Ник Грум – лучшие книги

Университетский ученый, изобретатель языков и мифологии, Толкин повлиял на культурную матрицу хиппи и христиан, панков и психологов, киноманов и лингвистов. Сегодня Средиземье состоит не только из толкиновского легендариума, но и из смеси литературы, изобразительных искусств, музыки, кинематографа, гейминга, сообщества поклонников и поп-культуры. Автор этой книги — исследователь, профессор Ник Грум рассказывает о рождении Средиземья, о том, как оно ускользнуло от своего автора и стало массовым достоянием, и о мире, который создал Толкин. Книга проиллюстрирована великолепными гравюрами современного художника Григория Бабича.

An authoritative new history of the vampire, two hundred years after it first appeared on the literary scene

Published to mark the bicentenary of John Polidori’s publication of The Vampyre, Nick Groom’s detailed new account illuminates the complex history of the iconic creature. The vampire first came to public prominence in the early eighteenth century, when Enlightenment science collided with Eastern European folklore and apparently verified outbreaks of vampirism, capturing the attention of medical researchers, political commentators, social theorists, theologians, and philosophers. Groom accordingly traces the vampire from its role as a monster embodying humankind’s fears, to that of an unlikely hero for the marginalized and excluded in the twenty-first century.

Drawing on literary and artistic representations, as well as medical, forensic, empirical, and sociopolitical perspectives, this rich and eerie history presents the vampire as a strikingly complex being that has been used to express the traumas and contradictions of the human condition.

Nick Groom, known as the “Prof of Goth,” is professor of English at Exeter University, UK. His previous titles include The Gothic: A Very Short Introduction, and The Seasons: A Celebration of the English Year, which was shortlisted for the Katharine Briggs Folklore Award and came runner-up for BBC Countryfile Book of the Year.

Much more than a biography or a guide to his plays and sonnets, "Introducing Shakespeare: A Graphic Guide" is tour through the world of Will and concludes that even after centuries, Shakespeare remains the battlefield on which our very comprehension of humanity is being fought out.