A seven-foot-tall man washes up naked on the Scottish coast with no memory of his past and no clue to his identity except the words "Gog" and "Magog" tattooed on his knuckles. Knowing only that he must somehow get to London, he sets off on foot on a four hundred mile journey across Britain. As we accompany him on his surreal quest and share his strange adventures - by turns hilarious, horrific, bawdy, and bizarre - unexpected truths gradually emerge not only about his o...

"There are certain books we call great for want of a better term, that rise like monuments above the cemeteries of literature: Clarissa Harlowe, Great Expectations, Ulysses. The Rack to my mind is one of this company." - Graham Greene"A terrific book . . . a penetrating examination of the nature of suffering . . . to read it is in itself an experience." - Time and Tide"Quite possibly a masterpiece." - Irish Times"Book of the year if there ever was one." - V. S. Prit...

Though America is a new country by the standards of earlier civilisations, its history makes up in breadth, dynamism and sheer flamboyance what it lacks in actual duration; for only a few centuries ago the most powerful single nation in the world was nothing more than a network of trading-posts. In this acclaimed short survey, Andrew Sinclair concentrates on those qualities in the American people that made their country's rapid transition not only possible but inevitable. He combines aware...

Rosslyn Chapel near Edinburgh has long exerted a powerful magnetism and mystery for people all over the world.The flamboyant Gothic church became a third Temple of Solomon for the Knights Templar, under the patronage of the St Clairs of Rosslyn. In the eighteenth century the Templars supported the Jacobite cause, and after the final defeat at Culloden, moved their radical Scots Lodges to America and France, where they played a powerful part in the revolutions in both countries....

This is the story of a how a little known manuscript in a Masonic Lodge in Kirkwall has become one of the most important historical documents of the Middle Ages. It is also the story of the Templars, who were its guardians, and of what happened to them after the Crusades.Although references to this famous order of military knights rarely appears in standard histories of the time, a great deal of information about them can be gleaned from other, more esoteric sources, such as sculpt...

Martin Eden, Jack London’s semiautobiographical novel about a struggling young writer, is considered by many to be the author’s most mature work. Personifying London’s own dreams of education and literary fame as a young man in San Francisco, Martin Eden’s impassioned but ultimately ineffective battle to overcome his bleak circumstances makes him one of the most memorable and poignant characters Jack London ever created. As Paul Berman points out in his Introduction, “In Martin, [...

Over the years, observers of American politics have noted the deleterious effects of party polarization in both the national and state legislatures. Reformers have tried to address this problem by changing primary election laws. A theory underlies these legal changes: the reformers tend to believe that 'more open' primary laws will produce more centrist, moderate, or pragmatic candidates. The 'top-two' primary, just implemented in California, represents the future of these antiparty effort...

A biography of the Empress of Austria—a tale of rebellion, scandal, and murder that paints a vivid, tragic picture of nineteenth-century European royalty.In 1898, anarchist Luigi Lucheni fatally stabbed Elisabeth, Empress of Austria, on Lake Geneva as she prepared to board a steamer from the Mont Blanc pier. Her life had been one of both profound sadness and inspiring perseverance, and in its course she set the style for the royal rebels who would follow her, includ...

If you know London primarily through novels like WHITE FANG, these stories will provide a new perspective. Full of intriguing characters and snippets of pidgin, they also highlight London's concern with social issues.

Navigate the deep existential conflict between spiritual faith and rational doubt in this contemplative philosophy guide. Whether you are deconstructing old religious beliefs during a quiet morning commute or seeking intellectual clarity, this objective exploration of ultimate reality offers an anchor for deep focus. Step away from dogmatic shouting matches and engage with the profound philosophical questions of human existence.Find peace in the tension of uncertainty as you examin...

This book contains a table of HTML content for easy reading. A young man in modern America is terrorized by visions of an earlier, primitive life. Across the enormous chasm of thousands of centuries, his consciousness has become entwined with that of Big-Tooth, an ancestor living at the dawn of humanity. Big-Tooth makes his home in Pleistocene Africa, a ferocious, fascinating younger world torn by incessant conflict between early humans and protohumans. Before Adam is a remarkable and prov...

Despite the heavy clumsiness of her lines, the Aorai handled easily in the light breeze, and her captain ran her well in before he hove to just outside the suck of the surf. The atoll of Hikueru lay low on the water, a circle of pounded coral sand a hundred yards wide, twenty miles in circumference, and from three to five feet above high-water mark. On the bottom of the huge and glassy lagoon was much pearl shell, and from the deck of the schooner, across the slender ring of the atoll, the di...