Born in 1872, son of Viscount Amberley, and heir to the Russell Earldom, Bertrand Russell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertrand_Russell and http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell/) was to become one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century. His early masterpiece Principia Mathematica, set the course for the modern and post modern preoccupation with language; its philosophical ambitions are what drew Ludwig Wittgenstein from Vienna to […]
This is a dazzling speculative novel of ‘counterfactual history’ from one of America’s most highly-regarded science fiction authors. Philip K. Dick’s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick) The Man in the High Castle (1962) gives us a horrifying glimpse of an alternative world – one where the Allies have lost the Second World War. In this nightmare dystopia the Nazis have taken
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When the last honest citizen of Poisonville was murdered, the Continental Op stayed on to punish the guilty – even if that meant taking on an entire town. Red Harvest (1929) is more than a superb crime novel: it is a classic exploration of corruption and violence in America. 224 pages in Orion paperback edition ISBN
Robert Coover’s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Coover) controversial best-seller, The Public Burning (1977) has since emerged as one of the most influential novels of our time. The first major work of contemporary fiction ever to use living historical figures as characters, the novel reimagines the three fateful days in 1953 that culminated with the execution of alleged atomic spies Julius and
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In the swinging culture of sixties’ London, Canadian Mortimer Griffin is a beleaguered editor adrift in a sea of hypocrisy and deceit. Alone in a world where nobody shares his values but everyone wants the same things, Mortimer must navigate the currents of these changing times. Richler’s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordecai_Richler) eccentric cast of characters include the gorgeous Polly,
This book by Mervyn Peake (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mervyn_Peake) is set in the huge castle of Gormenghast, a vast landscape of crumbling towers and ivy-filled quadrangles that has for centuries been the hereditary residence of the Groan family and with them a legion of servants. The Groan family is headed by Lord Sepulchrave the seventy-sixth Earl of Groan. He
Three stories are told in this book by William Styron (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Styron): a young Southerner wants to become a writer; a turbulent love-hate affair between a brilliant Jew and a beautiful Polish woman; and of an awful wound in that woman’s past – one that impels both Sophie and Nathan toward destruction. Made into a memorable
Heaven, reported St John in Revelation, was a cubical city 12,000 furlongs high made of ‘pure gold, like unto clear glass’. That was 1,900 years ago, and Heaven as it is today has changed out of all recognition. This book is the account of a recent journey to the metropolis at the nerve-centre of the
Vladimir Naboko held the unique distinction of being one of the most important writers of the twentieth century in two separate languages, Russian and English. Known for his verbal mastery and bold plots, Nabokov fashioned a literary legacy that continues to grow in significance. In Pale Fire (1962), Nabokov (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabokov) offers a cornucopia of deceptive pleasures:
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