Oliver Stallybras Books

How often are attempts to broaden your knowledge of modern thought frustrated by terms and allusions that you do not understand? In this age of rapid-fire informational exchange and unprecedented specialization, no one can honestly claim to know the whole vocabulary of modern thought, yet most people would like to understand more. The Norton Dictionary of Modern Thought now provides us with a rich and reliable resource for staying on top of trends and actually enhancing our cultural literacy. With thousands of entries written by an international cast of artists, scholars, and scientists, this book offers an authoritative treasure trove of concepts defining the world in which we live. More discursive than an ordinary dictionary, more compact than an encyclopedia, and more selective than either, it covers the whole range of modern thought from the latest developments in astrophysics to recent trends in the arts. This volume is indispensable as a reference book, irresistible for browsing through — practically an education in itself.

Like his novel A Room with a View, E. M. Forster's Where Angels Fear to Tread focuses on a group of English men and women living and traveling in Italy. A young Englishman journeys to Tuscany to rescue his late brother's wife from what appears to be an unsuitable romance with an Italian of little fortune. In the events surrounding that match and its fateful consequences, Forster weaves an exciting and eventful tale that intriguingly contrasts English and Italian lives and sensibilities. As in Forster novels, among them Howards End and A Passage to India, Where Angels Fear to Tread reveals the author's deep fascination with all of human experience — sexual, moral, spiritual, imaginative, material. Acutely observant of the ways of the English middle class, he is as critical here of its snobbishness, greed, and cultural insensitivity as he is respectful of its decency and kindness, common sense, and goodwill. This splendid novel reveals the great breadth of his gifts as both storyteller and humanist — attributes that continue to make him one of the twentieth century's most admired novelists.

ASPECTS OF THE NOVEL is a unique attempt to examine the novel afresh, rejecting the traditional methods of classification by chronology or subject- matter.

When Adela Quested and her elderly companion Mrs Moore arrive in the Indian town of Chandrapore, they quickly feel trapped by its insular and prejudiced 'Anglo-Indian' community. Determined to escape the parochial English enclave and explore the 'real India', they seek the guidance of the charming and mercurial Dr Aziz, a cultivated Indian Muslim. But a mysterious incident occurs while they are exploring the Marabar caves with Aziz, and the well-respected doctor soon finds himself at the centre of a scandal that rouses violent passions among both the British and their Indian subjects. A masterly portrait of a society in the grip of imperialism, A Passage to India compellingly depicts the fate of individuals caught between the great political and cultural conflicts of the modern world. In his introduction, Pankaj Mishra outlines Forster's complex engagement with Indian society and culture. This edition reproduces the Abinger text and notes, and also includes four of Forster's essays on India, a chronology and further reading.