Author: George Saunders File Type: epub One of the most important and blazingly original writers of his generation, George Saunders is an undisputed master of the short story, and Tenth of December is his most honest, accessible, and moving collection yet.In the taut opener, Victory Lap, a boy witnesses the attempted abduction of the girl next door and is faced with a harrowing choice Does he ignore what he sees, or override years of smothering advice from his parents and act? In Home, a combat-damaged soldier moves back in with his mother and struggles to reconcile the world he left with the one to which he has returned. And in the title story, a stunning meditation on imagination, memory, and loss, a middle-aged cancer patient walks into the woods to commit suicide, only to encounter a troubled young boy who, over the course of a fateful morning, gives the dying man a final chance to recall who he really is. A hapless, deluded owner of an antiques store two mothers struggling to do the right thing a teenage girl whose idealism is challenged by a brutal brush with reality a man tormented by a series of pharmaceutical experiments that force him to lust, to love, to killthe unforgettable characters that populate the pages of Tenth of December are vividly and lovingly infused with Saunderss signature blend of exuberant prose, deep humanity, and stylistic innovation.Writing brilliantly and profoundly about class, sex, love, loss, work, despair, and war, Saunders cuts to the core of the contemporary experience. These stories take on the big questions and explore the fault lines of our own morality, delving into the questions of what makes us good and what makes us human.Unsettling, insightful, and hilarious, the stories in Tenth of Decemberthrough their manic energy, their focus on what is redeemable in human beings, and their generosity of spiritnot only entertain and delight they fulfill Chekhovs dictum that art should prepare us for tenderness

Author: J. H. Stape File Type: pdf Written in 1899-1900, Lord Jim is one of the key works of literary Modernism. A novel of immense power, it has never been out of print, attracting readers for over a century and variously influencing the development of twentieth-century fiction. This page-by-page transcription of the surviving manuscript and fragmentary typescript offers a privileged glimpse into the writers workshop, allowing a reader to follow closely the evolution of character, narrative technique, and themes. Accompanying the transcription of the novel (about half of which survives) are supplementary materials that contribute to the story of its history a new transcription of Tuan Jim (the Ur-version of the opening chapters) and the draft version of Conrads 1917 Authors Note to the novel. Lord Jim A Transcription of the Manuscript makes available for the first time material housed in far-flung archives and encourages genetic approaches to a work acclaimed for its polished style, virtuoso effects, and narrative complexity. A must have in the library of any scholar of late-Victorian and Modernist fiction, this volume will attract all readers with a serious interest in the art of fiction.**

Author: Immanuel Kant File Type: pdf This volume collects Kants most important ethical and anthropological writings from the 1760s, before he developed his critical philosophy. The materials presented here range from the Observations, one of Kants most elegantly written and immediately popular texts, to the accompanying Remarks which Kant wrote in his personal copy of the Observations and which are translated here in their entirety for the first time. This edition also includes little-known essays as well as personal notes and fragments that reveal the emergence of Kants complex philosophical ideas. Those familiar with Kants later works will discover a Kant interested in the beauty as well as the dignity of humanity, in human diversity as well as the universality of morals, and in practical concerns rather than abstract philosophizing. Readers will be able to see Kants development from the Observations through the Remarks towards the moral philosophy that eventually made him famous. **

Author: Alexander B. Downes File Type: pdf Accidental harm to civilians in warfare often becomes an occasion for public outrage, from citizens of both the victimized and the victimizing nation. In this vitally important book on a topic of acute concern for anyone interested in military strategy, international security, or human rights, Alexander B. Downes reminds readers that democratic and authoritarian governments alike will sometimes deliberately kill large numbers of civilians as a matter of military strategy. What leads governments to make such a choice?Downes examines several historical cases British counterinsurgency tactics during the Boer War, the starvation blockade used by the Allies against Germany in World War I, Axis and Allied bombing campaigns in World War II, and ethnic cleansing in the Palestine War. He concludes that governments decide to target civilian populations for two main reasonsdesperation to reduce their own military casualties or avert defeat, or a desire to seize and annex enemy territory. When a states military fortunes take a turn for the worse, he finds, civilians are more likely to be declared legitimate targets to coerce the enemy state to give up. When territorial conquest and annexation are the aims of warfare, the population of the disputed land is viewed as a threat and the aggressor state may target those civilians to remove them. Democracies historically have proven especially likely to target civilians in desperate circumstances.In Targeting Civilians in War, Downes explores several major recent conflicts, including the 1991 Persian Gulf War and the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Civilian casualties occurred in each campaign, but they were not the aim of military action. In these cases, Downes maintains, the achievement of quick and decisive victories against overmatched foes allowed democracies to win without abandoning their normative beliefs by intentionally targeting civilians. Whether such restraint can be guaranteed in future conflicts against more powerful adversaries is, however, uncertain. During times of war, democratic societies suffer tension between norms of humane conduct and pressures to win at the lowest possible costs. The painful lesson of Targeting Civilians in War is that when these two concerns clash, the latter usually prevails.