Carti in categoria Literature & Biography

A definitive work...explains clearly and succinctly concepts and theories at the heart of European and American philosophy. - Brenda AlmondWhat do philosophers mean by absolute and akrasia? What are Polish notation and prime matter? What contributions to human thought were made by Plato, Machiavelli, Kant and Derrida? These questions and many more are answered by this illuminating dictionary, which draws on contributions from over 100 leading philosophers.

The Penguin Dictionary of Economics explains a host of economic terms, from acceleration principle to venture capital, Euro to X-efficiency, globalisation to zero-sum game. The eighth edition has been fully revised and updated to include those terms that have become so familiar since the global recession begun (quantitative easing and sub-prime among them), but whose meanings escape most of us. Wide-ranging and accessible, this detailed practical and international guide will be indispensable for...

An exploration of the ideas, groupings and the social tensions that shaped the transformation of life caused by the changes of modernity in art, science, politics and philosophy

Ethan Allen Hawley has lost the acquisitive spirit of his wealthy and enterprising forebears, a long line of proud New England sea captains and Pilgrims. Scarred by failure, Ethan works as a grocery clerk in a store his family once owned. But his wife is restless and his teenage children troubled and hungry for the material comforts he cannot provide. Then a series of unusual events reignites Ethans ambition, and he is pitched on to a bold course, where all scruples are put aside. Steinbecks sea...

In addition to his celebrated childrens books such as James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl wrote short fiction for adult audiences, and the tales collected in Someone Like You are dark, witty morsels of intrigue and suspense from a master storyteller. This Penguin Modern Classics edition is published with a foreword by Dom Joly.These eighteen tales of the macabre show Dahls dark brilliance as a short story writer. They are wicked (as an old man attracts the...

Saki is perhaps the most graceful spokesman for Englands Golden Afternoon - the slow and peaceful years before the First World War. Although, like so many of his generation, he died tragically young, in action on the Western Front, his reputation as a writer continued to grow long after his death. The stories are humorous, satiric, supernatural, and macabre, highly individual, full of eccentric wit and unconventional situations. With his great gift as a social satirist of his contemporaryupper-c...

The first book in his award-winning Rabbit series, John Updikes Rabbit, Run contains an afterword by the author in Penguin Modern Classics.Its 1959 and Harry Rabbit Angstrom, one time high school sports superstar, is going nowhere. At twenty-six he is trapped in a second-rate existence - stuck with a fragile, alcoholic wife, a house full of overflowing ashtrays and discarded glasses, a young son and a futile job. With no way to fix things, he resolves to flee from his family and his home in Penn...

From a Modernist/Postmodernist perspective, this addresses questions of literary and cultural nationalism. The authors reveal that since the seventeenth century, American writing has reflected the political and historical climate of its time and helped define Americas cultural and social parameters.Aboe all they argue that American literature has always been essentially modern, illustrating this with a broad range of texts: from Poe and Melville to fitzgerald and Proud, to Wallace and Stevens, G...

This is the definitive collection of short stories by Saul Bellow. Abundant, precise, various, rich and exuberant, the stories display the stylistic and emotional brilliance which characterizes this master of prose. Some stories recount the events of a single day, some are contained in a wider frame; each story is a characteristic combination of observation and a celebration of humanity.

A daring work of experimental, Modernist genius, James Joyces Finnegans Wake is one of the greatest literary achievements of the twentieth century, and the crowning glory of Joyces life. The Penguin Modern Classics edition of includes an introduction by Seamus Deaneriverrun, past Eve and Adams, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and EnvironsJoyces final work, Finnegans Wake is his masterpiece of the night as Ulysses is of the...

I think it A Work of genius, I think it The Work of a Genius John CheeverFor many years, the great poet Von Humboldt Fleisher and Charlie Citrine, a young man inflamed with a love for literature, were the best of friends. At the time of his death, however, Humboldt is a failure, and Charlies life has reached a low point: his career is at a standstill, and hes enmeshed in an acrimonious divorce, infatuated with a highly unsuitable young woman and involved with a neurotic mafioso. And then Humbold...

In 1914 Karen Blixen arrived in Kenya with her husband to run a coffee farm. Instantly drawn to the land, she spent her happiest years there until the plantation failed. Karen Blixen was forced to return to Denmark in 1931 and it was there that she wrote this classic account of her experiences. A poignant farewell to her beloved farm, Out of Africa describes her strong friendships with the people of her area, her affection for the landscape and animals, and great love for the adventurer Denys Fi...

My literary hero is John Dos Passos - Adam Curtis (filmmaker) A modernist masterpiece, capturing ... the fragmented lives it sketches, in a dazzling kaleidoscope of New York City in the 1920s Christopher Hudson, Evening StandardDos Passos has invented only one thing, an art of story-telling. But that is enough to create a universe Jean-Paul SartreThe best modern book about New YorkD.H. LawrenceA modernist masterwork that has more in common with films than traditional novels, John Dos Passos Manh...

A brilliantly and preposterously funny book GuardianA flawless comic novel ... I loved it then, as I do now. It has always made me laugh out loud Helen Dunmore, The TimesJim Dixon has accidentally fallen into a job at one of Britains new red brick universities. A moderately successful future in the History Department beckons - as long as Jim can stave off the unwelcome advances of fellow lecturer Margaret, survive a madrigal-singing weekend at Professor Welchs, deliver a lecture on Merrie Englan...

Saul Bellows Herzog is part confessional, part exorcism, and a wholly unique achievement in postmodern fiction. Is Moses Herzog losing his mind? His formidable wife Madeleine has left him for his best friend, and Herzog is left alone with his whirling thoughts - yet he still sees himself as a survivor, raging against private disasters and the myriad catastrophes of the modern age. In a crumbling house which he shares with rats, his head buzzing with ideas, he writes frantic, unsent letters to fr...

One of the BBCs 100 Novels That Shaped Our WorldRhys took one of the works of genius of the 19th Century and turned it inside-out to create one of the works of genius of the 20th Century Michele RobertsJean Rhyss masterpiece tells the story of Jane Eyres madwoman in the attic, Bertha Rochester.Born into the oppressive, colonialist society of 1930s Jamaica, white Creole heiress Antoinette Cosway meets a young Englishman who is drawn to her innocent beauty and sensuality. After their marriage, how...

One of the twentieth centurys great undisputed masterpieces, Malcolm Lowrys Under the Volcano includes an introduction by Michael Schmidt in Penguin Modern Classics.It is the fiesta Day of the Dead in the small Mexican town of Quauhnahuac. In the shadow of the volcano, ragged children beg coins to buy skulls made of chocolate, ugly pariah dogs roam the streets and Geoffrey Firmin - ex-consul, ex-husband, an alcoholic and a ruined man - is living out the last day of his life. Drowning himself in ...

A modernist novel of supreme stylistic innovation, James Joyces Ulysses is the towering achievement of twentieth century literature. This Penguin Modern Classics edition includes an introduction by Declan Kiberd. For Joyce, literature is the eternal affirmation of the spirit of man. Written between 1914 and 1921, Ulysses has survived bowdlerization, legal action and bitter controversy. Capturing a single day in the life of Dubliner Leopold Bloom, his friends Buck Mulligan and Stephen Dedalus, hi...

A pioneering work of modernist fiction, using her unique stream-of-consciousness technique to explore the inner lives of her characters, Virginia Woolfs To the Lighthouse is widely regarded as one of the greatest artistic achievements of the twentieth century. This Penguin Classics edition is edited by Stella McNichol, with an introduction and notes by Hermione Lee.To the Lighthouse is at once a vivid impressionistic depiction of a family holiday, and a meditation on marriage, on parenthood and ...

One of the BBCs 100 Novels That Shaped Our WorldA worldwide bestseller and the first part of Achebes African Trilogy, Things Fall Apart is the compelling story of one mans battle to protect his community against the forces of changeOkonkwo is the greatest wrestler and warrior alive, and his fame spreads throughout West Africa like a bush-fire in the harmattan. But when he accidentally kills a clansman, things begin to fall apart. Then Okonkwo returns from exile to find missionaries and colonial ...