Meet Sugar, a nineteen-year-old prostitute innineteenth-century London who yearns for escape to a better life.From the brothel of the terrifying Mrs. Castaway, she begins herascent through society, meeting a host of lovable, maddening,unforgettable characters on the way. They begin with WilliamRackham, an egotistical perfume magnate whose empire is fueled byhis lust for Sugar; his unhinged, child-like wife Agnes; hismysteriously hidden-away daughter, Sophie; and his pious brotherHenry, foiled in his devotional calling by a persistentlyless-than-chaste love for the Widow Fox. All this is overseen byassorted preening socialites, drunken journalists, untrustworthyservants, vile guttersnipes, and whores of all stripes andpersuasions. Teeming with life, this is a big, juicy must-read of a novel thathas enthralled hundreds of thousands of readers-and will continueto do so for years to come.

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."

At the age of seventy, after a gap of twenty years, Jorge LuisBorges returned to writing short stories. In "Brodieas Report," hereturned also to the style of his earlier years with its brutalrealism, nightmares, and bloodshed. Many of these stories,including aUnworthya and aThe Other Duel, a are set in the machoArgentinean underworld, and even the rivalries between artists aresuffused with suppressed violence. Throughout, opposing themes offate and free will, loyalty and betrayal, time and memory flickerin the recesses of these compelling stories, among the best Borgesever wrote.

Caryl Phillips’ ambitious and powerful novel spans two hundred and fifty years of the African Diaspora. It tracks two brothers and a sister on their separate journeys through different epochs and continents: one as a missionary to Liberia in the 1830s.one a pioneer on a wagon trail to the American west later that century, and one a Gl posted to a Yorkshire village in the Second World War. Crossing the River won the James Tait Black Memorial Award in 1994, and was shortlist for the 1993Booker Prize. Caryl Phillips exploration of the relations between black and white is nuanced, humane,and sympathetic ,And his deep awareness of the historical proess is combined with an exceptionally inteligent prose style-clear,unecumbered,and compassionate'New Statesman& Society.

This stunning and steamy debut chronicles the adventures ofNan King, a small town girl at the turn of the century whose lifetakes a wild turn of its own when she follows a local music hallstar to London...

Passionate and perceptive, the three short novels that make upBalzac's "History of the Thirteen" are concerned in part with theactivities of a rich, powerful, sinister and unscrupulous secretsociety in nineteenth-century France. While the deeds of "TheThirteen" remain frequently in the background, however, theindividual novels are concerned with exploring various forms ofdesire. A tragic love story, Ferragus depicts a marriage destroyedby suspicion, revelation and misunderstanding. The Duchess deLangeais explores the anguish that results when a society coquettetries to seduce a heroic ex-soldier, while "The Girl with theGolden Eyes" offers a frank consideration of desire and sexuality.Together, these works provide a firm and fascinating foundation forBalzac's many later portrayals of Parisian life in his greatnovel-cycle "The Human Comedy".

Tertuliano Maximo Afonso is a divorced, depressed historyteacher. To lift his spirits, a colleague suggests he rent acertain video. Tertuliano watches the film, unimpressed. But duringthe night, when he is awakened by noises in his apartment, he goesinto the living room to find that the VCR is replaying the video.He watches in astonishment as a man who looks exactly like him-or,more specifically, exactly like he did five years before,mustachioed and fuller in the face-appears on the screen. He sleepsbadly. Against his better judgment, Tertuliano decides to pursuehis double. As he roots out the man's identity, what begins as awhimsical story becomes a "wonderfully twisted meditation onidentity and individuality" (The Boston Globe). Saramago displayshis remarkable talent in this haunting tale of appearance versusreality.

Four friends come together in a hot contemporary erotic novelfrom the author of Chain Reaction. Meet the friends: Free spirited Jamie is not one to be tieddown—unless it’s in the bedroom. Caleb is Jamie’s sexuallyadventurous lover who has no desire to domesticate her. Mia isJamie’s naive friend whose sexual fulfillment has depended solelyon her first and only lover. Aidan thinks he knows what Mia wants.That’s because he’s the only man she’s ever gone to, to getit. This weekend, four best friends at the crossroads of theirrelationships have decided to do something different. But as sexualpartners shift, Jamie, Caleb, Mia, and Aidan will discover moreabout themselves and each other than they ever imagined.

An upper-class woman, recovering from a suicide attempt, visitsthe women's ward of Millbank prison as part of her rehabilitation.There she meets Selina, an enigmatic spiritualist-and becomes drawninto a twilight world of ghosts and shadows, unruly spirits andunseemly passions, until she is at last driven to concoct adesperate plot to secure Selina's freedom, and her own. "Unfoldssinuously and ominously...a powerful plot-twister. The book ismultidimensional: a naturalistic look at Victorian society; a trulysuspenseful tale of terror; and a piece of elegant, thinly veilederotica." ("USA Today") "Gothic tale, psychological study, puzzlenarrative-Sarah Waters' second novel is all of these wrapped intoone, served up to superbly suspenseful and hypnotic effect." ("TheSeattle Times")

The inspiration for the major motion picture starring BradPitt and Cate Blanchettaplus eighteen other stories by the belovedauthor of "The Great Gatsby" IN THE TITLE STORY, a baby born in1860 begins life as an old man and proceeds to age backward. F.Scott Fizgerald hinted at this kind of inversion when he called hisera aa generation grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars fought,all faiths in man shaken.a Perhaps nowhere in American fiction hasthis aLost Generationa been more vividly preserved than inFitzgeraldas short fiction. Spanning the early twentieth-centuryAmerican landscape, this original collection captures, withFitzgeraldas signature blend of enchantment and disillusionment,America during the Jazz Age.

Vicki Forman gave birth to Evan and Ellie, weighing just a poundat birth, at twenty-three weeks gestation. During the delivery shebegged the doctors to "let her babies go" she knew all too wellthat at twenty-three weeks they could very well die and, if theysurvived, they would face a high risk of permanent disabilities.However, California law demanded resuscitation. Her daughter diedjust four days later; her son survived and was indeed multiplydisabled: blind, nonverbal, and dependent on a feeding tube. ThisLovely Life tells, with brilliant intensity, of what became of theForman family after the birth of the twins the harrowing medicalinterventions and ethical considerations involving the sanctity oflife and death. In the end, the longdelayed first steps of afive-year-old child will seem like the fist-pumping stuff of atriumph narrative. Formans intelligent voice gives a sensitive,nuanced rendering of her guilt, her anger, and her eventualacceptance in this portrait of a mothers fierce love for herchildren.

One of the greatest French novelists, Balzac was also anaccomplished writer of shorter fiction. This volume includes twelveof his finest short stories many of which feature characters fromhis epic series of novels the Comedie Humaine. Compelling tales ofacute social and psychological insight, they fully demonstrate themastery of suspense and revelation that were the hallmarks ofBalzac's genius. In The Atheist's Mass, we learn the true reasonfor a distinguished atheist surgeon's attendance at religiousservices; La Grande Breteche describes the horrific truth behindthe locked doors of a decaying country mansion, while The Red Innrelates a brutal tale of murder and betrayal. A fascinatingcounterpoint to the renowned novels, all the stories collected herestand by themselves as mesmerizing works by one of the finestwriters of nineteenth-century France.

**DEBUT FICTION** Mary Todd Lincoln is one of history's mostmisunderstood and enigmatic women. The first president's wife to becalled First Lady, she was a political strategist, a supporter ofemancipation, and a mother who survived the loss of three childrenand the assassination of her beloved husband. Yet she also ran herfamily into debt, held seances in the White House, and wascommitted to an insane asylum. In Janis Cooke Newman's debut novel,Mary Todd Lincoln shares the story of her life in her own words.Writing from Bellevue Place asylum, she takes readers from hertempestuous childhood in a slaveholding Southern family through theyears after her husband's death. A dramatic tale filled withpassion and depression, poverty and ridicule, infidelity andredemption, Mary allows us entry into the inner, intimate world ofthis brave and fascinating woman.

Kenneth Trachtenberg, the witty and eccentric narrator of"More Die of Heartbreak," has left his native Paris for theMidwest. He has come to be near his beloved uncle, theworld-renowned botanist Benn Crader, self-described aplantvisionary.a While his studies take him around the world, Benn, arestless spirit, has not been able to satisfy his longings afterhis first marriage and lives from affair to affair and from ablissto breakdown.a Imagining that a settled existence will end hisanguish, Benn ties the knot again, opening the door to a flood ofnew torments. As Kenneth grapples with his own problems involvinghis unusual lady-friend Treckie, the two men try to figure out whygifted and intelligent people invariably find themselves aknee-deepin the garbage of a personal life.a

Peter Pan, the "boy who would not grow up," originally appearedas a baby living a magical life among birds and fairies in J.M.Barrie’s sequence of stories, Peter Pan in KensingtonGardens . His later role as flying boy hero was brought to thestage by Barrie in the beloved play Peter Pan , which openedin 1904 and became the novel Peter and Wendy in 1911. In anarrative filled with vivid characters, epic battles, pirates,fairies, and fantastic imagination, Peter Pan’s adventures capturethe spirit of childhood— and of rebellion against the role ofadulthood in conventional society. This edition includes the novel and the stories, as well as anintroduction by eminent scholar Jack Zipes. Looking at the manbehind Peter Pan and sifting through the psychologicalinterpretations that have engaged many a critic, Zipes explores thelarger cultural and literary contexts in which we should appreciateBarrie’s enduring creation and shows why Peter Pan is a worknot for children but for adults seeking to reconnect

In a perfect pairing of talent, this volume blends twentyillustrations by Peter SA-s with Jorge Luis Borgesas 1957compilation of 116 astrange creatures conceived through time andspace by the human imagination, a from dragons and centaurs toLewis Carrollas Cheshire Cat and the Morlocks of H. G. Wellsas "TheTime Machine." A lavish feast of exotica brought vividly to lifewith art commissioned specifically for this volume, "The Book ofImaginary Beings" will delight readers of classic fantasy as wellas Borgesas many admirers.

COMPLETELY REVISED AND UPDATED TO INCLUDE THE LATESTCUTTING-EDGE RESEARCH. The best-selling Optimum Nutrition Bible hasrevolutionised health. It explains how, by giving yourself the bestpossible intake of nutrients, to allow your body to be as healthyas it possibly can. This revised and updated edition shows you:What a well balanced diet really means; How to boost your immunesystem; How to increase your energy and fitness levels; How toprevent cancer and turn back the ageing clock; How to avoid heartdisease and lower your blood pressure without drugs; Why the wrongfats can kill and the right fats can heal; How to increase your IQ,memory and mental performance; Includes new charts and six newchapters, on Stimulants, Water, Eating right for your blood type,Detox, Homocysteine and Toxic Minerals.

When a NASA satellite discovers an astonishingly rare object buried deep in the Arctic ice, the floundering space agency proclaims a much-needed victory -- a victory with profound implications for NASA policy and the impending presidential election. To verify the authenticity of the find, the White House calls upon the skills of intelligence analyst Rachel Sexton. Accompanied by a team of experts, including the charismatic scholar Michael Tolland, Rachel travels to the Arctic and uncovers the unthinkable: evidence of scientific trickery -- a bold deception that threatens to plunge the world into controversy. But before she can warn the president, Rachel and Michael are ambushed by a team of assassins. Fleeing for their lives across a desolate and lethal landscape, their only hope for survival is to discover who is behind this masterful plot. The truth, they will learn, is the most shocking deception of all.

GBF Discussion; Guide online Introduction by CynthiaOzick.