The Age of Silver advances a "horizontal" method of comparative literature and applies this approach to analyze the multiple emergences of early realism and novelistic modernity in Eastern and Western cultural spheres from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. Naming this era of economic globalization the Age of Silver, Ning Ma emphasizes the bullion flow from South America and Japan to China through international commerce, and argues that the resultant transcontinental monetary and commercial co-evolutions stimulated analogous socioeconomic shifts and emergent novelistic realisms. The main texts addressed within include The Plum in the Golden Vase (China), Don Quixote (Spain), The Life of an Amorous Man (Japan), and Robinson Crusoe (England). These Eastern and Western narratives indicate from their own geographical vantage points commercial expansions' stimulation of social mobility and larger processes of cultural destabilization. Their realist tendencies are underlain with politically critical functions and connote "heteroglossic" national imaginaries. This horizontal argument realigns novelistic modernity with a multipolar global context and reestablishes commensurabilities between Eastern and Western literary histories. The Age of Silver challenges the unilateral equation between globalization and modernity with westernization, and foregrounds a polycentric mode of global early modernity for pluralizing the genealogy of world literature and historical transcultural relations.

First Published in 2004. In this original study, Omry Ronen critically examines the term Silver Age, which over the years has gained such wide currency among historians and connoisseurs of twentieth-century Russian culture. His latest research deals with metahistorical and metaliterary value of influential poetic locutions, such as the image of Russia as the sphinx, or the concept of the Silver Age in Russian cultural history.

A childhood comic book fan turned comic book retailer, the author soon discovered the prevalence of scams in the world of comics collecting. This book is his tutorial on how to collect wisely and reduce risks. Drawing on skills learned from twenty years with the San Diego Police Department and as a Comic-Con attendee since 1972, he covers in detail the history and culture of collecting comic books and describes the pitfalls, including common deceptions of grading and pricing, as well as theft, and mail and insurance fraud.

A close study of clothes worn by aristocratic families and their households at the time of the Black Prince - and of Chaucer - showing Europe-wide influences. 1340 to 1363 were years remarkable for dramatic developments in fashion and for extravagant spending on costume, foreshadowing the later luxury of Richard II's court. Stella Mary Newton broke new ground with this detailed study, which discusses fourteenth-century costume in detail. She draws on surviving accounts from the Royal courts, the evidence of chronicles and poetry (often from unpublished manuscripts), and representations in painting, sculpture andmanuscript illumination. Her exploration of aspects of chivalry, particularly the choice of mottoes and devices worn at tournaments, and of the exchange of gifts of clothing between reigning monarchs, offers new insights into thesocial history of the times, and she has much to say that is relevant to the study of illuminated manuscripts of the fourteenth century. STELLA MARY NEWTON's lifelong interest in costume has been the mainspring of her work, from early days as a stage and costume designer (including designing the costumes for the first production of T.S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral) to her later work at the National Gallery advising on the implications ofcostume for the purpose of dating, and at the Courtauld Institute where she set up the department for the study of the history of dress.

While many American superheroes have multiple powers and complex gadgets, the Flash is simply fast. This simplicity makes his character easily comprehendible for all audiences, whether they are avid comic fans or newcomers to the genre, and in turn he has become one of the most iconic figures in the comic-book industry. This collection of new essays serves as a stepping-stone to an even greater understanding of the Flash, examining various iterations of his character--including those of Jay Garrick, Barry Allen, Wally West and Bart Allen--and what they reveal about the era in which they were written.

Make Your Study Personal and Your Devotions Serious. You study the Bible to connect with God's heart. The NLT Study Bible gives you the tools you need to enter the world of the Bible so you can do just that. Including over 25,000 study notes plus profiles, charts, maps, timelines, book and section introductions, and approximately 300 theme notes, the NLT Study Bible will make your study personal and your devotions serious. This new large print edition features a generous 10-point font. The New Living Translation breathes life into even the most difficult-to-understand Bible passages, changing lives as the words speak directly to their hearts.