avoca

Map, p.307.non-fictionThis is the story of Dunkirk and of the men who planned it (insofar as it was planned) and of the men who carried it out, and of their ships. Mr Divine, who was himself with the small boats, writes with the authority of direct knowledge. He had the assistance of the men who were intimately concerned with planning and organising the operation. This is the true story of Dunkirk from its almost nebulous beginnings to the astonishing triumph of its end. Originally published in 1945, this is the best contemporaneous account, detailing all the big and little ships that rescued the men trapped on the beaches in late May 1940. world war 1939-1945 - naval operations - britain, operation dynamo

Ill, p.373non-fictionPart of his numerous writings concerned his work on Venice in three volumes: The Stones of Venice. He visited Venice in November 1849 with his wife, Effie, and stayed at the water-fronted Hotel Danieli. Their six-year marriage was never consummated and for Effie, Venice provided an opportunity to socialise, while for Ruskin it was a venue to engage in more solitary studies. In particular, he made a point of drawing the Ca' d'Oro and the Doge's Palace, or Palazzo Ducale, fearing they would be destroyed by the occupying Austrian troops. Ruskin made extensive sketches and notes for the three-volume work, which soon developed from a technical history of Venetian architecture, from the Romanesque to the Renaissance, into a broad cultural history. Cleverly Ruskin managed to reflect his own view of contemporary England and to weave in a warning about the moral and spiritual health of society. Ruskin argued that Venice had slowly deteriorated. Its cultural achievements had been compromised, and its society corrupted, by the decline of true Christian faith. Instead of revering the divine, Renaissance artists honoured themselves, arrogantly celebrating human sensuousness. It is a work of immense worth both culturally and artistically. venice, venice - architecture

Ill, p.406.non-fictionPart of his numerous writings concerned his work on Venice in three volumes: The Stones of Venice. He visited Venice in November 1849 with his wife, Effie, and stayed at the water-fronted Hotel Danieli. Their six-year marriage was never consummated and for Effie, Venice provided an opportunity to socialise, while for Ruskin it was a venue to engage in more solitary studies. In particular, he made a point of drawing the Ca' d'Oro and the Doge's Palace, or Palazzo Ducale, fearing they would be destroyed by the occupying Austrian troops. Ruskin made extensive sketches and notes for the three-volume work, which soon developed from a technical history of Venetian architecture, from the Romanesque to the Renaissance, into a broad cultural history. Cleverly Ruskin managed to reflect his own view of contemporary England and to weave in a warning about the moral and spiritual health of society. Ruskin argued that Venice had slowly deteriorated. Its cultural achievements had been compromised, and its society corrupted, by the decline of true Christian faith. Instead of revering the divine, Renaissance artists honoured themselves, arrogantly celebrating human sensuousness. It is a work of immense worth both culturally and artistically. venice, venice - architecture

Index, notes, p.454.fictionHSlave, soldier, lover, hero, saint, 'his life mirrored the cataclysmic world into which he was born. His memory will outlast the ages. Born of a noble Welsh family, he is violently torn from his home by Irish raiders at age sixteen and sold as a slave to a brutal wilderness king. Rescued by the king's druids from almost certain death, he learns the arts of healing and song, and the mystical ways of a secretive order whose teachings tantalize with hints at a deeper wisdom. Yet young Succat Morgannwg cannot rest until he sheds the strangling yoke of slavery and returns to his homeland across the sea. He pursues his dream of freedom through horrific war and shattering tragedy'through great love and greater loss'from a dying, decimated Wales to the bloody battlefields of Gaul to the fading majesty of Rome. And in the twilight of a once-supreme empire, he is transformed yet again by divine hand and a passionate vision of "truth against the world," accepting the name that will one day become legendireland - historical fiction, christain saints - fiction

p.299.non-fictionBased on a series of lectures delivered in 1840, Thomas Carlyle's On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History considers the creation of heroes and the ways they exert heroic leadership. From the divine and prophetic (Odin and Muhammad) to the poetic (Dante and Shakespeare) to the religious (Luther and Knox) to the political (Cromwell and Napoleon), Carlyle investigates the mysterious qualities that elevate humans to cultural significance. By situating the text in the context of six essays by distinguished scholars that reevaluate both Carlyle's work and his ideas, David Sorensen and Brent Kinser argue that Carlyle's concept of heroism stresses the hero's spiritual dimension. In Carlyle's engagement with various heroic personalities, he dislodges religiosity from religion, myth from history, and truth from "quackery" as he describes the wondrous ways in which these "flowing light-fountains" unlock the heroic potential of ordinary human beings.hero worship, philosophy

p.424.non-fictionFaust is the protagonist of a classic German legend. He is a scholar who is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, so he makes a pact with the Devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. The Faust legend has been the basis for many literary, artistic, cinematic, and musical works that have reinterpreted it through the ages. Faust and the adjective Faustian imply a situation in which an ambitious person surrenders moral integrity in order to achieve power and success for a delimited term. The Faust of early books - as well as the ballads, dramas, movies, and puppet-plays which grew out of them - is irrevocably damned because he prefers human to divine knowledge; "he laid the Holy Scriptures behind the door and under the bench, refused to be called doctor of Theology, but preferred to be styled doctor of Medicine". Plays and comic puppet theatre loosely based on this legend were popular throughout Germany in the 16th century, often reducing Faust and Mephistopheles to figures of vulgar fun. The story was popularised in England by Christopher Marlowe, who gave it a classic treatment in his play, The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus. In Goethe's reworking of the story two hundred years later, Faust becomes a dissatisfied intellectual who yearns for "more than earthly meat and drink" in his lifegerman literature, german drama

p.321.non-fictionA translation by the Reverend HF Cary of the Divine Comedyitalian literature, italian poetry

illustrated book with dustjacket. Book has a cerulean blue cover with title, author's and publisher's names embossed in silver on the spine. Duat jacket has a pink background with title, author's and publisher's names printed in balck ink on front and spine. Also on the front of the dust jacket is a black and white sketch of a bareheaded woman (Florence Nightingale, by Lady Eastlake 1946non-fictionA biograhy of Florence Nightingale, focusing on her life before and during the Crimean War, including her struggle with a "divine call to service" and the lessons she learned while tending to wounded soldiers. The book also highlights Nightingale's work in developing the principles of modern nursing emphasizing the importance of ventilation, cleanliness and personal hygieneflorence nightingale, crimean war, nursing-history