This richly illustrated study is the first consider the manifold functions & meanings of Halss distinctive handling of paint. Atkins explores the uniqueness of Halss approach to painting & the relationship of his manner to seventeenth-century aesthetics. He also investigates the economic motivations & advantages of his methods the operation of the style as a personal & workshop brand & the apparent modernity of the artists style. The book seeks to understand the multiple levels on which Halss consciously cultivated manner of painting operated for himself his pupils & assistants his clients & succeeding generations of viewers. As a result the book offers a wholly new understanding of one of the leading artists of the Dutch Golden Age & one of the most formative painters in the history of art in the Western tradition. It also provides a much needed interrogation of the interrelationships of subjectivity style authorship methods of artistic & commercial production economic consumption & art theory in early modernity. ...

Place-names are important to the historian & the archaeologist. Quite apart from the inherent interest of the original meaning of a place-name the fact that in England there are six successive layers of language reflected in the stock of place-names means that they provide vital evidence for dating & indeed for estimating the mixture of races in the composition of the nation. The author as President of the English Place-Name Society has succeeded in bringing the story of English place-names to a wider public in this fascinating general study. The response to the first edition demonstrated the books appeal to the reader with an interest in the evolution meaning & significance of the names of our towns villages rivers & hills. The Listener said that the book opens up the whole subject in the most enthralling manner while Comment observed.. .a classic in this field essential reading for anyone interested in local history. This new edition emphasises the contribution that this philological discipline can make to the work of the archaeologist & the historian & to our understanding of the long process of human settlement in our isl&. The sub-title of the book is Place-Names & the History of England"... Dr Gelling & her colleagues have made great strides in exploiting the latent store of information about the past preserved in the names of places." ...

Your guardian angels are continuously giving you messages frequently through signs such as seeing rainbows repetitive number sequences finding coins or feathers & hearing meaningful songs. In Signs from Above" Doreen Virtue & her son Charles teach how to understand the signs that are always around you. Youll gain comfort from reading true stories of how angels answered prayers by giving clear signs of their love & protection. Youll also have a better understanding of how to ask the angels for signs along with specific prayers for your relationships career health & other vital areas of your life." ...

The path of true love never runs smoothly & when Gemma is involved it can get exceedingly bumpy! For as long as thirteen-year-old Gemma Stone can remember she has dreamed of becoming an award-winning journalist. Unfortunately as the youngest member of the editorial team on the Green Park High student web-zine she is given the job of writing the horoscopes under the pen name ' Jessica Jupiter'. Not knowing the first thing about astrology Gemma decides to make the most of her unexpected situation by using her new position to play Cupid with her friends writing fictional forecasts to help their romantic dreams come true. But is Gemma to busy with her friends love lives to notice signs of love closer to home? ...

The path of true love never runs smoothly & when Gemma is involved it can get exceedingly bumpy! Gemma has finally been given the opportunity to work on an actual article for the school webzine. The only problem is that it involves working with annoying senior news reporter Will Bold & he's made it very clear that he doesn't want any of Gemma's help. But it's her first chance to prove herself so Gemma throws herself into the role of undercover journalist at full throttle earning some unexpected results... Meanwhile Gemma's mystic alter-ego Jessica Jupiter is still proving to be a hit amongst the students of Green Park
- & as her last project of getting Treacle & Jeff together worked out so well Gemma's keen to use her new found cupid-status to help Savannah in a love dilemma.
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Their garments are black as night. They carry torches in their hands darkness & anger in their hearts. They are coming. When a dark family secret is exposed Sigruns peaceful life is shattered. Forced to pay for her parents misdeeds she finds herself exiled from all she knows
- & from the boy she loves
- for three long years. Yet more secrets lie ahead; not least the power Sigrun finds awakening in herself seemingly passed to her from a mysterious amulet. Can she use her new-found gift to save herself & those around her from the dangers they face? & will true love wait until her return?

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Louis E. Fenech offers a compelling new examination of one of the only Persian compositions attributed to the tenth Sikh Guru Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708): the Zafar-namah or ' Epistle of Victory.' Written as a masnavi a Persian poem this letter was originally sent to the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb (d. 1707) rebuking his most unbecoming conduct. Incredibly Guru Gobind Singh's letter is included today within the Sikh canon one of only a very small handful of Persian-language texts granted the status of Sikh scripture. As such its contents are sung on special Sikh occasions. Perhaps equally surprising is the fact that the letter appears in the tenth Guru's book or the Dasam Granth in the standard Gurmukhi script (in which Punjabi is written) but retains its original Persian language a vernacular few Sikhs know. Drawing out the letter's direct & subtle references to the Iranian national epic the Shah-namah & to Shaikh Sa'di's thirteenth-century Bustan Fenech demonstrates how this letter served as a form of Indo-Islamic verbal warfare ensuring the tenth Guru's moral & symbolic victory over the legendary & powerful Mughal empire. Through analysis of the Zafar-namah Fenech resurrects an essential & intiguing component of the Sikh tradition: its Islamicate aspect. ...

The Sikh religion has a following of over 20 million people worldwide & is one of the largest religions in the world. However events such as the verbal & physical attacks on Sikhs just after September 11 indicated that Sikhs were being mistaken for Muslims & suggests that the raising of sufficient & appropriate awareness about Sikhism still needs to be addressed. This book will introduce newcomers to the meaning of Sikhism & its practices rituals & festivals. The key threads in the fascinating history of the religion will be highlighted from the Gurus & the development of the Sikh look to martyrdom & militarization in the 17th & 18th Centuries & the diaspora. Eleanor Nesbitt brings the subject completely up to date with an examination of gender & caste referring to contemporary film such as Bend It Like Beckham & media reports. ...

George Eliots tale of a solitary miser gradually redeemed by the joy of fatherhood Silas Marner" is edited with an introduction & notes by David Carroll in " Penguin Classics". Wrongly accused of theft & exiled from a religious community many years before the embittered weaver Silas Marner lives alone in Raveloe living only for work & his precious hoard of money. But when his money is stolen & an orphaned child finds her way into his house Silas is given the chance to transform his life. His fate & that of Eppie the little girl he adopts is entwined with Godfrey Cass son of the village Squire who like Silas is trapped by his past. " Silas Marner" George Eliots favourite of her novels combines humour rich symbolism & pointed social criticism to create an unsentimental but affectionate portrait of rural life. This text uses the Cabinet edition revised by George Eliot in 1878. David Carrolls introduction is complemented by the original " Penguin Classics" edition introduction by Q.D. Leavis. Mary Ann Evans (1819-80) began her literary career as a translator & later editor of the Westminster Review. In 1857 she published " Scenes of Clerical Life" the first of eight novels she would publish under the name of George Eliot including " The Mill on the Floss" " Middlemarch" & " Daniel Deronda". If you enjoyed " Silas Marner" you might like Nathaniel Hawthornes " The Scarlet Letter" also available in " Penguin Classics". "I think " Silas Marner" holds a higher place than any of the authors works. It is more nearly a masterpiece; it has more of that simple rounded consummate aspect...which marks a classical work". (Henry James)." ...

Although the shortest of George Eliot's novels Silas Marner is one of her most admired & loved works. It tells the sad story of the unjustly exiled Silas Marner
- a handloom linen weaver of Raveloe in the agricultural heartland of England
- & how he is restored to life by the unlikely means of the orphan child Eppie. Silas Marner is a tender & moving tale of sin & repentance set in a vanished rural world & holds the reader's attention until the last page as Eppie's bonds of affection for Silas are put to the test.

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