Why did Rome fall? Vicious barbarian invasions during the fifth century resulted in the cataclysmic end of the world's most powerful civilization & a 'dark age' for its conquered peoples Or did it? The dominant view of this period today is that the 'fall of Rome' was a largely peaceful transition to Germanic rule & the start of a positive cultural transformation Bryan Ward-Perkins encourages every reader to think again by reclaiming the drama & violence of the last days of the Roman world & reminding us of the very real horrors of barbarian occupation Attacking new sources with relish & making use of a range of contemporary archaeological evidence he looks at both the wider explanations for the disintegration of the Roman world & also the consequences for the lives of everyday Romans in a world of economic collapse marauding barbarians & the rise of a new religious orthodoxy He also looks at how & why successive generations have understood this period differently & why the story is still so significant today ...

The Fall of the House of Usher & Other Writings is a collection that displays the full force of Edgar Allen Poe's mastery of both Gothic horror & the short story form This Penguin Classics edition is edited with an introduction & notes by David Galloway This selection of Poe's critical writings short fiction & poetry demonstrates his intense interest in aesthetic issues & the astonishing power & imagination with which he probed the darkest corners of the human mind ' The Fall of the House of Usher' is a slow-burning Gothic horror describing the final hours of a family tormented by tragedy & the legacy of the past In ' The Tell-Tale Heart' a murderer's insane delusions threaten to betray him while stories such as ' The Pit & the Pendulum' ' The Raven' & ' The Cask of Amontillado' explore extreme states of decadence fear & hate In his introduction David Galloway re-examines the myths surrounding Poe's life & reputation This edition

Includes:: a new chronology & suggestions for further reading Although dissipated in his youth & plagued by mental instability towards the end of his life Boston-born Edgar Allan Poe (1809-49) had a variety of occupations including service in the US army & magazine editor as well as his remarkable literary output If you enjoyed The Fall of the House of Usher you might like Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto also available in Penguin Classics' The most original genius that America has produced' Alfred Lord Tennyson' Poe has entered our popular consciousness as no other American writer' The New York Times Book Review

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Please note this is a region 2 DVD & will require a region 2 or region free DVD player in order to play After a long journey Philip arrives at the Usher mansion seeking his loved one Madeline Upon arriving however he discovers that Madeline & her brother Roderick Usher have been afflicted with a mysterious malady Actors Vincent Price Mark Damon Myrna Fahey & Harry Ellerbe Director Roger Corman Certificate 12 years & over Year 1960 Screen Widescreen 2351 Anamorphic Languages English ; German ; French
- Dolby Digital (10) Mono Subtitles Dutch ; English for the hearing impaired ; French ; German for the hearing impaired ; Spanish Duration 1 hour & 18 minutes (approx)
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Please note this is a region B Blu-ray & will require a region B or region free Blu-ray player in order to play The brutal brothers from Bethnal Green are back & bloodier than ever in FALL OF THE KRAYS Following on from the ferocious Rise Of The Krays FALL OF THE KRAYS picks up the story of the infamous Firm as the cracks start to show in the brothers business plans & their sanity Having secured their empire & their infamy the brothers must now fight to keep hold of both as the obsession of one police officer becomes entwined with a burgeoning romance & a dangerous state of mind for Reggie & Ronnie respectively ...

Please note this is a region 2 DVD & will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play The brutal brothers from Bethnal Green are back & bloodier than ever in FALL OF THE KRAYS Following on from the ferocious Rise Of The Krays FALL OF THE KRAYS picks up the story of the infamous Firm as the cracks start to show in the brothers business plans & their sanity Having secured their empire & their infamy the brothers must now fight to keep hold of both as the obsession of one police officer becomes entwined with a burgeoning romance & a dangerous state of mind for Reggie & Ronnie respectively ...

Please note this is a region 2 DVD & will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play One of the great screen epics director Anthony Mann&s Oscar-nominated The Fall of the Roman Empire comes to DVD for the first time in this digitally remastered deluxe edition The all-star cast

Includes:: Academy Award winners Alec Guinness & Sophia Loren with Christopher Plummer Stephen Boyd James Mason & Omar Sharif Drawn from the same events that later inspired Gladiator the film charts the power-hungry greed & father-son betrayal that led to Rome&s collapse at the bloody hands of the Barbarians Featuring great sets fine acting & thundering battle scenes (Videohound&s Movie Guide) plus a blistering chariot race rivalling that in Ben-Hur this is a must-see epic full of the gore & glories of ancient Rome (Channel 4) Rated Parental Guidance

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The concluding part of John D Grainger's history of the Seleukids traces the tumultuous last century of their empire In this period it was riven by dynastic disputes secessions & rebellions the religiously-inspired insurrection of the Jewish Maccabees civil war & external invasion from Egypt in the West & the Parthians in the East By the 80s BC the empire was disintegrating internally fractured & squeezed by the converging expansionist powers of Rome & Parthia This is a fittingly dramatic & colourful conclusion to John Grainger's masterful account of this once-mighty empire ...

It took 600 men six years to build & was one of the longest bridges in the world On its completion in 1878 famous visitors including the Emperor of Brazil Prince Leopold of the Belgians & Queen Victoria herself came to pay homage to this marvel of Victorian engineering Then on the night of 28 December 1879 the unthinkable happened Battered by an apocalyptic storm the thirteen 'high girders' of the rail bridge over the Tay estuary fell headlong into the river below carrying with them a train with all its passengers & crew There were no survivors What caused the fall of the Tay Bridge & who was really to blame? Returning to the subject since the first edition of The Fall of the Tay Bridge in 1994 David Swinfen has meticulously analysed new evidence & now presents a solution to the riddle which has perplexed historians & engineers for generations what really brought the bridge down? ...

Misha Glenny&s acclaimed account of the war in former Yugoslavia contains substantial new material that discusses the end of the five-year conflict & looks ahead to an uneasy future in this turbulent region Writing in the Evening Standard Fitzroy Maclean said ‘ Misha Glenny’s deeply disturbing book is to my mind essential reading for anyone trying to understand or even just follow events in what was once Yugoslavia’ ...

Please note this is a region B Blu-ray & will require a region B or region Free Blu-ray player in order to play All six episodes from the second series of the BBC crime drama starring Gillian Anderson as a Metropolitan Police detective drafted to Belfast to help on a puzzling murder case Though her superiors aren&t convinced Stella Gibson (Anderson) continues her investigations into an alleged serial killer who has so far been successful at covering his tracks & evading capture Meanwhile the killer Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan) remains true to his cause & seeks out his next victim ...