From Caligula to Stalin and beyond, this book offers a unique and pioneering look at the recurring phenomenon of the 'mad king' from the early centuries of the Christian era to modern times.

From Caligula to Stalin and beyond, this book offers a unique and pioneering look at the recurring phenomenon of the 'mad king' from the early centuries of the Christian era to modern times.

Castles and courts, kings and queens, peasants, swordsmen, and the occasional airship. Welcome to the Middle Kingdoms, the most peculiar place on Dib, where the royalty all look like one another and also like the five founding gods of creation. Nine feudal theocracies that haven’t embraced new technology in three thousand years, the Middle Kingdoms is a land that never changes, surrounded by a world that changes constantly. A Death in the Family Battine Alconnot made a promise to return to Castle Totus for the Feast of Nita. She’d very much like to break that promise, except that it was made on her mother’s deathbed, to her sister Porra. Disappointing Porra Alcon wouldn’t be wise under any circumstance, but it’s doubly so given she’s also Queen Porra, wife to King Ho-Kenson, sovereign of Totus kingdom. Batt hasn’t felt genuinely welcome—in court or among her own family—since she was a child, because Battine is a rare descendant of royalty who doesn’t look like it. The gods chose not to smile upon her, genetically. She’s an unblessed. An outcast. Still, she goes. And when a member of the royal family is murdered in the castle, she’s the first person accused. Of course. Battine teams up with the other most likely suspect—an outsider named Damid Magly who knows more than he’s telling—to find the real killer. What they find instead is far more serious. There are secrets buried deep beneath the kingdoms…secrets that could destroy the royal families, and secrets that could alter the future of the entire planet. The Man in the Sky Meanwhile, in Velon, Detective Makk Stidgeon is dealing with the fallout from the Orno Linus murder case. The county attorney wants Makk to find more evidence, while Orno’s brother Calcut mostly just wants Makk dead. His ex-partner, Viselle Daska, remains missing, as does her father, Ba-Ugna Kev. Both are wanted for murder. Makk is also sitting on two things Orno Linus risked his life to steal from the House vaults. They’re important, but he has no idea why. Now comes an odd proposal: Ba-Ugna Kev wants to turn himself in. But he has conditions. He wants to surrender to Makk personally, he wants the Veeser Elicasta Sangristy to be there as well, and he expects them to come alone. Kev can tie everything together: Orno’s murder, the stolen artifacts, and what his daughter has to do with all of it. But he’s also tried to kill Makk and Elicasta once already, and to retrieve him they’ll have to go to the one place where they’re guaranteed to have nobody watching their backs: the space station Lys. The Madness of Kings is the thrilling second book in Tandemstar: The Outcast Cycle.

Kingship, Madness, and Masculinity examines representations of mad kings in early modern English theatrical texts and performance practices. Although there have been numerous volumes examining the medical and social dimensions of mental illness in the early modern period, and a few that have examined stage representations of such conditions, this volume is unique in its focus on the relationships between madness, kingship, and the anxiety of lost or fragile masculinity. The chapters uncover how, as the early modern understanding of mental illness refocused on human, rather than supernatural, causes, public stages became important arenas for playwrights, actors, and audiences to explore expressions of madness and to practice diagnoses. Throughout the volume, the authors engage with the field of disability studies to show how disability and mental health were portrayed on stage and what those representations reveal about the period and the people who lived in it. Altogether, the essays question what happens when theatrical expressions of madness are mapped onto the bodies of actors playing kings, and how the threat of diminished masculinity affects representations of power. This volume is the ideal resource for students and scholars interested in the history of kingship, gender, and politics in early modern drama.

Raised and trained in seclusion at a secret fortress on the edge of the northern wilds of the Kingdom of Ashai, a young warrior called Rezkin is unexpectedly thrust into the outworld when a terrible battle destroys all that he knows. With no understanding of his life's purpose and armed with masterful weapons mysteriously bestowed upon him by a dead king, Rezkin must travel across Ashai to find the one man who may hold the clues to his very existence.Determined to adhere to his last orders, Rezkin extends his protection to an unlikely assortment of individuals he meets along the way, often leading to humorous and poignant incidents.As if pursuing an elite warrior across a kingdom, figuring out who he is and why everyone he knows is dead, and attempting to find these so-called friends and protect them is not enough, strange things are happening in the kingdom. New dangers begin to arise that threaten not only Rezkin and his friends, but possibly everyone in Ashai.

As Walker filmed a documentary offering an inside peek at filmmaking, he followed four ambitious and unknown filmmakers in their quest for fame and glory at the Cannes film festival. His hilarious, uncensored diary of that process takes readers on a wild romp through the glamor and the excesses of the movie business.

'Do you see your son, standing over there, in the antechamber? Well, I am going to shoot him.' The story of the great and mad Cambyses, King of Persia, told by part-historian, part-mythmaker Herodotus of Halicarnassus. Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions. Herodotus (c.484-425 BCE). Herodotus's The Histories is also available in Penguin Classics.

30 years into his reign, the King of England starts to go a little mad; his court hires a new, radical doctor to try to cure him, but what he really needs in the love of a good queen.

Madness were true originals who mixed ska and reggae rhythms with social comment and music hall humour to become a British group like no other. They were the most successful UK singles band of the 80s, offering a larky down-to-earth take on Thatcher’s Britain through hits like ‘My Girl’, ‘One Step Beyond’, ‘House Of Fun’ and ‘Baggy Trousers’. Their appeal endures to this day, Madness’ latter-day concerts having become fun-packed celebrations of one of the best-loved songbooks in British pop. Like most bands Madness had their trials and tribulations, including band disputes, accusations of racism and an eventual split. But by then they had become a unique part of British pop history. In this book, John Reed tells their colourful story with a perceptive industry eye and the help of insights from many insiders and colleagues of the band.

As a young man, Paul Hoffman was a brilliant chess player . . . until the pressures of competition drove him to the brink of madness. In King's Gambit, he interweaves a gripping overview of the history of the game and an in-depth look at the state of modern chess into the story of his own attempt to get his game back up to master level -- without losing his mind. It's also a father and son story, as Hoffman grapples with the bizarre legacy of his own dad, who haunts Hoffman's game and life.