J. Gordon – författare

This book explores three crucial stages in Dickens' on-going voyage of discovery into what has been called the 'hidden springs' of his fiction; arguing that in three of Dickens best known novels, we witness Dickens responding to some identifiable force represented as coming from underneath the ground plan of the book in question.

Historically, the field of hematopoietic growth factor research began with the work of Carnot and Deflandre-in 1906 they suggested that the rate of erythropoiesis is regulated by a humoral factor found in the blood, namely, erythropoietin. From this comparatively early start, accelerating progress has been made in erythropoietin research, which demon­ strates the general trends in this field of study. Erythropoietin was purified to homogeneity by 1977 (from enormous quantities of urine from aplastic anemia patients). Subsequently, the gene for erythropoietin has been cloned (1985), and massive quantities of this growth factor have been produced for clinical trials (late 1980s onward). Erythropoietin has become established as a pharmaceutical product of great value in the treatment of a number of diseases, most notably chronic renal failure. Once the ligand had been cloned, interest turned to the erythropoietin receptor, which was cloned in 1989. Since then, structure/ function studies have been performed on receptor mutants, cellular signaling events down­ stream from the occupied receptor have been identified, and the specific producer cell types and molecular stimuli for erythropoietin production have been thoroughly investigated, as has the regulation of erythropoietin gene transcription. This schedule of events since the 1970s typifies that seen for a number of hematopoietic growth factors. Along the way, the hematopoietic growth factors have been recognized as members of the cytokine family of signaling molecules that are important in a number of different physiological and patholog­ ical situations (see below).

Jan Gordon proposes that a reviled communicational 'interest' in gossip and its purveyors be given its proper due in the development of the novel in Britain. Commencing with Sir Walter Scott's historically persecuted (but economically and politically necessary) androgynous voices in caves and concluding with Oscar Wilde's premature celebration of gossip at the very moment it is transformed from public opinion to public judgment, the author finds gossip to be both deforming and shaping nineteenth century 'letters' in surprising ways. Like the ignominious orphan-figure of nineteenth-century fiction, gossip is the 'unacknowledged reproduction' searching for a political antecedence which might lend a legitimacy to its often discontinuous testimony, for a culture historically resistant to obtrusive voices.

Jan Gordon proposes that a reviled communicational 'interest' in gossip and its purveyors be given its proper due in the development of the novel in Britain. Commencing with Sir Walter Scott's historically persecuted (but economically and politically necessary) androgynous voices in caves and concluding with Oscar Wilde's premature celebration of gossip at the very moment it is transformed from public opinion to public judgment, the author finds gossip to be both deforming and shaping nineteenth century 'letters' in surprising ways. Like the ignominious orphan-figure of nineteenth-century fiction, gossip is the 'unacknowledged reproduction' searching for a political antecedence which might lend a legitimacy to its often discontinuous testimony, for a culture historically resistant to obtrusive voices.

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This book explores three crucial stages in Dickens' on-going voyage of discovery into what has been called the 'hidden springs' of his fiction; arguing that in three of Dickens best known novels, we witness Dickens responding to some identifiable force represented as coming from underneath the ground plan of the book in question.

I am very much aware that it is an act of extreme rashness to attempt to write an elementary book about structures. Indeed it is only when the subject is stripped of its mathematics that one begins to realize how difficult it is to pin down and describe those structural concepts which are often called' elementary'; by which I suppose we mean 'basic' or 'fundamental'. Some of the omis sions and oversimplifications are intentional but no doubt some of them are due to my own brute ignorance and lack of under­ standing of the subject. Although this volume is more or less a sequel to The New Science of Strong Materials it can be read as an entirely separate book in its own right. For this reason a certain amount of repetition has been unavoidable in the earlier chapters.I have to thank a great many people for factual information, suggestions and for stimulating and sometimes heated discussions. Among the living, my colleagues at Reading University have been generous withhelp, notably Professor W. D. Biggs (Professor of Building Technology), Dr Richard Chaplin, Dr Giorgio Jeronimidis, Dr Julian Vincent and Dr Henry Blyth; Professor Anthony Flew, Professor of Philosophy, made useful suggestions about the last chapter. I am also grateful to Mr John Bartlett, Consultant Neurosurgeon at the Brook Hospital. Professor T. P. Hughes of the University of the West Indies has been helpful about rockets and many other things besides. My secretary, Mrs Jean Collins, was a great help in times of trouble. Mrs Nethercot of Vogue was kind to me about dressmaking. Mr Gerald Leach and also many of the editorial staff of Penguins have exercised their accustomed patience and helpfulness. Among the dead, l owe a great deal to Dr Mark Pryor - lately of Trinity College, Cambridge - especially for discussions about biomechanics which extended over a period of nearly thirty years. Lastly, for reasons which must surely be obvious, l owe a humble oblation to Herodotus, oncea citizen of Halicamassus.