Determined to overreach his humanity and assert hisuntrammelled individual will, Raskolnikov, and impoverished studentliving in the St. Petersburg of the Tsars, commits an act of murderand theft and sets into motion a story which, for its excruciatingsuspense, its atmospheric vividness, and its profundity ofcharacterization and vision, is almost unequaled in the literaturesof the world. The best known of Dostoevsky's masterpieces, CrimeAnd Punishment can bear any amount of rereading without losing adrop of its power over our imagination.
Drawing from decades of work, travel, and research in Russia,Robert Alexander re-creates the tragic, perennially fascinatingstory of the final days of Russian monarchs Nicholas and Alexandraas seen through the eyes of the Romanov's young kitchen boy,Leonka.
Last year, awareness about global warming reached a tippingpoint. Now one of the most dynamic writers and one of the mostrespected scientists in the field of climate change offer the firstconcise guide to both the problems and the solutions. Guiding uspast a blizzard of information and misinformation, Gabrielle Walkerand Sir David King explain the science of warming, the mostcutting-edge technological solutions from small to large, and thenational and international politics that will affect our efforts.While there have been many other books about the problem of globalwarming, none has addressed what we can and should do about it soclearly and persuasively, with no spin, no agenda, and noexaggeration. Neither Walker nor King is an activist or politician,and theirs is not a generic green call to arms. Instead theypropose specific ideas to fix a very specific problem. Mostimportant, they offer hope: This is a serious issue, perhaps themost serious that humanity has ever faced. But we can still dosomething about
Everybody who is anybody is seen at the glittering partiesheldin millionaire Jay Gatsby's mansion in West Egg, east ofNew York. The riotous throng congregates in his sumptuous garden,coollydebating Gatsby's origins and mysterious past. None of thefrivoloussocialites understands him, and among various rumours is theconviction that 'he killed a man'. A detached onlooker,Gatsby isoblivious to the speculation he creates, though always seems to bewatching and waiting, but what for no one knows.As the tragic storyunfolds, Gatsby's destructive dreams andpassions are revealed,leading to disturbing consequences. Abrilliant evocation of 1920shigh society, The Great Gatsby peels away the layers of thisglamorous world to display the coldness and cruelty at itsheart.
When a dying millionaire hires Philip Marlowe to handle theblackmailer of one of his two troublesome daughters, Marlowe findshimself involved with more than extortion. Kidnapping, pornography,seduction, and murder are just a few of the complications he getscaught up in. "Chandler writes like a slumming angel and invest sthe sun-blinded streets of Los Angelos with a romanticpresence."--Ross Macdonald
Orwell draws on his years of experience in India to tell thisstory of the waning days of British imperialism. A handful ofEnglishmen living in a settlement in Burma congregate in theEuropean Club, drink whiskey, and argue over an impending order toadmit a token Asian.
In Victorian England, an orphan girl is sent to a countryestate to work for-and ultimately woo-its young heiress, on behalfof a mysterious benefactor known as Gentleman.
The editors of the best-selling rediscovered Tolkien novelRoverandom present an expanded fiftieth anniversary edition ofTolkien's beloved classic Farmer Giles of Ham, complete with a map,the original story outline, the original first-editionillustrations by Pauline Baynes, and the author's notes for anunpublished sequel. Farmer Giles of Ham is a light-hearted satirefor readers of all ages that tells the tale of a reluctant hero whomust save his village from a dragon. It is a small gem of a talethat grows more delightful with each rereading.
Marlowe befriends a down on his luck war veteran with thescars to prove it. Then he finds out that Terry Lennox has a verywealthy nymphomaniac wife, who he's divorced and re-married and whoends up dead. and now Lennox is on the lam and the cops and a crazygangster are after Marlowe.
In her exciting debut, Laila Lalami evokes the grit and enduringgrace that is modern Morocco and offers an authentic look at theMuslim immigrant experience today. The book begins as fourMoroccans illegally cross the Strait of Gibraltar in an inflatableboat headed for Spain. There's Murad, a gentle, educated man who'sbeen reduced to hustling tourists around Tangier; Halima, who'sfleeing her drunken husband and the slums of Casablanca; Aziz, whomust leave behind his devoted wife to find work in Spain; andFaten, a student and religious fanatic whose faith is at odds withan influential man determined to destroy her future. What hasdriven these men and women to risk their lives? And will therewards prove to be worth the danger? Sensitively written withbeauty and boldness, this is a grip-ping book about people insearch of a better future.
A man went to knock at the king's door and said, Give me aboat. The king's house had many other doors, but this was the doorfor petitions. Since the king spent all his time sitting at thedoor for favors (favors being offered to the king, you understand),whenever he heard someone knocking at the door for petitions, hewould pretend not to hear . . ." Why the petitioner required aboat, where he was bound for, and who volunteered to crew for him,the reader will discover in this delightful fable, a philosophiclove story worthy of Swift or Voltaire.
The murder of a young Polish girl in wartime London puts JohnMadden on the trail of a ruthless hired killer On a freezing Londonnight in 1944, Rosa Novak is brutally murdered during a blackout.The police suspect she was the victim of a random act of violenceand might have dropped the case if former police investigator JohnMadden hadn't been the victim's employer. Madden's old colleaguesat Scotland Yard are working on it, but their scant clues lead themto Europe, where the ravages of the war halt their inquiries.Madden feels he owes it to Rosa to find her killer and pushes theinvestigation until he stumbles upon the dead girl's connection toa murdered Parisian furrier, a member of the Resistance, and astolen cache of diamonds. With rich psychological insights andvivid historical details, this riveting third novel in the Maddenseries promises to expand Airth's readership among discerning fansof crime fiction.
The first book of the definitive three-volume collection ofshort stories by the prolific Isaac Asimov, whose tales havedelighted countless fans for over half a century--a must for everyscience fiction bookshelf.
"There are tales of Middle-earth from times long before TheLord of the Rings, and the story told in this book is set in thegreat country that lay beyond the Grey Havens in the West: landswhere Treebeard once walked, but that were drowned in the greatcataclysm that ended the First Age of the World. "In that remotetime Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in the vast fortress ofAngband, the Hells of Iron, in the North; and the tragedy of Turinand his sister Nienor unfolded within the shadow of the fear ofAngband and the war waged by Morgoth against the lands and secretcities of the Elves. "Their brief and passionate lives weredominated by the elemental hatred that Morgoth bore them as thechildren of Hurin, the man who had dared to defy and to scorn himto his face. Against them he sent his most formidable servant,Glaurung, a powerful spirit in the form of a huge wingless dragonof fire. Into this story of brutal conquest and flight, of foresthiding-places and pursuit, of resistance with lessening hope, theD
Moving back through the 1940s, through air raids, blacked-outstreets, illicit partying, and sexual adventure, to end with itsbeginning in 1941, The Night Watch tells the story of fourLondoners-three women and a young man with a past-whose lives, andthose of their friends and lovers, connect in tragedy, stunningsurprise and exquisite turns, only to change irreversibly in theshadow of a grand historical event.
In this, her first collection of nonfiction, Alice Walkerspeaks out as a black woman, writer, mother, and feminist inthirty-six pieces ranging from the personal to the political. Amongthe contents are essays about other writers, accounts of the civilrights movement of the 1960s and the antinuclear movement of the1980s, and a vivid memoir of a scarring childhood injury and herdaughters healing words.
Harry Bernstein started chronicling his life at the age ofninety-four, after the death of his beloved wife, Ruby. In hisfirst book, The Invisible Wall , he told a haunting story offorbidden love in World War I-era England. Then Bernstein wrote The Dream , the touching tale of his family’s immigrantexperience in Depression-era Chicago and New York. Now Bernsteincompletes the saga with The Golden Willow , a heart-liftingmemoir of his life with Ruby, a romance that lasted nearly seventyyears. They met at a dance at New York’s legendary Webster Hall, fellinstantly and madly in love, and embarked on a rich and rewardinglife together. From their first tiny rented room on the Upper WestSide to their years in Greenwich Village, immersed in the artscene, surrounded by dancers, musicians, and writers, to their lifein the newly burgeoning suburbs, Harry and Ruby pursued theAmerican dream with gusto, much as Harry’s late mother would havewanted. Together, through a depression, a world war, and the McCarthy era
Written in the third century BC in Alexandria, this is theonly full surviving account of Jason's legendary quest for theGolden Fleece. It describes the thrilling adventures of theArgonauts on their voyage to Colchis to plead with king Aeetes forthe fleece, his greatest treasure and the Eros-inspired passionfelt by his daughter, the beautiful witch-princess Medea, for thescheming Jason. Chronicling a journey that sees Jason and his crewtraverse perilous seas, negotiate the treacherous Cyanean Rocks,and confront the lure of the Sirens' song, The Voyage of Argo is amasterful depiction of distinctly human heroism and betrayal causedby love. An eloquent marriage of romance and realism, it tells thedefinitive version of one of the greatest legends of the classicalage: an epic tale of bravery, prophecy and magic.
