Bøger udgivet af WORD TO THE WISE

"Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its jagged edges." Herman Melville's Billy Budd is a work of fiction that delves into philosophical questions such as justice, law and destiny. It tells the story of an illegitimate orphan who grows into a charismatic and ambitious seaman. Aboard the Bellipotent, Budd is much respected and even loved by the crew for his good-tempered personality and willingness to help others. This appreciation for his humane qualities makes John Claggart, a superior officer, jealous of him. When Claggart falsely accuses Budd of conspiracy and tries to frame him in front of Captain Vere, innocent Budd is left astonished and speechless. The young seaman eventually moves towards Claggart and unintentionally strikes him to death. The rest of the narrative focuses on whether Budd deserves capital punishment for murder or not. It is then that questions such as the duality between law and justice as well as the duality between human justice and divine justice are debated, mainly by Captain Vere who acts as prosecutor and judge on board. The captain ultimately decides to execute Budd arguing that, though human perfection is unattainable, such decision must be taken since any semblance of weakness of the law could encourage more mutinies among the British fleet.

"I wish, as well as everybody else, to be perfectly happy; but, like everybody else, it must be in my own way."Sense and Sensibility (1811) is Jane Austen's first published novel. It is a book about love and romance that follows the life of Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. When their father dies and his property goes to his son and first wife, the Dashwood sisters move with their family to live in a modest cottage in Devonshire where start their romantic adventures and heartbreaks. The cottage belongs to their mother's cousin Sir John Middleton who welcomes them and presents them to his family and friends. One of John's friends, Colonel Brandon, soon falls in love with Marianne, yet the latter finds him unattractive and too old for her age. She later meets the philandering John Willoughby and becomes interested in him to be drowned in grief when he leaves to do business in London. As for Elinor, she develops a relationship with Edward Ferrars before they move to Devonshire. When the two sisters are disappointed by their lovers who go with other women, the novel depicts the different ways they react as well as their wavering between passion and reason. By the end of the novel, Edward comes to mend his relationship with Elinor and marries her while Marianne marries Colonel Brandon. We've also included a concise and informative biography of Jane's works and life at the end of the book. We hope it helps to give a little context and colour about how her life interacted with her art.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Notes from the Underground is both a fictional and philosophical work. It is considered by many critics as an early existentialist novella. The narrative takes the form of notes written by an unnamed narrator and is divided into two parts. In the first part entitled "e;Underground,"e; the protagonist is presented as a pessimist misanthrope who comments on a number of philosophical concepts such as the duality between determinism and free will. Basing his criticism on the work of Nikolay Chernyshevsky, he attacks modern schools of thought that purport to be founded solely on logical reasoning, namely utilitarianism and positivism. The second part of the book, entitled "e;Apropos of the Wet Snow,"e; is closer to fiction than to philosophical analysis. It rather seems to serve as a practical part for the theories exposed in the former through relating some events that happened to the narrator when he was a young man. The narrator often finds difficulty in socializing and even in interacting with the different people around him. Total misunderstanding and mistrust make him feel alienated in society. His feeling of indecision keeps on haunting him until the very end of the narrative when it is revealed that he has even been hesitating to conclude his notes.