Clinker boats have a long history and were notably used by the Vikings. They are a romantic and traditional sight on the water. Their popularity has endured because of the elegance and strength of their construction. This book gives practical instruction on how to build clinker boats and celebrates their proud history.
What makes Shakespeare's sonnets exceptional and original? Primarily, it lies in the fact that Shakespeare was, unlike most other sonnet authors, primarily a dramatic and theatrical poet. The sonnet's confined space, measuring five feet wide and fourteen lines high, serves as a small Shakespearean stage where every word acts as a performer and each line represents a theatrical part. Within this limited, precisely defined space, Shakespeare showcases his artistry. The originality of his sonnets is rooted in their extraordinarily wide range of emotions and passions, encapsulating nearly the entirety of love's experience. Shakespeare's sonnets explore both joyful and painful love, erotic and platonic love, faithful and unfaithful love, pure love and love that is betrayed and constantly wounded, selfish love as well as selfless, sacrificial love. Each sonnet can be seen as a conversation or a letter in verse, with the entire collection resembling poetic correspondence. It is not grand art but rather occasional poetry, akin to poetic letters—Shakespearean mail that conveys the paradoxes of concrete existence.
Joseph Conrad’s long experience as a working seaman enriched and deepened his literary gifts, making him the most brilliant and convincing writer of seafaring’s greatest age. In the three sea stories collected here, he makes deft use of the maritime setting to enact moral dramas of men tested by the elements and by one another. “The Nigger of the ‘Narcissus’” has been hailed as Conrad’s earliest masterpiece. When a West Indian sailor on board the merchant ship Narcissus falls ill his condition sparks conflict among the crew, which threatens to erupt in mutiny under the pressure of a terrifying gale. “Typhoon,” the gripping story of a steamship captain who stubbornly steers into a major tempest and the crew’s ensuing struggle to survive the raging waters, is distinguished by one of the most thrillingly evoked storms in all of literature. “The Shadow-Line” is a dramatically fictionalized account of Conrad’s first command as a young sea captain trapped aboard a becalmed, fever-wracked, and seemingly haunted ship—an ordeal that marks for him the “shadow-line” between youth and maturity. Suspenseful, atmospheric, and deceptively simple, this intense story reflects the complex themes of Conrad’s most famous novels, Lord Jim and Heart of Darkness . With an introduction by Martin Seymour-Smith
An illustrated dictionary of novels and novelists that covers the novel's origin and development, how novelists' work, how to read novels, and a history of publication
This biography was first published in 1982. Martin Seymour-Smith had known Robert Graves since early boyhood, and had lived in his house for more than three years. He wrote it with Grave's help, at his home in Deya, while Graves' (sometime) mistress and muse, the notorious Laura Riding, was still alive. Since then, some of the material Seymour-Smith deliberately suppressed has been aired, and is no longer as sensitive as it was. In this revised, expanded and largely rewritten edition, he sets the record straight.
Includes Romance, Germanic, and Slavic works and also one Scandinavian author (Knut Hamsun)...the critical commentary is very good and emphasizes thematic and stylistic elements along with the significance of the work in the development of the European novel.
S provokativním Angličanem Seymourem-Smithem nemusíme vždy souhlasit, ale nikdy se s ním nebudeme nudit. Když se zamýšlí nad stovkou nejvýznamnějších knih v lidské historii, rozhoduje u něho vliv, který měly knihy na naše myšlení v oblasti filozofie, morálky, politiky, ekonomie i beletrie. Několik tisíc let vývoje západní kultury od starověku až po dnešek sleduje autor s jedovatou ironií nešetřící nikoho. Neunikne mu fanaticky praktikované náboženství, ani snaha jednoho myslitele vykrádat druhé, ani Voltairova obstarožní milenka či Hegelova ješitnost. Odmítá pokrytectví, byrokracii, manipulaci a staví proti nim fakta, obyčejnou slušnost, pochopení lidských slabostí i zdravý rozum. Dohromady se tomu říká kritické myšlení - schopnost, která má dnes hodnotu soli nad zlato. Přidáme-li k ní autorův dar popsat jedinou trefnou poznámkou to, nač komik zpravidla potřebuje celý pořad, je jasné, že jeho sto zastávek na cestě lidského myšlení za pravdou, láskou a tajemstvím vesmíru ocení většina z těch, kdo o takové poznání stojí.
Tropische Wildnis, unendliche See, das sind die Szenerien, mit denen sich Joseph Conrads Name verbindet. In diesem Roman, seinem nach eigenem Urteil besten, tritt eine andere, nicht weniger unerbittliche Erfahrungswelt in den Blickpunkt: der Moloch Großstadt. Ein historischer Vorfall bildet den Angelpunkt für Conrads fesselnden Kriminalroman, der den Leser mitten hineinführt ins finstere Herz der Zivilisation.
