International Comparative Studies Volume II. ISSN 1568-4474.

The daughter of a courtesan and a Bonapartist major, convent-educated Aurore Dudevant rebelled against her disappointing marriage, moved to Paris to take up writing, and emerged as the brilliant and notorious George Sand

On November 1, 2006, Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB officer, sipped tea in the upmarket Millennium Mayfair hotel near the American Embassy in London - tea that had been spiked with a rare radioactive isotope called Polonium 210. Twenty two days later, he was dead. And the mystery behind his murder would be revealed as more baffling and more labyrinthine than any John Le Carré plot. Litvinenko had sought asylum in London and from there had become a fierce critic of Vladimir Putin's government. His is the most high profile of a string of mysterious deaths of a number of Russian dissenters, which heralds a new era of KGB-style authoritarianism and terror. It quickly became known as one of the most mysterious and audacious crimes of the post-Cold War era, and triggered an international investigation led by London's top counterterrorism officials. Blending the pace of a thriller with original reportage and research,The Terminal Spydocuments Litvinenko's life and death, the ensuing police investigation, the reaction from Vladimir Putin and others in Moscow, the Russian émigré set in London, and the implications of this case for nuclear proliferation and international terrorism in the future. It is a shocking endictment of how contemptuous of the rule of law certain governments are and an chilling reminder of the power - in every respect - of the New Russia.

We know very little about spinsters in earlier times, for the stigma attached to the unmarried state often rendered these women almost invisible. Now a fascinating book opens a window into the lives of British spinsters in the mid-seventeenth to mid-nineteenth centuries, assessing the opportunities open to them and the restrictions placed upon them within different social classes, occupations, and periods. Bridget Hill examines how often spinsters were able to earn enough money to live independently, what provision the Poor Law made for them if they did not, whether extreme poverty led to their involvement in crime or prostitution, and, if they stayed in the parental home, what kind of lives they led. She looks at the part single women played in religious organisations and the role of friendship and letter-writing in their daily lives. She describes the nature of close relationships between women, some lesbian but many others not. Exploring the spinsters' possibilities of escape from restrictive lives, particularly by emigration or crossdressing, she discusses how successful these were. She provides details about the degree of surveillance single women suffered from the authorities

"Wie een vrouw heeft gevonden, heeft iets goeds gevonden", zei de oude koning Salomo al, maar hij noemde de vrouw ook "bitterder dan de dood". In deze nieuwe uitgave in de Ambo-reeks "Spreekwoorden over vrouwen wereldwijd" komen Joodse visies over de vrouw aan bod. Bijbel en Talmoed vormen een rijke bron van spreekwoorden over vrouwen. In de loop van een eeuwenlange, veelbewogen geschiedenis zijn daar talloze andere bijgekomen. Samen vormen ze een Joodse spiegel die in vele talen en landen vrouwbeelden heeft doorgegeven van de ene generatie op de andere. Ze spreken elkaar tegen en zijn ambivalent, zoals het spreekwoorden betaamt. Het spreekt vanzelf dat een man een vrouw het hof maakt en niet andersom, want wie verliest, zoekt wat hij verloor, zegt de Talmoed. Adam is nog steeds op zoek. "De rib uit zijn lijf" is het resultaat van een speurtocht naar visies op de vrouw zoals die zijn neergelegd in Joodse spreekwoorden, niet alleen in het oude Israel, maar ook overal elders.