Innocence and beauty ignite with evil and terror as a younggirl exhibits signs of a wild and horrifying force.
Featuring a stunning Introduction by popular author of The Ice Storm and Demonology Rick Moody, this special edition of The Mayor of Casterbridge is a tie-in to the AandE Television Network adaptation of Thomas Hardy's critically acclaimed novel. In a surprisingly personal essay, Moody names the saga "the first great novel about alcoholism," and delivers penetrating insight into the character of Michael Henchard and the crippling deficiencies that foretell his ruin. The Mayor of Casterbridge opens with an act of such heartlessness and cruelty that it still shocks readers today. Michael Henchard, an out-of-work hay-trusser, gets drunk at a fair and for five guineas sells his wife and child to a sailor. When the horror of his act sets in the following morning, the wretched Henchard swears he will not touch alcohol for twenty-one years. Through hard work and acumen, he becomes rich, respected, and eventually the mayor of Casterbridge. Eighteen years pass before Henchard's fateful oath comes back to claim its due
HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. 'Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, "and what is the use of a book," thought Alice, "without pictures or conversations?"' So begins the tale of Alice, following a curious White Rabbit down a rabbit-hole and falling into Wonderland. A fantastical place, where nothing is quite as it seems: animals talk, nonsensical characters confuse, Mad Hatter's throw tea parties and the Queen plays croquet. Alice's attempts to find her way home become increasingly bizarre, infuriating and amazing in turn. A beloved classic, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has continued to delight readers, young and old for over a century.
The Mill on the Floss, based on George Eliot's own experiences of provincial life, is a masterpiece of ambiguity in which moral choice is subjected to the hypocrisy of the Victorian age. As the headstrong Maggie Tulliver grows intowomanhood, the deep love which she has for her brother Tom turns into conflict, because she cannot reconcile his bourgeois standards withher own lively intelligence. Maggie is unable to adapt to her community or break free from it, and the result, on more than one level is tragedy.
The Shadows of Sherlock Holmes is a fascinating collection of stories featuring detectives, criminal agents and debonair crooks from the golden age of crime fiction: a time when Sherlock Holmes was esconsced in his rooms at 221B Baker Street and London was permanently wreathed in a sinister fog. These gripping tales of mystery, suspense and clever puzzles are wonderfully entertaining and in them you will meet The Crime Doctor, Professor Augustus S.F.X.Van Dusen - The Thinking Machine, Max Carrados - the incredible blind detective, the repulsive but brilliant Skin o' My Teeth, and the natty, ingenious French sleuth Eugene Valmont. On the other side of the law, there are gentleman crooks Raffles and Simon Carn - the Prince of Swindlers. The stories include: The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allan Poe, The Stolen Cigar Case by Bret Harte, The Swedish Match by Anton Chekhov, Nine Points of the Law by E.W. Hornung, The Ghost at Massingham Mansions by Ernest Bramah and The Great Pearl Mystery by Baroness Orczy.
Tom Jones is widely regarded as one of the first and most influential English novels.It is certainly the funniest. Tom Jones,the hero of the book,is introduced to the reader as the ward of a liberal Somerset squire.Tom is a generous but slightly wild and feckless country boy with a weakness for young women.Misfortune,followed by many spirited adventures as he travels to London to seek his fortune,teach him a sort of wisdom to go with his essential good-hearted-ness. This‘comic,epic poem in prose’will make the modern reader laugh as much as it did his forbears.Its biting satire finds an echo in today's society,for as Doris Lessing recently remarked 'This country becomes every day more like the eighteenth century,full of thieves and adventurers,rogues and a robust,unhypocritical savagery side-by-side with people lecturing others on morality.'
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is a powerful and sometimes violentnovel of expectation，love，oppression，sin，religion and betrayal.It portrays the disintegration of the marriage of HelenHuntingdon，the mysterious 'tenant' of the title，and herdissolute，alcoholic husband. Defying convention，Helen leavesher husband to protect their young son from his father'sinfluence，and earns her own living as an artist. Whilst in hidingat Wildfell Hall，she encounters Gilbert Markham. who falls inlove with her. On its first publication in 1848，Anne Bront 's second novel was criticised for being 'coarse' and 'brutal'. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall challenges the social conventions of the early nineteenth century in a strong defence of women's rights in the face of psychological abuse from their husbands. Anne Bront 's style is bold，naturalistic and passionate，and this novel，which her sister Charlotte considered 'an entire，has earned her a position in English Literature in her own right，not just as
In Dorian Gray, Wilde's full-length novel, a fashionable youngman sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty. Also included inthe volume are three of the Irish master storyteller's shortworks.
Living overseas but writing，always，about his native city， Joyce made Dublin unforgettable。The stories in Dubliners show us truants， seducers， gossips， rally-drivers， generous hostesses，corrupt politicians，failing priests， amateur theologians，struggling musicians，moony adolescents， victims of domestic brutishness，sentimental aunts and poets， patriots earnest or cynical， and people striving to get by。In every sense an international figure，Joyce was faithful to his own country by seeing it unflinchingly and challenging every precedent and piety in Irish literature。
Based on Charlotte Bronte's personal experience as a teacher in Brussels. Villette is a moving tale of repressed feelings and subjection to cruel circumstance and position, borne with heroic fortitude. Rising above the frustrations of confinement within a rigid social order, it is also a story of a woman’s right to love and be loved.
This novel,first published in 1817,achieved a huge success and helped establish the historical novel as a literary form.In rich prose and vivid de*ion,Rob Roy follows the adventures of a businessman's son,Frank Osbaldistone,who is sent to Scotland and finds himself drawn to the powerful,enigmatic figure of Rob Roy MacGregor,the romantic outlaw who fights for justice and dignity for the Scots.This is an incomparable portrait of the haunted Highlands and Scotland's glorious past.
Set during the Napoleonic wars, Vanity Fair (1847-8) famously satirizes worldly society. The novel revolves around the exploits of the impoverished but beautiful and devious Becky Sharp, and Amelia Sedley, pampered child of a rich City merchant. Despite the differences in their fortunes and characters, they find their lives entangled from childhood. As Becky's maneuvering ingratiates her with high society, the financial ruin of Amelia's father forces Amelia into poverty. Destiny, of course, has further adventures in store for both women, whose lives Thackeray (1811-63) uses as theatres for the whims and foibles of their contemporaries. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. 作者简介： WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY was born in India to a long line of Yorkshire gentry recently mixed with equally ancient gentry. In 1817, two years after the death of his father a prosperous official of the East India Company, the boy was sent back to England. There he underwent
The story of 'Little Nell' gripped the nation when it first appeared. Described as a 'tragedy of sorrows', it tells of Nell uprooted from a secure and innocent childhood and cast into a world where evil takes many shapes, the most fascinating of which is the stunted, lecherous Quilp. He is Nell's tormenter and destroyer, and it is his demonic energy that dominates the book.
Virginia Woolf's Orlando 'The longest and most charming love letter in literature', playfully constructs the figure of Orlando as the fictional embodiment of Woolf's close friend and lover, Vita Sackville-West. Spanning three centuries, the novel opens as Orlando, a young nobleman in Elizabeth's England, awaits a visit from the Queen and traces his experience with first love as England under James I lies locked in the embrace of the Great Frost. At the midpoint of the novel, Orlando, now an ambassador in Costantinople, awakes to find that he is a woman, and the novel indulges in farce and irony to consider the roles of women in the 18th and 19th centuries. As the novel ends in 1928, a year consonant with full suffrage for women. Orlando, now a wife and mother, stands poised at the brink of a future that holds new hope and promise for women.
Hollywood homicide detective Petra Connor takes center stage inbestseller Kellerman's elaborate, suspenseful, albeit improbable,thriller. Connor, who assisted Kellerman's main series detective,psychologist Alex Delaware, in 2003's A Cold Heart, proves anengaging protagonist, fully capable of carrying a story on her own.She's investigating a seemingly random drive-by shooting thatclaimed four teenage victims when a precocious 22-year-old graduatestudent intern, Isaac Gomez, presents her with evidence that aserial killer has struck on the same day, June 28, every year forthe past six years. Though his proof relies entirely on astatistical analysis he's performed, his unquestioned brillianceprompts Connor to do a little extracurricular digging that turns upsuggestive clues supporting Gomez's theory. Meanwhile, afterdoggedly pursuing even the slightest lead in the drive-by shootingcase, Connor suspects that one of the victims, perhaps the one whowasn't claimed by any next-of-kin, was deliberately targeted. While
With an Introduction and Notes by Dr. Jacqueline Belanger, University of Cardiff A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man represents the transitional stage between the realism of Joyce's Dubliners and the symbolism of Ulysses, and is essential to the understanding of the later work. The novel is a highly autobiographical account of the adolescence of Stephen Dedalus, who reappears in Ulysses, and who comes to realize that before he can become a true artist, he must rid himself of the stultifying effects of the religion, politics and essential bigotry of his background in late 19th century Ireland. Written with a light touch,this is perhaps the most accessible of Joyce's works.
Probably the most popular horse story of all time, Black Beauty tells the story of one horse's long and varied life. On the one hand, a fully engaging novel and on the other hand, a strong statement against animal maltreatment. Anna Sewell's classic novel has enthralled readers since it was first published in 1877.
The life and times of Everyone's favorite thief Filled with action, villains, and surprises, the legend lives on.Days of old bursting with pageantry, knights, and beautiful maidensreturn in a superb edition of this favorite classic story.
His love was wild... his soul untamed... his touch forbidden....From acclaimed author Susan Krinard comes the second novel in amagnificent trilogy of a powerful clan whose sensual legacy iscloaked in secrecy-and a beautiful woman kidnapped by an outlawwhose forbidden embrace could reveal her true identity.... Once aWolf In the unspoiled expanses of the American West, Toma sAlejandro Randall was called El Lobo, the desperado and sworn enemyof powerful financier Cole MacLean. Few humans knew his trueidentity: heir to a wolf bloodline that made him as much an exoticbeast as a devastatingly attractive man. It was Toma s's plan tolure Cole MacLean's elegant fiance e, Lady Rowena Forster, from herNew York mansion to the wild frontier. There he planned to seducethe golden-haired beauty as revenge for the destruction of hisfamily at MacLean's hands. But once she was in his possession, ElLobo found himself unable to resist the call of his own untamedpassion-a passion that would claim the beauty for his own. As forLad
Castigated for offending against public decency, Madame Bovary has rarely failed to cause a storm. For Flaubert"s contemporaries, the fascination came from the novelist"s meticulous account of provincial manners. For the writer,subject matter was subordinate to his anguished quest for aesthetic perfection. For his twentieth-century successors the formal experiments that underpin Madame Bovary look forward to the innovations of contemporary fiction. Flaubert s protagonist in particular has never ceased to fascinate. Rornantic heroine or middle-class neurotic, flawed wife and mother or passionate protestor against the conventions of bourgeois society, simultaneously the subject of Flaubert s admiration and the butt of his irony - Emma Bovary remains one of the most enigmatic of fictional creations. Flaubert s meticulous approach to the craft of fiction, his portrayal of contemporary reality, his representation of an unforgettable cast of characters make Madame Bovary one of the major landmarks of mode
Released in 2005 in Arabic, Girls of Riyadh caused a sensation throughout the Arab world. Now in English, Rajaa Alsanea's bold first novel exposes the hidden lives of young upper-class women and their personal conflicts with culturaltradition and offers Westerners an unprecedented glimpse into a society often veiled from view. From the Saudi singles scene in Riyadh to their travels outside the country, four young women, Gamrah,Michelle, Sadeem, and Lamees, literally and figuratively shed traditional garb as they negotiate, their love lives; their professional successes; their rebellions, large and small; and ultimately their place-somewhere in between contemporary Western society and their Islamic home.
Undeniably powerful, an enormously affecting and intenselyhuman story. --The Washington Post Book World "A GUT-WRENCHING PIECE OF WORK. . . Carcaterra's graphic narrativegrips like gunfire in a dark alley." --The Atlanta Journal Constitution "In his controversial memoir SLEEPERS, Carcaterra remembersharrowing months in the Wilkinson Home for Boys and the elaboratevengeance he and his friends exacted against the guards. He tellsit all in spare, stylish prose . . . [with] relentless momentum andsheer drama. . . . SLEEPERS is a thriller, to be sure, but it isequally a wistful hymn to another age." --The Washington Post Book World "A TERRIFYING ACCOUNT OF BRUTALITY AND RETRIBUTION, searing in itsemotional truth, peopled with murderers, sadists, and thugs, butbiblical in its passion and scope." --People "SLEEPERS is so many things: a Dickensian portrait of coming of agein Hell's Kitchen, a terrifying and heartbreaking account of thebrutalization of youth, a shocking--and disturbinglysatisfying--climax worthy of
