(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) Evelyn Waugh's short stories arethe marvelous, concentrated riffs of his comic genius, revealing inminiaturized perfection all the elements that made him the greatestcomic writer of our century. We find in them Waugh's almostsuperhuman technical skill as a writer and his quicksilverattentiveness to the minutiae of human absurdity, as well as hisworldly knowledge, his tenderness, his perceptive compassion, andhis sophisticated, disabused, but nevertheless forceful idealism.The thirty-nine stories collected here include such smallmasterpieces as "Mr. Loveday's Little Outing" and "Scott-King'sModern Europe"; an alternative ending to Waugh's novel "A Handfulof Dust"; a "missing chapter" in the life of Charles Ryder, thehero of "Brideshead Revisited"; and two linked stories, remnants ofan abandoned novel that Waugh considered his best writing. Thisedition contains the original illustrations to "Love Among theRuins," as well as more than thirty graphics produced by the authoras an Ox

The first three books in von Ziegesar's Gossip Girls series are packaged together in this paperback boxed set. Includes "Gossip Girl, You Know You Love Me," and "All I Want Is Everything."

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) Franz Kafka's imagination so faroutstripped the forms and conventions of the literary tradition heinherited that he was forced to turn that tradition inside out inorder to tell his splendid, mysterious tales. Scrupulouslynaturalistic on the surface, uncanny in their depths, these storiesrepresent the achieved art of a modern master who had the gift ofmaking our problematic spiritual life palpable and real. Thisedition of his stories includes all his available shorter fictionin a collection edited, arranged, and introduced by GabrielJosipovici in ways that bring out the writer's extraordinary rangeand intensity of vision. Translated by Willa and Edwin Muir

From the acclaimed author of Conquistador comes this thrillingaccount of one of history’s greatest adventures of discovery. Withcinematic immediacy and meticulous attention to historical detail,here is the true story of a legendary sixteenth-century explorerand his death-defying navigation of the Amazon—river of darkness,pathway to gold. In 1541, the brutal conquistador Gonzalo Pizarro and hiswell-born lieutenant Francisco Orellana set off from Quito insearch of La Canela, South America’s rumored Land of Cinnamon, andthe fabled El Dorado, “the golden man.” Driving an enormous retinueof mercenaries, enslaved natives, horses, hunting dogs, and otheranimals across the Andes, they watched their proud expedition beginto disintegrate even before they descended into the nightmarishjungle, following the course of a powerful river. Soon hopelesslylost in the swampy labyrinth, their numbers diminishing dailythrough disease, starvation, and Indian attacks, Pizarro andOrellana made a fateful decisi

An astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaurDNA has been discovered. Creatures once extinct now roam JurassicPark, soon-to-be opened as a theme park. Until something goeswrong...and science proves a dangeroustoy...."Wonderful...Powerful."THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD "Fromthe Paperback edition."

Doc Ebersole lives with the ghost of Hank Williams—not just inthe figurative sense, not just because he was one of the lastpeople to see him alive, and not just because he is rumored to havegiven Hank the final morphine dose that killed him. In 1963, ten years after Hank's death, Doc himself is wracked byaddiction. Having lost his license to practice medicine, hismorphine habit isn't as easy to support as it used to be. So helives in a rented room in the red-light district on the south sideof San Antonio, performing abortions and patching up the odd knifeor gunshot wound. But when Graciela, a young Mexican immigrant,appears in the neighborhood in search of Doc's services, miraculousthings begin to happen. Graciela sustains a wound on her wrist thatnever heals, yet she heals others with the touch of her hand.Everyone she meets is transformed for the better, except, maybe,for Hank's angry ghost—who isn't at all pleased to see Doc doingwell. A brilliant excavation of an obscure piece of m

Here for the first time, the original, complete Star Warstrilogy in a special 25th anniversary collector's editionhardcover.Twenty-five years after the phenomenon was born, StarWars remains one of the greatest fantasy epics ever told. Here inone collector's edition are the original stories from the firstthree classic films -- Star Wars: A New Hope, Star Wars: The EmpireStrikes Back, and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi -- each a New YorkTimes bestseller with over one million copies in print. Read thesethrilling novels to see where it all began with Luke Skywalker, afarm boy looking for adventure in a galaxy far, far away....

This selection covers the full range of Kipling's shortstories throughout his career, with the subject matter ranging fromthe Indian to the occult and from animals to domestic comedy.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award, TheSoul of a New Machine was a bestseller on its first publication in1981. With the touch of an expert thriller writer, Tracy Kidderrecounts the feverish efforts of a team of Data General researchersto create a new 32-bit superminicomputer. A compelling account ofindividual sacrifice and human ingenuity, The Soul of a New Machineendures as the classic chronicle of the computer age and themasterminds behind its technological advances. "A superb book," said Robert Pirsig, author of Zen and the Art ofMotorcycle Maintenance. "All the incredible complexity and chaosand exploitation and loneliness and strange, half-mad beauty ofthis field are honestly and correctly drawn." The Washington PostBook World said, "Kidder has created compelling entertainment. Heoffers a fast, painless, enjoyable means to an initialunderstanding of computers, allowing us to understand thecomplexity of machines we could only marvel at before, and toappreciate the skills

The Tin Drum, one of the great novels of the twentiethcentury, was published in Ralph Manheim's outstanding translationin 1959. It became a runaway bestseller and catapulted its youngauthor to the forefront of world literature. To mark the fiftiethanniversary of the original publication, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt,along with Grass's publishers all over the world, is bringing out anew translation of this classic novel. Breon Mitchell, acclaimedtranslator and scholar, has drawn from many sources: from a wealthof detailed scholarship; from a wide range of newly-availablereference works; and from the author himself. The result is atranslation that is more faithful to Grass's style and rhythm,restores omissions, and reflects more fully the complexity of theoriginal work. After fifty years, THE TIN DRUM has, if anything,gained in power and relevance. All of Grass's amazing evocationsare still there, and still amazing: Oskar Matzerath, theindomitable drummer; his grandmother, Anna Koljaiczek; his mother,Agnes;

The Spartans is a compelling narrative that explores theculture and civilization of the most famous "warrior people": theSpartans of ancient Greece, by the world's leading expert in thefield. Sparta has often been described as the original Utopia--aremarkably evolved society whose warrior heroes were forbidden anyother trade, profession, or business. As a people, the Spartanswere the living exemplars of such core values as duty, discipline,the nobility of arms in a cause worth dying for, sacrificing theindividual for the greater good of the community (illustrated bytheir role in the battle of Thermopylae), and the triumph of willover seemingly insuperable obstacles--qualities that today arefrequently believed to signify the ultimate heroism. Paul Cartledgeis the distinguished scholar and historian who has long been seenas the leading international authority on ancient Sparta. He tracesthe evolution of Spartan society--the culture and the people, aswell as the tremendous influence they had on their worl

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) The three classic novelspublished here in one volume are rich with the crisp prose, subtlecharacters, and intricate plots that made Dashiell Hammett one ofthe most admired writers of the twentieth century. A one-timedetective and a master of deft understatement, Hammett virtuallyinvented the hard-boiled crime novel. In "The Maltese Falcon," SamSpade, a private eye with his own solitary code of ethics, tangleswith a beautiful and treacherous woman whose loyalties shift at thedrop of a dime. "The Thin Man" introduces Hammett's wittiestcreations, Nick and Nora Charles, who solve homicides in betweenwisecracks and martinis. And in "Red Harvest," Hammett's anonymoustough-guy detective, the Continental Op, takes on the entire townof Poisonville in a deadly war against corruption. "DashiellHammett is a master of the detective novel, yes, but also one hellof a writer."--"Boston Globe" "Hammett was spare, hard-boiled, buthe did over and over what only the best writers can ever do.

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) Raymond Chandler's first threenovels, published here in one volume, established his reputation asan unsurpassed master of hard-boiled detective fiction. "The BigSleep," Chandler's first novel, introduces Philip Marlowe, aprivate detective inhabiting the seamy side of Los Angeles in the1930s, as he takes on a case involving a paralyzed Californiamillionaire, two psychotic daughters, blackmail, and murder. In"Farewell, My Lovely," Marlowe deals with the gambling circuit, amurder he stumbles upon, and three very beautiful but potentiallydeadly women. In "The High Window," Marlowe searches the Californiaunderworld for a priceless gold coin and finds himself deep in thetangled affairs of a dead coin collector. In all three novels,Chandler's hard-edged prose, colorful characters, vivid vernacular,and, above all, his enigmatic loner of a hero, enduringly establishhis claim not only to the heights of his chosen genre but to thepantheon of literary art.

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) One of the most popular Americanwriters of the twentieth century, Dashiell Hammett gave us crimefiction stripped down to its most subtle and searing essentialsand, at the same time, elevated to literature. The diamond-sharpprose and artfully manipulated intrigue for which he is known areon full display in the four classic short stories and two rivetingnovels published here in one volume. The Continental Op, Hammett'sanonymous antihero, was the indelible prototype for generations oftough-guy detectives. Single-minded, emotionally detached, anddecidedly unglamorous, he narrates the four linked storiescollected here--"The House in Turk Street," "The Girl with theSilver Eyes," "The Big Knockover," and "$106,000 Blood Money." InTHE DAIN CURSE, the Continental Op takes on his most bizarre case,that of a wealthy young woman who appears to be the victim of adeadly family curse. And THE GLASS KEY--Hammett's own favoriteamong his works--features his most cynical and morally ambiguoushero

Alan Lee, the Oscar-winning conceptual designer for the Lordof the Rings movie trilogy, discusses his approach to depictingTolkien's imaginary world. The book presents more than 150 of Lee'scelebrated illustrations to show how his imagery for both theillustrated Lord of the Rings and the films progressed from conceptto finished art. In addition, the book contains 20 full-colorplates and numerous examples of the conceptual art produced forPeter Jackson's film adaptation. The Lord of the Rings Sketchbookprovides a wealth of background information and will be of interestto those who know and love Tolkien's work, from books to films toDVDs, as well as to budding artists and illustrators interested inhow to approach book illustration.