Best of
17th-Century

2010

Corrag


Susan Fletcher - 2010
    In 'Corrag', Susan Fletcher tells us the story of an epic historic event, of the difference a single heart can make - and how deep and lasting relationships can come from the most unlikely places.Other titles:The Highland WitchWitch Light

The Countess and the King: A Novel of the Countess of Dorchester and King James II


Susan Holloway Scott - 2010
    She gleefully snubs respectable marriage to become the Duke of York's mistress.But Katherine's life of carefree pleasure ends when Charles II dies, and her lover becomes King James II. Suddenly she is cast into a tangle of political intrigue, religious dissent, and ever-shifting alliances, where a wrong step can mean treason, exile, or death at the executioner's block. As the risks rise, Katherine is forced to make the most perilous of choices: to remain loyal to the king, or to England.

The Poetical Works Of John Milton (V. 2)


John Milton - 2010
    It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from GeneralBooksClub.com. You can also preview excerpts from the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Volume: 2; Original Published by: Johnson in 1801 in 318 pages; Subjects: English poetry

Spinoza's Ethics


Beth Lord - 2010
    Upon its release, Spinoza's Ethics was banned; today it is the quintessential example of philosophical method. Although acknowledged as difficult, the book is widely taught in philosophy, literature, history, and politics. This introduction is designed to be read side by side with Spinoza's work. As a guide to the style, vocabulary, and arguments of the Ethics, it offers a range of interpretive possibilities to prepare students to become conversant with Spinoza's philosophical method and his challenge to conventional thinking.

Honour And The Sword


A.L. Berridge - 2010
    As the campaigning season begins, the Spanish armies swell out of the Artois region of the Netherlands – flooding into King Louis XIII's France.The sleepy border village of Dax-en-roi stands in their way. Facing the overwhelming might of the Spanish forces, the Chevalier de Roland rallies a valiant defence, but in vain – his household guard no match for the invaders. There is only one survivor as the Roland estate is razed to the ground, one soul who escapes the Spanish brutality: the lone heir to the Roland name, the son, a young boy by the name of André de Roland, the new Sieur of Dax . . .Upon this young nobleman's shoulders all hope lies. He alone must bear the honour of the Roland name and, with it, the fate of his people.

The Hedge of Thorns (Lamplighter Theatre)


John Carrol - 2010
    Because he desperately wants to know what is on the other side of a hedge of thorns, he puts his little sister in great danger. From his experience, we learn that God places boundaries in our lives because He loves us.

The really useful guide to Kings and Queens of England


Sarah Kilby - 2010
    

America The Story of Us: An Illustrated History


Kevin Baker - 2010
    The companion book, America The Story of Us is a history that is at once penetrating and lively, elegant and authoritative; great for serious reading as it is for casual skimming. America The Story of Us brings to life the vast forces that shaped this remarkable country and the ways in which revolutions in technology and transportation altered the way Americans lived, made money, and fought one another. Explored in these pages is the struggle between settlers and Native Americans; the epic conflict of slavery, from cotton gin to Civil War; the creation of the transcontinental railroad alongside the thundering herds of buffalo across the West; and how American ingenuity and determination both carried us through the Great Depression and won the Second World War. Beginning with Jamestown and Plymouth Bay, the first successful British colonies on the mainland, the book highlights the landmark moments in political, social, economic, and military history, from the prototypical entrepreneur John Rolfe and his tobacco seeds to Barack Obama and the seeds of change, from the Model T to the moon landing. Written by novelist, historian, and journalist Kevin Baker (a key contributor to The American Century, by Harold Evans), the narrative shares the TV series- eye for the dramatic moment in U.S. history-there is danger, action, struggle-while adding new layers of detail and nuance. America The Story of Us is decisive and essential, the story of the country that every family will want to own.Foreword by President ObamaA stunning companion piece for the most anticipated HISTORY broadcast of all time, includes 412 heavily illustrated pages featuring over 300 full color images and layers of information including “charticles,” graphics, photographs, and text.The adventure that became a nation – the complete history of the US has not been told for 40 years.AMERICA the Story of Us is an exuberant, unprecedented look at the invention of America focusing on how events small and large are intrinsically linked to the exploration and innovation, leading us from the frontier to 21st century cities, from the Mississippi to the moon, from Jamestown to 9/11 up to present day. Moving though time and space linking key events, people and locations, capturing the vast sweep of American history— bringing viewers on a journey through the forces that shaped the destiny of America.

Blood and Ink


D.K. Marley - 2010
    The stages of England and bright intellectual boys are used to bolster Queen Elizabeth I's reign and propagate the rising Protestant faith. At the age of eight, Christopher Marlowe, the muse's darling, is sucked into the labyrinth of secret spy rings, blood, murder, and betrayal, while his own ambition as England's favorite playwright slips further from his grasp. As Christopher grows to manhood, he sinks further into the darkness, and a chance meeting with an unknown actor from Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare, sets him on a path of destiny; a fate of forced exile and the revelation that the real enemy is not the assassins of Rome, but a man who stared into his eyes and smiled. One he did not expect.

Greater London Murders: 33 True Stories of Revenge, Jealousy, Greed & Lust


Linda Stratmann - 2010
    Throughout its history the great urban sprawl of Greater London has been home to some of the most shocking murders in England, many of which have made legal history. Contained within the pages of this book are the stories behind these heinous crimes. They include George Chapman, who was hanged in 1903 for poisoning three women, and whom is widely suspected of having been the notorious serial killer, Jack the Ripper; lovers Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters, executed for stabbing to death Thompson’s husband Percy in 1922; and Donald Hume, who was found not guilty of the murder of wealthy businessman Stanley Setty in 1949, but later confessed to killing him, chopping up his body, and disposing of it by airplane. Linda Stratmann’s carefully researched, enthralling text will appeal to anyone interested in the shady side of London’s history.

Traitor's Blood


Michael Arnold - 2010
    'Stands in comparison with the best of Cornwell' Yorkshire PostOnce seen in the heat of battle, Captain Stryker is never forgotten. A hardened veteran of the wars in the Low Countries, he has come home to England to seek revenge on the man who left him for dead and scarred him for life.Stryker is driven by loyalty rather than conviction to serve King Charles's cause. He has no truck with aristocracy, preferring the company of a handful of trusted men, including sometime actor Lancelot Forreseter and his foul-mouthed sergeant, Skellen. But when the existence of a dangerous spy at the heart of the Royalist establishment is discovered, it is Stryker whom Prince Rupert chooses to capture the man before he realises the game is up.Lightly armed and with only a handful of men, Stryker must journey across a country riven by bitterness and beset by marauding bands of soldiers in a race against time. But unbeknown to Stryker, someone else is also closing in on his quarry, someone whom Stryker has sworn to kill: Captain Eli Makepeace, his nemesis, the man who nearly destroyed him . . .

In the Eye of All Trade: Bermuda, Bermudians, and the Maritime Atlantic World, 1680-1783


Michael Jarvis - 2010
    Jarvis recovers a mariner's view of early America as seen through the eyes of Bermuda's seafarers. The first social history of eighteenth-century Bermuda, this book profiles how one especially intensive maritime community capitalized on its position in the eye of all trade.Jarvis takes readers aboard small Bermudian sloops and follows white and enslaved sailors as they shuttled cargoes between ports, raked salt, harvested timber, salvaged shipwrecks, hunted whales, captured prizes, and smuggled contraband in an expansive maritime sphere spanning Great Britain's North American and Caribbean colonies. In doing so, he shows how humble sailors and seafaring slaves operating small family-owned vessels were significant but underappreciated agents of Atlantic integration. The American Revolution starkly revealed the extent of British America's integration before 1775 as it shattered interregional links that Bermudians had helped to forge. Reliant on North America for food and customers, Bermudians faced disaster at the conflict's start. A bold act of treason enabled islanders to continue trade with their rebellious neighbors and helped them to survive and even prosper in an Atlantic world at war. Ultimately, however, the creation of the United States ended Bermuda's economic independence and doomed the island's maritime economy.

The Image of the Black in Western Art: From the "Age of Discovery" to the Age of Abolition: Artists of the Renaissance and Baroque


David Bindman - 2010
    Highlights from her collection appeared in three large-format volumes that quickly became collector's items. A half-century later, Harvard University Press and the Du Bois Institute are proud to publish a complete set of ten sumptuous books, including new editions of the original volumes and two additional ones.The much-awaited "Artists of the Renaissance and Baroque" has been written by an international team of distinguished scholars, and covers the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The rise of slavery and the presence of black people in Europe irrevocably affected the works of the best artists of the time. Essays on the black Magus and the image of the black in Italy, Spain, and Britain, with detailed studies of Rembrandt and Heliodorus's "Aethiopica," all presented with superb color plates, make this new volume a worthy addition to this classic series.

The Moment of Caravaggio


Michael Fried - 2010
    In his first extended consideration of the Italian Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1573-1610), Michael Fried offers a transformative account of the artist's revolutionary achievement. Based on the A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts delivered at the National Gallery of Art, The Moment of Caravaggio displays Fried's unique combination of interpretive brilliance, historical seriousness, and theoretical sophistication, providing sustained and unexpected readings of a wide range of major works, from the early Boy Bitten by a Lizard to the late Martyrdom of Saint Ursula. And with close to 200 color images, The Moment of Caravaggio is as richly illustrated as it is closely argued. The result is an electrifying new perspective on a crucial episode in the history of European painting.Focusing on the emergence of the full-blown "gallery picture" in Rome during the last decade of the sixteenth century and the first decades of the seventeenth, Fried draws forth an expansive argument, one that leads to a radically revisionist account of Caravaggio's relation to the self-portrait; of the role of extreme violence in his art, as epitomized by scenes of decapitation; and of the deep structure of his epoch-defining realism. Fried also gives considerable attention to the art of Caravaggio's great rival, Annibale Carracci, as well as to the work of Caravaggio's followers, including Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi, Bartolomeo Manfredi, and Valentin de Boulogne.

Pens and Needles: Women's Textualities in Early Modern England


Susan Frye - 2010
    Pens and Needles is the first book to examine all these forms as interrelated products of self-fashioning and communication.Because early modern people saw verbal and visual texts as closely related, Susan Frye discusses the connections between the many forms of women's textualities, including notes in samplers, alphabets both stitched and penned, initials, ciphers, and extensive texts like needlework pictures, self-portraits, poetry, and pamphlets, as well as commissioned artwork, architecture, and interior design. She examines works on paper and cloth by such famous figures as Elizabeth I, Mary, Queen of Scots, and Bess of Hardwick, as well as the output of journeywomen needleworkers and miniaturists Levina Teerlinc and Esther Inglis, and their lesser-known sisters in the English colonies of the New World. Frye shows how traditional women's work was a way for women to communicate with one another and to shape their own identities within familial, intellectual, religious, and historical traditions. Pens and Needles offers insights into women's lives and into such literary texts as Shakespeare's Othello and Cymbeline and Mary Sidney Wroth's Urania.

The Secrets of Noh Masks


Michishige Udaka - 2010
    Performed by a handful of players, mostly masked and using minimal props and exceedingly understated movements, this is theater pared down to its essentials. Yet, as an art form, Noh drama is highly complex^DDLrichly symbolic, nuanced and exquisite in its austerity.Since the emergence of Noh drama over six centuries ago, the masks worn by the actors have been integral to the work. A Noh mask, with its subtle fusion of the real and the imaginary, is a beautiful object; but it only comes fully to life when a talented actor is able to transcend the mask's unchanging expression and convey a wide range of emotions.In recent years, Noh drama has seen a resurgence in prestige and popularity, both in Japan and abroad. Today, the masks worn by most Noh thespians are either old, passed down from generation to generation within a particular school of acting, or the work of an artist who specializes in this craft. Only one Noh master-actor continues to make masks in addition to teaching, writing and performing. Michishige Udaka is a shite-kata (lead and producer), with a career spanning almost 50 years. As an actor and playwright, he is able to bring to the task of mask-making a deep understanding both of the character the mask represents and of the actor's intentions while playing that role. These insights have enabled Udaka to add greater dimension to his own performances.The Secrets of Noh Masks presents 32 pieces, a representative sample of the more than 200 produced to date by the author. Every one has passed the ultimate test^DDLuse in actual performances^DDLand may be seen on stage today. The stunning photos are accompanied by captions and essays about the history of Noh, its performance style, mask-making philosophy and techniques. There is also an index listing each mask with a thumbnail sketch.Those who know little of this ancient dramatic form, might assume that Noh masks lack expression. But the images showcased in this volume reveal an emotional depth and humanity that is as powerful in the 21st century as it was over 600 years ago.

John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester: The Poems and Lucina's Rape


John Wilmot - 2010
    Includes the text of Lucina's Rape, Rochester's adaptation of Fletcher's revenge tragedy Valentinian, in a text that readily identifies Rochester's revisions Presents the poems in versions that were current during Rochester's lifetime, allowing the reader to experience the poems as Rochester's contemporaries did Incorporates insights and discoveries made over the last twenty-five years and texts of manuscripts that previously were unavailable for study

The Great Works of God: Part One and Two: The Mysteries of Christ in the Book of Genesis, Chapter 1-15


Valerius Herberger - 2010
    He expressed great devotional warmth as he explored the Scriptures, making his commentaries unique. As an early Lutheran theologian, Herberger also has historical significance. This will be the first time Herberger's work will be available in English.

A Common Treasury


Gerrard Winstanley - 2010
    George’s Hill, to farm the common land and to distribute the food for free amongst themselves. Winstanley’s extraordinary writings from this period have remained a huge influence for many on the Left and are cited as some of the earliest examples of communist thought. Legendary voice of the Left Tony Benn examines Winstanley’s work and argues that, as we face an ever greater enclosure of the commons, he can still inspire us to turn our world upside down.

The First English Dictionary of Slang, 1699


Bodleian Library - 2010
    Both words can be found in The First English Dictionary of Slang, originally published in 1699 as A New Dictionary of Terms, Ancient and Modern, of the Canting Crew by B. E. Gentleman. Though a number of early texts, beginning in the sixteenth century, codified forms of cant—the slang language of the criminal underworld—in word lists which appeared as appendices or parts of larger volumes, the dictionary of 1699 was the first work dedicated to slang words and their meanings. It aimed to educate the more polite classes in the language and, consequently, the methods of thieves and vagabonds, protecting the innocent from cant speakers and their activities.            This dictionary is also the first that attempts to show the overlap and integration between canting words and common slang words. Refusing to distinguish between criminal vocabulary and the more ordinary everyday English of the period, it sets canting words side by side with terms used in domestic culture and those used by sailors and laborers. With such a democratic attitude toward words, this text is genuinely a modern dictionary, as well as the first attempt by dictionary makers to catalog the ever-changing world of English slang.            Reproduced here with an introduction by John Simpson, chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, describing the history and culture of canting in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as well as the evolution of English slang, this is a fascinating volume for all who marvel at words and may wish to reclaim a few—say, to dabble in the parlance of a seventeenth-century sailor one day and that of a vagabond the next.

The Portuguese in West Africa, 1415-1670: A Documentary History


Malyn D. Newitt - 2010
    This period witnessed the diaspora of the Sephardic Jews, the emigration of Portuguese to West Africa and the islands, and the beginnings of the black diaspora associated with the slave trade. The documents show how the Portuguese tried to understand the societies with which they came into contact and to reconcile their experience with the myths and legends inherited from classical and medieval learning. They also show how Africans reacted to the coming of Europeans, adapting Christian ideas to local beliefs and making use of exotic imports and European technologies. The documents also describe the evolution of the black Portuguese communities in Guinea and the islands, as well as the slave trade and the way that it was organized, understood, and justified.

The English Poems of Richard Crashaw


Richard Crashaw - 2010
    In the interest of creating a more extensive selection of rare historical book reprints, we have chosen to reproduce this title even though it may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing and blurred pages, missing text, poor pictures, markings, dark backgrounds and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as a part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature.

The Natural Philosophy of Margaret Cavendish: Reason and Fancy during the Scientific Revolution


Lisa T. Sarasohn - 2010
    Lisa T. Sarasohn acutely examines the brilliant work of this untrained mind and explores the unorthodox development of her natural philosophy.Cavendish wrote copiously on such wide-ranging topics as gender, power, manners, scientific method, and animal rationality. The first woman to publish her own natural philosophy, Cavendish was not afraid to challenge the new science and even ridiculed the mission of the Royal Society. Her philosophy reflected popular culture and engaged with the most radical philosophies of her age. To understand Cavendish’s scientific thought, Sarasohn explains, is to understand the reception of new knowledge through both insider and outsider perspectives in early modern England.In close readings of Cavendish’s writings—poetry, treatises, stories, plays, romances, and letters—Sarasohn explores the fantastic and gendered elements of her natural philosophy. Cavendish saw knowledge as a continuum between reason and fancy, and her work integrated imaginative speculation and physical science. Because she was denied the university education available to her male counterparts, she embraced an epistemology that favored contemplation and intuition over logic and empiricism.The Natural Philosophy of Margaret Cavendish serves as a guide to the unusual and complex philosophy of one of the seventeenth century’s most intriguing minds. It not only celebrates Cavendish as a true figure of the scientific age but also contributes to a broader understanding of the contested nature of the scientific revolution.

The Truth of the Christian Religion with Jean Le Clerc's Notes and Additions


Hugo Grotius - 2010
    Written in a plain and direct language for his countrymen, this short work aimed to show those who would encounter pagans, Muslims, and Jews that the Christian religion was the true revealed religion. In addition to “fortifying” the beliefs of his fellow Christians, the treatise intended to convince non-Christians of “the reasonableness of believing and embracing the Christian Religion above any other.”Editor Maria Rosa Antognazza suggests that “Grotius claimed the superiority of Christian doctrine and morality and their perfect conformity with the teaching of the most enlightened reason, and at the same time he advocated tolerance for all positive religions. . . . Grotius rejected the use of any kind of violence, proclaiming that ‘the weapons appointed for the soldiers of Christ are . . . proper to the Spirit.’. . . Moreover, in an era of bloody and violent confrontations amongst the different Christian confessions, Grotius raised a forceful appeal ‘to mutual agreement.’ All Christians should remember that they ‘were baptized into the same Name,’ that of Jesus Christ, and that ‘therefore there ought to be no Sects or Divisions amongst them.’ ”Hugo Grotius is one of the most important thinkers in the early-modern period. A great humanistic polymath—lawyer and legal theorist, diplomat and political philosopher, ecumenical activist and theologian—his work was seminal for modern natural law and influenced the moral, political, legal, and theological thought of the Enlightenment, from Hobbes, Pufendorf, and Locke to Rousseau and Kant, as well as America’s Founding leaders. Jean Le Clerc (1657–1736), a Genevan by birth, was a philosophical and theological scholar and, through his editorship of leading journals, a key figure in the republic of letters.Maria Rosa Antognazza is a Lecturer in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, King’s College London.John Clarke (bap. 1687, d. 1734) was a schoolmaster at Hull, an educational reformer, and a translator.Knud Haakonssen is Professor of Intellectual History and Director of the Centre for Intellectual History at the University of Sussex, England.

Image Wars: Promoting Kings and Commonwealths in England, 1603-1660


Kevin Sharpe - 2010
    This book, the second in Kevin Sharpe’s trilogy exploring image, power, and communication in early modern England, examines its importance during the turbulent seventeenth century. From the coronation of James I to the end of Cromwell’s protectorate, Sharpe considers how royalists and parliamentarians—often using the same vocabularies—sought to manage their public image through words, pictures, and performances in order to win support and secure and enhance their authority.

Elizabeth Hooton, First Quaker Woman Preacher (1600-1672)


Penney Normon - 2010
    Since her research commenced many notable works on the rise of the Society of Friends have been issued which cover the investigations made by her. I have therefore endeavoured to bring together in a collected form the scattered fragments of Elizabeth Hooton 's history, which are to be found up and down, together with many of her letters, or extracts from them, which I believe have never before been published.

The Battle for London


Stephen Porter - 2010
    As Charles I's army marched on the capital in the autumn of 1642, Nehemiah Wallington, a wood-turner living near London Bridge, wrote in his journal, 'those cruel cavilers doe so plonder & pillage & commit Rapin & use such cruelty that the poore people are caused to fly from house and home to save their children'. Most Londoners shared his fears that city would be pillaged and burnt by the king's supporters, who had been vilified in the London press and from the pulpits. Londoners had willingly joined the Earl of Essex's army that summer but had failed to stop the advance of the king's army. The capture and sack of Brentford, so close to their city, confirmed their worst fears, for their own safety and that of their families. London would be next. At Turnham Green the Civil War that had pitched Englishman against Englishman came to London. On 13 November thousands of volunteers streamed out of the city to join the army and the most ferocious battle in London's long history began. The outcome would mark a turning point in the conflict that had split the nation.

The 100 Greatest Englishmen and Englishwomen


Vernon Coleman - 2010
    Some of the people in this book are far less well-known that they ought to be, thanks to the prejudices and bigotry of many commentators. I hope that even ardent historians will find surprises here and that when you have finished reading about my 100 heroes you will know, and understand, a great deal more about England, English history and the people who made England great. These are men and women who, in one way or another, honoured themselves and their country and made the world a better place for the rest of us. These men and women were unique and irreplaceable. They all made huge contributions to life on earth. These men and women were all giants. They were giants of their time and they are giants of our time. We should be grateful for their lives, celebrate their work and be proud that they were English.' - Vernon Coleman `Brilliant, enjoyable ,fasinating, stirring, moving; brought tears to my eyes. Even though I consider myself to be Real English and proud of it, I am ashamed to admit that there is so much in Vernon's book that I didn't even know or was aware of. It has been a fascinating and educational experience; learning, digesting and appreciating. Should be placed in every school, college and university.' - BT Vernon Coleman is the author of over 100 books which have sold over two million hardback and paperback copies in the UK and been translated into 25 languages. For a full list of available books please see his author page on Amazon. `Vernon Coleman writes brilliant books.' - The Good Book Guide