Andrew Porter

The end of Elson and Cadence Harding's 30-year marriage is complicated by their adult son's reluctance to pursue a promising career and their daughter's mysterious expulsion from college. A first novel by the Pushcart Prize-winning author of the story collection, The Theory of Light and Matter.

In Between Days

Stories

Disappeared

Offers ten short stories that explore sacrifice and loss in American suburbia.

The Theory of Light & Matter

Alaine Low

Volume III of "The Oxford History of the British Empire" covers the long 19th century, from the achievement of American independence in the 1780s to the eve of world war in 1914. This was the period of Britain's greatest expansion as both empire-builder and dominant world power. The volume is divided into two parts. The first contains thematic chapters, some focusing on Britain, others on areas at the imperial periphery, exploring those fundamental dynamics of British expansion which made imperial influence and rule possible. They also examine the economic, cultural, and institutional frameworks which gave shape to Britain's overseas empire. Part 2 is devoted to the principal areas of imperial activity overseas, including both white settler and tropical colonies. Chapters examine how British interests and imperial rule shaped individual regions' 19th-century political and social-economic history. Themes dealt with include the economics of empire, imperial institutions, defence, technology, imperial and colonial cultures, science and exploration.

The Nineteenth Century

Twisted Tales - UK Legends

“Andrew Porter is a born storyteller . . . He makes his own space instantly and invites you in. Hats off!” —Barry Hannah From a commanding new voice in fiction comes a novel as perceptive as it is generous: a portrait of an American family trying to cope in our world today, a story of choices and doubts and transgressions. The Hardings are teetering on the brink. Elson—once one of Houston’s most promising architects, who never quite lived up to expectations—is recently divorced from his wife of thirty years, Cadence. Their grown son, Richard, is still living at home: driving his mother’s minivan, working at a local coffee shop, resisting the career as a writer that beckons him. But when Chloe Harding gets kicked out of her East Coast college, for reasons she can’t explain to either her parents or her older brother, the Hardings’ lives start to unravel. Chloe returns to Houston, but the dangers set in motion back at school prove inescapable. Told with piercing insight, taut psychological suspense, and the wisdom of a true master of character, this is a novel about the vagaries of love and family, about betrayal and forgiveness, about the possibility and impossibility of coming home. This eBook edition includes a Reading Group Guide.

Wholeness With the Earth seeks to explore a paradigm for a sustainable future. Given climate change, the exotic animal trade, species loss, pollution, and overall environmental degradation, change, both individual and communal, is needed. This book is a critique of the way we treat the planet and an articulation of a way forward. It offers philosophical insight into a real way to better our relationship with the Earth. Through specific cases and reflection, the book identifies an 'inner ecological crisis' and advocates 'going green' not out of necessity but by choice.

Wholeness With the Earth

Philip Gossett

Julian Budden

Mosco Carner

William Ashbrook

Friedrich Lippmann

These five biographies provide the first complete survey of Italian opera from the early buffo operas of Rossini to Verdi's great masterpieces, Otello and Falstaff, and the verismo operas of Puccini. Andrew Porter has been highly praised for his original and enlightening account of Verdi, and Philip Gossett has received similar acclaim for his treatment of Rossini. Porter, Gossett, William Ashbrooke, Julian Budden, Mosco Carner, and Friedrich Lippmann, all acknowledged experts in the field of Italian opera, combine to offer insight into the traditions and workings of one of the most fascinating periods in the history of opera. Book jacket.

Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, Verdi, Puccini

The New Grove Masters of Italian Opera

The only book to analyse the general relationships between Protestant missions and imperial Expansion in modern British history to 1914. A monumental book that draws extensively on the enormous range of literature represented by imperial history, religious history, and areas studies from the Far East to the Caribbean.

British Protestant Missionaries and Overseas Expansion, 1700-1914

Religion Versus Empire?

The Oxford History of the British Empire is a major new assessment of the Empire in the light of recent scholarship and the progressive opening of historical records. From the founding of colonies in North America and the West Indies in the seventeenth century to the reversion of Hong Kong to China at the end of the twentieth, British imperialism was a catalyst for far-reaching change. The Oxford History of the British Empire as a comprehensive study helps us to understand the end of Empire in relation to its beginning, the meaning of British imperialism for the ruled as well as for the rulers, and the significance of the British Empire as a theme in world history. Volume III of The Oxford History of the British Empire covers the long nineteenth century, from the achievement of American independence in the 1780s to the eve of world war in 1914. This was the period of Britain's greatest expansion as both empire-builder and dominant world power. The volume is divided into two parts. The first contains thematic chapters, some focusing on Britain, others on areas at the imperial periphery, exploring those fundamental dynamics of British expansion whcih made imperial influence and rule possible. They also examine the economic, cultural, and institutional frameworks whcih gave shape to Britain's overseas empire. Part 2 is devoted to the principal areas of imperial activity overseas, including both white settler and tropical colonies. Chapters examine how British interests and imperial rule shaped individual regions' nineteenth-century political and socio-economic history. Themes dealt with include the economics of empire, imperial institutions, defence, technology, imperial and colonial cultures, science and exploration. Attention is given not only to the formal empire, from Australasia and the West Indies to India and the African colonies, but also to China and Latin America, often regarded as central components of a British `informal empire'.

The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume III: The Nineteenth Century

These ten short stories explore loss and sacrifice in American suburbia. In idyllic suburbs across the country, from Philadelphia to San Francisco, narrators struggle to find meaning or value in their lives because of (or in spite of) something that has happened in their pasts. In "Hole," a young man reconstructs the memory of his childhood friend's deadly fall. In "The Theory of Light and Matter," a woman second-guesses her choice between a soul mate and a comfortable one. Memories erode as Porter's characters struggle to determine what has happened to their loved ones and whether they are responsible. Children and teenagers carry heavy burdens in these stories: in "River Dog" the narrator cannot fully remember a drunken party where he suspects his older brother assaulted a classmate; in "Azul" a childless couple, craving the affection of an exchange student, fails to set the boundaries that would keep him safe; and in "Departure" a suburban teenage boy fascinated with the Amish makes a futile attempt to date a girl he can never be close to. Memory often replaces absence in these stories as characters reconstruct the events of their pasts in an attempt to understand what they have chosen to keep. These struggles lead to an array of secretive and escapist behavior as the characters, united by middle-class social pressures, try to maintain a sense of order in their lives. Drawing on the tradition of John Cheever, these stories recall and revisit the landscape of American suburbia through the lens of a new generation.

The Theory of Light and Matter

Andrew Porter's stories offer a stunningly astute vision of contemporary American suburbia, full of tension, heartbreak and emotional complexity - the work of an important new voice. These ten stories take us across the country - from rural Pennsylvania to suburban Connecticut - and deep into characters struggling to find meaning in their day-to-day lives. A childless couple, craving the affection of an exchange student, fail to set set the boundaries that would keep him safe. And in the title story, a college student looking for her soul mate confronts an impossible choice.

Andrew Porter

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