The idea of human cruelty to animals so consumes novelist Elizabeth Costello in her later years that she can no longer look another person in the eye humans especially meat-eating ones seem to her to be conspirators in a crime of stupefying magnitude taking place on farms & in slaughterhouses factories & laboratories across the world Costello's son a physics professor admires her literary achievements but dreads his mother's lecturing on animal rights at the college where he teaches His colleagues resist her argument that human reason is overrated & that the inability to reason does not diminish the value of life; his wife denounces his mother's vegetarianism as a form of moral superiority At the dinner that follows her first lecture the guests confront Costello with a range of sympathetic & skeptical reactions to issues of animal rights touching on broad philosophical anthropological & religious perspectives Painfully for her son Elizabeth Costello seems offensive & flaky but--dare he admit it?--strangely on target In this landmark book Nobel Prize-winning writer J M Coetzee uses fiction to present a powerfully moving discussion of animal rights in all their complexity He draws us into Elizabeth Costello's own sense of mortality her compassion for animals & her alienation from humans even from her own family In his fable presented as a Tanner Lecture sponsored by the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University Coetzee immerses us in a drama reflecting the real-life situation at hand a writer delivering a lecture on an emotionally charged issue at a prestigious university Literature philosophy performance & deep human conviction--Coetzee brings all these elements into play As in the story of Elizabeth Costello the Tanner Lecture is followed by responses treating the reader to a variety of perspectives delivered by leading thinkers in different fields Coetzee's text is accompanied by an introduction by political philosopher Amy Gutmann & responsive essays by religion scholar Wendy Doniger primatologist Barbara Smuts literary theorist Marjorie Garber & moral philosopher Peter Singer author of Animal Liberation Together the lecture-fable & the essays explore the palpable social consequences of uncompromising moral conflict & confrontation ...

The Lives of Captain Jack is Big Finish's first Doctor Who spin-off featuring the immensely popular character of Captain Jack Harkness played by John Barrowman MBEThe Captain Jack character went on from Doctor Who to head up world-spanning spin-off Torchwood & star John Barrowman has since recreated the role along with his fellow co-stars in a number of popular Torchwood audio productions for Big Finish Co-star Alexander Vlahos has been seen most recently in BBC2's epic historical drama Versailles
- but he's also played Dorian Gray in a run of Big Finish audio releases Russell Tovey & Camille Coduri return to play their fan-favourite roles of Midshipman Alonso Frame & Jackie Tyler
- mother of Billie Piper's Rose Tyler the first companion in 2005's returned Doctor Who

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Glorious new rejacket of a Diana Wynne Jones favourite exploring the childhood of Chrestmanci
- now a book with extra bits! Discovering
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The result of six years of research & some 1200 interviews this book takes fans deep into Lennon's secretive world from his traumatic childhood to his Beatles days to his hidden life with Yoko Ono While the Lennon of legend enjoyed a gifted & inspired life the private Lennon lived in torment poisoning himself with drugs & self-hatred The Lives of John Lennon exposed for the first time all of his various lives from idealist to cynic from ascetic to junkie It is a lasting tribute to his brilliant achievements & a revelation of the price he paid for them ...

With a foreword by John le Carre 1984 East Germany Captain Gerd Wiesler a loyal member of the secret police is assigned to spy on the playwright Georg Dreyman The flat is bugged & Wiesler begins to listen in to the daily
- & nightly -activities of the playwright & his actress-girlfriend But when he discovers that the surveillance has been instigated by the Minister of Culture's desire for Dreyman's girlfriend rather than the playwright's political views Wiesler begins to question his own loyalties As he continues to listen in he finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed in the couple's lives & the gap between his professional duty & personal integrity starts to widen This hugely influential film by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck whose screenplay is published in English for the first time is as relevant
- or even more so
- now in the wake of Edward Snowden & the Wiki Leaks revelations as it was when it won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film Further contents Introduction by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck; ' Appassionata The Idea for the Film' by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck'; an essay by Sebastian Koch (' Georg Dreyman'); an interview with Ulrich Muhe by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck; ' Wiesler's Change of Heart' an essay by Manfred Wilke; full film cast & crew credits Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck the writer & director of The Lives of Others was born in Cologne in 1973 & grew up in New York City Brussels Frankfurt & West Berlin He studied Russian Literature in Leningrad before obtaining an MA from Oxford & a Diploma in Film Direction from the University of Film & Television in Munich


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Please note this is a region 2 DVD & will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play Drama set in East Berlin prior to the fall of the communist government Captain Gerd Weiser (Ulrich Muhe) is assigned to surveillance duties specifically to collect information on popular dramatist Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch) & his actress partner Christa Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck) As he becomes more & more submerged in their lives Weiser&s own attitudes to life politics & the state begin to change & it&s not long before he finds himself in a dangerous situation Actors Martina Gedeck Ulrich Muhe Sebastian Koch Ulrich Tukur Thomas Thieme Directors Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck Language German Subtitles English Number of discs 1 ...

Packed with facts attributions & entertaining anecdotes about his contemporaries Vasari&s collection of biographical accounts also presents a highly influential theory of the development of Renaissance art Beginning with Cimabue & Giotto who represent the infancy of art Vasari considers the period of youthful vigour shaped by Donatello Brunelleschi Ghiberti & Masaccio before discussing the mature period of perfection dominated by the titanic figures of Leonardo Raphael & Michelangelo This specially commissioned translation contains thirty-six of the most important lives as well as an introduction & explanatory notes ABOUT THE SERIES For over 100 years Oxford World&s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe Each affordable volume reflects Oxford&s commitment to scholarship providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features including expert introductions by leading authorities helpful notes to clarify the text up-to-date bibliographies for further study & much more ...

' If a man is to write A Panegyrick he may keep vices out of sight; but if he professes to write A Life he must represent it really as it was' In the last of his major writings Samuel Johnson looked back over the previous two centuries of English Literature in order to describe the personalities as well as the achievements of the leading English poets The major Lives
- of Milton Dryden Swift & Pope
- are memorable cameos of the life of writing in which Johnson is as attentive to human frailty as to literary prowess The shorter Lives preserve some of Johnson's most piercing critical judgements Unsentimental opinionated "able The Lives of the Poets continues to influence the reputations of the writers concerned It is one of the greatest works of English criticism but also one of the most humanly diverting This selection of the Lives of ten of the most important poets draws its text from Roger Lonsdale's authoritative complete edition ABOUT THE SERIES For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features including expert introductions by leading authorities helpful notes to clarify the text up-to-date bibliographies for further study & much more

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Responding to a critical need for greater perspectives on transgender life in the United States Genny Beemyn & Susan (Sue) Rankin apply their extensive expertise to a groundbreaking survey--one of the largest ever conducted in the US--on gender development & identity-making among transsexual women transsexual men crossdressers & genderqueer individuals With nearly 3500 participants the survey is remarkably diverse & with more than 400 follow-up interviews the data offers limitless opportunities for research & interpretation Beemyn & Rankin track the formation of gender identity across individuals & groups beginning in childhood & marking the touchstones that led participants to identify as transgender They explore when & how participants noted a feeling of difference because of their gender the issues that caused them to feel uncertain about their gender identities the factors that encouraged them to embrace a transgender identity & the steps they have taken to meet other transgender individuals Beemyn & Rankin's findings expose the kinds of discrimination & harassment experienced by participants in the US & the psychological toll of living in secrecy & fear They discover that despite increasing recognition by the public of transgender individuals & a growing rights movement these populations continue to face bias violence & social & economic disenfranchisement Grounded in empirical data yet rich with human testimony The Lives of Transgender People adds uncommon depth to the literature on this subject & introduces fresh pathways for future research ...

The turbulent Tudor age never fails to capture the imagination But what was it actually like to be a woman during this period? This was a time when death in infancy or during childbirth was rife; when marriage was usually a legal contract not a matter for love & the education of women was minimal at best Yet the Tudor century was also dominated by powerful & characterful women in a way that no era had been before Elizabeth Norton explores the seven ages of the Tudor woman from childhood to old age through the diverging examples of women such as Elizabeth Tudor Henry VIII's sister who died in infancy; Cecily Burbage Elizabeth's wet nurse; Mary Howard widowed but influential at court; Elizabeth Boleyn mother of a controversial queen; & Elizabeth Barton a peasant girl who would be lauded as a prophetess Their stories are interwoven with studies of topics ranging from Tudor toys to contraception to witchcraft painting a portrait of the lives of queens & serving maids nuns & harlots widows & chaperones ...