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      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        October 2023

        The illusion of the Burgundian state

        by Élodie Lecuppre-Desjardin, Christopher Fletcher

        On 25 January 1474, Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, appeared before his subjects in Dijon. Robed in silk, gold and precious jewels and wearing a headpiece that gave the illusion of a crown, he made a speech in which he cryptically expressed his desire to become a king. Three years later, Charles was killed at the battle of Nancy, an event that plunged the Great Principality of Burgundy into chaos. This book, innovative and essential, not only explores Burgundian history and historiography but offers a complete synthesis about the nature of politics in this region, considered both from the north and the south. Focusing on political ideologies, a number of important issues are raised relating to the medieval state, the signification of the nation under the 'Ancien Regime', the role of warfare in the creation of political power and the impact of political loyalties in the exercise of government. In doing so, the book challenges a number of existing ideas about the Burgundian state.

      • Trusted Partner
        Children's & YA

        Lilo of Dark Castle. No Magic Allowed! (3). Party at Highhorror Castle

        by Anna Lott/ Sabine Sauter

        The Dark Castle family receives an invitation to a party at Highhorror Castle. Lilo and Miss Rüdiger are immediately eager to go. And of course Luisa should go with them. But humans are strictly forbidden to set foot in Castle Highhorror. “Who cares?”, say Lilo and Luisa, and at first everything seems fine: Luisa gets in as a perfect witch. But then the girls learn about a protective magic spell which covers the whole of the castle: unauthorized beings will be turned for ever into stone… Only a secret book of magic spells can save Luisa now!

      • Trusted Partner
        Children's & YA

        The Candy Guild (1). The Magic Pact

        by Tanja Voosen/ Viktoria Gavrilenko

        The most magical adventure since the discovery of chocolate! Do you believe in magic and miracles? Everyone in the little town of Belony takes magic and miracles for granted – everyone except Elina, who thinks it’s all a load of nonsense. That is, until her nervous neighbour Charlie happens to get hold of a bar of chocolate that has a very strange effect on her. Suddenly Elina is convinced that Charlie has fallen under a spell. Of all people, it’s shy Robin who comes to the girl’s rescue. He is a member of a Candy Guild family – people who have the ability to create magic sweets that will help others. This is how he knows that only the mysterious Candy Guild can lift the curse on Charlie. With a suitcase full of magic sweets, the three of them set out on a dangerous quest. Because not everyone keeps to the pact that magic sweets should only be used to do good… The Candy Guild. The Magic Pact is the first in a new series of magic-fantasy books for children of 9+ - as enchanting as chocolate and as wild as a Christmas cracker!

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        July 1999

        Witchcraft, magic and culture 1736–1951

        by Owen Davies

        The only serious study of witchcraft and magic from 1736 to 1951 Brings together matters ranging from upper class spiritualism to rural witchcraft in an exciting and intellecually stimulating way Essential reading for all social historians and all h. . . . ;

      • Trusted Partner
        Children's & YA

        Owl Magic (13). The Mystery of the White Horse

        by Ina Brandt/Irene Mohr

        It’s just like a fairy tale. In the forest Flora stumbles on a little house with a garden that’s overgrown with roses. But the house is about to be sold. Not only that, but Flora learns from the owner’s daughter that a white horse has been living for a long time in the stable…but now he’s disappeared! Together with her magic owl Goldwing, Flora tries to find the terrified animal. Will the two of them manage to make their way through the jungle of roses and win the confidence of the white stallion?

      • Trusted Partner
        Children's & YA
        2018

        The Magic Bird

        by Ken Spillman and Malavika PC

        A lone bird hungry for magic pecks at alphabet shapes. It looks through glass windows of book stores and glances at the t-shirts of pedestrians with the hope of solving the mystery hidden behind those letters. Soon, the words become familiar and the bird determinedly starts collecting scraps of paper to build a nest, wanting to hatch its ideas with warmth and nurture them through potential and free imagination. The unusual combination of Ken Spillman’s simple yet eloquent prose and Malavika PC’s inspired images combine in perfect harmony to express the powerful story of The Magic Bird. The bird reminds the reader of the extraordinary components which create something as ordinary as language, and the value of spreading our wings to take stories to others.

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        October 2024

        The Legacy of John Polidori

        The Romantic Vampire and its Progeny

        by Sam George, Bill Hughes

        John Polidori's novella The Vampyre (1819) is perhaps 'the most influential horror story of all time' (Frayling). Polidori's story transformed the shambling, mindless monster of folklore into a sophisticated, seductive aristocrat that stalked London society rather than being confined to the hinterlands of Eastern Europe. Polidori's Lord Ruthven was thus the ancestor of the vampire as we know it. This collection explores the genesis of Polidori's vampire. It then tracks his bloodsucking progeny across the centuries and maps his disquieting legacy. Texts discussed range from the Romantic period, including the fascinating and little-known The Black Vampyre (1819), through the melodramatic vampire theatricals in the 1820s, to contemporary vampire film, paranormal romance, and science fiction. They emphasise the background of colonial revolution and racial oppression in the early nineteenth century and the cultural shifts of postmodernity.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        October 2024

        The Malleus Maleficarum

        by Peter Maxwell-Stuart

        A shocking glimpse into the mind of a medieval witch hunter. In 1487, the zealous Dominican inquisitor Heinrich Kramer wrote a treatise that would have a remarkable influence on European history. Blaming women for his own lust, and frustrated by official complacency before what he saw as a monstrous spiritual menace, Kramer penned a practical guide to aid law officers in the identification and prosecution of witches. Fusing theology, lurid anecdotes and advice for those engaged in combating sorcery, The Malleus Maleficarum transports the reader into the dark heart of medieval belief - where fear of the supernatural provokes a gripping struggle for understanding and control. Kramer's book led to the burning of numerous innocents and had a lasting impact on the popular image of witchcraft. It remains a sinister symbol of fanaticism and cruelty to this day.

      • Trusted Partner
        Children's & YA

        The Little Owl Witch (2). Full Moon Magic at Midnight

        by Katja Alves/ Marta Balmaseda

        Exciting new adventures in the Enchanted Forest. The mighty tree witches send out invitations to take part in the great Witch Competition, which is only held once every hundred years. The prize is a superb extra magical power. Just the thing for a young owl witch like Petunia, think the seven litte owls, and so they secretly enter their witch for the competition. There is just one catch: whoever comes last in solving the extremely difficult magic problems must hand over her witch’s broomstick. Oh dear! The trouble is, all the other witches are very old and are real experts in the art of magic… Fortunately, and as always, Petunia can rely on her little owls!

      • Trusted Partner
        December 2018

        The Clever Little Magic Kitten

        by Yang Peng

        Yang Peng's Award-winning Novels are a collection of the award-winning works of Yang Peng's many outstanding stories. Not only are the selected articles humorous, but also rich in imagination. They are also rich in profound educational philosophy that can enlighten the mind and help readers to reflect on themselves. Dididi received a package. However, the package did not contain figs as his uncle said he had sent, but a dirty cat. Even more amazing is that this cat actually has magic power: it can become as big as the house, or as small as a mouse. He was even able to transfer to be a giant whale. This magic cat can always make a different scene for Dididi to swim, or a sceney that they could go to the beach, the virgin forest, and even the universe. Not only does this cat like to help others, but also is with justice, and has done a lot of earth-shattering good things with his friend Dididi.

      • Trusted Partner
        June 2020

        Ma Liang and His Magic Painting Brush

        by Hong Xuntao, Yang Yongqing

        Ma Liang with a magic paint brush is a classic character created by the fairy tale master Hong Xuntao. The picture book "Ma Liang and His Magic Painting Brush" created by the famous painter Yang Yongqing is also an immortal classic -- it exbibits Ma Liang's spirit as diligent and kind, and fearless towards violence.

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        June 2021

        Tales of magic, tales in print

        by Willem De Blecourt

      • Trusted Partner
      • Trusted Partner

        Ella Arcangel

        Magic of Earth and Blood

        by Julius Villanueva (author and illustrator)

        Ella Arcangel: Magic of Earth and Blood follows the adventures of the titular hero, a 12 year old “mambabarang” living in the slums of Barangay Masikap. Ella has to walk the tightrope of helping her impoverished community deal with the supernatural, assisting the dispossessed spirits and elementals deal with the humans who are sharing their space, and fending off her own lack of resources. She won’t just battle supernatural monsters, but monsters with a badge and a uniform as she is caught in the middle of the unjust drug war.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        March 2017

        Popular imperialism and the military, 1850-1950

        by John M. MacKenzie

        Colonial war played a vital part in transforming the reputation of the military and placing it on a standing equal to that of the navy. The book is concerned with the interactive culture of colonial warfare, with the representation of the military in popular media at home, and how these images affected attitudes towards war itself and wider intellectual and institutional forces. It sets out to relate the changing image of the military to these fundamental facts. For the dominant people they were an atavistic form of war, shorn of guilt by Social Darwinian and racial ideas, and rendered less dangerous by the increasing technological gap between Europe and the world. Attempts to justify and understand war were naturally important to dominant people, for the extension of imperial power was seldom a peaceful process. The entertainment value of war in the British imperial experience does seem to have taken new and more intensive forms from roughly the middle of the nineteenth century. Themes such as the delusive seduction of martial music, the sketch of the music hall song, powerful mythic texts of popular imperialism, and heroic myths of empire are discussed extensively. The first important British war correspondent was William Howard Russell (1820-1907) of The Times, in the Crimea. The 1870s saw a dramatic change in the representation of the officer in British battle painting. Up to that point it was the officer's courage, tactical wisdom and social prestige that were put on display.

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        July 2022

        Nordic Gothic

        by Maria Holmgren Troy, Johan Hõglund, Yvonne Leffler, Sofia Wijkmark

        Nordic Gothic traces Gothic fiction in the Nordic region from its beginnings in the nineteenth century, with a main focus on the development of Gothic from the 1990s onwards in literature, film, TV and new media. The volume gives an overview of Nordic Gothic fiction in relation to transnational developments and provides a number of case studies and in-depth analyses of individual narratives. It creates an understanding of this under-researched cultural phenomenon by showing how the narratives make visible cultural anxieties haunting the Nordic countries, their welfare systems, identities and ideologies. Nordic Gothic examines how figures from Nordic folklore function as metaphorical expressions of Gothic themes and Nordic settings are explored from perspectives such as ecocriticism and postcolonialism. The book will be of interest to researchers and post- and- undergraduate students in various fields within the Humanities.

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        January 2023

        The gift of narrative in medieval England

        by Nicholas Perkins

        This invigorating study places medieval romance narrative in dialogue with theories and practices of gift and exchange, opening new approaches to questions of storytelling, agency, gender and materiality in some of the most engaging literature from the Middle Ages. It argues that the dynamics of the gift are powerfully at work in romances: through exchanges of objects and people; repeated patterns of love, loyalty and revenge; promises made or broken; and the complex effects that time works on such objects, exchanges and promises. Ranging from the twelfth century to the fifteenth, and including close discussions of poetry by Chaucer, the Gawain-Poet and romances in the Auchinleck Manuscript, this book will prompt new ideas and debate amongst students and scholars of medieval literature, as well as anyone curious about the pleasures that romance narratives bring.

      • Trusted Partner

        SIGILS

        Illustrated Guide to the Symbols of Spirit and Thought

        by M B Jackson

        Sigils are symbolic icons designed for a specific magical purpose. In modern times, Chaos magi-cians employ Sigils as Monograms of Thought, psychological symbols of intent and desire, created by the conjuror in their personal quest of mystical exploration. Fully illustrated guides to these magic symbols accompany full explanations from down through the millenia.

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