David Bellos Book order

A fascinating and important exploration into how copyright has become a tool of unprecedented power and wealth for the few, widening the gap between the richest and poorest in society.

"The definitive biography of the world's most popular novel. Putting a century of scholarship on one of the world's most enduring popular novels into accessible, narrative form, this new approach to a classic of world literature is written for a wide general readership. Packed full of information about the book's origins and later career on stage and screen, The Novel of the Century brings to life the extraordinary story of how Victor Hugo managed to write his novel of the downtrodden despite a revolution, a coup d'âetat, and political exile; how he pulled off the deal of the century to get it published; and how he set it on course to become the novel that epitomizes the grand sweep of history in the nineteenth century. This biography of a masterpiece also shows how and why the moral and social messages of Les Misâerables are full of meaning for our time."-- Provided by publisher

Albania, at the end of the twentieth century, a decade after the fall of the Communist regime. In a small town at the foot of the northern highlands, the harsh blood-for-blood law of the mountain folk, the fearsome Kanun, is emerging from hibernation, like everything else forbidden under the fifty years of Communist rule. Mysterious events that are two thousand years, two centuries, or even two years old reemerge in daily life. The marriage of a girl and a snake is not just a legend but a news item -- a cyclical event that is as much part of the modern as of the anicent world. Set against this Kafkaesque backdrop, a simple and sensual love story between a painter and a girl stands out as light against dark. -- cover.

Perec was a leading exponent of French literary surrealism who found humour - and pathos - in the human need for classification. Thoughts of Sorts is itself unclassifiable, a unique collection of philosophical riffs on his obsession with lists, puzzles, catalogues, and taxonomies. Introduced by Margaret Drabble.

Without translation there would be no world news, not much of a reading list in any subject at college, and no repair manuals for cars or planes. This book ranges across the whole of human experience, from foreign films to philosophy, to show why translation is at the heart of what we do and who we are.

"Is That a Fish in Your Ear? ranges across the whole of human experience, from foreign films to philosophy, to show why translation is at the heart of what we do and who we are. Among many other things, David Bellos asks: What's the difference between translating unprepared natural speech and translating Madame Bovary? How do you translate a joke? What's the difference between a native tongue and a learned one? Can you translate between any pair of languages, or only between some? What really goes on when world leaders speak at the UN? Can machines ever replace human translators, and if not, why? But the biggest question Bellos asks is this: How do we ever really know that we've understood what anybody else says--in our own language or in another? Surprising, witty, and written with great joie de vivre, this book is all about how we comprehend other people and shows us how, ultimately, translation is another name for the human condition."--Publisher's website

It's hard to see how anyone is ever going to better this User's Manual to the life of Georges Perec - Gilbert Adair, Sunday TimesWinner of the Prix Goncourt for Biography, 1994George Perec (1936-82) was one of the most significant European writers of the twentieth century and undoubtedly the most versatile and innovative writer of his generation.

A vivid historical novel set in the fifteenth century, by the winner of the Man Booker International Prize

Combining inventive fiction and autobiography in a quite unprecedented way, Georges Perec leads the reader inexorably towards the horror that lies at the origin of the post-World War Two world, and at the crux of his own identity.

This biography charts Tati's rise and fall, from his earliest beginnings as a music hall mime during the Depression, to the success of Jour de Fete and Mon Oncle, to Playtime, the grandiose masterpiece that left the once celebrated director bankrupt and begging for equipment to complete his final films. schovat popis