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Aldous Huxley by Jake Poller
Category: Biography | Series: Critical Lives Ser.
"An outstanding book."--James Sexton "A welcome and necessary update of the life of one of the twentieth century's most provocative intellectuals."--Dana Sawyer A rich and lucid account of Aldous Huxley's life and work. Aldous Huxley was one of the twentieth century's most prescient thinkers. T ...Show more
Antoni Gaudí by Michael Eaude
Category: Architecture | Series: Critical Lives Ser.
An accessible account of the contradictory life and work of the modernist Catalan architect. The celebrated art nouveau architect Antoni Gaudí was a contradictory figure: a deeply religious, politically right-wing man who nevertheless built revolutionary buildings. This book explores Gaudí's life, wor ...Show more
Arthur Rimbaud by Seth Whidden
Category: Biography | Series: Critical Lives Ser.
Before he turned twenty-one, Arthur Rimbaud (1854-91) had upended the house of French poetry and left it in shambles. In this critical biography, Seth Whidden argues that what makes Rimbaud's poetry important is part of what makes his life so compelling: rebellion, audacity, creativity, and exploration. ...Show more
Byron by David Ellis
Category: Biography | Series: Critical Lives Ser.
A fresh, concise account of the Romantic poet Lord Byron's flamboyant life and work. In this book, David Ellis traces Lord Byron's life from rented lodgings in Aberdeen and the crumbling splendors of Newstead Abbey to his final grand tour of Asia. Describing his exile from England as well as his subseq ...Show more
Charles Darwin by J. David Archibald
Category: Science | Series: Critical Lives Ser.
A fresh account of Charles Darwin's rich personal and professional lives, well beyond On the Origin of Species. In 1859 Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species. With this bedrock of biology books, Darwin carved a new origin-story for all life: evolution rather than creation. But this singl ...Show more
Friedrich Nietzsche by Ritchie Robertson
Category: Reference | Series: Critical Lives Ser.
An accessible and informative study of the life and work of this vaunted German philosopher. In this concise yet comprehensive critical biography, Ritchie Robertson examines the work of Friedrich Nietzsche within the context of his life. The book traces Nietzsche's development from outstanding classical ...Show more
Hannah Arendt by Samantha Rose Hill
Category: Biography | Series: Critical Lives Ser.
Hannah Arendt is one of the most renowned political thinkers of the twentieth century, and her work has never been more relevant than it is today. Born in Germany in 1906, Arendt published her first book at the age of twenty-three, before turning away from the world of academic philosophy to reckon with ...Show more
Leo Tolstoy by Andrei Zorin
Category: Biography | Series: Critical Lives Ser.
When he arrived in Moscow in 1851, a young Leo Tolstoy set himself three immediate aims: to gamble, to marry, and to obtain a post. At that time he managed only the first. The writer's momentous life would be full of forced breaks and abrupt departures, from the death of his beloved parents and tortuous ...Show more
Leonard Bernstein by Paul R. Laird
Category: Performing Arts | Series: Critical Lives Ser.
Leonard Bernstein was one of twentieth-century music's most successful and recognizable figures. In a career spanning five decades, he conducted many of the world's leading orchestras and composed scores for landmark musicals such as West Side Story. With an iron self-belief, he negotiated risky and cha ...Show more
Richard Owen by Patrick Armstrong
Category: No Category | Series: Critical Lives Ser.
A biography of the provocative nineteenth-century English naturalist. Brilliant, hard-working, and immensely productive, the naturalist Richard Owen was a great ambassador for science and played an outsized role in shaping London's Natural History Museum. Still, Owen was a provocative bully, accused o ...Show more
Rosa Luxemburg by Dana Mills
Category: Biography | Series: Critical Lives Ser.
As an economist and political theorist, Rosa Luxemburg created a body of work that still resonates powerfully today. Born in Poland in 1871, she became a revolutionary leader in Berlin, publishing works including Reform or Revolution and The Accumulation of Capital. In this account of Luxemburg's short ...Show more
Sergei Rachmaninoff by Rebecca Mitchell
Category: Biography | Series: Critical Lives Ser.
Drawing extensively on Russian-language sources, a concise yet comprehensive survey of the life and work of one of classical music's great composers. Unquestionably one of the most popular composers of classical music, Sergei Rachmaninoff has not always been so admired by critics. Detractors have long p ...Show more