Search results for ""alma""

Grubb, the young apprentice at Alistair Grim's Odditorium (a flying house of mechanical wonders) finds himself on the run, as all of London is convinced that Alistair Grim is a villain. Grim, however, has come up with a plan to defeat the real villain: the evil Prince Nightshade, who wants the Odditorium's power source for himself. Desperate to clear their master's name and save the world, Grubb and the rest of the Odditorium's crew set off on a perilous underwater adventure to the mythical realm of Avalon. The object of their quest? The legendary sword Excalibur, the only blade powerful enough to pierce Prince Nightshade's suit of magical armour. Along the way, Grubb and his friends must confront a murderous banshee, sea monsters, and a witch with a grudge against Alistair Grim. But that's not all, and Grubb soon learns that their fate was written long ago in an Avalonian prophecy that not even Alistair Grim could have predicted.

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It is late August 1939: Britain is on the brink of war, and preparations are under way to evacuate London’s children to the countryside. When twelve-year-old Tilly and her best friend Rosy find out that they will not be able to take their beloved dog and cat with them – and that, even worse, their pets will, along with countless other animals, be taken to the vet to be put down – they decide to take action. The two girls come up with the idea of hiding them in a derelict hut in the woods and, when other children find out and start bringing their rabbits, guinea pigs and hamsters, their secret den turns into an emergency zoo. Inspired by real events during the Second World War, Miriam Halahmy’s novel is a touching tale of courage, resourcefulness and camaraderie in desperate times, as well as a stirring defence of animal welfare.

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Phaedrus - a character familiar to readers of 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' - is sailing down the Hudson River when he meets Lila Blewitt, an unapologetically sexual, psychologically unstable woman whom a mutual friend warns him against. But Phaedrus is drawn to her physically, and interested in her intellectually, finding her a culture of one in whom he discerns an unexpected Quality. Sailing with him to Manhattan, where her mental state deteriorates further, Lila promps Phaedrus to explore conflicts of values, such as those between Native Americans and Europeans, or between the insane and the normal.

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"This collection brings together the four plays that feature Ionesco’s everyman protagonist Jean Bérenger. In ‘The Killer’, he comes across a “radiant city”, an ideal civilization which is being terrorized by a killer, whom he tries to help apprehend. In ‘Rhinoceros’, he is the only person in a provincial town who is not affected by a condition that turns its victims into the eponymous horned beast. In ‘Exit the King’, he is the powerful King Bérenger the First, who refuses to accept that he is dying. And in ‘A Stroll in the Air’ he acquires the capacity of flight and sees another world lying beyond the clouds. While each play in the Bérenger cycle is unique, they are all prime examples of Ionesco’s conception of the theatre of the absurd, and touch on themes that preoccupied the author throughout his career, such as mortality, alienation, freedom and the evils of Fascism. This volume constitutes a perfect introduction to one of the twentieth century’s most original and influential playwrights."

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First published in 1963 and representing Burroughs’s literary breakthrough in the UK, Dead Fingers Talk is, in the words of Burroughs scholar Oliver Harris, “a prophetic work of haunting power”, and is perhaps the most commercial and accessible of his works. Combining new material with selections from Naked Lunch and his cut-up novels The Soft Machine and The Ticket That Exploded, the book is also a fascinating precursor to remix and mash-up forms in art and music, which owe much to Burroughs’s influence. This newly edited edition of Dead Fingers Talk, based on the restored text of the novel, will delight all Burroughs fans and lovers of experimental literature, and offer a new insight into the artistic process of one of the most original and influential writers of the twentieth century.

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London’s criminal underworld has risen once again, and a dangerous individual with an air gun is prowling the streets. The capital is in greater need of its protector Sherlock Holmes than ever. Three years have passed since Holmes and the evil mastermind Professor Moriarty fell, locked in combat, into the Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland, and when Doctor Watson collides with an odd-looking old book collector in the street, little does he know that the world’s greatest detective is about to return… Third volume in the Alma Classics Sherlock Holmes stories, this edition contains extra material for young readers, including a profile of the author, a section on the book, a list of characters, a glossary and a test-yourself quiz.

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Part of the Overture Opera Guides series in association with English National Opera, this new edition of Carmen contains new illustrations, many revised and newly commissioned articles, updated reference sections and a literal translation of the libretto that will enable the reader to get closer to the intentions and meaning of the original.

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A glorious exercise in cheeky punmanship, The Wonderful Wonder of Wonders sees Jonathan Swift in fine scatological form. Flying by the seat of his pants, the great author treats us to a condensed biography of his posterior, enlivened by some inspired wordplay. Most famous for his celebrated masterpiece, Gulliver’s Travels, Swift was the foremost satirist of his day. Also including a selection of Swift’s other lesser-known works, and a very peculiar proposal to make money from public toilets, this volume will be a hilarious and illuminating read for any fans of Ireland’s most illustrious wit.

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Growing up in a poor New York neighbourhood, Cedric Errol appears to be a normal American boy. However, as he discovers when he meets his grandfather, the Earl of Dorincourt, he is actually Lord Fauntleroy, and is expected to become an English gentleman. Whisked away from his mother and his friends, Cedric must find a way to convince his grandfather to send him home and show him that there is more to nobility than titles and wealth. First published in 1886, Little Lord Fauntleroy was Frances Hodgson Burnett's first children's novel, and was hugely popular in its day. It contains many of the themes that would recur in her masterpiece The Secret Garden, and remains a witty and charming tale of a transatlantic clash of cultures.

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Set against the chequered background of Rome, the city of the six Ps – Pope, priests, princes, prostitutes, parasites and the poor – Belli’s sometimes scandalous sonnets deal with life’s elementals: love, death, sex, food, money, family, religion and politics. In his immense oeuvre, sampled here in a sizeable and varied selection of the best poems, people from every course and manner of life have their say – housewives, mothers, beggars, lovers, businessmen, popes, whores, doctors, thieves, lawyers, priests, pen-pushers, actresses, gossips and many more. Their voices and preoccupations are brilliantly and accurately rendered in this dual-language volume by prize-winning novelist and poet Mike Stocks, one of the finest sonneteers of our day.

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Four sailors discover a copper cylinder containing a manuscript written by the adventurer Adam More, who was shipwrecked in the southern hemisphere. They read its contents out to one another, and the incredible story unfolds of his journey to a lost world which survives at the foot of a volcano. This strange utopian society, in which humans coexist with prehistoric animals, is the antithesis of Victorian England, as poverty is preferred to wealth and darkness to light. At once a timeless satire and a pioneering work of science fiction, A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder will enthral readers of today and revive James De Mille’s reputation as a writer ahead of his time.

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"Finding the young Angélique on their doorstep one Christmas Eve, the pious Hubert couple decide to bring her up as their own. As the girl grows up in the vicinity of the town’s towering cathedral and learns her parents’ trade of embroidery, she becomes increasingly fascinated by the lives of the saints, a passion fuelled by her reading of the Golden Legend and other mystical Christian writings. One day love, in the shape of Felicien Hautecoeur, enters the dream world she has constructed around herself, bringing about upheaval and distress. Although it provides a detailed portrait of provincial nineteenth-century life and adheres to a naturalist approach, The Dream eschews many of the characteristics of Zola’s other novels of the Rougon-Macquart cycle – such as a pronounced polemical agenda or a gritty subject matter – offering instead a timeless, lyrical tale of love and innocence."

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Dante’s best friend and a major exponent of the dolce stil novo, Guido Cavalcanti has had a lasting influence upon Italian poetry and is best known to English readers through the essays, translations and adaptations of Ezra Pound. Born from the cultural ferment of thirteenth- century Florence, Cavalcanti’s poetry is an extraordinary blend of unorthodox philosophy, sharp psychological insight and dazzling formal mastery. Anthony Mortimer, acclaimed for his versions of Petrarch and Michelangelo, provides a new verse translation complete with notes, critical comment and biographical material: following in the footsteps of Rossetti and Pound, he presents a Cavalcanti who speaks for his own time and to ours.

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Growing up in London in the aftermath of the Second World War, Ruth is an observant and thoughtful child who finds herself in a confusing and mysterious adult world. She seeks refuge in her memories of her idyllic stays with her grandparents in the picturesque East Anglian countryside – which provide comforting visions of a simpler life. As she comes to terms with her surroundings and her own adolescence, Ruth finds the motivation to pursue the tantalizing dream which has governed her childhood, and discovers some family secrets along the way. A coming-of-age novel about the unpredictable nature of human behaviour and about taking control of one’s destiny, Silent Music is a timeless portrait of post-war Britain, as well as a lyrical paean to hope and aspiration.

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“Publish and be damned”, Wellington’s famous adage, runs like a leitmotiv through John Calder’s memoirs. He has been damned by a censorious press, by politicians, by other publishers and by organs of the state for publishing books on sensitive issues. Damned also for publishing such authors as Henry Miller, William Burroughs, Alexander Trocchi and Hubert Selby Jr, as well as for bringing to public notice the abuses of the armies and security forces of colonial countries. He took on American authors who could not be published in the United States during the McCarthy witch-hunt. He exposed the atrocities of the Algerian and other African wars, and produced many books on British political, social and moral issues, which only a totally independent publisher could have done. Born into the most conservative of establishment families, John Calder has always gone his own way – seeking out literary genius and creating a greater awareness of the world we inhabit. His publishing programme contained a large proportion of the leading writers of the twentieth century, including Samuel Beckett, Eugène Ionesco, Luigi Pirandello, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Marguerite Duras, Heinrich Böll and such British authors as Howard Barker, Edward Bond, Steven Berkoff and Ann Quin. Anecdotes abound in these memoirs about Bertrand Russell, Alger Hiss, Graham Greene, J.B. Priestley, Jo Grimond and dozens of others whom the author encountered in his activities, both within and outside of publishing. This book is too outspoken to make many friends, but it will open eyes and upset apple carts. Never a saint, Calder is as frank about his own failings as of those of others.

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As war reporter Martin Crowther arrives in Umbria, still raw from a recent assignment in Africa and from a failing love affair back home, a storm hits and the sky opens. Things are powerfully on the move inside him too as he comes to the small village of Fontanalba, on a mission to track down two friends from a lifetime ago. Adam and Marina are the estranged children of his mentor, Hal Brigshaw, who is nearing the end of a turbulent life and wants to summon them home. But there are good reasons for their self-imposed exile – not all of them are understood, and not all are in the past. An air of secrecy also surrounds preparations for an event at Fontanalba in which Adam and Marina have an extraordinary role to play. As Martin waits, trapped between duty and desire, he is both intrigued and dismayed by his dealings with a close-knit community who seem bent on protecting their own – and on shaking the ground of Martin’s life.

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Dreamerika!, Alan Burns’s fourth novel, first published in 1972, provides a satirical look at the Kennedy political dynasty, serving up an idiosyncratic hotch-potch of history that gives an old tragedy new meaning. For this book, Burns collected newspaper clippings, headlines, cartoons and photographs, cut them up, filed them and then interspersed them throughout his text to create a collage of contrasting effects. Presented in a fragmented form that reflects society’s disintegration, Dreamerika! fuses fact and dream, resulting in a surreal biography, an alternate history which lays bare the corruption and excesses of capitalism just as the heady idealism of the 1960s has begun to fade.

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Puccini’s La bohème is one of the most beloved and enduring operas of all time. In this guide, William Ashbrook evaluates the opera’s initial reception, the reasons for its wide appeal and Verdi’s influence on the composition. Nicholas John discusses the tortuous evolution of the libretto over the course of three and a half years and gives a synopsis, outlining the main themes of La bohème. Edward Greenfield presents an essay on the musical structure and consistency of the opera, whose ‘very accessibility tends to obscure the musical genius behind the score’. Finally, Joanna Richardson surveys the Bohemians in Paris portrayed by Henry Murger, whose stories formed the basis for Puccini’s work. This edition has over twenty photographs, a detailed thematic analysis and the original libretto with a facing literal translation by William Weaver. It also has an up-to-date bibliography, discography, DVD and website details. The guide is essential reading for anyone interested in the background to this opera, its themes and composition.

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Hungary's political and cultural ferment at the start of the twentieth century produced geniuses such as the literary critic Gyorgy Lukacs, the writer (and later film theorist) Bela Balazs and the composer Bela Bartok. Their determination to participate in contemporary Western art movements was coupled with an enthusiasm for the folk traditions of a disappearing world. This guide introduces Bartok's stage works, where these influences merge: the opera Duke Bluebeard's Castle, and the ballets The Wooden Prince and The Miraculous Mandarin. Composer Julian Grant describes the score for Duke Bluebeard's Castle, a symbolist version of the Bluebird myth. Included in this volume are also the ballet scenarios which originally caught his imagination, and discussions of the choreographic potential and musical qualities of the scores; Ferenc Bonis indicates the increasing appeal for Bartok of the natural world, against the cataclysm of the First World War. Just as they make a powerful triple bill in performance, a comparative study of these works gives an insight into the issues of sexuality, humanity and artistic creativity which they raise.

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Verdi came to Shakespeare through Italian translation and had never seen Macbeth on stage when he wrote his first version of the opera in 1847. Giorgio Melchiori draws a parallel between the conditions in which the playwright and the composer were working and compares their achievements. The supernatural was a vital element in both conceptions: the opera is “in the fantastic style”, with bizarre music for the witches’ dances and choruses. Theatre historian Michael Booth vividly introduces the staging of Shakespeare in the nineteenth century. Harold Powers discusses how the dramatic situations lent themselves to the forms and purposes of Italian opera. Contents: ‘Macbeth’: Shakespeare to Verdi, Giorgio Melchiori; Making ‘Macbeth’ ‘Musicabile’, Harold Powers; ‘Macbeth’ and the Nineteenth-Century Theatre, Michael R. Booth; A Note on Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’, August Wilhelm Schlegel; The Preface in the Ricordi Libretto; Piave’s Intended Preface for the 1847 Libretto; Macbeth: Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave (1865); Macbeth: English translation by Jeremy Sams

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This tender, lyrical and passionate story of unrequited love holds a special place in Russian hearts. Tatyana’s letter scene and the Polonaise are two much loved glories of the score; each act is tightly constructed around an antithesis of public and private scenes, and the dances are integral to the drama. The essence of both opera and poem is yearning, whether the artist’s quest for his muse, or the lover for the beloved. Both poet and composer are true, in different ways, to this theme. The essays included in this guide explore the subtle and unexpected relationship between the words and music in Tchaikovsky’s intimate ‘Lyrical Scenes after Pushkin’. Contents: Pushkin into Tchaikovsky: Caustic Novel, Sentimental Opera, Caryl Emerson; Tchaikovsky’s ‘Eugene Onegin’, Roland John Wiley; An Appreciation of ‘Eugene Onegin’, Natalia Challis; Eugene Onegin: Libretto by Konstantin Shilovsky and Pyotr Tchaikovsky; Eugene Onegin: English translation by David Lloyd-Jones

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Written in 1927, Arabella is a portrait – partly romanticized, partly factual – of Habsburg Vienna in the 1860s. It is also a celebration of the profound importance of courage and the ability to forgive in love. Our sympathies are not only drawn to Arabella, who waits for “the right man” to come, but to her younger sister, who breaks with conventional morality in the cause of her love. This opera is a moving testament to Hugo von Hofmannsthal, who died before it was completed, and it remains one of the best-loved products of his twenty-five- year collaboration with Strauss. Contents: The Edge of the Cliff, Michael Ratcliffe; A Musical Synopsis, William Mann; A Profound Simplicity, Patrick J. Smith; Hofmannsthal’s Last Libretto, Karen Forsyth; Arabella: Libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal; Arabella: English translation by John Gutman

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This is a double volume dedicated to two masterpieces by Benjamin Britten. While Peter Grimes established Britten as a composer of international standing, Gloriana, composed for the coronation of Elizabeth II, has never enjoyed a comparable fame. The variety of mood, characterization and pace, in each, illustrates Britten’s exceptional gift for theatre. Commentaries on the scores reveal, for instance, how much the popular concert extracts gain from their context in the dramas. The essay by E.M. Forster – the inspiration for Peter Grimes – is reprinted here, and Michael Holroyd discusses Lytton Strachey’s controversial Elizabeth and Essex – the source for Gloriana. Contents: Benjamin Britten’s Librettos, Peter Porter; George Crabbe: The Poet and the Man, E.M. Forster; ‘Peter Grimes’: A Musical Commentary, Stephen Walsh; Peter Grimes: Libretto by Montagu Slater; ‘Peter Grimes’ and ‘Gloriana’, Joan Cross, Peter Pears and John Evans; Some Reflections on the Operas of Benjamin Britten, Buxton Orr; ‘A daring experiment’, Michael Holroyd; The Librettist of ‘Gloriana’, Rupert Hart-Davis; The Music of ‘Gloriana’, Christopher Palmer; Notes on the Libretto of ‘Gloriana’, William Plomer; Gloriana: Libretto by William Plomer

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In this guide to Verdi’s popular opera, Marcello Conati of the Institute for Verdi Studies points out that, although audiences have always adored it, critics are only now coming to see that it represents a step forward, not back, from the revolutionary drama of Rigoletto, completed a year before. Professor D.R.B. Kimbell, an expert on Verdi’s music, clarifies the story and takes us through the score, while Professor Donald Shaw examines the unusual symbolism of the Spanish Romantic movement. Il Trovatore can be approached just as a theatrical experience, but these essays give brief and valuable insights into the type of drama it is, and the way it works. Contents: ‘Higher than the highest’, Marcello Conati; ‘Il trovatore’: Music and Drama, D.R.B. Kimbell; Antonio García Gutiérrez’s ‘El trovador’, Donald Shaw; Il trovatore: Libretto by Salvatore Cammarano; Il trovatore: English translation by Tom Hammond

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'A Landmark in Musical History' is John Luke Rose's title for the introduction to this extraordinary piece of theatre. It belongs to the German tradition of mystical writing, and a short note on the poem itself by Martin Swales and Timothy McFarland elucidates some of Wagner's literary techniques. Anthony Negus, who assisted Reginald Goodall on the WNO production of Tristan and Isolde, has contributed a penetrating analysis of the musical structure of the opera, while Patrick Carnegy assesses the remarkable solutions to staging an opera which some argue is best experienced with your back to the performers.

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Frida Leider, the greatest Wagnerian soprano of the pre-war period, has a permanent place in operatic history. In this, her own memoirs, Leider recreates the fascinating operatic world of her day, and recounts her association with Bruno Walter, Wilhelm Furtwangler, Lauritz Melchior, Lotte Lehmann, Maria Jeritza, Elisabeth Schumann, Erich Kleiber, as well as many other great musical figures of the twentieth century. Leider’s story embraces her entire career from her childhood in Berlin at the turn of the century, through her apprentice years in the provincial German opera houses, to her years of international triumph when she was acclaimed at Covent Garden, Bayreuth, the Berlin State Opera and the Metropolitan Opera. Her account of musical life in Nazi Germany adds yet another dimension to an autoEdition Biography which, by virtue of its charm and warmth, is already far removed from more conventional operatic memoirs.

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Richard Wagner has fascinated every generation of opera-lovers for over a century, and a mass of literature has interpreted and reinterpreted not only his character, but also the components of the great music dramas that are still some of the most captivating and complex operas in the international repertory today. In this excellent study, Garten examines the cultural and historical sources of these operas: the myths and legends that Wagner employed, in which much of his works’ interest, other than the purely musical, can be found. Garten’s study also shows how legends of the old Nordic gods, the troubadours and Minnesingers, the quest for the grail, as well as stories taken from folklore and history, were transformed into the theatrical mythology of Wagner’s music dramas.

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Jane Tressider has never been afraid of speaking her mind, even if she admits that she may have occasionally given offence by doing so. But as a busy mother of nine children, she cannot let such a small foible get in the way of her job, which is to keep her feckless husband on his toes while ensuring the perfect management not just of her own household but also of that of her married daughters and sons. Since mothers-in-law have always been misunderstood and no one has ever taken up their side of the argument properly, Jane is determined to set the record straight and plead the cause of the most maligned race on the face of the earth. The result is a hilarious comedy of manners and a gentle satire of Edwardian mores and attitudes.

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Having learnt that a new railway in India has made it theoretically possible to travel all the way around the globe in no more than eighty days, Phileas Fogg, a wealthy and fastidious London gentleman, makes a wager of 20,000 with his Reform Club associates that he can achieve this hitherto unheard-of feat, and, accompanied by his French valet Jean Passepartout, boards a train for Dover the very same evening. Pursued on their epic journey by a Scotland Yard policeman who has mistaken Fogg for a bank robber, the intrepid voyagers face a race against time as they traverse a range of exotic and sometimes hazardous landscapes and make use of any and every mode of transport available to them including elephants in order to achieve their goal.A huge commercial success on first publication in 1872, Jules Verne's classic adventure story has been adapted numerous times for the stage and the screen, as well as inspiring many real-life adventurers who have sought to emulate Fogg's audacious ody

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On a boat in the Thames estuary, Marlow tells his travelling companions of his reconnaissance expedition for a Belgian trading company to its most remote outpost in central Africa, which brought him on the trail of the elusive Kurtz, a brilliant idealist gone rogue. His account relates not only the perils he encounters on his quest, but also the deterioration of his state of mind as he is confronted with a world that is hostile and alien to him. Renowned for its stylistic boldness and dramatic descriptions, Heart of Darkness is a stark yet subtle examination of the powers of the subconscious and the workings of western imperialism.

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Set in a Central Europe rapidly fragmenting after the fall of Communism, "Men in Space" follows a cast of dissolute Bohemians, political refugees, football referees, deaf police agents, assassins and stranded astronauts as they chase a stolen icon painting from Sofia to Prague and beyond. The icon's melancholy orbit is reflected in the various characters' ellipses and near misses as they career vertiginously through all kinds of space: physical, political, emotional and metaphysical. What emerges is a vision a world in a state of disintegration.

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On a train from Paris to Rome on his way to surprise his lover, the businessman Leon Delmont begins to mull over his past and question the decisions he has made about his future. These musings - together with his impressions of the unfolding scenery, conjectures about his fellow passengers and some recurring leitmotifs - form the basis of a riveting narrative that provides a psychological case study of an everyman and subtly illustrates the onset of the protagonist's doubts and fears. Published in 1957 and awarded the prestigious Prix Renaudot, Michel Butor's groundbreaking third novel remains the most popular and widely read work of the nouveau roman genre. Famously written in the second person in order to immerse the reader more fully into the psyche of the main character, Changing Track pulls off the rare feat of being at once experimental and accessible, disquieting and engrossing.

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Based on a true story, The Jew''s Beech centres on two brutal murders in rural Westphalia the first of a local forester and the second of a Jewish moneylender near a beech tree and the impact these events have on the life of Friedrich Mergel, a local herdsman with a turbulent family history.A prototype of the murder mystery and a thoughtful examination of village society, this intriguing novella contains hints of the Gothic and the uncanny ominous thunderstorms, mysterious disappearances, eerie doppelgängers and grisly discoveries in the depths of the forest as well as a famously ambiguous climax.

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Martin Arrowsmith, a young medical student at the University of Winnemac, is driven by a sincere passion and a desire to make a positive contribution to the world. But events get in the way, and a series of personal vicissitudes, love interests and societal pressures threaten to lead him away from the path of pure science until he is forced, in the face of a humanitarian crisis, to decide between scientific rigour and compassion, between maintaining his medical principles and saving lives.First published in 1925 to great critical acclaim, Arrowsmith is the third major novel by Sinclair Lewis, author of Main Street and Babbitt, and arguably his most ambitious work. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1926 which the author famously declined it contributed to Lewis''s growing reputation as a master storyteller, social commentator and the unsurpassed satirist of his time.

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Part of the Overture Opera Guides series in association with English National Opera, this new edition of Eugene Onegin contains new illustrations, many revised and newly commissioned articles, updated reference sections and a literal translation of the libretto that will enable the reader to get closer to the intentions and meaning of the original.

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Written in 1727, The Art of Sinking in Poetry was one of Alexander Pope’s contributions to the literary output of the legendary Scriblerus club – a circle of writers dedicated to mocking what they perceived as a culture of mediocrity and false learning prevalent in the arts and sciences of their day. Taking the form of an ironic guide to writing bad verse, Pope’s tongue-in-cheek essay is wickedly funny in its lampooning of various pompous poetasters, as well as being essential reading for any budding writer wishing to avoid sinking to the unintentionally ridiculous, and instead reach for the sublime.

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The civil servant Ivan Matveich and his wife Yelena Ivanovna are spectators of an exhibition – in a shopping arcade – of a crocodile owned by a German, when Ivan is suddenly swallowed alive by the animal. Unsuccessful in his attempts to be freed from his prison, due to the German’s concern for his crocodile and excessive desire for compensation, the civil servant gradually comes to appreciate his new environment, while his wife begins to enjoy her new-found freedom. Inspired by Gogol’s surreal tales, Dostoevsky’s hilarious story has been interpreted by some as a vitriolic piece of social criticism and a veiled attack on the revolutionary philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky.

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Tosca, one of Puccini’s greatest and most popular operas, is a supreme example of music’s power to enthral the audience. In his introductory essay to this guide, Bernard Williams discusses the enduring quality of its appeal. Bernard Keeffe, in his article, analyses different aspects of the score, noting Puccini’s special genius for orchestration and the subtle effects that give the opera its irresistible vitality, while Stuart Woolf’s survey of the historical background reveals its political and nationalistic undertones. Enriched by twenty-five archive photographs, a detailed thematic analysis, the original libretto with the facing literal translation and a section containing up-to-date discographical and bibliographical information, this guide will prove an invaluable companion for opera-goers and anyone wanting to delve deeper into the genesis, history and significance of Puccini’s work.

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Hadji Murat, one of the most feared and venerated mountain chiefs in the Caucasian struggle against the Russians, defects from the Muslim rebels after feuding with his ruling imam, Shamil. Hoping to protect his family, he joins the Russians, who accept him but never put their trust in him – and so Murat must find another way to end the struggle. Tolstoy knew as he was writing this, his last work of fiction, that it would not be published in his lifetime, and so gave an uncompromising portrayal of the Russians’ faults and the nature of the rebels’ struggle. In the process, he shows a mastery of style and an understanding of Chechnya that still carries great resonance today.

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This evocative account of the life of the Renaissance’s greatest figure traces Leonardo’s early development as an artist and court figure to his final years in exile, portraying his loves and sufferings, as well as his intellectual curiosity and tireless loyalty to his ideals. But it is the background to his famous painting La Gioconda and his relationship with the mysterious Florentine woman who modelled for it that are at the heart of the novel – here presented for the first time in an unabridged translation. The result is an engrossing and unforgettable read. An unjustly forgotten masterpiece of Russian literature that inspired one of Freud’s most important essays, Leonardo da Vinci also offers an illuminating snapshot of the society of the period – beset with intrigue and religious and social tension – and a host of memorable historical figures such as Michelangelo, Raphael, Machiavelli, Savonarola and the infamous Borgias.

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Amman, Jordan. As an ambitious digitization project gathers pace in a vast building outside Amman, some unpublished writings by Giordano Bruno – flawed genius of the late Renaissance, renegade philosopher, occultist with a prodigious memory – disappear together with the Jesuit priest sent by the Vatican to study them. When the priest is found dead and a series of mysterious threats ensues, it becomes clear that the stakes are high for all the parties openly or covertly involved. What dangerous ideas were contained in the stolen manuscript? What was the ultimate secret that Bruno tried to hide, even as he was persecuted, imprisoned and tortured by the Holy Inquisition? In this riveting, meticulously researched new novel, Alessandro Gallenzi draws on his experience as a publisher in the digital era and casts a light on the darker side of our modern technological world, while revealing how a well-kept secret can change the course of history for ever.

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Published for the first time in 1972, this verse collection reveals lesser-known facets of the novelist Alexander Trocchi’s writing. The poems included span a long period of time, and range from the lyricism of his early love poetry and reflections on his involvement in drug culture to the penetrating comments on contemporary figures and events of his later pieces. Trocchi’s language is strong, rich and frankly obscene, and his arguments are both witty and profound. Featuring an introduction by William S. Burroughs and a new preface by John Calder, Man at Leisure forms a notable addition to the published work of one of the finest Scottish writers of the twentieth century.

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Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra exists in two versions: that of the 1857 original and that of the 1881 revision. The texts of the libretto of both versions are included in this guide, with a number of essays which focus on the differences between the two. Rodolfo Celleti provides the story’s historical context, setting the events of the real life of Simon Boccanegra against the unification of Italy, which formed the political backdrop to the composition of both versions of Verdi’s opera. James A. Hepokoski gives a detailed synopsis of the 1881 score, and indicates the ways in which Verdi radically revised the original and reworked it to fit his late style. Lastly, Desmond Shawe-Taylor discusses Verdi’s attitude to his singers, and the critical reception that performances of both versions of the opera received. This edition contains over twenty illustrations, a thematic guide and the texts of the libretti in the original with literal translations. There is also a bibilography, discography and DVD guide, together with a list of websites that will allow the reader to explore the opera further. Contents: An Historical Perspective, Rodolfo Celletti; An Introduction to the 1881 Score, James Hepokoski; Verdi and his Singers, Desmond Shawe-Taylor; Simon Boccanegra: Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave with additions by Giuseppe Montanelli and additions and alterations by Arrigo Boito; Simon Boccanegra: English translation by James Fenton

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