In this absorbing series of essays Michael Wood probes and plays with the dilemmas of twentieth century fiction - the myth of lost paradise, lost certainties, the suspension between contrary ideals, the lure of fantasy, the quest for the silence beneath speech.
In a world in which violence in every form seems to be increasing, Erich Fromm has treated this problem with deep perception in the most original and far-reaching work of his brilliant career.
If you're lost, they'll find you... Evie Boyd is fourteen and desperate to be noticed. It's the summer of 1969 and restless, empty days stretch ahead of her. Until she sees them. The girls.... Læs mere
944 pages, paperback. Midnight, New Year's Eve, 1976. Nine lives are about to be changed forever. Regan and William Hamilton-Sweeney, heirs to a great fortune; Keith and Mercer, the men... Læs mere
In May 1937 a man in his early thirties waits by the lift of a Leningrad apartment block. He waits all through the night, expecting to be taken away to the Big House. Any celebrity he... Læs mere
434 pages, paperback. Bathsheba Everdene arrives in the small village of Weatherbury and captures the heart of three very different men; Gabriel Oak, a quiet shepherd, the... Læs mere
Now a major motion picture starring Saoirse Ronan and Emily Watson. It is July 1962. Edward and Florence, young innocents married that morning, arrive at a hotel on the Dorset coast. At... Læs mere
448 pages, paperback. This book was the winner of the Man Booker Prize 2014. Forever after, there were for them only two sorts of men: the men who were on the Line, and... Læs mere
When a thirty-something portrait painter is abandoned by his wife, he holes up in the mountain home of a famous artist. The days drift by, spent painting, listening to music and... Læs mere
Between 1890 and 1914 the City of London was all dominant as Britain's legendary gold standard reigned supreme across the globe. Combining brilliant... Læs mere
The conversion of the emperor Constantine to Christianity in 368 AD brought a transformation to Christianity and to western civilization, the effects of which we still feel today.
Berlin's main theme in these essays is the importance in the history of ideas of dissenters whose thinking still challenges conventional wisdom - among them Machiavelli, Vico, Montesquieu, Herzen and Sorel.