Beneath the floorboards of a ruined house, an 18th-century memoir is discovered. It reveals the life story of William Congreve, the acclaimed English playwright. The lost manuscript is penned by his faithful servant, Jeremy, who tells how they lived together through fierce political division and triumphal nationalism in that era of war with France, the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution. Upon his death a monument in Stowe is erected to honour Mr Congreve. Atop a slender pyramid sits a monkey peering into a mirror, a court wit seeing reflected the ironies of polite society folding in on itself as Whigs and Tories feud with scant ground for compromise. Through the prisms of memory and art, award-winning author John Spurling reimagines this tumultuous period and brings to life historical figures Dryden, Vanbrugh, Swift, Pope and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu as never before.
A bold and dynamic retelling of five great male-female pairings from the Greek myths: Prometheus and Pandora, Jason and Medea, Oedipus and Antigone, Achilles and Thetis, and Odysseus and Penelope. Award-winning historical novelist and playwright John Spurling draws on his lifelong love and knowledge of Classical Greek drama and poetry to reanimate five great male–female storylines from the Greek myths. The Greek myths, refined by the great poets and playwrights of ancient Greece, distil the essence of human life: its brief span, its pride, courage, and insecurity, its anxious relationship with the natural world—earth, sea, and sky, represented by powerful gods and monsters. Taking inspiration from the incomparably beautiful and intense poetry of Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, John Spurling—a lifelong classicist and an award-winning playwright—spins five myths for contemporary readers. These captivating tales center on male-female pairs—Prometheus and Pandora, Jason and the sorceress Medea, Oedipus and his daughter Antigone, Achilles and his mother Thetis, Odysseus and Penelope—who, in the course of their stories, destroyed dynasties, raised and felled heroes, and sealed the fates of men.
This book reveals and discusses existing and potential problems derived from the transport economics domain in relation to their environment, and the social, political and economic impacts, with reference to a wide range of transport modes. It is suitable not only for academics or students, but also for people working in the transport industry. From this book, readers will learn how to apply economic principles to transport, drawing specifically upon a number of case studies of different areas of Great Britain. This book is particularly useful for those who are interested in the subject of transport economics, but may not have studied economics, statistics or mathematics.
This book provides a comprehensive overview of the fundamental concepts and function of transport, as well as covering a wide array of themes, including different modes of both passenger and freight transport, primarily using various case studies from Great Britain, accompanied by short narratives/stories. It is suitable not only for academics and students, but also for people working in the transport industry. This book is particularly useful for those who are interested in the broad subject of transport in general, within the field of social sciences, but may not have studied engineering, economics, statistics or mathematics.
Tourism Matters: Study Guide to BTEC Travel and Tourism is a lively and thoroughly written text which introduces students to the main aspects of the tourism sector. The book adopts a modern approach to the subject, covering topics such as the Business of Travel and Tourism, Ecotourism, Domestic and International Destinations, Marketing Tourism Products and Services as well as preparing for employment in the tourism industry with tips and insider advice on how to secure a job.
J.G. Farrell's Empire Trilogy (1970-78) was one of the major achievements of post-war fiction and inspired new generation of writers keen to explore the legacy of the Empire and the emerging postcolonial spaces created in its wake. This new, invigorating and accessible study excitingly explores the substance and significance of the Empire Trilogy and assesses its damning and influential critique of British colonial rule. Rather than positioning him at the end of a tradition of nostalgic Empire writing, John McLeod shows how Farrell's novels attempt to satirise the perspectives of those who served the Empire and were caught up in its decline. McLeod also explores Farrell's intriguing early fiction, as well as his unfinished posthumously-published novel, and accounts for his changing critical legacy since his premature death in 1980, aged 44. This insightful study will stimulate both new and established readers of a much beloved and missed novelist.
Appalachia's distinctive brand of Christianity has always been something of a puzzle to mainline American congregations. Often treated as pagan and unchurched, native Appalachian sects are labeled as ultraconservative, primitive, and fatalistic, and the actions of minority sub-groups such as "snake handlers" are associated with all worshippers in the region. Yet these churches that many regard as being outside the mainstream are living examples of America's own religious heritage. The emotional and experience-based religion that still thrives in Appalachia is very much at the heart of American worship. The lack of a recognizable "father figure" like Martin Luther, John Calvin, and John Knox compounds the mystery of Appalachia's religious origins. Ordained minister John Sparks determined that such a person must have existed, and his search turned up a man less literate, urbane, and well-known than Luther, Calvin, and Knox—but no less charismatic and influential. Shubal Stearns, a New England Baptist minister, led a group of sixteen Baptists—now dubbed "The Old Brethren" by Old School Baptists churches in Appalachia—from New England to North Carolina in the mid-eighteenth century. His musical "barking" preaching is still popular, and the association of churches that he established gave birth to many of the disparate denominations prospering in the region today. A man lacking in the scholarship of his peers but endowed with the eccentricities that would make their mark on Appalachian faith, Stearns has long been an object of shame among most Baptist historians. In The Roots of Appalachian Christianity, Sparks depicts an important religious figure in a new light. Poring over pages of out-of-print and little-used histories, Sparks discovered the complexity of Stearns's character and his impact on Appalachian Christianity. The result is a history not just of this leader but of the roots of a religious movement.
The Hudson Review has always had an international focus. Travel and reports from abroad have figured prominently in the journal, including essays on exotic and picturesque locales, as well as accounts from war-torn areas and the experiences of exiles. Many of these are pilgrimages; others are harrowing memoirs. What unites even the most devastating of these accounts are intellectual curiosity and a spirit of adventure. Places Lost and Found is a treasury of distinctive and compelling essays selected from six decades of the Hudson Review. From a description of the gardens of Kyoto and a portrait of Syria just before its civil war to reflections on Veblen and the Mall of America, these essays explore an array of places that are deeply layered with history and meaning. The stunning cover photo of the Semper Opera House in Dresden encapsulates many of the themes of the book: war and its aftermath, the importance of the built environment in any discussion of “place,” the endurance of civilization and resilience, and of course the romance of travel.
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