Jane Austen and Dorothy Wordsworth were born just four years apart, in a world torn between heady revolutionary ideas and fierce conservatism, but their lives have never been examined together before.
Inspired by the twenty-three "tales," Matthew Dennison takes a selection of quotations from Potter's stories and uses them to explore her multi-faceted life and character: repressed Victorian daughter
St. Petersburg has always felt like an impossible metropolis, risen from the freezing mists and flooded marshland of the River Neva on the western edge of Russia. It was a new capital in an old countr
Hannah had a perfect life in London—a loving husband, a great job—until she did something shocking. Something that she doesn’t quite understand herself; and now she has landed herself in a high-risk p
Comprehensive and authoritative, The Secret State skillfully examines the potential pitfalls of the traditional intelligence cycle; the dangerous uncertainties of spies and human intelligence; how the
Eleanor Roosevelt is viewed as one of the most pioneering women in American history. But she was also one of the most enigmatic and lonely. Her loveless marriage with FDR was no secret, and she had a
London, summer 1763.At nineteen, Anne Jaccob is awakened to the possibility of joy when she meets Fub, the butcher's apprentice, and begins to imagine a life of passion with him. The only daughter of
Only twenty-four people have seen the whole earth. The most beautiful and influential photographs ever made were taken, almost as an afterthought, by the astronauts of the Apollo space program from t
In New York City, a young man is found murdered in a dingy Times Square sex theater—his neck gruesomely snapped—and the only clue is a torn receipt from the Montpelier School for Boys bookstore.Christ
On 28 January 1547, the sickly and obese King Henry VIII died at Whitehall. Just hours before his passing, his last will and testament had been read, stamped, and sealed. The will confirmed the line o
An unidentified body is discovered in New York City, with numbers and symbols are written in blood near the corpse. Gilmo, a North Korean national who interprets the world through numbers, formulas,
In 1844, Alexandre Dumas published The Three Musketeers, a novel so famous and still so popular today that it scarcely needs introduction. Shortly thereafter he wrote a sequel, Twenty Years After, tha
The French Revolution casts a long shadow, one that reaches into our own time and influences our debates on freedom, equality, and authority. Yet it remains an elusive, perplexing historical event. It
Inversgail, on the west coast of the Scottish Highlands, welcomes home native daughter and best-selling environmental writer Daphne Wood. Known as the icon of ecology, Daphne will spend three months a
In the vein of Tim Cope’s On the Trail of Genghis Khan and Scott Wallace’s The Unconquered, Himalaya Bound tells the story of one man’s immersion with a tribe of nomadic water buffalo herders on their
“The black earth was already baking and the sun was just rising when they mounted their horses and rode across the grasslands towards the horizon on fire . . .”Imprisoned in the Gulags for a crime he
A dazzling history of the modest family that rose to become one of the most powerful in Europe, The Medici is a remarkably modern story of power, money, and ambition. Against the background of an age
The story of the world's greatest civilization spans 4,000 years of history that has shaped the world. It is full of spectacular cities and epic stories—an evolving society rich in inventors, heroes,
Yellowstone is America's premier national park. Today is often a byword for conservation, natural beauty, and a way for everyone to enjoy the great outdoors. But it was not always this way. Wonderland
When we think of slavery most of us think of the American South. We think of chattel slavery, of back-breaking work, and of cruel and inhumane treatment on plantations. We don’t think of slavery in th
Weather, water, and climate. How we feel, how productive we are, even our sheer existence, depends on these three things. The United States economic activity varies annually by 1.7% due to weather—tha
In 1993, Alaskan artist and paleo-fish freak Ray Troll stumbled upon the weirdest fossil he had ever seen—a platter-sized spiral of tightly wound shark teeth. This chance encounter in the basement of
Rosemary Woodhouse and her struggling actor husband Guy move into the Bramford, an old New York City apartment building with an ominous reputation and mostly elderly residents. Neighbors Roman and Min
Someone is killing the nuns of Ireland. The grisly discovery of an elderly sister of Saint Brigid’s monastery strangled, bled dry, and thrown into a bog is just the beginning. Soon a beautiful young n
Homesick and alone, a teen-aged girl has just arrived in Seoul to work in a factory. Her family, still in the countryside, is too impoverished to keep sending her to school, so she works long, sun-les
King John is familiar to everyone as the villain from the tales of Robin Hood—greedy, cowardly, despicable, and cruel. But who was the man behind the legend? Was he truly a monster, or a capable ruler
The founders of the now infamous Academy were a motley crew as individuals, but when they first converged in Hollywood, then just a small town with dirt roads, sparks flew and fueled a common dream: t
Crowned at nine months, married at sixteen, widowed at eighteen, implicated in the murder of her second husband, and executed for treason, Mary Stuart lived a life that could not havebeen better imag
One man links The Deer Hunter, Blade Runner, The Italian Job,Don’t Look Now, The Wicker Man and The Man Who Fell to Earth. Producer Michael Deeley, an urbane Englishman in Hollywood, had to fig
Considered one of the great dystopian novels—alongside Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange and Aldous Huxley's BraveNew World—Ira Levin's frightening glimpse into the future continues to
Communist humor is the strangest, funniest, most enchanting and meaningful legacy of the eighty years of communism in Russia and Eastern Europe. The valiant and sardonic citizens of the former Commun
From Los Angeles to London, from Slovenia to Taiwan, honeybees are dying. What is behind the catastrophe?Writers and beekeepers Benjamin and McCallum have traveled across Europe and North America inv
"THE PERFECT BEDTIME STORY FOR KIDS!" WHO or WHAT is hiding under Markey's bed? Mommy, There's A Little Boy Under My Bed! provides an excellent opportunity for parents and educators to teach kids abou
A small marvel, A Beginner's Guide to Philosophy provides an instructive and delightful introduction to philosophy. Despite its brevity, this beginner's guide covers a vast range of authors and topic
While investigating a murder crime scene, San Francisco police find a letter addressed to one of their detectives, the clever and highly-respected Inspector Deuteronomy Saint Claire, who is at odds w
Featuring a hooker-gone-straight, the street-smart Agnes Lynn declares vengeance on the Russian "Mafiya" when her best friend turns up dead and mutilated. She soon finds herself enmeshed in grim plo
Heeding the call of England's ruling class, the Dutch Prince William of Orange landed with a massive invasion force and within six weeks expelled the Catholic King James II in 1688. In what was large
When Russia invaded Finland in November 1939, the international community reacted with shock and outrage, and yet did not come to their aid. The results of the invasion seemed to be a forgone conclu
