Shakespeare's two Venetian plays are dominated by the discourse of embarrassment. The Merchant of Venice is a comedy of embarrassment, and Othello is a tragedy of embarrassment. This nomenclature is admittedly anachronistic, because the term "embarrassment" didn't enter the language until the late seventeenth century. To embarrass is to make someone feel awkward or uncomfortable, humiliated or ashamed. Such feelings may respond to specific acts of criticism, blame, or accusation. "To embarrass" is literally to "embar": to put up a barrier or deny access. The bar of embarrassment may be raised by unpleasant experiences. It may also be raised when people are denied access to things, persons, and states of being they desire or to which they feel entitled. The Venetian plays represent embarrassment not merely as a condition but as a weapon and as the wound the weapon inflicts. Characters in The Merchant of Venice and Othello devote their energies to embarrassing one another. But even when the weapon is sheathed, it makes its presence felt, as when Desdemona means to praise Othello and express her love for him: "I saw Othello's visage in his mind" (1.3.253). This suggests, among other things, that she didn't see it in his face.

From the creator of the Escape from Furnace series, a ferocious epic of supernatural terror, perfect for Stephen King fans Imagine if one day, without warning, the entire human race turns against you, if every person you know, every person you meet becomes a bloodthirsty, mindless savage . . . That's the horrifying reality for Cal, Brick, and Daisy. Friends, family, even moms and dads, are out to get them. Their world has the Fury. It will not rest until they are dead. In Alexander Gordon Smith's adrenaline-fueled saga, Cal and the others must uncover the truth about what is happening before it destroys them all. But survival comes at a cost. In their search for answers, what they discover will launch them into battle with an enemy of unimaginable power.

'Fury took my breath away. Heyman writes with such brio, muscularity and physicality; her trademark humour, honesty and energy vibrate on every page. This memoir is a triumph.'—Jill Dawson'Gripping and brilliantly written...up there with the very best adventure memoirs such as The Salt Path by Raynor Winn or Cheryl Strayed's Wild. This is a literary work that will stand the test of time and has international bestseller written all over it.'—Louise DoughtyAt the age of 20, after a traumatic sexual assault trial, Kathryn Heyman ran away from her life and became a deckhand on a fishing trawler in the Timor Sea.Coming from a family of poverty and violence, she had no real role models, no example of how to create or live a decent life, how to have hope or expectations. But she was a reader. She understood story, and the power of words to name the world. This was to become her salvation.After one wild season on board the Ocean Thief, the only girl among tough working men, facing storms, treachery and harder physical labour than she had ever known, Heyman was transformed. Finally she could name the abuses she thought had broken her. After a period of enforced separation from the world, she was able to return to it newly formed, determined to remake the role she'd been born into.A reflection on the wider stories of class, and of growing up female with all its risks and rewards, Fury is a memoir of courage and determination, of fighting back and finding joy.

This book is a collection of essays on Scottish witchcraft and witch-hunting, which covers the whole period of the Scottish witch-hunt, from the mid-16th century to the early 18th. It particularly emphasizes the later stages, since scholars are now as keen to explain why witch-hunting declined as why it occurred. There are studies of particular witchcraft panics, including a reassessment of the role of King James VI. The book thus covers a wide range of topics concerned with Scottish witch-hunting - and also places it in the context of other topics: gender relations, folklore, magic and healing, and moral regulation by church and state.

View our feature on Kasey Mackenzie’s Red Hot Fury. Introducing a sizzling new urban fantasy series featuring Marissa Holloway, an immortal Fury who doesn't just get mad...she gets even. As a Fury, Marissa Holloway belongs to an Arcane race that has avenged wrongdoing since time immemorial. As Boston's chief magical investigator for the past five years, she's doing what she was born to do: solve supernatural crimes. But Riss's investigation into a dead sister Fury leads to her being inexplicably suspended from her job. And to uncover the truth behind this cover-up, she'll have to turn to her shape-shifting Warhound ex for help.

Jane's not happy. She's been packed off to England to fight in a war when she'd much rather be snogging Anyan. Unfortunately, Jane's enemies have been busy stirring up some major trouble -- the kind that attracts a lot of attention. In other words, they're not making it easy for Jane to get any alone time with the barghest, or to indulge in her penchant for stinky cheese. Praying she can pull of a Joan of Arc without the whole martyrdom thing, Jane must lead Alfar and halflings alike in a desperate battle to combat an ancient evil. Catapulted into the role of Most Unlikely Hero Ever, Jane also has to fight her own insecurities as well as the doubts of those who don't think she can live up to her new role as Champion. Along the way, Jane learns that some heroes are born. Some are made. And some are bribed with promises of food and sex.

A “timely and essential” (New York Times Book Review) reconsideration of William Faulkner’s life and legacy that vitally asks, “How should we read Faulkner today?” With this “rich, complex, and eloquent” (Drew Gilpin Faust, Atlantic) work, Pulitzer Prize finalist Michael Gorra charts the evolution of an author through his most cherished—and contested—novels. Given the undeniable echoes of “Lost Cause” romanticism in William Faulkner’s fiction, as well as his depiction of Black characters and Black speech, Gorra argues convincingly that Faulkner demands a sobering reevaluation. Upending previous critical traditions and interweaving biography, literary criticism, and rich travelogue, the widely acclaimed The Saddest Words recontextualizes Faulkner, revealing a civil war within him, while examining the most plangent cultural issues facing American literature today.

This book is a reference book, and as such it has been arranged to facilitate finding specfic information.

"Captain Alicia DeVries, Imperial Cadre, has been many things in her life. An Imperial Marine, dedicated to the protection and preservation of the Terran Empire she loves. An Imperial Cadre drop commando, personal liegewoman of Emperor Seamus II, whom she honors and reveres. Hero of the Terran Empire, one of only three living holders of the Banner of Terra. And now, outcast, rogue, pirate ... and madwoman." "From the time she graduated from high school, Alicia DeVries knew what she wanted to do with her life, and she did it well. On planets like Gyangtse, Chengchou, Fuller, and Louvain - in cities like Zhikotse and Shallingsport - she's put her life on the line in defense of her Empire and Emperor again and again. She's given her blood, and the lives of men and women closer to her than brothers and sisters." "But her dead have been betrayed in the name of political expediency. The justice they deserved has been denied, and a brokenhearted Alicia DeVries has resigned her commission and retired to the colony world of Mathison with her family to begin a new life." "Yet Alicia is still a warrior, and the pirates who attacked Mathison, tortured and murdered her family, and left her for dead, are about to discover just how big a mistake they made." "Imperial Intelligence can't find them. The Imperial Fleet can't catch them. Local defenses can't stop them. But Alicia has stolen an imperial A1 starship from the bleeding edge of technology and set out to teach them what vengeance truly is." "Her fellow veterans think she's gone mad, the Fleet has shoot-on-sight orders, and the "pirates" have allies at the highest levels of the Imperial government. But Alicia DeVries has two allies of her own. Allies no one knows about. Allies as implacable as she is: a self-aware computer, and a creature from the mists of Old Earth's most ancient legends."--BOOK JACKET.