An intimate portrait of Delius by the man who notated many of the disabled composer's last works. Includes 33 musical examples.

In Rome one January afternoon in 1943, a young German woman is on her way to listen to a Bach concert at the Lutheran church. The war is for her little more than a daydream, until she realizes that her husband might never return. Portrait of the Mother as a Young Woman, winner of the prestigious Georg Büchner prize, is a mesmerizing psychological portrait of the human need to safeguard innocence and integrity at any cost—even at the risk of excluding reality. More than just the story of this single woman, it is a compelling and credible description of a typical young German woman during the Nazi era.

For the last 15 years of Jascha Heifetz's life, Ayke Agus was his closest companion. She came to him as a violin student in his master class at the University of Southern California, but he singled her out when he heard her play the piano. She became his private accompanist and ultimately his assistant and confidante. A sensitive and astute observer, Agus takes up where previous biographers left off; her book is a loving yet unblinking portrait of an aging master by his disciple.

In the tradition of A History of Reading, this book is an account of Manguel’s astonishment at the variety, beauty and persistence of our efforts to shape the world and our lives, most notably through something almost as old as reading itself: libraries. The Library at Night begins with the design and construction of Alberto Manguel’s own library at his house in western France – a process that raises puzzling questions about his past and his reading habits, as well as broader ones about the nature of categories, catalogues, architecture and identity. Thematically organized and beautifully illustrated, this book considers libraries as treasure troves and architectural spaces; it looks on them as autobiographies of their owners and as statements of national identity. It examines small personal libraries and libraries that started as philanthropic ventures, and analyzes the unending promise – and defects – of virtual ones. It compares different methods of categorization (and what they imply) and libraries that have built up by chance as opposed to by conscious direction. In part this is because this is about the library at night, not during the day: this book takes in what happens after the lights go out, when the world is sleeping, when books become the rightful owners of the library and the reader is the interloper. Then all daytime order is upended: one book calls to another across the shelves, and new alliances are created across time and space. And so, as well as the best design for a reading room and the makeup of Robinson Crusoe’s library, this book dwells on more "nocturnal" subjects: fictional libraries like those carried by Count Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster; shadow libraries of lost and censored books; imaginary libraries of books not yet written. The Library at Night is a fascinating voyage through the mind of one our most beloved men of letters. It is an invitation into his memory and vast knowledge of books and civilizations, and throughout – though mostly implicitly – it is also a passionate defence of literacy, of the unique pleasures of reading, of the importance of the book. As much as anything else, The Library at Night reminds us of what a library stands for: the possibility of illumination, of a better path for our society and for us as individuals. That hope too, at the close, is replaced by something that fits this personal and eclectic book even better: something more fragile, and evanescent than illumination, though just as important.

"There are many biographies and articles about the life of Frederick Delius (1862-1934), but there has never been a comprehensive book about his music until now. He was an extraordinarily versatiles composer, equally at home with orchestral, instrumental, and chamber works as with choral works and songs; and Delius and his Music covers his entire output. Everything he published, from his earliest compositions and 'trifiles' to the mighty, ninety-minute A Mass of Life, is analysed here in nontechnical language. The history and background of each work and its critical reception are also examined, set within a biography, and against a backdrop of the English musical scene and some of its personalities during the seventy years of Delius's life. There are numerous musical examples and many quotations from contemporary newspapers and journals, as well as a complete list of Delius's works, with catalogue numbers, and a select bibliography. This book will appeal not only to students and Delian scholars, but also to everyone who already has an interest in Delius's unique music, or who would like to discover it for the first time"--Jaquette.

Excellent Women is probably the most famous of Barbara Pym's novels. The acclaim a few years ago for this early comic novel, which was hailed by Lord David Cecil as one of 'the finest examples of high comedy to have appeared in England during the past seventy-five years,' helped launch the rediscovery of the author's entire work. Mildred Lathbury is a clergyman's daughter and a spinster in the England of the 1950s, one of those 'excellent women' who tend to get involved in other people's lives - such as those of her new neighbor, Rockingham, and the vicar next door. This is Barbara Pym's world at its funniest.

Frontcover -- Contents -- List of illustrations and tables -- Preface -- Abbreviations -- Selected glossary of landscape terms used in place names -- 1 Norway's awakening -- 2 1862-1888: Bradford, Florida and Leipzig -- 3 1888-1889: With Grieg on the heights -- 4 1890-1891: 'C'est de la Norderie' -- 5 1892-1895: Norway lost -- 6 1896: Norway regained -- 7 1897: Front page news -- 8 1898-1902: Unshakeable self-belief -- 9 1903-1907: Breakthrough in Germany and England -- 10 1908-1912: Changes of direction -- 11 1912-1918: High hills, dark forests -- 12 1919-1934: Myth and reality in Lesjaskog -- Appendix I: List of visits to Norway -- Appendix II: Works with Norwegian and Danish texts and associations -- Selected bibliography and archival sources -- Index