Айрис Мёрдок3.9 «Черный принц» вошел в золотой фонд мировой литературы (а также в шортлист Букеровской премии) и создал Айрис Мердок славу самой «английской» писательницы XX века. «Черный принц» — это вершина психологической прозы автора; это своеобразный, замкнутый внутри себя мир, существующий по своим собственным законам, мир, одновременно логичный и причудливый, реалистичный — и в чем-то ирреальный Любовь и предательство, цинизм и порядочность — эти взаимоисключающие понятия характеризуют большинство героев книги. Итак, Брэдли Пирсон, стареющий писатель, переживает творческий кризис. Окруженный требующими постоянного внимания и заботы родственниками, терзаемый бывшей женой, он пытается найти утешение в любви к молоденькой девушке, дочери друга. Эта любовь, обреченная с самого начала, неминуемо ведет к катастрофе.
Робин Лейн Фокс4.5 From award-winning historian Robin Lane Fox, Alexander the Great searches through the mass of conflicting evidence and legend to focus on Alexander as a man of his own time.
Tough, resolute, fearless, Alexander was a born warrior and ruler of passionate ambition who understood the intense adventure of conquest and of the unknown. When he died in 323 BC aged thirty-two, his vast empire comprised more than two million square miles, spanning from Greece to India.
His achievements were unparalleled - he had excelled as leader to his men, founded eighteen new cities and stamped the face of Greek culture on the ancient East. The myth he created is as potent today as it was in the ancient world.
Combining historical scholarship and acute psychological insight, Alexander the Great brings this colossal figure vividly to life.
'So enjoyable and well-written ... Fox's book became my main guide through Alexander's amazing story'
Oliver Stone, director of Alexander
'I do not know which to admire most, his vast erudition or his imaginative grasp of so remote and complicated a period and such a complex personality'
Cyril Connolly, Sunday Times
'An achievement of Alexandrian proportions'
New Statesman
Robin Lane Fox was the main historical advisor to Oliver Stone on his film Alexander, and took part in many of its most dramatic re-enactments. His books include The Classical World: An Epic History of Greece and Rome, The Unauthorised Version: Truth and Fiction in the Bible, Travelling Heroes: Greeks and their Myths in the Epic Age of Homer and Pagans and Christians in the Mediterranean World from the Second Century AD to the Conversion of Constantine.
Джон Бёрджер3.2 Дж. – молодой авантюрист, в которого словно переселилась душа его соотечественника, великого соблазнителя Джакомо Казановы. Дж. участвует в бурных событиях начала ХХ века – от итальянских мятежей до первого перелета через Альпы, от Англо-бурской войны до Первой мировой. Но единственное, что его по-настоящему волнует, – это женщины. Он умеет очаровать женщин разных сословий и национальностей, разного возраста и положения, свободных и замужних, блестящих светских дам и простушек. Но как ему удается так легко покорять их? И кто он – холодный обольститель и погубитель или же своеобразное воплощение самого духа Любви?..
Квентин Белл5.0 The first full-scale biography of the eminent British writer, written by her nephew. Index; photographs.
About the Author
Quentin Claudian Stephen Bell (19 August 1910 in London – 16 December 1996 in Sussex) was an English art historian and author.
Bell was the son of Clive Bell and Vanessa Bell née Stephen, and the nephew of Virginia Woolf née Stephen. He was educated in London and at the Quaker Leighton Park School.
Principally an artist, as a potter, he was drawn to academia. Bell's biography of his famous aunt, Virginia Woolf: A biography, 2 vols (London: Hogarth Press, 1972), won not only the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, but also the Duff Cooper Prize and the Yorkshire Post Book of the Year Award. He also wrote several books on the Bloomsbury Group and Charleston Farmhouse.
He later became a lecturer in Art History at the Department of Fine Art, King's College, University of Durham from 1952 to 1959, then professor at Leeds University. In 1964 he was appointed Slade professor of fine art at Oxford University and, in 1965, Ferens professor of fine art at Hull University. He was a professor of art history and theory at the University of Sussex from 1967 to 1975.
He was married to (Anne) Olivier Bell née Popham. They had three children: Julian Bell, an artist and muralist; Cressida Bell, a notable textile designer; and Virginia Bell, the writer of Among the Bohemians and Singled Out.
His older brother was the poet Julian Heward Bell who died in the Spanish Civil War in 1939, aged 29. The writer Angelica Garnett is his half-sister.
Quentin Bell is buried in the churchyard of St. Peter's Church, West Firle, East Sussex.
Nadine Gordimer0.0 James Bray, an English colonial administrator who was expelled from a central African nation for siding with its black nationalist leaders, is invited back ten years later to join in the country's independence celebrations. As he witnesses the factionalism and violence that erupt as revolutionary ideals are subverted by ambition and greed, Bray is once again forced to choose sides, a choice that becomes both his triumph and his undoing.
Джаспер Ридли0.0 Lord Palmerston was one of the most successful of all British politicians. Linking the world of the Regency with the middle of Queen Victoria's reign, he was made Secretary at War in 1809 at the age of twenty-five, and held the post for nineteen years. From 1830 to 1841 he was Foreign Secretary. At first he was regarded as weak and ineffectual, a 'Lord Cupid' who was more active in love affairs than in diplomacy; but before the end of his term of office he had raised English prestige in Europe to a record height. Without any special following in Parliament, he became the most popular statesman in the country, because of his vigorous defence of the rights Englishmen abroad.He played a crucial part in the creation of Belgium, saved Portugal and Spain from complete tyranny, rescued Turkey from Russia and saved the route to India from France. He was again Foreign Secretary from 1846-51, when he was in effect dismissed by Queen Victoria after undertaking to show her his foreign dispatches and then manifestly failing to do so. He would probably have averted the Crimean War if he had been Foreign Secretary at the time; and in 1855, at the age of seventy, he finally became Prime Minister, because the public believed he was the only man who could win the war. With a break of sixteen months, he was Prime Minister until he died in 1865.Palmerston was not greatly concerned with morality. His policy, first, last and all the time, was to protect and strengthen British interests, not least by a policy of brinkmanship that preserved the international balance of power and thus made British nineteenth-century prosperity possible.His personal energy and vitality were phenomenal-at the age of seventy-nine he rode from Piccadilly to Harrow in fifty-five minutes-and his treatment of his fellow men and women, from the humblest clerk in the Foreign Office to Metternich, Napoleon III and Queen Victoria, was consistently robust.
Elizabeth Bowen3.5 Eva Trout, Elizabeth Bowen’s last novel, epitomizes her bold exploration of the territory between the comedy of manners and cutting social commentary.
Orphaned at a young age, Eva has found a home of sorts in Worcestershire with her former schoolteacher, Iseult Arbles, and Iseult's husband, Eric. From a safe distance in London, her legal guardian, Constantine, assumes that all's well. But Eva's flighty, romantic nature hasn't entirely clicked with the Arbles household, and Eva is plotting to escape. When she sets out to hock her Jaguar and disappear without a trace, she unwittingly leaves a paper trail for her various custodians–and all kinds of trouble–to follow.
Antonia Fraser5.0 She was the quintessentially regal: statuesque, beautiful. Birth gave her claim to two nations' thrones. Her marriage to the young French dauphin promised a 3rd. Instead, Mary Stuart became victim of her impulsive heart, scandalizing her world with foolish passion leading to abduction, rape & murder. Betrayed by those she trusted, she'd be lured into a power struggle, only to lose to her envious, unforgiving cousin, Elizabeth I. This is the story of a queen who lost a throne for love, pampered & adored even as she was to be beheaded.
As enumerated in an "Author's Note", Fraser aims (1) to test the truth of legends surrounding the subject & (2) to set Queen Mary in the context of the age in which she lived. Her portrait is largely sympathetic. Tho she stresses what she sees as Mary's virtues, she believes that Scotland at the time required an extraordinarily strong ruler to pull the nobles into line.
The book dismantles legends about Mary arising during & after her lifetime. Fraser recounts the circumstances surrounding the plot to murder the Queen's 2nd husband Darnley in detail. At the York Conference, the Regent Moray produced the Casket Letters, presented as love letters from Mary to her 3rd husband, Bothwell, with whom she had allegedly plotted to kill Darnley. After rigorous research, Fraser concludes that they were forgeries, an amalgamation of real letters that Mary wrote & love letters written to Bothwell by one of his mistresses.
Маргарет Дрэббл3.7 Всеми силами Клара Моэм, героиня романа "Мой золотой Иерусалим", пытается вырваться из удушающей атмосферы родного городка, серой и скучной. Бегство не спасает. Только встреча с семьей Денэмов, где все талантливы и очаровательны, где все любят друг друга и умеют наслаждаться жизнью, открывает для Клары новый, искрящийся мир вокруг. Но как стать частью этого мира, как почувствовать себя живой, как отыскать свой собственный "золотой Иерусалим"?
Эйдан Хиггинс0.0 An eminently poetic book, Langrishe, Go Down (Higgins's first novel) traces the fall of the Langrishes--a once wealthy, highly respected Irish family--through the lives of their four daughters, especially the youngest, Imogen, whose love affair with a self-centered German scholar resonates throughout the book. Their relationship, told in lush, erotic, and occasionally melancholic prose, comes to represent not only the invasion and decline of this insular family, but the decline of Ireland and Western Europe as a whole in the years preceding World War II. In the tradition of great Irish writing, Higgins's prose is a direct descendent from that of James Joyce and Samuel Beckett, and nowhere else in his mastery of the language as evident as in Langrishe, Go Down, which the Irish Times applauded as "the best Irish novel since At Swim-Two-Birds and the novels of Beckett."
Muriel Spark0.0 When Barbara Vaughan's fiancé joins an archaeological excursion to the Dead Sea Scrolls, she takes the opportunity to explore the Holy Land. It is 1961, and the nation of Israel is still in its infancy. For Barbara, a half-Jewish Catholic convert, this is a journey of faith, and she ignores warnings not to cross the Mandelbaum Gate from Israel into Jordan. An adventure of espionage and abduction, from pilgrimage to flight, The Mandelbaum Gate is one of Spark's most compelling novels, and won the James Tait Memorial Prize.
Frank Tuohy0.0 Frank Tuohy worked in numerous academic posts under the auspices of the British Council including postings in Finland, Brazil and Poland. His posting in Poland provided his inspiration for 'The Ice Saints'. The book received considerable critical acclaim and was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. The Ice Saints, frozen in a stance of complete hopelessness, are the Poles, casualties of the Cold War.
Элизабет Лонгфорд3.5 Queen Victoria was the longest reigning monarch in British history. In this concise biography, Lady Longford, long recognised as an authority on the subject, gives a full account of Queen Victoria?s life and provides her unique assessment of the monarch. Victoria ascended the throne in 1837 on the death of her uncle William IV. In 1840 she married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and for the next twenty years they were inseparable. Their descendants were to succeed to most of the thrones of Europe. When Albert died in 1861 Victoria?s overwhelming grief caused her to almost withdraw from public life for several years. This perceived dereliction of public duty, coupled with rumours about her relationship with her Scottish ghillie, John Brown, led to increasing criticism. Coaxed back into the public eye by Disraeli, she resumed her political and constitutional interest with vigour until her death in 1901. This classic and concise biography of Britain?s longest-reigning monarch was written by Lady Elizabeth Longford who was a renowned biographer (she died in 2002). Her other titles include Wellington, Byron and the Queen Mother. Elizabeth Longford's first work on Queen Victoria, Victoria RI, won the James Tait Black memorial prize.
Jennifer Dawson5.0 Winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize
‘A very fine first novel. Dawson writes very well, with a tender awareness of the ironies of her theme and a poetic perception of how tremulous is the distinction between the mad world and the sane.’ - Glasgow Herald
‘A remarkably talented first novel ... Miss Dawson is neither sentimental nor sensational ... Her heroine is a convincing and sympathetic character, and when her mind begins to shift into the nightmare perspective of schizophrenia the writing creates an atmosphere of quiet terror.’ - Observer
‘Cool, short, tender and occasionally as prettily ruthless as the impact of a stiletto heel . . . twice as alarming because everything is implied rather than explicit.’ - Tatler
‘A cool, clever, well-constructed novel about – smoothly speaking – the nature of reality. . . . Miss Dawson writes very well indeed, with remarkable calmness and detachment . . . [B]rilliant.’ - Penelope Mortimer, Sunday Times
‘A little masterpiece.’ - Bookman
‘A novel about madness which succeeds completely.’ - Daily Telegraph
‘I wanted the knack of existing. I did not know the rules.’ So says Josephine, the heroine of Jennifer Dawson’s remarkable novel, an exploration of a young woman’s mental illness that met with universal critical acclaim and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize as the best novel of the year. After suffering a breakdown following the death of her mother, Josephine finds herself confined to an institution where patients are ‘treated’ by such means as electroshock therapy and lobotomies. But when she falls in love with Alasdair, a fellow patient she meets on the grassy bank of the ha-ha, she decides that her recovery will be on her own defiant terms. Inspired by the author’s personal experiences, The Ha-Ha (1961) remains a moving and powerful examination of mental illness and the treatment of those who suffer from it. This new edition includes an afterword by the author and an introduction by John Sutherland.
Rex Warner0.0 Segundo libro sobre la vida de Cesar Augusto. «Aún sopla el viento; faltan todavía algunas horas para el amanecer. Estamos en los idus de marzo. No hace mucho un adivino me dijo que me cuidara de este día»: reflexiona Julio César la noche antes de su muerte. Tiene insomnio y rememora su vida ante la imposibilidad de conciliar el sueño; ya no es el joven César, es un hombre maduro, legislador, gobernante, escritor, más que un poderoso general, es imperator de Roma. Luego el viento se calma en aquel primer día de primavera y, aunque no es momento de pensar en la muerte, ésta le sorprenderá a traición a las puertas del Senado. Pero, no es propio del César «demostrar ningún temor». Rex Warner (1905-1986), novelista inglés, poeta, traductor y crítico, se educó en el Wadham Coliege de Oxford donde conoció a los poetas W.H. Auden y C. Da y-Lewis. Fue profesor en Inglaterra y Egipto, dirigió el Instituto Británico de Atenas e impartió clase en la Universidad de Connecticut. Son dignas de mención sus traducciones de Esquilo, Jenofonte y Eurípides, y sus novelas The Professor (1938) y El aeródromo (1941).
Morris West0.0 The Devil's Advocate, Morris West's best-selling novel, is a deft exploration of the meaning of faith. In an impoverished village in southern Italy, the life and death of Giacamo Nerone has inspired talk of sainthood. Father Blaise Meredith, a dying English priest, is sent from the Vatican to investigate—and to try to untangle the web of facts, rumors, and outright lies that surround Nerone's life and death. With spiritual frailty as a backdrop, The Devil's Advocate reminds us how the power of goodness ultimately prevails over despair.
Angus Wilson0.0 Meg Eliot is the wife of a successful barrister and with that comes a lovely home in Westminster, cocktail parties and a round of charity committees. She is the model wife and her life is one of ease, contentment and privilege.
All that changes though when she is suddenly left widowed after a senseless tragedy. Totally alone she is thrust into a struggle to reconstruct her life as she realises that she doesn't really know who she is anymore or who she is supposed to be. The Middle Age of Mrs Eliot follows Meg as she tries to make sense of the realities of life, of living and contemplates the future and its possibilites. What she finds is the ability to survive and, also, the joys of new friendships, new opportunities and perhaps even the idea of a new love.
Described by the Daily Telegraph as 'one of fiction's great female creatures', Meg Eliot is a powerful heroine who inspired readers when she first appeared in 1958.
Роуз Маколей0.0 This story describes the experiences of a group of people on a trip to Turkey. Aunt Dot is set on the emancipation of Turkish women through the encouragement of a wider use of the bathing hat, whilst Laurie's only object is pleasure.
Ivy Compton-Burnett0.0 The exacting Miranda's search for a suitable companion brings her family into contact with a very different kind of household, raising a plenitude of questions about the ability to manage alone, the difficulties of living with strangers and some strange discoveries about intimates.
Роберт Уиндхем Кеттон-Кремер0.0 This biography of the renowned English eighteenth-century poet and scholar Thomas Gray (1716 1771) was originally published in 1955. The text contains extensive quotations from Gray's literary work and correspondence which are counterpoised by a highly readable narrative of his life, most of which was spent at Cambridge University. Whilst Gray's poetic output was limited for various reasons, including an extremely self-critical attitude towards his own work, he remains a figure of great importance in eighteenth-century literature. This book reflects that importance, and it will be of value to anyone with an interest in English poetry, literary biography, or the cultural environment of the 1700s."
C.P. Snow5.0 It is the onset of World War II in the fifth in the Strangers and Brothers series. A group of Cambridge scientists are working on atomic fission. But there are consequences for the men who are affected by it. Hiroshima also causes mixed personal reactions.
C.P. Snow0.0 The fifth in the 'Strangers and Brothers' series begins with the dying Master of a Cambridge college. His imminent demise causes intense rivalry and jealousy amongst the other fellows. Former friends become enemies as the election looms.
Маргарет Кеннеди0.0 A Victorian gentleman is forced by illness to entertain himself with the family archive, and he uncovers the Regency-era correspondence and diaries of one Miles Lufton, MP - apparently a black sheep of the family, connected with a scandal long buried. But through the pieced-together artefacts from the past, a fuller picture emerges of a man torn between two personalities - Miles, serious, studious and penniless, and 'Pronto', flirt, political mover and eternal 'extra man'. Miles longs to dispose of his disreputable alter ego, but that way lies calamity...
Карола Оман0.0 For superb scholarship and detail offered this book cannot be surpassed. It is further enhanced by being eminently readable. One of the book's strongest features is that it does much to explain the controversy that has surrounded Sir John Moore, examinating his relation with both Castlereagh and George Canning. I strongly recommend the book to students and to those who simply read for enjoyment.
Evelyn Waugh4.1 Guy Crouchback, determined to get into the war, takes a commission in the Royal Corps of Halberdiers. His spirits high, he sees all the trimmings but none of the action. And his first campaign, an abortive affair on the West African coastline, ends with an escapade which seriously blots his Halberdier copybook.
Men at Arms is the first book in Waugh's brilliant trilogy, Sword of Honour, which chronicles the fortunes of Guy Crouchback. The second and third volumes, Officers and Gentlemen and Unconditional Surrender, are also published in Penguin. Sword of Honour has recently been made into a television drama series, with a screenplay by William Boyd.
Сесил Вудхэм-Смит0.0 Draws on research by army historians to describe the cover-up of disastrous events in the Crimea, and to separate Nightingale's real achievements from her mythical ones.
