Kirjahaku

Blaise Pascal had an extraordinary life and career. Renowned as a child prodigy, he engaged with the intellectual ferment surrounding the mathematician Father Mersenne before turning to his scientific experiments, his work on mathematics and construction of mechanical calculating machines, his correspondence with Pierre de Fermat and Rene Descartes, and his 'Memorial', a scrap of paper he always wore close to his heart on which he described an overwhelming religious experience.This book considers Pascal's modes of writing - whether he is arguing with the strict puritanical modes of Church politics, in the guise of a naive 'provincial' trying to understand the Jesuitical approach (Les Provinciales), or meditating on the ways to present his own thoughts on religion (Apologia) to the world outside Port-Royal, the convent his sister Jacqueline had persuaded him to enter.Pascal's so-called 'worldly period', in which his relation to his libertine friends motivated his celebrated 'wager' about belief, is discussed alongside his Jansenist writings, his meditations on thinking about thinking, and finally his invention of the first means of public transport in Paris, shortly before his untimely death at 39 following a lifetime of illness. The book, which includes a preface by Tom Conley, covers many aspects of Pascal's life and work that are seldom found side by side: his religious motivations and his belief in miracles, his scientific passions, his practical savvy and the aphorisms of the Pensees, so influential worldwide. This is a valuable account of a fascinating figure of the early modern period, and will interest the wide audience for the history of mathematics, philosophy, religion and science.

Robert Motherwell was the most intellectual and verbal of the abstract expressionists. This title examines his way of thinking and writing in relation to his paintings. The author bases her analysis on the artist's own writings and extensive interviews with him.

Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dali y Domenech, Marquis of Pubol, was born in Catalonia on May 11, 1904, and died on January 23, 1989. Best known as a surrealist painter, his artistic output also included film, sculpture, photography and writing. Dali is also notorious for his eccentric behaviour and his involvement with the Dada movement, which often drew more attention to himself than his art. In this new narrative exploration of Salvador Dali, highly respected art and literary historian Mary Ann Caws surveys the life and work of one of the most fascinating and colourful figures in the history of art. She recounts the influence of the Catalan region and dialect on his early life, as well as his expulsions from school and from the School of Fine Arts in Madrid; his involvement with the Surrealists, and his work with Bunuel and their films "Un chien andalou" and "L'Age d'or", and the impact and reception of both films at the time. Dali's turbulent personal life brought him into contact with a rich assortment of intellectual figures and Caws considers his relationships with his family and his lovers, including Elena Diakonova (Gala), who was married to the poet Paul Eluard when they met, and friends such as poet Federico Garcia Lorca. Caws also closely examines Dali's work: his famous Surrealist paintings, 'hand-painted dream photographs' such as "The Persistence of Memory" and "Autumnal Cannibalism?", as well as his writing, photography, sculpture and film. Well-researched, and full of telling anecdotes, "Salvador Dali" will appeal to the large readership who are already familiar with this extraordinary artist, as well as to those who have heard much and wish to know more about the life and work of this pivotal figure in modern art.