Had Balzac been a less masterful novelist, the disreputably profligate fraud in him might have overwhelmed his artistry. Still, the other Balzac, the artist, is tainted by his well-earned reputation for what has been called artistic license or dishonesty...
The French novelist Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) was the first writer to use fiction to convey the total social scene prevailing within one country at a particular period in its history. Commonly regarded as the founder of social realism, he also...
The Life and Adventures of William Cobbett by Richard Ingrams (HarperCollins, Pounds 20) WHEN William Cobbett was planning his autobiography late in life, he imagined the frontispiece showing two pictures, one of him as a small boy in a blue smock and...
FARMING FEVER has hit the Gambia, as military ruler Captain Yahya Jammeh pursues his ambition to make the small West African country self-sufficient in food. In the beginning, Jammeh used public rallies to urge young men to return to agriculture, castigating them for neglecting...
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Malaysia will continue to help ethnic Malays increase their share in the nation's corporate equity, but will not deprive other races, the deputy prime minister said, according to a local media report. Malaysian affirmative action, also known as...
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia's drive to woo investment is losing traction, as efforts to get rid of red tape and inept bureaucrats falter, threatening to put it further behind neighbouring Singapore. A year after the authorities vowed to speed up the business approval...
