A stunning novel by the widest-read Arab writer currentlypublished in the U.S. The age of Nasser has ushered in enormoussocial change, and most of the middle-aged and middle-class sonsand daughters of the old bourgeoisie find themselves trying torecreate the cozy, enchanted world they so dearly miss. One night,however, art and reality collide--with unforeseencircumstances.
Since the original prewar translation there has been nocompletely new rendering of the French original into English. Thistranslation brings to the fore a more sharply engaged, comic andlucid Proust. "In Search of Lost Time" is one of the greatest, mostentertaining reading experiences in any language. As the greatstory unfolds from its magical opening scenes to its devastatingend, it is the "Penguin Proust" that makes Proust accessible to anew generation. Each volume is translated by a different, superbtranslator working under the general editorship of ProfessorChristopher Prendergast, University of Cambridge.
The early masterpiece of V. S. Naipaul’s brilliant career, AHouse for Mr. Biswas is an unforgettable story inspired byNaipaul's father that has been hailed as one of the twentiethcentury's finest novels. In his forty-six short years, Mr. Mohun Biswas has been fightingagainst destiny to achieve some semblance of independence, only toface a lifetime of calamity. Shuttled from one residence to anotherafter the drowning death of his father, for which he isinadvertently responsible, Mr. Biswas yearns for a place he cancall home. But when he marries into the domineering Tulsi family onwhom he indignantly becomes dependent, Mr. Biswas embarks on anarduous–and endless–struggle to weaken their hold over him andpurchase a house of his own. A heartrending, dark comedy ofmanners, A House for Mr. Biswas masterfully evokes a man’s questfor autonomy against an emblematic post-colonial canvas.
George Orwell's celebrated and always timely 1948 vision of aworld subsumed in tyranny and war describes the process of eventsby which Winston Smith, a London clerk at the Ministry of Truth,comes to understand the true nature and aims of the government heworks for, and portrays his doomed attempt to create a private lifefor himself and his lover, Julia. One of the bleakest politicalnovels ever written, 1984 illustrates Orwell's despair thatdemocracy could ever summon the strength to overcometotalitarianism in his lifetime.
Readers and reviewers in the United Kingdom have hailed the newtranslations of Proust as a major literary event. Soon to appear inthe United States, Swann’s Way , along with the second volumeof In Search of Lost Time , In the Shadow of Young Girlsin Flower , will introduce a new century of American readers tothe literary riches of Proust. These superb editions—the firstcompletely new translation of Proust’s novel since the 1920s—bringus a more comic and lucid Proust than English readers havepreviously been able to enjoy. In the Shadow of Young Girls inFlower is a spectacular dissection of male and femaleadolescence, charged with the narrator’s memories of Paris and theNormandy seaside. In it, Proust introduces some of his greatestcomic inventions. As a meditation on different forms of love, Inthe Shadow of Young Girls in Flower has no equal. --Thistext refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of thistitle.
Steinbeck's first posthumously published work, "The Acts of KingArthur and His Noble Knights" is a reinterpretation of tales fromMalory's "Morte d'Arthur". In this highly successful attempt torender Malory into Modern English, Steinbeck recreated the rhythmand tone of the original Middle English.
'The year I turned ninety, I wanted to give myself a gift of anight of wild love with an adolescent virgin' He has never married,never loved and never gone to bed with a woman he didn't pay. Buton finding a young girl naked and asleep on the brothel owner'sbed, a passion is ignited in his heart - and he feels, for thefirst time, the urgent pangs of love. Each night, exhausted by herfactory work, 'Delgadina' sleeps peacefully whilst he watches herquietly. During these solitary early hours, his love for herdeepens and he finds himself reflecting on his newly found passionand the loveless life he has led. By day, his columns in the localnewspaper are read avidly by those who recognise in his outpouringsthe enlivening and transformative power of love. The publication of"Memories of My Melancholy Whores" spearheads "Penguin's"celebration of Marquez's 80th birthday in 2007.
A fascinating look at the history and grandeur of bullfighting,Death in the Afternoon is also a deeper contemplation on the natureof cowardice and bravery, sport and tragedy, and is enlivenedthroughout by Hemingway's pungent commentary on life andliterature. Seen through his eyes, bullfighting becomes an art, arichly choreographed ballet, with performers who range from awkwardamateurs to masters of great grace and cunning.
A classic work that has charmed generations of readers, thiscollection assembles Carson McCullers's best stories, including herbeloved novella The Ballad of the SadCaf . A haunting tale of a human triangle thatculminates in an astonishing brawl, the novella introduces readersto Miss Amelia, a formidable southern woman whose caf serves as the town's gathering place. Among other fine works, thecollection also includes Wunderkind, McCullers's first published story written when she was onlyseventeen about a musical prodigy who suddenly realizes she willnot go on to become a great pianist.
Winner of the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature. Jean-Paul Sartre, philosopher, critic, novelist and dramatist, holda position of singular eminence in the world of French letters.Among readers and critics familiar with the whole of Sartre's work,it is generally recognized that his earliest novel, LeNausée (first published in 1938), is his finest and mostsignificant. It is unquestionably a key novel of the TwentiethCentury and a landmark in Existentialist fiction.
Set on the eve of the Sino-Japanese war, "Fortress Besieged"recounts the exuberant misadventures of the hapless hero FangHung-chien, who after aimlessly studying in Europe at his family'sexpense returns to Shanghai armed with a bogus degree from a fakeuniversity. On the liner back, Fang's life becomes deeply entangledwith those of two Chinese beauties - while when he does finallymake it home, he obtains a teaching post at a newly establisheduniversity, encounters effete pseudo-intellectuals, and falls intoa marriage of disastrous proportions. A glorious tale of love,marriage, war, calamity, disillusionment and hope, this is one ofthe greatest Chinese novels: combining Eastern philosophy, Westerntraditions, adventure, tragicomedy and satire to create a uniquefeast of delights.
To Have and Have Not is the dramatic, brutal story ofHarry Morgan, an honest boat owner who is forced into runningcontraband between Cuba and Key West as a means of keeping hiscrumbling family financially afloat. His adventures lead him intothe world of the wealthy and dissipated yachtsmen who swarm theregion, and involve him in a strange and unlikely love affair. In this harshly realistic, yet oddly tender and wise novel,Hemingway perceptively delineates the personal struggles of boththe "haves" and the "have nots" and creates one of the most subtleand moving portraits of a love affair in his oeuvre. In turn funnyand tragic, lively and poetic, remarkable in its emotional impact, To Have and Have Not takes literary high adventure to a newlevel. As the Times Literary Supplement observed,"Hemingway's gift for dialogue, for effective understatement, andfor communicating such emotions the tough allow themselves, hasnever been more conspicuous."
This authoritative, accurate text of the first edition (1868—69) of Little Women is accompanied by textual variants and thorough explanatory annotations. "Backgrounds and Contexts" includes a wealth of archival materials, among them previously unpublished correspondence with Thomas Niles and Alcott's own precursors to Little Women. "Criticism" reprints twenty nineteenth-century reviews. Seven modern essays represent a variety of critical theories used to read and study the novel, including feminist (Catharine R. Stimpson, Elizabeth Keyser), new historicist (Richard H. Brodhead), psychoanalytic (Angela M. Estes and Kathleen Margaret Lant), and reader-response (Elizabeth Vincent) . A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included. About the series: No other series of classic texts equals the caliber of the Norton Critical Editions. Each volume combines the most authoritative text available with the comprehensive pedagogical apparatus necessary to appreciate the work fully. Carefu
First published in the 1920's, "The Prophet" an inspirational,allegorical guide to living, the book is perhaps the most famouswork of religious fiction of the Twentieth Century and has soldmillions of copies in more than twenty languages. Gibran'sprotagonist, called simply 'the "Prophet"', delivers spiritual, yetpractical, homilies on a wide variety of topics central to dailylife: love, marriage and children; work and play; possessions,beauty, truth, joy and sorrow, death and many more.
Women In Love, the book Lawrence considered his best, waswritten during World War I, and while that conflict is nevermentioned in the novel, a sense of background danger, of lurkingcatastrophe, continually informs its drama of two couplesdynamically engaged in a struggle with themselves, with each other,and with life's intractable limitations. Lawrence was a powerful,prophetic writer, but in addition he brought such delicacy to histreatment of the human and natural worlds that E. M. Forster'sclaim that he was the greatest imaginative novelist of ourgeneration does him too little justice rather than too much.
(Book Jacket Status: Not Jacketed) If William Shakespeare hadnever written a single play, if his reputation rested entirely uponthe substantial and sterling body of nondramatic verse he leftbehind, he would still hold the position he does in the hierarchyof world literature. The strikingly modern ?sonnets-intimate,baroque, and expansive at once; the invigorating narratives drawnfrom classical subjects; and the flawless lyricism represented by apoem like "The Phoenix and the Turtle"-permanently deepen ourunderstanding of the multiplicity and extravagant energy of ourgreatest poet.
"The Story of the Stone" (c. 1760), also known as "The Dreamof the Red Chamber", is one of the greatest novels of Chineseliterature. The fifth part of Cao Xueqin's magnificent saga, "TheDreamer Awakes", was carefully edited and completed by Gao E somedecades later. It continues the story of the changing fortunes ofthe Jia dynasty, focussing on Bao-yu, now married to Bao-chai,after the tragic death of his beloved Dai-yu. Against such worldlyelements as death, financial ruin, marriage, decadence andcorruption, his karmic journey unfolds. Like a sleepwalker throughlife, Bao-yu is finally awakened by a vision, which reveals to himthat life itself is merely a dream, 'as moonlight mirrored in thewater'.
A delicate boy growing up in Paris, Jerome Palissier spends manysummers at his uncle's house in the Normandy countryside, where thewhole world seems 'steeped in azure'. There he falls deeply in lovewith his cousin Alissa and she with him. But gradually Alissabecomes convinced that Jerome's love for her is endangering hissoul. In the interests of his salvation, she decides to suppresseverything that is beautiful in herself - in both mind and body. Adevastating exploration of aestheticism taken to extremes, "Straitis the Gate" is a novel of haunting beauty that stimulates the mindand the emotions.
The thirty-four stories in this volume span Chekhov’s creative career. They present a wide spectrum of comic and serious themes and a variety of techniques. (His short novels, available in another Norton volume, Seven Short Novels by Chekhov, have been omitted.) Two of the stories have been translated for this edition by Professor Matlaw; the other translations, by Constance Garnett, Ivy Litvinov, and Marian Fell, have been revised in accordance with contemporary usage. Footnotes have been supplied wherever necessary to explain peculiarities of Russian life and the historical era in which Chekhov lived and wrote. Backgrounds includes a rich selection of Chekhov’s letters, in new translations by Professor Matlaw, and Gorky’s celebrated essay on Chekhov, translated by Ivy Litvinov. The critical essays offer general views of Chekhov’s art and achievement and detailed analyses of particular stories. The critics are D. S. Mirsky, A. B. Derman (whose essay has been translated from the Russian especially
(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) Shakespeare's four greatesttragedies were written in a remarkably short period of time,between 1598 and 1606. "Hamlet," "Othello," "Macbeth," and "KingLear" are each so singular an achievement that any rereading ofthem reinforces the awe and almost idolatrous worship that thismost uncanny of the world's great writers invariably inspires. Inthese four plays, Shakespeare engages the problem that is centralto tragedy and crucial to any human community--the problem ofviolence and revenge--on an unprecedented scale. No other literarytexts have been more instrumental in deepening our knowledge ofourselves as individuals and as a civilization. This authoritativeedition of the plays is supplemented with footnotes,bibliographies, a detailed chronology of Shakespeare's life andtimes, and a substantial introduction in which Tony Tannerdiscusses each play individually while setting each in context.
Everyone's in love with vampires, and if his name happens to be Edward Cullen, then readers of the wildly popular Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer can't help but be crazy about him. For all those who adore Bella Swan, Edward, and the rest of the Cullen family and can't get enough, this companion guide is a must-read and a terrific gift. The series follows an unlikely couple: Bella, a teenager, and her boyfriend Edward, a vampire that has sworn off human blood. But their love is ill-fated--being a vampire, Edward must keep his passion in check, lest he is driven to suck Bella's blood. With legends, lore, and myths about everything from vampires to werewolves to immortality, a bio of the author, and a ton of insight into the four-book series, this companion guide will give millions of readers the information that they've been waiting for since book one.
