Tom Hubbard Boeken

Tom Hubbard is a poet, novelist and distinguished scholar of Scottish literature and culture who has worked in universities throughout Europe and the United States. These essays encompass forty years of investigating Scotland and its European contexts.

This volume counters the relative neglect of comparative literature in Scotland by exploring the fortunes of Scottish writing in mainland Europe, and, conversely, the engagement of Scottish literary intellectuals with European texts.

This book offers you a virtual tour of much of Fife, mainly of its 'fringe of gold'. It starts just west of Newburgh at the border with Perthshire and ends at the Kincardine Bridge, with substantial forays inland. The county's international bearings are highlighted, with poetry and prose invoking ancestral 'Fifers' such as the Russian poet Mikhail Lermontov and the American novelist Herman Melville of Moby-Dick. Goethe's 'Faust' finds a Scottish accent of sorts (as also the Shakespeare of 'Macbeth' and 'The Tempest'), and Alexander Pushkin unknowingly borrows a tale from Dunfermline's Robert Henrysoun.The centre-piece, which provides the title of our gallimaufry, is a play based on the vicissitudes of Michael Scot of Balwearie, the medieval polymath famous in both legend and history, and centering on his pact with the devil. More recent local heroes are celebrated, not least Joe Corrie of In Time o' Strife. 'This is what makes Tom Hubbard such a rewarding guide: a man steeped in the places and tales of the Kinrick who doesn't get run over by them, rather he manages to unfold fresh visions, partly because - as cosmopolitan traveller and translator, all human effort lies before him.' - from CHRISTOPHER HARVIE's Foreword.

The Flechitorium 'The Flechitorium presents an enormous range of subject matters, forms, styles and language but all of them are lynch-pinned by the author's deep and sometimes ambivalent relationship with his native Fife ... But what is a "Flechitorium"? You'll have to read the poem therein to find out, dear reader, but be careful - this is a collect on with a real bite to it. 'On the bill in this particular Flechitorium are a fistul of narrative ballads, historical and humorous to get us of to a flier. Then the mood changes and becomes more reflective and sombre ... That old Scottish literary tradition of flyting is resumed and developed in the contretemps between the allegorical squirrel and the peacock in Dunfermline Glen .... And as a bonus, the gathering of braw poems is enhanced by a sulfurous tale to conclude - though one more RLS than Hammer House of Horror. 'The Flechitorium is a delicious Fife broth or even Langtoun bouillabaisse ... with its many hints and references to other literary cuisines beyond Fife and Scotland. At times it is funny, at others serious, it is always humane in its span of concerns from bawdy to spiritual yet the poems are crafted to address and engage intellectually as well as emotionally. Whether supped with short or lang spuin it will satisfy all tastes.' From the Preface by William Hershaw

Offering an insider's perspective, this book reveals the authentic experiences of hunting and fishing, going beyond the typical how-to articles found in outdoor magazines. It emphasizes the importance of preparation for success while celebrating the thrill of capturing trophy animals and large fish, highlighting the joy and satisfaction derived from these pursuits.

From Edinburgh to Samoa, Robert Louis Stevenson was a Scot who became a world citizen; as a writer he has a large following in many countries. The interlinked studies in this volume deploy his work as the base for an exploration of cultural crosscurrents in the late 19th century and beyond, suggesting relationships with such European figures as Dostoyevsky, Rilke and Jung. Particular attention is paid to Stevenson's bearings on the Symbolist movement, as evident in his association with the French writer Marcel Schwob. Concentrating initially on Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde , and on puritan repression versus unbridled energy, the book points to the deeper universal significance of the Hyde figure and its related archetypes in other works by Stevenson and throughout Scottish, English, European, American and Third World literatures and cultures. With chapters entitled 'Hellish Energy', 'Masks and Mirrors', 'The Damnation of Faust' and 'Underground and Labyrinth', this book is for those who are fascinated by a writer at once approachable and enigmatic.