In the late 19th century, orphaned Jim Burden is sent to the wilderness in Nebraska to live with his grandparents. He arrives at the same time as the Shimerda family, including the eldest daughter Ántonia, who becomes his closest neighbors. Life in the American West is tough, especially for the impoverished Shimerda family, and pioneers must struggle for survival. A friendship blossoms between Jim and Ántonia as they explore nature and have adventures together, a friendship that will last a lifetime. My Ántonia became an immediate success when first published and is today considered Willa Cather's first masterpiece. It is praised for its depiction of the American West and its ability to highlight the aspirations of ordinary, poor people in a time when it was customary to write about the elite. WILLA CATHER [1873-1947] was an American author. After studying at the University of Nebraska, she worked as a teacher and journalist. Cather's novels often focus on settlers in the USA with a particular emphasis on female pioneers. In 1923, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the novel One of Ours, and in 1943, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Opening to passion as an unsettling, transformative force; extending desire to the text, expanding the self, and dissolving its boundaries; imagining pleasures outside the norm and intensifying them; overcoming loss and reaching beyond death; being loyal to oneself and defying productivity, resolution, and cohesion while embracing paradox, non-linearity, incompletion. These are some of the possibilities of lyric that this book explores by reading Petrarch’s vernacular poetry in dialogue with that of other poets, including Guido Cavalcanti, Dante, and Shakespeare. In the Epilogue, the poet Antonella Anedda Angioy engages with Ossip Mandel’štam and Paul Celan’s dialogue with Petrarch and extends it into the present.

Pellucid Paper is an interdisciplinary study of the materiality of Early Modern poetry and its relation to political power, memory and subject constitution. Informed by German Media theory and specifically the more recent developments of Cultural Techniques, Wickberg offers a fresh and imaginative take on Early Modern culture.

This book offers guided access to a collection of algorithms for the digital manipulation and analysis of images. Written in classic 'cookbook' style, it reflects the authors' long experience in this field. For each task, they present a description and implementation of the most suitable procedure in easy-to-use form. The algorithms range from the simplest steps to advanced functions not commonly available for Windows users. Each self-contained section treats a single operation, describing typical situations requiring that operation and discussing the algorithm and implementation. Sections start with a header illustrating the nature of the procedure through a 'before' and 'after' pictorial example and a ready-reference listing typical applications, keywords, and related procedures. At the end of each section are annotated references and a display of program usage for the C programs on the accompanying CD-ROM. Every researcher or practitioner working with images will need this reference and software library.