Twenty Five Great Essays

· The Great Essays collections are part of the Penguin Academic series of low-cost, high quality texts. These alphabetically-organized readers offer the most commonly taught classic and contemporary essays and minimal apparatus. · A wide variety of writing styles represent diverse authorship. · Introduction to history and context of the essay and the pleasures of reading and writing essays. · Supplements: IM and CW (www.ablongman.com/diyanni)

George Orwell set out ‘to make political writing into an art’, and to a wide extent this aim shaped the future of English literature – his descriptions of authoritarian regimes helped to form a new vocabulary that is fundamental to understanding totalitarianism. While 1984 and Animal Farm are amongst the most popular classic novels in the English language, this new series of Orwell’s essays seeks to bring a wider selection of his writing on politics and literature to a new readership. In Why I Write, the first in the Orwell’s Essays series, Orwell describes his journey to becoming a writer, and his movement from writing poems to short stories to the essays, fiction and non-fiction we remember him for. He also discusses what he sees as the ‘four great motives for writing’ – ‘sheer egoism’, ‘aesthetic enthusiasm’, ‘historical impulse’ and ‘political purpose’ – and considers the importance of keeping these in balance. Why I Write is a unique opportunity to look into Orwell’s mind, and it grants the reader an entirely different vantage point from which to consider the rest of the great writer’s oeuvre. 'A writer who can – and must – be rediscovered with every age.' — Irish Times

KEY FEATURE: Fifty Great Essays offers an outstanding collection of classic and contemporary writing as part of Longman's distinguished Penguin Academic Series, sharing the low-cost, high-quality goals of the widely-admired Penguin Classics series. A wide range of essays at an affordable price, Fifty Great Essays offers readers an excellent introduction into the world of great essay-writing. Selections range from classic essays such as E.B. White's, "Beauty" and Frederick Douglass', "Learning to Read and Write" to contemporary essays such as Mary Wollstonecraft's, "A Vindication of the Rights of Women" and Nancy Mairs, "On Being a Cripple." General readers.

In this fascinating volume, today’s foremost scientists discuss their own versions and visions of Einstein: how he has influenced their worldviews, their ideas, their science, and their professional and personal lives. These twenty-four essays are a testament to the power of scientific legacy and are essential reading for scientist and layperson alike.Contributors include:• Roger Highfield on the Einstein myth• John Archibald Wheeler on his meetings with Einstein• Gino C. Segrè, Lee Smolin, and Anton Zeilinger on Einstein’s difficulties with quantum theory• Leon M. Lederman on the special theory of relativity• Frank J. Tipler on why Einstein should be seen as a scientific reactionary rather than a scientific revolutionary