Between the two world wars, on a hike in the English countryside, Professor John Hill takes refuge from a violent storm in a cave. There he nearly loses his life, but he also makes an astonishing discovery -- an ancient manuscript housed in a cunningly crafted metal box. Though a philologist by profession, Hill cannot identify the language used in the manuscript and the time period in which it is was made, but he knows enough to make an educated guess -- that the book and its case are the fruits of a long-lost, but advanced civilization. The translation of the manuscript and the search for its origins become a life-long quest for Hill. As he uncovers an epic that both enchants and inspires him, he tracks down scholars from Oxford to Paris who can give him clues. Along the way, he meets several intriguing characters, including a man keenly interested in obtaining artifacts from a long-lost civilization that he believes was the creation of a superior race, and will help him fulfill his ambition to rule other men. Concluding that Hill must have found something that may help him in this quest, but knowing not what it is and where it is hidden, he has Hill, his friends at Oxford, and his family shadowed and threatened until finally he and Hill face off in a final, climatic confrontation. A story that features a giant pirate and slaver, a human chameleon on a perilous metaphysical journey, a mysterious hermit, and creatures both deadly and beautiful, this is a novel that explores the consequences of the predominant ideas of the 20th Century.

Between the two world wars, on a hike in the English countryside, Professor John Hill takes refuge from a violent storm in a cave. There he nearly loses his life, but he also makes an astonishing discovery - an ancient manuscript housed in a cunningly crafted metal box. Though a philologist by profession, Hill cannot identify the language used in the manuscript and the time period in which it is was made, but he knows enough to make an educated guess - that the book and its case are the fruits of a long-lost, but advanced civilization. The translation of the manuscript and the search for its origins become a life-long quest for Hill. As he uncovers an epic that both enchants and inspires him, he tracks down scholars from Oxford to Paris who can give him clues. Along the way, he meets several intriguing characters, including a man keenly interested in obtaining artifacts from a long-lost civilization that he believes was the creation of a superior race, and will help him fulfill his ambition to rule other men. Concluding that Hill must have found something that may help him in this quest, but knowing not what it is and where it is hidden, he has Hill, his friends at Oxford, and his family shadowed and threatened until finally he and Hill face off in a final, climatic confrontation. A story that features a giant pirate and slaver, a human chameleon on a perilous metaphysical journey, a mysterious hermit, and creatures both deadly and beautiful, this is a novel that explores the consequences of the predominant ideas of the 20th Century.

Inspired by real events, master storyteller Eve Bunting recounts the harrowing yet hopeful story of a family, a war--and a dazzling discovery.

Long awaited by fans of Toward the Gleam and Tolkien's stories of Middle Earth, sure to delight all Inklings fans! A SABBATICAL INTERRUPTED Frodo Lyle Stuart is looking forward to his sabbatical, hoping to unearth evidence that will add new lustre to his reputation as a first-rate archaeologist. But Lyle's Uncle Henry, abbot of a nearby monastery, has other plans, recruiting him to track down a stolen artifact-a manuscript of unimaginable antiquity his uncle believes is the source for the greatest work of literary imagination in the 20th century. HOAX OR TREASURE? Reluctantly, Lyle puts his ambitions aside to undertake what might be a wild goose chase-or something more perilous. As he tracks the manuscript across Europe, he is unwittingly entangled in the deadly scheme of an adversary who will do anything to satisfy his ambitions. IS SOME KNOWLEDGE TOO DANGEROUS? In The Lucifer Ego, the prehistoric manuscript at the heart of Toward the Gleam still excites deadly passions and stirs up dark forces as old as time itself. Inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, C.S. Lewis's Narnia stories, the Inklings, G.K. Chesterton and other great spirits of the 20th century, Toward the Gleam and its sequel, The Lucifer Ego, are packed with suspense, mystery, and big questions. Once again, Doran drops us in the middle of a mystery and barrels off, daring us to come along. As with "Toward the Gleam," the mystery provides the scaffolding for heady explorations of substantive ideas--a thinking person's adventure quest. Dare we follow? How can we resist? -A.K. Abeille, playwright, screenwriter, theatrical director

PERFECT FOR FANS OF SARAH J. MAAS AND JENNIFER L. ARMENTROUT 'Read this series NOW! I felt like I was in the story watching and holding my breath the entire time' 5***** Reader Review 'Sexy and touching all at the same time . . . and that plot twist, OMG' 5***** Reader Review _______ Locked inside a new kingdom, with no allies of my own, something has been set free inside me. Something dark. Something angry. It is my anger that calls out to him: King Ravinger. Sinister, powerful and entirely too seductive, his danger is only outweighed by my unrelenting attraction. But I won't be caught in a cage again. No, this time, it'll be me setting the trap . . . _______ 'A spectacularly written, engaging, imaginative retelling of the ancient myth of King Midas' 5***** Reader Review 'I literally devoured this book in one sitting' 5***** Reader Review Sunday Times bestseller April 2023

The soft glow of a candle, the blink of a firefly, a burst of fireworks—light is everywhere in our world! Rhyming text and luminous illustrations follow four children as they experience many different forms of light. "[M]ultiple STEAM applications, from poetry and creative writing to introductions to energy and light to how the sun affects human life, and doubles as a great read-aloud or a starry bedtime story."—starred, Booklist

In the name of efficiency, the practice of education has come to be dominated by neoliberal ideology and procedures of standardization and quantification. Such attempts to make all aspects of practice transparent and subject to systematic accounting lack sensitivity to the invisible and the silent, to something in the human condition that cannot readily be expressed in an either-or form. Seeking alternatives to such trends, Saito reads Dewey’s idea of progressive education through the lens of Emersonian moral perfectionism (to borrow a term coined by Stanley Cavell). She elucidates a spiritual and aesthetic dimension to Dewey’s notion of growth, one considerably richer than what Dewey alone presents in his typically scientific terminology.