Биографии — 80 книг

"Бог танца", "восьмое чудо света", "царь воздуха" - называли современники Вацлава Нижинского (1889-1950). Он один из тех, кто принес мировую славу русскому балету. Его танец, как и его жизнь, были мистическими, яркими.
Книга, написанная женой Вацлава Нижинского Ромолой, во многом субъективна. Но главным ее достоинством является то, что написана она человеком, горячо любившим Нижинского, разделившим с ним все тяготы судьбы и оставшимся ему верным до конца жизни.

"Бог танца", "восьмое чудо света", "царь воздуха" - называли современники Вацлава Нижинского (1889-1950). Он один из тех, кто принес мировую славу русскому балету. Его танец, как…

Спиноза был глубоко верующим человеком, но, по-видимому, не исповедовал никакой определенной религии. Его философия допускает существование Бога, а сам он прожил жизнь святого. Вследствие этого к нему при жизни питали отвращение представители всех

Спиноза был глубоко верующим человеком, но, по-видимому, не исповедовал никакой определенной религии. Его философия допускает существование Бога, а сам он прожил жизнь святого.…

В своей книге "Ницше за 90 минут" Пол Стретерн предлагает краткий обзор жизни и идей Ницше, которые так дорого обошлись человечеству. Книга включает в себя выдержки из трудов философа, а также даты важнейших событий, произошедших как в судьбе самого

В своей книге "Ницше за 90 минут" Пол Стретерн предлагает краткий обзор жизни и идей Ницше, которые так дорого обошлись человечеству. Книга включает в себя выдержки из трудов…

Роман-биография "Наполеон" известного русского писателя Д.С.Мережковского, созданный в период эмиграции, - одно из наиболее значительных его произведений. Первая часть романа характеризует масштабы и особенности личности Наполеона, во второй части в хронологической последовательности описана его судьба как полководца и государственного деятеля.

Роман-биография "Наполеон" известного русского писателя Д.С.Мережковского, созданный в период эмиграции, - одно из наиболее значительных его произведений. Первая часть романа…

Chesterton was a famous and respected critic and author. His insightful comments about his "friendly enemy" made National headlines in America.

The great English novelist and poet Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) worked with his second wife, Florence, on this account of his life. It was published under her name, in two separate volumes, after his death. Its origins are as fascinating as the man himself: written in the third person, it was compiled from Hardy's selections from his diaries, notebooks and letters, typed up by Florence and further edited by her after he died. The work provides an invaluable, if idiosyncratic, record of Hardy's life and complex, contradictory character. This is the second volume, published in 1930 and covering the period 1892-1928. It includes the publication of Jude the Obscure (1895) and its hostile reception, Hardy's return to writing poetry, the creation of his epic drama The Dynasts (1908), the death of Emma, his first wife, Hardy's response to World War I, and his marriage to Florence Dugdale.

The great English novelist and poet Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) worked with his second wife, Florence, on this account of his life. It was published under her name, in two separate…

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) worked with his second wife, Florence, on this account of his life, which was published soon after he died. It offers fascinating insights into his complex, enigmatic character. This, the first volume, appeared in 1928 and includes the publication of Far from the Madding Crowd (1874)

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) worked with his second wife, Florence, on this account of his life, which was published soon after he died. It offers fascinating insights into his…

Amid all that has been published about William Faulkner, one subject—the nature of his thought—remains largely unexplored. But, as Daniel Singal's new intellectual biography reveals, we can learn much about Faulkner's art by relating it to the cultural and intellectual discourse of his era, and much about that era by coming to terms with his art. Through detailed analyses of individual texts, from the earliest poetry through Go Down, Moses, Singal traces Faulkner's attempt to liberate himself from the repressive Victorian culture in which he was raised by embracing the Modernist culture of the artistic avant-garde. To accommodate the conflicting demands of these two cultures, Singal shows, Faulkner created a complex and fluid structure of selfhood based on a set of dual identities—one, that of a Modernist author writing on the most daring and subversive issues of his day, and the other, that of a southern country gentleman loyal to the conservative mores of his community. Indeed, it is in the clash between these two selves, Singal argues, that one finds the key to making sense of Faulkner.

Amid all that has been published about William Faulkner, one subject—the nature of his thought—remains largely unexplored. But, as Daniel Singal's new intellectual biography…

Reissued to coincide with the recent revival of interest in Oscar Wilde, this stimulating reappraisal of Wilde, his work, his life and his times, by the award-winning biographer and theatre critic, Sheridan Morley, seeks to unravel the enigma that has fascinated so many for so long.

Reissued to coincide with the recent revival of interest in Oscar Wilde, this stimulating reappraisal of Wilde, his work, his life and his times, by the award-winning biographer…

Amazon.com Review
Sylvia Plath committed suicide in February 1963, and since then her poetry, fiction, and, increasingly, her life have maintained enormous power over readers' (particularly female readers') imaginations. Biographies continue to appear with regularity, despite the strong hold the Plath estate has on her work. But because of that hold, each biographer has been forced to accommodate the living (Ted Hughes, who was separated from Plath at the time of her death, and his larger-than-life sister, Olwyn, long the executrix), often at the expense of the dead. In 1989, Anne Stevenson's peculiar hybrid, Bitter Fame, was published, complete with an appendix full of devastating memoirs. It was not your average biography. When Janet Malcolm was first sent the book, she was less drawn to it by the Plath legend than by the fact that she had known Stevenson in the '50s, but she soon became captivated by the book's defeatist subtext. The dead woman's voice and writings seemed to overwhelm Stevenson's tentative narrative; and if that wasn't enough, there was also the none-too-angelic choir of those who had known Plath. "These too, said, 'Don't listen to Anne Stevenson. She didn't know Sylvia. I knew Sylvia. Let me tell you about her. Read my correspondence with her. Read my memoir.'"

Bitter Fame was soon garnering some powerfully bad notices, especially that of A. Alvarez in the New York Review of Books. Alvarez, the author of one of the most influential pieces on Plath, in his study of suicide, The Savage God, had some special, personal cards to deal, as have so many others Plath left behind. Because Malcolm's great theme is treachery--that of the interviewer, the journalist, the teller of just about any tale--the Plath mess seemed a perfect fit, and she decided to become a player, too. In 1991, Malcolm was having lunch with Olwyn Hughes in North London, 28 years to the day on which the poet died.

This is only one of the coincidences in The Silent Woman, a postmodern biography par excellence, which is less about the drama of Plath's life and still controversial death than about their continuing effect on the living. For Malcolm, all cards are wild, each one revealing more complexity, human cravenness, and, above all, brilliantly playful aperçus about human agency and writing's deceptions. I look forward to the dictionary of quotations that foregrounds the elegant "The pleasure of hearing ill of the dead is not a negligible one, but it pales before the pleasure of hearing ill of the living." And then there's, "Memory is notoriously unreliable; when it is intertwined with ill will, it may be monstrously unreliable. The 'good' biographer is supposed to be able to discriminate among the testimonies of witnesses and have his antennae out for tendentious distortions, misrememberings, and outright lies." It's clear that Malcolm doesn't see herself as a "good" biographer--she openly declares her allegiance, but is more than capable of changing it and of showing her cards. Or is she? In the end, The Silent Woman is a stunning inquiry into the possibility of ever really knowing anything save that "the game continues."

Amazon.com Review
Sylvia Plath committed suicide in February 1963, and since then her poetry, fiction, and, increasingly, her life have maintained enormous power over readers'…

The final volume of the Cambridge biography of D.H. Lawrence chronicles his progress upon leaving Europe in 1922 to his death in Venice in 1930. Based on much new or unfamiliar material, it describes his travels in Ceylon, Australia, the United States, and Mexico in an increasingly desperate search for an ideal community. Lawrence is revealed here as a complex man, grappling with the central problems of life and death. 30 photos.

The final volume of the Cambridge biography of D.H. Lawrence chronicles his progress upon leaving Europe in 1922 to his death in Venice in 1930. Based on much new or unfamiliar…

For students of modern literature, the works of Virginia Woolf are essential reading. In her novels, short stories, essays, polemical pamphlets and in her private letters she explored, questioned and refashioned everything about modern life: cinema, sexuality, shopping, education, feminism, politics and war. Her elegant and startlingly original sentences became a model of modernist prose. This is a clear and informative introduction to Woolf's life, works, and cultural and critical contexts, explaining the importance of the Bloomsbury group in the development of her work. It covers the major works in detail, including To the Lighthouse, Mrs Dalloway, The Waves and the key short stories. As well as providing students with the essential information needed to study Woolf, Jane Goldman suggests further reading to allow students to find their way through the most important critical works. All students of Woolf will find this a useful and illuminating overview of the field.

For students of modern literature, the works of Virginia Woolf are essential reading. In her novels, short stories, essays, polemical pamphlets and in her private letters she…

Alain de Botton combines two unlikely genres--literary biography and self-help manual--in the hilarious and unexpectedly practical How Proust Can Change Your Life.

Who would have thought that Marcel Proust, one of the most important writers of our century, could provide us with such a rich source of insight into how best to live life? Proust understood that the essence and value of life was the sum of its everyday parts. As relevant today as they were at the turn of the century, Proust's life and work are transformed here into a no-nonsense guide to, among other things, enjoying your vacation, reviving a relationship, achieving original and unclichéd articulation, being a good host, recognizing love, and understanding why you should never sleep with someone on a first date. It took de Botton to find the inspirational in Proust's essays, letters and fiction and, perhaps even more surprising, to draw out a vivid and clarifying portrait of the master from between the lines of his work.

Here is Proust as we have never seen or read him before: witty, intelligent, pragmatic. He might well change your life.

Alain de Botton combines two unlikely genres--literary biography and self-help manual--in the hilarious and unexpectedly practical How Proust Can Change Your Life.

Who would…

Thomas Hardy was the foremost novelist of his time, as well as an established poet. Author of Jude the Obscure and Far from the Madding Crowd, Hardy reflected in his works the dynamics of social, intellectual and aesthetic change in nineteenth-century England. This guide provides students with a lucid introduction to Hardy's life and works and the basis for a sound comprehension of his work, including:

- the major aspects of Hardy's life in the context of contemporary culture

- a detailed commentary on Hardy's most important work and a critical map of Hardy's complete writing

- an outline of the vast body of criticism that has built up around Hardy's work with examples of recent critical debate.

Exposition and guide, this volume enables readers to form their own readings of one of the most important writers of the nineteenth century.

Thomas Hardy was the foremost novelist of his time, as well as an established poet. Author of Jude the Obscure and Far from the Madding Crowd, Hardy reflected in his works the…