Publisher: e-artnow
This novel was inspired by the receipt of a letter to Stacpoole in which the writer (an ex-Foreign Legion soldier) suggested that his story would make a good book. This novel is the result and is loosely based on the soldier's experiences in Africa.
'I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee, or a ragout.' One of the most-studied pieces of satire in history, 'A Modest Proposal' is a darkly funny yet scathing critique of British colonialism from an Irish lens. First published in 1729 to much backlash, Swift goes to great lengths to illustrate a potential solution to poverty and overpopulation in Ireland: parents undergoing economic hardship ought to sell their children as food for the upper classes. A masterclass in irony, Swift delves into the financial benefits of his suggestion, even offering numerous ways to prepare babies for consumption. A powerful and shocking criticism of the dire conditions of Ireland and indifference of the British government at the time, 'A Modest Proposal' remains widely read to this day. This audiobook edition is narrated by the talented Malk Williams. Jonathan Swift (1667 – 1745) was an Irish writer and satirist, famed for his deadpan style of writing. He is best remembered for his satirical works 'A Modest Proposal (1729) and Gulliver's Travels (1726). A master in the art of irony, future works of satire in his style of hyperbole have subsequently been classed as 'Swiftian'.Show book
Years after her successful and impactful career at the CIA, Christina Hillsberg became enthralled with the stories of the trailblazing women who forged new paths within the Agency long before she began her career there in the aughts. These were women who sacrificed their personal lives, risked their safety, defied expectations, and boldly navigated the male-dominated spy organization. Through exclusive interviews with current and former female CIA officers, many of whom have never spoken publicly, Agents of Change tells an enthralling and, at times, disturbing story set against the backdrop of the evolving women's movement. It was the 1960s, a "secretarial" era, when women first gained a foothold and pushed against the one-dimensional, pop-culture trope of the sexy Cold War Bond Girl. Underestimated but undaunted, they fought their way, decade-by-decade, through adversity to the top of the spy game. Seamlessly weaving together the individual stories of these exceptional women, Hillsberg deftly tackles not just the fight for gender equality at the CIA, but the current dilemma the Agency faces when dealing with the culmination of a decades-long culture of sexual harassment and assault.Show book
"One of the penalties of an ecological education," wrote Aldo Leopold, "is that one lives alone in a world of wounds." As climate change and other environmental degradations become more evident, experts predict that an increasing number of people will suffer emotional and psychological distress as a result. Many are feeling these effects already. In the pages of Solastalgia, they will find a source of companionship, inspiration, and advice. The concept of solastalgia comes from the Australian philosopher Glenn Albrecht, who describes it as "the homesickness we feel while still at home." It’s the pain and longing we feel as we realize the world immediately around us is changing, with our love for that world serving as a catalyst for action on its behalf. This powerful anthology brings together thirty-four writers—educators, journalists, poets, and scientists—to share their emotions in the face of environmental crisis. They share their solastalgia, their beloved places, their vulnerability, their stories, their vision of what we can create.Show book
This book comprises five classic works of Chinese mysticism. Culturally, these are the companion works to Confucius’ thoughts, as expanded by Mencius. Confucianism is very much the Apollonian side of Chinese culture. It focuses on matters of ethics, hierarchy, responsibility, and social obligation. Daoism is the other side of the coin, focused on abstraction and uncertainty. The two translators included in this volume were very different men. While they wrote in the same period, their audiences were distinct from one another, and this comes through in their differing approaches to the original texts they are working with. One was a missionary, looking to ensure that his fellow spreaders of the word could understand as completely and correctly as possible the culture that they had come into. The other was a curator at the British Museum, who popularized the first English translations for a thoroughly domestic market.Show book
Presented here are 3 short works by Virginia Woolf, each a unique consideration of the work of Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The essays included are: The Father: Woolf's ruminations of family and, particularly, the father within the works of Dostoyevsky. More Dostoyevsky: Further thoughts on Dostoyevsky's work, an author of whom she once wrote "It is directly obvious that he is the greatest writer ever born." In Cranford: A comedic exploration of Dostoyevsky's work where Woolf transplants the great master into English provincial life to explore the unique nature of his work and the English nature.Show book
Human beings seem to have a particular fascination for microbiological threats. They are invisible, unpredictable and mysterious, and it is only in the past 150 years or so that scientists have begun to understand microorganisms and the maladies they can cause. Modern society has long been horrified and enthralled by accounts of such pestilences as the Black Death, which exterminated up to 60% of the population of Europe from 1347-1351. Less known is the Plague of Justinian which was even more deadly in that it carried away a quarter of the world’s population within the space of one year (542 CE). The Great Plague of London, which killed 100,000 in 1666, is another infamous pestilence, as is the Spanish Flu of 1918, which took the lives of as many as one million worldwide, making that epidemic even deadlier than the medieval Black Death. Such virulent outbreaks of disease are by no means distant historical events. While scientific and technological advances have limited and in many places eradicated such community-devastating diseases as cholera, smallpox, bubonic plague, typhus, Salmonella and yellow fever, new microscopic threats have arisen, including Ebola, SARS, bird flu, and most recently Coronavirus 2. The terror associated with pestilence speaks to people’s insecurities concerning the unknown and invisible. The ancients had no knowledge of microorganisms that caused disease-instead they postulated that pestilence was caused by miasma, air fouled by decomposing matter. That said, modern awareness of microscopic viruses and bacteria does nothing to lessen humanity’s insecurity. If anything, it is terrifying that such tiny creatures have the capacity to overthrow powerful and vibrant societies. This is one of the themes of H. G. Wells’ famous War of the Worlds (1897).Show book
