"Nineteen Eighty-Four" revealed George Orwell as one of thetwentieth century's greatest mythmakers. While the totalitariansystem that provoked him into writing it has since passed intooblivion, his harrowing cautionary tale of a man trapped in apolitical nightmare has had the opposite fate: its relevance andpower to disturb our complacency seem to grow decade by decade. InWinston Smith's desperate struggle to free himself from anall-encompassing, malevolent state, Orwell zeroed in on tendenciesapparent in every modern society, and made vivid the universalpredicament of the individual.
Joyce Carol Oates's Wonderland Quartet comprises fourremarkable novels that explore social class in America and theinner lives of young Americans. Spanning from the Great Depressionto the turbulent Vietnam War era, "Wonderland" is the epic accountof Jesse Vogel, a boy who emerged from a family tragedy with hislife spared but his world torn apart. Orphaned after watching hisfather murder his entire family, Jesse embarks on a personalodyssey that takes him from a Dickensian foster home to college andgraduate school to the pinnacle of the medical profession. As anadult, Jesse must summon the strength to reach across the"generation gap" and rescue his endangered teenaged daughter, whohas fallen into the drug-infused 1960s counterculture. Hailed byLibrary Journal as "the greatest of Oates's novels," "Wonderland"is the capstone of a magnificent literary excursion that plungesbeneath the glossy surface of American life. "Wonderland" is thefinal novel in Joyce Carol Oates's Wonderland Quartet. The booksthat co
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 bestselling tale of Romanov intrigue from the author of"The Kitchen Boy" Book groups and historical fiction buffs havemade Robert Alexanderas two previous novels word-of-mouth favoritesand national bestsellers. Set against a backdrop of ImperialRussiaas twilight, "The Romanov Bride" has the same enduringappeal. The Grand Duchess Elisavyetaas story begins like a fairytaleaa German princess renowned for her beauty and kind heartmarries the Grand Duke Sergei of Russia and enters the Romanovaslavish court. Her husband, however, rules his wife as he doesMoscowawith a cold, hard fist. And, after a peaceful demonstrationbecomes a bloodbath, the fires of the revolution link Elisavyetaasdestiny to that of Pavelaa young Bolshevikaforever.
Eminent Shakespearean scholars Jonathan Bate and EricRasmussen provide a fresh new edition of Richard II,chronologically the first of the eight plays in Shakespeare’sHistory Cycle, which marks the beginning of a great schism withinthe nobility of England that will leave the nation riven by bloodyconflict for the next hundred years. This volume also includes morethan a hundred pages of exclusive features, including: ? an original Introduction to Richard II ? incisive scene-by-scene synopsis and analysis with vital factsabout the work ? commentary on past and current productions based on interviewswith leading directors, actors, and designers ? photographs of key RSC productions ? an overview of Shakespeare’s theatrical career and chronologyof his plays Ideal for students, theater professionals, and general readers,these modern and accessible editions from the Royal ShakespeareCompany set a new standard in Shakespearean literature for thetwenty-first
The literary event of the season: a new novel from Ian McEwan,as surprising as it is masterful. Michael Beard is a Nobel prize–winning physicist whose best workis behind him. Trading on his reputation, he speaks for enormousfees, lends his name to the letterheads of renowned scientificinstitutions, and half-heartedly heads a government-backedinitiative tackling global warming. While he coasts along in hisprofessional life, Michael’s personal life is another matterentirely. His fifth marriage is crumbling under the weight of hisinfidelities. But this time the tables are turned: His wife ishaving an affair, and Michael realizes he is still in love withher. When Michael’s personal and professional lives begin to intersectin unexpected ways, an opportunity presents itself in the guise ofan invitation to travel to New Mexico. Here is a chance for him toextricate himself from his marital problems, reinvigorate hiscareer, and very possibly save the world from environmentaldisaster. Can a man
On the 150th anniversary of its publication, a new edition ofthe nature classic First published in 1854, Henry David Thoreau'sgroundbreaking book has influenced generations of readers andcontinues to inspire and inform anyone with an open mind and a loveof nature. With Bill McKibben providing a newly revisedIntroduction and helpful annotations that place Thoreau firmly inhis role as cultural and spiritual seer, this beautiful edition ofWalden for the new millennium is more accessible and relevant thanever. " Thoreau] says so many pithy and brilliant things, andoffers so many piquant, and, we may add, so many just, comments onsociety as it is, that this book is well worth the reading, bothfor its actual contents and its suggestive capacity." --A. P.Peabody, North American Review, 1854 " Walden] still seems to methe best youth's companion yet written by an American, for itcarries a solemn warning against the loss of one's valuables, itadvances a good argument for traveling light and trying newadventures,
Winner of the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Ten years after RABBIT REDUX, Harry Angstrom has come to enjoyprosperity as the Chief Sales Representative of Springer Motors.The rest of the world may be falling to pieces, but Harrry's doingall right. That is, until his son returns from the West, and theimage of an old love pays a visit to his lot....
(Book Jacket Status: Not Jacketed) Introduction by JohnBayley
When Meaulnes first arrives at the local school in Sologne,everyone is captivated by his good looks, daring and charisma. Butwhen Meaulnes disappears for several days, and returns with talesof a strange party at a mysterious house and a beautiful girlhidden within it, he has been changed forever. In his restlesssearch for his Lost Estate and the happiness he found there,Meaulnes, observed by his loyal friend Francois, may risk losingeverything he ever had. Poised between youthful admiration andadult resignation, Alain-Fournier's compelling narrator carries thereader through this evocative and unbearably poignant portrayal ofdesperate friendship and vanished adolescence.
Along with Blake and Dickens, Mark Twain was one of the nineteenth century s greatest chroniclers of childhood. These two novels reveal different aspects of his genius: Tom Sawyer is a much-loved story about the sheer pleasure of being a boy; Huckleberry Finn , the book Hemingway said was the source of all the American fiction that followed it, is both a hilarious account of an incorrigible truant and a tremendous parable of innocence in conflict with the fallen adult world.
"For many days we had been tempest-tossed...the raging stormincreased in fury until on the seventh day all hope was lost." Fromthese dire opening lines, a timeless story of adventure begins. Onefamily will emerge alive from this terrible storm: the Robinsons--aSwiss pastor, his wife, and four sons, plus two dogs and a shiploadof livestock. Inspired by Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe," " thisheartwarming tale portrays a family's struggle to create a new lifeon a strange and fantastic tropical island. There each boy mustlearn to utilize his own unique nature as their adventures lead todifficult challenges and amazing discoveries, including a puzzlingmessage tied to an albatross's leg. But it is in the ingenuity andauthenticity of the family itself, and the natural wonders of thisexotic land that have made The Swiss Family Robinson," " firstpublished at the beginning of the nineteenth century, one of themost enduring and imitated stories of shipwreck and survival. "Fromthe Paperback edition."
From the inexhaustible imagination of Ian McEwan--a master ofcontemporary fiction and author of the Booker Prize-winningnational bestseller Amsterdam --an enchanting work of fictionthat appeals equally to children and adults. First published in England as a children's book, TheDaydreamer marks a delightful foray by one of our greatestnovelists into a new fictional domain. In these seven exquisitelyinterlinked episodes, the grown-up protagonist Peter Fortunereveals the secret journeys, metamorphoses, and adventures of hischildhood. Living somewhere between dream and reality, Peterexperiences fantastical transformations: he swaps bodies with thewise old family cat; exchanges existences with a cranky infant;encounters a very bad doll who has come to life and is out forrevenge; and rummages through a kitchen drawer filled with uselessobjects to discover some not-so-useless cream that actually makespeople vanish. Finally, he wakes up as an eleven-year-old inside agrown-up body and embarks on the truly fantast
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
Joyce Carol Oates's Wonderland Quartet comprises four remarkablenovels that explore social class in America and the inner lives ofyoung Americans. In Expensive People, Oates takes a provocative andsuspenseful look at the roiling secrets of America's affluentsuburbs. Set in the late 1960s, this first-person confession isnarrated by Richard Everett, a precocious and obese boy who seeshimself as a minor character in the alarming drama unfolding aroundhim. Fascinated by yet alienated from his attractive, self-absorbedparents and the privileged world they inhabit, Richard incisivelyanalyzes his own mismanaged childhood, his pretentious privateschooling, his "successful-executive" father, and his elusivemother. In an act of defiance and desperation, eleven-year-oldRichard strikes out in a way that presages the violence ofever-younger Americans in the turbulent decades to come. A NationalBook Award finalist, "Expensive People" is a stunning combinationof social satire and gothic horror. "You cannot put this novel a
The best-known novellas and stories of one of the seminalwriters of the twentieth century. Included are "The Judgment, " "ACountry Doctor, " and "A Hunger Artist." New Foreword by AnneRice.
This is the story of an artist as an aging man, strugglingthrough the wreckage of Japan's World War II experience. Ishiguro'sfirst novel.
Ranked among the classic novels of the English language andthe inspiration for several unforgettable movies, this early workof H. G. Wells was greeted in 1896 by howls of protest fromreviewers, who found it horrifying and blasphemous. They wanted toknow more about the wondrous possibilities of science shown in hisfirst book, "The Time Machine, "not its potential for misuse andterror. In "The Island of Dr. Moreau" a shipwrecked gentleman namedEdward Prendick, stranded on a Pacific island lorded over by thenotorious Dr. Moreau, confronts dark secrets, strange creatures,and a reason to run for his life. While this riveting tale wasintended to be a commentary on evolution, divine creation, and thetension between human nature and culture, modern readers familiarwith genetic engineering will marvel at Wells's prediction of theethical issues raised by producing "smarter" human beings orbringing back extinct species. These levels of interpretation add arichness to Prendick's adventures on Dr. Moreau's island o
(Book Jacket Status: Not Jacketed) An immediate success on itspublication in 1726, GULLIVER'S TRAVELS was read, as John Gay putit, "from the cabinet council to the nursery." Dean Swift's greatsatire is presented here in its unexpurgated entirety.
