Book picks similar to
Samuel Johnson and the Life of Writing by Paul Fussell
literature
criticism
history
england
The Beautiful Cigar Girl: Mary Rogers, Edgar Allan Poe, and the Invention of Murder
Daniel Stashower - 2006
One year later, a struggling writer named Edgar Allan Poe decided to take on the case-and sent his fictional detective, C. Auguste Dupin, to solve the baffling murder of Mary Rogers in "The Mystery of Marie Rog�t."
All Art is Propaganda: Critical Essays
George Orwell - 1941
Equally at home discussing Charles Dickens and Charlie Chaplin, he moved back and forth across the porous borders between essay and journalism, high art and low. A frequent commentator on literature, language, film, and drama throughout his career, Orwell turned increasingly to the critical essay in the 1940s, when his most important experiences were behind him and some of his most incisive writing lay ahead. All Art Is Propaganda follows Orwell as he demonstrates in piece after piece how intent analysis of a work or body of work gives rise to trenchant aesthetic and philosophical commentary."how to be interesting, line after line."Contents:Charles DickensBoys' WeekliesInside the WhaleDrama Reviews: The Tempest, The Peaceful InnFilm Review: The Great DictatorWells, Hitler and the World StateThe Art of Donald McGillNo, Not OneRudyard KiplingT.S. EliotCan Socialists Be Happy?Benefit of Clergy: Some Notes on Salvador DaliPropaganda and Demotic SpeechRaffles and Miss BlandishGood Bad BooksThe Prevention of LiteraturePolitics and the English LanguageConfessions of a Book ReviewerPolitics vs. Literature: An Examination of Gulliver's TravelsLear, Tolstoy and the FoolWriters and LeviathanReview of The Heart of the Matter by Graham GreeneReflections on Gandhi
Flood
Ann Swinfen - 2014
Granddaughter of a local hero, Mercy Bennington moves out of the shadow of her elder brother to become a leader of the protestors, finding the strength to confront the enemies who endanger the survival of her village and her own life. Yet the violence wreaked upon the fragile fenlands unleashes a force no one can control – flood.
Proust's Way: A Field Guide to In Search of Lost Time
Roger Shattuck - 2000
Winner of the National Book Award for Marcel Proust, a sweeping examination of Proust's life and works, Shattuck now offers a useful and eminently readable guidebook to Proust's epic masterpiece, and a contemplation of memory and consciousness throughout great literature. Here, Shattuck laments Proust's defenselessness against zealous editors, praises some translations, and presents Proust as a novelist whose philosophical gifts were matched only by his irrepressible comic sense. Proust's Way, the culmination of a lifetime of scholarship, will serve as the next generation's guide to one of the world's finest writers of fiction.
The Ministry of Truth: The Biography of George Orwell's 1984
Dorian Lynskey - 2019
Lynskey delves into how Orwell's harrowing Spanish Civil War experiences shaped his concern with political disinformation by exposing him to the deceptiveness of people he'd once regarded as allies against fascism: the Soviets and their Western apologists.
A Voice from Old New York: A Memoir of My Youth
Louis Auchincloss - 2010
His memoir confirms that, despite the spark of his fiction, Auchincloss himself was the most entertaining character he has created. No traitor to his class but occasionally its critic, he returns us to his Society which was, he maintains, less interesting than its members admitted. You may differ as he unfurls his life with dignity, summoning his family (particularly his father who suffered from depression and forgave him for hating sports) and intimates. Brooke Astor and her circle are here, along with glimpses of Jacqueline Onassis. Most memorable, though, is his way with those outside the salon: the cranky maid; the maiden aunt, perpetually out of place; the less-than-well-born boy who threw himself from a window over a woman and a man. Here is Auchincloss, an American master, being Auchincloss, a rare eye, a generous and lively spirit to the end.
Majesty: Queen Elizabeth II and the House of Windsor
Robert Lacey - 1977
She is the living embodiment of grandeur that was, and is, England. In this brilliantly researched book, Robert Lacey combines the sweep of history with the intimate nuance of individual lives to raise the curtain on the royal mystique. Here is the personal side of a Queen who adores the Beatles' Yellow Submarine and watches Kojak on the telly - and an enthralling view of the passions and drama behind the world's greatest remaining monarchy.
Take Two
Stephen Leather - 2013
But when she witnesses a gangland killing she has to ask herself if her fame could be the death of her.The killer is charismatic gangster Warwick Richards. A man more than capable of killing again to protect his secret. But does he know that Carolyn saw him commit murder?Take Two is a fast-paced full-length crime thriller and at 92,000 words is the equivalent of about 320 pages. Stephen Leather is one of the UK's most successful thriller writers. He was a journalist for more than ten years on newspapers such as The Times, the Daily Mail and the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. Before that, he was employed as a biochemist for ICI, shovelled limestone in a quarry, worked as a baker, a petrol pump attendant, a barman, and worked for the Inland Revenue. He began writing full time in 1992. His bestsellers have been translated into more than ten languages. He has also written for television shows such as London's Burning, The Knock and the BBC's Murder in Mind series. Two of his books, The Stretch and The Bombmaker, were made into movies.
Seven Types of Ambiguity
William Empson - 1930
Ambiguity, according to Empson, includes "any verbal nuance, however slight, which gives room for alternative reactions to the same piece of language." From this definition, broad enough by his own admission sometimes to see "stretched absurdly far," he launches into a brilliant discussion, under seven classifications of differing complexity and depth, of such works, among others, as Shakespeare's plays and the poetry of Chaucer, Donne, Marvell, Pope, Wordsworth, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and T. S. Eliot.
The Ringer
Bill Scheft - 2002
He thinks Mount Sinai Hospital is an exclusive golf course and his catheter is a gym bag. His only link to reality is his thirty-five-year-old nephew, who makes his living as a hired gun for thirteen softball teams and still goes by the name College Boy.But College Boy's body has begun to betray him -- almost as much as his lack of ambition. (His only legitimate paycheck comes from a gig as a laugher on a morning radio show.) Not only that, the Dirt King, a small-time gangster who controls all the replacement soil in Central Park, is after College Boy. As their lives collide, College Boy takes refuge in the arms of Sheila -- his uncle's cleaning woman and a part-time call girl.And then it gets weird.
The Braindead Megaphone
George Saunders - 2007
George Saunders's first foray into nonfiction is composed of essays on literature, travel, and politics. At the core of this unique collection are Saunders's travel essays based on his trips to seek out the mysteries of the "Buddha Boy" of Nepal; to attempt to indulge in the extravagant pleasures of Dubai; and to join the exploits of the minutemen at the Mexican border. Saunders expertly navigates the works of Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut, and Esther Forbes, and leads the reader across the rocky political landscape of modern America. Emblazoned with his trademark wit and singular vision, Saunders's endeavor into the art of the essay is testament to his exceptional range and ability as a writer and thinker.
The Enthusiasms of Robertson Davies
Robertson Davies - 1979
last year, this updated collection contains the best of Robertson Davies' newspaper and magazine articles written over the past 50 years. "Each piece is entertaining and enlightening. . . ".--Publishers Weekly.
Bhagavad Gita for Dummies
Vishnuvarthanan Moorthy - 2013
The Human (Arjuna) had lot of Questions to Supreme God (Krishna) and he got answers from God for all those. Most of the time to understand those complex words, people giving explanations and interpretation with someone’s life. We are also very comfortable to listen them and read them, but the moment we are back to our normal life, we forget everything. This book is written for you! Considering a common man life like yours! And how to live our life as per the Supreme God’s wordings! What it offers to you:>> All the 18 Chapters of Gita in Plain English>> Interpretations with our Common life examples>> You have funny and logical questions to god; it’s there inside this book>> Guides you to self evaluate, are you ready for it?>> How far you are from your God? Check hereRecommended:>> For the one, who wants to practice and experience Bhagavad Gita in Life>> For the one, who wants to understand Gita in its real essence>> For the one, who wants to understand Hinduism in true meaningYou too have these Views, then Read this Book:>> There can’t be multiple gods in one world>> If my birth is given by god, then why am i not part of God>> Science is a language to explain his creations and not a mode to reach>> Belief and honesty can take me to my Supreme Power>>Why don’t new Living beings born as per Darwin>>How to see others grow in life>>The Richest and Poorest all have Equanimity with happiness and sadnessAnd So on.•Order Bhagavad Gita here for practicing and experiencing it in your life
The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime
Judith Flanders - 2011
But murder as sensation and entertainment became ubiquitous, with cold-blooded killings transformed into novels, broadsides, ballads, opera, and melodrama—even into puppet shows and performing dog-acts. Detective fiction and the new police force developed in parallel, each imitating the other—the founders of Scotland Yard gave rise to Dickens's Inspector Bucket, the first fictional police detective, who in turn influenced Sherlock Holmes and, ultimately, even P.D. James and Patricia Cornwell.In this meticulously researched and engrossing book, Judith Flanders retells the gruesome stories of many different types of murder, both famous and obscure: from Greenacre, who transported his dismembered fiancée around town by omnibus, to Burke and Hare’s bodysnatching business in Edinburgh; from the crimes (and myths) of Sweeney Todd and Jack the Ripper, to the tragedy of the murdered Marr family in London’s East End.Through these stories of murder—from the brutal to the pathetic—Flanders builds a rich and multi-faceted portrait of Victorian society in Great Britain. With an irresistible cast of swindlers, forgers, and poisoners, the mad, the bad and the utterly dangerous, The Invention of Murder is both a mesmerizing tale of crime and punishment, and history at its most readable.
Doctor Who Mad Libs
Mad Libs - 2014
Who! This Mad Libs is 48 pages with 21 original stories.