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.

This is the perfect introduction for young readers to the lives and times of America’s 43 most influential leaders. Just as the new president is inaugurated, readers can easily relive the course of American history through a detailed timeline, more than 50 vivid photographs and illustrations, information about each president’s term in office, and the major political issues of each era. Quick-reference sidebars provide brief summaries of the major events and important people who emerged during each presidential term. Famous quotes and fun facts about each president ensure that this perennial favorite continues to be an entertaining and enlightening addition to any child’s library.

Dan Brown's bestselling novel, The Da Vinci Code, has captivated the imagination of millions of readers. Its provocative story and rich historical background has spurred wide interest in the author's source materials and has aroused controversies, both public and private, all over America. Readers everywhere want to know what is fact and what is fiction. Dan Burstein's Secrets of the Code: The Unauthorized Guide to the Mysteries Behind The Da I4'nci Code sorts out fact, informed speculation, and fiction, by presenting the views of the expertsarchaeologists, theologians, art historians, philosophers and scientists-many of whose works Brown himself relied upon in developing his intriguing tale. . Readers are fascinated by the questions raised in The Da Vinci Code. Was Jesus actually married to Mary Magdalene? Was she one of his disciples and did she write her own gospel? Did they have a child together? Did some geniuses of art and science, people like Leonardo da Vinci and Isaac Newton, belong to secret

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?

English crime novelist Charles Latimer is travelling in Istanbulwhen he makes the acquaintance of Turkish police inspector ColonelHaki. It is from him that he first hears of the mysteriousDimitrios - an infamous master criminal, long wanted by the law,whose body has just been fished out of the Bosphorus. Fascinated bythe story, Latimer decides to retrace Dimitrios' steps acrossEurope to gather material for a new book. But, as he graduallydiscovers more about his subject's shadowy history, fascinationtips over into obsession. And, in entering Dimitrios' criminalunderworld, Latimer realizes that his own life may be on theline.

Alessandra is not quite fifteen when her prosperous merchant father brings a young painter back with him from Holland to adorn the walls of the new family chapel. She is fascinated by his talents and envious of his abilities and opportunities to paint to the glory of God. Soon her love of art and her lively independence are luring her into closer involvement with all sorts of taboo areas of life. On excursions into the streets of night-time Florence she observes a terrible evil stalking the city and witnesses the rise of the fiery young priest, Savanarola, who has set out to rid the city of vice, richness, even art itself. Alessandra must make crucial decisions about the shape of her adult life, as Florence itself must choose between the old ways of the luxury-loving Medicis and the asceticism of Savanorola. And through it all, there is the painter, whose love will change everything.

This major collection contains all of Doris Lessing's shortfiction, other than the stories set in Africa, from the beginningof her career until now. Set in London, Paris, the south of France,the English countryside, these thirty-five stories reflect thethemes that have always characterized Lessing's work: the bedrockrealities of marriage and other relationships between men andwomen; the crisis of the individual whose very psyche is threatenedby a society unattuned to its own most dangerous qualities; thefate of women.

Though the story has been told on film—and whispered inhistoric gossip—this is the first book in almost fifty years tosolely explore the great queen’s attachment to her beloved RobertDudley, the Earl of Leicester. Fueled by scandal and intrigue,their relationship set the explosive connection between public andprivate life in sixteenth-century England in bold relief. Why didthey never marry? How much of what seemed a passionate obsessionwas actually political convenience? Elizabeth and Leicesterreignites this 400- year-old love story in a book for anyoneinterested in Elizabethan literature.

Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, is part of the Barnes Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordableprices to the student and the general reader, including newscholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully craftedextras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes Noble Classics: New introductions commissioned from today's top writers andscholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, andcultural events Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books,plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by thework Comments by other famous authors Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints andexpectations Bibliographies for further reading Indices Glossaries, when appropriate All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superiorspecifications; some include illustrations of historical interest.Barnes Noble

"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."

Set in the magical Wessex landscape so familiar from ThomasHardy’s early work, Tess of the D’Urbervilles is uniqueamong his great novels for the intense feeling that he lavishedupon his heroine, Tess, a pure woman betrayed by love. Hardy pouredall of his profound empathy for both humanity and the rhythms ofnatural life into this story of her beauty, goodness, and tragicfate. In so doing, he created a character who, like Emma Bovary andAnna Karenina, has achieved classic stature.

Originally published in 1895, this outstanding collection of Irish verse was part of Yeats' campaign to establish a tradition of Irish poetry fit for the dawn of a new age in Ireland's history.

The Subterraneans haunt the bars and clubs of San Francisco,surviving on a diet of booze and benzedrine, Proust and Verlaine.Living amongst them is Leo, an aspiring writer, and Mardou,half-Indian, half-Negro, beautiful and neurotic. Their bitter-sweetand ill-starred love affair sees Kerouac at his most evocative.Many regard this as being Kerouac's most touching and tenderbook.

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.

"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," by Mark Twain, is part ofthe "Barnes and Noble Classics" series, which offers qualityeditions at affordable prices to the student and the generalreader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages ofcarefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable featuresof "Barnes and Noble Classics": New introductions commissioned fromtoday's top writers and scholars Biographies of the authorsChronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and culturalevents Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations,parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, andfilms inspired by the work Comments by other famous authors Studyquestions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectationsBibliographies for further reading Indices and Glossaries, whenappropriateAll editions are beautifully designed and are printed tosuperior specifications; some include illustrations of historicalinterest. "Barnes and Noble Classics "pulls together aconstella

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.

Every night for three years the vengeful King Shahriyar sleepswith a different virgin, executing her the next morning. To endthis brutal pattern and to save her own life, the vizier'sdaughter, Shahrazad, begins to tell the king stories of adventure,love, riches and wonder - tales of mystical lands peopled withprinces and hunchbacks, the Angel of Death and magical spirits,tales of the voyages of Sindbad, of Ali Baba outwitting a band offorty thieves and of jinnis trapped in rings and in lamps. Thesequence of stories will last 1,001 nights.

A collection of the short stories of the Nobel Prize-winningauthor of Palace Walk represents thirty years of work andfeatures tales of the citizens of Cairo, who struggle to surviveamid the city's poverty. Reprint. PW. K.

Defining the Wind is a wonderfully written account of one man’s crusade to learn about what the wind is made of by tracing the history of the Beaufort Scale and its eccentric creator, Sir Francis Beaufort. It’s as much about the language we use to describe our world as it is an exhortation to observe it more closely.

Random's Modern Library is reproducing this Hardy standard as atie-in to a Masterpiece Theater presentation and offering a qualityhardcover for a reasonable price. Copyright 1998Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out ofprint or unavailable edition of this title.

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) Arriving in a village to takeup the position of land surveyor for the mysterious lord of acastle, the character known as K. finds himself in a bitter andbaffling struggle to contact his new employer and go about hisduties. As the villagers and the Castle officials block his effortsat every turn, K.'s consuming quest-quite possibly a self-imposedone-to penetrate the inaccessible heart of the Castle and take itsmeasure is repeatedly frustrated. Kafka once suggested that thewould-be surveyor in "The Castle" is driven by a wish "to get clearabout ultimate things," an unrealizable desire that provided thedriving force behind all of Kafka's dazzlingly uncanny fictions.Translated by Willa and Edwin Muir "From the Hardcoveredition."

Tragic tale of a retarded man and the friend who loves and tries to protect him.

Like the celebrated Klondike Tales, the stories that compriseSouth Sea Tales derive their intensity from the author’s ownfar-flung adventures, conveying an impassioned, unsparing visionborne only of experience. The powerful tales gathered here vividlyevoke the turn-of-the-century colonial Pacific and its capricioustropical landscape, while also trenchantly observing the delicateinterplay between imperialism and the exotic. And as Tony Horwitzasserts in his Introduction, “When London’s stories click, we areutterly there, at the edge of the world and the limit of humanendurance.”

Shakespeare forged his tremendous art in the crucible of hiscomic imagination, which throughout his life enveloped andcontained his tragic one. His early comedies—with their baroquepoetic exuberance, intense theatricality, explosive bursts ofhumor, and superbly concrete realizations of the dialects oflove—capture as in a chrysalis all that he was to become. Theyprovide a complete inventory of the mind of our greatest writer inthe middle of his golden youth. This volume contains The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of theShrew, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Love's Labor's Lost, AMidsummer Night's Dream, and it's companion piece, Romeo andJuliet, which Tony Tanner describes in his introduction as "atragedy by less than one minute." The texts, authoritatively editedby Sylvan Barnet, are supplemented with textual notes,bibliographies, a detailed chronology of Shakespeare's life andtimes, and a substantial introduction in which Tanner discusseseach play individually and in the context of Shakespeare'so