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‘Williams’s favourite among his plays, [Cat on a Hot Tin Roof]
is perhaps his most impassioned and articulate statement on human
isolation, the wrenching problems of communication between people
and the ways in which death defines life.’ NEW YORK TIMES In Cat
on a Hot Tin Roof, a Southern family meet to celebrate 'Big Daddy'
Pollitt's 65th birthday. But as the party unfolds, the facade of a
happy family gathering is fractured by sexual frustration,
repressed love and greed in the light of their father's impending
death. This edition includes a commentary by Benjamin Hudson, which
explores the major themes of the play, including illness and
mortality; white supremacy through the plantation setting;
mendacity and 'fake news'; alcoholism and addiction; as well as
sexuality, womanhood and mid-century notions of masculinity. It
draws attention to the context of the play, including the cultural,
social and political landscape of the Mississippi Delta and St.
Louis; the first-hand witnessing of Black life in the South;
homosexuality and outsider sympathy; and American conservatism and
the idealised 1950s family. It also delves into recent productions
and adaptations of the play, including the Bollywood and Antoine
Fuqua film adaptations.
Macbeth is arguably the world's most famous monarch. Both the
historical king and the literary character have fascinated writers
and audiences for centuries, beginning with the poets who recited
their verses at the medieval monarch's court. Macbeth's legend
began almost immediately after his death as medieval and
Renaissance writers gradually replaced the king with a
semi-literary character developed and embroidered to suit their own
political and cultural agenda. The process of transformation
culminated in playwright William Shakespeare's The Tragedie of
Macbeth. Investigating the man and the legend, Benjamin Hudson
traces the eleventh-century prince's rise to prominence from local
warlord to international ruler. Battling Vikings, English, and his
fellow Scots, Macbeth was involved in a Dano-Norwegian conflict,
made a pilgrimage to Rome, and gave refuge to Norman knights. He
was more than a mere warlord. With his queen, Gruoch, the widow of
a man who killed Macbeth's father, he was a benefactor of churches.
The historical prince was an important innovator who used new
fighting tactics, developed an international outlook to government,
and encouraged intellectual pursuits. Hudson also tracks the ways
in which popularizers developed the women behind the fictional Lady
Macbeth and the weird sisters. Drawing on centuries of Celtic and
Scandinavian sources, popular entertainment, political theory,
folklore, and art, Macbeth before Shakespeare recovers the genuine
king from the historical record and shows how he was replaced by
the legendary monster of ambition.
Following the new format of the First FRCR Anatomy Examination and
based on the syllabus of the Royal College of Radiology, this
unique revision tool is more complete and detailed than any other
guide on the market. The comprehensive, structured approach
promotes a working understanding of anatomy by guiding the reader
through over 200 practice images, explaining any normal variants or
key anatomical concepts of particular interest. This section is
followed by three practice exams, each comprising 20 question stems
and images. This is an invaluable aid for all First FRCR Anatomy
Examination candidates. It is also highly recommended for doctors
studying for MRCS or MRCP examinations, emergency department
doctors and radiographers.
In popular imagination, the Vikings are remembered as fierce
warrior seamen who campaigned through Western Europe, terrorizing
British, Frankish, and Irish societies. Yet is it possible that the
great Viking armies left more in their wake than carnage and
destruction? The stories of two families-the Olafssons, who
transformed a pirate camp in Ireland into the kingdom of Dublin,
and the Haraldssons, whose rule encompassed Hebrides, Galloway, and
the Isle of Man-suggest that the Vikings did indeed leave behind a
much greater legacy.
Between the tenth and twelfth centuries, these two Viking
families, descendants of men whom earlier chroniclers dismissed as
pagan pirates, established themselves as Christian rulers whose
domain straddled the Scandinavian and Celtic worlds. The Olafssons
and Haraldssons carved out empires that inspired fear and made
their families fabulously wealthy. From their ranks came the
settlers who gave name to the Danelaw in Britain, Fingal in
Ireland, and Normandy in Francia. Celebrated in Icelandic sagas and
poems, Irish tales, and French history, the Olafssons and
Haraldssons took part in the last successful Scandinavian invasion
of Britain and the overthrow of the last Old English kingdom, even
as they allied with, fought against, and married their Irish
neighbors.
Though the families had come to these lands as conquerors, they
soon learned the importance of cooperating with those they had
vanquished. Even as they worshipped pagan gods, the Olafssons and
Haraldssons both became important benefactors to the Christian
church. They also played a crucial role in the economic revival of
northern Europe as trading ships from their ports sailed throughout
theAtlantic and the goods they produced traveled as far west as
Canada. Under their rule, the seas became a connector for a shared
culture, commercially, artistically, and socially.
Challenging traditional views of the Vikings' culture, Benjamin
Hudson shows the role that these two great dynasties played in the
Second Viking age. The rise and transformation of the Olafssons and
Haraldsssons from the tenth to the twelfth centuries highlights a
period and people important for understanding the political,
religious, and cultural development of Europe in the High Middle
Ages.
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