With these words, Washington Irving expresses the dilemma ofevery American artist in the nineteenth century. The Sketch-Book(1820-1) looks simultaneously towards audiences on both sides ofthe Atlantic, as Irving explores the uneasy relationship of anAmerican writer to English literary traditions. He sketches aseries of encounters with the cultural shrines of the parentnation, and in two brilliant experiments with tales transplantedfrom Europe creates the first classic American short stories, 'RipVan Winkle' and 'The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow'. The result wasnot only a hugely successful travel book; it exerted a strongformative influence on American writers from Nathaniel Hawthorneand Edgar Allan Poe to Henry James, and is well worth rediscoveryin its own right today. Based on Irving's final revision of hismost popular work, this new edition includes comprehensiveexplanatory notes of The Sketch-Book's sources for the modernreader. In her introduction, Susan Manning suggests that the authorforged a new idiom
This beautiful and eloquent story tells of a simple peasantwoman in a primitive village in India whose whole life is a gallantand persistent battle to care for those she loves-an unforgettablenovel that "will wring your heart out" (Associated Press).
WHAT IF you could go back in time and change the course of history? WHAT IF the watershed moment you could change was the JFK assassination? 11.22.63, the date that Kennedy was shot - unless ...King takes his protagonist Jake Epping, a high school English teacher from Lisbon Falls, Maine, 2011, on a fascinating journey back to 1958 - from a world of mobile phones and iPods to a new world of Elvis and JFK, of Plymouth Fury cars and Lindy Hopping, of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and a beautiful high school librarian named Sadie Dunhill, who becomes the love of Jake's life - a life that transgresses all the normal rules of time. With extraordinary imaginative power, King weaves the social, political and popular culture of his baby-boom American generation into a devastating exercise in escalating suspense.
They were just kids when they stumbled upon the hidden horror oftheir hometown. Now, as adults, none of them can withstand theforce that has drawn them all back to Derry, Maine, to face thenightmare without end, and the evil without a name.
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
An odd, amusing and still provocative fantasy. The narrator is aSquare who lives in a world of two dimensions, and whose vision ofa third gets him into grave trouble with the authorities. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition ofthis title.
Creating George Stark was easy. Getting rid of him won't be ...The sparrows are flying again. The idea - unbidden, inexplicable - haunts the edge of Thad Beaumont's mind. Thad should be happy. For years now it is his secret persona 'George Stark', author of super-violent pulp thrillers, who has paid the family bills. But now, Thad is writing seriously again under his own name, and his menacing pseudonym has been buried forever. And yet ...the sparrows are flying again, and something is terribly wrong in Thad Beaumont's world.
In this classic collection of four novellas, the grand master takes you on irrestistible journeys into the far reaches of horror, heartache and hope. Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption is the story of two men convicted of murder - one guilty, one innocent - who form the perfect partnership as they dream up a scheme to escape from prison. In Apt Pupil a golden schoolboy entices an old man with a past to join in a dreadful union. The Body sees four young boys venture into the woods and find life, death ...and the end of innocence. The Breathing Method is the tale of a doctor who goes to his club and discovers a woman determined to give birth - no matter what.
The latest "New York Times" bestseller by "America's mostpopular suspense novelist" ("Rolling Stone") is the story ofHollywood's most dazzling star whose perfectly ordered life isunder siege by an insidious killer.
A writer is held hostage by his number-one fan in the novel that"demand[s] that we take King seriously as a writer with a deeplyfelt understanding of human psychology" ( Publishers Weekly ).His deeply felt understanding of what terrifies us doesn't hurteither.
'Turn off the television - in fact, why don't you turn off all the lights except for the one over your favourite chair? - and we'll talk about vampires here in the dim. I think I can make you believe in them.' Stephen King, from the Introduction. 'Salem's Lot is a small New England town with the usual quota of gossips, drinkers, weirdos and respectable folk. Of course there are tales of strange happenings - but not more than in any other town its size. Ben Mears, a moderately successful writer, returns to the Lot to write a novel based on his early years, and to exorcise the terrors that have haunted him since childhood. The event he witnessed in the house now rented by a new resident. A newcomer with a strange allure. A man who causes Ben some unease as things start to happen: a child disappears, a dog is brutally killed - nothing unusual, except the list starts to grow. Soon surprise will turn to bewilderment, bewilderment to confusion and finally to terror ...
There is a reason why Stephen King is one of the bestselling writers in the world, ever. Described in the Daily Express as 'a fabulous teller of stories', Stephen King writes books that draw you in and are impossible to put down. Everything is familiar. But everything has changed. Coming back to the little community is like walking into a nightmare for Jim Gardener, poet, drunk, potential suicide. It all looks the same, the house, the furniture, Jim's friend Bobbi, her beagle (though ageing), even the woods out at the back. But it was in the woods that Bobbi stumbled over the odd, part-buried object and felt a peculiar tingle as she brushed the soft earth away. Everything is familiar. But everything is about to change.
At midnight comes the point of balance. Of danger. The instant of utter stillness when between two beats of the heart, an alternative reality can slip through, like a blade between the ribs, and switch you into a new and terrifying world. FOUR PAST MIDNIGHT: four heart-stopping accounts of that moment when the familiar world fractures beyond sense, the fragments spinning away from the desperate, clutching reach of sanity ...
While evidence is gathered, and the land of Delain mourns, Flagg the King's magician, unscrupulous, greedy and powerful, plots. Soon the King's elder son, Peter, is imprisoned in the needle, the top of a high tower, for his father's murder. And Thomas inherits the throne. Only Peter knows the truth of his innocence, and the true evil that is Flagg. Only Peter can save Delain from the horror the magician has in store. He has a plan, but it is rife with danger. And if he fails, he won't get a second chance ...A captivating tale of heroic adventure, of dragons and princes, of mysterious mice and men from the pen of the master storyteller.There is a reason why Stephen King is one of the bestselling writers in the world, ever. Described in the Daily Express as 'a fabulous teller of stories', Stephen King writes books that draw you in and are impossible to put down. The King is dead, murdered by an unusual poison.
Wentworth, Ohio: a small friendly town where the Carver children bicker over sweets in the E-Z shop and writer Johnny Marinville is the only resident who minds his own business. On Poplar Street, apart from the impending storm, it's just a normal summer's day - with Frisbees flying, lawn mowers humming and barbeques grilling. As the paperboy makes his round, he is unaware of the chrome red van idling up the hill ...Soon the residents will be caught up in a game of wills as the regulators arrive in force to face a child whose powers of expression are just awakening. If you like THE REGULATORS, don't miss DESPERATION, written as an unidentical pair.
A group of friends that hasnt seen one another in years isreunited through tragedy. Working through their grief together,they find that each of their lives is impacted in ways they couldhave never foreseen, in this story of friendship, family, and lifecoming full circle.
There was a new shop in town. Run by a stranger. Needful Things, the sign said. The oddest name. A name that caused some gossip and speculation among the good folks of Castle Rock, Maine, while they waited for opening day. Eleven-year-old Brian Rusk was the first customer and he got just what he wanted, a very rare 1956 Sandy Koufax baseball card. Signed. Cyndi Rose Martin was next. A Lalique vase. A perfect match for her living room decor. Something for everyone. Something you really had to have. And always at a price you could just about afford. The cash price that is. Because there was another price. There always is when your heart's most secret, true desire is for sale ...
The author of Peter Rabbit and other tales, Beatrix Potter isstill, after a century, beloved by children and adults worldwide.In this first Cottage Tale, Albert introduces Beatrix, an animallover and Good Samaritan with a knack for solving mysteries. Withhelp from her entourage of talking animal friends, Beatrix sets outto win over the human hearts of Sawrey, where she's just bought anold farm--and plans to stay.
Drawn from the wondrous tales told to Kipling as a child byhis Indian nurses, "Just So Stories" creates the magicalenchantment of the dawn of the world, when animals could talk andthink like people.
'The world has teeth and it could bite you with them anytime it wanted. Trisha McFarland discovered this when she was nine years old. Lost in the woods.' Trisha has only veered a little way off the trail. But in her panic to get back to the path, Trisha takes a turning that leads into the tangled undergrowth. Deeper and deeper in the terrifying woods. At first it's just the bugs, midges and mosquitoes. Then comes the hunger. For comfort she tunes her Walkman into broadcasts of the Red Sox baseball games and the performances of her hero Tom Gordon. As darkness begins to fall, Trisha realises that she is not alone. There's something else in the woods - watching. Waiting ...
