Legend Press

When Charlotte Bronte's father asked Gaskell to write his daughter's biography, his main concern was to preserve the legacy of Charlotte and present an authorised take on her life as opposed to the speculations and gossip in the yellow papers. Gaskell and Charlotte had met on just a few occasions, so the biographer had to do profound research to actually delve into her mysterious life. From Charlotte's own notes to various letters she had access to, Gaskell is seen mapping through a range of sources to find out the truth of her life. Right from the first pages of the text, we can distinctly spot Gaskell's artistic infusions of metaphors and the poetic descriptions of the setting as well as doing justice with the life of Charlotte Bronte. This biography is all that is needed for Bronte's readers as well as the admirers of inventive stylistic takes in non-fictional writing. Upon its publication in 1857, The Life of Charlotte Bronte quite predictably caused controversy, so much so that the biographer was threatened with a legal action. Exciting exploration into Charlotte's life and the criticism which followed, this makes it a must read for Bronte students and fans.

In 2018, the first genetically-modified children were born. Now we have the tools to reshape the future of our species. With a pair of genetic scissors known as CRISPR, we can potentially select the traits of our children, or avoid ageing, or cure disease. But with that ability comes a new set of risks, forcing us to face hard ethical questions. Torill Kornfeldt has travelled all over the world to meet the people driving this research forward. She has visited fertility clinics in South Korea, oncologists in China who are experimenting on sick patients, and biohackers in the US who want to make the new technology available to everyone. In The Unnatural Selection of Our Species, she asks: How are we supposed to handle these new tools that could end up changing our genetic material?

Smell is arguably the least understood sense, yet it has always been a vital component of the human experience, and that of all living creatures. It has been used by plants and animals for millions of years to warn, to attract, to identify, to navigate and even to mislead. Smelling to Survive explains some of these fascinating processes, and explores how the past would have smelt quite different to our ancestors, and how future technologies will further change the world of scents. Along the way, leading scientist Bill S. Hansson recounts amazing stories from the world of olfactory research: from the tobacco plant that excretes an alarm odour, to mosquitos that cherish the smell of sweaty feet, to lilies that imitate the fragrance of a dead horse. Hansson explains why scientists are interested in the smell that surrounds teenage males, and how climate change affects the smell of our environment. He describes research trips to Christmas Island, where crabs with particularly keen noses crack coconuts on the beach, and outlines studies that reveal how penguins recognize their partner by their scent.

Can your marriage survive if you’re both sleeping with other people? ?After more than 20 years of marriage, Fay and Steve are happy enough, though life's become routine and lacks excitement. Fay believes an open relationship could reignite the spark they've lost. But can sex ever just be sex? Steve eventually agrees to the idea of sleeping with other people, but first they must set some ground rules; no sex with friends, no telling the kids, and a limit on how many times they can see the same person. Can their marriage survive non-monogamy – even if they have permission?

Why are we often convinced that we're right even when we're wrong? Why are we jealous, or paranoid, even when we have absolutely no reason to be? Why is it so easy for fake news to spread around the globe and fool us? It's because we don't see the world as it is, rather we reconstruct it in our mind. Reality is way too complex and multiple to be apprehended by our capacities of attention, which are quite limited, as well as our brain abilities. That is why our perception of the world is subjective and various elements influence the way we acquire knowledge and form opinions. Our brain is recreating the world in its own way - most of the time for our own good: how hard would it be if, before making a choice, we had to know about all the options available in a given situation? It would take us forever to choose an item of clothing in a store, or a meal in a restaurant! Luckily, our brain can estimate: even if it makes us imperfect and subject to illusion, delusion and error, it allows us to reconstruct the world as we know it, and live in it. However, these very useful mechanisms can sometimes mislead us and have a rather negative impact on our actions, beliefs and opinions: when our brain behaves that way, we say it is biased. Albert Moukheiber gives us tips and tricks to fight against these cognitive biases - the first one being not to trust ourselves too much and to always doubt our thinking processes, especially in this era where social networks spread information like an epidemic. In this book, filled with multiple examples from our daily lives and psychosocial experiments, Moukheiber explores the building blocks of our perception, cognition and behavior, which are involved in acquiring knowledge or forming opinions.

"The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth." The Awakening follows Edna Pontellier, a resident of coastal Grand Isle of Louisiana, in her late twenties, who has a quintessential set-up for a content housewife. Indeed, her husband makes good money, and her daily routine should gleefully hinge on the two children, but, Edna is neither a self-sacrificing mother, nor a devoted wife. Instead, she is gradually awoken to rebel against this 'perfect set-up'. Edna finds herself in the middle of two extremes. On one hand, she finds selfless Madame Ratignolle, who is a model wife. On the other, there is dejected Mademoiselle Reisz, who pursues her artistic aspiration in solitude. While taking bold decisions and carving her niche, she explores her sexuality with a womanizer, Alcee and an intimate understanding with a young man, Robert Lebrun. Will this awakening predetermine her ultimate happiness or signpost personal tragedy? Will the duality of the 'outward existence' and 'inward life' be reconciled for Edna to signify her emancipation? This short novel is widely acknowledged to do both, encapsulating the features of fin de si?cle realism in its linear narrative, and anticipates literary modernism of the early twentieth century. Edna's defiance of the American alternative of Victorian 'Angel in the House' is reminiscent of such classics as Anna Bronte's Tenant of the Wildfell Hall. The Awakening also procures modernist works where the heroines look for the self - namely, Mrs Dalloway, Their Eyes Were Watching God and The Bell Jar. The condensed and intense prose style gives the novel a cryptic charm in line with Fitzgerald's classic, The Great Gatsby. Besides, vivid natural symbolism of water, birds and the moon are the calling card of the novel that enhances its level of ambiguity and multivalence.

Legally part of Moldova, Transnistria is sandwiched between that country and southern Ukraine. After the USSR broke up, its people's desire not to be governed by Moldova led to a 1992 war in which nearly 1,000 died; since then, it has maintained de facto independence, although it relies significantly on Russian economic, political and military support. Technically, there is still a conflict between Transnistria and Moldova, but this has become frozen and they enjoy reasonably civil relations. Resulting from six years of research, during which the author made nine visits to the territory - where he interviewed politicians, judges, public servants, human rights lawyers, diplomats, police officers, academics, students and others - this book examines what the best future for Transnistria is and whether de jure independence is a viable solution.

They look just like any other family... but between the four children there are THREE sets of parents who committed to an open adoption of biological siblings, keeping the children connected after the death of their grandmother. Tabitha the planner of the group, is insistent that everything happens just so. Quiet single mother Ginger resists the forced togetherness, and newest mother Elizabeth is still reeling from going directly from failed fertility treatments into adopting a newborn. But when the three women receive a surprising call from their children’s birth mother, announcing she is pregnant again and wants them to help her find an adoptive family for this child too, the delicate bonds they are still struggling to form threaten to collapse. As tensions start to rise on their joint family holiday, the three women reckon with their own feelings about what it means to be a mother and what they owe each other as a family. The New York Times bestselling author of The Weird Sisters returns with a striking and intimate new novel about three very different women facing an impossible question: what makes a family?

When 25-year-old Emelie is found murdered in her Stockholm apartment the same week her ex-partner is released from prison, it feels like an open and shut case for Detective Vanessa Frank. Who else would launch such a frenzied attack on the young woman? But Frank suspects there is something they're missing. Could the killing be linked to the rising online movement of men who want to punish women, the so-called 'incels'? When a survivor of brutal sexual assault comes forward, Frank uncovers more about this shadowy group who, in their own words, have weaponised the gender war and will stop at nothing to make themselves heard. Desperate to stop any further attacks, Frank escalates the investigation when a music festival intended to be a safe space for women becomes a potential target.

Kuba is a cocaine dealer in the dark, electric streets of Warsaw, believing he is smart enough to stay in control, unlike the top lawyers, doctors, TV personalities who are his client base. However, after calling in the debt of a failing nightclub owner, breaking his own rules on other people's property and being caught in the consequences of his clients' actions, all control starts to slip from his grasp. Now suffering under the glare of the spotlight and dragged into the dark underbelly of the drug world, Kuba must find a way through the middle of the whirlwind of violence and betrayal sweeping him away.

With crackling suspense, unforgettable characters and searing insight, The Lost Apothecary is a subversive and intoxicating debut novel of secrets, vengeance and the remarkable ways women can save each other despite the barrier of time. Hidden in the depths of eighteenth-century London, a secret apothecary shop caters to an unusual kind of clientele. Women across the city whisper of a mysterious figure named Nella who sells well-disguised poisons to use against the oppressive men in their lives. But the apothecary’s fate is jeopardized when her newest patron, a precocious twelve-year-old, makes a fatal mistake, sparking a string of consequences that echo through the centuries. Meanwhile in present-day London, aspiring historian Caroline Parcewell spends her tenth wedding anniversary alone, running from her own demons. When she stumbles upon a clue to the unsolved apothecary murders that haunted London two hundred years ago, her life collides with the apothecary’s in a stunning twist of fate—and not everyone will survive.

45,000 years ago, rare and precious statues of faceless women with hourglass figures, sturdy hips and generous breasts surfaced across Europe. Spanning thousands of years and nurturing many a fantasy, they are known as the prehistoric Venus figurines. But what were the women who inspired these artifacts really like? For 150 years researchers offered no archaeological insights into the daily lives of prehistoric women and underestimated their role in society. In fact, these women became imprisoned by clichés. Prehistoric man hunted, went on adventures, invented, created and drew, whereas the role of prehistoric women was limited to educating children and carrying out domestic chores. That's all there was to say about it, or almost. Over the past fifteen years a new generation of researchers - many of whom are women - have shaken up this model. By establishing groundbreaking analysis protocols and defining new excavation methods, these scientists are finally able to make the invisible visible. It is thanks to their tenacity that the essential and even prestigious role of prehistoric women is emerging. For the first time ever these ancient women are being resurrected before our very eyes, shedding light on a new theory of our origins!