Urn Burial

Urn Burial, one of the most influential essays in Western literature, is now available as a New Directions Pearl. Hydriotaphia, or Urn Burial, is one of the pinnacles of Renaissance scholarship and without doubt one of the great essays in English literature. Beginning with observations on the recent discovery of Roman antiquities in the form of burial urns, Browne’s associative mind wanders to elephant graveyards, to pre-Christian cremation ceremonies, and finally to the idea of Christian burial. Browne then explores, with a more melancholic meditation, man’s struggles with mortality and the uncertainty of his fate and fame in the living world. This edition includes a magisterial discourse on Sir Thomas Browne taken from the first chapter of W. G. Sebald’s The Rings of Saturn.

From the author of the bestselling Phryne Fisher Series comes Urn Burial, the next historical mystery featuring the sultry, sharp-as-a-whip Miss Fisher. Can she find a way to clear up a muddied murder? "Another Down Under adventure that's definitely a cut above."—Booklist Looking for a murder mystery with a touch of romance? This book is for you: Perfect for Fans of Rhys Bowen and Jacqueline Winspear Inspired the Netflix show Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries Movie Currently Streaming on Acorn TV The redoubtable Phryne Fisher is holidaying at Cave House, a Gothic mansion in the heart of Australia's Victorian mountain country. But the peaceful surroundings mask danger. Her host is receiving death threats, lethal traps are set without explanation, and the parlour maid is found strangled to death. What with the reappearance of mysterious funerary urns, a pair of young lovers, an extremely eccentric swagman, an angry outcast heir, and the luscious Lin Chung, Phryne's attention has definitely been caught. Stuck in the murder mansion, her search for answers takes her deep into the dungeons of the house and into the limestone Buchan caves. What will she find this time?

Life is simple where Ralph lives, up in the Pennines. It's peaceful. Ordinary. Until one day, when out with the sheep, he finds something strange, too strange to be from Earth. The alien grave holds secrets of the past, but also draws Ralph into the middle of an epic war between two alien races, taking place among the stars above his head. Has he thrown his planet into a battle it can't possibly fight? This war has raged for centuries, but perhaps Ralph could hold the key to ending it once and for all.