Vintage books Time Regained and A Guide to Proust Proust Marcel

Упадок религии и постоянно растущее влияние науки ставят перед всеми нами острые этические проблемы. Можем ли мы отвергнуть буквальную истину Евангелий, но при этом сохранить христианскую мораль? Можем ли мы защитить какие-либо "моральные ценности" от постоянного вторжения технологий? Действительно, не грозит ли нам опасность утратить большинство качеств, которые делают нас по-настоящему людьми? Здесь, опираясь на понимание романистами искусства, литературы и психологии, Айрис Мердок проводит постоянные дебаты с крупнейшими писателями, мыслителями и теологами - от Августина до Витгенштейна, от Шекспира до Сартра, от Платона до Дерриды - чтобы дать свежие и убедительные ответы на эти важнейшие вопросы • "Метафизика как руководство к морали" - книга английской писательницы и мыслительницы ирландского происхождения Айрис Мёрдок

Discover the classic tale behind the hit film and one of the most beloved, comforting, charming stories of all time • Life in the March household is full of adventures as the four very different March sisters follow their varying paths to adulthood, always maintaining the special bond between them. Sensible Meg, impetuous Jo, shy Beth and artistic Amy each have to confront different challenges as they grow up together and attempt to learn how to be both happy and good • ‘Deals with life's big questions - love and death, war and peace, and ambition versus family responsibility - in a way that is inspiring and realistic. Use a hankie as a bookmark - tears are guaranteed’ Marie Claire

If you open that suitcase you'll never close it again • Ten years ago, Frances Stonor Saunders was handed an old suitcase filled with her father's papers. Her father's life had been a study in borders - exiled from Romania during the war, to Turkey then Egypt and eventually Britain, and ultimately to the borderless territory of Alzheimer's. The unopened suitcase seems to represent everything that had made her father unknowable to her in life • So begins a captivating exploration of history, memory and geography, as Frances Stoner Saunders decides to unpick her family's past

Iris Murdoch really knows how to write, can tell a story, delineate a character, catch an atmosphere with deadly accuracy • John Betjeman • A revolver shot rings through a Whitehall office one hot afternoon in the middle of an English summer. A Government official has apparently shot himself, but the circumstances are questionable - prompting Octavian Gray, head of the department in which the dead man worked, to investigate • Lawyer John Ducane is charged with the task, interviewing other civil servants by day, and by night attempting repeatedly - and unsuccessfully - to break up with his mistress. When Ducane travels to Gray's Dorset home everything becomes even more mysterious and nothing is quite as it seems

What would happen if you fell into a Black Hole? • Black holes are found throughout the universe. They can be microscopic. They can be billions of times larger than our Sun. They are dark on the outside but not on the inside. Anything that enters them can never escape, and yet they contain nothing at all • In Black Hole Survival Guide physicist and novelist Janna Levin takes you on a journey into a black hole, explaining what would happen to you and why. In the process you'll come to see how their mysteries contain answers to some of the most profound questions ever asked about the nature of our universe

It is Christmas Eve, and John Rivers is thinking about the past; about his sheltered upbringing; about an extraordinary time spent as a lab assistant to the great physicist Henry Maartens; about Maartens' beautiful wife, Katy, and about a love affair which shook Rivers to the core and caused him to question everything he once revered

Sebastian Barnack, a handsome English schoolboy, is on bad terms with his socialist father who disapproves of his hedonistic lifestyle. He escapes to Florence in order to learn about life. His education there, thanks to the contradictory influences of his scurrilous Uncle Eustace and a saintly bookseller, is both sacred and profane. A haunting novel from one of the twentieth century's most powerful commentators

A visit from relatives sparks an implosion in the life of a good-natured family man • The decision to invite his Southern relatives to stay proves a fateful one for Austin King. By the time they leave, his reputation and his marriage have suffered irreparable damage. Against the perfectly-drawn background of small-town Illinois at the turn of the 20th century, Maxwell once again uncovers the seeds of potential tragedy at the heart of a happily-established family

Tod. T. Friendly is living his life backwards • Doctor Friendly has just died, but after weeks of improving in the hospital, he is sent home to his affable, melting-pot, primary-colour existence in suburban America • From the fresh-cut lawns of his retirement to the hustle of New York, and then the boat back to war-torn Europe, Friendly carries with him a secret. Trapped in his body from grave to cradle, Friendly’s consciousness can only watch as he struggles to make sense of the good doctor’s most ambitious project yet – the final solution

The Ds can't wait to go and stay with Nancy and Peggy in the Lake District during the summer holidays. But when the Amazons’ dreadful Great Aunt invites herself to stay too, the summer is threatened with dullness. Staying indoors and reading poetry is not what anyone had in mind. To save the Ds from total boredom, the Amazons arrange for their friends to stay in a tumble-down hut in the woods. And as long as no one discovers they're there they can sail all summer long • In the Backstory you can learn how to make a campfire! • Vintage Children’s Classics is a twenty-first century classics list aimed at 8-12 year olds and the adults in their lives

'Like to spend a night in the Goblin?’ • The Swallows are staying on the Suffolk coast while they wait for their father to return home from China. But although the harbour is bursting with bobbing yachts, barges and steamers, this year there's no chance of any sailing for the landlocked Swallows. That is until they rescue young Jim Brading and his boat the Goblin from a sticky situation and to their delight are recruited as crew members. Mother agrees they can go, on one condition – they absolutely must not sail out past Beach End Buoy and into the open sea… • Includes exclusive content: In the 'Backstory' you can test your knowledge of the book, and learn all about the art of sailing! • Vintage Children’s Classics is a twenty-first century classics list aimed at 8-12 year olds and the adults in their lives

The breathtaking short story collection from the Costa-shortlisted Irish writer • Three gunshots on the Irish border define the course of a young man's life; a writer clings fast to a star-crossed affair with a woman who has never been fully in his reach; a fisherman accustomed to hard labour rolls up his sleeves to dig a grave for his child; a pair of newly-weds embark on their first adventure, living wild on the deserted Beginish Island • Spanning a century and two continents - from the muddy fields of Ireland to a hotel room in Paris, a dingy bar in Segovia to an aeroplane bound for Taipei - these densely layered tales reveal the quiet heroism and gentle dignity of ordinary life. Ranging from the elegiac to the brutally confrontational, Billy O'Callaghan's stories explore the resilience of the human heart and its ability to keep beating even in the wake of grief, trauma and lost love