Great Art

Britain's most esteemed scholar of 16th and 17th century literature, Frank Kermode is also a noted author and professor. In this Modern Library Chronicle, he uses the context of the Elizabethan Era to link each of Shakespeare's plays to their probable years of creation. By portraying the bard's England in terms of its society, economy, and arts, Kermode provides an invaluable guide to understanding Shakespeare?s works.

Count Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was born at Yasnaya Polyana, his ancestral estate located about 120 miles from Moscow. While he would live and travel in other places over the years, he always considered this family residence in the Russian heartland as his home. His lifelong quest for truth and meaning began while he was a university student. In Simply Tolstoy, Professor Donna Tussing Orwin traces the author’s profound journey of discovery and explains how he mined his tumultuous inner life to create his great works.

From the grand old man of comedy, George Burns to the up-to-the minute observations of today's everyman, Dave Barry, these great humorists share one thing in common: their very individual, often raucously funny perception of the world around them. Laugh and enjoy!

Unlock Your Coaching Potential: Coaching Mastery: Essentials and Strategies for Becoming a Great Coach, Master the Art and Science of Empowering Others Are you ready to embark on a transformative journey that not only elevates your coaching skills but also profoundly impacts the lives of those you guide? "Coaching Mastery: Essentials and Strategies for Becoming a Great Coach" is designed to catapult your coaching abilities from foundational to exceptional, equipping you with the tools, insights, and strategies needed to achieve coaching excellence. ✓ Deep Dive into Coaching Principles: ...

Celebrate the greatest saga ever told: All of us who are deeply influenced by the epic saga of Star Wars have our favorite moments. Each time the screen goes black and you see those words - "a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away" - the music blasts through you, and you're a kid again. Ken Napzok, expert appreciator of Star Wars, counts down each one of those special moments that makes this series not just the best movies of all time, but the greatest saga ever told.

Millions of words of scholarship have been expended on the world's most famous author and his work. And yet a critical part of the puzzle, Shakespeare's library, is a mystery. For four centuries people have searched for it: in mansions, palaces, and libraries; in riverbeds, sheep pens, and partridge coops; and in the corridors of the mind. Yet no trace of the Bard's manuscripts, books, or letters has ever been found.

On a summer's day in 1858, in a garden behind Christ Church College in Oxford, Charles Dodgson, a lecturer in mathematics, photographed six-year-old Alice Liddell, the daughter of the college dean, with a Thomas Ottewill Registered Double Folding camera, recently purchased in London. Simon Winchester deftly uses the resulting image - as unsettling as it is famous, and the subject of bottomless speculation - as the vehicle for a brief excursion behind the lens, a focal point on the origins of a classic work of English literature.

All of Faulkner's works powerfully explore complex societal and family issues that continue to be relevant in our own day. Yet, because of his decidedly difficult, stream-of-consciousness style, Faulkner’s books remain sadly unknown to many readers. In Simply Faulkner, author Philip Weinstein not only helps us understand these challenging works, but also explains why Faulkner had to write them as he did, in an effort to capture the sheer abundance and unruliness of life.

Jake Stark. Hit songwriter for Nashville music publisher MegaMusic. Until he's not. When MegaMusic decides to not renew his contract over a lack of hit songs, Jake is at a loss. His creative energy is down, and the bills are piling up. Enter Sir Daniel Smith-Daniels, the young, enigmatic owner of the hottest music publisher in Nashville, The Row. During a compelling initial meeting, Sir Daniel introduces Jake to his unique approach to work and life, The Method.

The authorized biography of the most notorious rock manager of all time, Peter Grant, best known for his work with Led Zeppelin. Often acknowledged as the "fifth member of Led Zeppelin", Grant's story has appeared in fragments across countless Zeppelin biographies, but none has explored who this brilliant and intuitive manager yet flawed and sometimes dangerous man truly was. No one has successfully captured the scope of his personality or his long-lasting impact on the music business. Acclaimed author and journalist Mark Blake seeks to rectify that.

Kendall Taylor examines the dalliance between the southern belle and the French pilot from a fresh perspective. Drawing on conversations and correspondence with Jozan's daughter, as well as materials from the Jozan family archives, Taylor sheds new light on this romantic triangle. More than just a casual fling, Zelda's tryst with Edouard affected Scott as much as it did his wife - and ultimately influenced the author's most famous creation, Jay Gatsby. Were it not for Zelda's affair with the pilot, Scott's novel might be less about betrayal and more about lost illusions.

Jane Austen is famous for such books as Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice, and Emma. Now learn about the author’s journey through a life spent making up stories that touched the lives of millions.

A book about self-improvement.Feeling good about everything. The art of feeling great. Some great reasons to feel great to-day!

In 2021, when the gavel fell at Christie’s on the sale of Mike Winkelmann’s Everydays series—a compilation of 5,000 digital artworks—it made a thunderous announcement: Non-fungible tokens had arrived. The ludicrous world of CryptoKitties and Bored Apes had just produced a piece of art worth $69.3 million (at least according to the highest bidder). On that day, the traditional art market—the largest unregulated market in the world—put its stamp of approval on a very new and carnivalesque digital reality. But what did it mean for these two worlds to collide?

There is a point in everybody's life at which a tough decision will have to be made - a hard call. For inspiration and direction, we can look to the remarkable individuals in John McCain and Mark Salter's book, which dramatically describes the anatomy of a great decision.

Gary Barlow is one of the most successful British musicians and songwriters of all time, but 15 years ago, as he himself admits, he hit rock bottom - he was out of shape, out of work, depressed. Food for him had become an addiction, a means not only of comfort but almost of self-medication as he grappled with the cruel twists of fate of musical stardom. In 2003, as he struggled with the disappointment of an underperforming solo career alongside the tireless media taunts; Gary turned to food.

This audiobook narrated by William Hope examines how Emerson, Thoreau, and William James forged resilience from devastating loss and changed the course of American thought.

Harry Houdini never met a lock he didn’t like. Handcuffs, leg irons, and thumbscrews were child’s play for the world’s greatest escape artist. During his stunning career he invented some of the most mind-boggling escapes of all time. Join Houdini as he attempts his most dangerous stunts and unlock the secrets of the illusionist’s lasting legacy.

A Son of the Middle Border is an epic story of the quest for new frontiers during the last half of the nineteenth century, and of the gradual, heartbreaking failure of America's pioneer ideal.

A perfect introduction for anyone interested in the rich history of Western Art. Great Artists takes its listeners on a comprehensive journey through the history of art. This book, part one, provides a dedicated chapter on each of the following artists: Giotto, Leonardo da Vinci, Dürer, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian and Bruegel. These major painters of Western art are considered, placed in their social context, and discussed in terms of the most recent scholarship.