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The Maid's Tale: A revealing memoir of life below stairs
by Tom Quinn Rose PlummerPraise for Lives of the Servants:‘Reading this fascinating book is likely to unleash almost anyone’s Inner Bolshevik…!' Daily Mail‘...a fascinating portrait of the drudgery and servility of a domestic's life.' The Age‘...captures the subtleties of the English class system to an extraordinary degree.' Midstate Observer'If the Brothers Grimm had ended Cinderella where she was being forced to clean the house by her stepsisters, they might have accidentally been writing Rose Plummer's biography. The maid's story makes for harsh, heartbreaking, fascinating reading.’ The Daily Telegraph, NZBorn in 1910, Rose Plummer grew up in an East End slum, where she and fought an unending battle with hunger and squalor.At the age of fifteen, Rose started work as a live-in maid, and despite the poverty of her childhood, nothing could have prepared her for the long hours, the backbreaking work and the harshness of a world in which servants were treated as if they were less than human. But however difficult life became, Rose found something to laugh about, and her remarkable spirit and gift for friendship shines through in her memories of a now-vanished world.
The Maid: A Novel of Joan of Arc
by Kimberly CutterA &“stunning&” novel of Joan of Arc, the fifteenth century teenage visionary who led an army and saved France (Publishers Weekly, starred review). The tumultuous Hundred Years&’ War rages on and France is under siege. English soldiers tear through the countryside destroying all who cross their paths, and Charles VII, the uncrowned king, has neither the strength nor the will to rally his army. Meanwhile, in the quiet of her parents&’ garden in Domrémy, a seventeen-year-old peasant girl has a mystical vision and hears a powerful voice speak her name: Jehanne. The story of Jehanne d&’Arc, who believed she had been chosen by God to lead an army and save her country, has captivated our imaginations for centuries. But the story of a girl whose sister was murdered by the English; who sought an escape from a violent father and a forced marriage; who taught herself to ride and fight; and who somehow found the courage to persuade thousands to follow her—is at once thrilling, surprising, and heartbreaking. &“Impressive . . . Cutter evokes the novel&’s medieval world with striking details.&” —The New York Times Book Review &“Cutter&’s portrait of &‘Jehanne&’ as a strange, gritty teenage tomboy and true believer is compelling.&” —USA Today &“Cutter strips away the romanticism in favor of a more complex portrayal that raises some provocative questions.&” —O, The Oprah Magazine
The Maiden of Ludmir: A Jewish Holy Woman and Her World
by Nathaniel DeutschThe Maiden of Ludmir, a Hasidic holy woman, was born in early nineteenth-century Russia and became famous as the only woman in the three-hundred-year history of Hasidism to function as a rebbe. Nathaniel Deutsch explores her fascinating story for the first time.
The Mailroom: Hollywood History from the Bottom Up
by David RensinIt's like a plot from a Hollywood potboiler: start out in the mailroom, end up a mogul. But for many, it happens to be true. Some of the biggest names in entertainment--including David Geffen, Barry Diller, and Michael Ovitz-- started their dazzling careers in the lowly mailroom. Based on more than two hundred interviews, David Rensin unfolds the never-before-told history of an American institution--in the voices of the people who lived it. Through nearly seven decades of glamour and humiliation, lousy pay and incredible perks, killer egos and a kill-or-be-killed ethos, you'll go where the trainees go, learn what they must do to get ahead, and hear the best insider stories from the Hollywood everyone knows about but no one really knows. A vibrant tapestry of dreams, desire, and exploitation, The Mailroom is not only an engrossing read but a crash course, taught by the experts, on how to succeed in Hollywood.
The Maimie Papers: Letters From An Ex-prostitute
by Maimie Pinzer"Its between a wealthy Fanny Quincy Howe, and Maimie Pinzer, a Jewish prostitute living in Philadelphia and recovering from a morphine addiction developed after the loss of an eye. The Maimie Papers is Maimie’s side of that correspondence, offering an unprecedented and still unique account of the life of a woman of the streets and her inspiring transformation."
The Maine Woods (Writings of Henry D. Thoreau #16)
by Henry David ThoreauHenry D. Thoreau traveled to the backwoods of Maine in 1846, 1853, and 1857. Originally published in 1864, and published now with a new introduction by Paul Theroux, this volume is a powerful telling of those journeys through a rugged and largely unspoiled land. It presents Thoreau's fullest account of the wilderness. The Maine Woods is classic Thoreau: a personal story of exterior and interior discoveries in a natural setting--all conveyed in taut, masterly prose. Thoreau's evocative renderings of the life of the primitive forest--its mountains, waterways, fauna, flora, and inhabitants--are timeless and valuable on their own. But his impassioned protest against the despoilment of nature in the name of commerce and sport, which even by the 1850s threatened to deprive Americans of the "tonic of wildness," makes The Maine Woods an especially vital book for our own time.
The Maisky Diaries
by Gabriel Gorodetsky Ivan MaiskyThe terror and purges of Stalin's Russia in the 1930s discouraged Soviet officials from leaving documentary records let alone keeping personal diaries. A remarkable exception is the unique diary assiduously kept by Ivan Maisky, the Soviet ambassador to London between 1932 and 1943. This selection from Maisky's diary, never before published in English, grippingly documentsBritain's drift to war during the 1930s, appeasement in the Munich era, negotiations leading to the signature of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, Churchill's rise to power, the German invasion of Russia, and the intense debate over the opening of the second front. Maisky was distinguished by his great sociability and access to the key players in British public life. Among his range of regular contacts were politicians (including Churchill, Chamberlain, Eden, and Halifax), press barons (Beaverbrook), ambassadors (Joseph Kennedy), intellectuals (Keynes, Sidney and Beatrice Webb), writers (George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells), and indeed royalty. His diary further reveals the role personal rivalries within the Kremlin played in the formulation of Soviet policy at the time. Scrupulously edited and checked against a vast range of Russian and Western archival evidence, this extraordinary narrative diary offers a fascinating revision of the events surrounding the Second World War. "
The Makers Of the 20th Century: Martin Luther King
by Adam FaircloughPart of a series of biographies of statesmen and women who have shaped the modern world, this book concerns Martin Luther King, who from both the pulpit and from jail, inspired black Americans to defy white supremacy and in so doing, re-invigorated American democracy.
The Makers Of the 20th Century: Martin Luther King
by Adam FaircloughPart of a series of biographies of statesmen and women who have shaped the modern world, this book concerns Martin Luther King, who from both the pulpit and from jail, inspired black Americans to defy white supremacy and in so doing, re-invigorated American democracy.
The Makers of Canada: George Brown
by John LewisThe title of this series, "Makers of Canada," seemed to impose on the writer the obligation to devote special attention to the part played by George Brown in fashioning the institutions of this country. From this point of view the most fruitful years of his life were spent between the time when the Globe was established to advocate responsible government, and the time when the provinces were confederated and the bounds of Canada extended from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The ordinary political contests in which Mr. Brown and his newspaper engaged have received only casual notice, and the effort of the writer has been to trace Mr. Brown's connection with the stream of events by which the old legislative union of Canada gave place to the confederated Dominion. After the establishment of responsible government, the course of this stream is not obscure. Brown is found complaining that Upper Canada is inadequately represented and is dominated by its partner. Various remedies, such as dissolution of the union, representation by population and the "double majority," are proposed; but ultimately the solution is found in federation, and to this solution, and the events leading up to it, a large part of the book is devoted. Mr. Brown was also an ardent advocate of the union with Canada of the country lying west to the Rocky Mountains, and to this work reference is made.
The Makers of Rome
by PlutarchThese nine biographies illuminate the careers, personalities and military campaigns of some of Rome's greatest statesmen, whose lives span the earliest days of the Republic to the establishment of the Empire. Selected from Plutarch's Roman Lives, they include prominent figures who achieved fame for their pivotal roles in Roman history, such as soldierly Marcellus, eloquent Cato and cautious Fabius. Here too are vivid portraits of ambitious, hot-tempered Coriolanus; objective, principled Brutus and open-hearted Mark Anthony, who would later be brought to life by Shakespeare. In recounting the lives of these great leaders, Plutarch also explores the problems of statecraft and power and illustrates the Roman people's genius for political compromise, which led to their mastery of the ancient world.
The Making Of The Magdalen: Preaching And Popular Devotion In The Later Middle Ages
by Katherine Ludwig JansenBest known during the Middle Ages as the prostitute who became a faithful follower of Christ, Mary Magdalen was the most beloved female saint after the Virgin Mary. Why the Magdalen became so popular, what meanings she conveyed, and how her story evolved over the centuries are the focus of this compelling exploration of late medieval religious culture. Analyzing previously unpublished sermons, Katherine Jansen uses the lens of medieval preaching to examine the mendicant friars' transformation of Mary Magdalen, a shadowy gospel figure, into an emblem of action and contemplation, a symbol of vanity and lust, a model of perfect penance, and the embodiment of hope and salvation. She draws on diverse historical sources to reveal the laity's devotion to Mary Magdalen, which departed significantly from the friars' image of the saint, signaling a major development in popular religious practice and personal piety. Finally, the author comprehensively addresses the question of the House of Anjou's alliance with the Magdalen, and illuminates the relationship between politics and sanctity in southern France and Italy. Jansen shows how perceptions of the Magdalen merged with errors and misunderstandings to shape the social, spiritual, and political agendas of the later Middle Ages. She brings to life the rich complexity of medieval culture, which condemned female sexuality and women's preaching and yet popularized the veneration of Mary Magdalen as a former prostitute chosen by Christ to be the "apostle of the apostles," the first to witness and preach the Good News of the Resurrection.
The Making of Auschwitz: The Largest Killing Factory of all time
by Ian Baxter"A chilling blueprint for genocide, The Making of Auschwitz uncovers the deadly architecture behind the largest mass murder factory in history."Commemorating 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, The Making of Auschwitz reveals the chilling construction of the largest mass murder factory in history. Drawing from hundreds of captured German documents, architectural plans, and key records from the Building Office archive, this book provides a unique historical source detailing the architectural and operational planning behind the genocide. It explores how the SS relied on civilian expertise to install crucial systems like electricity, sewage, and heating, and how external contractors eagerly participated for financial gain. From the earliest days of Birkenau's construction in 1941 to the inclusion of crematoria and gas chambers by 1943, the book traces the evolution of the camp into an industrial killing machine. Despite Himmler&’s order in 1944 to dismantle the extermination facilities, many structures remained intact when the Red Army arrived on January 27, 1945. The discovery of crucial construction blueprints, untouched by the SS&’s attempt to destroy them, offers an undeniable record of the atrocities planned and executed at Auschwitz. With rare photographs, detailed captions, and a comprehensive analysis, this book provides an essential study of those responsible for the murder of over 1 million people.
The Making of Donald Trump
by David Cay Johnston<P>The culmination of nearly 30 years of reporting on Donald Trump, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter, David Cay Johnston, takes a revealingly close look at the mogul's rise to power and prominence. <P> Covering the long arc of Trump's career, Johnston tells the full story of how a boy from a quiet section of Queens, NY would become an entirely new, and complex, breed of public figure. Trump is a man of great media savvy, entrepreneurial spirit, and political clout. Yet his career has been plagued by legal troubles and mounting controversy. <P>From the origins of his family's real estate fortune, to his own too-big-to-fail business empire; from his education and early career, to his whirlwind presidential bid, The Making of Donald Trump provides the fullest picture yet of Trump's extraordinary ascendency. Love him or hate him, Trump's massive influence is undeniable, and figures as diverse as Woody Guthrie (who wrote a scathing song about Trump's father) and Red Scare prosecutor Roy Cohn, mob bosses and high rollers, as well as the average American voter, have all been pulled into his orbit. <P>Drawing on decades of interviews, financial records, court documents, and public statements, David Cay Johnston, who has covered Trump more closely than any other journalist working today, gives us the most in-depth look yet at the man who would be president. <P><b>A New York Times Bestseller</b>
The Making of Jane Austen
by Devoney LooserAn engaging account of how Jane Austen became a household name.Just how did Jane Austen become the celebrity author and the inspiration for generations of loyal fans she is today? Devoney Looser's The Making of Jane Austen turns to the people, performances, activism, and images that fostered Austen's early fame, laying the groundwork for the beloved author we think we know. Here are the Austen influencers, including her first English illustrator, the eccentric Ferdinand Pickering, whose sensational gothic images may be better understood through his brushes with bullying, bigamy, and an attempted matricide. The daring director-actress Rosina Filippi shaped Austen's reputation with her pioneering dramatizations, leading thousands of young women to ventriloquize Elizabeth Bennet's audacious lines before drawing room audiences. Even the supposedly staid history of Austen scholarship has its bizarre stories. The author of the first Jane Austen dissertation, student George Pellew, tragically died young, but he was believed by many, including his professor-mentor, to have come back from the dead.Looser shows how these figures and their Austen-inspired work transformed Austen's reputation, just as she profoundly shaped theirs. Through them, Looser describes the factors and influences that radically altered Austen's evolving image. Drawing from unexplored material, Looser examines how echoes of that work reverberate in our explanations of Austen's literary and cultural power. Whether you're a devoted Janeite or simply Jane-curious, The Making of Jane Austen will have you thinking about how a literary icon is made, transformed, and handed down from generation to generation.
The Making of John Ledyard: Empire and Ambition in the Life of an Early American Traveler
by Edward G. GrayDuring the course of his short but extraordinary life, John Ledyard (1751-1789) came in contact with some of the most remarkable figures of his era: the British explorer Captain James Cook, American financier Robert Morris, Revolutionary naval commander John Paul Jones, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and others. Ledyard lived and traveled in remarkable places as well, journeying from the New England backcountry to Tahiti, Hawaii, the American Northwest coast, Alaska, and the Russian Far East. In this engaging biography, the historian Edward Gray offers not only a full account of Ledyard's eventful life but also an illuminating view of the late eighteenth-century world in which he lived. Ledyard was both a product of empire and an agent in its creation, Gray shows, and through this adventurer's life it is possible to discern the many ways empire shaped the lives of nations, peoples, and individuals in the era of the American Revolution, the world's first modern revolt against empire.
The Making of Markova: Diaghilev's Baby Ballerina To Groundbreaking Icon
by Tina SuttonIn pre-World War I England, a frail Jewish girl is diagnosed with flat feet, knock knees, and weak legs. In short order, Lilian Alicia Marks would become a dance prodigy, the cherished baby ballerina of Sergei Diaghilev, and the youngest ever soloist at his famed Ballets Russes. It was there that George Balanchine choreographed his first ballet for her, Henri Matisse designed her costumes, and Igor Stravinsky taught her music—all when the re-christened Alicia Markova was just 14. Given unprecedented access to Dame Markova&’s intimate journals and correspondence, Tina Sutton paints a full picture of the dancer&’s astonishing life and times in 1920s Paris and Monte Carlo, 1930s London, and wartime in New York and Hollywood. Ballet lovers and readers everywhere will be fascinated by the story of one of the twentieth century&’s great artists.
The Making of Markova: Diaghilev's Baby Ballerina to Groundbreaking Icon
by Tina SuttonAs improbable as it is inspiring, the story of one of the greatest ballerinas of the twentieth century; her fortitude and reinvention; and her journey from the Ballets Russes, Balanchine, and Matisse to international stardom In pre-World War I England, a frail Jewish girl--so shy she barely spoke a word until age six and so sickly she needed to be homeschooled--is diagnosed with flat feet, knock knees, and weak legs. In short order, Lilian Alicia Marks would become a dance prodigy, the cherished baby ballerina of Sergei Diaghilev, and the youngest ever soloist at his famed Ballets Russes. It was there that George Balanchine choreographed his first ballet for her, Henri Matisse designed her costumes, and Igor Stravinsky taught her music--all when the re-christened Alicia Markova was just fourteen. But the timid British dancer would be forced to overcome poverty, jealousy, anti-Semitism, and prejudices against her unconventional looks to become the greatest classical ballerina of her generation--and one of the most celebrated, self reliant, and adventurous. A true ambassador of ballet, Markova co-founded touring companies, traveled to the far corners of the world, and was the first ballerina to appear on television. Given unprecedented access to Dame Markova's intimate journals and correspondence, Tina Sutton paints a full picture of the dancer's astonishing life and times in 1920s Paris and Monte Carlo; 1930s London; and wartime in New York and Hollywood. Ballet lovers and readers everywhere will be fascinated by the story of one of the twentieth century's great artists.
The Making of Martin Luther
by Richard RexA major new account of the most intensely creative years of Luther's careerThe Making of Martin Luther takes a provocative look at the intellectual emergence of one of the most original and influential minds of the sixteenth century. Richard Rex traces how, in a concentrated burst of creative energy in the few years surrounding his excommunication by Pope Leo X in 1521, this lecturer at an obscure German university developed a startling new interpretation of the Christian faith that brought to an end the dominance of the Catholic Church in Europe. Luther’s personal psychology and cultural context played their parts in the whirlwind of change he unleashed. But for the man himself, it was always about the ideas, the truth, and the Gospel.Focusing on the most intensely important years of Luther’s career, Rex teases out the threads of his often paradoxical and counterintuitive ideas from the tangled thickets of his writings, explaining their significance, their interconnections, and the astonishing appeal they so rapidly developed. Yet Rex also sets these ideas firmly in the context of Luther’s personal life, the cultural landscape that shaped him, and the traditions of medieval Catholic thought from which his ideas burst forth.Lucidly argued and elegantly written, The Making of Martin Luther is a splendid work of intellectual history that renders Luther’s earthshaking yet sometimes challenging ideas accessible to a new generation of readers.
The Making of Oliver Cromwell
by Ronald HuttonThe first volume in a pioneering account of Oliver Cromwell—providing a major new interpretation of one of the greatest figures in history Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658)—the only English commoner to become the overall head of state—is one of the great figures of history, but his character was very complex. He was at once courageous and devout, devious and self-serving; as a parliamentarian, he was devoted to his cause; as a soldier, he was ruthless. Cromwell&’s speeches and writings surpass in quantity those of any other ruler of England before Victoria and, for those seeking to understand him, he has usually been taken at his word. In this remarkable new work, Ronald Hutton untangles the facts from the fiction. Cromwell, pursuing his devotion to God and cementing his Puritan support base, quickly transformed from obscure provincial to military victor. At the end of the first English Civil War, he was poised to take power. Hutton reveals a man who was both genuine in his faith and deliberate in his dishonesty—and uncovers the inner workings of the man who has puzzled biographers for centuries.
The Making of Sir Philip Sidney
by Edward DerryDoes a poet make himself, or do his culture and his fiction make him? Sir Philip Sidney is one of the most popular and enduring of Elizabethan authors, and one of those most preoccupied with the relationship between self, society, and art. Edward Berry's The Making of Sir Philip Sidney explores how Sidney 'made' or created himself as a poet by 'making' representations of himself in the roles of some of his most literary creations: Philisides, Astrophil, and the intrusive persona of the Defence of Poetry. Focusing on the significance of these and other self-representations throughout Sidney's career, Berry combines biography, social history, and literary criticism to achieve a carefully balanced portrayal of the poet's life and work. This is a book that makes a significant contribution to our understanding of Sidney, and is likely to appeal to both students and scholars of Sidney, as well as to those wishing to understand the cultural events that shaped this central figure of the English Renaissance.
The Making of Sylvia Plath
by Carl RollysonSince her death, Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) has become an endless source of fascination for a wide audience ranging from readers of The Bell Jar, her semiautobiographical novel, to her groundbreaking poetry as exemplified by Ariel. Beyond her writing, however, interest in Plath has also been fueled in part by the tragic nature of her death. As a result, a steady stream of biographies of Plath have appeared over the last fifty-five years that mainly focus on her death or contain projections of an array of points of view about the writer. Until now, little sustained attention has been paid to the influences on Plath’s life and work. What movies did she watch? Which books did she read? How did media shape her worldview? In this meticulously researched biography, Carl Rollyson explores the intricate web of literature, cinema, spirituality, psychology, and popular culture that profoundly influenced Plath's life and writing. At the heart of this biography is a compelling exploration of William Sheldon’s seminal work, Psychology and the Promethean Will, which Plath devoured in her quest for self-discovery and understanding. Through Plath’s intense study of this work, readers gain unprecedented access to Plath's innermost thoughts, her therapeutic treatments, and the overarching worldview that fueled her creative genius. Through Sheldon as well as Plath’s other influences, Rollyson offers a captivating survey of the symbiotic relationship between an artist and the world around her and offers readers new insights into the enigmatic mind of one of the most important writers of the twentieth century.
The Making of Toro
by Mark SundeenMark Sundeen needed to stage a comeback. His first book was little read, rarely reviewed, and his book tour was cancelled. So when a careless big city publisher calls with an offer for a book about bullfighting, Mark assumes this is his best and last chance to follow the trajectory of his literary heroes. To be sure, Sundeen has never been to a bullfight. He doesn't speak Spanish. He's not even a particularly good reporter. Come to think of it, he's probably one of the least qualified people to write a book about bullfighting, even in the best of circumstances. But that doesn't stop Mark Sundeen. After squandering most of the book advance on back rent and debts, Sundeen can't afford a trip to Spain, so he settles for nearby Mexico. But the bullfighting he finds south of the border is tawdry and comical, and people seem much more interested in the concessions and sideshows. There's little of the passion and artistry and bravery that he'd hoped to employ in exhibiting his literary genius to the masses. To compensate for his own shortcomings as an author, Sundeen invents an alter ego, Travis LaFrance, a swashbuckling adventure writer, in the tradition of his idol, Ernest Hemingway. But as his research falters, his money runs out, and the deadline approaches, Sundeen's high-minded fantasies are skewered by his second-rate reality. Eventually, Travis LaFrance steps in to take control, and our narrator goes blundering through the landscape of his own dreams and delusions, propelled solely by a preposterous, quixotic, and ultimately heartbreaking insistence that his own life story, no matter how crummy, is worth being told in the pages of Great Literature. The Making of Toro is a unique comic classic, a hilarious poke in the ribs of self-important "literary memoirs," and also a sly, poignant tale of the hazards of trying too hard to turn real life into high art.
The Making of You: A guide to finding your identity and bossing motherhood
by Binky FelsteadMagical highs and messy lows - motherhood is a rollercoaster of emotions, but it can be The Making of You.From the constant chatter of well-intentioned advice to the chaos of navigating how best to care for your little one, becoming a mother is exhausting.For Binky Felstead, Made in Chelsea star and co-founder of parenting advice app Bloss, becoming a mother marked the start of her journey towards feeling greater purpose and gratitude, but it wasn't an easy ride. Binky went from co-parenting and losing friendships, to struggling with miscarriage and navigating blended families causing her to feel full of the anxieties every new mother faces.In The Making of You, Binky - together with 30 experts - shares her experience along with the mindful tips and advice that helped grow her confidence and feel empowered to be the best version of herself for her and her children. Inside you'll find personal anecdotes with calming and practical advice on the first month with a newborn, body confidence, love and sex, managing money and work and finding that all important time for a little self-care.It's time to re-discover your identity and boss motherhood, so you can celebrate every step on this new adventure.
The Making of You: A guide to finding your identity and bossing motherhood
by Binky FelsteadMagical highs and messy lows - motherhood is a rollercoaster of emotions, but it can be The Making of You.From the constant chatter of well-intentioned advice to the chaos of navigating how best to care for your little one, becoming a mother is exhausting.For Binky Felstead, Made in Chelsea star and co-founder of parenting advice app Bloss, becoming a mother marked the start of her journey towards feeling greater purpose and gratitude, but it wasn't an easy ride. Binky went from co-parenting and losing friendships, to struggling with miscarriage and navigating blended families causing her to feel full of the anxieties every new mother faces.In The Making of You, Binky - together with 30 experts - shares her experience along with the mindful tips and advice that helped grow her confidence and feel empowered to be the best version of herself for her and her children. Inside you'll find personal anecdotes with calming and practical advice on the first month with a newborn, body confidence, love and sex, managing money and work and finding that all important time for a little self-care.It's time to re-discover your identity and boss motherhood, so you can celebrate every step on this new adventure.