NEW ARRIVALS

  224 pg,  HB, Columbia UP

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  320 pg, PB, Holt

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  245 pg, HB, Thomas Dunne

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   304 pg, HB, Forge Books

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                      J. W. Eagan 

    FEATURED TITLE

625 pages, Hardcover, Penguin

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Holy Madness advances a particular argument: that the century of revolutionary upheaval was the direct result of the waning of religion as a universal human-value system. Post-Enlightenment men and women turned to the ecstasies of patriotism and revolution to fill the void left by belief in God, hoping to construct a paradise on Earth rather than wait for one in heaven.  According to this thesis, revolution was a new theology: "The theology may have been shaky, but the new religion did have a god. That god was the sovereign nation, whose service was the highest calling, as countless revolutionary catechisms pointed out." It's an ingenious line, worked through thoroughly, although it doesn't explain everything--for instance, why Britain was almost entirely free of revolutionary upset during the same period. But this is thought-provoking and well-made historical writing.

160 pg, Hardcover

U of South Carolina Press

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Departing radically from most standard travelogues, Meredith conducts a personally guided tour through both the exotic and the provincial settings that inspired and enhanced the works of a number of twentieth-century writers. Stringing together a dozen charming travel essays, the author, a seasoned traveler, offers an intimate, highly detailed glimpse into the unique literary landscapes of poets and novelists who "had captured the essence of a city, a region, a land, and used their works as guides." The inclusive pastiche of authors and locales surveyed include Dylan Thomas, Wales; Isak Dinesen, Africa; T. E. Lawrence, the Middle East; C. P. Cavafy, Alexandria; Naguib Mahfouz, Cairo; Thomas Mann, Venice; Giorgio Bassani, Italy; and Marguerite Duras and Graham Greene, Vietnam. This delightfully descriptive and evocative entree into some of the most intriguing literary stamping grounds is artfully designed to appeal to both scholars and armchair tourists.