The Bodleian Library - Böcker

‘Without a revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement.’ Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, leader of the Bolshevik Revolution and founder of the USSR, was profoundly aware of the power of words. As a zealous orator and prolific writer, he used his words to launch a soaring critique of imperialist society and to theorize the development of the world’s first socialist state. Much of his writing was translated into English in order to further the Socialist cause. This book is a compilation of some of Lenin’s most famous sayings, taken from speeches, tracts, letters and recorded conversations. They expose his views on topics ranging from democracy to terrorism, from religion to Stalin’s untrustworthiness and from education to music. Accompanied by a range of arresting images, including contemporary propaganda posters, photographs, portraits, illustrations and Soviet art, these aphoristic proclamations offer an insight into the atmosphere of pre- and post-Revolutionary Russia and the mind of one of the twentieth century’s most defining political figures.

‘No freeman is to be taken or imprisoned, or dispossessed … except through the lawful judgment of his peers or through the law of the land.’ ‘To no one shall we sell, to no one shall we deny or delay right or justice.’ Magna Carta (or ‘Great Charter’ of English Liberties) is one of the most important documents in legal history. Originating as a peace treaty agreed between King John and a group of powerful barons at Runnymede near Windsor on 15 June 1215, it enshrined in law the concept of individual liberty and defined the role of the monarch towards the people. The charter was successively revised and reissued throughout the thirteenth century by England’s monarchs, and the ideas expressed in it had a profound influence, as seen in the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights. The Latin text of one version of this landmark document (the 1217 issue of Henry III) is transcribed here in full, together with a modern translation and an introduction which traces the background to the making of the charter and its subsequent revisions through the centuries. It also explains how this text has become an enduring symbol of freedom in Britain and throughout the world.

‘Here I am once more in this Scene of Dissipation and vice, and I begin to find already my Morals corrupted.’ Much loved for the romantic plot lines of her novels and witty observations on relationships, Jane Austen was also a prolific letter writer and penned many acerbic, ironic and poignant commentaries on a range of subjects. To her sister Cassandra she wrote with candid humour about the effects of the Peninsular War, on her dislike of parties and social obligations, and about her impressions of London. Her characters speak often, sometimes with bitter sarcasm, of women’s inequality, ageing and the disappointments of marriage. Drawing together fifty quotations from Jane Austen’s letters and novels with vibrant illustrations which illuminate everyday aspects of life in the Georgian era, this beautifully produced volume is the perfect gift for Janeites everywhere.