Ian Duncan Book order

The memoir explores Ian Duncan's profound journey through mental illness, detailing his commitment to a mental institution in 2001 and the subsequent sixteen-year struggle with stigma and trauma. He vividly recounts his transition from a padded cell to the transformative wilderness of Cove Mountain, where he encountered God, met his wife, and sought spiritual redemption. The narrative highlights his evolution from despair to joy, illustrating the universal battle against mental health challenges and the quest for self-acceptance and love.

Duncan reorients readers' understanding of the novel's formation during its cultural ascendancy, arguing that fiction produced new knowledge in a period characterized by the interplay between literary and scientific discourses-- even as the two were separating into distinct domains.ains.

The book delves into the vibrant period of Scottish fiction from 1802 to 1832, highlighting Edinburgh's emergence as a literary hub. Ian Duncan emphasizes Walter Scott's pivotal role in this transformation, illustrating how he redefined the novel to reflect national historical narratives. This comprehensive account showcases the cultural and literary innovations of the time, positioning Scott as a key figure in the evolution of modern literature in Scotland.

The book delves into the interplay between the revival of romance and the rise of the novel in British literature from 1760 to 1850. It highlights how romance served as a metaphor for the authenticity of the novel amid societal changes. The study tracks the evolution of prose fiction, emphasizing its transformation in the hands of authors like Sir Walter Scott and Charles Dickens. Beginning with the Gothic novel, it explores how Scott's blend of romance and history shaped the literary landscape and influenced subsequent national authors.

A failed revolutionary attempt drives the hero of Hudson's novel to seek refuge in the primeval forests of south-western Venezuela. There, in the 'green mansion' of the title, Abel encounters the wood-nymph Rima, the last survivor of a mysterious aboriginal race. The love that flowers betweenthem is soon overshadowed by cruelty and sorrow. One of the acknowledged masters of natural history writing, W. H. Hudson forms an important link between nineteenth-century Romanticism and the twentieth-century ecological movement. First published in 1904 and a best-seller after its reissue a dozen years later, Green Mansions offers its readers a poignant meditation on the loss of wilderness, the dream of a return to nature, and the bitter reality of the encounter between savage and civilized man.