Kraft - Böcker

The Collected Works of Anna Letitia Barbauld presents, for the first time, all the known surviving works of this major English writer, who lived from 1743 to 1825. Poet, essayist, editor, innovative writer for children, polemicist for religious and political reform, Barbauld helped set the agenda for Anglo­American culture for over a century. Her poems influenced Coleridge and Wordsworth; her writings on education, church­state relations, identitypolitics, and the ethics of citizenship are freshly relevant today; her commentary on books and writers went far to establish today's canon of English novelists. Beyond their importance, her writings are distinguishedby great charm and profound intelligence.Volume III, Literary Criticism, brings together her considerable body of work in literary criticism, from her early essays on the poets Mark Akenside and William Collins to her canon­making introductions to the 50-volume edition of British Novelists issued by the publishing house of Longman. Barbauld also edited and introduced the Correspondence of Samuel Richardson in an edition which may very well be responsible fora young Jane Austen's enthusiastic reading of Richardson's work and her own foray into the writing of novels. Also included in this volume is the preliminary essay Barbauld wrote to preface the edition of Selectionsfrom the Spectator, Tatler, Guardian, and Freeholder published by Joseph Johnson. Like her short, unsigned reviews for the Monthly Review, the introductory essays were addressed to a growing middle-class readership and served to elevate the taste of the reading public. Barbauld's critical work served as a model for women writers of the next generations. George Eliot and Virginia Woolf would also write anonymous reviews for the magazines, thus honing their own skillsand continuing to encourage the refinement of literary taste and production. Barbauld's love of literature fueled her critical analyses, and her essays speak to the love of reading as much as they provide critique of the worksunder consideration. Her concern is always for the common reader who seeks in books both instruction and pleasure.

In recent years, there has been increasing interest and activity in the area of group actions on affine and projective algebraic varieties. Tech­ niques from various branches of mathematics have been important for this study, especially those coming from the well-developed theory of smooth compact transformation groups. It was timely to have an interdisciplinary meeting on these topics. We organized the conference "Topological Methods in Alg~braic Transformation Groups," which was held at Rutgers University, 4-8 April, 1988. Our aim was to facilitate an exchange of ideas and techniques among mathematicians studying compact smooth transformation groups, alge­ braic transformation groups and related issues in algebraic and analytic geometry. The meeting was well attended, and these Proceedings offer a larger audience the opportunity to benefit from the excellent survey and specialized talks presented. The main topics concerned various as­ pects of group actions, algebraic quotients, homogeneous spaces and their compactifications. The meeting was made possible by support from Rutgers University and the National Science Foundation. We express our deep appreciation for this support. We also thank Annette Neuen for her assistance with the technical preparation of these Proceedings.

Die Habilitation ist eine alte Einrichtung der deutschen Universi­ täten. Nachdem der junge Doktor nach der Promotion einige Jahre wissenschaftlich gearbeitet hat, legt er der Fakultät eine größere Ver­ öffentlichung, die Habilitationsschrift, mit dem Ziel vor, die Venia Legendi zu erwerben, das Recht, in eigener Verantwortung zu lehren und Vorlesungen zu halten. Im Rahmen einer Fakultätssitzung fin­ den Habilitationsvortrag und wissenschaftliche Aussprache statt. Einige Wochen später wird das Verfahren durch die öffentliche An­ trittsvorlesung abgeschlossen, die zugleich den Höhepunkt darstellt. An manchen Universitäten scheint die Bedeutung der Antritts­ vorlesung zurückgegangen zu sein. In Bonn haben wir uns bemüht, diese Tradition fortzuftihren und die Antrittsvorlesungen zu einem wichtigen Teil des mathematischen Lebens zu machen. In den Vor­ trägen soll ein anspruchsvolles Thema so dargestellt werden, daß Mathematiker und Naturwissenschaftler, die vielleicht in ganz ande­ ren Gebieten arbeiten, und auch Studenten, den Ausftihrungen fol­ gen können. Historische Entwicklungen und die Zusammenhänge der mathematischen Gebiete untereinander und mit Bereichen außer­ halb der Mathematik sollen erkennbar werden, den Zuhörern soll et­ was von der Faszination der Mathematik und ihrer Rolle im geisti­ gen Leben vermittelt werden.