literary hyperlinks
Just One Look
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Coben, Harlan, PUBLISHER: Large Print Press, A New York Times Bestseller A Main Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club, Doubleday Book Club, Literary Guild, and Mystery Guild Harlan Coben, author of the coast-to-coast bestseller "No Second Chance," delivers an emotionally powerful thrill-ride of a novel that asks the question: How far would you go to protect your family? An ordinary snapshot causes a suburban mother's world to unravel in an instant. When Grace Lawson picks up a newly developed set of family photographs, there is a picture that doesn't belong - a photo from at least twenty years ago. In the photo are five people: four Grace can't recognize and one that looks strikingly like her husband, Jack. When Jack sees the photo, he denies he's the man in it. But later that night, while Grace lies in bed, he drives away without explanation, taking the photograph with him. In the days that follow, Grace struggles with doubts and unanswered questions, along with the realization that others are looking for Jack - including one fierce, silent killer who will not be stopped. About the author: Winner of the Edgar Award, the Shamus Award, and the Anthony Award, Harlan Coben is the author of ten previous novels, including the New York Times bestsellers "No Second Chance, Gone for Good," and "Tell No One," and his highly popular Myron Bolitar series. Harlan Coben lives in Ridgewood, New Jersey, with his wife and their four children.
The Real American Dream: A Meditation on Hope
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Delbanco, Andrew, PUBLISHER: Harvard University Press, Since we discovered that, in Tocqueville's words, "the incomplete joys of this world will never satisfy the heart," how have we Americans made do? In "The Real American Dream" one of the nation's premier literary scholars searches out the symbols and stories by which Americans have reached for something beyond worldly desire. A spiritual history ranging from the first English settlements to the present day, the book is also a lively, deeply learned meditation on hope. Andrew Delbanco tells of the stringent God of Protestant Christianity, who exerted immense force over the language, institutions, and customs of the culture for nearly 200 years. He describes the falling away of this God and the rise of the idea of a sacred nation-state. And, finally, he speaks of our own moment, when symbols of nationalism are in decline, leaving us with nothing to satisfy the longing for transcendence once sustained by God and nation. From the Christian story that expressed the earliest Puritan yearnings to New Age spirituality, apocalyptic environmentalism, and the multicultural search for ancestral roots that divert our own, "The Real American Dream" evokes the tidal rhythm of American history. It shows how Americans have organized their days and ordered their lives--and ultimately created a culture--to make sense of the pain, desire, pleasure, and fear that are the stuff of human experience. In a time of cultural crisis, when the old stories seem to be faltering, this book offers a lesson in the painstaking remaking of the American dream.
Back to Barbary Lane: The Final Tales of the City Omnibus
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Maupin, Armistead, PUBLISHER: Harper, "An old fashioned pleasure... there' s been nothing like it since the heyday of the serial novel 100 years ago... Tearing through the tales] one after the other, as I did, allows instant gratification; it also lets you appreciate how masterfully they' re constructed. No matter what Maupin writes next, he can look back on the rare achievement of having built a little world and made it run." --Walter Kendrick, "Village Voice Literary Supplement" By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, Armistead Maupin' s bestselling "Tales of the City" series stands as an incomparable blend of great storytelling and incisive social commentary. These six classic comedies, some of which originally appeared as serials in San Francisco newspapers, have won Maupin critical acclaim around the world and enthralled legions of devoted fans. "Back to Barbary Lane" comprises the second trilogy of the series--"Babycakes" (), "Significant Others" (), and "Sure of You" () -- concluding the saga of the tenants, past and present, of Mrs. Madrigal' s beloved apartment house on Russian Hill. While the first trilogy celebrated the carefree excesses of the seventies, this volume tracks its hapless, all-to-human cast across a decade troubled by plague, deceit and overweening ambition. Like its companion volume, "28 Barbary Lane, Back to Barbary Lane" is distinguished by what "The Guardian" of London has called "some of the sharpest and most speakable dialogue you are ever likely to read." It promises hours of literate entertainment for readers old and new. With a foreword by the author.
The Myth of the Paperless Office
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Sellen, Abigail J. / Harper, Richard H. R., PUBLISHER: MIT Press (MA), IEEE-USAB Award for Distinguished Literary Contributions Furthering Engineering Professionalism Over the past thirty years, many people have proclaimed the imminent arrival of the paperless office. Yet even the World Wide Web, which allows almost any computer to read and display another computer's documents, has increased the amount of printing done. The use of e-mail in an organization causes an average 40 percent increase in paper consumption. In "The Myth of the Paperless Office," Abigail Sellen and Richard Harper use the study of paper as a way to understand the work that people do and the reasons they do it the way they do. Using the tools of ethnography and cognitive psychology, they look at paper use from the level of the individual up to that of organizational culture. Central to Sellen and Harper's investigation is the concept of "affordances"--the activities that an object allows, or affords. The physical properties of paper (its being thin, light, porous, opaque, and flexible) afford the human actions of grasping, carrying, folding, writing, and so on. The concept of affordance allows them to compare the affordances of paper with those of existing digital devices. They can then ask what kinds of devices or systems would make new kinds of activities possible or better support current activities. The authors argue that paper will continue to play an important role in office life. Rather than pursue the ideal of the paperless office, we should work toward a future in which paper and electronic document tools work in concert and organizational processes make optimal use of both.
Poetry for Students
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Gale Group / Napierkowski, Marie Rose, PUBLISHER: Gale Cengage, Give students the tools they need to make books and authors a meaningful part of their lives by introducing them to one of our "For Students" literary references. These resources are specially crafted to meet the curricular needs of high school and undergraduate college students and their teachers as well as the interests of general readers and researchers. Each title in the series provides understandable, comprehensive explanations of the most commonly studied poems, novels, dramas, epics and short stories as identified by an advisory board of teachers and librarians. No other literature references furnish such a high level of coverage -- all written in an unassuming tone that users will welcome. The references in the Gale Group's "For Students" series provide: -- Easy-to-read discussions of themes, plots and characters -- Easy-to-understand critical essays chosen specifically for students -- Analysis of each work's construction and historical context -- Photos, illustrations and other graphics -- And more The "For Students" series includes Poetry for Students, Novels for Students, Short Stories for Students, Drama for Students, Shakespeare for Students, Shakespeare's Characters for Students and Epics for Students. They're sure to be a welcome addition to your library. Each volume of Poetry for Students provides analysis of approximately 20 poems identified as the most frequently studied in literature courses. Students will discover: -- An overview essay -- An analysis of the poem's construction and form -- A thematic examination -- A discussion of the poem's historical and cultural context -- Selected criticism on the poem or poet -- A briefauthor biography -- Sources for further study and suggested research topics -- Subject, thematic, nationality, author and title indexes
Crucible Crucible
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Bosch, Daniel, PUBLISHER: Handsel Books, Crucible is a collection of poems by award-winning poet Daniel Bosch. The poems break easily into two sections. In the first, a set of ironic, emulative "Homages & Elegies," Bosch playfully apostrophizes poets living and dead, as if it took two not only to tango, but to write a poem. He wrestles with Dickinson, grooves with the glacial wit of Frost (belatedly), waltzes with Walcott's ghost (prematurely), mimics Mandelstam, picks apples with Sappho, and shares a transcontinental flight with Brodsky. Each poem is carefully measured; some are composed by meticulous inversion of their precursor's poetic strategy. Literary but by no means prudish, these poems look back-and forward-to a time when poems took stands readers could understand, disagree with, and laugh at. The result is a sort of hypertext essay on what it means to pour oneself into the mold of "poet" in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The second half of Crucible is "Passion Fruit," a fourteen-poem "sonnet" that courts a single muse through incarnations as various as "Orange," "Peach," "Banana," "Cherries," "Blueberries," and "Mango." Part love poem, part meditation on physical longing and memory, "Passion Fruit" celebrates the eye's brief glimpses of beauty in poems frank, funny, and joyful. "I admire Daniel Bosch's Crucible very much for its inventiveness and vitality and the enviable skill of its execution. Every poem feels alive, and though they're often 'homages' to other writers, and 'after' other writers, the book is crackling throughout with an individual personality." -David Ferry
Above All Things
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Rideout, Tanis, PUBLISHER: McClelland & Stewart, Into Thin Air""meets The Paris Wife""in this captivating debut novel that weaves together the harrowing story of George Mallory's doomed attempt to be the first man to conquer Mt. Everest with that of his wife as she journeys through a single, quietly momentous day, awaiting his return. George Mallory was one of the last great heroic adventurers of the twentieth century, a man of uncommon athleticism and ambition. In Tanis Rideout's beautifully written and elegantly conceived novel, Mallory is revealed as never before in this fictional reimagining of his legendary final summit attempt. Through Mallory's perspective, and that of the newest member of the expedition, Sandy Irvine, we get a vivid picture of expedition life and the ever-present dangers they faced, from falls, avalanches, altitude sickness, and from their own human frailties as well. As we follow the men upwards, we also journey with them into their pasts. Alternating with the expedition's story is a day in the life of Mallory's wife, Ruth. While a war-scarred England waits for Mallory to reclaim some of the Empire's lost glory, Ruth begins to bristle at the burden of having to be the dutifully loyal wife to a national hero. It is through her eyes that we glimpse a different side of George, and what emerges is a portrait of complex marriage defined as much by absence as by great love. A heartbreaking story of obsession, sacrifice, and what we will do for love and honour, Above All Things introduces Tanis Rideout as a bold new literary talent.
Post-Bellum, Pre-Harlem: African American Literature and
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: McCaskill, Barbara / Gebhard, Caroline, PUBLISHER: New York University Press, The years between the collapse of Reconstruction and the end of World War I mark a pivotal moment in African American cultural production. Christened the "Post-Bellum-Pre-Harlem" era by the novelist Charles Chesnutt, these years look back to the antislavery movement and forward to the artistic flowering and racial self-consciousness of the Harlem Renaissance. Post-Bellum, Pre-Harlem offers fresh perspectives on the literary and cultural achievements of African American men and women during this critically neglected, though vitally important, period of our nation's past. Using a wide range of disciplinary approaches, the sixteen scholars gathered here offer both a reappraisal and celebration of African American cultural production during these influential decades. Alongside discussions of political and artistic icons such as Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Henry Ossawa Tanner, and James Weldon Johnson are essays revaluing figures such as the writers Paul and Alice Dunbar-Nelson, the New England painter Edward Mitchell Bannister, and Georgia-based activists Lucy Craft Laney and Emmanuel King Love. Contributors explore an array of forms from fine art to anti-lynching drama, from sermons to ragtime and blues, and from dialect pieces and early black musical theater to serious fiction. Contributors include: Frances Smith Foster, Carla L. Peterson, Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, Audrey Thomas McCluskey, Barbara Ryan, Robert M. Dowling, Barbara A. Baker, Paula Bernat Bennett, Philip J. Kowalski, Nikki L. Brown, Koritha A. Mitchell, Margaret Crumpton Winter, Rhonda Reymond, and Andrew J. Scheiber.
Pure Reason: Poems
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Stangos, Nikos / Plante, David, PUBLISHER: Thames & Hudson, A specially illustrated collection of poems by renowned editor Nikos Stangos. Nikos Stangos was a popular and influential figure in the cultural life of London until his death in . Arriving in Britain in the mid-s after a childhood in postwar Greece and a period of study in the United States, Stangos soon became part of London's artistic and literary circles. As an editor at Thames & Hudson, he was responsible for many acclaimed books, and he worked with some of the best-known artists and art historians of the day. He was also an accomplished poet, composing verse in both Greek and English. His poems, while rooted in the specifics of his life, deal with broad philosophical issues: the nature of beauty, love, art, and reason. All the works in this posthumous volume, selected by the writer David Plante, are published for the first time here. Accompanying the poems are works of art contributed by some of the eminent painters and sculptors who knew and worked with Stangos, including David Hockney, Jasper Johns, Howard Hodgkin, Anthony Caro, Frank Auerbach, Maggi Hambling, and Bridget Riley. Some have produced work that refers directly to one of the poems; others have selected images inspired by Stangos himself or reflective of his personality. A passionate supporter of new trends in art, Stangos also formed lasting friendships with younger artists such as Julian Opie, Liam Gillick, Lisa Milroy, and Martin Maloney. Their works, and those of all the contributors to this unique book, stand as a testament to the esteem in which Stangos was held, and as a tribute to his enduring memory. 40 color illustrations.
The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief,
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Bartlett, Allison Hoover, PUBLISHER: Riverhead Books, In the tradition of "The Orchid Thief," a compelling narrative set within the strange and genteel world of rare-book collecting: the true story of an infamous book thief, his victims, and the man determined to catch him. Rare-book theft is even more widespread than fine-art theft. Most thieves, of course, steal for profit. John Charles Gilkey steals purely for the love of books. In an attempt to understand him better, journalist Allison Hoover Bartlett plunged herself into the world of book lust and discovered just how dangerous it can be. Gilkey is an obsessed, unrepentant book thief who has stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of rare books from book fairs, stores, and libraries around the country. Ken Sanders is the self-appointed "bibliodick" (book dealer with a penchant for detective work) driven to catch him. Bartlett befriended both outlandish characters and found herself caught in the middle of efforts to recover hidden treasure. With a mixture of suspense, insight, and humor, she has woven this entertaining cat-and-mouse chase into a narrative that not only reveals exactly how Gilkey pulled off his dirtiest crimes, where he stashed the loot, and how Sanders ultimately caught him but also explores the romance of books, the lure to collect them, and the temptation to steal them. Immersing the reader in a rich, wide world of literary obsession, Bartlett looks at the history of book passion, collection, and theft through the ages, to examine the craving that makes some people willing to stop at nothing to possess the books they love.
Always Something There to Remind Me
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Harbison, Beth, PUBLISHER: St. Martin's Griffin, "New York Times" bestselling author Beth Harbison makes an emotional and literary leap, in a novel where one woman discovers that there is no closure with her first love of two decades ago "Can you ever really know if love is true? And if it is, should you stop at anything to get it? " Two decades ago, Erin Edwards was sure she'd already found the love of her life: Nate Lawson. Her first love. The one with whom she shared everything--dreams of the future, of children, plans for forever. The one she thought she would spend the rest of her life with. Until one terrible night when Erin made a mistake Nate could not forgive and left her to mourn the relationship she could never forget or get over. Today, Erin is contentedly involved with a phenomenal guy, maneuvering a successful and exciting career, and raising a great daughter all on her own. So why would the name "Nate Lawson" be the first thing to enter her mind when her boyfriend asks her to marry him? In the wake of the proposal, Erin finds herself coming unraveled over the past, and the love she never forgot. The more she tries to ignore it and move on, the more it haunts her. "Always Something There to Remind Me" is a story that will resonate with any woman who has ever thought of that one first love and wondered, "Where is he?" and "What if...?" Filled with Beth Harbison's trademark nostalgia humor and heart, it will transport you, and inspire you to believe in the power of first love.
The Devil in Silver
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Lavalle, Victor, PUBLISHER: Spiegel & Grau, New Hyde Hospital's psychiatric ward has a new resident. It also has a very, "very" old one. Pepper is a rambunctious big man, minor-league troublemaker, working-class hero (in his own mind), and, suddenly, the surprised inmate of a budget-strapped mental institution in Queens, New York. He's not mentally ill, but that doesn't seem to matter. He is accused of a crime he can't quite square with his memory. In the darkness of his room on his first night, he's visited by a terrifying creature with the body of an old man and the head of a bison who nearly kills him before being hustled away by the hospital staff. It's no delusion: The other patients confirm that a hungry devil roams the hallways when the sun goes down. Pepper rallies three other inmates in a plot to fight back: Dorry, an octogenarian schizophrenic who's been on the ward for decades and knows all its secrets; Coffee, an African immigrant with severe OCD, who tries desperately to send alarms to the outside world; and Loochie, a bipolar teenage girl who acts as the group's enforcer. Battling the pill-pushing staff, one another, and their own minds, they try to kill the monster that's stalking them. But can the Devil die? "The Devil in Silver" brilliantly brings together the compelling themes that spark all of Victor LaValle's radiant fiction: faith, race, class, madness, and our relationship with the unseen and the uncanny. More than that, it's a thrillingly suspenseful work of literary horror about friendship, love, and the courage to slay our own demons.
Weeds
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Kelley, Edith Summers / Bruccoli, Matthew J., PUBLISHER: Southern Illinois University Press, "Weeds "was published by Harcourt Brace in and also brought out in England by Jonathan Cape. Despite favorable re-views by well-regarded critics the book made no impact, and Edith Summers Kelley never published another novel. Its reprinting here in this innovative series which brought back Zelda Fitz-gerald's "Save Me the Waltz "is in the opin-ion of the publishers a literary event of great magnitude--perhaps equal to the rediscovery of Henry Roth's "Call It Sleep.""" "Weeds "portrays the monotonous, drudg-ing life of the small tenant farmer of the tobacco fields of Kentucky. The story centers around Judith Pippinger, who has spirit, beauty, and a restless seeking for a purpose in life, but who is brutalized by farm life. It is not a dramatic novel, as Matthew Bruccoli notes in his Introduction to this neglected masterpiece. But it is convinc-ing. The people live. On two counts this book is important. It is a perfectly controlled work of fiction, and therefore has the automatic worth that any superior piece of literature has. Also, it has his-torical value as a peak achievement in the revolt-from-the-farm school of naturalistic American fiction. Edith Summers Kelley was the last writer in the Hamlin Garland, E. W. Howe, Joseph Kirkland line of de-velopment. Aside from its probable worth as social history, "Weeds "is highly readable. Read-ers will find here plausible people in a beautifully-handled realistic setting. In-teresting to note, the novel's strongest supporter heretofore was Sinclair Lewis, who was engaged to the author. In the opinion of Professor Bruccoli, "Weeds "is as good as "Main Street".""
Discourse in Educational and Social Research
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Maclure, Margaret / Maclure, Maggie / Maclure Maggie, PUBLISHER: Open University Press, WINNER: AESA Critics' Choice Award ""With wonderful clarity Maggie MacLure shows how deconstructionism opens new avenues of critical inquiry and understanding for educational researchers. In exposing the hidden, ideological side of terms like clarity, certainty, mastery, and relevance she allows us to see schooling and educational policy in new ways. In so doing she allows us to imagine classrooms as liberating, pedagogical places, as places where new forms of desire, knowledge, and learning take place" Norman K. Denzin, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign" This book is both practical and provocative. It demonstrates the insights and the challenges of a discourse-based orientation to educational and social research. Drawing on a variety of educational and social science 'texts' - including press articles, life history interviews, parent-teacher consultations, policy debates and ethnographies - the author shows how knowledge, power, identities and realities are constructed and problematised in discourse. The book also deals with research itself as discursive practice, examining the texts that qualitative researchers produce and consume: reports, monographs, journal articles. Practical examples are included for researchers and graduate students wishing to 'interrogate' their own data from a discourse perspective. The author develops a critical awareness of the researcher's role as writer/reader of texts. The book makes the case for 'discursive literacy' in research. While its primary allegiances are to poststructuralism and deconstruction, it draws from a wide range of disciplines, including interaction sociology, feminist ethnography, literary theory, critical discourse analysis and art history. What holds the book together is the persistent question: how to do educational research and social research within a 'crisis of representation' that has unsettled the relationship between words and worlds?
The Collected Supernatural and Weird Fiction of Mary
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Braddon, Mary Elizabeth, PUBLISHER: Leonaur Ltd, 3 Novels, 5 Novelettes and 23 short stories in four volumes of ghost, mystery and horror tales Lovers of the Victorian fiction of Wilkie Collins know that to discover his female counterpart they need look no further than the works of Mary Elizabeth Braddon. She was a prolific author of the kind of dark melodrama much loved by her contemporary audience and her most renowned work, 'Lady Audley's Secret, ' has been often dramatised, filmed and, indeed, has never been out of print from the time of its original publication. Never was the accolade, 'The Queen of Sensation' so well deserved as it was by her. It is not unusual that a writer who produced so much material-and much of that with a flavour of the Gothic-should also turn her talents to the genre of supernatural and strange fiction, since there was much precedent for it among her literary peers and much appetite for it among the reading public. So it is, perhaps, unsurprising that this Leonaur collection of Mary Elizabeth Braddon's forays into the other worldly and bizarre runs to four substantial, satisfying volumes. In volume one readers will discover an eerie novel, 'The White Phantom, ' which has all the cliff-hangers, twists, turns, shocks and startling revelations any reader could wish for to keep them on the edge of their seats to the last turn of the page. Accompanying it here are three short stories of the strange, including 'My Dream.' 'The Island of Old Faces' and the flesh creeping 'The Cold Embrace.' This collection is available in soft cover and hardcover with dustjacket. Leonaur hardcovers are cloth bound with head and tail bands and gold foil embossed spines.
The Qur'an
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Haleem, M. A. S. Abdel, PUBLISHER: Oxford University Press, USA, One of the most influential books in the history of literature, recognized as the greatest literary masterpiece in Arabic, the Qur'an is the supreme authority and living source of all Islamic teaching, the sacred text that sets out the creed, rituals, ethics, and laws of Islam. Yet despite the growing interest in Islamic teachings and culture, there has never been a truly satisfactory English translation of the Qur'an, until now. This superb new translation of the Qur'an is written in contemporary language that remains faithful to the meaning and spirit of the original, making the text crystal clear while retaining all of this great work's eloquence. The translation is accurate and completely free from the archaisms, incoherence, and alien structures that mar existing translations. Thus, for the first time, English-speaking readers will have a text of the Qur'an which is easy to use and comprehensible. Furthermore, Haleem includes notes that explain geographical, historical, and personal allusions as well as an index in which Qur'anic material is arranged into topics for easy reference. His introduction traces the history of the Qur'an, examines its structure and stylistic features, and considers issues related to militancy, intolerance, and the subjection of women. Clearly written and filled with helpful information and guidance, this brilliant translation of the Qur'an is the best available introduction to the faith of Moslems around the world. About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
Wild Things: Nature, Culture, and Tourism in Ontario,
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Jasen, Patricia Jane, PUBLISHER: University of Toronto Press, Europeans in the nineteenth century were fascinated with the wild and the primitive. So compelling was the craving for a first-hand experience of wilderness that it provided a lasting foundation for tourism as a consumer industry. In this book, Patricia Jasen shows how the region now known as Ontario held special appeal for tourists seeking to indulge a passion for wild country or act out their fantasies of primitive life. Niagara Falls, the Thousand Islands, Muskoka, and the far reaches of Lake Superior all offered the experiences tourists valued most: the tranquil pleasures of the picturesque, the excitement of the sublime, and the sensations of nostalgia associated with Canada's disappearing wilderness. Jasen situates her work within the context of recent writings about tourism history and the semiotics of tourism, about landscape perception and images of 'wildness' and 'wilderness, ' and about the travel narrative as a literary genre. She explores a number of major themes, including the imperialistic appropriation and commercialization of landscape into tourist images, services, and souvenirs. In a study of class, gender, and race, Jasen finds that by the end of the century, most workers still had little opportunity for travel, while the middle classes had come to regard holidays as a right and a duty in light of Social Darwinist concerns about preserving the health of the 'race.' Women travellers have been disregarded or marginalized in many studies of the history of tourism, but this book makes their presence known and analyses their experience. It also examines, against the backdrop of nineteenth-century racism and expansionism, the major role played by Native people in the tourist industry. The first book to explore the cultural foundations of tourism in Ontario, Wild Things also makes a major contribution to the literature on the wilderness ideal in North America.
The Higher Jazz: A Novel by Edmund Wilson
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Wilson, Edmund / Reinitz, Neale, PUBLISHER: University of Iowa Press, Edmund Wilson, the preeminent American literary critic of the first half of the twentieth century, often fretted that he was not taken seriously as a creative writer. In the course of a career that produced Axed Castle, To the Finland Station, and Patriotic Gore, among many other works of criticism and history, he published poems, plays, and two novels. Though he completed in draft this short novel, now entitled The Higher Jazz, it was never published. In mid-career, in , Wilson planned a novel in three parts that would carry a man through fifteen years as a stockbroker, a Russian diplomat, and a writer. When he started on the first section of this book, set in the s, it carried him away from his original project. His hero was instead transformed into a German American businessman who, aspiring to become a composer, seeks the spirit of America in music that combined the contemporary popular and the modern classical, in what Wilson called elsewhere "the higher jazz". This portrayal of the s provides a sense of the illusive glories of the Boom Era. It is filled with characters based on people Wilson knew well or had observed, such as Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, and the Fitzgerald circle, and composers as varied as Cole Porter and Charles Ives. Written at a turning point in his career, before he left contemporary literature and radical politics to focus on history, travel, and his own past, this novel reveals Wilson's second thoughts about the s and his recognition of the aspirations and dilemmas of the artist in American society. Neale Reinitz has edited The Higher Jazz for the general reader. His introduction sets the novel in the historical context of Wilson'slife and writings, and his annotations explain the topical references and, more important, illustrate Wilson's method of composition.
Fall
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: McAdam, Colin, PUBLISHER: Riverhead Books, A masterpiece of adolescent perspective, emotion, impulse, and relationships: the riveting story of two male roommates at a co-ed boarding school and what happens when the girlfriend of one of them goes missing during their final year. From an internationally acclaimed, prizewinning author, whom critics have compared to Dave Eggers and Michael Ondaatje, comes a tour de force: a mesmerizing novel that is at once a spellbinding psychological thriller and a brilliant portrait of adolescence that goes deep into the heads of two very different boys. Awkward Noel thinks he's been allowed into the inner circle of his elite boarding school when he discovers his senior-year roommate is to be handsome, athletic Julius. Julius, in turn, cares only for the fleeting joys of teenage life: sneaking out to parties, playing pranks with friends, and most of all, spending the night with his girfriend, Fall. As Noel narrates this fateful semester from a perspective of many years, interwoven is Julius's own in-the-moment experiences of first love and male camaraderie. Always an outsider, Noel develops an unhealthy fascination with Julius, and his crush on Fall begins to border on a dangerous obsession. As Julius experiences all the pleasures of an eighteen-year-old in love, we watch as Noel self-consciously analyzes his interactions with Julius and Fall, convincing himself of a deep connection that might not exist. When Fall disappears close to winter break, Julius and Noel are forced to face their own inner desires, a confrontation that ushers the two boys out of the innocence of adolescence and into adulthood. A tremendous literary page-turner that perfectly captures the agonies and delights of adolescence, "Fall" is the exhilaration and angst of teenage love and friendship- and the ultimate transience of those feelings.
Boundaries
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Nunez, Elizabeth, PUBLISHER: Akashic Books, "Elizabeth Nunez is one of the finest and most necessary voices in contemporary American and Caribbean fiction."--Colum McCann, author of "Let the Great World Spin" "Elizabeth Nunez has written a book so searing, so astute, so immediate to our times, it resurrects; it disrupts inevitably; it startles complacency; and over and over again, it invites healing to flourish.--Patricia Powell, author of "The Fullness of Everything" In an age of reality TV, a husband and wife cling to Victorian notions of privacy, though doing so threatens the life of the wife. Their daughter Anna yearns for her mother's unguarded affection, and eventually learns there is value in restraint. But Anna, a Caribbean American immigrant, finds that lesson harder to accept when, eager to assimilate in her new country, she discovers that a gap yawns between her and American-born citizens. The head of a specialized imprint at a major publishing house, Anna is soon challenged for her position by an ambitious upstart who accuses her of not really understanding American culture, particularly African American culture. Her job at stake, Anna turns for advice to her boyfriend Paul, a Caribbean American himself, who attempts to convince her that immigrants must accept limitations on their freedom in America. Told in spare and transcendent prose, "Boundaries" is a riveting immigrant story, a fascinating look into the world of contemporary book publishing, a beautiful extension of the exploration of family dynamics that began in Nunez's previous novel "Anna In-Between," and a heartwarming love story. Elizabeth Nunez is the award-winning author of seven novels. Her most recent, "Anna In-Between," was a "New York Times" Editors' Choice and was selected for the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award. She is a distinguished professor at Hunter College, CUNY, where she teaches writing and fiction.
The Count of Monte Cristo
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Dumas, Alexandre / Sante, Luc, PUBLISHER: Barnes & Noble, "The Count of Monte Cristo," by Alexandre Dumas, is part of the "Barnes & Noble Classics"" "series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of "Barnes & Noble Classics": New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work Comments by other famous authors Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations Bibliographies for further reading Indices & Glossaries, when appropriateAll editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. "Barnes & Noble Classics "pulls together a constellation of influences-biographical, historical, and literary-to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works. Dashing young Edmond Dantes has everything. He is engaged to a beautiful woman, is about to become the captain of a ship, and is well liked by almost everyone. But his perfect life is shattered when he is framed by a jealous rival and thrown into a dark prison cell for 14 years. The greatest tale of betrayal, adventure, and revenge ever written, "The Count of Monte Cristo" continues to dazzle readers with its thrilling and memorable scenes, including Dantes's miraculous escape from prison, his amazing discovery of a vast hidden treasure, and histransformation into the mysterious and wealthy Count of Monte Cristo-a man whose astonishing thirst for vengeance is as cruel as it is just. Luc Sante is the author of "Low Life," "Evidence," and "The Factory of Facts," He teaches writing and the history of photography at Bard College.
The Legacy of Erich Fromm
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Burston, Daniel, PUBLISHER: Harvard University Press, This is the first full-scale intellectual biography in English of Erich Fromm, perhaps the most widely read psychoanalyst after Freud, whose contributions to clinical and social psychology and the history of the psychoanalytic movement have long been underrated. Though considered a pedant, a popularizer--"Escape from Freedom," "The Sane Society," and "The Art of Loving," among others, were best-sellers -and an "outsider" in many psychoanalytic circles, Fromm played a historic role in the development of the discipline. As a member of Freud's "loyal opposition" with strong leanings toward the "dissident fringe;' he helped effect the transfer of productive ideas from the periphery to the mainstream of the psychoanalytic movement. Daniel Burston's meticulous elucidation of these ideas unravels the numerous strands--philosophical, literary, and social--that formed a part of Freud's own work and of Fromm's sympathetic, but not uncritical, reaction to Freudian orthodoxy. Despite his grounding in the tradition of Freud, contemporaries and former associates persistently misunderstood Fromm's work. Insofar as he attempted to decipher the ideological subtexts to Freudian theory, analytically oriented theorists doing clinical or social research avoided his ideas. His Marxist leanings and his radically historical approach to human behavior made it all but impossible for mainstream academic psychologists to grasp his meaning, much less to grant it any validity. At the same time, his humanistic and ethical concerns struck many psychologists as grossly unscientific. Practical and intellectual constraints have conspired to ensure that Fromm's impact has been peripheral at best. Burston's eloquent, evenhanded reassessment of Fromm's life and work cuts through the ideological and political underbrush to reveal his pivotal role as a theorist and a critic of modern psychoanalysis. It leads readers back to Freud, whose theoretical and clinical contributions Fromm refracted and extended, and on to controversies that remain a vital part of contemporary intellectual life.
Getting Started: A Memoir of the s
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Weintraub, Stanley / Weintraub, William, PUBLISHER: McClelland & Stewart, "With letters from Mordecai Richler, Mavis Gallant, and Brian Moore" "Getting Started" is a wonderful memoir, a collection of extraordinary letters, and a brilliant recreation of a time when Canadian writers were set to make their mark in the world for the first time. Writer Brian Moore emigrated from Ireland to Canada in the late s and found work at the Montreal Gazette, where he also found William Weintraub embarking upon a career as a freelance journalist. When he travelled to Paris, Weintraub saw an old friend and former Gazette writer, Mavis Gallant, who filled him in on the tribulations of the expatriate writer's life (""My room is enormous and the radiator very small indeed""). Gallant introduced Weintraub to another Montreal writer, Mordecai Richler, also pursuing a career as a novelist while living a gloriously Bohemian life. Weintraub joined Richler for a while in Ibiza (he later introduced him to Brian Moore), and later they kept in touch. (""Dear Bill: I got your highly unintellectual letter yesterday and it confirmed my suspicions that you slipped a chair under your arse in the Deux Magots as soon as you arrived in Paris and probably haven't moved since."") In these years, Gallant had her short stories published for the first time in the New Yorker, Moore methodically churned out money-making thrillers while working on "The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne," and Richler wrote his first acclaimed book, "The Acrobats." Weintraub, meanwhile, returned to Montreal, where he saw published his brilliant comic novel, "Why Rock the Boat?" William Weintraub weaves together his own memories of the s with letters both to and from his literary colleagues. The letters and his recollections are always fascinating, often hilarious, and provide intimate insight into the lives and work of some of Canada's finest contemporary writers.
The Turn of the Screw, the Aspern Papers and Two Stories
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: James, Henry, Jr. / Sweet, David L., PUBLISHER: Barnes & Noble Classics, "The Turn of the Screw, The Aspern Papers and Two Stories," by Henry James, is part of the "Barnes & Noble Classics"" "series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of "Barnes & Noble Classics": New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work Comments by other famous authors Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations Bibliographies for further reading Indices & Glossaries, when appropriateAll editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. "Barnes & Noble Classics "pulls together a constellation of influences-biographical, historical, and literary-to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works. Joseph Conrad once said of his friend Henry James, "As is meet for a man of his descent and tradition, Mr. James is the historian of fine consciences." As it turns out, James was also incredibly gifted at writing exceptional ghost stories. This collection-including ""The Beast in the Jungle"" and ""The Jolly Corner""-features James's finest supernatural tales, along with criticism, a discussion of the legacies of James's writing, and provocative study questions. David L. Sweet is a professor of American and comparativeliterature at The American University in Cairo. He has also taught at Princeton, The City University of New York, The American University of Paris, and Columbia University, where he received his doctorate in Comparative Literature. His book "Savage Sight/Constructed Noise: Poetic Adaptations of Painterly Techniques in the French and American Avant-Gardes" will be published next year by the University of North Carolina.
How Did You Get This Number
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Crosley, Sloane, PUBLISHER: Riverhead Books, A brand-new book of hilarious and insightful personal essays by the iconic, irresistible Sloane Crosley. From the author of the sensational bestseller "I Was Told There'd Be Cake" comes a new book of personal essays brimming with all the charm and wit that have earned Sloane Crosley widespread acclaim, award nominations, and an ever-growing cadre of loyal fans. In "Cake" readers were introduced to the foibles of Crosley's life in New York City-always teetering between the glamour of Manhattan parties, the indignity of entry-level work, and the special joy of suburban nostalgia-and to a literary voice that mixed Dorothy Parker with David Sedaris and became something all its own. Crosley still lives and works in New York City, but she's no longer the newcomer for whom a trip beyond the Upper West Side is a big adventure. She can pack up her sensibility and takes us with her to Paris, to Portugal (having picked it by spinning a globe and putting down her finger, and finally falling in with a group of Portuguese clowns), and even to Alaska, where the "bear bells" on her fellow bridesmaids' ponytails seemed silly until a grizzly cub dramatically intrudes. Meanwhile, back in New York, where new apartments beckon and taxi rides go awry, her sense of the city has become more layered, her relationships with friends and family more complicated. As always, Crosley's voice is fueled by the perfect witticism, buoyant optimism, flair for drama, and easy charm in the face of minor suffering or potential drudgery. But in "How Did You Get This Number" it has also become increasingly sophisticated, quicker and sharper to the point, more complex and lasting in the emotions it explores. And yet, Crosley remains the unfailingly hilarious young Everywoman, healthily equipped with intelligence and poise to fend off any potential mundanity in maturity.