bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Reflections on Narrative and Cultural Humility
Authors: Josselson Ruthellen
Published: December 2020

This chapter reviews the literature on East/West cultural differences in light of the author’s experience in China. It considers the nuances of the individualist/collectivistic binary description of cultures and contests this as a meaningful distinction, arguing that these are on a continuum, with elements of both at every point. It makes a strong case for the importance of cultural humility, which involves being open to surprise and nurturing curiosity about how others think and construe their experience in their own terms, through their own narratives. It means learning to recognize our own taken-for-granted assumptions. Narrative sheds a more illuminating light on culture than abstractions and has the possibility of representing culture with vividness and respect for profound differences.
Improving Economic Opportunity in the United States
Authors: Bernstein Jared
Published: December 2020

This chapter examines barriers to economic opportunity and mobility in the United States and offers near- and long-term policies to reduce these barriers. These barriers include high levels of income inequality, unequal access to educational opportunities, residential segregation by income, inadequate investments in children and certain areas, and disparities between economic conditions in rural relative to metro areas. In the near-term, running tight labor markets, infrastructure investment, direct job creation, healthcare and other work supports, and apprenticeships could reduce these barriers. Longer term solutions invoke policy interventions targeting inequality, inadequate housing, income and wage stagnation, nutritional and health support, the criminal justice system, and educational access. It is also crucial to avoid policies that keep opportunity barriers in place, such as reducing the provision of public healthcare, regressive tax cuts, and budget cuts to programs that help low- and moderate-income families.
Two
Authors: Maçães Bruno
Published: December 2020

This chapter examines the meaning of America, which is present as much in the great books written about the American experiment as in the most practical elements of its politics and economic life. It considers Alexis de Tocqueville's theory of the American experiment and looks at how the image of America as a representative of European civilization was built over two centuries by thinkers and writers for whom no alternative was yet conceivable or for whom a transatlantic community offered a distinct promise of happiness. Wealth and power will not be enough to provide Americans with a new understanding of their place in the history of civilization. Only a new-—equally full and vast—-system of thought can do that, and this new system cannot be imported from outside. It must be built from the actual experience of American life, even and especially when that experience seems most random and unintelligible.
Crust-Punk/Dis-Core and the Codification of Propaganda Music
Authors: Pearson David
Published: December 2020

Crust-punk/dis-core was the punk musical style most associated with radical leftist and anarchist politics in the 1990s. It drew on the aesthetics, politics, and/or musical styles of 1980s British anarcho-punk bands such as Discharge and Crass. Crust-punk/dis-core exemplifies the attributes of successful propaganda music, as is shown by analysis of the music of the band Aus-Rotten. As the number of bands in crust-punk/dis-core style exponentially increased, crust-punk/dis-core was increasingly criticized for being unoriginal and imitative, and bands with similar politics but different musical styles offered pathways out of stylistic staleness.
The Dystopian Sublime of Extreme Hardcore Punk
Authors: Pearson David
Published: December 2020

With roots in the 1980s and becoming a coherent trend in the 1990s, extreme hardcore punk pushed the intensity of punk music beyond previous levels with beats over 800 BPM, screamed or growled vocals, and guitar riffs built from dissonant and nondiatonic pitch material. Its lyrics often provided dystopian warnings of environmental catastrophe and humanity’s downfall due to globalized capitalism. Analysis and reception history of the music of bands such as Dropdead, His Hero Is Gone, Hellnation, and Capitalist Casualties identify the musical techniques and sublime effects of the extreme hardcore punk subgenre, also referred to as grindcore and power violence.
Whose Rebellion was Punk in the 1990s?
Authors: Pearson David
Published: December 2020

While punk in the United States is often associated with white, male, suburban youth, the 1990s witnessed a dramatic increase in the vocal participation of women and Latinos in US punk bands. The all-Latino, Spanish-language band Los Crudos built a punk scene in the Chicago majority-Mexican neighborhood of Pilsen and went on to captivate the punk scene in the United States and internationally with their ferocious hardcore punk music and unapologetic assertion of Latino identity. The all-women band Spitboy as well as bands with women vocalists such as Anti-Product challenged patriarchy inside and outside the punk scene and fused the anger and energy of punk music with their own experiences of oppression and empowerment. The increasing and assertive participation of Latinos, women, and LGBTQ people in US punk generated responses ranging from supportive to hostile and sparked debate over the ideals and realties of punk values of unity and equality.
Punk’s Popularity Anxieties and the Introspective Aggression of So-Cal Punk
Authors: Pearson David
Published: December 2020

With the rise of the alternative music industry and the mainstream success of a few punk bands in the 1990s, the underground punk scene engaged in a vituperative debate over staying DIY versus “selling out.” Amid this debate, those promoting a discourse of DIY purity insisted on excising commercially successful bands from the punk scene, while others embraced the diversity of punk music or questioned the importance of DIY purity. One style that found some commercial success, So-Cal punk, combined 1980s hardcore punk with melodic vocals, intricate palm-muted guitar rhythms, octave-chord lead guitar parts, and more polished recordings and spoke to the postmodern existential dilemmas of disaffected suburban youth. The music of NOFX’s The Decline exemplifies So-Cal punk style and offers a critique of the decline of American society.
Introduction
Authors: Parrington John
Published: December 2020

We are in the middle of a scientific revolution in the biological sciences. In the 1970s scientists discovered ways to cut and paste DNA in a test tube, and then introduce gene ‘constructs’ into first bacteria and then more complex organisms such as mice. This made it possible to, for instance, produce human insulin artificially in bacteria, but also to create genetically modified mice for medical research. But such genetic engineering methods were expensive, time-consuming, and limited to only certain organisms. In contrast in recent years, new ‘genome editing’ approaches, particularly one called CRISPR/Cas, now makes it possible for the first time to precisely edit the genome of living cells from practically any species. Genome editing looks set to revolutionise medical research, clinical medicine, and agriculture, as the rest of this book will explain. But this is only one of the new technologies discussed In Redesigning Life. Others include optogenetics, which makes it possible to activate nerve cells in the brain using light, ‘organoids’, which are created from human stem cells, and have similarities to human organs like the kidney, intestines, heart, and even brain, and synthetic biology, which seeks to create artificial bacteria and yeast chromosomes from scratch and even reconfigure the genetic code. All of these technologies have great potential for improving human society, but they also raise many ethical and socio-political issues and questions about ways they might be misused, which will be explored in this book.
Supersize My Mouse
Authors: Parrington John
Published: December 2020

Although human beings have been altering genomes by selection and breeding of particular animal or plant variants for thousands of years, and X-rays and chemicals were first used to create mutants in the early 20th century genetic engineering in the true sense only became possible much more recently. First, the discovery that genes are made of DNA, revealed the material nature of the genome. Second, scientists in the early 1970s discovered enzymes in bacteria that can be used to cut and paste DNA in the test tube. Using such molecular ‘tools‘ bacteria were engineered to produce important medical products such as human insulin for diabetics, and from this was born what would become a billion-dollar biotechnology industry. A further important development was the discovery of embryonic stem cells and manipulation of these to make ‘knockout’ mice that had a deletion of a specific gene, or ‘knockin’ mice that had subtle changes in a gene. However such an approach was still relatively expensive and time-consuming, and cold only be applied to mice. And although gene constructs could be introduced into cells in a less precise manner, the crude nature of this approach limited its application for both agriculture and gene therapy. In both areas of application there have been concerns about the safety and ethics of using such an approach. A major criticism has been the lack of precision in where a gene construct would end up the genome, leading to concerns about possible adverse effects.
New Gene Therapy
Authors: Parrington John
Published: December 2020

Modern medicine has advanced tremendously in the 20th century, yet many people still die each year from conditions like heart attacks, cancer, and infectious diseases. Genome editing looks set to transform clinical medicine over the next few decades, because it now makes it possible to alter genes either in a living person, or in an infectious agent like a virus. One particular type of disease where genome editing is likely to have a big impact is single gene disorders such as cystic fibrosis, Huntington’s disorder, and muscular dystrophy. Because these disorders are due to a mutation in a single gene, there is hope that it should be possible to use genome editing to ‘correct’ the mutation in the cells of a sufferer. But genome editing also offers much promise for the treatment of more common disorders such as cancer. In the latter case, a mutated oncogene could be corrected by genome editing, or this approach used to enhance the ability of special immune cells in the body that target cancer cells. Genome editing also has much potential for targeting viruses like as HIV. In this case, there are two possible approaches. One involves targeting the HIV genome sequence, the other involves creating a mutation in a gene coding for a human protein that HIV uses to get inside an infected person’s cells. Bacterial infections might also one day be targeted by genome editing. However, many practical obstacles remain, the main one being how to get genome editing tools into a person safely.
Contiguity, Continuity, and Continuous Change
Authors: Harari Orna
Published: December 2020

This study brings to light Alexander of Aphrodisias’ modification of the notion of continuity found in Aristotle’s Physics V.3. It shows that Alexander’s interpretation of the definitions of contact and contiguity is based on his assumption that continuity is equivalent to unity and therefore he interprets Physics V.3 in terms of a strong notion of continuity which holds for continuous wholes whose motion is one. It shows further that this sense is incompatible with Aristotle’s account of continuous motion but useful for explaining the beginning of change. Its possible atomistic implications are avoided because the efficacy of the cause of change, which varies from case to case, determines the actual divisions of a continuum.
The Interpretation of Contract in Chinese Contract Law: A Comparative Perspective
Authors: Fan Yang
Published: December 2020

This chapter examines two closely connected issues in defining the contents of contracts in China: first, the approaches adopted in interpreting the meaning of agreed contractual terms and, second, to what extent additional terms are implied to supplement the express terms. It discusses the underlying philosophy of interpretation with regard to the dichotomy of ‘objective’ and ‘subjective’ approaches; it details the various interpretative aids, such as customs, usages, the commercial background, and the negotiations of the parties; and it shows how Chinese law resolves the tension between literalist and contextualist approaches to interpretation. A number of hypothetical scenarios illustrate how Chinese courts deal with issues of contractual interpretation and gap-filling in practice.
Some applications
Authors: Chruściel Piotr T.
Published: December 2020

The aim of this chapter is to present key applications of causality theory, as relevant to black-hole spacetimes. For this we need to introduce the concept of conformal completions, which is done in Section 3.1. We continue, in Section 3.2, with a review of the null splitting theorem of Galloway. Section 3.3 contains complete proofs of a few versions of the topological censorship theorems, which are otherwise scattered across the literature, and which play a basic role in understanding the topology of black holes. In Section 3.4 we review some key incompleteness theorems, also known under the name of singularity theorems. Section 3.5 is devoted to the presentation of a few versions of the area theorem, which is a cornerstones of ‘black-hole thermodynamics’. We close this chapter with a short discussion of the role played by causality theory when studying the wave equation.
Introduction
Authors: Walter Stefanie , Ray Ari , Redeker Nils
Published: December 2020

Why did the Eurozone crisis prove so difficult to resolve? Why were adjustment burdens distributed so unevenly and why did no country leave the Eurozone? Who supported and opposed different policy options and how did the distributive struggles both within countries and between countries shape crisis politics? This introductory chapter lays out the main research questions and puzzles motivating this book. It provides an overview about the trajectory of the crisis and highlights the unusual characteristics of the crisis, most notably the unequal distribution of crisis resolution costs between deficit-debtor and surplus-creditor countries in the Eurozone. It then presents the policy options available to policymakers in both crisis countries mired by debt and balance of payments problems, as well as surplus-creditor countries characterized by large current account surpluses. The chapter then presents a brief overview of the book’s main argument that societies’ and political actors’ vulnerability profiles play an important role in shaping crisis policies and politics. The chapter concludes with an outlook and brief summary of the book’s individual chapters and a discussion of the book’s contributions to research on the Eurozone crisis, crisis politics, and the role of trade-offs in policymaking more generally.
Surplus Country Vulnerability to Rebalancing
Authors: Reinke Raphael , Redeker Nils , Walter Stefanie , Ray Ari
Published: December 2020

Surplus countries usually do not attract attention in balance-of-payment crises. However, even though the immediate crisis repercussions mostly center on countries with large current account deficits, surplus countries form an integral part of current account imbalances. They contribute to the underlying problem and could be part of the solution. While in the Eurozone crisis this became especially apparent in negotiations about bailout packages and mutual adjustment measures, such conflicts between surplus countries and deficit states occupy hardly a unique situation. This chapter, therefore, examines the position of surplus countries during the Eurozone crisis in a broader, comparative perspective. Building on the concepts laid out in Chapter 2, it develops a quantitative measure of surplus country vulnerability profiles, which express the relative costs of external and internal adjustment. Specifically, vulnerability profiles of surplus countries in the Eurozone crisis are developed against the backdrop of 272 historical surplus episodes in 61 countries and are specifically compared with those outside the monetary union and with those in the EMS crisis. Similarly to their deficit counterparts, the surplus countries in the Eurozone were in the “misery corner,” where they faced high costs to both external and internal adjustment. The vulnerability profiles indicate why they acquiesced to bailout packages for deficit countries, but only after a difficult and lengthy political struggle.
Spinors and Minkowski Space
Authors: Canarutto Daniel
Published: December 2020

A partly original approach to spinor geometry, showing how a 2-dimensional vector space, without any further assumpions, generates by natural constructions the fundamental algebraic structures needed to deal with spacetime geometry and particles with spin. Several related notions are expressed in a concise, intrinsic form.
Spinor Bundles and Spacetime Geometry
Authors: Canarutto Daniel
Published: December 2020

Spinor bundles and other related bundles are constructed by exploiting the algebraic notions introduced in the previous chapter. The linear connections of these bundles and their mutual relations are studied. The notion of 2-spinor soldering form, or ‘tetrad’, yields the fundamental link between spinor algebra and spacetime geometry. The Fermi transport of spinors is studied in view of the definition of free states of particles with spin. The notion of Lorentzian distance is examined in relation to 2-spinor geometry, obtaining simplifications in regard to certain issues which are discussed, in the literature, in relation to the ‘algebraic approach’ to spacetime geometry.
Gauge Field Theory and Gravitation
Authors: Canarutto Daniel
Published: December 2020

The notion of 2-spinor soldering form allows a neat formulation, called the ‘tetrad-affine setting’, of a theory of matter and gauge fields interacting with the gravitational field. The latter is represented by a couple constituted by the soldering form and a 2-spinor connection. This approach is suited to describe matter fields with arbitrary spin and generic further internal structure. In particular one gets an approach to interacting Einstein-Cartan-Maxwell-Dirac fields, in which the only assumption is a complex bundle with 2-dimensional fibers: the needed bundles are obtained from it by natural geometric contructions, and any object which is not determined from these ‘minimal geometric data’ is assumed to be a dynamical field.
Optical Geometry
Authors: Canarutto Daniel
Published: December 2020

An intrinsic 2-spinor approach to the geometry of optical bundles yields a description of electromagnetic radiation which will turn out to be relevant in the construction of free-photon states.
On Gauge Freedom and Interactions
Authors: Canarutto Daniel
Published: December 2020

The notion of gauge freedom is discussed in the context of the 2-spinor approach to Maxwell-Dirac fields. The various types of boson interaction terms arising in a generic gauge field theory are laid down, and detailed in the particular case of gauge boson interactions in the electroweak theory. Finally, several observations of ‘philosophical nature’ are offered, together with some ideas for future work.
Frege’s New Logic and the Function/Argument Regimentation
Authors: Weiner Joan
Published: December 2020

Frege says his new logical language is not designed to play the role of natural language. It is, rather, a tool designed for specific scientific purposes. The role he assigns to his logical language forces him to abandon traditional subject–predicate analyses of statements in favor of a new kind of analysis in terms of function and argument. But the function-argument analysis, in its original version, gives rise to several problems, among them the problem about identity with which Frege begins “On Sinn and Bedeutung.” This chapter traces through the problems with the original version of the new logical language and Frege’s later solutions. A key part of these solutions is to take sentences to be object names. And, while this may be problematic in an account of the workings of natural languages, it is unproblematic in a language that plays the role of Frege’s logical language.
Word in Yalaku
Authors: Aikhenvald Alexandra Y.
Published: December 2020

This chapter focuses on phonological and grammatical word in Yalaku, a minority language from the Ndu family in the Sepik region of Papua New Guinea. The phonological word in Yalaku is characterized by one single stress, and a number of phonological processes, including voicing of stops and the post-alveolar affricate, and k-fortition word-internally. The usual length of a phonological word is two syllables. One grammatical word corresponds to two or more phonological words in case of echo-compounds, nominal compounds, serial verb constructions, and full reduplication of non-cohering type. Cohering reduplication which produces one phonological word. One phonological word corresponds to more than one grammatical word if it contains clitics. All clitics in Yalaku can occur as independent phonological words if in focus. Monosyllabic third person cross-referencing markers are anticipatory clitics which form one phonological word with the constituent preceding their host, unless that constituent contains three syllables or more.
Word in Lao
Authors: Enfield N. J.
Published: December 2020

This chapter describes and analyses the ‘word’ in Lao, a Southwestern Tai language spoken in Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia, focusing on the concepts of grammatical versus phonological word and the relations between them. All morphemes in Lao consist of at least one syllable. In turn, syllables can be grouped into feet. A foot must include one stressed syllable, which bears contrastive tone, and consists of one or more unstressed, phonologically dependent syllables, including independent yet phonologically-bound morphemes such as class term prefixes. Above the level of the foot is the phonological word, in which two or more feet may be grouped together, with primary stress on the final foot. The boundaries of the grammatical word in Lao do not always align directly with the boundaries of the phonological word. Some grammatical words occur as clitics, incorporated into phonological words and dependent on adjacent stressed syllables.
Snow and Avalanches in a Climate Warming Context
Authors: Louchet Francois
Published: December 2020

We first show why current climate forecasting techniques, based on continuous extrapolations, are unreliable in the case of complex arrangements of interacting entities like the atmosphere–ocean system. By contrast, according to the well-established theory of dynamical systems, the observed present increase of fluctuations (as heat waves, droughts, tornadoes, forest fires) is a warning signal for an impending discontinuous climate tipping. A comparison with paleoclimatic events suggests that the atmospheric temperature would be likely to increase in this case by 6–9 °C in the next few years. In the transient period, the succession of heavy snow-falls and thawing episodes would favor spontaneous full-depth avalanches with larger run-out distances. After tipping into a new equilibrium, significantly warmer temperatures would shift snow-covered areas towards higher altitudes, probably by more than 1000 m, resulting in closure of a number of ski resorts. Glacier retreat and permafrost thawing would also enhance both ice and rock-fall frequency.
The Private Equity Critics and the Research
Authors: Gilligan John , Wright Mike
Published: December 2020

This chapter explores the major criticisms levelled at the private equity sector. It clarifies some misrepresentations and myths in the light of experience over the evolution of the market and the weight of systematic evidence summarized in this book. It is important to distinguish between analysis at the fund level and at the level of the underlying individual investments. The majority of studies in the finance literature are at the fund level and discuss private equity as an investment strategy. Analysis at the investment level is often done by case study, which always risks creating general conclusions from specific examples. The chapter then looks at areas which are under-researched. These areas include performance and returns; deal structures; the private equity process; new and secondary markets; and the political environment.
Channelling the Divine
Authors: Neil Bronwen
Published: December 2020

This chapter surveys pagan, Christian, and early Islamic attitudes to dream divination and oracles, and the associated practice of incubation at shrines that continued from Antiquity in a religious guise. Divine messages received in oracular dreams in the pagan, Judaeo-Christian, Graeco-Roman, and early Islamic traditions required specialist interpreters and specific locations for gaining privileged access to the divine. It shows how the pagan practices of consulting oracles and sleeping at shrines were adopted and adapted by Byzantine Christians and early Muslims. The first half of the chapter deals with the pagan and monotheist reliance on oracles. Oracles came in many shapes and sizes, but one thing they had in common across the various religious traditions was a starring role for women. Oracles were usually delivered in a state of ecstatic frenzy, the sign of possession by a god or a demon. The process of dream incubation also involved visitations by a god or a saint, gained by sleeping at a holy place, temple, or shrine. The second half of the chapter examines pagan records of the practice of incubation, before discussing how this tradition was transformed in the miracle collections of male and female saints in the Byzantine milieu, where it attained spiritual overtones. The limited evidence for incubation in the Talmud will be treated, as well as early Islamic incubation practices.
Trends, Events, and Centres, 1970–92
Authors: Michie Ranald C.
Published: December 2020

It is always difficult to disentangle the effects of trends from that of events when making judgements about the causes of long-term development. Evidence drawn from contemporary observers magnifies the significance of events, as they had no means of judging long-term consequences. Reliance on later commentators minimizes the importance of an event leading to a conclusion of inevitability. This can be seen most clearly when examining financial centres with prominence given to the survivors, like London and New York, while others are ignored despite their past importance. Even before the 1970s fundamental forces were driving change in global financial markets, especially globalization and the technology of communications and trading. In the face of these governments struggled to maintain the controls and compartmentalization introduced after the Second World War, faced with the rise of offshore financial centres, alternative financial markets, and shadow banks. In the 1970s it proved impossible to resist these forces leading to the beginning of a transformation of global financial markets in the 1980s, led by developments in New York, Chicago, and London
Equities and Exchanges, 1993–2006
Authors: Michie Ranald C.
Published: December 2020

By the 1990s the pressures on traditional stock exchanges were so intense that inertia was no longer an option. These pressures included the globalization of investment, deregulation, dismantling of capital controls, cheap and rapid communication, and powerful computing, The effect was to undermine the grip that exchanges had once exerted over national stock markets. No longer were the members of exchanges the filter through which buying and selling passed because of the control they exercised over access to both information and the market. Alternative means of trading stocks were proliferating, undermining and then destroying the exclusive privileges long enjoyed by those belonging to stock exchanges. Leading this attack on the power of stock exchanges were the megabanks. As these banks grew in scale and scope, extending their activities around the globe, they were either able to internalize many transactions or trade between themselves. In the process they cut out the exchanges, bypassing, and the charges and restrictions they imposed. There had long been an ambiguous relationship between banks and exchanges, as they were both rivals and heavy users. The combination of the megabanks, interdealer brokers, and electronic markets was rendering exchanges redundant in the 1990s, forcing them to respond through diversification and mergers.
Regulation and Regulators, 1993–2006
Authors: Michie Ranald C.
Published: December 2020

By the 1990s the combination of internal deregulation and globalization led to a spectacular growth in the value of financial transactions both inside countries and across borders. There was a commensurate increase in pressure on payment and settlement systems to cope with the huge volume and variety of transactions. All this was of concern to those who regulated financial systems around the world. The speed and extent of the changes taking place, assisted by the advances made in the technology of communication and data handling, forced regulators to search for new ways of coping with the consequences, as the methods of the past were becoming inadequate. Globalization meant that national boundaries could no longer define the parameters within which financial systems operated, as all became integrated into international flows of short-term money and long-term finance. The complexities arose not only from the process of globalization and technological change but also from the disappearance of the barriers that had long separated different components within national financial systems. Rather than serving separate communities banks and financial markets increasingly competed with each other. In the face of these enormous changes regulators turned to the megabanks as a safe and secure way of monitoring and policing global financial markets. There was an implicit belief that the size and sophistication of these megabanks had made them to big to fail or even require the central banks to play a role as lenders of last resort.
Regulation and Regulators, 2007–20
Authors: Michie Ranald C.
Published: December 2020

What regulators had prioritized before the crisis was competition, investor protection, and stability. Competition was to be achieved by removing internal and external barriers as these distorted the operation of the market and prevented savers, lenders, and investors obtaining the highest returns or borrowers accessing the largest pools of finance at the lowest rates of interest and at the least cost. Investor protection would result from this competition, accompanied by the break up of monopolies, the ending of restrictive practices, and the enforcement of transparency throughout the financial system, whether it took place within or between countries. Finally, stability could be entrusted to the megabanks as they possessed their own internal mechanisms to supervise the actions of their staff, and the resources necessary to withstand any crisis. These banks were closely supervised by government appointed regulatory agencies and state owned central banks, which had the power to compel them to follow the guidelines they laid down, as advised by the Bank for International Settlement. The switch from the lend-and-hold model of banking to the originate-and-distribute one, combined with the existence of markets where liquid assets could always be bought and sold, were considered fully capable of providing sufficient resilience so that these banks could surmount either a liquidity or a solvency crisis. Forgotten were the lessons of the past such as the role played by central banks as lenders of last resort and the need for markets like stock exchanges where assets could be bought and sold even under conditions of extreme pressure.
Under New Tutorships
Authors: Ruskin John
Published: December 2020

77. When I was about eight or nine I had a bad feverish illness at Dunkeld, during which I believe I was in some danger, and am sure I was very uncomfortable. It came on after a long walk in which I had...
Fontainebleau
Authors: Ruskin John
Published: December 2020

59. We reached Rochester on the 29th of June, and a month was spent at home, considering what was to be done next. My own feeling, ever since the morning at Lans-le-bourg, was that, if only left free in mountain air, I should...
L’Hotel du Mont Blanc
Authors: Ruskin John
Published: December 2020

203. The little inn at Samoens, where I washed the stairs down for my mother,1 was just behind the group of houses of which I gave a carefully coloured sketch to Mrs John Simon, who, in my mother’s old age, was...
Moll Flanders
Authors: Defoe Daniel
Published: December 2020

‘Twelve Year a Whore, fives times a Wife (whereof once to her own Brother), Twelve Year a Thief, Eight Year a Transported Felon in Virginia, at last grew Rich, liv'd Honest, and died a Penitent’: so the title page of this extraordinary novel describes the career of the woman known as Moll Flanders, whose real name we never discover. And so, in a tour-de-force of writing by the businessman, political satirist, and spy Daniel Defoe, Moll tells her own story, a vivid and racy tale of a woman's experience in the seamy side of life in late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century England and America. Born in Newgate prison, and seduced in the home of her adoptive family, she learns to live off her wits, defying the traditional depiction of women as helpless victims. First published in 1722, and one of the earliest novels in the English language, its account of opportunism, endurance, and survival speaks as strongly to us today as it did to its original readers.
III
Authors: Collins Wilkie
Published: December 2020

Joseph had his orders, this time. He spoke like a reasonable being—he said the doctor was waiting for me, in Madame Fontaine’s room. The place of the appointment rather surprised me.

The doctor opened the door—but paused before he admitted me.

‘I think you...
The Italian or The Confessional of the Black Penitents
Authors: Radcliffe Ann
Published: December 2020

About the year 1764, some English travellers in Italy, during one of their excursions in the environs of Naples, happened to stop before the portico of the Santa Maria del Pianto, a church belonging to a very ancient convent* of...
Chapter IV
Authors: Walpole Horace
Published: December 2020

The sorrowful troop no sooner arrived at the castle, than they were met by Hippolita and Matilda, whom Isabella had sent one of the domestics before to advertise of their approach. The ladies, causing Frederic to be conveyed into the nearest chamber, retired, while...
Roger Carbury and Paul Montague
Authors: Trollope Anthony
Published: December 2020

Roger Carbury,* of Carbury Hall, the owner of a small property in Suffolk, was the head of the Carbury family. The Carburys had been in Suffolk a great many years,—certainly from the time of the War of the Roses,*—and had...
The Great Railway to Vera Cruz
Authors: Trollope Anthony
Published: December 2020

‘You have been a guest in his house. Then, I guess, the thing’s about as good as done.’ These words were spoken with a fine, sharp, nasal twang by a brilliantly-dressed American gentleman in one of the smartest private rooms of the great...
Sir Felix in His Mother’s House
Authors: Trollope Anthony
Published: December 2020

When all her friends were gone Lady Carbury looked about for her son,—not expecting to find him, for she knew how punctual was his nightly attendance at the Beargarden, but still with some faint hope that he might have remained on this special occasion...
Ruby Ruggles Hears a Love Tale
Authors: Trollope Anthony
Published: December 2020

Miss Ruby Ruggles,* the granddaughter of old Daniel Ruggles, of Sheep’s Acre, in the parish of Sheepstone, close to Bungay, received the following letter from the hands of the rural post letter-carrier on that Sunday morning;—‘A friend will be somewhere near Sheepstone...
In Grosvenor Square
Authors: Trollope Anthony
Published: December 2020

Marie Melmotte was hardly satisfied with the note which she received from Didon early on the Monday morning. With a volubility of French eloquence, Didon declared that she would be turned out of the house if either Monsieur or Madame were to know what...
Mr Melmotte’s Promise
Authors: Trollope Anthony
Published: December 2020

On the following Saturday there appeared in Mr Alf’s paper, the Evening Pulpit, a very remarkable article on the South Central Pacific and Mexican Railway. It was an article that attracted a great deal of attention and was therefore remarkable,...
The Board-Room
Authors: Trollope Anthony
Published: December 2020

On Friday, the 21st June,* the Board of the South Central Pacific and Mexican Railway sat in its own room behind the Exchange, as was the Board’s custom every Friday. On this occasion all the members were there, as it had been...
‘Can you Be Ready in Ten Minutes?’
Authors: Trollope Anthony
Published: December 2020

After leaving Melmotte’s house on Sunday morning Paul Montague went to Roger Carbury’s hotel and found his friend just returning from church. He was bound to go to Islington on that day, but had made up his mind that he would defer his visit...
Roger Carbury and His Two Friends
Authors: Trollope Anthony
Published: December 2020

Roger Carbury, having found Ruby Ruggles, and having ascertained that she was at any rate living in a respectable house with her aunt, returned to Carbury. He had given the girl his advice, and had done so in a manner that was not altogether...
Ruby a Prisoner
Authors: Trollope Anthony
Published: December 2020

Ruby had run away from her lover in great dudgeon after the dance at the Music Hall, and had declared that she never wanted to see him again. But when reflection came with the morning her misery was stronger than her wrath....
Clerical Charities
Authors: Trollope Anthony
Published: December 2020

Melmotte’s success, and Melmotte’s wealth, and Melmotte’s antecedents were much discussed down in Suffolk at this time. He had been seen there in the flesh, and there is no believing like that which comes from sight. He had been staying at Caversham, and many...
The Dinner
Authors: Trollope Anthony
Published: December 2020

It does sometimes occur in life that an unambitious man, who is in no degree given to enterprises, who would fain be safe, is driven by the cruelty of circumstances into a position in which he must choose a side, and in which, though...
Miss Longestaffe’s Lover
Authors: Trollope Anthony
Published: December 2020

A few days before that period in our story which we have now reached, Miss Longestaffe was seated in Lady Monogram’s back drawing-room, discussing the terms on which the two tickets for Madame Melmotte’s grand reception had been transferred to Lady Monogram,—the place...
Lady Monogram Prepares for the Party
Authors: Trollope Anthony
Published: December 2020

When the little conversation took place between Lady Monogram and Miss Longestaffe, as recorded in the last chapter, Mr Melmotte was in all his glory, and tickets for the entertainment were very precious. Gradually their value subsided. Lady Monogram had paid very dear for...
Miss Melmotte Declares Her Purpose
Authors: Trollope Anthony
Published: December 2020

Poor Hetta passed a very bad night. The story she had heard seemed to be almost too awful to be true,—even about any one else. The man had come to her, and had asked her to be his wife,—and yet at that very moment...
John Crumb Falls into Trouble
Authors: Trollope Anthony
Published: December 2020

It was on a Friday evening, an inauspicious Friday, that poor Ruby Ruggles had insisted on leaving the security of her Aunt Pipkin’s house with her aristocratic and vicious lover, in spite of the positive assurance made to her by Mrs Pipkin that if...
‘Ask Himself’
Authors: Trollope Anthony
Published: December 2020

Roger Carbury when he received the letter from Hetta’s mother desiring him to tell her all that he knew of Paul Montague’s connection with Mrs Hurtle found himself quite unable to write a reply. He endeavoured to ask himself what he would do in...
Another Scene in Bruton Street
Authors: Trollope Anthony
Published: December 2020

When Mr Melmotte made his promise to Mr Longestaffe and to Dolly, in the presence of Mr Bideawhile, that he would, on the next day but one, pay to them a sum of fifty thousand pounds, thereby completing, satisfactorily as far as they were...
Paul Montague’s Vindication
Authors: Trollope Anthony
Published: December 2020

It is hoped that the reader need hardly be informed that Hetta Carbury was a very miserable young woman as soon as she decided that duty compelled her to divide herself altogether from Paul Montague. I think that she was irrational; but to her...
The Inquest
Authors: Trollope Anthony
Published: December 2020

Melmotte had been found dead on Friday morning, and late on the evening of the same day Madame Melmotte and Marie were removed to lodgings far away from the scene of the tragedy, up at Hampstead. Herr Croll had known of the place, and...
Where ‘The Wild Asses Quench Their Thirst’
Authors: Trollope Anthony
Published: December 2020

We must now go back a little in our story,—about three weeks,—in order that the reader may be told how affairs were progressing at the Beargarden. That establishment had received a terrible blow in the defection of Herr Vossner. It was not only that...
Down in Suffolk
Authors: Trollope Anthony
Published: December 2020

It need hardly be said that Paul Montague was not long in adjusting his affairs with Hetta after the visit which he received from Roger Carbury. Early on the following morning he was once more in Welbeck Street, taking the brooch with him; and...
Chapter VI
Authors: Equiano Olaudah
Published: December 2020

Some account of Brimstone-Hill in Montserrat—Favourable change in the author’s situation—He commences merchant with three pence—His various success in dealing in the different islands, and America, and the impositions he meets with in his transactions with Europeans—A curious imposition on human nature—Danger of the surfs...
Chapter VII
Authors: Equiano Olaudah
Published: December 2020

The author’s disgust at the West Indies—Forms schemes to obtain his freedom—Ludicrous disappointment he and his Captain meet with in Georgia—At last, by several successful voyages, he acquires a sum of money sufficient to purchase it—Applies to his master, who accepts it, and grants...
Chapter IX
Authors: Equiano Olaudah
Published: December 2020

The author arrives at Martinico—Meets with new difficulties—Gets to Montserrat, where he takes leave of his old master, and sails for England—Meets Capt. Pascal—Learns the French horn—Hires himself with Doctor Irving, where he learns to freshen sea water—Leaves the doctor, and goes a voyage to...
Chapter VIII: Daylight on the Wreck
Authors: Eliot George
Published: December 2020

It Was a clear frosty January day on which Mr Tulliver first came down-stairs: the bright sun on the chestnut boughs and the roofs opposite his window had made him impatiently declare that he would be caged up no longer: he thought everywhere would...
Chapter VI: Illustrating the Laws of Attraction
Authors: Eliot George
Published: December 2020

It Is evident to you now, that Maggie had arrived at a moment in her life which must be considered by all prudent persons as a great opportunity for a young woman. Launched into the higher society of St Ogg’s, with a striking person,...
Crime and Punishment
Authors: Dostoevsky Fyodor
Published: December 2020

‘One death, in exchange for thousands of lives - it's simple arithmetic!’ A new translation of Dostoevsky's epic masterpiece, Crime and Punishment (1866). The impoverished student Raskolnikov decides to free himself from debt by killing an old moneylender, an act he sees as elevating himself above conventional morality. Like Napoleon he will assert his will and his crime will be justified by its elimination of ‘vermin’ for the sake of the greater good. But Raskolnikov is torn apart by fear, guilt, and a growing conscience under the influence of his love for Sonya. Meanwhile the police detective Porfiry is on his trail. It is a powerfully psychological novel, in which the St Petersburg setting, Dostoevsky's own circumstances, and contemporary social problems all play their part.
Chapter V
Authors: Dostoevsky Fyodor
Published: December 2020

Lebeziatnikov was looking anxious.

‘I’ve come to see you, Sofia Semionovna. Excuse me… I thought I’d find you here,’ he said, suddenly addressing Raskolnikov. ‘I mean, I wasn’t thinking anything… of that sort… but I did think… Back home, Katerina Ivanovna has gone crazy!’ he...
Chapter I
Authors: Dostoevsky Fyodor
Published: December 2020

Siberia. On the banks of a wide, desolate river stands a town, one of the administrative centres of Russia. In the town there is a fortress, and in the fortress a prison.* In that prison, Rodion Raskolnikov, second-category exiled convict,*...
XIII. The Church and Slavery
Authors: Jacobs Harriet
Published: December 2020

After the alarm caused by Nat Turner’s insurrection had subsided, the slaveholders came to the conclusion that it would be well to give the slaves enough of religious instruction to keep them from murdering their masters. The Episcopal clergyman offered to hold a separate...
XXXVII. A Visit to England
Authors: Jacobs Harriet
Published: December 2020

In the spring, sad news came to me. Mrs. Bruce was dead. Never again, in this world, should I see her gentle face, or hear her sympathizing voice. I had lost an excellent friend, and little Mary had lost a tender mother. Mr. Bruce...
Chapter IV Castle-Building
Authors: Scott Sir Walter
Published: December 2020

I Have already hinted that the dainty, squeamish, and fastidious taste acquired by a surfeit of idle reading, had not only rendered our hero unfit for serious and sober study, but had even disgusted him in some degree with that in which he had...
Chapter X Rose Bradwardine and her Father
Authors: Scott Sir Walter
Published: December 2020

Miss
Bradwardine was but seventeen; yet, at the last races of the county town of ——, upon her health being proposed among a round of beauties, the Laird of Bumperquaigh, permanent toast-master and croupier of the Bautherwhillery Club, not only said More...
Chapter I An unexpected Embarrassment
Authors: Scott Sir Walter
Published: December 2020

When the battle was over, and all things coming into order, the Baron of Bradwardine, returning from the duty of the day, and having disposed those under his command in their proper stations, sought the Chieftain of Glennaquoich and his friend Edward Waverley. He...
Chapter XI The Confusion of King Agramant’s Camp
Authors: Scott Sir Walter
Published: December 2020

It was Waverley’s custom sometimes to ride a little off from the main body to look at any object of curiosity which occurred upon the march. They were now in Lancashire, when, attracted by a castellated old hall, he left the squadron...
Chapter V: Our March into the Desert
Authors: Haggard H. Rider
Published: December 2020

We had killed nine elephants, and it took us two days to cut out the tusks and get them home and bury them carefully in the sand under a large tree, which made a conspicuous mark for miles round. It was a wonderfully fine...
Chapter VII: Solomon’s Road
Authors: Haggard H. Rider
Published: December 2020

Outside the cave we halted, feeling rather foolish.

‘I am going back,’ said Sir Henry.

‘Why?’ asked Good.

‘Because it has struck me that—what we saw—may be my brother.’

This was a new idea, and we re-entered the cave to put it to the proof....
Chapter XX: Found
Authors: Haggard H. Rider
Published: December 2020

And now I come to perhaps the strangest thing that happened to us in all that strange business, and one which shows how wonderfully things are brought about.

I was walking quietly along, some way in front of the other two, down the banks of...