Without it, life on earth would cease to exist. Air is invisible and yet always present in one way or another, and people have long associated air with flight, spirit, transcendence and optimism. But as humans have progressively taken control of air through communications, warfare, travel and scientific exploration, the perception of air has changed. No longer is air a completely reliable part of our daily life but is instead another piece of the environment that must be watched closely fo...

This is the first English biography of Gaston Bachelard, a philosopher who bridged the worlds of science and imagination. Raised in rural France, Bachelard served in the First World War, worked for the post office and pursued degrees in science and philosophy while teaching in his local school. His journey led to a professorship at the Sorbonne, where he influenced many prominent postwar French thinkers. Known as both a philosopher of science and author of works on the imagination inspired...

Being serious demands serious kinds of work. In Styles of Seriousness, Steven Connor reflects on the surprisingly various ways in which a sense of the serious is made and maintained, revealing that while seriousness is the most powerful feeling, it is also the most poignantly indeterminate, perhaps because of the impossibility of being completely serious.In colloquy with philosophers such as Aristotle, Nietzsche, James, Sartre, Austin, Agamben and Sloterdijk, and writers l...

Although modern life provides many examples of exorbitance – of wealth, growth, information, ambition, consumption, violence – preoccupation with what is 'over the top' is not new. What is it about the idea of going unreasonably beyond what is reasonable that exercises fascination? In this wide-ranging work, essayist and scholar Steven Connor reflects on the considerable and persistent force of culture's appetite for the exorbitant—a dynamic that not only survives despite the disapproval w...

Many human beings have considered the powers and the limits of human knowledge, but few have wondered about the power that the idea of knowledge has over us. The Madness of Knowledge is the first book to investigate this emotional inner life of knowledge – the lusts, fantasies, dreams and fears that the idea of knowing provokes. There are in-depth discussions of the imperious will to know, of Freud’s epistemophilia, or love of knowledge, and the curiously insistent links between m...

Dickens is second only to Shakespeare in the range and intensity of critical discussion which his work has provoked. His writing is central to literature and culture across the English-speaking world. In this important new anthology, Steven Connor gathers together representative examples of the range of new critical approaches to Dickens over the last two decades.

From keys and handkerchiefs to sweets and rubber bands, the curious objects we surround ourselves with, though often seemingly mundane, have a magical quality.Their surprising power to disturb, soothe, seduce or absorb give these quirky objects histories and meanings we rarely ponder. Yet we would be lost without them.Take bags, for example. Why do most women carry handbags, while men rely on pockets? Why do so many houses have bags of bags? And why do we 'let the cat out t...

Ethan never imagined his life could change the moment he fell into the hands of Dominic Moretti—a powerful, feared man accustomed to getting exactly what he wants.Inside the boss's villa, Ethan is supposed to be nothing more than a hostage: a pawn in a war that was never his to fight. Dominic should see him as nothing more than a weapon to use against his enemies.But something begins to change.Beneath Dominic's cold authority, Ethan discovers a man ...

At eighteen, Ethan James Walker leaves San Antonio behind with one goal: to earn the right to call himself a Marine.He expects exhaustion, discipline, humiliation, and pain. He expects to be pushed beyond every limit he has ever known. What he doesn't expect is Ryan Miller—the sarcastic recruit who quickly becomes his closest ally—or Sergeant Coleman, a commanding and intimidating instructor whose attention begins to blur the boundaries between authority, fear, loyalty, and desire....

Year 2126. Humanity survived a devastating epidemic, but the price of survival forever changed the way people love, live, and bring new generations into the world.Natural reproduction is now a thing of the past. To ensure the survival of the human race, the government created the Genesis Program: sophisticated humanoids, virtually indistinguishable from humans, are assigned to citizens as reproductive partners.When twenty-seven-year-old

In the Egypt of the pharaohs, a ruler's power knows no limits. Thousands kneel as he passes, priests and generals await his every command, and on the western bank of the Nile, an immense pyramid is rising to carry his name into eternity.Meriamon is the Lord of the Two Lands. Feared, revered, and seemingly untouchable, he bears the weight of a kingdom in which no one dares challenge him. Every day, he must command, judge, and decide. But when the doors to his private chambers close,...

In 2033, Colin Anderson is the man everyone in America thinks they know.At just thirty-five, he has become the youngest President in U.S. history, winning over the country with the same talent, discipline, and charisma that once carried him to Olympic gold in Brisbane. Handsome, athletic, single, and constantly under the media spotlight, Colin appears to have everything under control.Everything except his private life.With no First Lady by his side,...