Its startling popularity marked the emergence of a new type of theatre whose proponents—Beckett, Ionesco, Genet, Pinter, and others—shattered dramatic conventions and paid scant attention to psychological realism, while highlighting their characters’ inability to understand one another. In 1961, Martin Esslin gave a name to the phenomenon in his groundbreaking study of these playwrights who dramatized the absurdity at the core of the human condition.Over four decades after its initial publication, Esslin’s landmark book has lost none of its freshness. The questions these dramatists raise about the struggle for meaning in a purposeless world are still as incisive and necessary today as they were when Beckett’s tramps first waited beneath a dying tree on a lonely country road for a mysterious benefactor who would never show. Authoritative, engaging, and eminently readable, The Theatre of the Absurd is nothing short of a classic: vital reading for anyone with an interest in the theatre.

    An illustrated treat that’s equally captivating for its quirky, cartoonish design as for the bizarre and wonderful architecture it illuminates, H.O.U.S.E. immediately stands out from other architecture books, appealing to curious minds, inspiration-seeking artists, and parents looking to creatively engage their children. An international award-winner from the famous polish design studio, Hipopotam, H.O.U.S.E. is a window into a more vibrant, surprising, and delightful world—one where the imagination can become as real as the place you call home.

    This bilingual edition, a parallel text in Old French and English, is based on a reexamination of the Old French manuscript, and makes Silence available to specialists and students in various fields of literature and women's studies.     The Roman de Silence, an Arthurian romance of the thirteenth century, tells of a girl raised as a boy, equally accomplished as a minstrel and knight, whose final task, the capture of Merlin, leads to her unmasking.

    Featuring star maps, charts, gorgeous full-color photographs, and easy-to-follow explanations, this fact-filled guide gives readers a leg up on the basic principles of astronomy and shows how to get the most out of binoculars, telescopes, planetarium visits, and other fun astronomical activities. This updated edition includes an updated color signature and covers the many discoveries made in recent years, as well as new astronomy Web sites.

    Siddhant, an epitome of courage and spirit, who woke up to all this one morning and yet remained composed, when told that his right arm has been amputated post a fateful accident. An average human would collapse, but Lt. Siddhant, an Indian Army officer asked, “Can I have a Chocolate Milkshake?”This is the true-story of Lt. Siddhant, who when asked to shed his Olive Greens thereafter, goes on to build a successful career in the corporate world and becomes an inspiration for many. But, how did he get there? How did he win his battle? "Can I have a Chocolate Milkshake?" is a riveting tale of a man overcoming his limitations, fighting against all odds, and emerging as a winner.

    Selected by Gwyn Jones--the eminent Celtic scholar--for their excellence and variety, these nine Icelandic sagas include Hen-Thorir, The Vapnfjord Men, Thorstein Staff-Struck, Hrafnkel the Priest of Frey, Thidrandi whom the Goddesses Slew, Authun and the Bear, Gunnlaug Wormtongue, King Hrolf and his Champions, and the title piece.

    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 ancient Greeks scorned it as ugly and barbaric, but most Americans and Europeans now cite it as their favorite color. In this fascinating history, the renowned medievalist Michel Pastoureau traces the changing meanings of blue from its rare appearance in prehistoric art to its international ubiquity today.Any history of color is, above all, a social history. Pastoureau investigates how the ever-changing role of blue in society has been reflected in manuscripts, stained glass, heraldry, clothing, paintings, and popular culture. Beginning with the almost total absence of blue from ancient Western art and language, the story moves to medieval Europe. As people began to associate blue with the Virgin Mary, the color became a powerful element in church decoration and symbolism. Blue gained new favor as a royal color in the twelfth century and became a formidable political and military force during the French Revolution. As blue triumphed in the modern era, new shades were created and blue became the color of romance and the blues. Finally, Pastoureau follows blue into contemporary times, when military clothing gave way to the everyday uniform of blue jeans and blue became the universal and unifying color of the Earth as seen from space.Beautifully illustrated, Blue tells the intriguing story of our favorite color and the cultures that have hated it, loved it, and made it essential to some of our greatest works of art.

    Yet, as this landmark new book reveals, that estate also gave rise to one of the most fascinating and provocative experiments in American cultural history: the Taliesin Fellowship, an extraordinary architectural colony where Wright trained hundreds of devoted apprentices, while using them as the de facto architectural practice where all of his late masterpieces -- Fallingwater, Johnson Wax, the Guggenheim Museum -- were born. A decade in the making, The Fellowship draws on hundreds of new and unpublished interviews, along with countless unseen documents from the Wright archives, to create a captivating portrait of Taliesin and the three mercurial figures at its center: Wright, his imperious wife Olgivanna Hinzenberg, and her spiritual master, the Greek-Armenian mystic Georgi Gurdjieff. Authors Roger Friedland and Harold Zellman reveal how the idealistic community of Taliesin became a kind of fiefdom, where young apprentices were both inspired and manipulated by the architect and his wife. They trace the decades-long war of wills between Wright and Olgivanna, in which organic architecture was pitted against esoteric spiritualism in a struggle for the soul of Taliesin. They chronicle Wright's perennial battles with clients, bankers, and the government, which suspected him of both communist and fascist sympathies. And through it all they tell the stories of Wright's devoted apprentices -- many of them gay men -- who found an uncertain refuge in the architect s Wisconsin and Arizona compounds, and who helped the master realize his dreamlike architectural visions, often at great personal cost. Epic in scope yet intimate in its detail, The Fellowship is an unforgettable story of genius and ego, sex and violence, mysticism and utopianism -- a magisterial work of biography that will forever change how we think about Frank Lloyd Wright and his world.

    Extensive glossary and updated bibliography. 833 illustrations, including 105 in full color.

    Cress's translation from the French of the Adam and Tannery critical edition is prized for its accuracy, elegance, and economy. The translation featured in the Third Edition has been thoroughly revised from the 1979 First Edition and includes page references to the critical edition for ease of comparison.

    His unique, melodic compositions were released on the Prestige jazz label. In the late 1960s the Viking-garbed Moondog was a pop music sensation on Columbia Records. Moondog is the noted inspiration for the contemporary freak folk movement led by Devendra Banhart.Moondog's compositional style influenced his former roommate, Philip Glass, whose Preface and performances of Moondog works appear in the book. Moondog's work transcends labels and redefines the distinction between popular and high culture. A CD compilation with a variety of Moondog's compositions is bound into the book.The CD tracklisting is as follows:1: Caribea (1:32)Performer/Composer: Moondog2: To a Sea Horse (1:43)Performer/Composer: Moondog3: Trees Against the Sky (.51)Performer/Composer: Moondog4: Oo Debut (1:09)Performer/Composer: Moondog5: Autumn (2:07)Performer/Composer: Moondog6: Moondog Monologue (8:24)Performer/Composer: Moondog7: Moondog’s Theme (1:53)Performer/Composer: Moondog8: Trimbas in Quarters (1:47)Performer/Composer: Moondog9: I Came Into This World Alone (1:19)Performers: Moondog, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Jon GibsonComposer: Moondog10: Be a Hobo (1:22)Performers: Moondog, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Jon GibsonComposer: Moondog11: Why Spend the Dark Night With You (1:40)Performers: Moondog, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Jon GibsonComposer: Moondog12: All is Loneliness (1:38)Performers: Moondog, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Jon GibsonComposer: Moondog13: Organ Rounds (2:04)Performer/Composer: Moondog14: Canon in F Major, Book I (.43)Performer: Paul JordanComposer: Moondog15: Canon in B Flat Major, Book III (1:36)Performer: Paul JordanComposer: Moondog16: Canon in B Flat Major, Book I (.43)Performer: Paul JordanComposer: Moondog17: Canon in B Flat Major, Book II (.28)Performer: Paul JordanComposer: Moondog18: Canon in G Sharp Minor, Book I (.44)Performer: Paul JordanComposer: Moondog19: Canon in C Sharp Minor, Book II (1:32)Performer: Paul JordanComposer: Moondog20: 5/4 Snakebite Rattle (3:41)Performer: Stefan LakatosComposer: Moondog21: Trimbas and Woodblock in 5/2 (1:26)Performer: Stefan LakatosComposer: Moondog22: When I Am Deep in Sleep (2:17)Performer: Stefan LakatosComposer: Moondog23: Rabbit Hop (2:25)Performer/Composer: Moondog24: Dog Trot (2:25)Performer/Composer: Moondog25: Bird’s Lament (2:00)Performer/Composer: Moondog26: Viking 1 (2:55)Performer/Composer: Moondog27: Heimdall Fanfare (3:06)Performer/Composer: Moondog28: Intro and Overtone Continuum (2:22)Performer/Composer: Moondog

    Keats found earlier forms of poetry unsatisfactory for his purpose, and the collection represented a new development of the ode form. He was inspired to write the poem after reading two articles by English artist and writer Benjamin Haydon. Keats was aware of other works on classical Greek art, and had first-hand exposure to the Elgin Marbles, all of which reinforced his belief that classical Greek art was idealistic and captured Greek virtues, which forms the basis of the poem.

    The novel describes the encounter between a visitor from the nineteenth century, William Guest, and a decentralized and humane socialist future. Set over a century after a revolutionary upheaval in 1952, these Chapters from a Utopian Romance recount his journey across London and up the Thames to Kelmscott Manor, Morris's own country house in Oxfordshire. Drawing on the work of John Ruskin and Karl Marx, Morris's book is not only an evocative statement of his egalitarian convictions but also a distinctive contribution to the utopian tradition. Morris's rejection of state socialism and his ambition to transform the relationship between humankind and the natural world, give News from Nowhere a particular resonance for modern readers. This text is based on the 1891 version, incorporating the extensive revisions made by Morris to the first edition.

    What is it that persuades us to camp outside Apple stores to be the first to buy an iPhone? Why is it that a generation ago a typewriter might have lasted someone a lifetime, but now we write on computers that we upgrade every couple of years to shinier, faster, sleeker models? Why do the clicks of some car doors sound “expensive”? Deyan Sudjic charts our relationship—both innocent and knowing—with all things designed. From the opulent excesses of the catwalk to the playfulness of an Alessi jam jar, he shows how we can be manipulated and seduced by our possessions. With scintillating wit he addresses these questions and more, exploring the reasons why every designer yearns to put a personal stamp on a chair or an adjustable lamp, and where design ends and art begins. 71 black-and-white and 5 color illustrations.