In 1833 Alexander Pushkin began to explore the topic of madness, a subject little explored in Russian literature before his time. The works he produced on the theme are three of his greatest masterpieces: the prose novella The Queen of Spades, the narrative poem The Bronze Horseman, and the lyric "God Grant That I Not Lose My Mind." Gary Rosenshield presents a new interpretation of Pushkin's genius through an examination of his various representations of madness. Pushkin brilliantly explored both the destructive and creative sides of madness, a strange fusion of violence and insight. In this study, Rosenshield illustrates the surprising valorization of madness in The Queen of Spades and "God Grant That I Not Lose My Mind" and analyzes The Bronze Horseman's confrontation with the legacy of Peter the Great, a cornerstone figure of Russian history. Drawing on themes of madness in western literature, Rosenshield situates Pushkin in a greater framework with such luminaries as Shakespeare, Sophocles, Cervantes, and Dostoevsky providing an insightful and absorbing study of Russia's greatest writer.

Examines all the major types of mechatronic systems used in railway applications Surveys rail vehicle mechatronic design processes with practical sources and references Outlines modelling approaches for rail vehicles, from concept to finishined prototype Analyzes system integration of complex railway mechatronic systems Presents numerical experiments and mechatronic models with railway transport applications

This is the first book to explore in depth the science of climbing and mountaineering. Written by a team of leading international sport scientists, clinicians and climbing practitioners, it covers the full span of technical disciplines, including rock climbing, ice climbing, indoor climbing and mountaineering, across all scientific fields from physiology and biomechanics to history, psychology, medicine, motor control, skill acquisition, and engineering. Striking a balance between theory and practice, this uniquely interdisciplinary study provides practical examples and illustrative data to demonstrate the strategies that can be adopted to promote safety, best practice, injury prevention, recovery and mental preparation. Divided into six parts, the book covers all essential aspects of the culture and science of climbing and mountaineering, including: physiology and medicine biomechanics motor control and learning psychology equipment and technology. Showcasing the latest cutting-edge research and demonstrating how science translates into practice, The Science of Climbing and Mountaineering is essential reading for all advanced students and researchers of sport science, biomechanics and skill acquisition, as well as all active climbers and adventure sport coaches.

With the increasing demands for safer freight trains operating with higher speed and higher loads, it is necessary to implement methods for controlling longer, heavier trains. This requires a full understanding of the factors that affect their dynamic performance. Simulation techniques allow proposed innovations to be optimised before introducing them into the operational railway environment. Coverage is given to the various types of locomotives used with heavy haul freight trains, along with the various possible configurations of those trains. This book serves as an introductory text for college students, and as a reference for engineers practicing in heavy haul rail network design,

Havoc in the Hub brings to light the long-neglected work of George V. Higgins, revealing the wealth of intellectual, social, literary, and religious thought that underlies his 25 novels and numerous other works. HigginsOs writing, fed by equal parts wit and sorrow, touches our senses, emotions, and minds. Peter Wolfe makes a resounding contribution to the study of this writer. Wolfe places HigginsOs work in its geographical context and outlines the many sources from which Higgins drew during his highly productive career. The first in-depth examination of George V. Higgins, Havoc in the Hub will interest scholars, graduate students, and lovers of HigginsOs work alike.

Havoc in the Hub brings to light the long-neglected work of George V. Higgins, revealing the wealth of intellectual, social, literary, and religious thought that underlies his 25 novels and numerous other works. Higgins's writing, fed by equal parts wit and sorrow, touches our senses, emotions, and minds. Peter Wolfe makes a resounding contribution to the study of this writer. Wolfe places Higgins's work in its geographical context and outlines the many sources from which Higgins drew during his highly productive career. The first in-depth examination of George V. Higgins, Havoc in the Hub will interest scholars, graduate students, and lovers of Higgins's work alike.

This is the first book to explore in depth the science of climbing and mountaineering. Written by a team of leading international sport scientists, clinicians and climbing practitioners, it covers the full span of technical disciplines, including rock climbing, ice climbing, indoor climbing and mountaineering, across all scientific fields from physiology and biomechanics to history, psychology, medicine, motor control, skill acquisition, and engineering. Striking a balance between theory and practice, this uniquely interdisciplinary study provides practical examples and illustrative data to demonstrate the strategies that can be adopted to promote safety, best practice, injury prevention, recovery and mental preparation. Divided into six parts, the book covers all essential aspects of the culture and science of climbing and mountaineering, including: physiology and medicine biomechanics motor control and learning psychology equipment and technology. Showcasing the latest cutting-edge research and demonstrating how science translates into practice, The Science of Climbing and Mountaineering is essential reading for all advanced students and researchers of sport science, biomechanics and skill acquisition, as well as all active climbers and adventure sport coaches.

By mid-career, many successful writers find a groove and their readers come to expect a familiar consistency and fidelity. Not so with Henry Green (1905-1973). He prefers uncertainty over reason and fragmentation over cohesion, and rarely lets the reader settle into a nice cozy read. Evil, he suggests, can be as instructive as good. Through his use of paradoxical and ambiguous language, his novels bring texture to the flatness of life, making the world seem bigger and closer. We soon stop worrying about what Hitler's bombs have in store for the Londoners of Caught (1943) and Back (1946) and start thinking about what they have in store for each other. Praised in his lifetime as England's top fiction author, he is largely overlooked today. This book presents a comprehensive analysis of his work for a new generation of readers.

The theatrical world Terence Rattigan built is vital but disturbing and uniquely constructed. His sentences are not impacted or fractured, and his plots usually obey a linear time sequence. Yet his realism isn't all that real. Though sentence by sentence, his dialogue sounds natural, the creative pulse behind it is idiosyncratic and self-lacerating. As a gay man writing at a time when homosexuality was a felony in the UK, Rattigan wrote at a skewed angle to his culture, making his plays at times easy to follow but hard to fathom. Terence Rattigan: The Playwright as Battlefield examines the ways in which Rattigan's works turn their audiences into participants, encouraging intellectual independence and freeing them to make decisions for themselves as to the deeper meanings of the works. The playwright's omission of outright explanations deepens the audience's emotional commitment to the outcomes of the performance, and walks a fine line between restraint and invention. His works convey subtly and deceptively the cold obstinacy that thwarts our everyday actions in a way which that is felt viscerally by the audience. This book engages works from throughout Rattigan's early and late career to examine the unique methods by which the playwright conveys meaning to various audiences within an ever-changing sociocultural context.

Often more disturbing than entertaining, James Ellroy is an author who never shies away from the ugly or repellent. Eminent crime fiction scholar Peter Wolfe examines how Ellroy transcends the genres of pulp and neo-noir fiction to write stories that are both psychologically haunting and culturally relevant. Wolfe skillfully combines biography--including the unsolved murder of Ellroy's mother--with literary analysis to provide a fascinating and readable study of this popular author. The first in-depth companion to the work of James Ellroy, Like Hot Knives to the Brain will interest students of popular culture, mystery readers, and crime buffs everywhere.

The study pinpoints an example of the origins and political function of historical identity. It is based on testimonies of Regensburg's urban history between 1600 and 1800. The argument structures and transmission patterns discernible in these hitherto unprinted urban chronicles makes it possible to distinguish images of history that are Protestant/national or Catholic/Bavarian. For both traditions the Middle Ages were the highpoint of the city's development, thus contradicting the popular belief that this period was 'discovered' by the 19th century.

An atmospheric and chilling crime thriller from an internationally bestselling author, perfect for readers of Ann Cleeves and Peter James. If the system can't make them pay, then he will . . . Former chief of police, Ubbo Heide, is enjoying a peaceful seaside retirement - until a gruesome package containing a severed head turns up on his doorstep and catapults him back into a world he left behind. When a torso is found on the local beach, it's assumed it's from the same victim. That is until a second head turns up. As the investigation reaches fever pitch, Chief Inspector Ann Kathrin Klaasen, now assigned to the case, realises that the two victims are connected. Soon it's clear that this quiet coastal community is facing a brutal serial killer. One who is taking justice into his own hands . . .

IIncludes: "Hound "by Maria Oshodi, "Soft Vengeance "by April de Angelis, "Sympathy for the Devil "by Roy Winston, "Fittings: The Last Freakshow "by Mike Kenny, "Into the Mystic "by Peter Wolf, and "Peeling "by Katie O'Reilly. Introduced by Jenny Sealey, Artistic Director of Graeae Theatre Company, the U.K.'s leading theatre company working with disabled artists.

In 1973 the Australian novelist Patrick White won the Nobel Prize for Literature, the year that his great novel of family ties and change, The Eye of the Storm, was published and became a bestseller in America and Europe. Yet White is still not widely known or read, and few writers of today have provoked so many contradictory judgments. Now Peter Wolfe has written the first book-length study of the work of this brilliant and haunting novelist. The study offers a subtle, penetrating examination of White's style, his skill in building narrative tension, and also the depth and complexity reflected in his characterization, which, in his novels, always dominates action. Fittingly, for a writer whose novels bear the indelible stamp of Australia, the study also examines White's psychological use of setting and the intense sense of place found in his work. No other critical study of White covers such a broad range of his writing. Peter Wolfe considers here the entire canon of the novels. The Tree of Man, Voss, The Vivisector, The Eye of the Storm, A Fringe of Leaves, and The Twyborn Affair (White's most recent novel) are all discussed. White's themes and settings range from the power and immensity of the wilderness of the Australian outback to the dislocations wrought in traditional values by postwar industrialization and urban sprawl. Laden Choirs makes accessible to an American audience a writer of the first rank, whose work lies at the heart of modernist concerns. Literary students and scholars who wish to explore the world of Patrick White will find this book an essential key.

In Understanding Alan Bennett, Peter Wolfe conveys Bennett's originality, complexities of thought, and creative vigor while examining Bennett in his various roles as actor, director, playwright, and lyricist. As Wolfe illustrates, Bennett's success in his many spheres was no fluke. Bennett's theatrical eminence has been accompanied by awards and professional recognition. His play Single Spies won the Oliver Award as England's best comedy for 1989. The casts of his plays, starting with Forty Years On in 1968, have included such luminaries as Sir John Gielgud, Sir Alec Guinness, Joan Plowright, Maggie Smith, Alan Bates, and Daniel Day Lewis. His screenwriting earned The Madness of King George a nomination for an Academy Award, and Talking Heads was in its twenty-seventh printing in 1995, after seven years in print.

Bennett's ability to write scripts at once funny and sad has lifted him to heights occupied by few of his peers. Understanding Alan Bennett illuminates the writer whose instinct for artistic choices has helped him succeed on his own terms.

The classic television show "The Twilight Zone" explored the possibilities inhering in the ordinary. A "Twilight Zone" episode moved us by being poignant and intimate, rambunctious or thought provoking. But whether it takes place on an asteroid, in a city pool room, or in the backwoods, it will usually convey both a folklorist's eye for detail and the born raconteur's sense of pace. Rod Serling, the show's originator, main scriptwriter, and artistic director, knew how much burden he could place on his rhetorical and dramatic gifts. Deservedly celebrated as a pioneer fiction writer for television, Serling always grounded his work in the human condition: he wrote movingly about history and loyalty, the grip of everyday reality, and the dangers of both forgetting about one's ghosts and giving them the upper hand.

Eric Ambler's novelistic career falls into two halves. In the first half belong the works he published between 1935-1940. These include the highly acclaimed "Epitaph for a Spy" (1938) and "The Mask of Dimitrios" (1939), both of which were made into successful films in 1944. The intrigue books of this period unfold in interwar Europe, a bitten-up, anxious place reeling between the extremes of fascism and Soviet communism. To reflect changes in the postwar world, Ambler set his later books in third-world countries where first-world financing collides with unstable, often revolutionary, politics--all within the shadow of large multinational corporations. These powerful firms with connections in high places take the same liberties as big governments have always done in works like "Dr. Frigo" (1974), the only Ambler book set in Latin America, and the best-selling "The Care of Time "(1981).

Raymond Chandler's eminence as a mystery writer is unchallenged. Somerset Maugham and George Grella both rate him above Dashiell Hammett; Eric Partridge deems him "a serious artist and a very considerable novelist," while praising him as "one of the finest novelists of his time." Peter Wolfe examines the many sides of Chandler and his work-his apparent will to self-destruct, his obsession with beautiful women, and his apparent brush with homosexuality-and casts much new and needed light on this major American author.