The Cherry Orchard is one of the best known plays by the prolific Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov. It has been translated into practically all languages and is part of the classic repertoire of all world stages. Chekhov is known for his art of subtlety, humour, stream of consciousness technique, and fine balance which is often difficult to get right. Chekhov described the play as a comedy, with some elements of farce, though Stanislavski treated it as a tragedy. Since its first production, directors have contended with its dual nature. The play concerns an aristocratic Russian landowner who returns to her family estate just before it is auctioned to pay the mortgage. Unresponsive to offers to save the estate, she allows its sale to the son of a former serf. The story presents themes of cultural futility – both the futile attempts of the aristocracy to maintain its status and of the bourgeoisie to find meaning in its newfound materialism. It dramatises the rise of the middle class after the abolition of serfdom in the mid-19th century and the decline of the power of the aristocracy.

Uncle Vanya is different from Chekhov's other major plays as it is essentially an extensive reworking of his own other play published a decade earlier, The Wood Demon. By elucidating the specific changes Chekhov made during the revision process—these include reducing the cast-list from almost two dozen down to nine, changing the climactic suicide of The Wood Demon into the famous failed homicide of Uncle Vanya, and altering the original happy ending into a more problematic.

Trygaeus, a middle-aged Athenian, miraculously brings about a peaceful end to the Peloponnesian War, thereby earning the gratitude of farmers while bankrupting various tradesmen who had profited from the hostilities. He celebrates his triumph by marrying Harvest, a companion of Festival and Peace, all of whom he has liberated from a celestial prison.

Inspired by the real life experiences of Rwandan refugees in the UK, the play tells the story of two people from entirely different worlds who meet at a Refugee Centre in London: Juliette is a young Rwandan asylum seeker, detemined to write a book on the genocide that killed her famiily; Simon is a middle-aged failing novelist, whose job is to help people write. The play follows their funny and touching relationship and tackles issues that face many refugees who live in the UK today. Nominated as Time Out Critics’ Choice, the play has been broadcast by the BBC World Service and was toured nationally by iceandfire in Autumn 2004 with the support of the Arts Council England.

Cei ce sus?in c? tr?im ?ntr-o er? a comunic?rii par s? confunde dezvoltarea telecomunica?iilor cu progresul comunic?rii interumane. Nu este c?tu?i de pu?in sigur c? suntem ast?zi mai capabili dec?t ?n trecut de solidaritate afectiv? cu semenii, de ?mp?rt??ire de tr?iri intime, de prietenie ?i dragoste. Poate chiar dimpotriv?. Ceea ce ?inea ?n trecut de normalitatea vie?ii de fiecare zi ?i, ca atare, nu mobiliza ?n mod special aten?ia celor implica?i, a devenit ast?zi obiect de analiz? tocmai pentru c? nu se mai produce spontan, ci necesit? un efort con?tient, inclusiv de natura teoretic-investigativ?.Cunoa?terea principiilor ?i a mecanismelor comunic?rii interpersonale a devenit indispensabil? pentru ameliorarea raporturilor dintre oameni ?i a ?ncetat s? mai fie numai o problem? a speciali?tilor. Dac? ?n trecut oamenii comunicau spontan, ?n felul ?n care f?cea proza ?burghezul gentilom“, ast?zi suntem tot mai mult ?n situa?ia unui domn Jourdain care, pentru a se apropia de semenii s?i, are nevoie de un ghid. Acestui imperativ ?ncearc? s?-i r?spund?, ?n felul s?u, ?i lucrarea de fa??.

Adam Smith's masterpiece, first published in 1776, is the foundation of modern economic thought and remains the single most important account of the rise of, and the principles behind, modern capitalism. Written in clear and incisive prose, The Wealth of Nations articulates the concepts indispensable to an understanding of contemporary society.

The Federalist Papers are a series of 85 articles advocating the ratification of the United States Constitution. Seventy-seven of the essays were published serially in The Independent Journal and The New York Packet between October 1787 and August 1788. A compilation of these and eight others, called The Federalist, was published in 1788 by J. and A. McLean. The Federalist Papers serve as a primary source for interpretation of the Constitution, as they outline the philosophy and motivation of the proposed system of government. The authors of the Federalist Papers wanted to both influence the vote in favor of ratification and shape future interpretations of the Constitution. According to historian Richard B. Morris, they are an "incomparable exposition of the Constitution, a classic in political science unsurpassed in both breadth and depth by the product of any later American writer."

Apariia n 1948 a primei reviste romneti n exil, la Paris, intitulat de creatorii ei, Virgil Ierunca i Mircea Eliade, Luceafrul“, a venit dup ce tvlugul sovietic reuise s anihileze n ar Romnia politic, iar pe cea spiritual parial, ducnd, dup cum spunea Julien Benda, la trdarea crturarilor. Reacia la aceast stare a venit, aa dup cum era i firesc, din partea unor intelectuali exilai i cu precdere a lui Virgil Ierunca, unul dintre cei doi componeni a ceea ce putem denumi instituia Lovinescu – Ierunca“. Acest cuplu a tiut s prezerve valorile romneti i nu numai pe cele spirituale, s anime, s conving, s scoat din inerie pe acei intelectuali romni exilai care i cutau menirea n acea lume care, pe atunci, nu oferea, ca mai trziu, linitea interioar att de necesar creaiei. Ierunca a fost deseori cel care l-a mpins pe Mircea Eliade s nu rmn ancorat ntr-o literatur de mrturii, ci ntr-o via activ de creaie, de cutri. Volumul de fa, care ne restituie“ Luceafrul“, se datoreaz meritului deosebit al autorilor Mihaela Albu i Dan Anghelescu.Studiul efectuat cu ntreaga dragoste i acribie a cercetatorului ne dezvluie, cu rafinament, ndeosebi o cunoatere aprofundat a simirilor celor care, cu 60 de ani n urm, nu abdicaser de la datorie. Impresioneaz nu numai relatarea faptic, dar i bogia cu care cei doi autori pun n relaie imensul lor bagaj cultural cu ceea ce au produs cu o jumtate de secol n urm autorii Luceafrului“.“ (Dinu Zamfirescu)

O istorie politico-sentimental? a capitalei noastre. De ce o istorie politico-sentimental?? Pentru c?, ?n evolu?ia Bucure?tiului, de-alungul secolelor, afacerile politice s-au ?mpletit adesea, inevitabil, cu b?t?ile inimii. Chiar prima perioad? a cet??ii, ca ?i capital? domneasc?, tutelat? de figu ra dominant? a doamnei Chiajna, poate fi b?nuit? de un senzualism crud care a deschis drum acelui fenomen pe care Ionescu-Gion ?l numea at?t de plastic ?ginecolatrie“, adic? ascultarea dovedit? de domnitorii valahi fa?? de so?iile lor.

Cartea t?n?rului universitar Mihai-Bogdan Marian consacrat? analizei conflictelor interna?ionale este o invita?ie la luciditate, la reflec?ie autonom?, dezinhibat?, la cercetare aplicat?, f?r? prejudec??i ?i partizanate apriorice. Autorul este un analist pentru care exerci?iul ?n sine al disec?rii cauzelor ?i ?mprejur?rilor ce favorizeaz? apari?ia ?i acutizarea conflictelor interna?ionale nu este unul fortuit sau gratuit. Ideea sa tutelar? este c? orice astfel de conflict poate fi pre?nt?mpinat. Iar dac?, fatalmente, el s-a declan?at ?i s-a dezvoltat, sc?p?nd poate de sub control, poate fi dezamorsat, factorii angrena?i ?n acest proces av?nd la ?ndem?n? algoritmi ?i proceduri standard care nu trebuie s? fac? obiectul unei ac?iuni in extremis, care s? justifice de fapt prin e?ec escaladarea ?n continuare a conflictului ca atare. (Mihai Milca)

TRAVELERS who go into Scotland take a great interest in visiting, among other places, a certain room in the ruins of an old palace, where Queen Mary was born. Queen Mary was very beautiful, but she was very unfortunate and unhappy. Every body takes a strong interest in her story, and this interest attaches, in some degree, to the room where her sad and sorrowful life was begun.??The palace is near a little village called Linlithgow. The village has but one long street, which consists of ancient stone houses. North of it is a little lake, or rather pond: they call it, in Scotland, a loch. The palace is between the village and the loch; it is upon a beautiful swell of land which projects out into the water. There is a very small island in the middle of the loch and the shores are bordered with fertile fields. The palace, when entire, was square, with an open space or court in the center. There was a beautiful stone fountain in the center of this court, and an arched gateway through which horsemen and carriages could ride in. The doors of entrance into the palace were on the inside of the court.??The palace is now in ruins. A troop of soldiers came to it one day in time of war, after Mary and her mother had left it, and spent the night there: they spread straw over the floors to sleep upon. In the morning, when they went away, they wantonly set the straw on fire, and left it burning, and thus the palace was destroyed. Some of the lower floors were of stone; but all the upper floors and the roof were burned, and all the wood-work of the rooms, and the doors and window-frames. Since then the palace has never been repaired, but remains a melancholy pile of ruins.??The room where Mary was born had a stone floor. The rubbish which has fallen from above has covered it with a sort of soil, and grass and weeds grow up all over it. It is a very melancholy sight to see.

SOME men are renowned in history on account of the extraordinary powers and capacities which they exhibited in the course of their career, or the intrinsic greatness of the deeds which they performed. Others, without having really achieved any thing in itself very great or wonderful, have become widely known to mankind by reason of the vast consequences which, in the subsequent course of events, resulted from their doings. Men of this latter class are conspicuous rather than great. From among thousands of other men equally exalted in character with themselves, they are brought out prominently to the notice of mankind only in consequence of the strong light reflected, by great events subsequently occurring, back upon the position where they happened to stand.??The celebrity of Romulus seems to be of this latter kind. He founded a city. A thousand other men have founded cities; and in doing their work have evinced perhaps as much courage, sagacity, and mental power as Romulus displayed. ?The city of Romulus, however, became in the end the queen and mistress of the world. It rose to so exalted a position of influence and power, and retained its ascendency so long, that now for twenty centuries every civilized nation in the western world have felt a strong interest in every thing pertaining to its history, and have been accustomed to look back with special curiosity to the circumstances of its origin. ??In consequence of this it has happened that though Romulus, in his actual day, performed no very great exploits, and enjoyed no pre-eminence above the thousand other half-savage chieftains of his class, whose names have been long forgotten, and very probably while he lived never dreamed of any extended fame, yet so brilliant is the illumination which the subsequent events of history have shed upon his position and his doings, that his name and the incidents of his life have been brought out very conspicuously to view, and attract very strongly the attention of mankind.??The history of Rome is usually made to begin with the story of ?neas. In order that the reader may understand in what light that romantic tale is to be re-garded, it is necessary to premise some statements in respect to the general condition of society in ancient days, and to the nature of the strange narrations, circulated in those early periods among mankind, out of which in later ages, when the art of writing came to be introduced, learned men compiled and recorded what they termed history.

AS you open this book you will probably ask, "What is a golden deed?"?Let me tell you. It is the doing of something for somebody else doing it without thought of self, without thought of reward, fearlessly, heroically, and because it is a duty.??Such a deed is possible to you, to me, to everybody. It is frequently performed without forethought or definite intention. It is the spontaneous manifestation of nobility, somewhere, of mind or heart. It may consist merely in the doing of some kind and helpful service at home or at school. It may be an unexpected test of heroism a warning of danger, a saving of somebody's life. It may be an act of benevolence, or a series of such acts, world-wide in application and results.??This little volume is only a book of samples. Here are specimens of golden deeds of various kinds and of different degrees of merit, ranging from the unpremeditated saving of a railroad train to the great humanitarian movement which carries blessings to all mankind. To attempt to tell of every such deed, or of every one that is eminently worthy, would fill a multitude of books. ??The, examples which I have chosen are such only as have occurred on American soil, or have been performed by Americans, thus distinguishing the volume from Miss Charlotte Yonge's "Book of Golden Deeds," published for English readers fifty years ago. While some of these narratives may have the appearance of romance, yet they are all believed to be true, and in most cases the real name of the hero, or of the lover of humanity, is given.??Instances of doing and daring have always a fascination for young people, and when to these is added the idea of a noble underlying motive the lessons taught by them cannot fail to be beneficial. ?

Descent Into Hell is a novel written by Charles Williams, first published in 1937. Williams is less well known than his fellow Inklings, such as C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. Like some of them, however, he wrote a series of novels which combine elements of fantasy fiction and Christian symbolism. Forgoing the detective fiction style of most of his earlier supernatural novels, most of the story's action is spiritual or psychological in nature. It fits the "theological thriller" description sometimes given to his works. For this reason Descent was initially rejected by publishers, though T. S. Eliot's publishing house Faber and Faberwould eventually pick up the novel, as Eliot admired Williams's work, and, though he did not like Descent Into Hell as well as the earlier novels, desired to see it printed.SHORT SUMMARY: The action takes place in Battle Hill, outside London, amidst the townspeople's staging of a new play by Peter Stanhope. The hill seems to reside at the crux of time, as characters from the past appear, and perhaps at a doorway to the beyond, as characters are alternately summoned heavenwards or descend into hell. Pauline Anstruther, the heroine of the novel, lives in fear of meeting her own doppelganger, which has appeared to her throughout her life. But Stanhope, in an action central to the author's own theology, takes the burden of her fears upon himself—Williams called this The Doctrine of Substituted Love—and enables Pauline, at long last, to face her true self. Williams drew this idea from the biblical verse, "Ye shall bear one another's burdens" And so Stanhope does take the weight, with no surreptitious motive, in the most affecting scene in the novel. And Pauline, liberated, is able to accept truth.On the other hand, Lawrence Wentworth, a local historian, finding his desire for Adela Hunt to be unrequited, falls in love instead with a spirit form of Adela, which seems to represent a kind of extreme self-love on his part. As he isolates himself more and more with this insubstantial figure, and dreams of descending a silver rope into a dark pit, Wentworth begins the descent into Hell.HARROWING of HELL: "Christ in Limbo" and "Descent into Hell" redirect here. For the novel by Charles Williams, see Descent into Hell (novel). For the 8th-century Anglo-Saxon liturgical play, see Harrowing of Hell (drama).

ESCAPECOME, shall we go, my comrade, from this denWhere falsehood reigns and we have dallied long?Exchange the curious vanities of menFor roads of freedom and for ships of song? We came as strangers, came to learn and look,To hear their music, drink the wine they gave.Now let us hence again; the happy brookShall quench our thirst, our music be the wave. Come! they are feasting, let us steal away.Beyond the doors the night awaits us, sweet.To-morrow we shall see the break of day,And goat-herds’ pipes shall lead our roaming feet. TO EVE IN TEARSYOU laughed, and all the fountains of the EastLeapt up to Heaven with their diamond rainTo hang in light, and when your laughter ceasedDropped shivered arrows to the ground again. You laughed, and from the belfries of the earthThe music rippled like a shaken pool;And listless banners at the breeze of mirthWere stirred in harbours suddenly made cool. You wept, and all the music of the air—As when a hand is laid upon a bell—Was stilled, and Dryads of the tossing hairCrept back abashed within the secret dell. MARIANA IN THE NORTHALL her youth is gone, her beautiful youth outworn,Daughter of tarn and tor, the moors that were once her homeNo longer know her step on the upland tracks forlornWhere she was wont to roam. All her hounds are dead, her beautiful hounds are dead,That paced beside the hoofs of her high and nimble horse,Or streaked in lean pursuit of the tawny hare that fledOut of the yellow gorse. All her lovers have passed, her beautiful lovers have passed,The young and eager men that fought for her arrogant hand,And the only voice which endures to mourn for her at the lastIs the voice of the lonely land. SORROW OF DEPARTURE. For D.HE sat among the shadows lost,And heard the careless voice speak onOf life when he was gone from home,Of days that he had made his own,Familiar schemes that he had known,And dates that he had cherished mostAs star-points in the year to come,And he was suddenly alone,Thinking (not bitterly,But with a grave regret) that heWas in that room a ghost. He sat among the shades apart,The careless voice he scarcely heard.In that arrested hour there stirredShy birds of beauty in his heart. The clouds of March he would not seeAcross the sky race royally,Nor yet the drift of daffodilHe planted with so glad a hand,Nor yet the loveliness he plannedFor summer’s sequence to fulfil,Nor trace upon the hillThe annual waking of the land,Nor meditative standTo watch the turning of the mill. He would not pause above the WealdWith twilight falling dim,And mark the chequer-board of field,The water gleaming like a shield,The oast-house in the elms concealed,Nor see, from heaven’s chalice-rim,The vintaged sunset brim,Nor yet the high, suspended starHanging eternally afar. These things would be, but not for him. At summer noon he would not lieOne with his cutter’s rise and dip,Free with the wind and sea and sky,And watch the dappled waves go by,The sea-gulls scream and slip;White sails, white birds, white clouds, white foam,White cliffs that curled the love of homeAround him like a whip....He would not see that summer noonFade into dusk from light,While he on shifting waters brightSailed idly on, beneath the moonClimbing the dome of night. This was his dream of happy thingsThat he had loved through many springs, And never more might know.But man must pass the shrouded gateCompanioned by his secret fate,And he must lonely go,And none can help or understand,For other men may touch his hand,But none the soul below.

AT the east end of the choir aisle of the Cathedral there is a portion of the wall which is possibly the oldest piece of masonry in Oxford, for it is thought to be a part of the original Church of St. Frideswyde, on whose site the Cathedral Church of Christ (to give its full title) now stands. Even so it is not possible to speak with historical certainty of the saint or of the date of her Church, which was built for her by her father, so the legend says, when she took the veil; though the year 740 may be provisionally accepted as the last year of her life. St. Frideswyde's was a conventual Church, with a Priory attached, and both were burnt down in 1002, but rebuilt by Ethelred. How much of his handiwork survives in the present structure it is not easy to de-termine; but the Norman builders of the twelfth century effected, at any rate, such a transformation that no suggestion of Saxon architecture is obtruded. Their work went on for some twenty years, under the supervision of the then Prior, Robert of Cricklade, and the Church was consecrated anew in 1180. The main features of the interior—the massive pillars and arches—are substantially the same to-day as the builders left them then. THIS BOOK, is not intended to compete with any existing guides to Oxford: it is not a guide-book in any formal or exhaustive sense. Its purpose is to shew forth the chief beauties of the University and City, as they have ap-peared to several artists; with such a running commentary as may explain the pictures, and may indicate whatever is most interesting in connection with the scenes which they represent. Slight as the notes are, there has been no sacrifice, it is believed, of accuracy. The principal facts have been derived from Alexander Chalmers' History of the Colleges, Halls, and Public Buildings of the University of Oxford, from Mr. Lang's Oxford, and from the Oxford and its Colleges of Mr. J. Wells. The illustrations, with the exception of six only, which are derived from Ackermann's Oxford, are reproduced from the paintings of living artists, mostly by Mr. W. Matthison, the others by Mrs. C. R. Walton, Walter S. S. Tyrwhitt, Mr. Bayzant, and Miss E. S. Cheesewright.

Fourths Tuning Chords and Inversions: Chords and Inversions

Handel

The Dance

Gitanjali

Royal Doulton Shaving Mugs