Vorab-RezensentenA. C. Grayling

Prompted by events in recent years in the UK and the USA, in Latin America, Russia and the Middle East, A. C. Grayling investigates why the institutions of representative democracy seem unable to sustain themselves against forces they were designed to manage, and why it matters. In each of five short chapters, he considers a moment in history in which the challenges we face today were first encountered, how they were overcome – or not – and with what consequences. With the advent of authoritarian leaders and the simultaneous rise of populism, representative democracy appears to be caught between a rock and a hard place, yet it is this space that it must occupy, argues Grayling, if a civilized society, that looks after all its people, is to flourish.

On Love is Stendhal’s profound attempt to rationalise that most complex of emotions – romantic love. Inspired by his unrequited passion for the Countess Dembowska, he brings together logical, clear-sighted analysis with all-consuming emotion, to most remarkable effect. Observing that love exists in many forms, Stendhal begins his ‘study’ by classifying the different types – romantic, passionate, courtly… – whilst musing on love’s birth. He identifies the seven stages of falling in love, proffering wise advice for the ardent lover, not least how to ‘crystallise’ the object of one’s desire. Yet beneath these clever philosophical musings can be seen a desperate attempt to reconcile and dispel his own tortured emotions. The result is an astonishing work that bears all the hallmarks of Stendhal’s later realist masterpieces.

Charlotte Heywood is privileged to accompany Mr and Mrs Parker to their home in Sanditon – not least because, they assure her, it is soon to become the fashionable epicentre of society summers. Finding the town all but deserted, she is party to the machinations of her socially mobile hosts in their attempts to gather a respectable crowd. As Sanditon fills with visitors, Austen assembles a classic cast of characters possessing varying degrees of absurdity and sense. The last of Austen’s fictional works, written in the year before her death when she was gravely ill, Sanditon affords a glimpse of the ultimate creative powers and preoccupations of one of the greatest figures in English literature.