(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) Dostoevsky's toweringreputation as one of the handful of thinkers who forged the modernsensibility has sometimes obscured the purely novelisticvirtues-brilliant characterizations, flair for suspense andmelodrama, instinctive theatricality-that made his work soimmensely popular in nineteenth-century Russia. "The BrothersKaramazov," his last and greatest novel, published just before hisdeath in 1881, chronicles the bitter love-hate struggle between theoutsized Fyodor Karamazov and his three very different sons. It isabove all the story of a murder, told with hair-raisingintellectual clarity and a feeling for the human conditionunsurpassed in world literature. This award-winning translation byRichard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky-the definitive version inEnglish-magnificently captures the rich and subtle energies ofDostoevsky's masterpiece.
Two girls who grow up to become women. Two friends who becomesomething worse than enemies. In this brilliantly imagined novel,Toni Morrison tells the story of Nel Wright and Sula Peace, whomeet as children in the small town of Medallion, Ohio. Theirdevotion is fierce enough to withstand bullies and the burden of adreadful secret. It endures even after Nel has grown up to be apillar of the black community and Sula has become a pariah. Buttheir friendship ends in an unforgivable betrayal—or does it end?Terrifying, comic, ribald and tragic, Sula is a work thatoverflows with life.
Around the World in Eighty Days (French: Le tour du monde enquatre-vingts jours) is a classic adventure novel by the Frenchwriter Jules Verne, first published in 1872. In the story, PhileasFogg of London and his newly-employed French valet Passepartoutattempt to circumnavigate the world in 80 days on a ￡20,000 wagerset by his friends at the Reform Club. Publisher Comments: Jules Verne Great excitement and awe greeted its publication in1873, and today Around the World in Eighty Days remains JulesVerne’s most successful novel. A daring wager by the eccentric andmysterious Englishman Phileas Fogg that he can circle the globe injust eighty days initiates this marvelous travelogue and excitingsuspense story. Together with his manservant, Passepartout, Foggmakes a breathless world tour, overcoming wild misadventures andfinding time to rescue a beautiful Indian maharani from a burningfuneral pyre—all the while restlessly pursued by a bumblingdetective called Mr. Fix. Realistically utilizing nearly everymean
In these "impishly witty and ingeniously irreverent" essays(Atlantic Monthly), "the Andy Rooney of academia" (Los AngelesTimes) takes on computer jargon, librarians, bureaucrats, meals onairplanes, bad coffee, taxi drivers, 33-function watches, soccerfans, and more. Translated by William Weaver. A Helen and KurtWolff Book
Portnoy's Complaint "n." after Alexander Portnoy (1933- )] Adisorder in which strongly-felt ethical and altruistic impulses areperpetually warring with extreme sexual longings, often of aperverse nature. Spielvogel says: 'Acts of exhibitionism,voyeurism, fetishism, auto-eroticism and oral coitus are plentiful;as a consequence of the patient's "morality," however, neitherfantasy nor act issues in genuine sexual gratification, but ratherin overriding feelings of shame and the dread of retribution,particularly in the form of castration.' (Spielvogel, O. "ThePuzzled Penis," "Internationale Zeitschrift fur Psychoanalyse,"Vol. XXIV, p. 909.) It is believed by Spielvogel that many of thesymptoms can be traced to the bonds obtaining in the mother-childrelationship. With a new Afterword by the author for the 25thAnniversary edition.
In this classic collision of the New World with Old Europe,James weaves a fable of thwarted desire that shifts between comedy,tragedy, romance, and melodrama.
Vintage Readers are a perfect introduction to some of thegreatest modern writers presented in attractive, accessiblepaperback editions. “It was Nabokov’s gift to bring paradise wherever he alighted.”—John Updike, The New York Review of Books Novelist, poet, critic, translator, and, above all, a peerlessimaginer, Vladimir Nabokov was arguably the most dazzling prosestylist of the twentieth century. In novels like Lolita, Pale Fire,and Ada, or Ardor, he turned language into an instrument ofecstasy. Vintage Nabokov includes sections 1-10 of his most famous andcontroversial novel, Lolita; the stories “The Return of Chorb,”“The Aurelian,” “A Forgotten Poet,” “Time and Ebb,” “Signs andSymbols,” “The Vane Sisters,” and “Lance”; and chapter 12 from hismemoir Speak, Memory.
Nabokov's third novel, The Defense, is a chilling story ofobsession and madness. As a young boy, Luzhin was unattractive,distracted, withdrawn, sullen--an enigma to his parents and anobject of ridicule to his classmates. He takes up chess as a refugefrom the anxiety of his everyday life. His talent is prodigious andhe rises to the rank of grandmaster--but at a cost: in Luzhin' sobsessive mind, the game of chess gradually supplants the world ofreality. His own world falls apart during a crucial championshipmatch, when the intricate defense he has devised withers under hisopponent's unexpected and unpredictabke lines of assault.
Founded in 1906 by J.M. Dent, the Everyman Library has alwaystried to make the best books ever written available to the greatestnumber of people at the lowest possible price. Unique editorialfeatures that help Everyman Paperback Classics stand out from thecrowd include: a leading scholar or literary critic's introductionto the text, a biography of the author, a chronology of her or hislife and times, a historical selection of criticism, and a conciseplot summary. All books published since 1993 have also beencompletely restyled: all type has been reset, to offer a clarityand ease of reading unique among editions of the classics; avibrant, full-color cover design now complements these great textswith beautiful contemporary works of art. But the best feature mustbe Everyman's uniquely low price. Each Everyman title offers theseextensive materials at a price that competes with the mostinexpensive editions on the market-but Everyman Paperbacks havedurable binding, quality paper, and the highest editorial an
Seventeen interlinked tales by the winner of the 1988 NobelPrize for Literature follow such themes as betrayal, intrigue,obsessive love, social injustice, reincarnations, and wrongsrighted or made worse. Reprint. K.
HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. 'It's a poor sort of memory that only works backward.' In Carroll's sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Alice once again finds herself in a bizarre and nonsensical place when she passes through a mirror and enters a looking-glass world where nothing is quite as it seems. From her guest appearance as a pawn in a chess match to her meeting with Humpty Dumpty, Through the Looking Glass follows Alice on her curious adventure and shows Carroll's great skill at creating an imaginary world full of the fantastical and extraordinary.
Staring unflinchingly into the abyss of slavery, thisspellbinding novel transforms history into a story as powerful asExodus and as intimate as a lullaby. Sethe, its protagonist, wasborn a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she isstill not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, thebeautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe'snew home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless andwhose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved. Filledwith bitter poetry and suspense as taut as a rope, Beloved" "is atowering achievement.
Our Mutual Friend was the last novel Charles Dickenscompleted and is, arguably, his darkest and most complex. The basicplot is vintage Dickens: an inheritance up for grabs, a murder, arocky romance or two, plenty of skullduggery, and a host ofunforgettable secondary characters. But in this final outing theauthor's heroes are more flawed, his villains more sympathetic, andthe story as a whole more harrowing and less sentimental. The moodis set in the opening scene in which a riverman, Gaffer Hexam, andhis daughter Lizzie troll the Thames searching for drowned menwhose pockets Gaffer will rifle before turning the body over to theauthorities. On this particular night Gaffer finds a corpse that islater identified as that of John Harmon, who was returning fromabroad to claim a large fortune when he was apparently murdered andthrown into the river. Harmon's death is the catalyst for everything else that happensin the novel. It seems the fortune was left to the young man on thecondition that he marry a girl he'd
David Foster Wallace's final and most ambitious undertaking - anaudacious and hilarious look into the abyss of ordinary life. THEPALE KING remained unfinished at the time of his death, but it is adeeply intriguing and satisfying novel, hilarious and fearless andas original as anything Wallace ever undertook.
Once again, Carlos Ruiz Zafón takes us into a dark, gothicBarcelona and creates a breathtaking tale of intrigue, romance, andtragedy. At the beginning of this powerful, labyrinthian thriller,David Martin, a pulp fiction writer struggling to stay afloat, isholed up in an abandoned mansion in the heart of Barcelona,furiously tapping out story after story, becoming increasinglydesperate and frustrated. When he is approached by a mysteriouspublisher offering a book deal that seems almost too good to bereal, David leaps at the chance. But as he begins the work, andafter a visit to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, he realizes thatthere is a connection between his book and the shadows thatsurround his dilapidated home and that the publisher may be hidinga few troubling secrets of his own.
Phaedra is consumed with passion for Hippolytus, her stepson.Believing her husband dead, she confesses her love to him and isrebuffed. When her husband returns alive, Phaedra convinces himthat it was Hippolytus who attempted to seduce her. In hisinterpretation, Racine replaced the stylized tragedy withhuman-scale characters and actions. Introduction by RichardWilbur.
Introduction by Ron PowersIncludes Newly Commissioned EndnotesArguably the first major American novel to satirize the politicalmilieu of Washington, D.C. and the wild speculation schemes thatexploded across the nation in the years that followed the CivilWar, The Gilded Age gave this remarkable era its name. Co-writtenby Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, this rollicking novel isrife with unscrupulous politicians, colorful plutocrats, andblindly optimistic speculators caught up in a frenzy of romance,murder, and surefire deals gone bust. First published in 1873 andfilled with unforgettable characters such as the vaingloriousColonel Sellers and the ruthless Senator Dilsworthy, The Gilded Ageis a hilarious and instructive lesson in American history.
(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) The most famous day inliterature is June 16, 1904, when a certain Mr. Leopold Bloom ofDublin eats a kidney for breakfast, attends a funeral, admires agirl on the beach, contemplates his wife's imminent adultery, and,late at night, befriends a drunken young poet in the city'sred-light district. An earthy story, a virtuoso technical display,and a literary revolution all rolled into one, James Joyce's"Ulysses" is a touchstone of our modernity and one of the toweringachievements of the human mind.
