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By Friedrich Schiller. 2016
'The artist is certainly the child of his age, but all the worse for him if he is at the…
same time its pupil, even worse its minion.'On the Aesthetic Education of Man is one of the most profound works of German philosophy, in which Friedrich Schiller analyses politics, revolution and the history of ideas to define the relationship between beauty and art. Resulting from Schiller's deep disillusionment with the course of the French Revolution and expressed as a series of letters to a patron, On the Aesthetic Education of Man is an impassioned attempt to drag mankind upwards from failure to greatness through placing ideas of aesthetic education at the heart of the human experience: 'Our era has actually taken both wrong turnings, and has fallen prey to coarseness on the one path, lethargy and perversity on the other. Having strayed along both paths, it is beauty that can lead [us] back.' Schiller's arguments are as arresting, challenging and inspiring today as when they were first written - it is above all one of the great political statements from a time of revolutionary change.By Michel De Montaigne. 1991
Blending intellectual speculation with anecdote and personal reflection, the Renaissance thinker and writer Montaigne pioneered the modern essay. This selection…
contains his idiosyncratic and timeless writings on subjects as varied as the virtues of solitude, the power of the imagination, the pleasures of reading, the importance of sleep and why we sometimes laugh and cry at the same things. Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.By John Peel. 2008
John Peel is best known for his four decades of radio broadcasting. His Radio 1 shows shaped the taste of…
successive generations of music lovers. His Radio 4 show, Home Truths, became required listening for millions. But all the while, Peel was also tapping away on his beloved Olivetti typewriter, creating copy for an array of patient editors. He wrote articles, columns and reviews for newspapers and magazines as diverse as The Listener, Oz, Gandalf's Garden, Sounds, the Observer, the Independent and Radio Times.Now for the first time, the best of these writings have been brought together - selected by his wife, Sheila, and his four children. Music, of course, is a central and recurring theme, and he writes on music in all its forms, from Tubular Bells to Berlin punk to Madonna. Here you can read John Peel on everything from the perils of shaving to the embarrassments of virginity, and from the strange joy of Eurovision to the horror of being sick in trains. At every stage, the writing is laced with John's brilliantly acute observations on the minutiae of everyday life.This endlessly entertaining book is essential reading for Peel fans and a reminder of just why he remains a truly great Briton.Read stories inspired by the four Underground lines that run North and South through city - part of a series…
of twelve books tied to the twelve lines of the London Underground, as Tfl celebrates 150 years of the Tube with Penguin. Comedy and capitalism join in four tales: The Northern Line: William Leith, author of The Hungry Years and Bits of Me Are Falling Apart, tells, in A Northern Line Minute, the darkly humorous tales of his escapades on the Tube.The Bakerloo Line: Paul Morley, author, journalist and cultural commentator, tells the story in Earthbound of post-punk, music and changing times.The Victoria Line: Kids Company, a leading London charity supported by Prince Charles, Helen Mirren and Stephen Fry, presents the voices of some of London's children, in partnership with the charity's founder Camila Batmanghelidjh.The Jubilee Line: John O'Farrell, author of The Man Who Forgot His Wife and An Utterly Impartial History of Britain turns his comedic genius to the problem of capitalism, encapsulated in a Tube train full of passengers stuck underground.By Cicero. 1990
Cicero's speeches "In Defence of Sextus Roscius of Amerina," "In Defence of Aulus Cluentius Habitus," "In Defence of Gaius Rabirius,"…
"Note on the Speeches in Defence of Caelius and Milo," and "In Defence of King Deiotarus" provide insight into Roman life, law, and history.By Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. 2006
By The Duke Wellington. 2014
The vivid and exciting accounts written from the front line, taking the story of the British war with Napoleon from…
its desperate beginnings in Portugal to the final triumph at WaterlooThe Duke of Wellington was not only an incomparable battle commander but a remarkably expressive, fluent and powerful writer. His dispatches have long been viewed as classics of military literature and have been pillaged by all writers on the Peninsular War and the final campaigns in France and Belgium ever since they were published. This new selection allows the reader to follow the extraordinary epic in Wellington's own words - from the tentative beginnings in 1808, clinging to a small area of Portugal in the face of overwhelming French power across the whole of the rest of Europe, to the campaigns that over six years devastated opponent after opponent. The book ends with Wellington's invasion of France and the coda of 'the 100 days' that ended with Napoleon's final defeat at Waterloo.By Judy Taylor. 1992
'My dear Noel, I don't know what to write to you so I shall tell you a story about four…
little rabbits whose names were - Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and Peter.' So begins Beatrix Potter's most celebrated letter, in which she tells for the first time the story that was destined to make her name famous all over the world, The Tale of Peter Rabbit. It was written to cheer up a sick little boy when he was ill, and is one of numerous surviving letters written by Beatrix Potter to entertain individual children. Sometimes her letters take the form of a supposed correspondence between different animal characters from the stories, each written in miniature with its own tiny envelope.By Travis Elborough. 2018
‘We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the…
oppressed’ Martin Luther KingIn an era where the liberties we often take for granted are under threat, Letters To Change the World is a collection of inspiring letters offering reminders from history that standing up for and voicing our personal and political beliefs is not merely a crucial right but a duty if we want to change the world.Edited by Travis Elborough, the collection includes George Orwell's warning on totalitarianism, Martin Luther King's 'Letter from a Birmingham Jail', Albert Camus on the reasons to fight a war, Bertrand Russell on peace, Emmeline Pankhurst rallying her suffragettes, Nelson Mandela's letter to his children from prison and Time's Up on the abuse of power.By Rainer Maria Rilke. 2019
'What matters is to live everything. Live the questions for now.'A hugely influential collection for writers and artists of all…
kinds, Rilke's profound and lyrical letters to a young friend advise on writing, love, sex, suffering and the nature of advice itself.One of 46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. Each book gives readers a taste of the Classics' huge range and diversity, with works from around the world and across the centuries - including fables, decadence, heartbreak, tall tales, satire, ghosts, battles and elephants.By Rainer Maria Rilke. 2019
At the start of the twentieth century, Rainer Maria Rilke wrote a series of letters to a young officer cadet,…
advising him on writing, love, sex, suffering and the nature of advice itself; these profound and lyrical letters have since become hugely influential for writers and artists of all kinds. This book also contains the 'Letter from a Young Worker', a striking polemic against Christianity written in letter-form, near the end of Rilke's life. In Lewis Hyde's introduction, he explores the context in which these letters were written and how the author embraced his isolation as a creative force. Charlie Louth's afterword discusses the similarities and contrasts of the two works, and Rilke's religious and sexual wordplay. This edition also contains a chronology, notes, and suggested further reading.By Giovanna Fletcher. 2020
The heartwarming letters from Giovanna to her husband Tom Fletcher, their three sons, and mothers everywhere - from the bestselling…
author and host of the No. 1 Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast'Inspiring, beautiful and eye opening. Thank you Giovanna. You've made many mothers feel like they're not alone' 5***** Reader Review'As heartwarming as it is moving' Hello!NOW WITH FOUR EXCLUSIVE NEW LETTERS_______With stories parents everywhere can relate to, Giovanna writes beautiful, poignant and deeply heartfelt letters to everyone who has helped her to become the mother she is today. To her young sons: Buzz, Buddy and Max. To Tom, and her mum and dad. But also, to herself, her body, and more. And finally, to all of the mums, dads and mums-to-be out there doing the work too. These letters cover everything from her fears and hopes to the love and uncertainty of being a mother today. Honest, heartwarming and hilarious, Giovanna's relatable musings on motherhood are both a joy and a comfort, paying testament to the power of family._______'Fantastically honest, witty and real . . . I laughed and cried!' 5***** Reader Review'Giovanna is a real one' Candice Brathwaite, bestselling author of I Am Not Your Baby Mother'Cried, laughed and could relate to nearly every word' 5***** Reader Review'Giovanna is a one of a kind sort of person. She's genuine, talented, and well honestly? I just really like her' Rosie Ramsay, bestselling author of Sh**ged. Married. Annoyed.By Francois Voltaire. 1980
Also known as the Lettres anglaises ou philosophiques, Voltaire's response to his exile in England offered the French public of…
1734 a panoramic view of British culture. Perceiving them as a veiled attack against the ancien regime, however, the French government ordered the letters burned and Voltaire persecuted.By Vincent Van Gogh. 1996
A new selection of Vincent Van Gough's letters, based on an entirely new translation, revealing his religious struggles, his fascination…
with the French Revolution, his search for love and his involvement in humanitarian causes.By The Younger Pliny. 1969
A prominent lawyer and administrator, Pliny (c. AD 61-113) was also a prolific letter-writer, who numbered among his correspondents such…
eminent figures as Tacitus, Suetonius and the Emperor Trajan, as well as a wide circle of friends and family. His lively and very personal letters address an astonishing range of topics, from a deeply moving account of his uncle's death in the eruption that engulfed Pompeii, to observations on the early Christians - 'a desperate sort of cult carried to extravagant lengths' - from descriptions of everyday life in Rome, with its scandals and court cases, to Pliny's life in the country.By S Warner. 1982
Very early in her career Sylvia Townsend Warner won recognition of a discerning group of writers and readers on both…
sides of rare imagination and originality increased with each new publication. In addition to publishing some twenty books she wrote thousands of letters, mainly to close friends and acquaintances, and these quite naturally provide a record of almost fifty years of the writer’s life.As the editor of the selection says, she had a connoisseur’s eye for the bogus and a hatred for assumptions of privilege – her heart was with the hunted, always, and her deep understanding of human behaviour makes the whole a remarkably compassionate volume. Her interests are wide-ranging, and we read of the pleasures of travel, Proust’s shortcomings as a literary critic, current politics, Rupert Brooke at the Café Royal, an eccentric moorhen, the Spanish Civil War.Above all, apart from their intrinsic interest and literary quality, Miss Warner’s letters reveal the special brand of wit and humour that pervades every word she writes.The story of Abelard and Heloise remains one of the world's most celebrated and tragic love affairs. Through their letters,…
we follow the path of their romance from its reckless and ecstatic beginnings when Heloise became Abelard's pupil, through the suffering of public scandal and enforced secret marriage, to their eventual separation.By Marquis De Custine. 1991
The Marquis de Custine's unique perspective on a vast, fascinating country in the grip of oppressive tyrannyIn 1839, encouraged by…
his friend Balzac, Custine set out to explore Russia. His impressions turned into what is perhaps the greatest and most influential of all books about Russia under the Tsars. Rich in anecdotes as much about the court of Tsar Nicholas as the streets of St Petersburg, Custine is as brilliant writing about the Kremlin as he is about the great northern landscapes. An immediate bestseller on publication, Custine's book is also a central book for any discussion of 19th century history, as - like de Tocqueville's Democracy in America - it dramatizes far broader questions about the nature of government and society.A remarkable collection of 'Covid Chronicles' -- stories from lockdown sent in from listeners to BBC Radio 4 -- making…
a deeply moving people's history of the pandemic. On 23 March 2020, as the deadly virus spread around the world, the UK went into lockdown. In the following weeks and months, it became clear that in many ways we were all in this together, but the illness and the long period of isolation would hit people in entirely different ways.When BBC Radio 4's PM Programme launched the 'Covid Chronicles' series, listeners from across the country - and beyond - began sending in their lockdown stories to be aired on the show. The results are astonishing: moving, profound, funny, powerful and an invaluable record of our collective experiences. Ranging from the everyday (the thrill of booking a food delivery) to the momentous (a wedding on Zoom), we hear about birth and death, loneliness and loss, community and kindness, as well as remarkable stories from those working in the NHS on the front line.This book is a collection of some of these Chronicles, written in the midst of one of the most unexpected and intense moments in our history. Together they give us an unforgettable portrait of ordinary people caught in extraordinary times, with all the humour and tragedy and uncertainty we've been through. 'It's inspiring that so many people have shared their stories - some everyday, some life-changing, but all very human. This is a wonderful collection of experiences, to record and remember this devastating year' Christie Watson, bestselling author of The Language of KindnessBy Aung San Suu Kyi. 1996
Letters from Burma - an unforgettable collection from the Nobel Peace prize winner Aung San Suu KyiIn these astonishing letters,…
Aung San Suu Kyi reaches out beyond Burma's borders to paint for her readers a vivid and poignant picture of her native land.Here she celebrates the courageous army officers, academics, actors and everyday people who have supported the National League for Democracy, often at great risk to their own lives. She reveals the impact of political decisions on the people of Burma, from the terrible cost to the children of imprisoned dissidents - allowed to see their parents for only fifteen minutes every fortnight - to the effect of inflation on the national diet and of state repression on traditions of hospitality. She also evokes the beauty of the country's seasons and scenery, customs and festivities that remain so close to her heart.Through these remarkable letters, the reader catches a glimpse of exactly what is at stake as Suu Kyi fights on for freedom in Burma, and of the love for her homeland that sustains her non-violent battle.Includes an introduction from Fergal Keane'Aung San Suu Kyi has become a global symbol of peaceful resistance, courage and apparently endless endurance' Guardian'A real hero in an age of phony phone-in celebrity, which hands out that title freely to the most spoiled and underqualified' Bono, TimeAung San Suu Kyi is the leader of Burma's National League for Democracy. She was placed under house arrest in Rangoon in 1989, where she remained for almost 15 of the 21 years until her release in 2010, becoming one of the world's most prominent political prisoners. She is also the author of the collection of writings Freedom from Fear.