This book is about the role of food in the works of Joseph Conrad, analysing the social, political and anthropological context of references to meals, eating, food production and cannibalism. It offers a new perspective on the works of Joseph Conrad and provides an accessible medium through which readers can engage with the complex theories and philosophical dilemmas that Conrad presents in his fiction. This is the only major study of food in Conrad’s works; it is unique in its interdisciplinary approach to food in that it engages with sociological, political, historical, personal and literary perspectives, thus providing a multi-dimensional approach to cultural, revolutionary, periodical and fictional representations of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This in turn, allows an interrogation of modern anxieties, embedded in cultural norms and values that can be interpreted through the way that food is prepared and eaten.

David Quammen's book, The Song of the Dodo, is a brilliant, stirring work, breathtaking in its scope, far-reaching in its message -- a crucial book in precarious times, which radically alters the way in which we understand the natural world and our place in that world. It's also a book full of entertainment and wonders. In The Song of the Dodo, we follow Quammen's keen intellect through the ideas, theories, and experiments of prominent naturalists of the last two centuries. We trail after him as he travels the world, tracking the subject of island biogeography, which encompasses nothing less than the study of the origin and extinction of all species. Why is this island idea so important? Because islands are where species most commonly go extinct -- and because, as Quammen points out, we live in an age when all of Earth's landscapes are being chopped into island-like fragments by human activity. Through his eyes, we glimpse the nature of evolution and extinction, and in so doing come to understand the monumental diversity of our planet, and the importance of preserving its wild landscapes, animals, and plants. We also meet some fascinating human characters. By the book's end we are wiser, and more deeply concerned, but Quammen leaves us with a message of excitement and hope.

Charles Dudley Warner (1829-1900) was an American essayist and novelist. He worked with a surveying party in Missouri; studied law at the University of Pennsylvania; practiced in Chicago; was assistant editor (1860) and editor (1861-1867) of The Hartford Press, and after The Press was merged into The Hartford Courant, was co-editor with Joseph R Hawley; in 1884 he joined the editorial staff of Harper's Magazine, for which he conducted The Editors Drawer until 1892, when he took charge of The Editor's Study. He travelled widely, lectured frequently, and was actively interested in prison reform, city park supervision, and other movements for the public good. He was the first president of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. He first attracted attention by the reflective sketches entitled My Summer in a Garden (1870). Amongst his other works are Saunterings (1872), Backlog Studies (1873), Being a Boy (1878), In the Wilderness (1878), Captain John Smith (1881), Washington Irving (1881), A Little Journey in the World (1889), As We Were Saying (1891) and That Fortune (1899).

Of all the extraordinary Victorian travelogues, The Malay Archipelago has a fair claim to be the greatest - both as a beautiful, alarming, vivid and gripping account of some eight years' travel across the entire Malay world - from Singapore to the western edges of New Guinea - and as the record of a great mind. As Wallace, often under conditions of terrible hardship and sickness, battles through jungles, lives with headhunters, and collects beetles, butterflies and birds-of-paradise, he makes discoveries about the workings of biology that have shaped our view of the world ever since.

A survey of the past and present wildlife of Europe, Asia, Africa, Madagascar and the Islands of the Indian Ocean, the Malay Archipelago, Australia, and New Zealand. Includes a discussion on the future of wildlife.

This is a theoretical and practical guide on how to undertake and navigate advanced research in the arts, humanities and social sciences.

"Explore[s] the extraordinary range of Wallace's interests, which encompassed ecology, evolution, spiritualism, and socialism." -- Science

The British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace set out for the Amazon in 1848 to collect natural history specimens. During his time there, he spent almost two years travelling up the Rio Negro, a region few Europeans had explored. A fire on the return journey to England destroyed all of his collections but among the possessions rescued was a collection of sketches of fish, later presented to The Natural History Museum. This book is an account of Wallace's expedition describing the naturalist in the making, the tragic loss of his collections and how this affected his future. Throughout the book the role of chance in the making of naturalists and the course of science in general is explored. The work is illustrated with the fish sketches, palm drawings and scenes of life in the Amazon.