Сол Беллоу3.8 ""Герцог"" — роман, который критики сравнивали с произведениями Льва Толстого и Джеймса Джойса. Изумительно выписанная история университетского профессора Мозеса Герцога, начинающего мучительный путь поиска смысла жизни. Обстоятельства его бытия, скорее, смешны — жена только что сбежала с лучшим другом, вульгарным и нелепым прожигателем жизни. Но эта банальная ситуация неожиданно приводит Герцога к поистине философскому прозрению и попыткам доказать бессмысленность всего сущего совершенно невероятным, экстравагантным способом…
Владимир Набоков4.2 В книгу включен ранний роман классика литературы русского зарубежья Владимира Набокова «Защита Лужина» (1929–1930), в котором получили оригинальное развитие важнейшие для автора темы потусторонности, смерти и бессмертия, работы человеческой памяти, природы творческого дара. За хитросплетениями жизненной истории гениального и безумного шахматиста-эмигранта Александра Ивановича Лужина постепенно открываются повторяющиеся тайные узоры Судьбы, с которой ему предстоит сыграть свою главную, роковую, безнадежную игру…
Louis Auchincloss0.0 Regarded as one of Louis Auchincloss's most accomplished novels, THE RECTOR OF JUSTIN centers on Frank Prescott, the founder of an exclusive school for boys. Eighty years of his life unfold through the observations of six narrators, each with a unique perspective on the man, his motivations, and the roots of his triumphs and failings.
John Hawkes4.0 Skipper, an ex-World War II naval Lieutenant and the narrator of Second Skin, interweaves past and present—what he refers to as his "naked history"—in a series of episodes that tell the story of a volatile life marked by pitiful losses, as well as a more elusive, overwhelming, joy. The past: the suicides of his father, wife and daughter, the murder of his son-in-law, a brutal rape, and subsequent mutiny at sea. The present: caring for his granddaughter on a "northern" island where he works as an artificial inseminator of cows, and attempts to reclaim the innocence with which he faced the tragedies of his earlier life.
Combining unflinching descriptions of suffering with his sense of beauty, Hawkes is a master of nimble and sensuous prose who makes the awful and mundane fantastic, and occasionally makes the fantastic surreal.
Ричард Ким0.0 This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Уоллес Маркфилд0.0 When Leslie Braverman passes away at the early age of 41, four of his closest friends are reunited on an odyssey through the streets of Brooklyn in a beat-up Volkswagen searching for the funeral parlor. In a series of fits, starts and wrong-turns, the comedic banter that suffuses the journey of these four Jewish proponents of New Criticism and little-magazine writing is quietly transformed into a quest for the intellectual, emotional and sentimental aura of the past.
The basis for the 1968 movie "Bye Bye Braverman," "To An Early Grave" is a testament to the exuberant inventiveness of Wallace Markfield's writing.
Теодор Рётке0.0 With Roethke's sudden, tragic death in 1963, a great poetic career was brought to an untimely end. "The Far Field" presents the most rewarding of his many volumes of poetry, both in brilliance of style and inner meaning. All of the poems have appeared previously in periodicals such as "The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, Ladies' Home Journal, The New Yorker", and "The Partisan Review". Lightning Print on Demand Title.
Norbert Wiener4.6 The new and rapidly growing field of communication sciences owes as much to Norbert Wiener as to any one man. He coined the word for it-- "cybernetics." In "God &; Golem, Inc.," the author concerned himself with major points in cybernetics which are relevant to religious issues. The first point he considers is that of the machine which learns. While learning is a property almost exclusively ascribed to the self-conscious living system, a computer now exists which not only can be programmed to play a game of checkers, but one which can "learn" from its past experience and improve on its own game. For a time, the machine was able to beat its inventor at checkers. "It did win, " writes the author, "and it did learn to win; "and the method of its learning was no different in principle from that of the human being who learns to play checkers."
A second point concerns machines which have the capacity to reproduce themselves. It is our commonly held belief that God made man in his own image. The propagation of the race may also be interpreted as a function in which one living being makes another in its own image. But the author demonstrates that man has made machines which are "very well able to make other machines in their own image, " and these machine images are not merely "pictorial" representations but "operative" images. Can we then say: God is to Golem as man is to Machines? in Jewish legend, "golem" is an embryo Adam, shapeless and not fully created, hence a monster, an automation.
The third point considered is that of the relation between man and machine. The concern here is ethical. "render unto man the things which are man's andunto the computer the things which are the computer's, " warns the author. In this section of the book, Dr. Wiener considers systems involving elements of man "and" machine.
The book is written for the intellectually alert public and does not involve any highly technical knowledge. It is based on lectures given at Yale, at the Socié té Philosophique de Royaumont, and elsewhere.
Луис Фишер4.1 Since there's never been a really good English biography of Lenin, the idea of doing something about it came more or less simultaneously to three authors. As soon as each heard the others were at work, the race to get published was on. Stefan Possony won it, but Authors Payne & Fischer were close behind.
Each biography seems tailored to a specific audience. Robert Payne, a prolific & catholic writer, has produced a Book-of-the-Month selection aimed at romantics. Stefan Possony, political studies director at Stanford's Hoover Institution, will appeal most obviously to believers in conspiratorial views of history, since his research comes from police & foreign office files, ranging from Japan to France, covering mostly Lenin's life as a fugitive conspirator. On balance, Louis Fischer's is the best of the three. Fischer has devoted much of his long lifetime to the study of Russia (The Soviets in World Affairs; Russia, America & the World). He soberly weighs those episodes the other two biographers sometimes accept as fact, offering the pros & cons of each argument. For example, there's a genuine riddle about Lenin's racial background. Payne insists "there was not a drop of Russian blood" in Lenin, claiming his ancestry was German, Swedish & Chuvash, & that it shaped his personality. Without citing any evidence, Possony argues that the "evidence indicates" Lenin's grandfather "was born a Jew." Fischer places the responsibility where it belongs, on the Soviet government. "The records were undoubtedly available in Russia's bulging archives, but the Bolsheviks saw fit to suppress them. This feeds the suspicion that there is something to conceal."
What emerges most strikingly from all three biographies is the awesome power of a singleminded man to change the course of history. If the Kaiser had refused to let Lenin cross wartime Germany & enter Russia, if Kerensky's government had succeeded in arresting & executing Lenin, would the Bolsheviks be merely a footnote to history? Not the least of the paradoxes is the fact that Communism, which teaches the inevitability of historical forces & the impotence individuals in swaying them, owes its conquest of Russia to the energy & confident thrust of Lenin alone.--Time (edited)
