Hugo G. Walter - Böcker

This collection of insightful and provocative essays explores the theme of sanctuaries of light in nineteenth-century European literature, especially in selected works by William Wordsworth, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Joseph von Eichendorff, and Charlotte Brontë. These sanctuaries of light, natural beauty, and serenity comfort, nurture, and revitalize the heart, mind, and soul of the individual and inspire creative expression.This book will be of interest to professors, teachers, and scholars in the fields of English literature, German literature, European literature, comparative literature, and cultural studies.

Magnificent Houses in Twentieth Century European Literature is a collection of great and imaginative essays that explore the theme of magnificent and aesthetically interesting houses in twentieth century European literature. It focuses especially on important works by Thomas Mann, Evelyn Waugh, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Siegfried Lenz, while also discussing other significant houses in modern European literature.

The present volume comprises a collection of wonderful and insightful essays exploring the theme of sanctuaries in Washington Irving’s The Sketch Book. These are sanctuaries of natural beauty, peacefulness, architectural splendor, and mythical vitality. In addition, the book presents a short history of sanctuaries in nineteenth-century American and European literature.

This book is a collection of great and insightful essays which discuss heroic endeavors to save endangered heirs and estates by searching devotedly for the truth in various criminal and civil situations. This book focuses especially on important works by Arthur Conan Doyle, Theodor Storm, Frances Hodgson Burnett, and Agatha Christie, while also discussing works by other important European authors. In each of these literary masterpieces the landowner or heir is emotionally and physically endangered and his or her house and estate imperiled by one or more individuals from within his or her own family or from within the sphere of influence of the family. In these works by Arthur Conan Doyle, Theodor Storm, Frances Hodgson Burnett, and Agatha Christie there is a valiant attempt by such individuals as Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, Mary Lennox, Hercule Poirot, and others to save the landowners and heirs who are endangered and the estates which are threatened by thoroughly investigating their situations and by searching meticulously for the truth. These protagonists share and exemplify the "passion for getting at the truth" which Hercule Poirot in Agatha Christie’s Murder in Three Acts declares is the primary motivating force and inspiration for his criminal investigations.

The Novels of Zsigmond Móricz in the Context of European Realism is the first English-language monograph on one of Hungary’s—and Central Europe’s—most important modern authors. Using a thematic approach that privileges literary characters as stand-ins for real human beings, Virginia L. Lewis investigates Móricz’s thematization of individual agency in seven realist novels that form the foundation of the author’s reputation as a major twentieth-century novelist. Lewis does an outstanding job of showcasing the research results of the many Hungarian scholars who have studied Móricz’s narrative output over the past century, while also bringing decidedly new perspectives to the table in introducing the author to an English-speaking audience. Utilizing the theoretical impulses of scholars such as Horst and Ingrid Daemmrich, Margaret Archer, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Ibrahim Taha, among others, Lewis forges a new and productive path in Móricz scholarship, while also making his oeuvre accessible to a global audience. Any reader with an interest in Hungarian and Central European narrative will find this study enormously useful for the revelations it brings regarding Móricz’s poignant and brilliant critique of the corrosive influence of commodification and greed on human agency in modern society. "Informed by theory and grounded in a critical understanding of Hungarian social history in the first half of the twentieth century, Lewis’s engaging study of the realist novels of Zsigmond Móricz compels readers to think in new ways about questions of human agency amongst Hungary’s lower and middle classes as this played out against the backdrop of capitalist transformation and pronounced social conflicts and injustices in the decades leading up to World War II. Skillfully structured around succinct analyses of seven of Móricz’s key texts, Lewis’s book addresses a sizable gap in the English-language scholarship on one of Hungary’s greatest writers, and will be a welcome addition to the libraries of literary scholars and social and intellectual historians alike." —Steven Jobbitt, Associate Professor of Central and Eastern European History, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Canada

This book is a collection of great essays which discuss four brilliant and impressive investigators and detectives in literary masterpieces by Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, and Dorothy Bowers. The focus of this book is on Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Jane Marple, and Dan Pardoe. These highly intelligent, perceptive, problem-solving, resilient, and resourceful investigators are committed to examining the evidence in any situation carefully, fairly, and honestly and devoted to searching for and discovering the truth in various criminal cases, even though such heroic endeavors frequently threaten their own lives. In Chapter Seven of Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Hercule Poirot agrees to accept the case which is presented to him only if he may "go through with it to the end" and search for "all the truth." In numerous investigations Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Jane Marple, and Dan Pardoe demonstrate not only an extraordinary commitment to searching meticulously and valiantly for the whole truth but also the absolute genius to discover it.

This book is a collection of excellent essays about heroic, intelligent, perceptive, and resourceful private citizens with exceptional investigative capacities and their important contributions to noteworthy criminal cases which are discussed in literary masterpieces by Agatha Christie and Dorothy Bowers. These citizen sleuths are motivated by a strong moral courage, by a commitment to examine the evidence in any case meticulously and thoroughly, by a spirit of civic devotion, by a dedication to searching carefully and honestly for the truth, and by a strong belief in ethical values, fairness, and justice so that the security and wellbeing of a community can be supported and preserved. These citizen sleuths, who often collaborate effectively with law enforcement officials in investigations, all passionately share Miss Marple’s belief, which she expresses in Chapter Twenty-eight of Agatha Christie’s A Pocket Full of Rye, that it is vital "that wickedness shouldn’t triumph" in everyday life and in society. Each of the four chapters focuses on a different type of malevolent character which these citizen sleuths notice and investigate: murderous family members, treacherous friends, devilish figures, and corrupt officials who abuse and exploit their positions of authority. The conclusion examines several fascinating cold case scenarios in the works of Agatha Christie."Something between Edgar Allan Poe’s detective prodigy of the preternatural and Jane Austen’s ‘neighbourhood of voluntary spies,’ Christie’s and Bowers’s amateur sleuths have a nose for foul play and an unflinching sense of civic duty and moral courage. A welcome intervention in a critically neglected genre, Hugo Walter’s timely study offers rare insight into the history, influence, and mechanics of the modern ‘whodunit?’. While focused on Christie and Bowers unassuming-but-intrepid protagonists, this engaging work offers a much broader sociology of citizen detectives and the allure of their uncanny capacity to inhabit diabolical genius and their moral obligation to even the score."—Gregory S. Jackson, Rutgers University