|
Portuguese Irregular Verbs
''Portuguese Irregular Verbs'' is a short comic novel by Alexander McCall Smith, and the first of McCall Smith's series of novels featuring Professor Dr von Igelfeld. It was first published in 1997. Some consider the book to be a series of connected short stories. Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld, a pompous professor of Romance languages, graduates from college, and works hard to write a tome on Portuguese irregular verbs, his claim to academic fame. He talks and talks about it at conferences, usually attending with his two closest colleagues. They encounter the world outside academia with entertaining clumsiness. One review says the main character is "a gentle figure who deserves every cartoon anvil that falls on his head", in the humorous tradition of fictional characters Mr. Samuel Pickwick (in ''The Pickwick Papers'' by Charles Dickens), Bouvard and Pécuchet (in an unfinished work by Gustave Flaubert), and Mr Pooter of ''Diary of a Nobody''. Another reviewer considers the book ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander McCall Smith
Alexander "Sandy" McCall Smith, CBE, FRSE (born 24 August 1948), is a British writer. He was raised in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and formerly Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. He became an expert on medical law and bioethics and served on related British and international committees. He has since become known as a fiction writer, with sales in English exceeding 40 million by 2010 and translations into 46 languages. He is known as the creator of ''The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency'' series. The "McCall" derives from his great-great-grandmother Bethea McCall, who married James Smith at Glencairn, Dumfries-shire, in 1833. Early life Alexander McCall Smith was born in 1948 in Bulawayo in the British colony of Southern Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe), to British parents. He was the only son, having three elder sisters. His father worked as a public prosecutor in Bulawayo. McCall Smith's paternal grandfather was the medical doctor and New Zealand communit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tuscany
Tuscany ( ; it, Toscana ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence (''Firenze''). Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, artistic legacy, and its influence on high culture. It is regarded as the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance and of the foundations of the Italian language. The prestige established by the Tuscan dialect's use in literature by Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio, Niccolò Machiavelli and Francesco Guicciardini led to its subsequent elaboration as the language of culture throughout Italy. It has been home to many figures influential in the history of art and science, and contains well-known museums such as the Uffizi and the Palazzo Pitti. Tuscany is also known for its wines, including Chianti, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Morellino di Scansano, Brunello di Montalcino and white Vernaccia di San Gimignano. Having a strong linguisti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The 2½ Pillars Of Wisdom
''The 2½ Pillars Of Wisdom'' is the collective name for three novels by Alexander McCall Smith. All three novels centre on the exploits of Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld. The title refers to the main character and his colleagues; the front matter explains that von Igelfeld “''had heard the three of them described as the Three Pillars of Wisdom, but looking at Professor Dr Detlev Amadeus Unterholzer he came to the conclusion that perhaps The 2½ Pillars of Wisdom might be more appropriate''”. *1997 ''Portuguese Irregular Verbs'' *2003 ''The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs ''The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs'' is a novel by Scottish author and academic Alexander McCall Smith. The book relates further matters in the life of the main character, Professor Dr Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld, following on from the first book ...'' *2003 '' At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances'' References {{DEFAULTSORT:2 Pillars Of Wisdom Novel series ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Three-volume Novel
The three-volume novel (sometimes three-decker or triple decker) was a standard form of publishing for British fiction during the nineteenth century. It was a significant stage in the development of the modern novel as a form of popular literature in Western culture. History An 1885 cartoon from the magazine ''Punch'', mocking the clichéd language attributed to three-volume novels Three-volume novels began to be produced by the Edinburgh-based publisher Archibald Constable in the early 19th century. Constable was one of the most significant publishers of the 1820s and made a success of publishing expensive, three-volume editions of the works of Walter Scott; the first was Scott's historical novel ''Kenilworth'', published in 1821, at what became the standard price for the next seventy years. rchibald Constable published Ivanhoe in 3 volumes in 1820, but also, T. Egerton had been publishing the works of Jane Austen in 3 volumes 10 years earlier, Sense and Sensibility in 1811 e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Little, Brown And Company
Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily Dickinson's poetry and ''Bartlett's Familiar Quotations''. Since 2006 Little, Brown and Company is a division of the Hachette Book Group. 19th century Little, Brown and Company had its roots in the book selling trade. It was founded in 1837 in Boston by Charles Little and James Brown. They formed the partnership "for the purpose of Publishing, Importing, and Selling Books". It can trace its roots before that to 1784 to a bookshop owned by Ebenezer Battelle on Marlborough Street. They published works of Benjamin Franklin and George Washington and they were specialized in legal publishing and importing titles. For many years, it was the most extensive law publisher in the United States, and also the largest importer of standard English law a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
At The Villa Of Reduced Circumstances
''At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances'' is a book by Scottish author and academic Alexander McCall Smith, relating further matters in the life of the main character, Professor Dr Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld. Plot The Professor is a troubled German academic whose life's achievement is the (fictional) book, ''Portuguese Irregular Verbs''. The book relates details of von Igelfeld's troubled relationships with the other major characters of the book series, Professor Dr Dr ('' honoris causa'') Florianus Prinzel and Professor Dr Detlev Amadeus Unterholzer, who work at the fictional Institute of Romance Philology at Regensburg, Germany. The book consists of two longer stories. In the first story, ''On Being Light Blue'' von Igelfeld's birthday wish leads him to a four-month stint at Cambridge University where he is nonplussed by the eccentric English academics and their constant infighting. In the second story, ''The Villa of Reduced Circumstances,'' von Igelfeld unwittingly become ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The No
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with pronouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant sound, and as (homophone of pronoun ''thee'') when followed by a v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reinhard Zimmermann
Reinhard Zimmermann (born 10 October 1952) is a German jurist and a director of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law. Since 2011 he has been the President of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes. Life Zimmermann was born in Hamburg and studied law at the University of Hamburg as a research associate under Hans Hermann Seiler. After completing his State Examination in 1979 he became a research assistant to Peter Meincke in Cologne, before taking over the Chair of Roman law and Comparative law (named for W. P. Schreiner) at the University of Cape Town in 1981. There he wrote the bulk of ''The Law of Obligations: Roman Foundations of the Civilian Tradition'', now widely regarded as one of the most important works of comparative legal scholarship of the 20th century. In 1988 he returned to Germany and was appointed a professor at the University of Regensburg. Since 2002 he has been a director at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and Int ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samizdat
Samizdat (russian: самиздат, lit=self-publishing, links=no) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the documents from reader to reader. The practice of manual reproduction was widespread, because most typewriters and printing devices required official registration and permission to access. This was a grassroots practice used to evade official Soviet censorship. Name origin and variations Etymologically, the word ''samizdat'' derives from ''sam'' (, "self, by oneself") and ''izdat'' (, an abbreviation of , , "publishing house"), and thus means "self-published". The Ukrainian language has a similar term: ''samvydav'' (самвидав), from ''sam'', "self", and ''vydavnytstvo'', "publishing house". A Russian poet Nikolay Glazkov coined a version of the term as a pun in the 1940s when he typed copies of his poems and included the note ''Samsebyaizd ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mapp And Lucia
''Mapp and Lucia'' is a 1931 comic novel written by E. F. Benson. It is the fourth of six novels in the popular Mapp and Lucia series, about idle women in the 1920s and their struggle for social dominance over their small communities. It brings together two sets of characters from three previous Benson novels: "Lucia" Lucas, Georgie Pillson and Daisy Quantock from '' Queen Lucia'' (1920) and ''Lucia in London'' (1927), and Miss Elizabeth Mapp and her neighbours from '' Miss Mapp'' (1922). In this novel, Lucia and Georgie leave Riseholme to take up summer residence in Tilling, renting Miss Mapp's home of Mallards. Mapp and Lucia soon begin a war for the dominance of social life in Tilling. Plot Mrs. Emmeline Lucas — known to all as "Lucia" — has lost her beloved husband Peppino, who has died since the previous book. Coming out of mourning after a year, she finds that Daisy Quantock has taken over the Elizabethan fête that Lucia originally planned. Determined not to stick ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diary Of A Nobody
''The Diary of a Nobody'' is an English comic novel written by the brothers George and Weedon Grossmith, with illustrations by the latter. It originated as an intermittent serial in ''Punch'' magazine in 1888–89 and first appeared in book form, with extended text and added illustrations, in 1892. The ''Diary'' records the daily events in the lives of a London clerk, Charles Pooter, his wife Carrie, his son William Lupin, and numerous friends and acquaintances over a period of 15 months. Before their collaboration on the ''Diary'', the brothers each pursued successful careers on the stage. George originated nine of the principal comedian roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas over 12 years from 1877 to 1889. He also established a national reputation as a piano sketch entertainer and wrote a large number of songs and comic pieces. Before embarking on his stage career, Weedon had worked as an artist and illustrator. The ''Diary'' was the brothers' only mature collaboration. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bouvard Et Pécuchet
''Bouvard et Pécuchet'' is an unfinished satirical novel by Gustave Flaubert, published in 1881 after his death in 1880. Background Although it was conceived in 1863 as ''Les Deux Cloportes'' ("The Two Woodlice"), and partially inspired by a short story of Barthélemy Maurice (''Les Deux Greffiers'', "The Two Court Clerks", which appeared in ''La Revue des Tribunaux'' in 1841 and which he may have read in 1858), Flaubert did not begin the work in earnest until 1872, at a time when financial ruin threatened. Over time, the book obsessed him to the degree that he claimed to have read over 1500 books in preparation for writing it—he intended it to be his masterpiece, surpassing all of his other works. He only took a minor break, in order to compose '' Three Tales'' in 1875–76. It received lukewarm reviews: critics failed to appreciate both its message and its structural devices. Plot summary ''Bouvard et Pécuchet'' details the adventures of two Parisian copy-clerks, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
_(cropped).jpg "Click for more on -> Alexander McCall Smith")
.png "Click for more on -> The No")
