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Voyage Autour De Ma Chambre
''A Journey Around My Room'' (originally published in French as ''Voyage autour de ma chambre'') is a 1794 book by Xavier de Maistre. It was written to stave off boredom whilst the author was serving a 42-day sentence of confinement to his room for participating in an illegal duel. The book is written in the style of a travelogue and discusses the contents and furniture of his room as well as imaginary situations and dialogues. The theme of the work is that pleasure can be found in one's everyday surroundings. At the end of the work he notes his regret at having to return to society. The work is thought to have been first published in English in 1871. A sequel, ''A Nocturnal Expedition Around My Room'', was published in 1825. Background Xavier de Maistre was a French aristocrat who, after the French Revolution, fled to Turin to join a counter-revolutionary army. Whilst in Turin in spring 1790 de Maistre fought an illegal duel for which he was sentenced to 42 days house arrest. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xavier De Maistre
Xavier de Maistre (; 10 October 1763 – 12 June 1852) of Savoy (then part of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia) lived largely as a military man but is known as a French writer. The younger brother of Joseph de Maistre, a noted philosopher and counter-revolutionary, Xavier was born to an aristocratic family at Chambéry in October 1763. He served when young in the army of Piedmont-Sardinia, and in 1790 wrote his fantasy '' Voyage autour de ma chambre'' ("Voyage Around My Room", published 1794), when he was under arrest in Turin as the consequence of a duel. Life Xavier shared the political sympathies of his brother Joseph, and after a French revolutionary army annexed Savoy to France in 1792, he left the service, and eventually took a commission in the Russian army. He served under Alexander Suvorov in his victorious Austro-Russian campaign and accompanied the marshal to Russia in 1796. By then, Suvorov's patron Catherine II of Russia had died, and the new monarch Paul I di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shaggy-dog Story
In its original sense, a shaggy dog story or yarn is an extremely long-winded anecdote characterized by extensive narration of typically irrelevant incidents and terminated by an anticlimax. Shaggy dog stories play upon the audience's preconceptions of joke-telling. The audience listens to the story with certain expectations, which are either simply not met or met in some entirely unexpected manner. A lengthy shaggy dog story derives its humour from the fact that the joke-teller held the attention of the listeners for a long time (such jokes can take five minutes or more to tell) for no reason at all, as the long-awaited resolution is essentially meaningless, with the joke as a whole playing upon humans' search for meaning. The nature of their delivery is reflected in the English idiom '' spin a yarn'', by way of analogy with the production of yarn. Archetypal story The eponymous shaggy dog story serves as the archetype of the genre. The story builds up a repeated emphasi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stephen Sartarelli
Stephen Sartarelli (born 1954 in Youngstown, Ohio) is an American poet and translator. Life Sartarelli graduated from Antioch College and New York University. Specializing in translations from French and Italian into English, among other things he has translated the popular Inspector Montalbano series of detective novels written by the Italian writer Andrea Camilleri. Sartarelli lives in France with his wife. Awards * 1984 Poggioli Translation Award for ''Horrcynus Orca'' by Stefano D'Arrigo * 2001 Raiziss/de Palchi Translation Award from The Academy of American Poets for ''Songbook: The Selected Poems of Umberto Saba''. Works Poetry * * * * * * Essays * Translations Poetry * Nanni Cagnone, ''The Book of Giving Back'' ( Edgewise Press, 1997), * * Prose * ''Death in Florence'', by Marco Vichi (Hodder & Stoughton, 2013) * ''Prince of the Clouds'', by Gianni Riotta (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2000). * ''The Plague-Sower'', by Gesualdo Bufalino (1988). * ''The House o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), is the second-largest city in Russia. It is situated on the Neva River, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea, with a population of roughly 5.4 million residents. Saint Petersburg is the fourth-most populous city in Europe after Istanbul, Moscow and London, the most populous city on the Baltic Sea, and the world's northernmost city of more than 1 million residents. As Russia's Imperial capital, and a historically strategic port, it is governed as a federal city. The city was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on 27 May 1703 on the site of a captured Swedish fortress, and was named after apostle Saint Peter. In Russia, Saint Petersburg is historically and culturally associated with t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Savoy
Savoy (; frp, Savouè ; french: Savoie ) is a cultural-historical region in the Western Alps. Situated on the cultural boundary between Occitania and Piedmont, the area extends from Lake Geneva in the north to the Dauphiné in the south. Savoy emerged as the feudal County of Savoy ruled by the House of Savoy during the 11th to 14th centuries. The original territory, also known as "ducal Savoy" or "Savoy proper", is largely co-terminous with the modern French Savoie and Haute-Savoie ''départements'', but the historical expansion of Savoyard territories, as the Duchy of Savoy (1416–1860) included parts of what is now western Italy and southwestern Switzerland. The current border between France and Italy is due to the Plombières Agreement of 1858, which in preparation for the unification of Italy ceded western Savoy to France, while the eastern territories in Piedmont and Liguria were retained by the House of Savoy, which was to become the ruling dynasty of Italy. Geogr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Guardian Media Group, owned by the Scott Trust. The trust was created in 1936 to "secure the financial and editorial independence of ''The Guardian'' in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of ''The Guardian'' free from commercial or political interference". The trust was converted into a limited company in 2008, with a constitution written so as to maintain for ''The Guardian'' the same protections as were built into the structure of the Scott Trust by its creators. Profits are reinvested in journalism rather than distributed to owners or shareholders. It is considered a newspaper of record in the UK. The editor-in-chief Katharine Viner succeeded Alan Rusbridger in 2015. Since 2018, the paper's main news ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nicholas Lezard
Nicholas Andrew Selwyn LezardThe Cambridge University List of Members up to 31 December 1991, Cambridge University Press, p. 814 is an English journalist, author and literary critic. Background and education The Lezard family went from London to Kimberley, Northern Cape, South Africa, in the 1800s. Nicholas Lezard's great-grandfather, Louis Flavien Lezard (1877–1960), of Hallam Street in central London, became a noted solicitor (senior partner, Lezard, Robins and Edmeades) and local figure in the country, serving as chairman and president of several Kimberley institutions. Louis's eldest son, Julien (1902–1958) – the third son, Squadron Leader Selwyn Edward Lezard (1908–1974), R.A.F.V.R., being Nicholas Lezard's grandfather – was a Cambridge-educated barrister and noted society figure and gambler, who served in the Special Operations Executive alongside Xan Fielding. Julien Lezard married Hilda, daughter of Sir Daniel Cooper, 2nd Baronet; she was the widow of Thomas Uchte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laurence Sterne
Laurence Sterne (24 November 1713 – 18 March 1768), was an Anglo-Irish novelist and Anglican cleric who wrote the novels ''The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman'' and ''A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy'', published sermons and memoirs, and indulged in local politics. He grew up in a military family travelling mainly in Ireland but briefly in England. An uncle paid for Sterne to attend Hipperholme Grammar School in the West Riding of Yorkshire, as Sterne's father was ordered to Jamaica, where he died of malaria some years later. He attended Jesus College, Cambridge on a sizarship, gaining bachelor's and master's degrees. While Vicar of Sutton-on-the-Forest, Yorkshire, he married Elizabeth Lumley in 1741. His ecclesiastical satire ''A Political Romance'' infuriated the church and was burnt. With his new talent for writing, he published early volumes of his best-known novel, ''The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman''. Sterne travelled to Fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nikkei, with core editorial offices across Britain, the United States and continental Europe. In July 2015, Pearson sold the publication to Nikkei for £844 million (US$1.32 billion) after owning it since 1957. In 2019, it reported one million paying subscriptions, three-quarters of which were digital subscriptions. The newspaper has a prominent focus on financial journalism and economic analysis over generalist reporting, drawing both criticism and acclaim. The daily sponsors an annual book award and publishes a " Person of the Year" feature. The paper was founded in January 1888 as the ''London Financial Guide'' before rebranding a month later as the ''Financial Times''. It was first circulated around metropolitan London by James Sherid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kingdom Of Sardinia
The Kingdom of Sardinia,The name of the state was originally Latin: , or when the kingdom was still considered to include Corsica. In Italian it is , in French , in Sardinian , and in Piedmontese . also referred to as the Kingdom of Savoy-Sardinia, Piedmont-Sardinia, or Savoy-Piedmont-Sardinia during the Savoyard period, was a state in Southern Europe from the early 14th until the mid-19th century. The Kingdom was a member of the Council of Aragon and initially consisted of the islands of Corsica and Sardinia, sovereignty over both of which was claimed by the Papacy, which granted them as a fief, the ("kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica"), to King James II of Aragon in 1297. Beginning in 1324, James and his successors conquered the island of Sardinia and established ''de facto'' their ''de jure'' authority. In 1420, after the Sardinian–Aragonese war, the last competing claim to the island was bought out. After the union of the crowns of Aragon and Castile, Sardinia becam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alain De Botton
Alain de Botton (; born 20 December 1969) is a Swiss-born British author and philosopher. His books discuss various contemporary subjects and themes, emphasizing philosophy's relevance to everyday life. He published ''Essays in Love'' (1993), which went on to sell two million copies. Other bestsellers include ''How Proust Can Change Your Life'' (1997), ''Status Anxiety'' (2004) and '' The Architecture of Happiness'' (2006). He co-founded The School of Life in 2008 and Living Architecture in 2009. In 2015, he was awarded "The Fellowship of Schopenhauer", an annual writers' award from the Melbourne Writers Festival, for that work. Early life and family De Botton was born in Zürich, the son of Jacqueline (née Burgauer) and Gilbert de Botton. Gilbert was born in Alexandria, Egypt, but after being expelled under Nasser, he went to live and work in Switzerland, where he co-founded an investment firm, Global Asset Management; his family was estimated to have been worth £234 mill ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph De Maistre
Joseph Marie, comte de Maistre (; 1 April 1753 – 26 February 1821) was a Savoyard philosopher, writer, lawyer, and diplomat who advocated social hierarchy and monarchy in the period immediately following the French Revolution. Despite his close personal and intellectual ties with France, Maistre was throughout his life a subject of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which he served as a member of the Savoy Senate (1787–1792), ambassador to Russia (1803–1817), and minister of state to the court in Turin (1817–1821). A key figure of the Counter-Enlightenment, Maistre regarded monarchy both as a divinely sanctioned institution and as the only stable form of government. He called for the restoration of the House of Bourbon to the throne of France and for the ultimate authority of the Pope in temporal matters. Maistre argued that the rationalist rejection of Christianity was directly responsible for the disorder and bloodshed which followed the French Revolution of 1789. Biography ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
