulous, unflinching, lucid, timely, and morally serious.”—Todd Gitlin, author of The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage

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