Alexander Hamilton Thompson – författare

Originally published in 1913 as part of the Pitt Press Series, this book contains the text of Alexander Pope's poetic 'epistles' on the nature of man, originally written between 1733 and 1734. Thompson prefaces the poems with a synopsis of each, as well as a history of their creation. Detailed notes follow at the end of the text. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in the work of Alexander Pope.

Originally published in 1918, this book contains the French text of Alain-René Lesage's satire Turcaret, written in the early eighteenth century. Thompson prefaces the comedy with a biography of Lesage and an analysis of his place in the canon of French playwrights alongside Molière. This book will be of value to anyone interested in eighteenth-century French drama or in the works of Lesage.

Originally published in 1920, this book contains the French text of the eighth and ninth books of Chateaubriand's Mémoires d-Outre-Tombe. These two books cover Chateubriand's time in England between 1792 and 1800, when he was living in exile after fighting on the Royalist side at the siege of Thionville, during which time he became acquainted with English literature and wrote his influential essay on the causes of the French Revolution. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in Chateaubriand's life and work.

In the present volume an attempt is made to trace the growth of the general principles of medieval fortification, with special reference to castles, in which, within their limited area, the most complete illustration of those principles is given. In order to give greater clearness to the account of their evolution, a prefatory chapter deals generally with earlier types of fortification in Britain, and the critical period of Saxon and Danish warfare is treated in the second chapter with some detail. This leads us to the early Norman castle of earthwork and timber; and the stone fortifications to which this gave place are introduced by a brief account of the progress of siegecraft and siege-engines. The Norman castle and its keep or great tower are then described. The developments of the later part of the twelfth century and the arrangements of the thirteenth-centuryviii castle, with those of the dwelling-house within its enceinte, follow and prepare the way for the castles of the reign of Edward I. which represent the highest effort of military planning. In the last two chapters is related the progress of the transition from the castle to the fortified manor-house, which followed the introduction of fire-arms into warfare and preceded the Renaissance period. It will be seen that the castle is taken as the unit of military architecture throughout; but illustrations are constantly drawn from walled towns, which are, in fact, the castles of communities, and in the eleventh chapter extended allusion is made to the chief features of their plan and defences.