Publisher: Notting Hill Editions
This selection of essays by Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) demonstrate the varied power of his genius. Compiled from his lecture tours, newspaper articles, essays and epigrams, these writings show that beneath his trademark wit and love of paradox, Oscar Wilde was an original and remarkably modern writer.
Warren Hastings is Chapter IV of Thomas Macaulay's Critical and Historical Essays, vol. III. It first appeared in the Edinburgh Review of October 1841 as a review of Memoirs of the Life of Warren Hastings, first Governor-General of Bengal. Compiled from Original Papers, by the Rev. G. R. Gleig, M. A. 3 vols. 8vo. London: 1841.This essay on is generally considered to be one of the finest by the great historian and great literary stylist, Thomas Babington Macalay. Macaulay himself served in India from 1834 to 1838, and as a Whig and a believer in progress in the nineteenth century sense, he urged that Indians be trained in useful knowledge -- western, that is, and particularly British learning, easily dismissing traditional Indian education as of no value. Though he is well aware of Hastings’s flaws, he nevertheless greatly admires him as one of the creators of Britain’s Asian empire. Today’s critics, of course, can easily dismiss both men as “Orientalists” (to use Edwin Said’s terminology) but they both remain essential to an understanding of nineteenth century British history and culture.( Nicholas Clifford)Show book
Rough Trade Book of the YearResident Book of the YearA Rolling Stone Book of the YearA Mojo Book of the YearA Sunday Times Book of the YearFormed in 1988, Lush were part of the London gig scene during one of the most vibrant and creative periods in UK music. Now, Miki Berenyi tells all.From the bohemian ways of her father's social circle to the privileged glamour of her mother's acting career, Miki's young life was a blur of travel, celebrities and peripatetic schooling. But frequent relocation, parental neglect and the dark presence of her abusive grandmother resulted in crippling shyness, mental-health issues and a vulnerability to exploitation.The route out of this hole was music - a passion shared by schoolmate Emma Anderson. The teenagers began attending gigs together and would ultimately go on to form Lush. Talented and exuberant, the band became hot property, swiftly transitioning from shoegaze icons to Britpop darlings.Re-living the tours, recording sessions and music-industry madness they experienced along the way, this uncompromising memoir documents Lush's thrilling rise and untimely fall. Yet at the heart of the book are Miki's own battles: the conflict between her mouthy public persona and her thin-skinned private identity; the trials of being a woman in an infuriatingly male world; the struggle to find a middle ground between 'safe' indie obscurity and 'sell-out' international success. Miki also explores her complicated relationship with Emma - one that has fluctuated between camaraderie and rivalry over the years - and addresses the devastating tragedy that led to the band's split.Told through frank confession, wry humour and searing emotional honesty, this is the incredible tale of a trailblazing woman and a seminal band.Show book
Tolkien For Beginners will introduce the reader to the multilayered depth and breadth of Tolkien’s tales of Middle-earth, what critics, following Tolkien’s lead, refer to collectively as his legendarium. J.R.R. Tolkien sweeps us away to a distant time and place that is at the same time, our own time and place. He takes us to a world where difficult choices must be made and are made, where character is defined by those choices, and where redemption is possible though not always embraced. The Lord of the Rings taps a deep root in the human psyche. There is much death, destruction, and defeat in Tolkien’s world, but there is even more friendship, courage, and hope. What one remembers when one finishes reading The Lord of the Rings is not the vice of the villains, as strong and as well drawn as it is, but the virtue that empowers the heroes to resist it, even at the cost of their own lives. It will be the goal of Tolkien For Beginners to introduce the reader to the multilayered depth and breadth of Tolkien’s tales of Middle-earth. To do justice to the full dimensions of that legendarium, author Louis Markos will speak in two voices: that of the storyteller who loves the stories he tells and that of the critic who seeks to identify and explicate key themes from those stories. In his telling and analysis, he will treat the legendarium both as a collection of secondary-world myths with their own integrity and as a reflection of Tolkien’s Catholic worldview.Show book
In this early work from Fyodor Dostoevsky, the role and domain of the anti-hero is explored and exposed. In his self-appointed removal from society, the narrator attempts to dissect the complicated rules, both spoken and unspoken, of human interactions as well as the driving force and reason behind individual morality and universal truths. He descends into a chaos of contradictions as he attempts to prove his own superiority and understanding of morality while simultaneously revealing his intense self-loathing and hatred for society as a whole. While describing this distaste for the society he has removed himself from, it is also clear that he obsesses over and longs to rejoin this culture he has ruined for himself. This work is a detailed and intellectual exploration of free will vs. determinism, moral ambiguity, existentialism, and a complicated but honest assessment of one’s own soul. To overcome truth and ascend humanity, Dostoevsky’s narrator must face an attempt to rationalize the endless contradictions of life, self, and society. This series, published by ONE audiobooks, seeks to produce Classic titles read by well known and loved audiobook narrators. ONE takes great care to cast these titles with readers who will provide an unmatched listening experience for these important works. Simon Bubb brings his passion to every performance and is considered to be one of the top audiobook narrators in the industry.Show book
One of America's foremost civil engineers of the past 150 years, John Frank Stevens was a railway reconnaissance and location engineer whose reputation was made on the Canadian Pacific and Great Northern lines. Self-taught and driven by a bulldog tenacity of purpose, he was hired by Theodore Roosevelt as chief engineer of the Panama Canal, creating a technical achievement far ahead of its time. Stevens also served for more than five years as the head of the US Advisory Commission of Railway Experts to Russia and as a consultant who contributed to many engineering feats, including the control of the Mississippi River after the disastrous floods of 1927 and construction of the Boulder (Hoover) Dam. Drawing on Stevens's surviving personal papers and materials from projects with which he was associated, Clifford Foust offers an illuminating look into the life of an accomplished civil engineer.Show book
Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports from Kenya, where private capital is being used to help install toilets and sanitation facilities in the country's poorest areas.Show book
