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books tagged “decadence”
books tagged “decadence”
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Age of Ironby J. M. CoetzeeISBN 0394588592 (0-394-58859-2)
Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Age of Iron'Book summary:Dying of cancer, Elizabeth Curren writes a testament to her "lost" daughter, now living in America. Her account describes her relationship with the tramp, Vercueil, who becomes her silent companion and confessor as she tries to make her peace with the world. The novel is an anguished lament for a country on the cusp of change and for all children lost to South Africa's age of iron. [via]
The Age of Reasonby Jean Paul SartreISBN 0394718380 (0-394-71838-0)
Softcover, Vintage Books
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An Alien Heatby Michael MoorcockISBN 0441136605 (0-441-13660-5)
Softcover, Berkley Pub Group
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Arthur Symons: Selected Writingsby Arthur Symons, Roger HoldsworthISBN 0415969670 (0-415-96967-0)
Softcover, Routledge
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Atomisedby Michel Houellebecq, Frank WynneISBN 0434007935 (0-434-00793-5)
Hardcover, Heinemann
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August 1914by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, H.T. WillettsISBN 0374519994 (0-374-51999-4)
Softcover, Noonday Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'August 1914'Book summary:Part of a sequence of novels about the Russian Revolution carrying the overall title of "The Red Wheel". The other titles in this series include "October 1916" and "Lenin in Zurich". Other books by Solzhenitsyn include "The Gulag Archipelago". [via]
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Auntie Mameby Patrick DennisISBN 0345376501 (0-345-37650-1)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group
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The Awakeningby Kate ChopinISBN 0380002450 (0-380-00245-0)
Softcover, Avon Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Awakening'Book summary:This Second Edition of a perennial favorite in the Norton Critical Edition series represents an extensive revision of its predecessor. The text is that of the first edition of the novel, published by Herbert S. Stone in 1899. It has been annotated by the editor and includes translations of French phrases and information about New Orleans locales, customs, and lore, the Bayou region, and Creole culture. "Bibliographical and Historical Contexts", expanded and introduced by a new Editor's Note, presents biographical, historical, and cultural documents contemporary with the novel's publication. Included are a biographical essay by the acclaimed Chopin biographer Emily Toth, "An Etiquette/Advice Book Sampler" with selections from the conduct books of the period in which Chopin lived and wrote, and period fashion plates from Harper's Bazar. A comprehensive "Criticism" section, introduced by a new Editor's Note, contains expanded selections from hard-to-find contemporary reviews of the novel; two letters of mysterious origin written in response to the novel; and Chopin's "Retraction," which followed The Awakening 's negative reception. These are followed by twenty-seven interpretive essays, twelve of them new to the Second Edition, that provide a variety of perspectives on The Awakening , including essays by Cynthia Griffin Wolff, Nancy Walker, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Paula A. Treichler, Sandra M. Gilbert, Lee R. Edwards, Patricia S. Yaeger, Elizabeth Ammons, and Elaine Showalter. A Chronology of Chopin's life and an updated Selected Bibliography are also included. [via]
More editions of The Awakening:
- The Awakening: ISBN 0393960579 (0-393-96057-9)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc - The Awakening: ISBN 0393941833 (0-393-94183-3)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc - The Awakening: ISBN 0399500316 (0-399-50031-6)
Softcover, Berkley Pub Group - The Awakening: ISBN 0393044343 (0-393-04434-3)
Hardcover, W W Norton & Co Inc - The Awakening: ISBN 0380002450 (0-380-00245-0)
Softcover, Avon Books
- The Awakening: ISBN 0393960579 (0-393-96057-9)
Barefoot in the Headby Brian Wilson AldissISBN 0380535610 (0-380-53561-0)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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Bedouinsby James HunekerISBN 0404105262 (0-404-10526-2)
Hardcover, Ams Pr Inc
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By the Open Seaby August StrindbergISBN 0436500086 (0-436-50008-6)
Hardcover, Secker & Warburg
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Charlotte Perkins Gilman Readerby Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman, Ann J. LaneISBN 0394510852 (0-394-51085-2)
Hardcover, Pantheon Books
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The Charlotte Perkins Gilman Reader: The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Fictionby Ann J. LaneISBN 0394739337 (0-394-73933-7)
Softcover, Knopf Publishing Group
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The Children of Cthulhuby H. P. Lovecraft, John Pelan, Benjamin AdamsISBN 0345441087 (0-345-44108-7)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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The Children of Cthulhu : Chilling New Tales Inspired by H. P. Lovecraftby John Pelan, Benjamin AdamsISBN 0345449266 (0-345-44926-6)
Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group
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Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poeby Edgar Allan PoeISBN 0394716787 (0-394-71678-7)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe'Book summary:This single volume brings together all of Poe's stories and poems, and illuminates the diverse and multifaceted genius of one of the greatest and most influential figures in American literary history.
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The Damnation of Theron Ware or Illuminationby Harold Frederic, Joyce Carol OatesISBN 0375760350 (0-375-76035-0)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group
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Death in Veniceby Thomas Mann, Clayton KoelbISBN 0393960137 (0-393-96013-7)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Death in Venice'Book summary:Thomas mann is widely acknowledged as the greatest german novelist of this century. His 1912 novella death in venice is the most frequently read example of mann's early work.clayton koelb's masterful translation improves upon its predecessors in two ways: it renders mann into american (not british) english, and it remains true to mann's original text without sacrificing fluency. For american readers, this is the translation of choice. "backgrounds and contexts" includes mann's working notes, which allow students to observe the author's creative process. The notes are available here for the first time in english. Illuminating selections from mann's essays and letters are also reprinted, as are period maps of munich, venice, and the lido. "criticism" includes six essays-by andre von gronicka, manfred dierks, t. J. Reed, dorrit cohn, david luke, and robert tobin-sure to stimulate classroom discussion. A chronology and selected bibliography are also included [via]
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The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empireby Edward Gibbon, Hans-Friedrich Mueller, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Daniel J. BoorstinISBN 0375758119 (0-375-75811-9)
Softcover, Modern Library
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'Book summary:British parliamentarian and soldier Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) conceived of his plan for Decline and Fall while "musing amid the ruins of the Capitol" on a visit to Rome. For the next 10 years he worked away at his great history, which traces the decadence of the late empire from the time of the Antonines and the rise of Western Christianity. "The confusion of the times, and the scarcity of authentic memorials, pose equal difficulties to the historian, who attempts to preserve a clear and unbroken thread of narration," he writes. Despite these obstacles, Decline and Fall remains a model of historical exposition, and required reading for students of European history. [via]
More editions of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire:
- The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: ISBN 0345478843 (0-345-47884-3)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group - The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: ISBN 0394320514 (0-394-32051-4)
Hardcover, Random House - The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: ISBN 0394604024 (0-394-60402-4)
Hardcover, Random House Inc - The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: ISBN 0404028209 (0-404-02820-9)
Hardcover, Ams Pr Inc - The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: ISBN 0375758119 (0-375-75811-9)
Softcover, Modern Library
- The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: ISBN 0345478843 (0-345-47884-3)
Der Tod in Venedigby Thomas Mann, A. W. HornseyISBN 0435385801 (0-435-38580-1)
Hardcover, Heinemann Educational
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Doctor Glasby Hjalmar Soderberg, Paul Britten AustinISBN 0385722672 (0-385-72267-2)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Doctor Glas'Book summary:Stark, brooding, and enormously controversial when first published in 1905, this astonishing novel juxtaposes impressions of fin-de-siècle Stockholm against the psychological landscape of a man besieged by obsession. Lonely and introspective, Doctor Glas has long felt an instinctive hostility toward the odious local minister. So when the ministers beautiful wife complains of her husbands oppressive sexual attentions, Doctor Glas finds himself contemplating murder. A masterpiece of enduring power, Doctor Glas confronts a chilling moral quandary with gripping intensity. [via]
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Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hydeby Robert Louis StevensonISBN 0448170159 (0-448-17015-9)
Softcover, Berkley Pub Group
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Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hydeby Robert Louis StevensonISBN 0394847199 (0-394-84719-9)
Softcover, Pendulum Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'Book summary:The classic, chilling tale of a legendary double life, with an introduction from best-selling author Garth Nix.[via]
Respectable citizen by day . . . killer by night? This is Robert Louis Stevenson's harrowing tale of good and evil -- caught in the same person.-
Draculaby Bram Stoker, Peter StraubISBN 0375756701 (0-375-75670-1)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Dracula'Book summary:Dracula is one of the few horror books to be honored by inclusion in the Norton Critical Edition series. (The others are Frankenstein, The Turn of the Screw, Heart of Darkness, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and The Metamorphosis.) This 100th-anniversary edition includes not only the complete authoritative text of the novel with illuminating footnotes, but also four contextual essays, five reviews from the time of publication, five articles on dramatic and film variations, and seven selections from literary and academic criticism. Nina Auerbach of the University of Pennsylvania (author of Our Vampires, Ourselves) and horror scholar David J. Skal (author of Hollywood Gothic, The Monster Show, and Screams of Reason) are the editors of the volume. Especially fascinating are excerpts from materials that Bram Stoker consulted in his research for the book, and his working papers over the several years he was composing it. The selection of criticism includes essays on how Dracula deals with female sexuality, gender inversion, homoerotic elements, and Victorian fears of "reverse colonization" by politically turbulent Transylvania. [via]
More editions of Dracula:
- Dracula: ISBN 0393970124 (0-393-97012-4)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc - Dracula: ISBN 0439154111 (0-439-15411-1)
Softcover, Scholastic, Incorporated - Dracula: ISBN 0440921481 (0-440-92148-1)
Softcover, Bantam Books - Dracula: ISBN 0441165982 (0-441-16598-2)
Softcover, Berkley Pub Group - Dracula: ISBN 0394600312 (0-394-60031-2)
Hardcover, Random House Inc - Dracula: ISBN 0394604474 (0-394-60447-4)
Hardcover, Modern Library - Dracula: ISBN 0448405598 (0-448-40559-8)
Hardcover, Grosset & Dunlap - Dracula: ISBN 0375756701 (0-375-75670-1)
Softcover, Random House Inc
- Dracula: ISBN 0393970124 (0-393-97012-4)
Draculaby Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Bram StokerISBN 0385095805 (0-385-09580-5)
Hardcover, Doubleday
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Draculaby Stephanie Spinner, Bram Stoker, Jim SpenceISBN 0394848284 (0-394-84828-4)
Softcover, Random House Childrens Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Dracula'Book summary:String garlic by the window and hang a cross around your neck! the most powerful vampire of all time returns in our stepping stone classic adaption of the original tale by bran stoker. Follow johnathan harker, mina harker, and dr. Abraham van helsing as they discover the true nature of evil. Their battle to destroy count dracula takes them from the crags of his castle to the streets of london... And back again [via]
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The Eighteen Nineties: A Review of Art and Ideas at Close on 19th Centuryby Holbrook JacksonISBN 0403010411 (0-403-01041-1)
Hardcover, Native Amer Books Distributor
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The Eighteen Nineties: A Review of Art and Ideas at the Close of the Nineteenth Centuryby Holbrook JacksonISBN 0391005227 (0-391-00522-7)
Hardcover, Humanities Press
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The Elementary Particlesby Michel HouellebecqISBN 0375727019 (0-375-72701-9)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Elementary Particles'Book summary:Bruno and Michel are half-brothers, born to a hippie mother who believed in following her bliss. As boys they live in ignorance of each other--at one point attending the same school without knowing of their blood connection. As grown men they're not truly close, but they occasionally phone each other late at night. Bruno's a hopeless sexual obsessive, often drunk or on his way there, and Michel's a molecular biologist, distant and inaccessible.
Michel Houellebecq's The Elementary Particles follows these brothers through the latter half of the 20th century. Bruno and Michel are buffeted by history, vessels of disappointment and desire rocked by the ocean of time. Shuttled away to a boarding school where he's sexually abused by other boys, Bruno grows up full of twisted sexual longings and a contempt for aging women so palpable that at times it's stomach-churning. At a commune in the country, Bruno takes stock:
The women were intolerable at breakfast, but by cocktail hour the mystical tarts were hopelessly vying with younger women once again. Death is the great leveler. On Wednesday afternoon he met Catherine, a fifty-year-old who had been a feminist of the old school. She was tanned, with dark curly hair; she must have been very attractive when she was twenty. Her breasts were still in good shape, he thought when he saw her by the pool, but she had a fat ass.
Michel doesn't hate women; he doesn't even notice them. Instead of leering at bodies by the pool, he stares at particles in microscopes. He wins prizes for his experiments, but never experiences the rush of life. For both men, the damage has been done by history, by mother, before the story begins. What interests Houellebecq are the permutations and recapitulations of damage--the way the particles of the self can never be completely reconstituted. --Emily White [via]More editions of The Elementary Particles:
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Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas; A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream,by Hunter S. ThompsonISBN 0394464354 (0-394-46435-4)
Hardcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas; A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream,'Book summary:Heralded as the "best book on the dope decade" by the New York Times Book Review, Hunter S. Thompson's documented drug orgy through Las Vegas would no doubt leave Nancy Reagan blushing and D.A.R.E. founders rethinking their motto. Under the pseudonym of Raoul Duke, Thompson travels with his Samoan attorney, Dr. Gonzo, in a souped-up convertible dubbed the "Great Red Shark." In its trunk, they stow "two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half-full of cocaine and a whole galaxy of multicolored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers.... A quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls," which they manage to consume during their short tour.
On assignment from a sports magazine to cover "the fabulous Mint 400"--a free-for-all biker's race in the heart of the Nevada desert--the drug-a-delic duo stumbles through Vegas in hallucinatory hopes of finding the American dream (two truck-stop waitresses tell them it's nearby, but can't remember if it's on the right or the left). They of course never get the story, but they do commit the only sins in Vegas: "burning the locals, abusing the tourists, terrifying the help." For Thompson to remember and pen his experiences with such clarity and wit is nothing short of a miracle; an impressive feat no matter how one feels about the subject matter. A first-rate sensibility twinger, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a pop-culture classic, an icon of an era past, and a nugget of pure comedic genius. --Rebekah Warren [via]
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Fin-De-Siecle Vienna: Politics and Cultureby Carl E. SchorskeISBN 0394744780 (0-394-74478-0)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Fin-De-Siecle Vienna: Politics and Culture'Book summary:A landmark book from one of the truly original scholars of our time: a magnificent revelation of turn-of-the-century Vienna where out of a crisis of political and social disintegration so much of modern art and thought was born. [via]
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Frederick Rolfe, Baron Corvo: A Biographyby Miriam J. BenkovitzISBN 0399120092 (0-399-12009-2)
Hardcover, Putnam
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Gibbon's the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empireby M. HadasISBN 0449300560 (0-449-30056-0)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Gibbon's the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'Book summary:"Its theme is the most overwhelming phenomenon in recorded history -- the disintegration not of a nation, but of an old and rich and apparently indestructible civilization." --Moses Hadas, editor. [via]
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The Glass Books of the Dream Eatersby Gordon DahlquistISBN 0385340354 (0-385-34035-4)
Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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Historia Amoris: A History of Love, Ancient and Modernby Edgar SaltusISBN 0404055478 (0-404-05547-8)
Hardcover, Ams Pr Inc
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Hollywood Babylonby Kathleen AngerISBN 0440153255 (0-440-15325-5)
Softcover, Bantam Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Hollywood Babylon'Book summary:Clean unmarked copy. Gently used. Normal shelf and edge wear from normal handling. Great black and white photographs! December 1981 printing from Dell. Satisfaction guaranteed! [via]
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Hotel Babylonby Imogen Edwards-JonesISBN 042520135X (0-425-20135-X)
Softcover, Bluehen Trade
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The Immoralistby Andre GideISBN 0394700082 (0-394-70008-2)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Immoralist'Book summary:With today's headlines and talk shows, it takes a lot to shock a reader--certainly more than was required in 1902, when André Gide's The Immoralist was first published. What was seen then as a story of dereliction translates today into a tale of introspection and fierce self-discovery. While traveling to Tunis with his new bride, the Parisian scholar Michel is overcome by tuberculosis. As he slowly convalesces, he revels in the physical pleasures of living and resolves to forgo his studies of the past in order to experience the present--to let "the layers of acquired knowledge peel away from the mind like a cosmetic and reveal, in patches, the naked flesh beneath, the authentic being hidden there."
But this is not the Michel his colleagues knew, nor the man Marceline married, and he must hide his new values under the patina of what he now reviles. Bored by Parisian society, he moves to a family farm in Normandy. He is happy there, especially in the company of young Charles, but he must soon return to the city and academe. Michel remains restless until he gives his first lecture and runs into Ménalque, who has long outraged society, and recognizes in him a reflection of his torment. Finally, Michel heads south, deeper into the desert, until, as he confides to his friends, he is lost in the sea of sand, under a clear, directionless sky.
What Gide's story lacks in sensationalism is fulfilled by his descriptive prose, which evokes the exotic nature of Michel's inner and outer journey: "I did not understand the forbearance of this African earth, submerged for days at a time and now awakening from winter, drunk with water, bursting with new juices; it laughed in this springtime frenzy whose echo, whose image I perceived within myself." --Joannie Kervran Stangeland [via]
The King in Yellowby Robert ChambersISBN 0441444822 (0-441-44482-2)
Softcover, Putnam Berkley
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Malacia Tapestryby Brian W. AldissISBN 042508079X (0-425-08079-X)
Softcover, Berkley Pub Group
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Marie Antoinette: The Journeyby Antonia FraserISBN 0385489498 (0-385-48949-8)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Marie Antoinette: The Journey'Book summary:Never before has the life of Marie Antoinette been told so intimately and with such authority as in Antonia Frasers newest work, Marie Antoinette: The Journey. Famously known as the eighteenth-century French queen whose excesses have become legend, Marie Antoinette was blamed for instigating the French Revolution. But the story of her journey begun as a fourteen-year-old sent from Vienna to marry the future Louis XVI to her courageous defense before she was sent to the guillotine reveals a woman of greater complexity and character than we have previously understood. We stand beside Marie Antoinette and witness the drama of her life as she becomes a scapegoat of the Ancien Regime when her faults were minor in comparison to the punishments inflicted on her.
The youngest daughter, fifteenth out of sixteen children, of Austrian empress Maria Teresa and Francis I, Marie Antoinette was sent on a literal journey by her mother from Vienna to Versailles with the expectation that she would further Austrian interests at all times. Yet, Marie Antoinette was by nature far from interested in state affairs and much more inclined to exert a gracious, philanthropic role, patronizing the arts especially music, as royalty would come to behave in the nineteenth century. Despite this the French accused her of political interference and wrote scandalous tracts against her, mocking her lack of sophistication. Meanwhile, longing for a family and the birth of an heir who would have cemented the Franco-Austro alliance, the French queen had to endure more than eight years of public humiliation for her barren marriage before the delivery of her first of four children.
As these problems unfold, Antonia Fraser also weaves a richly detailed account of Marie Antoinettes other, more poignant journey: from the ill-educated and unprepared girl who sought refuge in pleasure as a consolation into a magnificent, courageous woman who defied her enemies at her trial with consummate intelligence, arousing the admiration of even the most hostile revolutionaries.
Brilliantly written, Marie Antoinette is a work of impeccable scholarship. Drawing on a wealth of family letters and other archival materials, Antonia Fraser successfully avoids the hagiography of some the French queens admirers and the misogyny of many of her critics. The result is an utterly riveting and intensely moving book by one of our finest biographers. [via]More editions of Marie Antoinette: The Journey:
Maurice Guestby Henry Handel RichardsonISBN 0385277873 (0-385-27787-3)
Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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Measure for Measureby William ShakespeareISBN 0415026970 (0-415-02697-0)
Softcover, Van Nostrand Reinhold
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Measure for Measure'Book summary:A dark and difficult play, Measure for Measure has been a popular play since the latter half of the 20th century for its prescient dramatisation of the issues of sexual and political hypocrisy, and the ways in which the state interferes in the private lives of its citizens. Set in Duke Vincentio's Vienna, where poverty, disease and prostitution are rife, Claudio and his fiancée Juliet are arrested for having sex before marriage, and Claudio is sentenced to death. Angelo, the Duke's deputy, who stands in for the Duke whilst he ostensibly goes off on a pilgrimage, enthusiastically endorses the sentence. In fact the Duke remains behind the scenes, watching Angelo as he falls for Claudio's sister Isabella, who comes to beg for her brother's life. Angelo is a wonderful creation, loathsome yet fascinating as he struggles with the double standards of his enforcement of draconian laws whilst lusting after the sister of the man he is prepared to execute, debating "The tempter or the tempted, who sins most?".
No one is spared Shakespeare's withering look at the mores of early 17th-century life, not even the pimps and madams who try to get by in the midst of the Duke's bizarre and coercive disguises and performances. The deeply ambiguous ending of Measure for Measure confirms it as one of Shakespeare's most ambivalent and arguably despairing plays. --Jerry Brotton [via]
The Memoirs of John Addington Symondsby Phyllis Grosskurth, John Addington SymondsISBN 0394540859 (0-394-54085-9)
Hardcover, Random House
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The Missionary and the Libertineby Ian BurumaISBN 0375705376 (0-375-70537-6)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Missionary and the Libertine'Book summary:This collection of essays, drawn mainly from The New York Review of Books, will appeal to readers interested in the Far East, especially Japan. Ian Buruma writes of Europe's very particular fascination with Asia, and makes clear that this is what attracted him, too:
Neither puritanism nor sensuality was ever unique to East or West, yet, on the whole, it is for the latter that Westerners have looked East. There has been a sensual, even erotic, element in encounters--imaginary or real--between East and West since the ancient Greeks. The European idea of the Orient as female, voluptuous, decadent, amoral--in short, as dangerously seductive--long predates the European empires in India and Southeast Asia.
Yet an unexpected reversal has upset this mode of thought. "From the official point of view of China, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, and Japan," writes Buruma, "Europe and the United States are now models not of masculine vim but, on the contrary, of decadence, libertinism, and sloth."The best essay in The Missionary and the Libertine builds off this observation by examining Lee Kuan Yew's repressive Singapore and the "Asian values" debate. Startling anecdotes spring from the page (in this selection as well as the others), such as the employment ad Buruma shares from a Singapore daily: "Filipino. Hardworking. No day off." Buruma is more than just an observer; he's also an analyst. The very concept of "Asian values" rings untrue, he believes, because the phrase "only really makes sense in English. In Chinese, Malay, or Hindi, it would sound odd. Chinese think of themselves as Chinese, and Indians as Indians (or Tamils, or Punjabs). Asia, as a cultural concept, is an official invention to bridge vastly different ethnic populations living in former British colonies." Buruma also writes about Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto, the Philippines' Cory Aquino, V.S. Naipaul, the Seoul Olympics, the debate over the bomb in Japan, and so on. The book is a grab bag of literature and culture, and fans of Buruma will be delighted to have it all packed together in a single volume. --John J. Miller [via]
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The Missionary and the Libertine: Love and War in East and Westby Ian BurumaISBN 037550222X (0-375-50222-X)
Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Missionary and the Libertine: Love and War in East and West'Book summary:This collection of essays, drawn mainly from The New York Review of Books, will appeal to readers interested in the Far East, especially Japan. Ian Buruma writes of Europe's very particular fascination with Asia, and makes clear that this is what attracted him, too:
Neither puritanism nor sensuality was ever unique to East or West, yet, on the whole, it is for the latter that Westerners have looked East. There has been a sensual, even erotic, element in encounters--imaginary or real--between East and West since the ancient Greeks. The European idea of the Orient as female, voluptuous, decadent, amoral--in short, as dangerously seductive--long predates the European empires in India and Southeast Asia.
Yet an unexpected reversal has upset this mode of thought. "From the official point of view of China, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, and Japan," writes Buruma, "Europe and the United States are now models not of masculine vim but, on the contrary, of decadence, libertinism, and sloth."The best essay in The Missionary and the Libertine builds off this observation by examining Lee Kuan Yew's repressive Singapore and the "Asian values" debate. Startling anecdotes spring from the page (in this selection as well as the others), such as the employment ad Buruma shares from a Singapore daily: "Filipino. Hardworking. No day off." Buruma is more than just an observer; he's also an analyst. The very concept of "Asian values" rings untrue, he believes, because the phrase "only really makes sense in English. In Chinese, Malay, or Hindi, it would sound odd. Chinese think of themselves as Chinese, and Indians as Indians (or Tamils, or Punjabs). Asia, as a cultural concept, is an official invention to bridge vastly different ethnic populations living in former British colonies." Buruma also writes about Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto, the Philippines' Cory Aquino, V.S. Naipaul, the Seoul Olympics, the debate over the bomb in Japan, and so on. The book is a grab bag of literature and culture, and fans of Buruma will be delighted to have it all packed together in a single volume. --John J. Miller [via]
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The Nightmare Readerby Peter HainingISBN 0385022158 (0-385-02215-8)
Hardcover, Doubleday
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Nightmare Reader'Book summary:340 pages: 25 stories including Matthew Lewis, Mary Shelley, Thomas de Quincey, Joseph Sheridan le Fanu, Lafcadio Hearn, Madame Blavatsky, Arthur Machen, Lord Dunsany, Aleister Crowley, H. P. Lovecraft, and Robert Bloch. [via]
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Oscar Wildeby Richard EllmannISBN 0394759842 (0-394-75984-2)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Oscar Wilde'Book summary:In this long-awaited bioraphy, Wilde the legendary Victorian - brilliant writer and conversationalist, reckless flouter of social and sexual conventions - is brought to life. More astute and forbearing, yet more fallible than legend has allowed, Wilde is given here the dimensions of a modern hero. Based on fresh material from many hitherto-untapped sources, Ellmann depicts Wilde's comet-like ascent on the Victorian scene and his equally dramatic sudden eclipse. His Irish background, the actresses to whom he paid court, his unfortunate wife and lovers, his clothes, coiffures, and the decor of his rooms - all are presented here in vivid detail. The saga of his 1882 American tour is recounted with a wealth of new details; also his later impact on the bastions of the French literary establishment. The London of the Nineties, of Whistler and the Pre-Raphaelites, Lillie Langtry and the Prince of Wales, is evoked alongside Paris of the "belle epoque" and the Greece, Italy and North Africa of Wilde's travels. Ellmann's definitive critical account of Wilde's entire oeuvre shows him as the proponent of a radical new aesthetic who was perilously at odds with Victorian society. After his period of success and daring, the fatal love affair with Lord Alfred Douglas is followed by exposure, imprisonment, a few wretched years abroad and death in exile. The tragic end of Wilde's life leaves the reader with a sense of compassion and grief for the protagonist. This edition make the popular and best selling biography available in paperback for the first time. [via]
The Paliser Caseby Edgar SaltusISBN 0404055435 (0-404-05543-5)
Hardcover, AMS Press
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Parnassians Personally Encounteredby Edgar SaltusISBN 0404055486 (0-404-05548-6)
Hardcover, Ams Pr Inc
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The Picture of Dorian Grayby Oscar WildeISBN 0375751513 (0-375-75151-3)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'Book summary:A lush, cautionary tale of a life of vileness and deception or a loving portrait of the aesthetic impulse run rampant? Why not both? After Basil Hallward paints a beautiful, young man's portrait, his subject's frivolous wish that the picture change and he remain the same comes true. Dorian Gray's picture grows aged and corrupt while he continues to appear fresh and innocent. After he kills a young woman, "as surely as if I had cut her little throat with a knife," Dorian Gray is surprised to find no difference in his vision or surroundings. "The roses are not less lovely for all that. The birds sing just as happily in my garden."
As Hallward tries to make sense of his creation, his epigram-happy friend Lord Henry Wotton encourages Dorian in his sensual quest with any number of Wildean paradoxes, including the delightful "When we are happy we are always good, but when we are good we are not always happy." But despite its many languorous pleasures, The Picture of Dorian Gray is an imperfect work. Compared to the two (voyeuristic) older men, Dorian is a bore, and his search for ever new sensations far less fun than the novel's drawing-room discussions. Even more oddly, the moral message of the novel contradicts many of Wilde's supposed aims, not least "no artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style." Nonetheless, the glamour boy gets his just deserts. And Wilde, defending Dorian Gray, had it both ways: "All excess, as well as all renunciation, brings its own punishment." [via]
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The Players Come Againby Amanda CrossISBN 0394587855 (0-394-58785-5)
Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group
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The Plays of Strindbergby August Strindberg, Michael Leverson MeyerISBN 0394716981 (0-394-71698-1)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poeby Daniel HoffmanISBN 0380414597 (0-380-41459-7)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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The Pure and the Impureby ColetteISBN 0436105179 (0-436-10517-9)
Hardcover, Secker & Warburg
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Rape of the Lockby Alexander Pope, Geoffrey TillotsonISBN 0415039991 (0-415-03999-1)
Softcover, Routledge
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Rape of the Lock'Book summary:This seminal edition includes comprehensive annotation, the 1712 version of the poem as well as the 1714 version, and substantial critical material in appendices. No student of Pope can afford to be without this classic edition. [via]
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The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyamby Edward Fitzgerald, Edmund Dulac, John FitzgeraldISBN 0385001460 (0-385-00146-0)
Hardcover, Doubleday Publishing
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam'Book summary:The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is a collection of poems authored by Persian astronomer and mathematician Omar Khayyam. The poems in this title are written into quatrains, Rubaiyat being arabic for root of four, as in four line verses of which quatrains are made up of. This popular edition of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is the edition by Edward Fitzgerald, who translated this work in the late 19th century. [via]
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Sade: A Biographyby Maurice Lever, Arthur GoldhammerISBN 0374202982 (0-374-20298-2)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millayby Nancy MilfordISBN 0375760814 (0-375-76081-4)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay'Book summary:Fans of Zelda, Nancy Milford's groundbreaking (and bestselling) biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald's tortured wife and muse, have been waiting impatiently since 1970 for Milford's promised follow-up about poet Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950). It's finally here, and they will not be disappointed. Milford's vivid narrative limns an electric personality with psychological acuity while capturing the freewheeling atmosphere of America in the turbulent years following World War I. After "Renascence" was published (when she was only 20) and she moved to Greenwich Village, Millay was the queen of bohemia, taking lovers with zest and voicing the reckless gaiety of a generation in her famous lyric, "My candle burns at both ends; / It will not last the night; / But, ah, my foes, and, oh, my friends-- / It gives a lovely light." With her flame-red hair, milk-white skin, and a voice that thrilled audiences (making her poetry readings a welcome source of income), Millay was the archetypal "new woman": powerful, passionate, and not to be ignored. But Milford makes it clear that her first loyalty was to her mother and sisters, and her deepest commitment to her writing. This juicy chronicle has famous names aplenty--critic Edmund Wilson and Masses editor Floyd Dell were among the men devastated by her refusal to be faithful--and lots of dissipation: Millay drank heavily and became addicted to morphine. It also takes a perceptive look at how an artist draws material from her life and at the strategies she uses to protect the wellsprings of creativity. Brief passages interspersed throughout delineating Milford's interactions with Norma Millay, the poet's younger sister and literary executor, might have been self-indulgent and self-aggrandizing; instead they offer intriguing snapshots of the complex process by which biography is made. The resulting book is a tour de force, and wildly entertaining as well. --Wendy Smith [via]
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The Silver Doveby Andrey BelyISBN 0394178599 (0-394-17859-9)
Hardcover
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Six Plays of Strindbergby August StrindbergISBN 0385092725 (0-385-09272-5)
Softcover, Knopf Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Six Plays of Strindberg'Book summary:offered by a trusted seller [via]
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Skinby Kathe KojaISBN 0440211158 (0-440-21115-8)
Softcover, Dell Publishing
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Skin'Book summary:Eager to grow and transform, Bibi, a guerrilla performance artist, begins ritual cuttings and scarrings of her own body, and not even her metal sculptor friend, Tess, can stop her. 25,000 first printing. [via]
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The Strange Cases of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hydeby Katherine Linehan, Robert Louis StevensonISBN 0393974650 (0-393-97465-0)
Softcover, Norton & Company, Incorporated, W. W.
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Strange Cases of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'Book summary:The young Robert Louis Stevenson suffered from repeated nightmares of living a double life, in which by day he worked as a respectable doctor and by night he roamed the back alleys of old-town Edinburgh. In three days of furious writing, he produced a story about his dream existence. His wife found it too gruesome, so he promptly burned the manuscript. In another three days, he wrote it again. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was published as a "shilling shocker" in 1886, and became an instant classic. In the first six months, 40,000 copies were sold. Queen Victoria read it. Sermons and editorials were written about it. When Stevenson and his family visited America a year later, they were mobbed by reporters at the dock in New York City. Compulsively readable from its opening pages, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is still one of the best tales ever written about the divided self.
This University of Nebraska Press edition is a small, exquisitely produced paperback. The book design, based on the original first edition of 1886, includes wide margins, decorative capitals on the title page and first page of each chapter, and a clean, readable font that is 19th-century in style. Joyce Carol Oates contributes a foreword in which she calls Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde a "mythopoetic figure" like Frankenstein, Dracula, and Alice in Wonderland, and compares Stevenson's creation to doubled selves in the works of Plato, Poe, Wilde, and Dickens.
This edition also features 12 full-page wood engravings by renowned illustrator Barry Moser. Moser is a skillful reader and interpreter as well as artist, and his afterword to the book, in which he explains the process by which he chose a self-portrait motif for the suite of engravings, is fascinating. For the image of Edward Hyde, he writes, "I went so far as to have my dentist fit me out with a carefully sculpted prosthetic of evil-looking teeth. But in the final moments I had to abandon the idea as being inappropriate. It was more important to stay in keeping with the text and, like Stevenson, not show Hyde's face." (Also recommended: the edition of Frankenstein illustrated by Barry Moser) --Fiona Webster [via]
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Sword of Rhiannonby Leigh BrackettISBN 0441791425 (0-441-79142-5)
Softcover, Berkley Pub Group
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The Temptation of Saint Anthonyby Gustave Flaubert, Michel Foucault, Lafcadio HearnISBN 0375759123 (0-375-75912-3)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group
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Three Plays by Mae West: Sex the Drag and Pleasure Manby Lillian SchlisselISBN 0415909333 (0-415-90933-3)
Softcover, Routledge
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Titus Aloneby Mervyn Laurence PeakeISBN 0413444309 (0-413-44430-9)
Hardcover, Eyre & Spottiswoode
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Titus Alone'Book summary:Titus Groan has fled the rambling, ruined and ruinous castle of Gormenghast, desperate for a view of the world beyond. But he wasnt prepared for this! Satellites, death-rays, sinister policemen and underworld outcasts live in a nightmarish contemporary city that feels like something by Wells, Burroughs or Philip K. Dick. Threatened and lost, he begins to miss the home he left; but surely he wont be tempted back? [via]
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The Ubu Playsby Alfred JarryISBN 041367990X (0-413-67990-X)
Softcover, Methuen Pub Ltd
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Ubu Plays'Book summary:A re-issue of three plays that ushered in the great age of absurdist theatre[via]
There was a riot at the first performance of Ubu Roi on 10 December 1896, when Firmin Gemier, playing Ubu, strode to the footlights and roared: "Merde!" at the audience, and theatre would never be the same again. Ubu became a force to be reckoned with in literature, art and politics. Jarry wrote more exploits for him and took to acting the role of Ubu himself in his own brief, strange life.
This volume contains lively modern translations by Cyril Connolly and Simon Watson Taylor of Ubu Roi, Ubu Cocu and Ubu Enchaîné as well as Jarry's writings on theatre."The Ubu explosion sent shrapnel flying into the next century. Dada, Surrealism, Pataphysics, Theatre of Cruelty, the Absurd - all owe a debt to Jarry." (Charles Marowitz, Encore)
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Yellow Jackby Josh RussellISBN 039332110X (0-393-32110-X)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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