本书精选法国著名作家莫泊桑的39篇中短篇小说，有《羊脂球》《我的叔叔于勒》《项链》等不朽名篇，内容丰富多彩，结构巧妙动人。
Philippe and Joseph Bridau are two extremely differentbrothers. The elder, Philippe, is a superficially heroic soldierand adored by their mother Agathe. He is nonetheless a bitterfigure, secretly gambling away her savings after a brief butglorious career in Napoleon's army. His younger brother Joseph,meanwhile, is fundamentally virtuous - but their mother is blindedto his kindness by her disapproval of his life as an artist.Foolish and prejudiced, Agathe lives on unaware that she is beingcynically manipulated by her own favourite child, but will she everdiscover which of her sons is truly the black sheep of the family?A dazzling depiction of the power of money and the cruelty of lifein nineteenth-century France, The Black Sheep compellingly exploresis a compelling exploration of the nature of deceit.
A city is hit by an epidemic of "white blindness" that sparesno one. Authorities confine the first to go blind to an emptymental hospital, but there the criminal element holds everyonecaptive, stealing food rations and assault-ing women. There is oneeyewitness to this nightmare who guides seven strangers through thebarren streets to freedom--a procession as uncanny as thesurroundings are harrowing. Blindness is an unsettling portrait of man's inhumanity toman-and of humankind's resilient spirit. Discussion guide available at www.HarcourtBooks.com .
Since the series' inception in 1915, the annual volumes of TheBest American Short Stories have launched literary careers,showcased the most compelling stories of each year, and confirmedfor all time the significance of the short story in our nationalliterature. Now THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES OF THE CENTURYbrings together the best -- fifty-six extraordinary stories thatrepresent a century's worth of unsurpassed achievements in thisquintessentially American literary genre. This expanded editionincludes a new story from The Best American Short Stories 1999 toround out the century, as well as an index including every storypublished in the series. Of all the writers whose work has appearedin the series, only John Updike has been represented in each of thelast five decades, from his first appearance, in 1959, to his mostrecent, in 1998. Updike worked with coeditor Katrina Kenison tochoose the finest stories from the years since 1915. The result is"extraordinary . . . A one-volume literary history of thi
Kaplan has helped more than 3 million students reach their educational goals. We invest more than $4.5 million annually in research and support for our products. We know that our test-taking techniques and strategies work, and we make every attempt to keep our materials completely up-to-date. However, if you are not satisfied with this book for any reason, you may return it and get your original purchase price back, exclusive of sales tax, shipping, and handling. In order to receive a refund, you must return this book, along with your original sales receipt with the purchase price and date of purchase circled, and a brief (50 words or less) explanation of why you did not find the book helpful. Send to: Simon & Schuster Inc. Customer Service Department 100 Front Street Riverside, NJ 08075 All claims for refunds must be received by Simon & Schuster within 90 days of the date of this
本书主要内容：约翰23岁时，高中毕业便不再升学，终日不知所以地换了一份又一份工作，惶惶然地在酒吧饮酒作乐度过，恋情不断却未见真爱。直到有一天，他毅然投效军旅，并于放假回家时，在家乡的艳阳下、沙滩上，偶然结识正值花样年华的莎文娜。21岁的莎文娜，成长背景与约翰相去甚远，不同于约翰的放浪形骸，她单纯、善良、率真，有坚定的理念与信仰，有清楚而明确的目标。透过莎文娜，约翰重新认识了自己，也重新认识了爱情。甜蜜的相处时光总是短暂，约翰必须回到军队，甚至被派驻海外。时间一天又一天地过去，这段靠书信维系、偶而得以见上一面的远距离恋情，终因莎文娜的一封分手信而划下句点。陷入心碎绝境的约翰，没有立刻打电话给莎文娜，也没有立刻飞回家乡，只是把信折好放回信封，决定去哪里都带着它，像是带着上战场所
When the Good Friday peace accords are shattered by threesavage acts of terrorism, Northern Ireland is blown back into thedepths of conflict. And after his father-in-law is nominated tobecome the new American ambassador to London, retired CIA agentMichael Osbourne is drawn back into the game. He soon discoversthat his father-in-law is marked for execution. And that he himselfis once again in the crosshairs of a killer known as October, oneof the most merciless assassins the world has ever known...
#1 "New York Times" bestselling author Nora Roberts invitesreaders to the wedding event of the year #1 "New York Times"bestselling author Nora Roberts presents her first trade original-anovel of love, friendship, and family-Book One in the BrideQuartet. Wedding photographer Mackensie "Mac" Elliot is most athome behind the camera, but her focus is shattered moments beforean important wedding rehearsal when she bumps into thebride-to-be's brother...an encounter that has them both seeingstars. A stable, safe English teacher, Carter Maguire is definitelynot Mac's type. But a casual fling might be just what she needs totake her mind off bridezillas. Of course, casual flings can turninto something more when you least expect it. And Mac will have toturn to her three best friends-and business partners-to see her wayto her own happy ending.
The ultimate battle between good and evil
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Imagine a year without Christmas. No crowded malls, no corny officeparties, no fruitcakes, no unwanted presents. That’s just whatLuther and Nora Krank have in mind when they decide that, just thisonce, they’ll skip the holiday altogether. Theirs will be the onlyhouse on Hemlock Street without a rooftop Frosty, they won’t behosting their annual Christmas Eve bash, they aren’t even going tohave a tree. They won’t need one, because come December 25 they’resetting sail on a Caribbean cruise. But as this weary couple isabout to discover, skipping Christmas brings enormousconsequences—and isn’t half as easy as they’d imagined. A classic tale for modern times, Skipping Christmas offers ahilarious look at the chaos and frenzy that have become part of ourholiday tradition.
Alienated from society, Harry Hailer is the Steppenwolf:wild,strange and shy. His despair and desire for death draw himintoan enchanted Faustian underworld. Through a series ofshadowyencounters - romantic, freakish and savage by turn -Hailer beginsto rediscover the lost dreams of his youth. Adopted by the sixties' counterculture,Steppenwolf captured the mood of a disaffected generation that wasbeginning to question everything.
《堂吉诃德》，全名《匪夷所思的拉曼查绅士堂吉诃德》，是伟大的西班牙作家塞万提斯的传世经典。作者以一位因误信骑士小说而毅然自号堂吉诃德的没落绅士人世行侠为主线，通过描写堂吉诃德大战风车、英勇救美、恶斗群羊、贸然释囚、挑战雄师、地穴探险、爵府奇遇等等荒诞故事，热烈地讴歌了真善美、无情地挞伐了假恶丑，充分表现出了盛行于当时的人文精神。《堂吉诃德》不愧为世界文学史上具有划时代意义的杰作，问世后四百年来，仅流传于各国的译本就有一千多种，成为世界人民的共有精神财富，泽及一代又一代杰出作家，堂吉诃德这一形象也作为耽于幻想、脱离实际的代表人物融入了现今社会生活的各个领域之中。据挪威诺贝尔学会透露，全世界五十多个国家的一百位作家在2002年上半年经过投票，评选出《堂吉诃德》为世界小说。
米歇尔·图尔尼埃(1924-)，法国当代文学大师，当代著名的新寓言派文学的主将。他不仅是才华横溢的小说家，而且是睿智深刻的哲学家。西方批评界对他的小说以及融汇在小说中的现代哲学思想推崇备至，评价极高，认为他以自己独特的风格为法国小说开创了新局面。《礼拜五或太平洋上的灵薄狱》是他的代表作之一，发表当年即获法兰西学院文学大奖。《礼拜五或太平洋上的灵薄狱》是一篇“现代文明衰亡记”的寓言，它戏仿笛福的名著《鲁滨孙漂流记》的题材，在主题上却反其道而行之。鲁滨孙孤独一人被弃荒岛后，按西方文明社会的模式将荒岛治理得井井有条。礼拜五来到荒岛后，非但没有被驯化为鲁滨孙的奴隶，反而以其自然的天性将文明的迹象破坏得一干二净，同时也慢慢影响了鲁滨孙，使这个西方文明的代表逐步抛弃了原有的文化传统，变成了一个能
Julie Parsons exploded onto the literary scene with her debut novel, Mary, Mary, which, according to The New York Times, "takes the psychological suspense thriller to places it rarely dares to go." Now, in The Courtship Gift, a shy female entomologist is pitted against a murderous maniac. Dublin on a cold April night. Anna Neale arrives home late and discovers her husband, David, dead in his study, his face a rictus mask of agony. Anna gazes with disbelief at the telltale marks on his skin. It seems David died from anaphylactic shock induced by a bee sting. But it is not bee season, and he has known all his life that he is allergic to the bee's poison. Anna finds a peculiar package addressed to David and begins to suspect that he was murdered. As the weeks pass, Anna learns that nothing in her life with David had been as it seemed. In death, her husband is an utter stranger to her. She is now alone, defenseless, and feels herself falling apart. This is just what attracts the handsome and
When Atlantic Monthly Press relaunched her Commissario GuidoBrunetti series. Donna Leon was hailed as "the best mystery writeryou've never heard of...She uses the relatively small andcrime-free canvas of Venice for riffs about Italian life, sexualstyles and--best of all--the kind of ingrown business and politicalcorruption that seems to lurk just below the surface" ("ChicagoTribune). Now "Blood from a Stone brings her celebrated characterCommissario Guido Brunetti back on the scene: On a cold Venetiannight shortly before Christmas, a street vendor is killed in ascuffle in Campo San Stefano. The closest witnesses to the eventare the tourists who had been browsing the man's wares before hisdeath--fake handbags of every designer label. The dead man had beenworking as a "vu cumpra, one of the many African immigrantspurveying goods outside normal shop hours, trading without workpermits. Commissario Brunetti's response is that of everybodyinvolved: Why would anyone kill an illegal immigrant? With fewsocial c
Vehicles move through the murky night, carrying highly secret material. And that clandestine material will only be available--after midnight--to those who have signed non-disclosure notices. The plot of the new Dan Brown novel? No, it’s actually how reviewers such as myself obtained our copies of the much-anticipated The Lost Symbol, the follow-up to the Da Vinci Code. And as we read it in (literally) the cold light of dawn, we wonder: is it likely to match the earlier book’s all-conquering, phenomenal success? Firstly, it should be noted that The Lost Symbol has incorporated all the elements that so transfixed readers in The Da Vinci Code: a complex, mystifying plot (with the reader set quite as many challenges as the protagonist); breathless, helter-skelter pace (James Patterson's patented technique of keeping readers hooked by ending chapters with a tantalisingly unresolved situation is very much part of Dan Brown’s armoury). And, of course, the winning central character, resourceful symbologi
On election day in the capital, it is raining so hard that noone has bothered to come out to vote. The politicians are growingjittery. Should they reschedule the elections for another day?Around three o'clock, the rain finally stops. Promptly at four,voters rush to the polling stations, as if they had been ordered toappear. But when the ballots are counted, more than 70 percent areblank. The citizens are rebellious. A state of emergency isdeclared. But are the authorities acting too precipitously? Or evenblindly? The word evokes terrible memories of the plague ofblindness that hit the city four years before, and of the one womanwho kept her sight. Could she be behind the blank ballots? A policesuperintendent is put on the case. What begins as a satire ongovernments and the sometimes dubious efficacy of the democraticsystem turns into something far more sinister. A singular novelfrom the author of Blindness.
