Reprint of the original, first published in 1866.

Erudite, witty and often controversial, The London Review of Books informs and entertains its readers with a fortnightly dose of the best and liveliest of all things cultural. This anthology brings together some of the most memorable pieces from recent years, includes Alan Bennett’s Diary, Christopher Hitchens on Bill Clinton’s presidency, Terry Castle’s hotly-debated reading of Jane Austen’s letters, Jerry Fodor taking issue with Richard Dawkins on evolution, Victor Kiernan on treason, Jenny Diski musing on death, Stephen Frears’ adventures in Hollywood, Linda Colley on Nancy Reagan, Frank Kermode on Paul de Man and much much more.

The great German Romantic poet Friedrich Hölderlin’s spirit infuses this gorgeous cycle of poems that sing of the loves and devastations of our times Each hymn in Nathaniel Tarn’s new collection The Hölderliniae is a love song to the Poet of Poets, Friedrich Hölderlin?— the German Romantic poet-philosopher who spent the last thirty-six years of his life sequestered in a carpenter’s tower in the south of Germany. Tarn speaks through Hölderlin and Hölderlin speaks through Tarn in an act of spiritual and lyric possession unlike anything else in contemporary poetry. The French Revolution—which Hölderlin supported passionately until the Reign of Terror—illuminates our war-torn, ecologically precarious age, as the failures of our age recall past tragedies. Line after line carries Hölderlin’s hope in an ideal of a poetry that can englobe all the mind’s disciplines and make a universe of its own.

From the preface: 'This is a book which synthesizes a lifetime of reflection on the origins of the modern world. Through forty years of travel in Europe, Australia, India, Nepal, Japan and China I have observed the similarities and differences of cultures. I have read as widely as possible in both contemporary and classical works in history, anthropology and philosophy.' Prof Macfarlane is also the author of The Culture of Capitalism, The Savage Wars of Peace, The Riddle of the Modern World and The Making of the Modern World, among many others. This is the third book published by Odd Volumes, the imprint of The Fortnightly Review.