Alex Jennings will be the reader for this unabridged recordingof the The Sonnets. --This text refers to the AudioCassette edition.

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.

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) Three classic crime novels by amaster of the macabre appear here together in hardcover for thefirst time. Suave, agreeable, and completely amoral, PatriciaHighsmith's hero, the inimitable Tom Ripley, stops at nothing--noteven murder-- to accomplish his goals. In achieving for himself theopulent life that he was denied as a child, Ripley shows himself tobe a master of illusion and manipulation and a disturbinglysympathetic combination of genius and psychopath. As Highsmithnavigates the mesmerizing tangle of Ripley's deadly and sinistergames, she turns the mystery genre inside out and takes us into themind of a man utterly indifferent to evil. The Talented Mr.RipleyIn a chilling literary hall of mirrors, Patricia Highsmithintroduces Tom Ripley. Like a hero in a latter-day Henry Jamesnovel, is sent to Italy with a commission to coax a prodigal youngAmerican back to his wealthy father. But Ripley finds himself veryfond of Dickie Greenleaf. He wants to be like him--exactly likehim.

Hermann Hesse's classic novel "Siddhartha" has delighted,inspired, and influenced generations of readers, writers, andthinkers. Though set in a place and time far removed from theGermany of 1922, the year of the book's debut, the novel is infusedwith the sensibilities of Hesse's time, synthesizing disparatephilosophies-Eastern religions, Jungian archetypes, Westernindividualism-into a unique vision of life as expressed through oneman's search for meaning. It is the story of the quest ofSiddhartha, a wealthy Indian Brahmin who casts off a life ofprivilege and comfort to seek spiritual fulfillment and wisdom. Onhis journey, Siddhartha encounters wandering ascetics, Buddhistmonks, and successful merchants, as well as a courtesan namedKamala and a simple ferryman who has attained enlightenment.Traveling among these people and experiencing life's vitalpassages-love, work, friendship, and fatherhood-Siddharthadiscovers that true knowledge is guided from within. SusanBernofsky's magnificent new translation br

Key Features: Study methods Introduction to the text Summaries with critical notes Themes and techniques Textual analysis of key passages Author biography Historical and literary background Modern and historical critical approaches Chronology Glossary of literary terms --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

This intriguing work tackles the seminal American issue ofslavery in an antebellum tragicomedy of switched identities, as afreeborn child and a slave child change places. The result is abiting social commentary-plus a good old-fashioned murdermystery...

Considered by some to be her finest work, Edith Wharton's Summer created a sensation when first published in 1917, as it was one of the first novels to deal honestly with a young woman's sexual awakening. Summer is the story of Charity Royall, a child of mountain moonshiners adopted by a family in a poor New England town, who has a passionate love affair with Lucius Harney, an educated man from the city. Wharton broke the conventions of women's romantic fiction by making Charity a thoroughly independent modern woman—in touch with her emotions and sexuality, yet kept from love and the larger world she craves by the overwhelming pressures of heredity and society. Praised for its realism and honesty by such writers as Joseph Conrad and Henry James and compared to Flaubert's Madame Bovary, Summer remains as fresh and powerful a novel today as when it was first written.

Six classic stories-one volume This indispensible anthologycollects the short novels of Henry James, offering readers the fullrange of his skill and vision-the singular art and imagination ofan author who profoundly influenced American literature

(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

The adventures of Mowgli, a man-child raised by wolves in thejungle, have captured the imaginations not just of children, but ofall readers, for generations.

Lush de*ions of the rolling Nebraska grasslands interweavewith the blossoming of a woman in the early days of the twentiethcentury, in an epic novel that chronicles America's past.

(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

The Victorian language of flowers was used to convey romanticexpressions: honeysuckle for devotion, asters for patience, and redroses for love. But for Victoria Jones, it’s been more useful incommunicating mistrust and solitude. After a childhood spent in thefoster-care system, she is unable to get close to anybody, and heronly connection to the world is through flowers and their meanings.Now eighteen and emancipated from the system with nowhere to go,Victoria realizes she has a gift for helping others through theflowers she chooses for them. But an unexpected encounter with amysterious stranger has her questioning what’s been missing in herlife. And when she’s forced to confront a painful secret from herpast, she must decide whether it’s worth risking everything for asecond chance at happiness.

In his widely acclaimed new collection of stories, JulianBarnes addresses what is perhaps the most poignant aspect of thehuman condition: growing old. The characters in The Lemon Table are facing the ends of theirlives–some with bitter regret, others with resignation, and othersstill with defiant rage. Their circumstances are just as varied astheir responses. In 19th-century Sweden, three brief conversationsprovide the basis for a lifetime of longing. In today’s England, aretired army major heads into the city for his regimentaldinner–and his annual appointment with a professional lady namedBabs. Somewhere nearby, a devoted wife calms (or perhaps torments)her ailing husband by reading him recipes. In stories brimming with life and our desire to hang on to it oneway or another, Barnes proves himself by turns wise, funny, clever,and profound–a writer of astonishing powers of empathy andinvention.

Twenty-two-year-old Karla is thrilled to be hired as anentertainer on the Sound of Music cruise ship where the rum punchis 80 percent Kool-Aid, the ice sculp- tures are plastic, and her"fake it till you make it" M.O. seems adventuresome. Karla is lessthrilled when her new boyfriend, Jack, suggests that they form asinging duo on land, but by now faking enthusiasm has become a wayof life. She and Jack buy backing tracks, crib lyrics from theradio, and embark on a not-as-glamorous-as-it-should-be careerperforming in the luxury hotel bars of the Middle East and China.But after a thousand and one nights on the road, Karla and Jackfind themselves struggling to keep their act both personal andprofessional together. Funny, fast-paced, and incisive, A Thousandand One Nights captures the performances, large and small, we useto make it through life.

These two history plays—one written in the early days ofShakespeare’s career and one at the very end—are alike in thecomplexity of their political vision. King John probes thenature of good and evil as self-interest and ruthless ambitionproceed unchecked while an unpopular ruler wages a brutal fight tokeep his throne. Henry VIII is a sumptuous spectacle of pompand ceremony, as well as an exploration of the mysterious ways inwhich the rise and fall from power of individuals led ultimately toEngland’s destiny as a Protestant nation.

"The Good Terrorist" follows Alice Mellings, a woman whotransforms her home into a headquarters for a group of radicals whoplan to join the IRA. As Alice struggles to bridge her ideology andher bourgeois upbringing, her companions encounter unexpectedchallenges in their quest to incite social change againstcomplacency and capitalism. With a nuanced sense of theintersections between the personal and the political, Nobellaureate Doris Lessing creates in "The Good Terrorist" a compellingportrait of domesticity and rebellion.

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.

On a chilly February day, two old friends meet in the throngoutside a London crematorium to pay their last respects to MollyLane. Both Clive Linley and Vernon Halliday had been Molly's loversin the days before they reached their current eminence: Clive isBritain's most successful modern composer, and Vernon is editor ofthe newspaper "The Judge." Gorgeous, feisty Molly had other lovers,too, notably Julian Garmony, Foreign Secretary, a notoriousright-winger tipped to be the next prime minister. In the days thatfollow Molly's funeral, Clive and Vernon will make a pact withconsequences that neither could have foreseen. Each will make adisastrous moral decision, their friendship will be tested to itslimits, and Julian Garmony will be fighting for his political life.A sharp contemporary morality tale, cleverly disguised as a comicnovel, Amsterdam is "as sheerly enjoyable a book as one is likelyto pick up this year" ("The Washington Post Book World").

Discover what realty gives you satisfaction and fulfillment——then toss out the other junk and learn to live!. Bogged down With the "stuff of life"? Want to enjoy your life, not just be consumed by the details? Family expert Karen Levine helps you to,identify What brings you contentment and pleasure and shows you how to rejec the tasks, the mindsets, and the possessions that drag you down. ...