A " clever and highly entertaining" look at books through history that were stolen, went missing, or just never got written ( The New York Times).In an age when deleted scenes from Adam Sandler movies are saved, it's sobering to realize that some of the world's great prose and poetry has gone missing. This witty and unique new book rectifies that wrong. Part detective story, part history, part exposé, The Book of Lost Books is the...

His name and image are everywhere - from Bank of Scotland fivers to the bizarre monument in Edinburgh's city centre. Scott-land presumes that the reader will have only a hazy awareness of Sir Walter Scott, and, although Stuart Kelly will offer insights into Scott's works and biography, this is emphatically not a conventional literary biography, nor is it a critical study. Partly a surreptitious autobiography - Stuart Kelly was born near Abbotsford - his examination of Scott's legacy and ch...

In an English country house, a strange experiment is about to take place: "A gem . . . unadulterated entertainment" ( The New York Times).In this unique blend of suspense, satire, and science fiction, Sir Edward Leithen settles in for a holiday weekend at Lady Flambard's stately home in the Cotswolds. But the house party turns strange when one of the guests, the enigmatic physicist and mathematician Professor Moe, enlists the help of Leit...

A party on the Highland Tour comes upon a miserable hut hidden away among a patch of cliffs. Upon inquiring about what lies before them, the ladies hear the wretched tale of Elspat MacTavish, the Highland Widow, who is condemned forever to live penitent and alone. After the suppression of the Highland clans, the widow' s son, Hamish, sets off with honorable intentions of joining the coalition on its campaign against the French into America. But soon the unfortunate Hamish finds himself tri...

In 1969, James Nelson confessed to murder, served a prison sentence, then applied to be ordained as a minster in the Scottish Church (The Kirk). The case split the church in two, and challenged the institution to consider its most basic functions, obligations and duties. Part of the problem was that James Nelson's crime was no ordinary crime. The bible has a lot to say about murder, but not about this particular variety of murder.Stuart Kelly uses the case of Nelson to write a comp...

The most influential of contemporary philosophers, Jacques Derrida, explores the idea of friendship—and its political consequences, past and future—through writings by Aristotle, Nietzsche, Cicero, and more.Until relatively recently, Jacques Derrida was seen by many as nothing more than the high priest of Deconstruction, by turns stimulating and fascinating, yet always somewhat disengaged from the central political questions of our time. Or so it seemed. Derrida’s ...

Fascinating revelations of the parts played by David, Solomon, Judas Maccabee, Pompey, Cleopatra, Justinian, and others in the making of the city.Jerusalem is one of the oldest cities in the world, with evidence of an original settlement dating back more than 4,000 years. Vitally important was the supply of water provided by the Gihon Spring, in a land that normally experienced rainfall only from November to March. Since then this Middle Eastern city has been attack...

You will undoubtedly recognize quite a few of the products featured in this book—the Coca-Cola bottle, the Wester & Co pocket knife, the Kitchen Aid mixer, the Le Creuset Dutch oven, the Weber grill, the Bic cristal pen, the Rolodex address file, Kikkoman soy sauce bottles, the Kodak Instamatic, the Polaroid SX-70, the SONY Walkman, the Apple MacIntosh, and the Dyson air-multiplier.Maybe they were part of your childhood or represent your ideal in design; certainly,...

Outrageously handsome, witty and clever, Harry Cust was reputed to be one of the great womanisers of the late Victorian era. In 1893, while a Member of Parliament, he caused public scandal by his affair with artist and poet Nina Welby-Gregory. When she revealed she was pregnant, horror swept through their circle known as 'the Souls', a cultured, mostly aristocratic group of writers, artists and politicians.With the unconventional Margot Tennant and philosopher-stat...

**One of the country’s most powerful families embroiled in sex, lies, bigamy, and blackmail . . . and every new, deliciously humiliating morsel splashed across every newspaper in AmericaNow in paperback, the believe-it-or-not historical true crime behind one of the greatest scandals of the Gilded Age, and the story that gave rise to the sensational tabloid journalism still driving so much of the news cycle in the 21st century.**An Alexander Hamilton heir, a beau...

From the Franz Kafka Prize–winning author. "Full of love, sorrow, and tenderness . . . a deeply heartfelt account of his family in the 1960s and 70s." —Xiaolu Guo, award-winning author of Nine ContinentsWith lyricism and deep emotion, Yan Lianke chronicles the extraordinary lives of his father and uncles, as well as his own during the Cultural Revolution. Living in a remote village, Yan's parents are so poor that they can only afford to use wheat flour on ...

The untold story of how the Dutch conquered the European book market and became the world's greatest bibliophiles.The Dutch Golden Age has long been seen as the age of Rembrandt and Vermeer, whose paintings captured the public imagination and came to represent the marvel that was the Dutch Republic. Yet there is another, largely overlooked marvel in the Dutch world of the seventeenth century: books.In this fascinating account, Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der ...