A Lust for Window Sills

Author: Harry Mount
Publisher: Abacus
ISBN: 9780349121062
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
A brilliant, offbeat celebration of the great hodgepodge of British buildings' Thomas Marks, Sunday Telegraph From soaring Victorian railway stations to Edwardian terraces, from Perpendicular churches to Strawberry Hill, Britain has an architecture unrivalled in fertility, invention and heart-stopping beauty. And with some very strong feelings about window sills, Harry Mount could not be better qualified to survey it. Meandering through garden suburbs and cathedral closes, discovering Moghul palaces in Gloucestershire and Egyptian sphinxes in Islington, A Lust for Window Sills is rich with anecdote, allusion and such inspired digressions as where to find the ugliest gargoyles and a liquid history of watering holes from gin palaces to the Rovers Return.

The New Criterion December 2010

Author: Roger Kimball
Publisher: The New Criterion
ISBN: 0557968852
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 82

Book Description
The New Criterion, now co-edited by the art critic Hilton Kramer and Roger Kimball, was founded in 1982 by Mr. Kramer and the pianist and music critic Samuel Lipman. A monthly review of the arts and intellectual life, The New Criterion began as an experiment in critical audacity-a publication devoted to engaging, in Matthew Arnold's famous phrase, with the best that has been thought and said. This also meant engaging with those forces dedicated to traducing genuine cultural and intellectual achievement, whether through obfuscation, politicization, or a commitment to nihilistic absurdity. We are proud that The New Criterion has been in the forefront both of championing what is best and most humanely vital in our cultural inheritance and in exposing what is mendacious, corrosive, and spurious. Published monthly from September through June, The New Criterion brings together a wide range of young and established critics whose common aim is to bring you the most incisive criticism being written today.

Lust for Life

Author: Irving Stone
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0452262496
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 513

Book Description
“A story of excruciating power.”—The New York Times The classic, bestselling biographical novel of Vincent Van Gogh Since its initial publication in 1934, Irving Stone’s Lust for Life has been a critical success, a multimillion-copy bestseller, and the basis for an Academy Award-winning movie. The most famous of all of Stone’s novels, it is the story of Vincent Van Gogh—brilliant painter, passionate lover, and alleged madman. Here is his tempestuous story: his dramatic life, his fevered loves for both the highest-born women and the lowest prostitutes, and his paintings—for which he was damned before being proclaimed a genius. The novel takes us from his desperate days in a coal mine in southern Belgium to his dazzling years in the south of France, where he knew the most brilliant artists (and the most depraved whores). Finally, it shows us Van Gogh driven mad, tragic, and triumphant at once. No other novel of a great man’s life has so fascinated the American public for generations.

Love and Lust

Author: Theodor Reik
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351508121
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 640

Book Description
These selections from Theodor Reik's work concern the love life and sexual activity of men and women. Reik establishes the theme of this work in the following way: "The sex urge hunts for lustful pleasure; love is in search of joy and happiness." Over a third of this volume had never been published in book form before it originally appeared half a century ago. Its appearance in paperback, for the first time, is a welcome addition to current debates, liberated from ideological and political constraints.The first part of the book is so far ahead of its time that it is still current. It reveals Reik's departure from Freud's theories and from those of most of his contemporaries in psychology and psychoanalysis. Part Two is a greatly abbreviated version of Masochism in Modern Man, retaining those parts with a direct bearing on the subject of this volume. Part Three offers two essays on why people remain single. In the author's usual direct style, they deal with the marriage shyness of the male and the psychological fears and resistance of both men and women to acceptance of the marriage bond. Part Four is Reik at his wisest. "The first lady whom I asked to read the manuscript said smilingly: 'Many of your impressions about us (women) are correct. No man should read the book!' A few seconds later, she said: 'Or rather, every man should read the book!'"As Paul Roazen noted, "in contrast to some of Freud's other followers, Reik was prescient early on in distinguishing self-love from narcissism. Reik believed that genuine self-regard was the ultimate basis for developing the capacity to love."At times Reik seems to defend women, at times to critique them. Yet he writes with sympathy and understanding. He challenges other authorities who have written on the subject, but he also agrees with many of them. Love and Lust is civilized writing at its most provocative. Reik is authoritative, and his book reflects the glow of a rich personali

The Mammoth Book of Tasteless and Outrageous Lists

Author: Karl Shaw
Publisher: Robinson
ISBN: 147211745X
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 452

Book Description
Prepare to be even more revolted, flabbergasted, appalled and entertained by this incredible follow-up collection of bizarre but absolutely true trivia. Nothing is too distasteful for this astonishing compendium, including scores of eclectic lists to amuse, astonish and appal your friends. Entries include: 10 Road-kill Recipes History’s 10 Most Murderous Regimes 10 Historic Sex Toys 10 People who Married Their Nieces 10 Deaths by Sex 10 People Killed by Falling Animals 10 Ancient Remedies Containing Body Parts 10 Flatalogical Facts 8 Most Violent National Anthems 15 Premature Obituaries 10 Unusual Royal Deaths 10 Cruel and Unusual Punishments 10 Notable Executions 12 Elizabethan Insults

Tracing Your House History

Author: Gill Blanchard
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1783376554
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 235

Book Description
“With its practical slant and focus on demystifying unfamiliar property documents, this is the perfect introduction to tracing a house history.” —Family Tree Magazine Anyone who wants to find out about the history of their house—of their home—needs to read this compact, practical handbook. Whether you live in a manor house or on a planned estate, in a laborer’s cottage, a tied house, a Victorian terrace, a twentieth-century council house or a converted warehouse—this is the book for you. In a series of concise, information-filled chapters, Gill Blanchard shows you how to trace the history of your house or flat, how to gain an insight into the lives of the people who lived in it before you, and how to fit it into the wider history of your neighborhood. A wealth of historical evidence is available in libraries, archives and record offices, in books and online, and this is the ideal introduction to it. Gill Blanchard explores these resources in depth, explains their significance and directs the researcher to the most relevant, and revealing, aspects of them. She makes the research process understandable, accessible and fun, and in the process, she demystifies the sometimes-obscure language and layout of the documents that researchers will come up against. “This book is more than a guide to researching the history of your house, or a house of interest. It is a font of interest if you are seeking to research and understand the social and domestic lives of people and their communities from early times.” —Federation of Family History Societies

A Journey Through Tudor England

Author: Suzannah Lipscomb
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1453298908
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 367

Book Description
From King Henry VII to Queen Elizabeth I, this detailed English history brings the past to life through the sights and personalities of the Tudor dynasty. This lively and engaging book will transport the armchair traveler with a taste for the colorful time of Henry VIII and Thomas Moore to palaces, castles, theaters, and abbeys to uncover the stories behind the politically dynamic Tudor era. Author Suzannah Lipscomb visits more than fifty historic sites, from the luxurious palace at Hampton Court, where dangerous intrigue was rife, to lesser known estates such as Hever Castle, Anne Boleyn’s childhood home, and Tutbury Castle, where Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned. In the corridors of power and the courtyards of country houses, we meet the passionate but tragic Kateryn Parr, Henry VIII’s last wife, and Lady Jane Grey, the Nine–Days’ Queen, and we come to understand how Sir Walter Raleigh planned his trip to the New World. A Journey Through Tudor England reveals the rich history of the Tudors and paints a vivid, captivating picture of what it would have been like to see England through their eyes. It is “a genuinely useful and discriminating guide for all Tudor fans” (Hilary Mantel, author of Wolf Hall).

The Montagu Harrier

Author: Thomas Hepton
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 148361798X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 149

Book Description
It is a story about an architect that has a poignant experience in a chapter of his life. The Bronte Moorland and the Annapurna Himalayas are used as vehicles to deliver the complex life of a free-spirited femme fatal, the Montagu Harrier (a slim and elegant bird of prey), and the power of love that she has over the man that is blindsided by her fascinating persona and affections. With a hint of humour and danger, it is also an anecdotal account of what effects pot smoking could have on an individual, their complex lifestyle, and the synergies.

Amo, Amas, Amat ... and All That

Author: Harry Mount
Publisher: Short Books
ISBN: 1780724632
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 272

Book Description
"If you know someone who missed out on Latin at school and wants to live a happier life, you could do no better than give them Harry Mount's entertainingly educative Latin primer." Daily Mail "Amo, Amas, Amat is a diverting meander and Mount's love of Latin shines out on every page." The Spectator "Latin without the pain." Guardian "If you studied Latin at school this will bring back fond memories, but even newcomers will be captivated by this witty and entertaining book..." Yorkshire Evening Post Have you ever found yourself irritated when a sine qua non or a mea culpa is thrown into the conversation by a particularly annoying person? Or do distant memories of afternoons spent struggling to learn obscure verbs fill you with dread? Never fear! Or, as a Latin show-off might say, Nil desperandum! Those endless afternoons where you struggled to remember the third person singular present indicative of volo (vult) may be a long time ago. But, if you have the vaguest memory of the ablative absolute, the locative and the gerund, you mastery of Latin will spring back to life with Amo, amas, amat...and all that. In his trip through the world's most influential language, Harry Mount uncorks its magic, drawing on Latin lovers from Kingsley Amis to John Cleese, from Evelyn Waugh to Donna Tart. Read this book and you will know Latin. Know Latin and - mirabile dictu - you will know Wilfred Owen's misery, Catullus's aching heart and the comedy of a thousand bachelor schoolmasters.

Brick

Author: Carolyne Haynes
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750993596
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 346

Book Description
Bricks – such small and seemingly uninteresting things – have helped to build the way we live as society has evolved, from the feudal system of early Britain right up to today. Originally very expensive, bricks were only used by those who could afford them. This gradually changed with the Great Fire of London in 1666 when legislation decreed that the city must be rebuilt with non flammable materials, and bricks came into their own. A few centuries later bricks formed the infrastructure of industrial Britain as the need for canals and railways grew. But bricks are also associated with some of the worst slums this country has ever known, with poor bricks and sandy mortars indirectly causing misery for thousands of people. Our love affair with bricks continues today, with exposed brickwork being used to decorate both exteriors and interiors. But how are bricks made? What are they made of? Who made them and how have they changed through time? In Brick Carolyne Haynes answers these questions and reveals the surprising social history of bricks in Britain.