Britain's lost railways

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Peter Burke

"Castiglione's Cortegiano, or Book of the Courtier, is often read as a book embodying the spirit of the High Renaissance in Italy. It is therefore easy to forget that Castiglione wrote the Courtier as a practical guide to contemporary conduct and that it quickly became a huge success outside Italy. More than a hundred editions have appeared in numerous languages since its first publication in 1528. With this in mind, cultural historian Peter Burke sets forth in his brilliant new book to explore how readers over the years have responded to the Courtier."--BOOK JACKET. "Because it was read so widely in Europe, the Courtier affords Burke an ideal test case for the diffusion and reception of ideas. From Poland and Hungary to England, Portugal, and even the New World, he takes us on a fascinating tour of courts, libraries, and reading rooms in search of Castiglione's ideal courtier. He shows how changing responses to the Courtier, both positive and negative, reveal changing social values and how regional variations in its reception reflect the emerging cultural map of Europe. His evidence includes printing history, translations, marginalia, and records of sale and possession. He concludes with a discussion of the later fortune of the Courtier, including its role in the "civilizing process" and its curious appeal to writers as different as Samuel Johnson and W. B. Yeats."--BOOK JACKET.

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W.S. Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan

The Pirates of Penzance, premiered in 1879, confirmed the comic genius of librettist W.S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan, following on the heels of their wildly successful H.M.S. Pinafore . Pirates invade the rocky coast of Cornwall in this topsy-turvy tale of love and duty, highlighted by the famous strains of "Poor Wandering One," "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General," "Oh, Is There Not One Maiden Breast" and "With Cat-Like Tread, Upon Our Prey We Steal." This vocal score includes the complete music and all dialogue, a plot synopsis, articles on the famous partnership and the history of The Pirates of Penzance, a filmography and a discography. The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The opera's official premiere was at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 December 1879, where the show was well received by both audiences and critics. Its London debut was on 3 April 1880, at the Opera Comique, where it ran for 363 performances, having already been playing successfully for more than three months in New York. The story concerns Frederic, who, having completed his 21st year, is released from his apprenticeship to a band of tender-hearted pirates. He meets the daughters of Major-General Stanley, including Mabel, and the two young people fall instantly in love. Frederic soon learns, however, that he was born on the 29th of February, and so, technically, he has a birthday only once each leap year. His indenture specifies that he remain apprenticed to the pirates until his "twenty-first birthday", meaning that he must serve for another 63 years. Bound by his own sense of duty, Frederic's only solace is that Mabel agrees to wait for him faithfully. Pirates was the fifth Gilbert and Sullivan collaboration and introduced the much-parodied "Major-General's Song". The opera was performed for over a century by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in Britain and by many other opera companies and repertory companies worldwide. Modernized productions include Joseph Papp's 1981 Broadway production, which ran for 787 performances, winning the Tony Award for Best Revival and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical, and spawning many imitations and a 1983 film adaptation. Pirates remains popular today, taking its place along with The Mikado and H.M.S. Pinafore as one of the most frequently played Gilbert and Sullivan operas.

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Joyce Appleby

With its deep roots and global scope, the capitalist system provides the framework for our lives--a framework of constant change, sometimes measured and predictable, sometimes drastic and out of control. Yet what is now ubiquitous was not always so. Capitalism took shape centuries ago, starting with a handful of isolated changes in farming, trade, and manufacturing, clustered in early-modern England. Astute observers began to notice these changes and consider their effects. Those in power began to harness these new practices to the state, enhancing both. A system generating wealth, power, and new ideas arose to reshape societies in a constant surge of change. Approaching capitalism as a culture, as important for its ideas and values as for its inventions and systems, award-winning historian Joyce Appleby gives us a fascinating introduction to this most potent creation of mankind from its origins to the present.--From publisher description.

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Sandra Heath Wilson

In 1486, after being caught in the arms of her lover, the Lancastrian King Henry VII, Lady Cicely Plantagenet is estranged from her second husband, Sir Jon Welles. Henry has been coercing her to his bed by threatening harm to Jon and her Yorkist cousin, Jack de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, whom Henry suspects of plotting support for a contender to the throne. But Cicely has a great affinity with Jack, with echoes of the intense feeling she shared with her uncle, and father of her son, the Yorkist King Richard III. And with Jack as Richard's chosen heir she believes he should be King of England. With Jack drawing Cicely into his treasons there are flickering shadows around every corner and she should know better than to trust them. In this web of duplicity, Henry Tudor and his throne loom large, threatening to steal Cicely's great love once again.