Showing results by narrator "Charles Armstrong" in All Categories

Arthur Prescott is happiest when surrounded by the ancient manuscripts of the Barchester Cathedral library, nurturing his obsession with the Holy Grail and researching his perennially unfinished guidebook to the medieval cathedral. But when Bethany Davis arrives in Barchester to digitize the library's manuscripts, Arthur's tranquility is broken. Appalled by the threat of modern technology, he sets out to thwart Bethany, only to find in her a kindred spirit - and a fellow Grail fanatic.

A land of mountains, hills, and fertile plains, Romania is a tourist destination waiting to be discovered. It is a rich and complex country: a place whose cities are home to beautiful parks and vibrant cultural scenes and whose people welcome guests warmly into their homes, sharing the best of whatever they have and partying into the night, suffused by Latin joie de vivre. Buffeted over time between three great powers - the West, Russia, and Turkey - Romania betrays the cultural influences of each, and it can be a difficult place to get a handle on.

A panoramic debut about love and loss, The Breaking of Eggs announces a major new talent. Change is in the air in a shabby apartment in the 19th arrondissment in Paris. One unremarkable day Madame Lefèvre invites Feliks to call her Sandrine. As his indomitable landlady's manners have been as unvarying as her dresses for the last 36 years, this feels significant to Feliks. And it is.

Taking listeners beyond the stereotypical images of windmills, clogs, and tulips, this audio guide helps visitors understand the complex layers of identity in this small, densely populated country on Europe's northwestern seaboard. With roots as a maritime nation that built a network for transportation, defense, and trade, the Netherlands of today is still a prime economic hub of Europe. The Netherlands is also famous for its liberal attitudes, recently challenged by high levels of immigration, and is home to an intelligent, cosmopolitan, enterprising, tolerant, and modest people.

Tracing the epic 5,000-year story of warfare from the earliest battles to the War on Terror, The Military History Book explores and explains the causes and consequences of each, offering a new angle on military history. Entries analyse the key social and political driving forces, the arms and armaments, and the technologies and tactics of war over the last 7,000 years – from the tactics of early infantry and siegecraft to the rise of naval combat steel, steam, and shellfire, and from trench warfare and aerial dogfights to chemical weapons and cyber warfare.

In an idyllic resort on the island of La Réunion, Liane Bellion and her husband, Martial, are enjoying the perfect moment with their six-year-old daughter. Turquoise skies, blue sea, palm trees, a warm breeze. Then Liane disappears. She goes up to her hotel room between three and four p.m. and never comes back. Her husband, worried, goes to the room along with the concierge - the room is empty, but there is blood everywhere. Despite his protestations of innocence, the police view Martial as their prime suspect.

This philosophical essay is the development of a lecture on probabilities which I delivered in 1795 to the normal schools whither I had been called, by a decree of the national convention, as professor of mathematics with Lagrange. I have recently published upon the same subject a work entitled The Analytical Theory of Probabilities. I present here without the aid of analysis the principles and general results of this theory, applying them to the most important questions of life, which are indeed for the most part only problems of probability.

Discover the stories behind the most shocking and infamous books ever published. Censorship of one form or another has existed almost as long as the written word, while definitions of what is 'acceptable' in published works have shifted over the centuries and from culture to culture. Packed with eye-opening insights into the history of the written word and the political and social climate during the period of suppression or censorship, this is a must-listen for anyone interested in literature, creative writing, politics, history or law.

For thousands of years, the Chinese believed that they had created a perfect social system based on Confucian values and tempered by the Mandate of Heaven. Dynasties came and went, but the essence of being Chinese remained essentially unchanged until the 20th century. Since then, change has taken place in Chinese society at an unprecedented speed: the country experienced the turmoil of civil war and revolution and then emerged on to the world stage as a global superpower.

Since its publication nearly 70 years ago, George Orwell’s 1984 has been regarded as one of the most influential novels of the modern age. Politicians have testified to its influence on their intellectual identities, rock musicians have made records about it, TV viewers watch a reality show named for it, and a White House spokesperson tells of “alternative facts”.

It's the issues and theories that are most intriguing and relevant to curious teen minds - questions like: what is knowledge, identity, human nature, right and wrong, faith, freedom, and justice? These are all addressed, offering big ideas, simply explained. Written and designed specifically for the teen market, Heads Up: Philosophy explains challenging but clear text to clarify and explain theories and arguments.

'We looked like the perfect young family, something out of a magazine, in shades of marshmallow pink....' A photograph. The father smiling beside his new car, the mother pregnant and radiant, the little girl placing cuddly toys in the cot for her new baby brother. All we see is the happiness. 'We don't see my mother. We don't see the lies.' But behind every picture there is a story. And behind that story, there are others. Every family has its secrets.

This guide to Mexico takes you to the heart of Mexican society. It describes how people socialize and meet members of the opposite sex, the dynamics of daily life, the central importance of family, and the annual cycle of Catholic feasts and fiestas. For business travelers, there are key sections on the economy and vital insights into the general business culture. The third-largest country in Latin America, Mexico is hugely diverse, having both rural areas, where time seems to have stood still, and manic urban centers like Mexico City, one of the most exciting cities in the world.

Havelock Ellis (1859-1939) was a pioneering figure in modern sexual studies. In the early years of the 20th century, through his seven volumes of Studies in the Psychology of Sex, he paved the way for a more scientific and less judgemental attitude towards the subject, unhampered by the restrictions of religious or moral conventions. Ellis (simultaneously with Sigmund Freud) helped Western society to consider sexual behaviour, in all its many forms, with fresh eyes.

Ranging from epistemology to existentialism and featuring ideas from philosophers as varied as Plato, Immanuel Kant, and Jean-Paul Sartre, this essential guide will bring you up to speed on the core themes and theories of this great subject.

For Howie, the lonely barista, he longed for the dream life. Husband, house with a white picket fence, 2.5 kids and a dog. Sadly, all he could get were meaningless one night stands leaving him feeling empty. Jackson Milsap, the introverted writer, quietly pined for Howie from the corner of the café. Stepping outside of his comfort zone and asking him out on a date sent his social anxiety into overdrive. That was until the day he came to Howies rescue, forever changing both their lives.

This stunning guide explores and explains the defining eras, key moments and outstanding people that have made history. History, a children's encyclopaedia, is a way in to understanding the diversity of world history, from the African kingdoms that pre-dated colonialism and the cultures of the pre-Colombian Americas to the dynasties that have ruled China for thousands of years and the many empires that have come and gone over the centuries in Asia and Europe.

Purgatorio is the second part of The Divine Comedy, Dante's epic poem describing man's progress from hell to paradise. Having escaped the Inferno, Dante and his guide, the classical Roman poet Virgil, ascend out of the underworld to the Mountain of Purgatory on an island on the far side of the world. The mountain has nine terraces, seven of which correspond to the seven deadly sins, and two of which constitute an Ante-Purgatory with the Garden of Eden at the summit.

This anthology is a thorough introduction to classic literature for those who have not yet experienced these literary masterworks. From the finding of Merlin to the death of King Arthur, follow every thrilling adventure in the Arthurian legend! For those who have known and loved these works in the past, this is an invitation to reunite with old friends in a fresh new format.

The seven volumes of Studies in the Psychology of Sex by Havelock Ellis (1859-1939) that appeared between 1900 and 1928 were each a landmark in the more open considerations of sexual impulse in the Western world. And none more so than Volume 2, which appeared in 1900. It examined homosexuality, though Ellis more frequently used the term sexual inversion, which, at the time, had broader (but not derogatory) implications.