Abacus

This novel deals with the relationship between a devoted piano teacher, the Madame Sousatzka of the title, and an aspiring young pianist. The action takes place largely in the dilapidated London home of Sousatzka where three other colourful characters also live. One is a 'countess' in retirement who spends most of her time sitting and looking at the world, the second is a gay osteopath whose theories aim to benefit mankind, and the third, Jenny, is a woman-of-the-evening, albeit one of especial beauty and delicacy. Sousatzka herself came to Britain as a refugee from Russia. She has developed her own system for teaching the piano, but even she has doubts about its efficacy. Madame Sousatzka specialises in child prodigies. In her hands the new boy will blossom into musical genius. But the public cannot hear him yet: until his debut he belongs to Sousatzka and her bizarre hot- house tenants. One day he will be a great pianist - until that day he must play only for Sousatzka …

How the patriarchal bias operates in culture and is reflected in literature.

Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered is a collection of essays published in 1973 by German-born British economist E. F. Schumacher. The title "Small Is Beautiful" came from a principle espoused by Schumacher’s teacher Leopold Kohr (1909–1994) advancing small, appropriate technologies, policies, and polities as a superior alternative to the mainstream ethos of "bigger is better". Overlapping environmental, social, and economic forces such as the 1973 energy crisis and popularisation of the concept of globalisation helped bring Schumacher’s Small Is Beautiful critiques of mainstream economics to a wider audience during the 1970s. In 1995 The Times Literary Supplement ranked Small Is Beautiful among the 100 most influential books published since World War II. A further edition with commentaries was published in 1999. (Source: [Wikipedia](