The Signature of All Things

The Signature of All Things
Author: Elizabeth Gilbert
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 514
Release: 2013-10-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1101638001

A glorious, sweeping novel of desire, ambition, and the thirst for knowledge, from the # 1 New York Times bestselling author of Eat Pray Love, Big Magic, and City of Girls In The Signature of All Things, Elizabeth Gilbert returns to fiction, inserting her inimitable voice into an enthralling story of love, adventure and discovery. Spanning much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the novel follows the fortunes of the extraordinary Whittaker family as led by the enterprising Henry Whittaker—a poor-born Englishman who makes a great fortune in the South American quinine trade, eventually becoming the richest man in Philadelphia. Born in 1800, Henry’s brilliant daughter, Alma (who inherits both her father’s money and his mind), ultimately becomes a botanist of considerable gifts herself. As Alma’s research takes her deeper into the mysteries of evolution, she falls in love with a man named Ambrose Pike who makes incomparable paintings of orchids and who draws her in the exact opposite direction—into the realm of the spiritual, the divine, and the magical. Alma is a clear-minded scientist; Ambrose a utopian artist—but what unites this unlikely couple is a desperate need to understand the workings of this world and the mechanisms behind all life. Exquisitely researched and told at a galloping pace, The Signature of All Things soars across the globe—from London to Peru to Philadelphia to Tahiti to Amsterdam, and beyond. Along the way, the story is peopled with unforgettable characters: missionaries, abolitionists, adventurers, astronomers, sea captains, geniuses, and the quite mad. But most memorable of all, it is the story of Alma Whittaker, who—born in the Age of Enlightenment, but living well into the Industrial Revolution—bears witness to that extraordinary moment in human history when all the old assumptions about science, religion, commerce, and class were exploding into dangerous new ideas. Written in the bold, questing spirit of that singular time, Gilbert’s wise, deep, and spellbinding tale is certain to capture the hearts and minds of readers.

Signature of All Things

Signature of All Things
Author: Jacob Boehme
Publisher: Cosimo, Inc.
Total Pages: 301
Release: 2007-06-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1602063974

Showing the Sign and Signification of the Several Forms and Shapes in the Creation; and what the Beginning, Ruin, and Cure of Everything is. It proceeds out of Eternity into Time, and again out of Time into Eternity, and Comprises all Mysteries. And other Writings Of the Supersensual Life or the Life which is Above Sense; The Way from Darkness to True Illumination; Discourse Between Two Souls. Contents: How that all whatever is spoken of God without the Knowledge of the Signature is dumb and without Understanding, and that in the Mind of Man the Signature lies very exactly composed, according to the Being of all Beings, Of the Opposition and Combat in the Essence of all Essences, whereby the Ground of the Sympathy and Antipathy in Nature may be seen, and also the Corruption and Cure of each Thing, Of the great Mystery of all Beings, Of the Birth of the four Elements and Stars, Of the Sulphurean Death, and how the dead Body is revived and replaced into its first Glory or Holiness, How a Water and Oil is generated, How Adam (while he was in Paradise) and also Lucifer were glorious Angels, Of the Sulphurean Sude, or Seething of the Earth, Of the Signature, showing how the inward signs the outward, Of the inward and outward Cure of Man, Of the Process of Christ in his Suffering, Dying, and Rising again, Of the Seventh Form in the Kingdom of the Mother, Of the Enmity of the Spirit and Body, and of their Cure and Restoration, Of the Wheel of Sulphur, Mercury, and Sa

The Botany of Desire

The Botany of Desire
Author: Michael Pollan
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2002-05-28
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0375760393

“Pollan shines a light on our own nature as well as on our implication in the natural world.” —The New York Times “A wry, informed pastoral.” —The New Yorker The book that helped make Michael Pollan, the New York Times bestselling author of How to Change Your Mind, Cooked and The Omnivore’s Dilemma, one of the most trusted food experts in America Every schoolchild learns about the mutually beneficial dance of honeybees and flowers: The bee collects nectar and pollen to make honey and, in the process, spreads the flowers’ genes far and wide. In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan ingeniously demonstrates how people and domesticated plants have formed a similarly reciprocal relationship. He masterfully links four fundamental human desires—sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control—with the plants that satisfy them: the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato. In telling the stories of four familiar species, Pollan illustrates how the plants have evolved to satisfy humankind’s most basic yearnings. And just as we’ve benefited from these plants, we have also done well by them. So who is really domesticating whom?

Pilgrims

Pilgrims
Author: Elizabeth Gilbert
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 171
Release: 2009-11-23
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1408808773

_______________ 'Gilbert takes us on a grit-strewn ride into the heart of Country and Western territory: good old boys, cowgirls, dingy bars, the backwaters and empty plains of America' - Sunday Times 'The heroes of Pilgrims, Elizabeth Gilbert's gimmickless story collection, are everyday seekers...This first-time writer has all the hallmarks of a great writer: sympathy, wit, and an amazing ear for dialogue' - Harper's Bazaar _______________ The very first book by the multimillion-copy bestselling author of Eat Pray Love: A memorable collection of short stories of individuals pursuing their own American pilgrimage The cowboys, strippers, labourers and magicians of Pilgrims are all on their way to being somewhere, or someone, else. Some are browbeaten and world-weary, others are deluded and naïve, yet all seek companionship as fiercely as they can. A tough East Coast girl dares a western cowboy to run off with her; a matronly bar owner falls in love with her nephew; an innocent teenager falls hopelessly for the local bully's sister. These are tough heroes and heroines, hardened by their experiences, who struggle for their epiphanies. Yet hope is never far away and though they may act blindly, they always act bravely. Sharply drawn and tenderly observed, Pilgrims is filled with Gilbert's inimitable humour and warmth.

The Last American Man

The Last American Man
Author: Elizabeth Gilbert
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 239
Release: 2009-08-17
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1408806878

_____________ 'It is almost impossible not to fall under the spell of Eustace Conway ... his accomplishments, his joy and vigor, seem almost miraculous' - New York Times Review of Books 'Gilbert takes a bright-eyed bead on Eustace, hitting him square with a witty modernist appraisal of folkloric American masculinity' - The Times 'Conversational, enthusiastic, funny and sharp, the energy of The Last American Man never ebbs' - New Statesman _____________ A fascinating, intimate portrait of an endlessly complicated man: a visionary, a narcissist, a brilliant but flawed modern hero At the age of seventeen, Eustace Conway ditched the comforts of his suburban existence to escape to the wild. Away from the crushing disapproval of his father, he lived alone in a teepee in the mountains. Everything he needed he built, grew or killed. He made his clothes from deer he killed and skinned before using their sinew as sewing thread. But he didn't stop there. In the years that followed, he stopped at nothing in pursuit of bigger, bolder challenges. He travelled the Mississippi in a handmade wooden canoe; he walked the two-thousand-mile Appalachian Trail; he hiked across the German Alps in trainers; he scaled cliffs in New Zealand. One Christmas, he finished dinner with his family and promptly upped and left - to ride his horse across America. From South Carolina to the Pacific, with his little brother in tow, they dodged cars on the highways, ate road kill and slept on the hard ground. Now, more than twenty years on, Eustace is still in the mountains, residing in a thousand-acre forest where he teaches survival skills and attempts to instil in people a deeper appreciation of nature. But over time he has had to reconcile his ambitious dreams with the sobering realities of modernity. Told with Elizabeth Gilbert's trademark wit and spirit, The Last American Man is an unforgettable adventure story of an irrepressible life lived to the extreme. The Last American Man is a New York Times Notable Book and National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist.

The Signature of All Things

The Signature of All Things
Author: Giorgio Agamben
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2025-02-11
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1942130996

Internationally renowned philosopher Giorgio Agamben’s bold redefinition of methodological inquiry into the human sciences The Signature of All Things is Giorgio Agamben’s sustained reflection on method. To reflect on method implies for Agamben an archeological vigilance: a persistent form of thinking whose path is to expose, examine, and elaborate that which remains obscure, unthematized, even unsaid, in an author’s thought. To be archeologically vigilant, then, is to return to, even invent, a method attuned to a “world supported by a thick plot of resemblances and sympathies, analogies and correspondences.” The range of authors and of topics Agamben collects in this slim but dense volume exemplifies this search to create a science of signatures that exceeds either a semiology or hermeneutics vainly attempting to determine the pure and unmarked signs that signify univocally, neutrally, and eternally. Three conceptual figures organize this treatise and the advent of Agamben’s own new method: the paradigm, the signature, and archeology. Each chapter is devoted to an investigation of one of these concepts whose genealogy Agamben carefully constructs transhistorically and from an interdisciplinary perspective. And at each moment of the text, Agamben pays tribute to Michel Foucault whose methods he rethinks and effectively uses to reformulate the logic of the concepts he isolates. The Signature of All Things reveals once again, how and why, Agamben is one of the most innovative thinkers writing today.

City of Girls

City of Girls
Author: Elizabeth Gilbert
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 480
Release: 2019-06-04
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0698408322

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! From the # 1 New York Times bestselling author of Eat Pray Love and The Signature of All Things, a delicious novel of glamour, sex, and adventure, about a young woman discovering that you don't have to be a good girl to be a good person. "A spellbinding novel about love, freedom, and finding your own happiness." - PopSugar "Intimate and richly sensual, razzle-dazzle with a hint of danger." -USA Today "Pairs well with a cocktail...or two." -TheSkimm "Life is both fleeting and dangerous, and there is no point in denying yourself pleasure, or being anything other than what you are." Beloved author Elizabeth Gilbert returns to fiction with a unique love story set in the New York City theater world during the 1940s. Told from the perspective of an older woman as she looks back on her youth with both pleasure and regret (but mostly pleasure), City of Girls explores themes of female sexuality and promiscuity, as well as the idiosyncrasies of true love. In 1940, nineteen-year-old Vivian Morris has just been kicked out of Vassar College, owing to her lackluster freshman-year performance. Her affluent parents send her to Manhattan to live with her Aunt Peg, who owns a flamboyant, crumbling midtown theater called the Lily Playhouse. There Vivian is introduced to an entire cosmos of unconventional and charismatic characters, from the fun-chasing showgirls to a sexy male actor, a grand-dame actress, a lady-killer writer, and no-nonsense stage manager. But when Vivian makes a personal mistake that results in professional scandal, it turns her new world upside down in ways that it will take her years to fully understand. Ultimately, though, it leads her to a new understanding of the kind of life she craves - and the kind of freedom it takes to pursue it. It will also lead to the love of her life, a love that stands out from all the rest. Now eighty-nine years old and telling her story at last, Vivian recalls how the events of those years altered the course of her life - and the gusto and autonomy with which she approached it. "At some point in a woman's life, she just gets tired of being ashamed all the time," she muses. "After that, she is free to become whoever she truly is." Written with a powerful wisdom about human desire and connection, City of Girls is a love story like no other.

Stern Men

Stern Men
Author: Elizabeth Gilbert
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2009-02-24
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1101014873

The "wonderful first novel about life, love, and lobster fishing" (USA Today) from the #1 bestselling author of Eat Pray Love, Big Magic and City of Girls Off the coast of Maine, Ruth Thomas is born into a feud fought for generations by two groups of local lobstermen over fishing rights for the waters that lie between their respective islands. At eighteen, she has returned from boarding school-smart as a whip, feisty, and irredeemably unromantic-determined to throw over her education and join the "stern men"working the lobster boats. Gilbert utterly captures the American spirit through an unforgettable heroine who is destined for greatness-and love-despite herself in this the critically acclaimed debut.

Big Magic

Big Magic
Author: Elizabeth Gilbert
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2015-09-22
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 0698408314

The instant #1 NEW YORK TIMES Bestseller "A must read for anyone hoping to live a creative life... I dare you not to be inspired to be brave, to be free, and to be curious.” —PopSugar From the worldwide bestselling author of Eat Pray Love and City of Girls: the path to the vibrant, fulfilling life you’ve dreamed of. Readers of all ages and walks of life have drawn inspiration and empowerment from Elizabeth Gilbert’s books for years. Now this beloved author digs deep into her own generative process to share her wisdom and unique perspective about creativity. With profound empathy and radiant generosity, she offers potent insights into the mysterious nature of inspiration. She asks us to embrace our curiosity and let go of needless suffering. She shows us how to tackle what we most love, and how to face down what we most fear. She discusses the attitudes, approaches, and habits we need in order to live our most creative lives. Balancing between soulful spirituality and cheerful pragmatism, Gilbert encourages us to uncover the “strange jewels” that are hidden within each of us. Whether we are looking to write a book, make art, find new ways to address challenges in our work, embark on a dream long deferred, or simply infuse our everyday lives with more mindfulness and passion, Big Magic cracks open a world of wonder and joy.

Committed

Committed
Author: Elizabeth Gilbert
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2010-01-04
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1408807599

________________ 'Like Eat, Pray, Love, her follow-up ... feels irresistibly confessional ... I found myself guzzling Committed, reading it in mighty chunks, far into the night. Whenever I put it down, it was pinched by my mother or sister' - Sunday Times 'An unblinkered consideration of what marriage really means' - Woman & Home 'Gilbert delves deep into the history and cultural meanings of marriage, as well as into her own relationship' - Financial Times 'Insightful ... She speaks for many who question the bliss in conjugal bonds, or, at least, those who want to understand how the tradition still perpetuates. For better or worse' - Vogue ________________ At the end of her bestselling memoir Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert fell in love with Felipe - a Brazilian-born man of Australian citizenship who'd been living in Indonesia when they met. Resettling in America, the couple swore eternal fidelity to each other, but also swore to never, ever, under any circumstances get legally married (Both survivors of difficult divorces. Enough said.) But providence intervened one day in the form of the U.S. government, who - after unexpectedly detaining Felipe at an American border crossing - gave the couple a choice: they could either get married, or Felipe would never be allowed to enter the country again. Having been effectively sentenced to wed, Gilbert tackled her fears of marriage by delving completely into this topic, trying with all her might to discover (through historical research, interviews and much personal reflection) what this stubbornly enduring old institution actually is. The result is Committed - a witty and intelligent contemplation of marriage that debunks myths, unthreads fears and suggests that sometimes even the most romantic of souls must trade in her amorous fantasies for the humbling responsibility of adulthood. Gilbert's memoir - destined to become a cherished handbook for any thinking person hovering on the verge of marriage - is ultimately a clear-eyed celebration of love, with all the complexity and consequence that real love, in the real world, actually entails.