Medusa - an experimental spaceship developed by the Advanced Research Department of St Oscar's University. Missing since it was launched, presumed lost in the wars, it was a project so secret that it has never been declassified. Now, twenty years on, Medusa is coming home. After one of the investigation team dies suspiciously, Professor Bernice Summerfield is assigned to help discover what went wrong. But to do so she must solve a riddle. What is the strange link between the original crew and the team now on board the drifting ship? And why do their ghosts still haunt Medusa?
Examines images of horror in Victorian fiction, criticism, and philosophy. Focusing on the recurring metaphor of Medusas head, The Medusa Effect examines images of horror in texts by Sigmund Freud, Friedrich Nietzsche, and a series of Victorian artists and critics writing about aesthetics. Through nuanced and innovative readings of canonical works by Freud, Nietzsche, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Walter Pater, A. C. Swinburne, and George Eliot, Thomas Albrecht demonstrates the twofold nature of these writers images of horror. On the one hand, the analysis illuminates how the representation of something seen as horrifyingfor instance, a disturbing work of art, an existential insight, or a recognition of the fundamental inaccessibility of another persons consciousnesscan serve a protective purpose, to defend the writer in some way against the horror he or she encounters. On the other hand, the representations themselves can be a potential threatepistemologically unreliable, for instance, or illusory, deceptive, fundamentally unstable, and potentially dangerous to the writers. Through a psychoanalytically informed literary analysis, The Medusa Effect explores crucial ethical and epistemological questions of Victorian aesthetics, as well as underexamined complexities of the mechanisms of Victorian literary representation. an elegant study in rhetorical analysis. Victorian Studies Thomas Albrecht brings a radically different approach to aestheticspsychoanalytic and poststructuralist rather than historicistin The Medusa Effect. Studies in English Literature
A wildly entertaining and surprisingly educational dive into art history as you've never seen it before, from the host of the beloved ArtCurious podcast We're all familiar with the works of Claude Monet, thanks in no small part to the ubiquitous reproductions of his water lilies on umbrellas, handbags, scarves, and dorm-room posters. But did you also know that Monet and his cohort were trailblazing rebels whose works were originally deemed unbelievably ugly and vulgar? And while you probably know the tale of Vincent van Gogh's suicide, you may not be aware that there's pretty compelling evidence that the artist didn't die by his own hand but was accidentally killed--or even murdered. Or how about the fact that one of Andy Warhol's most enduring legacies involves Caroline Kennedy's moldy birthday cake and a collection of toenail clippings? ArtCurious is a colorful look at the world of art history, revealing some of the strangest, funniest, and most fascinating stories behind the world's great artists and masterpieces. Through these and other incredible, weird, and wonderful tales, ArtCurious presents an engaging look at why art history is, and continues to be, a riveting and relevant world to explore.
'Escapism of a high order.' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY 'A slyly intelligent page turner.' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY AN AURELIO ZEN MYSTERY When a group of Austrian cavers in the Italian Alps come across human remains at the bottom of a deep shaft, everyone assumes the death was accidental - until the still unidentified body is stolen from the morgue and the Defence Ministry puts a news blackout on the case. The whole affair has the whiff of political intrigue. That's enough to interest Aurelio Zen's boss at the Interior Ministry, who wants to know who is hiding what from who and why. The search for the truth leads Zen into the murky history of post-war Italy and obscure corners of modern-day society to uncover the truth about a crime that everyone thought was as dead and buried as the victim. 'As the plot quickens, we are soon deep in Dibdin's favourite territory: the murky political conflicts of Italy's past and the oily chicanery of its present.' SUNDAY TIMES 'Dibdin's misanthropic wit finds plenty to play with.' GUARDIAN 'A terrific detective story.' 5* reader review 'Beautifully written . . . You get a real sense of the turbulence in the Italian state during that era.' 5* reader review 'MEDUSA is the best I've read so far, with a complex but pleasing plot.' 5* reader review PRAISE FOR MICHAEL DIBDIN AND THE INSPECTOR ZEN SERIES: 'He wrote with real fire.' IAN RANKIN 'A maestro of crime writing.' SUNDAY TIMES 'One of the genre's finest stylists . . . And Zen himself is a masterly creation: he is anti-heroic and pragmatic but obstinate, cunning and positively burdened with integrity.' GUARDIAN 'Dibdin tells a rollicking good tale that you want both to read fast, because of its gripping storyline, and to linger over, to savour the evocative descriptions of place and mood.' INDEPENDENT 'One of British crime fiction's most distinguished and distinctive voices.' ANDREW TAYLOR 'Dibdin has a gift for shocking the unshockable reader.' Ruth Rendell 'Zen is one of the greatest creations of contemporary crime fiction.' OBSERVER 'I love the way these books capture the atmosphere and contradictions of Italy.' 5* reader review 'Aurelio Zen novels are a great treat.' 5* reader review 'There is no better writer than Dibdin. His books are a joy to read.' 5* reader review 'Love these books . . . I am sure you will get hooked too!' 5* reader review
Fourteen years ago, scientist William Fox implanted four babies with the Medusa gene - a gene for psychic abilities. But Fox died and the babies were hidden away for years. Now the children are teenagers - and unaware that their psychic powers are about to kick in. Cocky, charismatic Nico thinks his emerging telekinetic abilities will bring him money, power and the girl of his dreams. He's about to find out just how wrong he is…
Mrs Midas, Queen Kong, Mrs Lazarus, the Kray sisters, and a huge cast of others startle with their wit, imagination, lyrical intuition and incisiveness.
Seeking to become immortal like the other Goddess Girls, Medusa searches for a magical necklace, an effort that is compromised by her mean reputation, her snaky hair, and unexpected consequences.
Gorgon. Killer. Monster. Victim. Survivor. Protector. Medusa breathes new life into an ancient story and echoes the battle that women throughout millennia have continued to wage.
