In Theatre, W. Somerset Maugham–the author of the classicnovels Of Human Bondage and Up at the Villa–introduces us to JuliaLambert, a woman of breathtaking poise and talent whose looks havestood by her forty-six years. She is one of the greatest actressesEngland–so good, in fact, that perhaps she never stopsacting. It seems that noting can ruffle her satin feathers, until a quietstranger who challenges Julia's very sense of self. As a result,she will endure rejection for the first time, her capacity as amother will be affronted, and her ability to put on whatever faceshe desired for her public will prove limited. In Theatre, Maughamsubtly exposes the tensions and triumphs that occur when acting andreality blend together, and–for Julia–ultimately reverse.
A stunning novel by the widest-read Arab writer currentlypublished in the U.S. The age of Nasser has ushered in enormoussocial change, and most of the middle-aged and middle-class sonsand daughters of the old bourgeoisie find themselves trying torecreate the cozy, enchanted world they so dearly miss. One night,however, art and reality collide--with unforeseencircumstances.
Cakes and Ale is a delicious satire of London literary societybetween the Wars. Social climber Alroy Kear is flattered when he isselected by Edward Driffield's wife to pen the official biographyof her lionized novelist husband, and determined to write abestseller. But then Kear discovers the great novelist's voluptuousmuse (and unlikely first wife), Rosie. The lively, loving heroineonce gave Driffield enough material to last a lifetime, but now hermemory casts an embarrissing shadow over his career and respectableimage. Wise, witty, deeply satisfying, Cakes and Ale is Maugham athis best.
Shakespeare shines a fierce spotlight on the jealous heart andon our attitudes toward the outsider. A story of its time and forour time, full of terror and beauty, Othello is urgent,gripping, radical, and beautiful. Under the editorial supervision of Jonathan Bate and EricRasmussen, two of today’s most accomplished Shakespearean scholars,this Modern Library series incorporates definitive texts andauthoritative notes from William Shakespeare: Complete Works. Eachplay includes an Introduction as well as an overview ofShakespeare’s theatrical career; commentary on past and currentproductions based on interviews with leading directors, actors, anddesigners; scene-by-scene analysis; key facts about the work; achronology of Shakespeare’s life and times; and black-and-whiteillustrations. Ideal for students, theater professionals, and general readers,these modern and accessible editions from the Royal ShakespeareCompany set a new standard in Shakespearean literature for thetwenty-first century.
To Build A Fire and Other Stories is the mostcomprehensive and wide-ranging collection of Jack London's shortstories available in paperback. This superb volume brings togethertwenty-five of London's finest, including a dozen of his greatKlondike stories, vivid tales of the Far North were ruggedindividuals, such as the Malemute Kid face the violence of man andnature during the Gold Rush Days. Also included are shortmasterpieces from his later writing, plus six stories unavailablein any ot her paperback edition. Here, along with London's famouswilderness adventures and fireband desperadoes, are portraits ofthe working man, the immigrant, and the exotic outcast: charactersrepresenting the entire span of the author's prolific imaginativecareer, in tales that have been acclaimed throughout the world assome of the most thrilling short stories ever written.
If there ever has been a groundbreaking edition that likewisereturns the reader to the original Shakespeare text, it will be theApplause Folio Texts. If there has ever been an accessible versionof the Folio, it is this edition, set for the first time in modernfonts. The Folio is the source of all other editions. The Foliotext forces us to re-examine the assumptions and prejudices whichhave encumbered over four hundred years of scholarship andperformance. Notes refer the reader to subsequent editorialinterventions, and offer the reader a multiplicity ofinterpretations. Notes also advise the reader on variations betweenFolios and Quartos. The heavy mascara of four centuries ofShakespearean glossing has by now glossed over the originalcountenance of Shakespeare's work. Never has there been a Folioavailable in modern reading fonts. While other complete Folioeditions continue to trade simply on the facsimile appearance ofthe Elizabethan "look," none of them is easily and practicallyutilized in general Shakespeare
(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) From one of the most brilliantand influential thinkers of the twentieth century-two novels, sixshort stories, and a pair of essays in a single volume. In both hisessays and his fiction, Albert Camus (1913--1960) de-ployed hislyric eloquence in defense against despair, providing anaffirmation of the brave assertion of humanity in the face of auniverse devoid of order or meaning. "The Plague"-written in 1947and still profoundly relevant-is a riveting tale of horror,survival, and resilience in the face of a devastating epidemic."The Fall" (1956), which takes the form of an astonishingconfession by a French lawyer in a seedy Amsterdam bar, is ahaunting parable of modern conscience in the face of evil. The sixstories of "Exile and the Kingdom "(1957) represent Camus at theheight of his narrative powers, masterfully depicting hischaracters-from a renegade missionary to an adulterous wife -atdecisive moments of revelation. Set beside their fictionalcounterparts, Camus's famous essays
Hesse's novel of two medieval men, one quietly content with hisreligion and monastic life, the other in fervent search of moreworldly salvation. This conflict between flesh and spirit, betweenemotional and contemplative man, was a life study for Hesse. It isa theme that transcends all time. The Hesse Phenomenon "has turnedinto a vogue, the vogue into a torrent. . .He has appealed both to.. . an underground and to an establishment. . .and to thedisenchanted young sharing his contempt for our industrialcivilization."--"The New York Times Book Review"
High school senior Tyler Miller used to be the kind of guy who faded into the background—average student, average looks, average dysfunctional family. But since he got busted for doing graffiti on the school, and spent the summer doing outdoor work to pay for it, he stands out like you wouldn’t believe. His new physique attracts the attention of queen bee Bethany Milbury, who just so happens to be his father’s boss’s daughter, the sister of his biggest enemy—and Tyler’s secret crush. And that sets off a string of events and changes that have Tyler questioning his place in the school, in his family, and in the world. In Twisted, the acclaimed Laurie Halse Anderson tackles a very controversial subject: what it means to be a man today. Fans and new readers alike will be captured by Tyler’s pitchperfect, funny voice, the surprising narrative arc, and the thoughtful moral dilemmas that are at the heart of all of the author’s award-winning, widely read work.
(Book Jacket Status: Not Jacketed) Lord Jim is a classic storyof one man's tragic failure and eventual redemption, told under thecircumstances of high adventure at the margins of the known worldwhich made Conrad's work so immediately popular. But it is also thebook in which its author, through a brilliant adaptation of hisstylistic apparatus to his obsessive moral, psychological andpolitical concerns, laid the groundwork for the modern novel as weknow it. With An Introduction By Norman Sherry An expert on theworks of Joseph Conrad, Professor Norman Sherry is the author ofConrad's Eastern World, Conrad's Western World and Conrad and HisWorld. He is also the editor of Conrad: The Critical Heritage, andthe official biographer of Graham Greene.
The bestselling tale of Romanov intrigue from the author of"The Kitchen Boy" Book groups and historical fiction buffs havemade Robert Alexanderas two previous novels word-of-mouth favoritesand national bestsellers. Set against a backdrop of ImperialRussiaas twilight, "The Romanov Bride" has the same enduringappeal. The Grand Duchess Elisavyetaas story begins like a fairytaleaa German princess renowned for her beauty and kind heartmarries the Grand Duke Sergei of Russia and enters the Romanovaslavish court. Her husband, however, rules his wife as he doesMoscowawith a cold, hard fist. And, after a peaceful demonstrationbecomes a bloodbath, the fires of the revolution link Elisavyetaasdestiny to that of Pavelaa young Bolshevikaforever.
'Although it's difficult to believe, the sixties are not fictional; they actually happened' (Author's Afterword) Stephen King, whose first novel, Carrie, was published in 1974, the year before the last US troops withdrew from Vietnam, is the first hugely popular writer of the TV generation. Images from that war - and the protests against it - had flooded America's living rooms for a decade. Hearts in Atlantis is composed offive linked stories set in the years from 1960 to 1999. Each story is deeply rooted in the sixties, and each is haunted by the Vietnam War. Full of danger, full of suspense, most of all full of heart, Hearts in Atlantis will take some readers to a place they have never been...and others to a place they have never been able to completely leave.
在线阅读本书 The Sea Wolf is Jack London’s powerful and gripping saga ofHumphrey Van Weyden, captured by a seal-hunting ship and now anunwilling sailor under its dreaded captain, Wolf Larsen. The menwho sailed with Larsen were treacherous outcasts, but the captainhimself was the legendary Sea Wolf–a violent brute of a man. Jack London was a worshipper of the strong and virtuous hero, and afirm believer in the inevitable triumph of good. The masterstoryteller nowhere demonstrates this theme more vividly than inthis classic American tale of peril and adventure, good andevil.
A satiric masterpiece about the allure and peril of money,"Our Mutual Friend" revolves around the inheritance of a dust-heapwhere the rich throw their trash. When the body of John Harmon, thedust-heap's expected heir, is found in the Thames, fortunes changehands surprisingly, raising to new heights "Noddy" Boffin, alow-born but kindly clerk who becomes "the Golden Dustman." CharlesDickens's last complete novel, "Our Mutual Friend" encompasses thegreat themes of his earlier works: the pretensions of the nouveauxriches, the ingenuousness of the aspiring poor, and the unfailingpower of wealth to corrupt all who crave it. With its flavorfulcast of characters and numerous subplots, "Our Mutual Friend" isone of Dickens's most complex--and satisfying--novels.
Winner of four Pulitzer Prizes and the first Americandramatist to receive a Nobel Prize, Eugene O'Neill filled his playswith rich characterization and innovative language, taking theoutcasts and renegades of society and depicting their Olympianstruggles with themselves-and with destiny.
The best-known novellas and stories of one of the seminalwriters of the twentieth century. Included are "The Judgment, " "ACountry Doctor, " and "A Hunger Artist." New Foreword by AnneRice.
On the eve of his ninetieth birthday a bachelor decides to give himself a wild night of love with a virgin. As is his habit he has purchased hundreds of women--he asks a madam for her assistance. The fourteen-year-old girl who is procured for him is enchanting, but exhausted as she is from caring for siblings and her job sewing buttons, she can do little but sleep. Yet with this sleeping beauty at his side, it is he who awakens to a romance he has never known. Tender, knowing, and slyly comic, Memories of My Melancholy Whores is an quisite addition to the master's work.
(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) Albert Camus's spare, laconicmasterpiece about a Frenchman who murders an Arab in Algeria isfamous for having diagnosed, with a clarity almost scientific, thatcondition of reckless alienation and spiritual exhaustion thatcharacterized so much of twentieth-century life. Possessing boththe force of a parable and the excitement of a perfectly executedthriller, "The Stranger" is the work of one of the most engaged andintellectually alert writers of the past century. Translated byMatthew Ward
Set in the magical Wessex landscape so familiar from ThomasHardy’s early work, Tess of the D’Urbervilles is uniqueamong his great novels for the intense feeling that he lavishedupon his heroine, Tess, a pure woman betrayed by love. Hardy pouredall of his profound empathy for both humanity and the rhythms ofnatural life into this story of her beauty, goodness, and tragicfate. In so doing, he created a character who, like Emma Bovary andAnna Karenina, has achieved classic stature.
Charles Dickens's satirical masterpiece, "The PickwickPapers," catapulted the young writer into literary fame when it wasfirst serialized in 1836-37. It recounts the rollicking adventuresof the members of the Pickwick Club as they travel about Englandgetting into all sorts of mischief. Laugh-out-loud funny andendlessly entertaining, the book also reveals Dickens's burgeoninginterest in the parliamentary system, lawyers, the Poor Laws, andthe ills of debtors' prisons. As G. K. Chesterton noted, "BeforeDickens] wrote a single real story, he had a kind of vision . . . amap full of fantastic towns, thundering coaches, clamorousmarket-places, uproarious inns, strange and swaggering figures.That vision was Pickwick."
On Christmas Eve, a party of friends descends on a purportedlyhaunted country retreat, charged with the task of discoveringevidence of the supernatural. Sequestered in their rooms for theholiday, the friends reconvene on Twelfth Night at a great feastand share their stories of spectral encounter. “Conducted” byCharles Dickens and counting Elizabeth Gaskell and Wilkie Collinsamong its contributors, The Haunted House examinesquintessentially Victorian themes–sex and longing, nostalgia andloss–in ways that continue to resonate today. Ingeniously conceivedand written, and spiked with flashes of Dickensian humor, thisvolume is a strange and sheer delight.
