Author: Robert Louis Stevenson Publisher: Penguin UK ISBN: 0141956488 Category : Literary Collections Languages : en Pages : 101
Book Description
An irresistible invitation to reject the work ethic and enjoy life's simple pleasures (such as laughing, drinking and lying in the open air), Robert Louis Stevenson's witty and seminal essay on the joys of idleness is accompanied here by his writings on, among other things, growing old, visiting unpleasant places and the overwhelming experience of falling in love. Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are
Author: Tom Hodgkinson Publisher: Harper Collins ISBN: 006231341X Category : Self-Help Languages : en Pages : 178
Book Description
Yearning for a life of leisure? In 24 chapters representing each hour of a typical working day, this book will coax out the loafer in even the most diligent and schedule-obsessed worker. From the founding editor of the celebrated magazine about the freedom and fine art of doing nothing, The Idler, comes not simply a book, but an antidote to our work-obsessed culture. In How to Be Idle, Hodgkinson presents his learned yet whimsical argument for a new, universal standard of living: being happy doing nothing. He covers a whole spectrum of issues affecting the modern idler—sleep, work, pleasure, relationships—bemoaning the cultural skepticism of idleness while reflecting on the writing of such famous apologists for it as Oscar Wilde, Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr. Johnson, and Nietzsche—all of whom have admitted to doing their very best work in bed. It’s a well-known fact that Europeans spend fewer hours at work a week than Americans. So it’s only befitting that one of them—the very clever, extremely engaging, and quite hilarious Tom Hodgkinson—should have the wittiest and most useful insights into the fun and nature of being idle. Following on the quirky, call-to-arms heels of the bestselling Eat, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss, How to Be Idle rallies us to an equally just and no less worthy cause: reclaiming our right to be idle.
Author: Robert Louis Stevenson Publisher: Cooper Square Press ISBN: 1461694353 Category : Literary Collections Languages : en Pages : 316
Book Description
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) is best known as the author of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Treasure Island, and Kidnapped, but his essays comprise an oft-overlooked trove of gems, intriguing in their content and generous in their scope. This collection of nearly three dozen of Stevenson's best essays—the only anthology of its kind— spans his brief life and includes many of his most celebrated pieces and some others previously unpublished.
Author: Robert Louis Stevenson Publisher: Library of Alexandria ISBN: 1465591958 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 218
Book Description
Robert Louis Stevenson was born at Edinburgh on the 13 November 1850. His father, Thomas, and his grandfather, Robert, were both distinguished light-house engineers; and the maternal grandfather, Balfour, was a Professor of Moral Philosophy, who lived to be ninety years old. There was, therefore, a combination of Lux et Veritas in the blood of young Louis Stevenson, which in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde took the form of a luminous portrayal of a great moral idea. In the language of Pope, Stevenson's life was a long disease. Even as a child, his weak lungs caused great anxiety to all the family except himself; but although Death loves a shining mark, it took over forty years of continuous practice for the grim archer to send the black arrow home. It is perhaps fortunate for English literature that his health was no better; for the boy craved an active life, and would doubtless have become an engineer. He made a brave attempt to pursue this calling, but it was soon evident that his constitution made it impossible. After desultory schooling, and an immense amount of general reading, he entered the University of Edinburgh, and then tried the study of law. Although the thought of this profession became more and more repugnant, and finally intolerable, he passed his final examinations satisfactorily. This was in 1875. He had already begun a series of excursions to the south of France and other places, in search of a climate more favorable to his incipient malady; and every return to Edinburgh proved more and more conclusively that he could not live in Scotch mists. He had made the acquaintance of a number of literary men, and he was consumed with a burning ambition to become a writer. Like Ibsen's Master-Builder, there was a troll in his blood, which drew him away to the continent on inland voyages with a canoe and lonely tramps with a donkey; these gave him material for books full of brilliant pictures, shrewd observations, and irrepressible humour. He contributed various articles to magazines, which were immediately recognised by critics like Leslie Stephen as bearing the unmistakable mark of literary genius; but they attracted almost no attention from the general reading public, and their author had only the consciousness of good work for his reward. In 1880 he was married.Ê
Author: Various Publisher: ISBN: 9781573225274 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 292
Book Description
Tales on the seven deadly sins--pride, avarice, lust, gluttony, sloth, envy, anger--with lust the favorite. The authors range from Xenophon to Erica Jong. With illustrations.
Author: Publisher: U of Nebraska Press ISBN: 0803222734 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
?Over the years I have developed a distaste for the spectacle of joie de vivre, the knack of knowing how to live,? begins the title essay by Phillip Lopate. This rejoinder to the cult of hedonism and forced conviviality moves from a critique of the false sentimentalization of children and the elderly to a sardonic look at the social rite of the dinner party, on to a moving personal testament to the ?hungry soul.? ø Lopate?s special gift is his ability to give us not only sophisticated cultural commentary in a dazzling collection of essays but also to bring to his subjects an engaging honesty and openness that invite us to experience the world along with him. Also included here are Lopate?s inspiring account of his production of Chekhov?s Uncle Vanya with a group of preadolescents, a look at the tradition of the personal essay, and a soul-searching piece on the suicide of a schoolteacher and its effect on his students and fellow teachers. ø By turns humorous, learned, celebratory, and elegiac, Lopate displays a keen intelligence and a flair for language that turn bits of common, everyday life into resonant narrative. This collection maintains a conversational charm while taking the contemporary personal essay to a new level of complexity and candor.
Author: Paul Cartledge Publisher: Abrams ISBN: 1590208404 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 424
Book Description
The true story of a clash of ancient cultures: “Beautifully written and stirring . . . An outstanding retelling of one of the seminal events in world history.” —Booklist In 480 BC, a huge Persian army, led by the inimitable King Xerxes, entered the mountain pass of Thermopylae as it marched on Greece, intending to conquer the land with little difficulty. But the Greeks, led by King Leonidas and a small army of Spartans, took the battle to the Persians at Thermopylae, and halted their advance—almost. It is one of history’s most acclaimed battles, one of civilization’s greatest last stands. And in Thermopylae, renowned classical historian Paul Cartledge looks anew at this history-altering moment and, most impressively, shows how its repercussions have bearing on us even today. The invasion of Europe by Xerxes and his army redefined culture, kingdom, and class. The valiant efforts of a few thousand Greek warriors, facing a huge onrushing Persian army at the narrow pass at Thermopylae, changed the way generations to come would think about combat, courage, and death. “A class in Western Civilization that both instructs and entertains.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Author: Alan Dale Publisher: Graphic Arts Books ISBN: 1513295551 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 126
Book Description
A Marriage Below Zero (1889) is a novel by Alan Dale. Recognized as one of the first English language novels to openly depict homosexuality, the novel is a poignant study of the institution of marriage and the policing of desire in Victorian England. Rejected by contemporary critics as “unconventional” for its depiction of “monstrous forms of human voice,” A Marriage Below Zero would later earn Dale a reputation as a pioneering author whose exploration of homosexual romance, however tragic its consequences, set the stage for generations of artists to come. “He reddened slightly. ‘Captain Dillington always enjoys himself,’ he said quietly. ‘He is very happy in society." [...] ‘How rarely you find two really sincere friends,’ I remarked, rather sentimentally. ‘The present time seems to be wonderfully unsuited to such a tie.’ ‘That is true’—very laconically. ‘I think there is nothing so beautiful as friendship,’ I went on, with persistence. ‘You have heard of Damon and Pythias,’ he said quickly, reading me like a book. I blushed deeply and was then furiously angry with myself. ‘I don't mind,’ he went on. ‘Make all the fun of us you like.’” Referring to the ancient Greek story of Damon and Pythias, whose names became synonymous with ideal male friendship, Elsie shows herself to be rather naïve regarding the nature of Arthur Ravener’s relationship with Captain Dillington. Despite this lack of clarity, Elsie Bouverie finds herself attracted to the handsome young man, and soon they are married. As she begins to grow suspicious about his sexual appetites, she hires a private investigator to follow the two friends, unwittingly welcoming tragedy into their lives. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Alan Dale’s A Marriage Below Zero is a classic work of British literature reimagined for modern readers.
Author: Robert Louis 1850-1894 Stevenson Publisher: Wentworth Press ISBN: 9781374275881 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 286
Book Description
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Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
Author: Tom Hodgkinson
Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
Author: Robert Lynd
Author: Various
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Author: Paul Cartledge
Author: Alan Dale
Author: Robert Louis 1850-1894 Stevenson