(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.
In Act I, at a dinner party given by a famed British actor, one of the guests drops dead. In Act II, at a second dinner, which includes some of the same guests, another death occurs. Two dead men may equal murder. One of the guests, Hercule Poirot, follows suspects (often literally) and clues, both real and "staged," to bring the curtain down on the killer. Andrew Sachs gives this minor Christie vigor and authenticity, even to an unoriginal motive. His Poirot is methodical, polite, and perfectly accented, but sounds like other Poirots. Sachs's best interpretations are those of the actor's young fiancée and the killer. M.T.B.
Alex Cross is drawn into a bitter personal battle against corruption, conspiracy and savage violence in a chase that takes him through a vast and uncompromising landscape. When Cross is called to investigate a massacre-style murder scene, he is shocked to find that the victim is an old friend. Angry, hurt and more determined than ever, Cross begins the hunt for the perpetrators of this cruel crime. He is drawn into a dangerous underworld right in the heart of Washington DC that leads him on a life threatening journey to the Niger Delta where heroin dealing, slave trade and oil and gas theft are rife. At the centre of this terrifying world, Cross finds the Tiger, the psychopathic leader of a fearsome gang of killers who are not what they seem. When the Tiger is on the prowl, he shows no mercy to others. But Alex Cross is hot on his heels in a heart-stopping chase that takes him across Africa and finds him not only hunting for a horrific killer but also fighting for his own survival. 作者简介： James Pat
'Good people do a great deal of harm in this world. Certainly the greatest harm they do is that they make badness of such extraordinary importance. It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious ...' Beautiful, aristocratic, an adored wife and young mother. Lady Windermere is 'a fascinating Puritan' whose severe moral code leads her to the brink of social suicide. The only one who can save her is the mysterious Mrs Erlynne whose scandalous relationship with Lord Windermere has prompted her ladyship's fatal impulse. And Mrs Erlynne has a secret—a secret Lady Windermere must never know if she is to retain her peace of mind ...
(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.
Hans Christian Andersen was the profoundly imaginative writerand storyteller who revolutionized literature for children. He gaveus the now standard versions of some traditional fairy tales - withan anarchic twist - but many of his most famous tales sprangdirectly from his imagination. The thirty stories here range fromexuberant early works such as "The Tinderbox" and "The Emperor'sNew Clothes" through poignant masterpieces such as "The LittleMermaid" and "The Ugly Duckling," to more subversive later talessuch as "The Ice maiden" and "The Wood Nymph."
Kate Daniels cleans up the paranormal problems no one else wantsto deal with-especially if they involve Atlanta's shapeshiftingcommunity. And now there's a new player in town-a foe that may be too much foreven Kate and Curran, the Lord of the Beasts, to handle. Becausethis time, Kate will be taking on family.
These Comedies are among the best loved of Shakespeare's plays. In each a problem emerges, is then intensified to a point of maximum confusion and potential upset, before the chaos is resolved, however improbably, into general goodwill and a spate of marriages. The triumph of these plays lies in the way they mingle humorous stage business and dexterous word play with a more serious study of identity, gender, dreaming, the meaning of love, even of the theatre itself. They reassure us that with all its faults, the world will always in the end be redeemable. The Tragedies with Introductions by Emma Smith 'Not for an age but for all time.' So Ben Jonson established what we now take for granted: Shakespeare's unique place among the world's great authors. Romeo and Juliet shows us the archetypal story of fated young love; Hamlet, the tortured psyche of the young prince of Denmark; Othello, a strikingly modern representation of racial difference; King Lear, a man stripped of all material and psychologica
Product De*ion After a whirlwind first week on the Upper East Side, the Carlyles have made their mark on Manhattan's Golden Mile. Owen is new BFFs with Rhys Sterling, but what will happen when they both fall for the same girl? Baby stole resident it girl Jack Laurent's boyfriend...and then Avery stole Jack's popularity. Now Jack is on the warpath, and she wants nothing more than to send the Carlyle girls packing their Louis Vuitton trunks. Is the UES big enough for all their drama? About the Author Cecily von Ziegesar has always lived in New York City. She's already working on her next Gossip Girl: The Carlyles novel coming in May 2009, as well as her next It Girl, so be careful of what you do or say and who you're seen with...
The deepest waters hide the darkest secrets.... When the body ofa murdered man literally falls at Elizabeth Stuart's feet, she'sable to wash away the blood--but not the terror. Unwelcomenewcomers to Still Creek, Minnesota, she and her troubled teenageson are treated with suspicion by the locals, including thesheriff. Yet nothing will stop her from digging beneath the town'splacid surface for the truth--except the killer. Running from amessy divorce, Elizabeth believed buying a small-town newspaperoffered a fresh start for herself and her son. But idyllic StillCreek, nestled in the heart of lush Amish farmlands, hides secretsdangerous enough to push someone to commit murder. Now Elizabethmust risk everything to save herself and her son, and to unmask thekiller...before the current of evil flowing through Still Creekdrags her under. When Elizabeth Stuart searched for a quiet,peaceful home for herself and her son, Still Creek seemed perfect.Nestled in the heart of lush Amish farmlands, this small, idyllicMinnes
Langland's Piers Plowman is one of the strangest and one of the greatest poems of the Middle Ages. As spiritual allegory and social satire, it is not comparable with any other poem. Its chain of dream visions relates not only to the practical problems of medieval life, but also to the whole gamut of Christian attitudes towards God. Langland is sometimes plain and forthright, sometimes clumsy and obscure, but these limitations are utterly outweighed by his gifts for both comedy and lyricism and by moments of real sublimity. The poem survives in at least three versions. Terence Tiller's verse translation of the B-text is based on his abridgement of the poem for radio in 1980. Himself a poet, Tiller vividly conveys the colloquial immediacy and spiritual intensity of Langland's alliterative verse. Priscilla Martin has added the translation of the 'autobiographical episode' from the C-text.
EMMA，first published in 1816,was written when jane Austen was at the height of her powers.in it ,we have her two greatest comic creations the eccentric Mr.Woodhuse and that quintessential bore,Miss Bates, In it,too we have her most profound characterization;the witty,imaginative,self-deluded Emma,a heroine the author declared“no one but myself will much like,”but who has been much loved by generations of redaders ,Delightfully funny,full of rich irony,EMMA is regarded as one of Jane Austen's finest achievements.
Stories of famously eccentric Princetonians abound--such as that of chemist Hubert Alyea, the model for The Absent-Minded Professor, or Ralph Nader, said to have had his own key to the library as an undergraduate. Or the "Phantom of Fine Hall," a figure many students had seen shuffling around the corridors of the math and physics building wearing purple sneakers and writing numerology treatises on the blackboards. The Phantom was John Nash, one of the most brilliant mathematicians of his generation, who had spiraled into schizophrenia in the 1950s. His most important work had been in game theory, which by the 1980s was underpinning a large part of economics. When the Nobel Prize committee began debating a prize for game theory, Nash's name inevitably came up--only to be dismissed, since the prize clearly could not go to a madman. But in 1994 Nash, in remission from schizophrenia, shared the Nobel Prize in economics for work done some 45 years previously. Economist and journalist Sylvia Nasar has written
This is not your father's list of classics. In thesedelightful essays, Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Dirda introducesnearly ninety of the world's most entertaining books. Writing withaffection as well as authority, Dirda covers masterpieces offantasy and science fiction, horror and adventure, as well asepics, history, essay, and children's literature. Organizedthematically, these are works that have shaped our imaginations."Love's Mysteries" moves from Sappho and Arthurian romance to SorenKierkegaard and Georgette Heyer. In other categories Dirdadiscusses not only "Dracula" and Sherlock Holmes but also the "TaoTe Ching" and Icelandic sagas, Frederick Douglass and "Fowler'sModern English Usage." Whether writing about Petronius or Perelman,Dirda makes literature come alive. "Classics for Pleasure" is aperfect companion for any reading group or lover of books.
For her exciting debut in hardcover, New York Timesbestselling author Karen Rose delivers a heart-stopping suspensenovel that picks up where DIE FOR ME left off, with a detectivedetermined to track down a brutal murderer. Special Agent Daniel Vartanian has sworn to find theperpetrator of multiple killings that mimic a 13-year-old murderlinked to a collection of photographs that belonged to his brother,Simon, the ruthless serial killer who met his demise in DIE FOR ME.Daniel is certain that someone even more depraved than his brothercommitted these crimes, and he's determined to bring the currentmurderer to justice and solve the mysterious crime from yearsago. With only a handful of images as a lead, Daniel's search willlead him back through the dark past of his own family, and into therealm of a mind more sinister than he could ever imagine. But hisquest will also draw him to Alex Fallon, a beautiful nurse whosetroubled past reflects his own. As Daniel becomes attached to Alex,he discover
Maggie is an astonishing novel of social realism, which parallels many of today's ills. Set in the urban squalor of New York in the 1890's, it follows the careers of the innocent Maggie and her brother Jimmie, children of brutal and drunken parents. It is a tour-de-force equal to The Red Badge of Courage. Also included in this volume are seven of Stephen Crane's short stories. The Monster is a novelette which provides a bitter commentary on man's inhumanity to man; The Blue Hotel, a tale of murder in a small Nebraska town; His New Mittens, which concerns the reflections of a runaway boy, is followed by four stories of Sensation and excitement.
How did a woman holding a pistol in her right hand manage to shoot herself in the left temple? What was the link between a ghost sighting and the disappearance of top secret military plans? How did the bullet that killed the eccentric Sir Gervase Chevenix-Gore shatter a mirror in the other part of the room? And should the beautiful Valentine Chantry flee for her life from the holiday island of Rhodes- andthe ever more complicated love triangle she has created there? Hercule Poirot is faced with four mystifying cases - each a miniature classic of characterisation, incident and suspense. 'AI four tales are admirable entertainment.., her solutions are unexpected and satisfying.'
