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.
Letting Go is Roth's first full-length novel, published justafter Goodbye, Columbus, when he was twenty-nine. Set in 1950sChicago, New York, and Iowa city, Letting Go presents as brillianta fictional portrait as we have of a mid-century America defined bysocial and ethical constraints and by moral compulsionsconspicuously different from those of today. Newly discharged fromthe Korean War army, reeling from his mother's recent death, freedfrom old attachments and hungrily seeking others, Gabe Wallach isdrawn to Paul Herz, a fellow graduate student in literature, and toLibby, Paul's moody, intense wife. Gabe's desire to be connected tothe ordered andquot; world of feelingandquot; that he finds inbooks is first tested vicariously by the anarchy of the Herzes'struggles with responsible adulthood and then by his own eager loveaffairs. Driven by the desire to live seriously and act generously,Gabe meets an impassable test in the person of Martha Reganhart, aspirited, outspoken, divorced mother of two, a formidable
"Why Read the Classics?" is an elegant defence of the value ofgreat literature by one of the finest authors of the last century.Beginning with an essay on the attributes that define a classic(number one - classics are those books that people always say theyare 'rereading', not 'reading'), this is an absorbing collection ofItalo Calvino's witty and passionate criticism.
In the tradition of Philippa Gregory's smart, transportingfiction comes this tale of dark suspense, love, and betrayal,featuring two star-crossed sisters, one lost and the othersearching. Bright and inquisitive, Hannah Powers was raised by afather who treated her as if she were his son. While her beautifuland reckless sister, May, pushes the limits of propriety in theirsmall English town, Hannah harbors her own secret: their father hasgiven her an education forbidden to women. But Hannah's secretserves her well when she journeys to colonial Maryland to reunitewith May, who has been married off to a distant cousin after hersexual misadventures ruined her marriage prospects in England. AsHannah searches for May, who has disappeared, she finds herselffalling in love with her brother-in-law. Alone in a wild,uncultivated land where the old rules no longer apply, Hannah isfreed from the constraints of the society that judged both her andMay as dangerous--too smart, too fearless, and too hungry for life.But Hannah
Between the First World War and the Wall Street Crash the FrenchRiviera was the stylish place for wealthy Americans to visit. Amongthe most fashionable are the Divers, Dick and Nicole who hold courtat their villa. Into their circle comes Rosemary Hoyt, a film star,who is instantly attracted to them, but understands little of thedark secrets and hidden corruption that hold them together. As Dickdraws closer to Rosemary, he fractures the delicate structure ofhis marriage and sets both Nicole and himself on to a dangerouspath where only the strongest can survive. In this exquisite,lyrical novel, Fitzgerald has poured much of the essence of his ownlife; he has also depicted the age of materialism, shatteredidealism and broken dreams.
Laurence is a young ex-sailor who can't resist the lure of the good life, and when he finds a job as chauffeur to the wealthy Mr and Mrs Bannister, his occasional work leaves him free to indulge. Bannister himself is bitter - his twisted leg keeps him on the sidelines while his ravishingly beautiful wife endures his moods with saintly patience. Or does she? It's the Bannisters' closest friend, Grisby, who starts stirring, getting Laurence to agree to a crazy plot. It will net him thousands, no strings attached. But is it all too easy?
Pablo Escobar: billionaire drugs baron; ruthless manipulator,brutal killer and jefe of the infamous Medellin cartel. A man whoseimportance in the international drug trade and renown for hischaritable work among the poor brought him influence and power inhis home country of Colombia, and the unwanted attention of theAmerican courts. Terrified of the new Colombian President'sdetermination to extradite him to America, Escobar found the bestbargaining tools he could find: hostages. In the winter of 1990,ten relatives of Colombian politicians, mostly women, were abductedand held hostage as Escobar attempted to strong-arm the governmentinto blocking his extradition. Two died, the rest survived, andfrom their harrowing stories Marquez retells, with vivid clarity,the terror and uncertainty of those dark and volatile months.
The air of Eastwick breeds witches - women whose powerfullongings can stir up thunderstorms and fracture domestic peace.Jane, Alexandra and Sukie, divorced and dangerous, have formed acoven. Into the void of Eastwick breezes Darryl Van Horne, acharismatic magus of a man who entrances the trio, luring them tohis mansions...
A ferocious political satire in the great tradition, Our Gangis Philip Roth’s brilliantly indignant response to the phenomenonof Richard M. Nixon. In the character of Trick E. Dixon, Roth shows us a man whooutdoes the severest cynic, a peace-loving Quaker and believer inthe sanctity of human life who doesn’t have a problem with killingunarmed women and children in self-defense. A master politicianwith an honest sneer, he finds himself battling the Boy Scouts,declaring war on Pro-Pornography Denmark, all the time trusting inthe basic indifference of the voting public.
"Criticism" features ten essays on The Book of theCourtier , which represent the best interpretations from theUnited States, Italy, and England including the backgrounds-richessays by Amedeo Quondam and James Hankins. A SelectedBibliography, a Chronology, and an Index are included.
Kafka's first and funniest novel, Amerika tells the story ofthe young immigrant Karl Rossmann who, after an embarrassing sexualmisadventure, finds himself "packed off to America" by his parents.Expected to redeem himself in this magical land of opportunity,young Karl is swept up instead in a whirlwind of dizzyingreversals, strange escapades, and picaresque adventures. Although Kafka never visited America, images of its vastlandscape, dangers, and opportunities inspired this saga of the"golden land." Here is a startlingly modern, fantastic andvisionary tale of America "as a place no one has yet seen, in ahistorical period that can't be identified," writes E. L. Doctorowin his new foreword. "Kafka made his first novel from his ownmind's mythic elements," Doctorow explains, "and the research datathat caught his eye were bent like light rays in a field ofgravity."
A terrifying psychological trip into the life of one JosephK., an ordinary man who wakes up one day to find himself accused ofa crime he did not commit, a crime whose nature is never revealedto him. Once arrested, he is released, but must report to court ona regular basis--an event that proves maddening, as nothing is everresolved. As he grows more uncertain of his fate, his personallife--including work at a bank and his relations with his landladyand a young woman who lives next door--becomes increasinglyunpredictable. As K. tries to gain control, he succeeds only inaccelerating his own excruciating downward spiral.
One of the great works of American exploration literature,this account of a scientific expedition forced to survive famine,attacks, mutiny, and some of the most dangerous rapids known to manremains as fresh and exciting today as it was in 1874.
In the hopeful 1950s, Frank and April Wheeler appear to be amodel cou-ple: bright, beautiful, talented, with two young childrenand a starter home in the suburbs. Perhaps they married too youngand started a family too early. Maybe Frank's job is dull. AndApril never saw herself as a housewife.Yet they have always livedon the assumption that greatness is only just around the corner.But now that certainty is about to crumble. With heartbreaking compassion and remorseless clarity, RichardYates shows how Frank and April mortgage their spiritualbirthright, betraying not only each other, but their bestselves.
The growing interest in Afro American literature that began in the 1960s led to the rediscovery of earlier Afro-American writers, one of whom was Jean Toomer, author of Cane. Originally pubhshed in 1923, Cane is generally considered a principle literary masterpiece of the Harlem Renaissance. It is an innovative work-part drama, part poetry, part fiction. "Backgrounds" contains gcnerous excerpts from Jean Toomer's correspondence with fellow writers Sherwood Anderson, Waldo Frank, and Allen Tate, and with his publisher, Horace Liveright. Darwin T. Turner's "Introduction" (to the 1975 Liveright edition of Cana), reprinted here, presents the historical and literary backgrounds to the work, as well as additional biographical information on Toomer. Critical commentary, both contemporary and more recent, on Cane and More Recent, on Cane and Toomer is wide-ranging, Included are essays by W. E. B. Du Bois, Gorham B. Munson, Robert Bone, Patricia Watkins, Lucinda H. MacKethan, Nellie Y. McKay, and Darwin T.
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
Like Kafka's The Castle, Invitation to a Beheading embodies avision of a bizarre and irrational world. In an unnamed dreamcountry, the young man Cincinnatus C. is condemned to death bybeheading for andquot; gnostical turpitude.andquot; an imaginarycrime that defies definition. Cincinnatus spends his last days inan absurd jail, where he is visited by chimerical jailers. anexecutioner who masquerades as a fellow prisoner, and by hisin-laws. who lug their furniture with them into his cell. WhenCincinnatus is led out to be executed. he simply wills hisexecutioners out of existence: they disappear, along with the wholeworld they inhabit.
In this extraordinary literary debut third-generationhomesteader Judy Blunt describes her hardscrabble life on theprairies of eastern Montana in prose as big and bold as thelandscape. On a ranch miles from nowhere, Judy Blunt grew up with cattle andsnakes, outhouse and isolation, epic blizzards and devastatingprairie fires. She also grew up with a set of rules and rolesprescribed to her sex long before she was born, a chafing set ofstrictures she eventually had no choice but to flee, taking alongthree children and leaving behind a confused husband and the onlylife she’d ever known. Gritty, lyrical, unsentimental and wise, Breaking Clean is at once informed by the myths of the Westand powerful enough to break them down.
Anchor proudly presents a new omnibus volume of threenovels--previously published separately by Anchor--by NaguibMahfouz, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Assembled here isa collection of Mahfouz's artful meditations on the vicissitudes ofpost-Revolution Egypt. Diverse in style and narrative technique,together they render a rich, nuanced, and universally resonantvision of modern life in the Middle East. The Beggar is a complex tale of alienation and despair. In theaftermath of Nasser's revolution, a man sacrifices his work andfamily to a series of illicit love affairs. Released from jail inpost-Revolutionary times, the hero ofThe Thief and the Dogs blamesan unjust society for his ill fortune, eventually bringing himselfto destruction. Autumn Quail is a tale of moral responsibility,isolation, and political downfall about a corrupt bureaucrat who isone of the early victims of the purge after the 1952 revolution inEgypt.
For three young friends it had been the most golden of summers. But the fire on Snake Mountain, spawned on a moonless night by a single shaft of lightning, was to burn a brand upon all their lives. After a tragic death for which she holds herself accountable teacher Julia Bishop is forced to choose between the two men she loves. The one she spurns embarks on a dark journey to the heart of human suffering. Reckless of a life he no longer values, war photographer Connor Ford finds fame but never happiness, until another fateful day when he must walk through fire once more - for Julia, her child and all he holds dear.
'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.
From the Booker Prize-winning, bestselling author of Remains ofthe Day" "comes this stunning work of soaring imagination. Born inearly-twentieth-century Shanghai, Banks was orphaned at the age ofnine after the separate disappearances of his parents. Now, morethan twenty years later, he is a celebrated figure in Londonsociety; yet the investigative expertise that has garnered him famehas done little to illuminate the circumstances of his parents'alleged kidnappings. Banks travels to the seething, labyrinthinecity of his memory in hopes of solving the mystery of his own,painful past, only to find that war is ravaging Shanghai beyondrecognition-and that his own recollections are proving as difficultto trust as the people around him. Masterful, suspenseful andpsychologically acute, When We Were Orphans" "offers a profoundmeditation on the shifting quality of memory, and the possibilityof avenging one's past.
The Trial is one of the most important novels of the twentiethcentury: the terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bankofficer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defendhimself against a charge about which he can get no information.Whether read as an existential tale, a parable, or a prophecy ofthe excesses of modern bureaucracy wedded to the madness oftotalitarianism, Kafka's nightmare has resonated with chillingtruth for generations of readers. This new edition is based uponthe work of an international team of experts who have restored thetext, the sequence of chapters, and their division to create aversion that is as close as possible to the way the author left it.In his brilliant translation, Breon Mitchell masterfully reproducesthe distinctive poetics of Kafka's prose, revealing a novel that isas full of energy and power as it was when it was firstwritten.
Once in a lifetime, a writer puts it all together. This is JamesPatterson's best book ever Total For 36 years, James Patterson has writtenunputdownable, pulse-racing novels. Now, he has written a book thatsurpasses all of them. ZOO is the thriller he was born towrite. World All over the world, brutal attacks are cripplingentire cities. Jackson Oz, a young biologist, watches theescalating events with an increasing sense of dread. When hewitnesses a coordinated lion ambush in Africa, the enormity of theviolence to come becomes terrifyingly clear. Destruction With the help of ecologist Chloe Tousignant, Ozraces to warn world leaders before it's too late. The attacks aregrowing in ferocity, cunning, and planning, and soon there will beno place left for humans to hide. With wildly inventive imaginationand white-knuckle suspense that rivals Stephen King at his verybest, James Patterson's ZOO is an epic, non-stop thrill-ride from"One of the best of the best." (TIME)
