Author: Edward Copeland File Type: pdf Leading scholars present a comprehensive and up-to-date guide to Jane Austens works in the contexts of her contemporary world, and of present-day critical discourse. Besides discussions of Austens novels and letters, there are essays on religion, politics, class consciousness, publishing practices, domestic economy, style in the novels and the significance of her juvenile works. A chronology provides biographical information, and assessments of the history of Austen criticism highlight the most interesting recent studies in a vast field of critical diversity.ReviewAll undergraduate and graduate libraries will want this volume. D.L. Patey, ChoiceThe Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen, edited by Edward Copeland and Juliet McMaster, offers a number of distinctly different views on Austen (and the Austen codeindustry) by a nice mix of well known and emerging Austen scholars. Well organized around large, nearly onotlogical categories such ascodemoney, codeclass,codereligion and politics as well as the letters and Austen `cults and cultures, this volume is a fine companion not only for the recently initiated, but also for those who have spent many years luxuriating with Austens fiction. Joseph W. Childers...the Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen supplies us with just the kind of ionformation we need to become sharper, more appreciative readers of her. This book summarizes and extends our knowledge, surveys the critical and biographical fields, and suggests fresh readings.... Jocelyn Harris, Letters in Canada Book DescriptionLeading scholars present a comprehensive and up-to-date guide to Jane Austens works in the contexts of her contemporary world, and of present-day critical discourse. Beside discussions of Austens novels and letters there are essays on religion, politics, class-consciousness, publishing practices, domestic economy, style in the novels and the significance of her juvenile works. A chronology provides biographical information, and assessments of the history of Austen criticism highlight the most interesting recent studies in a vast field of critical diversity.

Author: Alan Jacobs File Type: epub In recent years, cultural commentators have sounded the alarm about the dire state of reading in America. Americans are not reading enough, they say, or reading the right books, in the right way. In this book, Alan Jacobs argues that, contrary to the doomsayers, reading is alive and well in America. There are millions of devoted readers supporting hundreds of enormous bookstores and online booksellers. Oprahs Book Club is hugely influential, and a recent NEA survey reveals an actual uptick in the reading of literary fiction. Jacobss interactions with his students and the readers of his own books, however, suggest that many readers lack confidence they wonder whether they are reading well, with proper focus and attentiveness, with due discretion and discernment. Many have absorbed the puritanical message that reading is, first and foremost, good for you--the intellectual equivalent of eating your Brussels sprouts. For such people, indeed for all readers, Jacobs offers some simple, powerful, and much needed advice read at whim, read what gives you delight, and do so without shame, whether it be Stephen King or the King James Version of the Bible. In contrast to the more methodical approach of Mortimer Adlers classic How to Read a Book (1940), Jacobs offers an insightful, accessible, and playfully irreverent guide for aspiring readers. Each chapter focuses on one aspect of approaching literary fiction, poetry, or nonfiction, and the book explores everything from the invention of silent reading, reading responsively, rereading, and reading on electronic devices. Invitingly written, with equal measures of wit and erudition, The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction will appeal to all readers, whether they be novices looking for direction or old hands seeking to recapture the pleasures of reading they first experienced as children.**

Author: Adina Hoffman File Type: pdf Beautifully written, and composed with a novelists eye for detail, this book tells the story of an exceptional man and the culture from which he emerged. Taha Muhammad Ali was born in 1931 in the Galilee village of Saffuriyya and was forced to flee during the war in 1948. He traveled on foot to Lebanon and returned a year later to find his village destroyed. An autodidact, he has since run a souvenir shop in Nazareth, at the same time evolving into what National Book Critics Circle Awardwinner Eliot Weinberger has dubbed perhaps the most accessible and delightful poet alive today. As it places Muhammad Alis life in the context of the lives of his predecessors and peers, My Happiness offers a sweeping depiction of a charged and fateful epoch. It is a work that Arabic scholar Michael Sells describes as among the five must read books on the Israel-Palestine tragedy. In an era when talk of the Clash of Civilizations dominates, this biography offers something else entirely a view of the people and culture of the Middle East that is rich, nuanced, and, above all else, deeply human. **

Author: Nick Lane File Type: pdf If it werent for mitochondria, scientists argue, wed all still be single-celled bacteria. Indeed, these tiny structures inside our cells are important beyond imagining. Without mitochondria, we would have no cell suicide, no sculpting of embryonic shape, no sexes, no menopause, no aging. In this fascinating and thought-provoking book, Nick Lane brings together the latest research in this exciting field to show how our growing insight into mitochondria has shed light on how complex life evolved, why sex arose (why dont we just bud?), and why we age and die. These findings are of fundamental importance, both in understanding life on Earth, but also in controlling our own illnesses, and delaying our degeneration and death. Readers learn that two billion years ago, mitochondria were probably bacteria living independent lives and that their capture within larger cells was a turning point in the evolution of life, enabling the development of complex organisms. Lane describes how mitochondria have their own DNA and that its genes mutate much faster than those in the nucleus. This high mutation rate lies behind our aging and certain congenital diseases. The latest research suggests that mitochondria play a key role in degenerative diseases such as cancer. We also discover that mitochondrial DNA is passed down almost exclusively via the female line. Thats why it has been used by some researchers to trace human ancestry daughter-to-mother, to Mitochondrial Eve, giving us vital information about our evolutionary history. Written by Nick Lane, a rising star in popular science, Power, Sex, Suicide is the first book for general readers on the nature and function of these tiny, yet fascinating structures. Mitochondria are tiny structures located inside our cells that carry out the essential task of producing energy for the cell. They are found in all complex living things, and in that sense, they are fundamental for driving complex life on the planet. But there is much more to them than that. Mitochondria have their own DNA, with their own small collection of genes, separate from those in the cell nucleus. It is thought that they were once bacteria living independent lives. Their enslavement within the larger cell was a turning point in the evolution of life, enabling the development of complex organisms and, closely related, the origin of two sexes. Unlike the DNA in the nucleus, mitochondrial DNA is passed down exclusively (or almost exclusively) via the female line. Thats why it has been used by some researchers to trace human ancestry daughter-to-mother, to Mitochondrial Eve. Mitochondria give us important information about our evolutionary history. And thats not all. Mitochondrial genes mutate much faster than those in the nucleus because of the free radicals produced in their energy-generating role. This high mutation rate lies behind our ageing and certain congenital diseases. The latest research suggests that mitochondria play a key role in degenerative diseases such as cancer, through their involvement in precipitating cell suicide. Mitochondria, then, are pivotal in power, sex, and suicide. In this fascinating and thought-provoking book, Nick Lane brings together the latest research findings in this exciting field to show how our growing understanding of mitochondria is shedding light on how complex life evolved, why sex arose (why dont we just bud?), and why we age and die. This understanding is of fundamental importance, both in understanding how we and all other complex life came to be, but also in order to be able to control our own illnesses, and delay our degeneration and death. An extraordinary account of groundbreaking modern science... The book abounds with interesting and important ideas. Mark Ridley, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford