"Throughout this study, idleness is shown to be a key element of self-presentation beginning with the figure of the idle aristocrat. The extravagant display of a life of leisure made Gilles de Rais the icon of aristocratic idleness. But even the hardworking humanist was anxious to assume a studied posture of idleness. If both figures were eager to display idleness, it was because oisivete was an important source of what modern theorists have termed symbolic capital. Finally, the Renaissance also saw the birth of a new figure of the "idler": the consumer of leisure. For it was leisure itself along with chivalric and amorous adventure that was consumed by the readers of the popular Amadis series. At once a commodity and form of capital, idleness (otium) clearly belonged to the realm of social exchanges ostensibly reserved for affairs (negotium)."--BOOK JACKET.

“A dream of a debut, by turns troubling and glorious, angry and wise.” —Junot Diaz​ Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, the debut of Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist Laila Lalami, evokes the grit and enduring grace that is modern Morocco. The book begins as four Moroccans illegally cross the Strait of Gibraltar in an inflatable boat headed for Spain.What has driven them to risk their lives? And will the rewards prove to be worth the danger? There’s Murad, a gentle, unemployed man who’s been reduced to hustling tourists around Tangier; Halima, who’s fleeing her drunken husband and the slums of Casablanca; Aziz, who must leave behind his devoted wife in hope of securing work in Spain; and Faten, a student and religious fanatic whose faith is at odds with an influential man determined to destroy her future. Sensitively written with beauty and boldness, this is a gripping book about what propels people to risk their lives in search of a better future.

"Corporations rise quickly in today's China, and none are more successful than the Bashful Goose Snack Company. Founded by the self-made Papa Hui, the company is a national treasure, as is his beloved pet goose. Meanwhile, Papa Hui's daughter, Kelly, is desperate to prove herself to her father, and take her rightful place as the heir to his empire. But Lulu, the woman with the most lustrous hair in China, and Wang Xilai, the disturbed celebrity hair-stylist farming Lulu for extensions, stand in Kelly's way--not to mention that infernal goose! From a middle school mogul to a talking turtle, a grotesque "fat camp" for children to a mythical settlement of ex-millionaires, Carly J. Hallman's vision of a fragmented Chinese society is brimming with bawdy humor and sharp wit. In the absurdist tradition of the great contemporary Chinese author Mo Yan comes a searing, yet whimsical portrayal of wealth and ambition in an ogliarchical, tabloid-driven society, not so unlike our very own."--Provided by publisher.

First published in 1994, this volume features an autobiography of Allen Davenport, a key figure linking Chartism with the French Revolution, along with some of his selected works. Davenport was an important propagandist for agrarian reform, a critical follower of Robert Owen, one of the first male supporters of the feminist causes and birth control and a leading member of the revolutionary underground movement in Regency London. He was a prolific author, political journalist and poet. His autobiography, published in 1845, has long been presumed lost - historians have had to make do with tantalising fragments from contemporary reviews. When a copy was found in Nashville in 1982 it was immediately recognised as a unique source of information about nineteenth-century popular politics. This volume reprints the complete text with editorial apparatus and supplemented by a careful selection of Davenport's other writing by Dr Malcolm Chase. The Life and Literary Pursuits of Allen Davenport thus gives a unique insight into the cultural and political life of England in the crowded years between Peterloo and Chartism.

From the #1 New York Times-bestselling author, “a compelling domestic horror story” of a new bride haunted by childhood nightmares (Kirkus Reviews). Less than twenty-four hours after exchanging vows with her new husband, Willem, Abby steps out into traffic. As his wife lies in her hospital bed, sleeping in fits and starts, Willem tries to determine whether this was an absentminded accident or a premeditated plunge, and he quickly discovers a mysterious set of clues about what his wife might be hiding. Why, for example is there a rash-like red mark circling her wrist? What does she dream about that causes her to wake from the sound of her own screams? Slowly, Abby begins to open up to her husband, revealing to him what she has never shared with anyone before—a story of a terrified mother; a jealous, drug-addled father; a daughter’s terrifying captivity; and the demons behind her terrible recurring dreams of wandering through a field ridden with human skulls and bones… From a recipient of a National Book Award and three Bram Stoker Awards, this suspenseful, twisting tale, named one of the scariest books of the year by Kirkus Reviews, is a “fast-paced examination of the destructive and restorative nature of obsessive love” (Booklist).