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An essential guide to the fictional world of Charles Dickens. In thirteen entertaining and insightful essays, Mullan explores the literary machinations of Dickens's eccentric genius, from his delight in cliches to his rendering of smells and his outrageous use of coincidences
What are the right and wrong ways to propose marriage?What do the characters call each other, and why?And which important Austen characters never speak?In twenty short chapters, each of which answers a question prompted by Jane Austen's novels, John Mullan illuminates the themes that matter most to the workings of Austen's fiction. Inspired by an enthusiastic reader's curiosity, based on a lifetime's study and written with flair and insight, What Matters in Jane Austen? uncovers the hidden truth about an extraordinary fictional world.
Never has contemporary fiction been more widely discussed and passionately analysed; recent years have seen a huge growth in the number of reading groups and in the interest of a non-academic readership in the discussion of how novels work. Drawing on his weekly Guardian column, 'Elements of Fiction', John Mullan examines novels mostly of the last ten years, many of which have become firm favourites with reading groups. He reveals the rich resources of novelistic technique, setting recent fiction alongside classics of the past. Nick Hornby's adoption of a female narrator is compared to Daniel Defoe's; Ian McEwan's use of weather is set against Austen's and Hardy's; Carole Shield's chapter di...
In the desert of North Africa a herdboy, Tariq, is born to a brave woman who passes on her conviction that he will be a great man. Convinced by the words of a soothsayer, uttered before he was born, Tariq is conscious that he is to be a man of destiny. He trains hard as a warrior and proves himself at an early age.
Ideally a logic text should encourage not only criticism of thinking, but critical thinking itself. To its great credit, ard Thinking does both. -s Nicholas Rescher, University of Pittsburgh Mullen effectively combines logic, epistemology, and good old fashioned common sense. The dialogues and examples are telling; the explanations clear and to the point. The book articulates, defends, and exemplifies all the important features of 'hard thinking'. Many texts purport to aid in the teaching of thinking; this one will clearly succeed. -s Harvey Siegel, University of Miami Not only does Mullen's text challenge students to do some hard thinking, but it explains why they should and it shows them how....[T]he text includes strong chapters on both traditional and modern formal logic. As a result, this book should prove suitable for a wide variety of courses. -s Bruce Umbaugh, Webster University
"Nuclear weapons, since their conception, have been the subject of secrecy. In the months after the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the American scientific establishment, the American government, and the American public all wrestled with what was called the "problem of secrecy," wondering not only whether secrecy was appropriate and effective as a means of controlling this new technology but also whether it was compatible with the country's core values. Out of a messy context of propaganda, confusion, spy scares, and the grave counsel of competing groups of scientists, what historian Alex Wellerstein calls a "new regime of secrecy" was put into place. It was unlike an...
Some philosophers we read to discover the nature of the universe. Others we read to discover the nature of ourselves. In the second group, Soren Kierkegaard stands alone as a towering figure, a man who revolutionized our concept of the human condition. His insights go to the core of the dilemmas that haunt the modern mind and spirit. This clear and enlightening study provides a fascinating analysis of Kierkegaard's thinking and its practical applications. The reader comes in contact with a vision of perils and potential of individual existence that is far more profound than the shallow questions and easy answers offered by the swarm of contemporary "self-help" panaceas. The book leaves one with a realization of the vast depths that lie within us, and of the daring and determination it takes to explore them in order to become all that a human being can and should be. This edition was published in 1981 by NAL Penguin Inc.
This text, written by a philosopher and a social psychologist, emphasizes concrete applications of decision research to problems of everyday living, as well as to business, social, and political issues. The text contains scores of interesting examples and problems for analysis, ranging from personal decisions about medical treatment to Truman's decision to use the atomic bomb. There is no other text with such a wide-ranging coverage, with so practical an orientation, with such clear descriptions of the steps to effective decision making, and with so many end-of-chapter problems for analysis and practice.
Just one hundredth of a second separates elite swimmers from the podium, but what are the physical forces at work behind these tiny margins, and how can an understanding of them be used to improve your own technique in the pool? Swimming Science investigates, with each chapter focussing on a different area. From swimming technology, physiology, and psychology to hydrodynamics, the key principles of swimming science are addressed, with the content organised around a series of questions. What creates the drag in the water? How have swim suits evolved? Which muscles generate propulsion? How much force do elite swimmers use? Each question is investigated using up-to-date science and explanatory info-graphics.
A new edition of this classic illustrated history of the operations and operatives of MACV-SOG in the Vietnam War. In 1972 the U.S. military destroyed all known photos of the top-secret Studies and Observations Group, with the intention that details could never be made public. But unknown to those in charge, SOG veterans had brought back with them hundreds of photographs of SOG in action and would keep them secret for more than three decades. In this new edition of SOG: A Photo History, more than 700 irreplaceable photos bring to life the stories of SOG legends Larry Thorne, Bob Howard, Dick Meadows, George Sisler, "Q" and others, and document what really happened deep inside enemy territory: Operation Tailwind, the Son Tay raid, SOG's defense of Khe Sanh, Hatchet Force operations, Bright Light rescues, HALO insertions, string extractions, SOG's darkest programs and much more.