主人公格罗佛是个十二岁的男孩，在打工休假时与姐姐偷溜进城，却不幸感染伤寒死去。小说讲述格罗佛死后，家人对他的记忆。 ……光来了又走、走了又来……一则故事，四个视角，四样落失之感，四种人生领悟。 此作结构精巧，探究亲密家人离世后，生者如何反刍记忆、怀抱失落，并在未来人生中安排一个位置给那已然落失者，让其继续活。 ……事情的发展 偏离我们当初设想的样子……然后又渐渐逝去，变得好像从未发生过……好像那些都只存在于我们的梦境……你现在听懂我的意思了没？……就好像那些都只是我们从别处听来的，都只是他人的遭遇……接下来，我们才会再度忆起事情的全貌。
Here is the haunting drama of Quasimodo, the hunchback;Esmeralda, the gypsy dancer; and Claude Frollo, the priest torturedby his own damnation. Shaped by a profound sense of tragic irony,it is a work that gives full play to the author's brilliantimagination.
The translations, created through a fresh approach to theNorwegian original in tandem with a keen sense of Ibsen'stheatricallity and playability, have all been tested and refined inproductions at professional theaters. The translators have paid particular attention to threeaspects of Ibsen's technique: his wit and humor, his "supertext" -the web of rich allusions and references that he weaves in andaround his dialogue - and the bold theatricallity of the plays. Theresult is an Ibsen that sounds contemporary without being slangy orcolloquial - an Ibsen of strong ideas but also living characters -and surprisingly different from the image of the cold, forbidding"scold of the North" that we often associate with this giantwriter. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Ranked among the classic novels of the English language andthe inspiration for several unforgettable movies, this early workof H. G. Wells was greeted in 1896 by howls of protest fromreviewers, who found it horrifying and blasphemous. They wanted toknow more about the wondrous possibilities of science shown in hisfirst book, "The Time Machine, "not its potential for misuse andterror. In "The Island of Dr. Moreau" a shipwrecked gentleman namedEdward Prendick, stranded on a Pacific island lorded over by thenotorious Dr. Moreau, confronts dark secrets, strange creatures,and a reason to run for his life. While this riveting tale wasintended to be a commentary on evolution, divine creation, and thetension between human nature and culture, modern readers familiarwith genetic engineering will marvel at Wells's prediction of theethical issues raised by producing "smarter" human beings orbringing back extinct species. These levels of interpretation add arichness to Prendick's adventures on Dr. Moreau's island o
In this powerful book we enter the world of Jurgis Rudkus, ayoung Lithuanian immigrant who arrives in America fired with dreamsof wealth, freedom, and opportunity. And we discover, with him, theastonishing truth about "packingtown," the busy, flourishing,filthy Chicago stockyards, where new world visions perish in ajungle of human suffering. Upton Sinclair, master of the"muckraking" novel, here explores the workingman's lot at the turnof the century: the backbreaking labor, the injustices of"wage-slavery," the bewildering chaos of urban life. The Jungle, astory so shocking that it launched a government investigation,recreates this startling chapter if our history in unflinchingdetail. Always a vigorous champion on political reform, Sinclair isalso a gripping storyteller, and his 1906 novel stands as one ofthe most important -- and moving -- works in the literature ofsocial change. --This text refers to an alternate Mass MarketPaperback edition.
Shakespeare became famous as a dazzling poet before most peopleeven knew that he wrote plays. His sonnets are the Englishlanguage's most extraordinary anatomy of love in all itsdimensions-desire and despair, longing and loss, adoration anddisgust. To read them is to confront morality and eternity in thesame breath. Produced under the editorial supervision of JonathanBate and Eric Rasmussen, two of today's most accomplishedShakespearean scholars, The Sonnets and Other Poems includes all ofShakespeare's sonnets, the long narrative poems "Venus and Adonis"and "The Rape of Lucrece," and several other shorter works.Incorporating definitive texts and authoritative notes from WilliamShakespeare: Complete Works, this unique volume also includes anexpanded Introduction by Jonathan Bate that places the poems inliterary and historical context and illuminates their relationshipto Shakespeare's dramatic writing. Also featured are key factsabout the individual selections; an index of the first lines of thesonnets; a chron
Alex Jennings will be the reader for this unabridged recordingof the The Sonnets. --This text refers to the AudioCassette edition.
Voltaire's shocking wit and biting portrayal of the eighteenthcentury church and aristocracy are now showcased in a newtranslation of Candide, a bestseller in its time and essentialreading for a deeper understanding of Voltaire and Enlightenmentthought. Preserving the text's provocative nature as well as itsaccuracy, Daniel Gordon has paid special attention to improving notonly the rendering of particular words, but to Voltaire's semanticovertones by amplifying the book's innuendo, enhancing Candide'sreadability and ensuring that readers will not miss bold featuresof the story. The introduction places Candide and Voltaire in theirhistorical context, relating the complexities of Voltaire's life tothe events, philosophy, and characters of Candide, showingprecisely why the Enlightenment is known as the Age ofVoltaire.
Play in three acts by Luigi Pirandello, produced and publishedin Italian in 1921 as Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore. IntroducingPirandello's device of the "theater within the theater," the playexplores various levels of illusion and reality. It had a greatimpact on later playwrights, particularly such practitioners of theTheater of the Absurd as Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, and JeanGenet, as well as Jean Anouilh and Jean-Paul Sartre.
Set during the French Revolution, this classic novel ofswashbuckling adventure and sweeping romance is also athoughtprovoking commentary on class, inequality, and theindividual's role in society-a story that has become RafaelSabatini's enduring legacy.
Capturing the grandeur of a gracious, splendid Europe ofwealth and Old World sensibilities, this glorious, complex novelhas become a touchstone for a great writer’s entire literaryachievement. From the opening pages, when the high-spiritedAmerican girl Isabel Archer arrives at the English manorGardencourt, James’s luminous, superbly crafted prose creates anatmosphere of intensity, expectation, and incomparablebeauty. Isabel, who has been taken abroad by an eccentric aunt to fulfillher potential, attracts the passions of a British aristocrat and abrash American, as well as the secret adoration of her invalidcousin, Ralph Touchett. But her vulnerability and innocence leadher not to love but to a fatal entrapment in intrigue, deception,and betrayal. This brilliant interior drama of the forming of awoman’s consciousness makes The Portrait of a Lady a masterpiece ofJames’s middle years.
Joyce's semi-autobiographical first novel follows StephenDedalus, a sensitive and creative youth who rebels against hisfamily, his education, and his country by committing himself to theartist's life.
To read a story by Henry James is to enter a world--a rich,perfectly crafted domain of vivid language and splendid, complexcharacters. Devious children, sparring lovers, capricious Americangirls, obtuse bachelors, sibylline spinsters and charming Europeanspopulate these five fascinating Nouvelles --works which representthe author in both his early and late phases. From the apparitionsof evil that haunt the governess in The Turn Of The Screw to thestartling self-scrutiny of an egotistical man in The Beast In TheJungle, the mysterious tumings of human behavior are skillfully andcoolly observed--proving Henry James to be a master ofpsychological insight as well as one of the finest stylists ofmodern English literature.
