Peter Butler – författare

This book is a timely reminder of Lachlan Macquarie''s importance to modern Australians''He was a Christian, a perfect gentleman, and a supreme legislator of the human heart. … Whenever the sculptor shall imagine a guardian angel for New South Wales and Van Diemen''s Land, the chisel of gratitude shall portray the beloved and majestic features of General Macquarie.'' Hobart Town Gazette In 1810 Lachlan Macquarie became governor of New South Wales. He ruled the colony for twelve years, during which time its fate lay in the balance after years of famine and strife, culminating in a coup against its previous governor, William Bligh. The story of Macquarie''s governorship is in many ways the story of early Australian history. No other governor etched his identity so indelibly on his times, nor left his name so well represented on Australian maps. Macquarie''s term encompassed the key events of our country''s crucial third decade of existence, and his governorship accelerated its progress from a jail to a colony of settlement, and from despotism to democracy. Unsurprisingly, the personal story of Macquarie''s years is just as absorbing: a tale of aspirations fulfilled followed by a devastating fall from grace. This book is a timely reminder of Lachlan Macquarie''s importance to modern Australians. It is a fascinating story of the genesis of a nation and of an extraordinary individual who refused to be confounded by the odds stacked against him.

Jan Opolsky has primarily been viewed as an undistinguished hanger-on in the era of Czech literary decadence. Through close reading and detailed analysis of Opolsky's prose, however, Peter Butler argues that, far from his reputation as a literary lackey, Opolsky is a master of sustained narrative irony and an accomplished writer in his own right. Beyond Decadence evaluates archival sources and private correspondence between Opolsky and other literary figures, and includes a classified bibliography of Opolsky's work. Butler's introduction, meanwhile, offers an overview of the Czech decadent/symbolist literary and artistic movements, placing them within a larger European perspective. Redeeming a literary artist who has been nearly forgotten in the English-speaking world, Beyond Decadence will be of particular interest to students of Slavic and European literary history.