Showing results by author "Alberto Manguel" in All Categories

Tracing 25 centuries of human history, from the fourth century BC to the present day, Manguel dedicates each of his chapters to a single character - ranging from our best-known thinkers, scientists, and artists to seemingly minor figures of whom we know little more than one inspired utterance - in whom he identifies a particular way of asking the question "why?"

In June 2015 Alberto Manguel prepared to leave his centuries-old village home in France's Loire Valley and reestablish himself in a one-bedroom apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Packing up his enormous, 35,000 volume personal library, choosing which books to keep, store, or cast out, Manguel found himself in deep reverie on the nature of relationships between books and readers, books and collectors, order and disorder, memory and reading.  

No one knows if there was a man named Homer, but there is little doubt that the epic poems assembled under his name form the cornerstone of Western literature. "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey", with their incomparable tales of the Trojan War, Achilles, Ulysses and Penelope, the Cyclops, the beautiful Helen of Troy, and the petulant gods, are familiar to most people because they are so pervasive.

This brief biography of Rudyard Kipling is an ideal introduction for young and old alike to the fascinating life and works of one of the finest writers of the last hundred years.

Ob Sindbad der Seefahrer, Superman, Don Juan oder Alice im Wunderland: Literarische Heldinnen und Helden haben zahlreiche Abenteuer zu bestehen, die sie klug und welterfahren machen. Sie werden damit zu inspirierenden Begleiter:innen, die uns immer wieder neue Antworten geben auf die großen Fragen des Lebens. Dank Alberto Manguel entdecken wir die Weltliteratur neu.

In this biography of Maimonides, the medieval philosopher, physician, and religious thinker, Alberto Manguel examines the question of his universal appeal. Moses ben Maimon, or Maimonides (1138–1204), was born in Córdoba, Spain. The gifted son of a judge and mathematician, Maimonides fled Córdoba with his family when he was thirteen due to Almohad persecution of all non-Islamic faiths. Forced into a long exile, the family spent a decade in Spain before settling in Morocco. From there, Maimonides traveled to Palestine and Egypt, where he died at Saladin’s court.