Hot on the heels of our May titles, I give you… our June titles! They’re going to be published on the 24th of June, but are all available for pre-order from bookshops and online retailers.
Rossum’s Universal Robots by Karel Capek
“A joy to read… a wonderfully surprising teller of some fairly astonishing and unforgettable tales.’ – ARTHUR MILLER on Rossum’s Universal Robots
Karel Capek was one of the most influential Czech writers of the twentieth century and is widely credited as the inventor of the word ‘robot’. His play is a classic of the dystopian genre, playing on themes of humanity, obedience and artificial intelligence.
Determined to liberate the mass-produced but highly intelligent robots forged in the machinery of Rossum’s island factory, Helena Glory arrives in a blaze of righteousness. Soon perplexed by the robots’ seeming humanity but absolute lack of sentience, she abandons her strident campaigning and falls in love with Domin, the factory’s general manager. Yet even as their life on the island appears to become more comfortable, the tide is turning against the humans.
Scientific Lives by John Aubrey
“Much against his mother’s consent, [Sir Kenelm Digby] married that celebrated beauty and courtesan, Mrs. Venetia Stanley, … He would say that a handsome lusty man who was discreet might make a virtuous wife out of a brothel-house. This lady carried herself blamelessly, yet (they say) he was jealous of her. She died suddenly, and hard-hearted women would censure him severely.” – JOHN AUBREY, Scientific LivesThis new selection from Brief Lives, John Aubrey’s enormous work of seventeenth-century biography, brings together his writings on contemporary scientists, explorers and men of innovation, including astronomer Edmund Halley, celebrated mapmaker Wenceslaus Hollar and the explorer and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh. Quirky, amusing and informative, Aubrey’s writing is the epitome of an exciting and inventive age.
The Forest Woman by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee
”The publication of The Forest Woman took the Kolkata literary world by storm, and confirmed Bankim Chandra’s reputation as one of the pioneers of the Indian novel.” – RADHA CHAKRAVARTY, translator
A rich tale of tantric ritual and court intrigue, set in eastern India during the seventeenth century, The Forest Woman shows Calcutta’s most famous novelist at his incisive and alluring best.
Abandoned by his fellow travellers on a tiger-ridden shore in eastern Bengal, the narrator stumbles acros Kapalkundala, a strange, beautiful woman. But she has been enslaved by a priest – who plans to sacrifice them both in an esoteric rite. The only way for Kapalkundala and the narrator to escape is by marrying each other and travelling on to town in disguise……
