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Who was Robin Hood? Throughout history the figures of the hooded man of Sherwood forest and his band of outlaws have transfixed readers and viewers; but where does the myth come from? The story appeared out of the legend of the Green man but found its location during the reign of Richard II, the Lionheart, who was away from England fighting in the crusades. In his absence his brother John lay waste to the country. But does this tell the full story? Was Robin a bandit prince ahead of a troop of brigands? Who was the Sherrif and was he in fact the legitimate law in the land fighting vigilantes?

The figure of William Wordsworth looms over the nineteenth century like a presiding genius. Sage, seer, and Poet Laureate, Wordsworth was revered by his Victorian contemporaries as a writer of tender, lyrical poetry, a controversial challenger of social and artistic convention, a devoted champion of country life, and the spiritual founder of the conservation movement.

In this masterful work, the first biography to fully examine Wordsworth's entire life, critically acclaimed biographer Juliet Barker draws on unpublished sources to present a new picture of him as both public icon and private family man. Balancing meticulous research with engaging prose, she reveals not only the public figure who was courted and reviled in equal measure but also the complex, elusive, private citizen behind that image, vividly re-creating the intimacy of Wordsworth's domestic circle, showing the love, laughter, loyalty, and tragedies that bound them together. Wordsworth is a major biography of one of the world's foremost poets, and a rich, unforgettable portrait of a fascinating and fiercely passionate man.

In this biography, Sylvia Nasar re-creates the life of a mathematical genius whose brilliant career was cut short by schizophrenia and who, after three decades of devastating mental illness, miraculously recovered and was honored with a Nobel Prize. A Beautiful Mind traces the meteoric rise of John Forbes Nash, Jr., from his lonely childhood in West Virginia to his student years at Princeton, where he encountered Albert Einstein, John von Neumann, and a host of other mathematical luminaries. At twenty-one, the handsome, ambitious, eccentric graduate student invented what would become the most influential theory of rational human behavior in modern social science. Nash's contribution to game theory would ultimately revolutionize the field of economics. At thirty, Nash was poised to take his dreamed-of place in the pantheon of history's greatest mathematicians. Then Nash suffered a catastrophic mental breakdown Nasar details Nash's harrowing descent into insanity - his bizarre delusions that he was the Prince of Peace; his resignation from MIT, flight to Europe, and attempt to renounce his American citizenship; his repeated hospitalizations, from the storied McLean, where he came to know the poet Robert Lowell, to the crowded wards of a state hospital; his "enforced interludes of rationality" during which he was able to return briefly to mathematical research. At age sixty-six, twin miracles - a spontaneous remission of his illness and the sudden decision of the Nobel Prize committee to honor his contributions to game theory - restored the world to him. Nasar recounts the bitter behind-the-scenes battle in Stockholm over whether to grant the ultimate honor in science to a man thought to be "mad." She describes Nash's current ambition to pursue new mathematical breakthroughs and his efforts to be a loving father to his adult sons.

With his magisterial and ingenious re-creations of the lives of Chaucer, Dickens, T. S. Eliot, William Blake, and Sir Thomas More, Peter Ackroyd has long been recognized as today's foremost practitioner of the literary biography. His adroit style and unrivaled ability to uncover the telling detail have made those books both critical and commercial successes. And now, in SHAKESPEARE: THE BIOGRAPHY, Ackroyd delivers his crowning achievement.
Thousands of books have been written about the playwright, but none has borne Ackroyd's unique and accessible stamp. His method is to position Shakespeare in the context of his world, exploring everything from Stratford's humble town to its fields of wildflowers; discerning influences on the plays from unexpected quarters; and entering London with the playwright as modern theater, as we know it, is just beginning to emerge.
We are with Shakespeare, observing him and his circle of friends, patrons, managers, and fellow actors and writers. It is as if Ackroyd were sitting with the Elizabethan audience as the plays are performed.
Because the author is coming from so intimate a perspective, he is able to see Shakespeare's genius from within, so we feel that Ackroyd the writer merges with Shakespeare the writer, the poet, the man; and thus with great sympathy and clarity we experience the way in which Shakespeare worked.
SHAKESPEARE: THE BIOGRAPHY is unlike the works other writers-excellent academics-have written, which merely analyze and describe. Rather, Peter Ackroyd has used his skill, his extraordinary knowledge, and his historical intuition to craft this major full-scale book on one of the most towering figures of the Englishlanguage.

Samuel Pepys is the astonishing biography by bestselling author Claire Tomalin 2002 WHITBREAD BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Immaculately well done. Tomalin has managed to unearth a wealth of material about the uncharted life of Samuel Pepys' Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday 'Sex, drink, plague, fire, music, marital conflict, the fall of kings, corruption and courage in public life, wars, navies, public execution, incarceration in the Tower: Samuel Pepys's life is full of irresistible material, and Claire Tomalin seizes it with both hands. Fast, vivid, accessible' Hermione Lee, Guardian 'A rich, thoughtful and deeply satisfying account. It takes us behind and beyond the diary - which means that, on finishing it, we can reread the diary with greater pleasure and understanding then ever before' Noel Malcolm, Evening Standard 'In Claire Tomalin, Pepys has found the biographer he deserves. Her perceptive, level-headed book finally restores to the life of the diarist its weight and dignity' Lisa Jardine, New Statesman 'A great achievement and a huge pleasure. A vivid chronicle of contemporary history seen through the all too human preoccupations of this ordinary and extraordinary man' Diana Souhami, Independent From the acclaimed author of Charles Dickens: A Life and The Invisible Woman, this celebrated biography casts new light on the remarkable diaries of Pepys and brings his story vividly to life once more. Claire Tomalin is the award-winning author of eight highly acclaimed biographies, including: The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft; Shelley and His World; Katherine Mansfield: A Secret Life; The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens; Mrs Jordan's Profession; Jane Austen: A Life; Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self; Thomas Hardy: The Time-Torn Man and, most recently, Charles Dickens: A Life. A former literary editor of the New Statesman and the Sunday Times, she is married to the playwright and novelist Michael Frayn.

Vienna, 1815, as the political aristocrats of Europe assembled to determine the fate of the continent after the wars of the last twenty years, the news arrives that Napoleon has returned to France. Bonaparte (the revolutionary turned emperor and 'disturber of the world's peace') had been defeated and exiled to Elba, but now he is fast advancing on Paris, gathering troops and taking cities without firing a single shot. Europe's peace is not to last. This story brilliantly re-lives the rise and fall of Bonaparte's empire, and brings to life the characters who shaped it: Wellington, the Iron Duke, Napoleon's great love, Josephine, the duplicitous Tallyrand, his erstwhile foreign secretary, and, of course, Napoleon himself. Showing where the mistakes were made and how the path to war became inexorable, it culminates in a virtuoso description of the Battle of Waterloo itself. Displaying his customary blend of historian's and novelist's eye, Stephen Coote paints a vivid portrait of the legendary emperor and military genius, whose energy, courage and tenacity won (and lost) him a vast empire.

Benvenuto Cellini was a celebrated goldsmith and distinguished sculptor, yet it is on his autobiography that much of his fame rests. Begun in Florence when he was fifty-eight, it was primarily intended to be the story of his life and art, his tragedies and triumphs. However, as he was an active participant in the wars and struggles of the period and drew his friends and enemies from all levels of society, it became a vivid and convincing portrait of the manners and morals both of the rulers of the sixteenth century and of their subjects.With enviable powers of invective and an irrepressible sense of humor, reflected in an equally vigorous and extravagant style, Cellini has provided an intriguing and unrivaled glimpse into the palaces and prisons of the Italy of Michelangelo and the Medici. For this edition George Bull has revised and expanded his Introduction, added comprehensive Notes, and updated the Bibliography. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

When Oliver Sacks was twelve years old, a perceptive schoolmaster wrote in his report: 'Sacks will go far, if he does not go too far'. It is now abundantly clear that Sacks has never stopped going . . .

From its opening pages on his youthful obsession with motorcycles and speed, On the Move is infused with his restless energy. As he recounts his experiences as a young neurologist in the early 1960s, first in California and then in New York, where he discovered a long-forgotten illness in the back wards of a chronic hospital, as well as with a group of patients who would define his life, it becomes clear that Sacks's earnest desire for engagement has occasioned unexpected encounters and travels - sending him through bars and alleys, over oceans, and across continents.

With unbridled honesty and humour, Sacks shows us that the same energy that drives his physical passions -bodybuilding, weightlifting, and swimming - also drives his cerebral passions. He writes about his love affairs, both romantic and intellectual, his guilt over leaving his family to come to America, his bond with his schizophrenic brother, and the writers and scientists - Thom Gunn, A. R. Luria, W. H. Auden, Gerald M. Edelman, Francis Crick - who influenced him.

On the Move is the story of a brilliantly unconventional physician and writer - and of the man who has illuminated the many ways that the brain makes us human.

In the history of the modern world, there have been few characters more sinister, sadistic, and deeply demented than Baron Ungern-Sternberg. An anti-Semitic fanatic whose penchant for Eastern mysticism and hatred of communists foreshadowed the Nazi scourge that would soon overtake Europe, Ungern- Sternberg conquered Mongolia in 1919 with a ragtag force of White Russians, Siberians, Japanese, and native Mongolians. In The Bloody White Baron, historian and travel writer James Palmer vividly re-creates Ungern-Sternberg's spiral into ever-darker obsessions, while also providing a rare look at the religion and culture of the unfortunate Mongolians he briefly ruled.

Documents the efforts of an esteemed French Jesuit priest to confront the struggle between science and religion upon his 1929 discovery of the Peking Man pre-human skull that represented a missing link between erect hunting apes and the human race's Cro-Magnon ancestors, a finding he was ordered to deny as scientific evidence refuting biblical teachings. Reprint.

Overwegingen over seks, drank en datgene wat verder nog in Reves werkelijkheid een rol speelt.

Door dit boekje konden miljoenen lezers op aarde kennismaken met de ideeën van de briljante theoretisch natuurkundige Stephen Hawking. Het is een rijk geïllustreerde uitgave. Hawking richt zich tot het lezerspubliek om de voornaamste wetenschappelijke ontdekkingen en de daarmee verbonden vragen uit de periode sinds het verschijnen van zijn unaniem geprezen eerste boek, toe te lichten.

Een jonge acteur en zijn vrienden beleven bizarre avonturen in hun strijd met de sovjetbureaucratie in Moskou.

Deze bundel biedt een geselecteerde kennismaking met het werk van de Markies de Sade, aangevuld met een beschouwend essay van Simone de Beauvoir. De uitgave richt zich op de ideeënwereld achter Sade’s provocerende teksten: thema’s als vrijheid, begeerte, macht, moraal en de grenzen van het menselijk handelen worden in verschillende vormen zichtbaar. De selectie laat zien hoe Sade religieuze en maatschappelijke normen tart en hoe zijn personages extremen opzoeken om de logica van wetten en conventies te ontregelen. Het essay plaatst Sade binnen een filosofisch en literair kader en onderzoekt waarom zijn werk, ondanks afwijzing en censuur, een blijvende invloed heeft gehad op discussies over ethiek en autonomie. De bundel is daardoor niet alleen schokkende literatuur, maar ook materiaal voor reflectie op mensbeeld en maatschappij. Een uitgave voor lezers die Sade willen begrijpen in context, met nadruk op interpretatie en duiding.

Mit hintergründigem Witz und schnörkelloser Sprache erzählt der Autor vom ganz normalen Wahnsinn unseres Alltags: Mit 68 Jahren entschließt sich Kaminers Vater nach Deutschland auszuwandern, wo er schon bald die Herausforderungen des russischen Alltags vermisst und zum Ausgleich beschließt, sich als Fahrschüler dem Überlebenskampf im Straßenverkehr zu stellen ...

Stapsgewijs worden ideeën uitgewerkt om met eenvoudige basismaterialen als hout en karton speelgoed, ook uit andere culturen, te maken. Uitsluitend onder begeleiding vanaf ca. 10 jaar. 

Opa Go is een handige opa. Hij maakte voor zijn kleinkinderen al vele leuke speeltjes van hout, karton of een ander eenvoudig basismateriaal. In dit boek doet hij uit de doeken hoe hij deze leuke dingen zelf gemaakt heeft. Elk kleinkind wil het namelijk: buitelende chimpansees, de goocheltruc met het touw, een vliegende vleermuis, een ratelslang van wc-rolletjes, een mini wipwap en nog 45 andere ouderwetse spellen. Met zeer duidelijke werktekeningen en heldere stap voor stap beschrijvingen.

Een Andalusische schaapherder die graag reist, ontmoet na vele omzwervingen een alchemist die hem helpt zijn ware bestemming te vinden.

Het is 1594. Het stoerste verhaal van onze geschiedenis wordt geschreven: een schip komt vast zitten in het ijs en de bemanning overwintert in de barre poolnacht. De mannen bouwen een blokhut en moeten poolvossen eten om in leven te blijven. Als het eindelijk zomer wordt bereiken ze na een barre tocht het Russische vasteland. Vandaar reizen ze eindelijk terug naar huis. Gerrit de Veer maakte het allemaal mee. Zijn verslag, dat de basis vormt voor de film "Nova Zembla", is vertaald in modern Nederlands, en van interessante extra informatie voorzien. Ook de originele illustraties zijn opgenomen. Dit nationale epos is nu in de bioscoop te zien, en in een boek te lezen.

Gedichten en liedteksten van de Nederlandse cabaretier.

Alles wat we nodig hebben is een stad aan het water, een Januarimaand, een dag van natte sneeuw, een station. Van de kleuren is grijs het beste, een verborgen zon die zijn hitte bespaart voor de andere kant van de wereld en de verhalen die daar geschreven worden. Dertien perrons, sommige voller dan andere. En nu wijst de wichelroede die bij ons beroep hoort een duidelijker kant op, duwt en trekt in de richting van een losse groep niet bij elkaar horende reizigers, figuranten, extra’s.

Persiflage op het dictatorschap en de totalitaire staat, waarin vooral de draak wordt gestoken met het Russische communisme.

De schrijver neemt hedendaagse kantoorwoorden die eigenllijk geen betekenis hebben op de hak en geeft goede alternatieven.

Autobiografische verzameling gedichten, essays, brieven en artikelen van de dichter en filosoof.