Aldous Huxley's acclaimed and gripping account of one of the strangest occurrences in historyIn 1643 an entire convent in the small French village of Loudun was apparently possessed by the devil. After a sensational and celebrated trial, the convent's charismatic priest Urban Grandier—accused of spiritually and sexually seducing the nuns in his charge—was convicted of being in league with Satan. Then he was burned at the stake for witchcraft. In this classic work by the legendary Aldous Huxley—a remarkable true story of religious and sexual obsession considered by many to be his nonfiction masterpiece—a compelling historical event is clarified and brought to vivid life.Review"Huxley has reconstructed with skill, learning and horror one of the most appalling incidents in the history of witch-hunting during its seventeenth-century heyday. The Devils of Loudun is fascinating, erudite, and instinct with intellectual vitality" Times Literary Supplement "Huxley's analysis of motive, his exposition of the unconscious causes of behaviour, his exposure of the perversions to which religious emotion is subject, his discursions on the witch cult, on mass hysteria, on sexual eccentricity have the brilliance that all his writing has had from the very beginning" Spectator "One of Huxley's best books" Guardian "His masterpiece, and perhaps the most enjoyable book about spirituality ever written. In telling the grotesque, bawdy and true story of a 17th-century convent of cloistered French nuns who contrived to have a priest they never met burned alive ...Huxley painlessly conveys a wealth of information about mysticism and the unconscious" Washington Post About the AuthorAldous Huxley (1894-1963) is the author of the classic novels Island, Eyeless in Gaza, and The Genius and the Goddess, as well as such critically acclaimed nonfiction works as The Devils of Loudun, The Doors of Perception, and The Perennial Philosophy. Born in Surrey, England, and educated at Oxford, he died in Los Angeles. Views: 6
So Paddy Got Up is a unique collection of writing about Arsenal Football Club. Edited by Andrew Mangan, founder of Arseblog, it features bloggers, writers and journalists reminiscing, eulogising, analysing and waxing lyrical about everything from club’s humble origins to where it finds itself now, from great players to great managers, from tactics to fans to stadia to kits, amongst many other things.
It’s by far the greatest Arsenal anthology the world has ever seen. Views: 6
Lord Peter Wimsey could imagine the artist stepping back, the stagger, the fall, down to where the pointed rocks grinned like teeth. But was it an accident? Or murder? Six people did not regret Campbell's death… five were red herrings. Set in the unusual background of an artists' colony in Galloway, in the south of Scotland, the book is one of the best of Dorothy Sayers' murder-mystery novels which made her the leading writer in the detective fiction field. Views: 6
Annie Dillard -- "one of the most distinctive voices in American letters today" (Boston Globe) -- collects her favorite selections from her own writings in this compact volume. A perfect introduction to one of America's most acclaimed and bestselling authors. Views: 6
Your Blue-Eyed Boy is bestselling author Helen Dunmore's fifth novel.'There are things you should know about blackmail . . . 'At thirty-eight Simone has responsibilities: she's a district judge with two small boys and a husband on the verge of bankruptcy and breakdown. When she receives a letter postmarked New York she has no idea that opening it will threaten all she has worked for and call into question her judgement. For the photographs contained in the letter remind her of things she regrets from twenty years ago, and a man she'd decided to forget.But blackmail, like the heart, never forgets . . . 'A highly charged, haunting novel . . . beautifully wrought' The Times'A brilliantly plotted thrilling fable unravelling dark, sad secrets' Mail on Sunday'Excellently readable, genuinely disturbing' Anita Brookner, Spectator... Views: 6
Using the scaffolding of Isadora Duncan's life and the stuff of her spirit, Amelia Gray delivers an incredibly imaginative portrait of the artistIn 1913, the restless world sat on the brink of unimaginable suffering. But for one woman, the darkness of a new era had already made itself at home. Isadora Duncan would come to be known as the mother of modern dance, but in the spring of 1913 she was a grieving mother, after a freak accident in Paris resulted in the drowning death of her two young children.The accident cracked Isadora's life in two: on one side, the brilliant young talent who captivated audiences the world over; on the other, a heartbroken mother spinning dangerously on the edge of sanity.Isadora is a shocking and visceral portrait of an artist and woman drawn to the brink of destruction by the cruelty of life. In her breakout novel, Amelia Gray offers a relentless portrayal of a legendary artist churning through prewar Europe.... Views: 6
