Dr Johnson sums up the case against Milton "the want of human interest is always felt" It is the apparent distance of Paradise Lost from ordinary humanity that has thrilled or repelled critics throughout the ages While many readers are carried away by Milton's sublimity others are daunted by his grandeur scope & learning Milton himself declared that he would not begin to write until he had "completed the full circle of my private studies" The Greek word for a circle of learning is the root of "encyclopaedia"; & Milton's erudition is encyclopaedic Paradise Lost draws on both ancient learning & the scholarship of his day displaying not only his deep knowledge of the Bible & Biblical scholarship & his passionate assimilation of the classics but also his absorption in astronomy cosmology geography numerology & science Yet many critics of Paradise Lost argue that all this circling lacks a human centre Who after all is the hero? Adam & Eve in their unfallen state are too remote from us; Christ is not yet incarnate; God cannot be a character Which leaves us with the magnificently problematic figure of Satan In this fascinating study of Milton's great poem Caroline Moore suggests that contrary to what these critics argue the core of Paradise Lost is extraordinarily human Milton himself believed that poetry excelled at describing "the wily subtleties & refluxes of man's thought from within" This is precisely what Paradise Lost does If to a generation raised on the novel Milton's methods of psychological exploration seem strange this only intensifies the effect Paradise Lost is a poem that explores the dark byways & infinite strangeness of the human heart ...

It is hard to find anyone nowadays who will dare venture a bad word on Mrs Dalloway its status as a pioneer feminist text & a brilliantly experimental work is wholly secure At the time of its publication however opinions were more mixed It was hard in the mid-1920s to come to terms with what for many seemed a vexatiously new-fangled work The reading public was not yet ready for the challenge of what came to be called stream of consciousness narrative or the inner richness of a novel whose main event a superficial reading might suggest is an upper-class Conservative politician's wife's purchase of flowers for a summer party This recall in the immediate aftermath of a conflict the First World War which had shaken the whole of Europe to its foundations Before during & after writing Mrs Dalloway Woolf teetered on the edge of mental breakdown & more than once fell into its awful depths & on the edge of the main plot of Mrs Dalloway & its heroine's outwardly serene existence she places Septimus Smith
- a shell-shocked survivor of the Great War who finds peacetime too terrible to continue living in Mrs Dalloway is a novel which provokes thought about the fraught nature of genius literary modernism the ambiguous place of women in English society & literature the infinite complexities of sexual relationships & even the worthwhileness of life itself This book seeks to explore all this & to show that reading Mrs Dalloway can be one of the most rewarding experiences English fiction has to offer
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There once was a large country that was ruled by a General The General would take his army & attack all the countries around him until they were conquered Eventually there was only one small country left to conquer However this one did not resist but welcomed the soldiers
- leading to a quite unexpected result! 32 pages Mc Kee David
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' Well-being for all is not a dream' In this brilliantly enjoyable challenging rallying-cry of a book Kropotkin lays out the heart of his anarchist beliefs
- beliefs which surged around the world in the late 19th & early 20th centuries & which have a renewed relevance & poignancy today Humane thoughtful
- but also a devastating critique of how modern society is organized (with the brutal narrow few clinging onto their wealth & privileges at the expense of the many) The Conquest of Bread is a book to be argued over again & again

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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 Charting man&s complicated journey towards & mastery over flight this fascinating film uses both drama & documentary footage to present a highly cinematic account of the evolution of aviation encompassing early experiments in automated flight the development of bombers & aircraft carriers & the earliest experiments in vertical rotary flight A project initiated in 1935 by Alexander Korda as a potential collaboration with Winston Churchill The Conquest of the Air was produced in fits & starts over the following five years eventually being released in 1940 as a propaganda film to help the war effort both here & in America The film is featured here in a br&-new transfer from original film elements in its as-exhibited aspect ratio ...

Perfect reading for fans of Joanna Trollope & Elizabeth Buchan this is a novel of lost loves deceits & second chances Nattie is now happily married to Hugo & they have two beautiful children but no one knows that her heart has never truly been hers to give The love of her life was lost to her years ago or so she thought Now Ahmed is back & although he knows Nattie is married he just can't stop himself from making contact Torn between Ahmed & her family Nattie ends up meeting him in secret But will her lies cause more trouble than the truth? Praise for A Matter of Loyalty the brilliant prequel Topical & intriguing Brave & far-reaching the novel never loses pace Thrilling' Daily Telegraph ' Sandra Howard's thriller could not be more topical An entertaining yarn that explores the conflict of the interest between love politics & religion' Tatler ' Engaging & genuinely gripping' Daily Mail ...

Bedded banished pregnant! Talented photographer Coral Dahl can't afford any distractions on her first major photoshoot But the beauty of her location-the private Greek island of Hydros-is nothing compared to the lethal charisma of its owner tycoon Raffaele Rossini! A charisma that wary innocent Coral is powerless to resist Coral is astonished to discover her family is scandalously entwined with Rafa's & that she has a claim on his inheritance Branded a gold-digger she's dismissed from his bed & his life But the biggest surprise of all is that their one night of rapture has had unexpected permanent consequences! ...

Winner of the Blue Peter Book Award 2012 Fourteen-year-old Mariel returns to England for her grandmother's funeral It is the first time she has been back since she emigrated with her mother as a baby & it is the beginning of the uncovering of some really extraordinary truths about the Considine family Why did Mariel's mum argue with Grandma all those years ago? Why does Amelia wear so much perfume? Why is there a very large cat flap in Louvre House? Why does Gerald seem scared of his brother's appetite? Did Grandma Considine really break her neck falling down the stairs? & most importantly what is the dark secret that lies at the heart of the family? ...

Boethius composed the De Consolatione Philosophiae in the sixth century AD whilst awaiting death under torture condemned on a charge of treason which he protested was manifestly unjust Though a convinced Christian in detailing the true end of life which is the soul's knowledge of God he consoled himself not with Christian precepts but with the tenets of Greek philosophy This work dominated the intellectual world of the Middle Ages; writers as diverse as Thomas Aquinas Jean de Meun & Dante were inspired by it In England it was rendered in to Old English by Alfred the Great into Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer & later Queen Elizabeth I made her own translation The circumstances of composition the heroic demeanour of the author & the ' Menippean' texture of part prose part verse have combined to exercise a fascination over students of philosophy & literature ever since 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 ...

The Consolations of Philosophy is Alain de Botton's internationally bestselling guide to life Alain de Botton bestselling author of How Proust Can Change Your Life has set six of the finest minds in the history of philosophy to work on the problems of everyday life Here then are Socrates Epicurus Seneca Montaigne Schopenhauer & Nietzsche on some of the things that bother us all lack of money the pain of love inadequacy anxiety; the fear of failure & the pressure to conform' Singlehandedly de Botton has taken philosophy back to its simplest & most important purpose helping us live our lives' Independent' No doubt about it philosophy is the new rock & roll & Alain de Botton is its Colonel Tom Parker A pleasure to read & good writing like good philosophy is always a consolation' John Banville Irish Times' Few discussions on the great philosophers can have been so entertaining an ingenious imaginative book' Humphrey Carpenter Sunday Times' Witty thoughtful entertaining a stylish book which manages to make philosophy both enjoyable & relevant' Anthony Clare Literary Review' Gentle helpful & humane De Botton's instinct is surely right if we are to bring philosophy to life we should look again at those thinkers who have sought to be not clever or paradoxical but simply wise' Roger Scruton Mail on Sunday ...