The Excellence of Falsehood
The Excellence of Falsehood

Author: Deborah L. Ross

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 2014-10-17

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 0813158923

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"The only excellence of falsehood... is its resemblance to truth," proclaims a clergyman in Charlotte Lennox's The Female Quixote. He argues that romances are bad art; novels, he implies, are better. This clergyman's remarks—repeating what literary and moral authorities had been saying since the late seventeenth century—are central to Deborah Ross's discussion of romance characteristics in English women's novels. Aphra Behn, Delariviere Manley, Eliza Haywood, Charlotte Lennox, Fanny Burney, Ann Radcliffe, and Jane Austen did not take the clergyman's advice to heart. To them, the "falsehood" of romance was by no means self-evident, nor was the superior "excellence" of the novel. In theory, many of them accepted the distinction, but their works combined aspects of the romance and the novel in ways that brought them into conflict with the critical establishment. The texts discussed here illustrate a process of development both in the novel and in the conditions of women's lives. Tensions between romance and realism enabled women writers to question official versions of reality and to measure life against a romance ideal. By altering readers' perceptions and judgments, these authors gradually altered the reality that novels "resemble" and set up new combinations of romance and realism for future writers. This give-and-take between fiction and life is seen most dramatically in the way a "romantic" notion gradually comes to be treated in novels as both "real" and right. Ross follows one such notion—that women have matrimonial preferences—to the point where romance and reality merge. Ross's study brings to light an important part of the history of the novel not yet incorporated in theories and histories of the genre.

The Excellence of Falsehood
The Excellence of Falsehood

Author: Deborah L. Ross

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 2021-05-11

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 0813183162

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"The only excellence of falsehood... is its resemblance to truth," proclaims a clergyman in Charlotte Lennox's The Female Quixote. He argues that romances are bad art; novels, he implies, are better. This clergyman's remarks—repeating what literary and moral authorities had been saying since the late seventeenth century—are central to Deborah Ross's discussion of romance characteristics in English women's novels. Aphra Behn, Delariviere Manley, Eliza Haywood, Charlotte Lennox, Fanny Burney, Ann Radcliffe, and Jane Austen did not take the clergyman's advice to heart. To them, the "falsehood" of romance was by no means self-evident, nor was the superior "excellence" of the novel. In theory, many of them accepted the distinction, but their works combined aspects of the romance and the novel in ways that brought them into conflict with the critical establishment. The texts discussed here illustrate a process of development both in the novel and in the conditions of women's lives. Tensions between romance and realism enabled women writers to question official versions of reality and to measure life against a romance ideal. By altering readers' perceptions and judgments, these authors gradually altered the reality that novels "resemble" and set up new combinations of romance and realism for future writers. This give-and-take between fiction and life is seen most dramatically in the way a "romantic" notion gradually comes to be treated in novels as both "real" and right. Ross follows one such notion—that women have matrimonial preferences—to the point where romance and reality merge. Ross's study brings to light an important part of the history of the novel not yet incorporated in theories and histories of the genre.

Prolegomena to the Qur'an
Prolegomena to the Qur'an

Author: Al-Sayyid Abu al-Qasim al-Musawi al-Khu'i

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 1998-06-25

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 0195353730

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Ayatollah al-Sayyid Abu al-Qasim al Musawi al-Khui (1899-1992) was one of the most respected and widely acclaimed authorities on Twelver Shi'ite Islam in this century. This book, which was first published in Arabic in 1974, presents al-Khuis comprehensive introduction to the history of the Quran. In it, al-Khui revisits many critical and controversial topics connected with the collection and ultimate canonization of the text that have received little attention in contemporary Muslim scholarship since the classical age. For instance, he tackles what is probably the single most controversial subject in Quranic studies: the question of possible alterations to the Quran as maintained by some succeeding generations of compilers of the Quran. Throughout the volume, al-Khui stresses the importance of understanding the historical setting in which the Quran was revealed; he does this in order to apply its provisions appropriately in contemporary Muslim society, with its ever-expanding legal and ethical requirements. In addition to expounding his own views, al-Khui also has the polemical purpose of refuting Sunni beliefs and concepts concerning various matters related to the theories of alteration and abrogation in the Quran. His arguments illuminate some of the substantial yet little-understood and appreciated issues that have been truly at stake between the two principal segments of the Muslim community. Translator Abdulaziz A. Sachedina supplies a helpful introduction to al-Khuis work, discussing the methodological problems involved with the study of such texts, and placing it in the historical context of polemic literature in Islam.

The Principles of New Ethics I
The Principles of New Ethics I

Author: Wang Haiming

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-10-29

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 0429824033

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From Descartes to Spinoza, Western philosophers have attempted to propose an axiomatic systemization of ethics. However, without consensus on the contents and objects of ethics, the system remains incomplete. This fourvolume set presents a model that highlights a Chinese philosopher’s insights on ethics after a 22-year study. Three essential components of ethics are examined: metaethics, normative ethics, and virtue ethics. This volume mainly studies meta- ethics. The author not only studies the fi ve primitive concepts of ethics— “value,” “good,” “ought,” “right,” and “fact”— and reveals their relationship, but also demonstrates the solution to the classic “Hume’s guillotine”— whether “ought” can be derived from “fact.” His aim is to identify the methods of making excellent moral norms, leading to solutions on how to prove ethical axioms and ethical postulates. Written by a renowned philosopher, the Chinese version of this set sold more than 60,000 copies and has exerted tremendous infl uence on the academic scene in China. The English version will be an essential read for students and scholars of ethics and philosophy in general.

Malfuzat – Volume II
Malfuzat – Volume II

Author: Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad

Publisher: Islam International

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 465

ISBN-13: 1848809913

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The Malfuzat are a compilation of discourses, letters and narrations of the Promised Messiah, may peace of Allah be upon him. They offer a unique insight into the interactions between the Promised Messiah(as) and his eager audiences—great and small—and how his Divinely inspired wisdom and intellect quenched the souls of a world thirsting for guidance. These indescribably enchanting experiences compelled eyewitnesses to record them in an attempt to seize those special moments for future generations in the hopes that they might somewhat behold the magnetic aura radiating from the long-awaited Imam of the Age. This edition of Malfuzat comprises a collection collated from various newspapers and periodicals that spans from 1891 to 1899.