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books tagged “english”
books tagged “english”
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After the Funeralby Agatha ChristieISBN 0061003719 (0-06-100371-9)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'After the Funeral'Book summary:With the bodies multiplying at Enderby Hall--first the wealthy Richard Abernethie is killed; then his sister is done in with a hatchet; and finally her companion is sent a piece of arsenic-soaked wedding cake--Hercule Poirot steps in to investigate. Reprint. [via]
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The Archer's Taleby Bernard CornwellISBN 0060505257 (0-06-050525-7)
Softcover, HarperCollins Publishers
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Archer's Tale'Book summary:Following the phenomenal success of the Sharpe novels set in the Napoleonic Wars, Bernard Cornwell has turned his storytelling talents to another great moment in English history, the Hundred Years War between England and France throughout the 14th century. Harlequin is the first book in Cornwell's Grail Quest series, which chronicles the adventures of young Thomas of Hookton, "a big, bony, black-haired country boy". Thomas rejects the church in favour of the life of an archer in France after his village is brutally sacked by the French. The young Thomas fights back against the French with his bow, and "in that one instant, as the first arrow slid into the sky, he knew he wanted nothing more from life". He vows to seek revenge on the plains of France, and recover the holy relic of St. George stolen from his village by the sinister "harlequin" with whose destiny Thomas finds himself inextricably entwined. The rest of the action moves at a hectic pace across the violent and bloody battlefields of northern France, as Thomas falls for a beautiful French widow nicknamed "the Blackbird", makes a mortal enemy of the "poor, bitter and ambitious" Sir Simon Jekyll, and follows the ensign of King Edward III and his heroic son, the Black Prince. Harlequin is a fast-paced and graphic recreation of the Hundred Years War, despite a rather gratuitous fixation on rape and pillage. The action comes thick and fast, although it remains to be seen if Thomas of Hookton has the wit and flair of Cornwell's other great heroic creation, Richard Sharpe. --Jerry Brotton [via]
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Armadaleby Wilkie Collins, John SutherlandISBN 0140434119 (0-14-043411-9)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Armadale'Book summary:An innovative novel featuring an astonishingly wicked female villain, Wilkie Collins' "Armadale" was regarded by T.S. Eliot as 'the best of [his] romances'. This "Penguin Classics" edition is edited with an introduction and notes by John Sutherland. When the elderly Allan Armadale makes a terrible confession on his death-bed, he has little idea of the repercussions to come, for the secret he reveals involves the mysterious Lydia Gwilt: flame-haired temptress, bigamist, laudanum addict and husband-poisoner. Her malicious intrigues fuel the plot of this gripping melodrama: a tale of confused identities, inherited curses, romantic rivalries, espionage, money - and murder. The character of Lydia Gwilt horrified contemporary critics, with one reviewer describing her as 'One of the most hardened female villains whose devices and desires have ever blackened fiction'. She remains among the most enigmatic and fascinating women in nineteenth-century literature and the dark heart of this most sensational of Victorian 'sensation novels'. John Sutherland's introduction illustrated how Wilkie Collins drew on scandalous newspaper headlines and on new technology particularly the penny post and the telegraph - to lend extra pace and veracity to his tale. This edition also contains notes, further reading and an appendix on stage dramatisations of "Armadale". Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) was born in London in 1824, the eldest son of the landscape painter William Collins. In 1846 he was entered to read for the bar at Lincoln's Inn, where he gained the knowledge that was to give him much of the material for his writing. From the early 1850s he was a friend of Charles Dickens, who produced and acted in two melodramas written by Collins, "The Lighthouse" and "The Frozen Deep". Of his novels, Collins is best remembered for "The Woman in White" (1859), "No Name" (1862), "Armadale" (1866) and "The Moonstone" (1868). If you enjoyed "Armadale", you might like Collins' "No Name", also available in "Penguin Classics". [via]
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The BFGby Roald DahlISBN 0140315977 (0-14-031597-7)
Softcover, Penguin USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The BFG'Book summary:Evidently not even Roald Dahl could resist the acronym craze of the early eighties. BFG? Bellowing ferret-faced golfer? Backstabbing fairy godmother? Oh, oh ... Big Friendly Giant! This BFG doesn't seem all that F at first as he creeps down a London street, snatches little Sophie out of her bed, and bounds away with her to giant land. And he's not really all that B when compared with his evil, carnivorous brethren, who bully him for being such an oddball runt. After all, he eats only disgusting snozzcumbers, and while the other Gs are snacking on little boys and girls, he's blowing happy dreams in through their windows. What kind of way is that for a G to behave?
The BFG is one of Dahl's most lovable character creations. Whether galloping off with Sophie nestled into the soft skin of his ear to capture dreams as though they were exotic butterflies; speaking his delightful, jumbled, squib-fangled patois; or whizzpopping for the Queen, he leaves an indelible impression of bigheartedness. (Ages 9 to 12) [via]
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The Buddha of Suburbiaby Hanif KureishiISBN 014013168X (0-14-013168-X)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Buddha of Suburbia'Book summary:There's quite a bit of activity in Buddha of Suburbia. A bureaucrat becomes a suburban guru who marries a follower with a son who's a punk rocker named Charlie Hero. Consequently, the guru's son is propelled from his bland life into a series of erotic experiences in London. All the while, Hanif Kureishi keeps the tone lively with wry wit. On the description of suburban life: "We were proud of never learning anything except the names of footballers, the personnel of rock groups and the lyrics to 'I Am the Walrus.'" He also bends cultures, classes and genders while blasting the racism of British life in this 1990 Whitbread Prize winner. [via]
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Charlie and the Great Glass Elevatorby Roald DahlISBN 014032870X (0-14-032870-X)
Softcover, Penguin USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator'Book summary:Picking right up where Charlie and the Chocolate Factory left off, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator continues the adventures of Charlie Bucket, his family, and Willy Wonka, the eccentric candy maker. As the book begins, our heroes are shooting into the sky in a glass elevator, headed for destinations unknown. What follows is exactly the kind of high-spirited magical madness and mayhem we've all come to expect from Willy Wonka and his creator Roald Dahl. The American space race gets a send-up, as does the President, and Charlie's family gets a second chance at childhood. Throw in the Vermicious Knids, Gnoolies, and Minusland and we once again witness pure genius. (Ages 9 to 12) [via]
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Charlotte Grayby Sebastian FaulksISBN 0091784425 (0-09-178442-5)
Hardcover, Hutchinson
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Charlotte Gray'Book summary:Charlotte Gray [via]
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A Christmas Carolby Charles Dickens, Dean Morrissey, Stephen KrenskyISBN 0064436063 (0-06-443606-3)
Softcover, Harpercollins Childrens Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Christmas Carol'Book summary:In the history of English literature, Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, which has been continuously in print since it was first published in the winter of 1843, stands out as the quintessential Christmas story. What makes this charming edition of Dickens's immortal tale so special is the collection of 80 vivid illustrations by Everett Shinn (1876-1953). Shinn, a well-known artist in his time, was a popular illustrator of newspapers and magazines whose work displayed a remarkable affinity for the stories of Charles Dickens, evoking the bustling street life of the mid-1800s. Printed on heavy, cream-colored paper stock, the edges of the pages have been left rough, simulating the way in which the story might have appeared in Dickens's own time. Though countless editions of this classic have been published over the years, this one stands out as particularly beautiful, nostalgic, and evocative of the spirit of Christmas. [via]
More editions of A Christmas Carol:
- A Christmas Carol: ISBN 0140350276 (0-14-035027-6)
Softcover, Penguin USA - A Christmas Carol: ISBN 0140367233 (0-14-036723-3)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA - A Christmas Carol: ISBN 006028577X (0-06-028577-X)
Hardcover, Harpercollins Childrens Books - A Christmas Carol: ISBN 0064436063 (0-06-443606-3)
Softcover, Harpercollins Childrens Books
- A Christmas Carol: ISBN 0140350276 (0-14-035027-6)
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A Christmas Carol in Prose Being a Ghost Story of Christmasby Charles Dickens, John LeechISBN 0140071202 (0-14-007120-2)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Christmas Carol in Prose Being a Ghost Story of Christmas'Book summary:In this unabridged version of the original 1843 edition, the classic tale is illustrated with full-color paintings and black-and-white drawings that brilliantly recapture an era and bring Dickens's characters vividly to life. "Michael Foreman's illustrations have brought new life and charm to a story we all know." -- Parents Magazine [via]
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Doctor Thorneby Anthony Trollope, Ruth RendellISBN 0140433260 (0-14-043326-0)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Doctor Thorne'Book summary:Son of a bankrupt landowner, Frank Gresham is intent on marrying his beloved Mary Thorne, despite her illegitimacy and apparent poverty. Frank's ambitious mother and haughty aunt are set against the match, however, and push him to save the family's mortgaged estate by making a good marriage to a wealthy heiress. Only Mary's loving uncle, Dr Thorne, knows the secret of her birth and the fortune she is to inherit that will make her socially acceptable in the eyes of Frank's family - but the high-principled doctor believes she should be accepted on her own terms. A telling examination of the relationship between society, money and morality, "Dr Thorne" (1858) is enduringly popular for Trollope's affectionate depiction of rural English life and his deceptively simple portrayal of human nature. [via]
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The Elephants of Style: A Trunkload of Tips on the Big Issues and Gray Areas of Contemporary American Englishby Bill WalshISBN 0071422684 (0-07-142268-4)
Softcover, McGraw-Hill
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Elephants of Style: A Trunkload of Tips on the Big Issues and Gray Areas of Contemporary American English'More editions of The Elephants of Style: A Trunkload of Tips on the Big Issues and Gray Areas of Contemporary American English:
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Erewhonby Samuel ButlerISBN 0140430571 (0-14-043057-1)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Erewhon'Book summary:Setting out to make his fortune in a far-off country, a young traveller discovers the remote and beautiful land of erewhon, and is given a home among its extraordinarily handsome citizens. But their visitor soon discovers that this seemingly ideal community has its faults - here crime is treated indulgently as a malady to be cured, while illness, poverty and misfortune are cruelly punished, and all machines have been superstitiously destroyed after a bizarre prophecy. Can he survive in a world where morality is turned upside down? inspired by samuel butler's years in colonial new zealand, and by his reading of darwin's "origin of species", erewhon (1872) is a highly original, irreverent and humorous satire on conventional virtues, religious hypocrisy and the unthinking acceptance of beliefs [via]
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Everything Is Illuminatedby Jonathan Safran FoerISBN 0060529709 (0-06-052970-9)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Everything Is Illuminated'Book summary:The simplest thing would be to describe Everything Is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer's accomplished debut, as a novel about the Holocaust. It is, but that really fails to do justice to the sheer ambition of this book. The main story is a grimly familiar one. A young Jewish American--who just happens to be called Jonathan Safran Foer--travels to the Ukraine in the hope of finding the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis. He is aided in his search by Alex Perchov, a naïve Ukrainian translator, Alex's grandfather (also called Alex), and a flatulent mongrel dog named Sammy Davis Jr. Jr. On their journey through Eastern Europe's obliterated landscape they unearth facts about the Nazi atrocities and the extent of Ukrainian complicity that have implications for Perchov as well as Safran Foer. This narrative is not, however, recounted from (the character) Jonathan Safran Foer's perspective. It is relayed through a series of letters that Alex sends to Foer. These are written in the kind of broken Russo-English normally reserved for Bond villains or Latka from Taxi. Interspersed between these letters are fragments of a novel by Safran Foer--a wonderfully imagined, almost magical realist, account of life in the shtetl before the Nazis destroyed it. These are in turn commented on by Alex, creating an additional metafictional angle to the tale.
If all this sounds a little daunting, don't be put off; Safran Foer is an extremely funny as well as intelligent writer who combines some of the best Jewish folk yarns since Isaac Bashevis Singer with a quite heartbreaking meditation on love, friendship, and loss. --Travis Elborough, Amazon.co.uk [via]
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Excellent Womenby Barbara PymISBN 0060970731 (0-06-097073-1)
Softcover, Perennial Library
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Excellent Women'More editions of Excellent Women:
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Finnegans Wakeby James JoyceISBN 0140062866 (0-14-006286-6)
Softcover, Penguin USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Finnegans Wake'Book summary:Presented as the story of Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker, a Dublin tavern-keeper, this novel has as its theme a cyclical pattern of fall and resurrection. It takes the form of a dream-sequence representing the stream of Earwicker's unconscious mind through the course of one night. [via]
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The Grapes of Wrathby John Steinbeck, Peter Lisca, Kevin HearleISBN 0140247750 (0-14-024775-0)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Grapes of Wrath'Book summary:When The Grapes of Wrath was published in 1939, America, still recovering from the Great Depression, came face to face with itself in a startling, lyrical way. John Steinbeck gathered the country's recent shames and devastations--the Hoovervilles, the desperate, dirty children, the dissolution of kin, the oppressive labor conditions--in the Joad family. Then he set them down on a westward-running road, local dialect and all, for the world to acknowledge. For this marvel of observation and perception, he won the Pulitzer in 1940.
The prize must have come, at least in part, because alongside the poverty and dispossession, Steinbeck chronicled the Joads' refusal, even inability, to let go of their faltering but unmistakable hold on human dignity. Witnessing their degeneration from Oklahoma farmers to a diminished band of migrant workers is nothing short of crushing. The Joads lose family members to death and cowardice as they go, and are challenged by everything from weather to the authorities to the California locals themselves. As Tom Joad puts it: "They're a-workin' away at our spirits. They're a tryin' to make us cringe an' crawl like a whipped bitch. They tryin' to break us. Why, Jesus Christ, Ma, they comes a time when the on'y way a fella can keep his decency is by takin' a sock at a cop. They're workin' on our decency."
The point, though, is that decency remains intact, if somewhat battle-scarred, and this, as much as the depression and the plight of the "Okies," is a part of American history. When the California of their dreams proves to be less than edenic, Ma tells Tom: "You got to have patience. Why, Tom--us people will go on livin' when all them people is gone. Why, Tom, we're the people that live. They ain't gonna wipe us out. Why, we're the people--we go on." It's almost as if she's talking about the very novel she inhabits, for Steinbeck's characters, more than most literary creations, do go on. They continue, now as much as ever, to illuminate and humanize an era for generations of readers who, thankfully, have no experiential point of reference for understanding the depression. The book's final, haunting image of Rose of Sharon--Rosasharn, as they call her--the eldest Joad daughter, forcing the milk intended for her stillborn baby onto a starving stranger, is a lesson on the grandest scale. "'You got to,'" she says, simply. And so do we all. --Melanie Rehak [via]
More editions of The Grapes of Wrath:
- The Grapes of Wrath: ISBN 0140281622 (0-14-028162-2)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA - The Grapes of Wrath: ISBN 0140042393 (0-14-004239-3)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA - The Grapes of Wrath: ISBN 0140155082 (0-14-015508-2)
Softcover, Penguin USA - The Grapes of Wrath: ISBN 0140186409 (0-14-018640-9)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA - The Grapes of Wrath: ISBN 0140247750 (0-14-024775-0)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
- The Grapes of Wrath: ISBN 0140281622 (0-14-028162-2)
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Gravity's Rainbowby Thomas PynchonISBN 0140188592 (0-14-018859-2)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Gravity's Rainbow'Book summary:Tyrone Slothrop, a GI in London in 1944, has a big problem. Whenever he gets an erection, a Blitz bomb hits. Slothrop gets excited, and then (as Thomas Pynchon puts it in his sinister, insinuatingly sibilant opening sentence), "a screaming comes across the sky," heralding an angel of death, a V-2 rocket. The novel's title, Gravity's Rainbow, refers to the rocket's vapor arc, a cruel dark parody of what God sent Noah to symbolize his promise never to destroy humanity again. History has been a big trick: the plan is to switch from floods to obliterating fire from the sky.
Slothrop's father was an unwitting part of the cosmic doublecross. To provide for the boy's future Harvard education, he took cash from the mad German scientist Laszlo Jamf, who performed Pavlovian experiments on the infant Tyrone. Laszlo invented Imipolex G, a new plastic useful in rocket insulation, and conditioned Tyrone's privates to respond to its presence. Now the grown-up Tyrone helplessly senses the Imipolex G in incoming V-2s, and his military superiors are investigating him. Soon he is on the run from legions of bizarre enemies through the phantasmagoric horrors of Germany.
That's just the Imipolex G tip of the shrieking vehicle that is Pynchon's book. It's pretty much impossible to follow a standard plot; one must have faith that each manic episode is connected with the great plot to blow up the world with the ultimate rocket. There is not one story, but a proliferation of characters (Pirate Prentice, Teddy Bloat, Tantivy Mucker-Maffick, Saure Bummer, and more) and events that tantalize the reader with suggestions of vast patterns only just past our comprehension. You will enjoy Pynchon's cartoon inferno far more if you consult Steven Weisenburger's brief companion to the novel, which sorts out Pynchon's blizzard of references to science, history, high culture, and the lowest of jokes. Rest easy: there really is a simple reason why Kekulé von Stradonitz's dream about a serpent biting its tail (which solved the structure of the benzene molecule) belongs in the same novel as the comic-book-hero Plastic Man.
Pynchon doesn't want you to rest easy with solved mysteries, though. Gravity's Rainbow uses beautiful prose to induce an altered state of consciousness, a buzz. It's a trip, and it will last. --Tim Appelo [via]
A Hat Full of Skyby Terry PratchettISBN 0060586621 (0-06-058662-1)
Softcover, Avon Tempest
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Hat Full of Sky'Book summary:The Heroine: Tiffany Aching, incipient witch and cheese maker extraordinaire. Once saved world from Queen of the Elves. Is about to discover that battling evil monarchs is child's play compared to mortal combat with a Hiver (see below). At eleven years old, is boldest heroine ever to have confronted the Forces of Darkness while armed with a frying pan.
The Threat: A Hiver, insidious disembodied presence drawn to powerful magic. highly dangerous, frequently lethal. Cannot be stopped with iron or fire. Its target: Tiffany Aching (see above).
The Nac Mac Feegle: A.k.a. the Wee Free Men. Height: six inches. Color: blue. Famed for drinking, stealing, and fighting. Will attack anything larger than themselves. Members include: Rob Anybody, Daft Wullie, and Awfully Wee Billy Bigchin. Allies to Tiffany Aching (see above).
The Book: Hilarious, breathtaking, spine-tingling sequel to the acclaimed Wee Free Men.
The Author: Terry Pratchett, celebrated creator of the internationally best-selling Discworld series. Carnegie Medalist and writer extraordinaire.
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Have His Carcaseby Dorothy L. SayersISBN 0061043524 (0-06-104352-4)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Have His Carcase'Book summary:A young woman falls asleep on a deserted beach and wakes to discover the body of a man whose throat has been slashed from ear to ear ...The young woman is the celebrated detective novelist Harriet Vane, once again drawn against her will into a murder investigation in which she herself could be a suspect. Lord Peter Wimsey is only too eager to help her clear her name. 'She combined literary prose with powerful suspense, and it takes a rare talent to achieve that. A truly great storyteller.' Minette Walters [via]
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The Highly Selective Dictionary for the Extraordinarily Literateby Eugene Ehrlich, Richard LedererISBN 0062701908 (0-06-270190-8)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Highly Selective Dictionary for the Extraordinarily Literate'Book summary:In The Highly Selective Dictionary for the Extraordinarily Literate, Eugene Ehrlich pulls no punches about his intent. This book and its companion, The Highly Selective Thesaurus for the Extraordinarily Literate, are prescriptive rather than descriptive, dedicated to recording language as it should be rather than how it often is. In the preface, Ehrlich announces that he means his book to be an "antidote" to the "effects wrought by the forces of linguistic darkness"--meaning, of course, all lexicographers more permissive than he is. That said, Ehrlich's conservative approach handily disposes of many thorny usage problems. The entry for "effectual," for example, distinguishes between "effective" and "effectual" in a concise and utterly persuasive way: "...a law that is effective--operative, in effect--becomes effectual--answers its purpose--only when the law is enforced."
This is not your ordinary dictionary; Ehrlich thinks that defining everyday words with commonly accepted meanings is a massive waste of time. Instead, he concentrates on unusual words or those that present interesting problems. The result is a fascinating dictionary that can be read cover to cover, like a book; do so and your vocabulary may never be the same again. [via]
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The Highly Selective Thesaurus for the Extraordinarily Literateby Eugene H. EhrlichISBN 0062700162 (0-06-270016-2)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Highly Selective Thesaurus for the Extraordinarily Literate'Book summary:If you're serious about writing and speaking language that crackles with delightful and obscure words, then you must have this book. As indicated by the title, it is a selective thesaurus containing 50,000 words and phrases, focusing on the more arcane or colorful choices. The main weakness is lack of cross-referencing, but it is nonetheless a superlative supplement to standard thesauri or synonym dictionaries. [via]
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The Innocence of Father Brownby G. K. ChestertonISBN 0140082573 (0-14-008257-3)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Innocence of Father Brown'Book summary:Penguin trade edition paperback, fine [via]
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Jacob's Roomby Virginia Woolf, Sue RoeISBN 0140185704 (0-14-018570-4)
Softcover, Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Jacob's Room'Book summary:Jacob Flanders is a young man passing from adolescence to adulthood in a hazy rite of passage. From his boyhood on the windswept shores of Cornwall to his days as a student at Cambridge, his elusive, chameleon-like character is gradually revealed in a stream of loosely related incidents and impressions: whether through his mother's letters, his friend's conversations, or the thoughts of the women who adore him. Then we glimpse him as a young man, caught under the glare of a London streetlamp. It is 1914, he is twenty-six, and Europe is on the brink of war ! This tantalizing novel heralded Woolf's bold departure from the traditional methods of the novel, with its experimental play between time and reality, memory and desire. [via]
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Joseph Andrews and Shamelaby Henry Fielding, Judith HawleyISBN 0140433864 (0-14-043386-4)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Joseph Andrews and Shamela'Book summary:[via]Kissing, Joseph, is but a Prologue to a Play. Can I believe a young Fellow of your Age and Complexion will be content with Kissing?
Joseph Andrews, Henry Fieldings first full-length novel, depicts the many colourful and often hilarious adventures of a comically chaste servant. After being sacked for spurning the lascivious Lady Booby, Joseph takes to the road, accompanied by his beloved Fanny Goodwill, a much-put-upon foundling girl, and Parson Adams, a man often duped and humiliated, but still a model of Christian charity. In the boisterous short tale Shamela, a brilliant parody of Richardsons Pamela, the spirited and sexually honest heroine uses coyness and mock modesty to catch herself a rich husband. Together these works anticipate Fieldings great comic epic Tom Jones, with their amiable good humour and pointed social satire.
Judith Hawleys introduction compares the works of Fielding and Richardson, and discusses sex and class relations, and the literary and political world of the time. This volume also includes a chronology and suggestions for further reading.
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Lady Audley's Secretby Mary E. BraddonISBN 0140161856 (0-14-016185-6)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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Life With Jeevesby P.G. WodehouseISBN 0140059024 (0-14-005902-4)
Softcover, Viking Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Life With Jeeves'Book summary:P. G. Wodehouse (1881-1975) is an English-born storyteller and journalist who came to America before World War I and sold a serial to the Saturday Evening Post, where most of his books first appeared. Though Wodehouse wrote more than 90 books and 20 film scripts, and collaborated on more than 30 plays and musical comedies, he is perhaps best known as the creator of the gentlemanly character Jeeves, "that subtle master of prudence, good taste, and ineffable composure." This three-part edition will delight newcomers to Wodehouse as well as those already familiar with his "sunny universe and sparkling prose." Let the reader beware: unless you are the kind of person who enjoys being stared at, do not attempt to read anything by P. G. Wodehouse in public. If you do, you'll soon find yourself an object of interest on the bus, plane or train as you attempt to stifle guffaws or end up accidentally swallowing your tongue in a useless effort to squash that belly-laugh. Wodehouse is, quite simply, one of the funniest men on the planet, and this latest compendium of his work, Life with Jeeves, is Wodehouse at his best.
Here you'll find Bertie Wooster, a complete gentleman, but the first to admit he's a bit of a chump; his valet, Jeeves, infinitely sagacious, the source of all solace; and a wild collection of terrifying aunts, miserly uncles, love-sick friends, female authors, crusading communists, troublesome cousins, cantankerous dogs, unwanted fiancés and more-all bound up in plots as impossibly labyrinthine as they are laugh-out-loud funny. [via]
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Lord Peter: A Collection of All the Lord Peter Wimsey Storiesby Dorothy Leigh SayersISBN 0060913800 (0-06-091380-0)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Lord Peter: A Collection of All the Lord Peter Wimsey Stories'Book summary:Contents: Introduction, by James Sandoe. Twelve stories from Lord Peter Views the Body (1928): "The Abominable History of the Man with Copper Fingers," "The Entertaining Episode of the Article in Question," "The Fascinating Problem of Uncle Meleager's Will," "The Fantastic Horror of the Cat in the Bag," "The Unprincipled Affair of the Practical Joker," "The Undignified Melodrama of the Bone of Contention," "The Vindictive Story of the Footsteps That Ran," "The Bibulous Business of a Matter of Taste," "The Learned Adventure of the Dragon's Head," "The Piscatorial Farce of the Stolen Stomach," "The Unsolved Puzzle of the Man with No Face," "The Adventurous Exploit of the Cave of Ali Baba." Four stories from Hangman's Holiday (1933): "The Image in the Mirror," "The Incredible Elopement of Lord Peter Wimsey," "The Queen's Square," "The Necklace of Pearls." Two stories from In the Teeth of the Evidence (1939): "In the Teeth of the Evidence," "Absolutely Elsewhere." Three later stories not included in other compilations: "Striding Folly," "The Haunted Policeman," "Talboys." Coda: "Sayers, Lord Peter and God," by Carolyn Heilbrun. Codetta: "Greedy Night, A Parody," by E. C. Bentley [via]
More editions of Lord Peter: A Collection of All the Lord Peter Wimsey Stories:
- Lord Peter: A Collection of All the Lord Peter Wimsey Stories: ISBN 0060137878 (0-06-013787-8)
Hardcover, Harper & Row - Lord Peter: A Collection of All the Lord Peter Wimsey Stories: ISBN 0060137886 (0-06-013788-6)
Hardcover, Harper & Row - Lord Peter: A Collection of All the Lord Peter Wimsey Stories: ISBN 0060550392 (0-06-055039-2)
Hardcover, Harper & Row - Lord Peter: A Collection of All the Lord Peter Wimsey Stories: ISBN 0060913800 (0-06-091380-0)
Softcover, Harpercollins
- Lord Peter: A Collection of All the Lord Peter Wimsey Stories: ISBN 0060137878 (0-06-013787-8)
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Lord Peter: A Collection of All the Lord Peter Wimsey Storiesby Dorothy L. SayersISBN 0061043613 (0-06-104361-3)
Softcover, Southgate Publishers
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Lord Peter: A Collection of All the Lord Peter Wimsey Stories'Book summary:All the Lord Peter Wimsey stories are here, in a single volume, including the one about Harriet, Peter and their three sons! [via]
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Mary Bartonby Elizabeth GaskellISBN 0140430539 (0-14-043053-9)
Softcover, Penguin USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Mary Barton'Book summary:This is Elizabeth Gaskell's first novel, a widely acclaimed work based on the actual murder, in 1831, of a progressive mill owner. It follows Mary Barton, daughter of a man implicated in the murder, through her adolescence, when she suffers the advances of the mill owner, and later through love and marriage. Set in Manchester, between 1837-42, it paints a powerful and moving picture of working-class life in Victorian England. [via]
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The Mating Seasonby P.G. WodehouseISBN 0060806591 (0-06-080659-1)
Softcover, Harper & Row
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Mating Season'Book summary:Having dispatched Aunt Agatha's young son Thos to his seaside borstal, Bertie Wooster intends to pay a visit to Deverill Hall to lend a hand with the village entertainment. He soon ends up in a fix when an imposter posing as Bertie Wooster turns up. [via]
The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq.by William Makepeace ThackerayISBN 0140040064 (0-14-004006-4)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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The Mystery of Edwin Droodby Charles Dickens, Arthur J. CoxISBN 0140092587 (0-14-009258-7)
Softcover, Penguin Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood'Book summary:Dickens' marvelous tale of murder was left unfinished at his death in 1870. The novel has been all the more tantalizing for its lack of an ending to a mystifying puzzle that avid readers, over the years, have tried to solve. A gem for lovers of mysteries and the legions of Dickens fans.[via]More editions of The Mystery of Edwin Drood:
New Grub Streetby George Gissing, Bernard BergonziISBN 0140430326 (0-14-043032-6)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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Nice Workby David LodgeISBN 0140133968 (0-14-013396-8)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Nice Work'Book summary:"A funny, intelligent, superbly paced social comedy." -- The New York Times Vic Wilcox, a self-made man and managing director of an engineering firm. has little regard for academics, and even less for feminists. So when Robyn Penrose, a trendy leftist teacher, is assigned to "shadow" Vic under a goverment program created to foster mutual understanding between town and gown, the hilarious collusion of lifestyles and ideologies that ensues seems unlikely to foster anything besides mutual antipathy. But in the course of a bumpy year, both parties make some surprising discoveries about each other's worlds--and about themselves. [via]
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The Old Devilsby Kingsley AmisISBN 0060971460 (0-06-097146-0)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Old Devils'Book summary:Malcolm Peter and Charlie and their Soave-sodden wives have one main ambition left in life: to drink Wales dry. But their routine is both shaken and stirred when they are joined by professional Welshman Alun Weaver (CBE) and his wife Rhiannon. [via]
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The Penguin Book Of English Verseby P. J. KeeganISBN 0140424547 (0-14-042454-7)
Softcover, Penguin Classics
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Penguin Book Of English Verse'Book summary:[via]This revolutionary collection abandons the traditional poet-by-poet approach of most anthologies, presenting seven centuries of English verse as an uninterrupted sequence of poems ordered according to their first individual appearance in the language. The result is a more continuous view of English verse that reveals a fascinating new chronology. Furthermore, this volume chronicles the evolution of English verse in linguistic and historical-rather than only biographical-terms, presenting the texts with original spelling and punctuation. Through the words of the well known and the anonymous, in epitaphs, ballads, folk poetry, and nonsense verse, this definitive anthology gives readers the true voice of English poetry as it has developed from the fourteenth to the late twentieth century.
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Point Counter Pointby Aldous HuxleyISBN 0060830484 (0-06-083048-4)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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Poplollies and Bellibonesby Susan Kelz SperlingISBN 0140051902 (0-14-005190-2)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie: Library Editionby Muriel SparkISBN 0060931736 (0-06-093173-6)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie: Library Edition'Book summary:The classic bestselling bookthe subject of a play, a movie, and a songthat tells the darkly fascinating story of a young, unorthodox teacher and her special, and ultimately dangerous, relationship with six of her students. [via]
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Return of Jeevesby P.G. WodehouseISBN 0060807687 (0-06-080768-7)
Softcover, Perennial Library
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Return of Jeeves'Book summary:The young and impoverished ninth Earl of Towcester is Jeeves' temporary new master while Bertie Wooster is away at school. Lord Towcester's rather complex situation is soon straightened out by the ingenious Jeeves, who has all problems of romance and finance solved and is on his way again. [via]
The Scarlet Letterby Nathaniel HawthorneISBN 0030098602 (0-03-009860-2)
Softcover, Harcourt College Pub
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Scarlet Letter'Book summary:Hailed by Henry James as "the finest piece of imaginative writing yet put forth in the country, " Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" reaches to our nation's historical and moral roots for the material of great tragedy. Set in an early New England colony, the novel shows the terrible impact a single, passionate act has on the lives of three members of the community: the defiant Hester Prynne; the fiery, tortured Reverend Dimmesdale; and the obsessed, vengeful Chillingworth. With "The Scarlet Letter," Hawthorne became the first American novelist to forge from our Puritan heritage a universal classic, a masterful exploration of humanity's unending struggle with sin, guilt and pride. [via]
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The Scarlet Letter and Selected Talesby Nathaniel Hawthorne, Thomas E. ConnollyISBN 0140430520 (0-14-043052-0)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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The Scarlet Pimpernelby OrczyISBN 014037454X (0-14-037454-X)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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Small Worldby David LodgeISBN 0140244867 (0-14-024486-7)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Small World'Book summary:The unbridled greed, pettiness, buffoonery and intellectual gobbledygook in the world of higher scholarship are the topics of this thorough and thoroughly funny roman a' English department. It's interesting for a couple of reasons, aside from its humor and spoofiness: it's an insider's view of things -- always the best kind -- and it takes its old-fashioned time telling a story, complete with reasonable digressions about the state of literary criticism and what may or may not be a realistic view of the academic life. [via]
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A Study in Scarletby Arthur Conan DoyleISBN 0140057072 (0-14-005707-2)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Study in Scarlet'Book summary:Arthur Conan Doyle's Study in Scarlet is the first published story involving the legendary Sherlock Holmes, arguably the world's best-known detective, and the first narrative by Holmes's Boswell, the unassuming Dr. Watson, a military surgeon lately returned from the Afghan War. Watson needs a flat-mate and a diversion. Holmes needs a foil. And thus a great literary collaboration begins.
Watson and Holmes move to a now-famous address, 221B Baker Street, where Watson is introduced to Holmes's eccentricities as well as his uncanny ability to deduce information about his fellow beings. Somewhat shaken by Holmes's egotism, Watson is nonetheless dazzled by his seemingly magical ability to provide detailed information about a man glimpsed once under the streetlamp across the road.
Then murder. Facing a deserted house, a twisted corpse with no wounds, a mysterious phrase drawn in blood on the wall, and the buffoons of Scotland Yard--Lestrade and Gregson--Holmes measures, observes, picks up a pinch of this and a pinch of that, and generally baffles his faithful Watson. Later, Holmes explains: "In solving a problem of this sort, the grand thing is to be able to reason backward.... There are few people who, if you told them a result, would be able to evolve from their own inner consciousness what the steps were which led up to that result." Holmes is in that elite group.
Conan Doyle quickly learned that it was Holmes's deductions that were of most interest to his readers. The lengthy flashback, while a convention of popular fiction, simply distracted from readers' real focus. It is when Holmes and Watson gather before the coal fire and Holmes sums up the deductions that led him to the successful apprehension of the criminal that we are most captivated. Subsequent Holmes stories--The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, and The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes--rightly plunge the twosome directly into the middle of a baffling crime, piling mystery upon mystery until Holmes's denouement once more leaves the dazzled Watson murmuring, "You are wonderful, Holmes!" Generations of readers agree. --Barbara Schlieper [via]
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Tao Te Ching: New English Versionby Stephen MitchellISBN 0060812451 (0-06-081245-1)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Tao Te Ching: New English Version'Book summary:Lao-tzu's Tao Te Ching, or Book of the Way, is the classic manual on the art of living, and one of the wonders of the world. In eighty-one brief chapters, the Tao Te Ching looks at the basic predicament of being alive and gives advice that imparts balance and perspective, a serene and generous spirit. This book is about wisdom in action. It teaches how to work for the good with the effortless skill that comes from being in accord with the Tao (the basic principle of the universe) and applies equally to good government and sexual love; to child rearing, business, and ecology.
Stephen Mitchell's bestselling version has been widely acclaimed as a gift to contemporary culture.
[via]More editions of Tao Te Ching: New English Version:
- Tao Te Ching: New English Version: ISBN 0060955430 (0-06-095543-0)
Softcover, Harpercollins - Tao Te Ching: ISBN 0061142662 (0-06-114266-2)
Softcover, Harpercollins - Tao Te Ching: ISBN 0060160012 (0-06-016001-2)
Hardcover, Harpercollins - Tao Te Ching: New English Version: ISBN 0060916087 (0-06-091608-7)
Softcover, Harpercollins - Tao Te Ching: New English Version: ISBN 0060161698 (0-06-016169-8)
Hardcover, Harpercollins - Tao Te Ching: ISBN 0060171545 (0-06-017154-5)
Hardcover, Harpercollins - Tao Te Ching: New English Version: ISBN 0060812451 (0-06-081245-1)
Softcover, Harpercollins
- Tao Te Ching: New English Version: ISBN 0060955430 (0-06-095543-0)
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Tao Te Chingby Lao Tzu, Stephen MitchellISBN 0060193220 (0-06-019322-0)
Hardcover, HarperCollins Publishers
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Tao Te Ching: An Illustrated Journey'Book summary:Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching (The Book of the Way) is a timeless guide to the art of living. Its central figure, the Master, lives in harmony with the Tao, the irreducible essence of the universe. Surrendering to it as the Master teaches, we feel whole. Emptying ourselves of judgment and desire, we discover the universal truths within: Without wanting, we find peace; if we let go of what we love, our love becomes present.
Stephen Mitchell's acclaimed translation of this age-old text has sold more than half a million copies worldwide. Here, for the first time, it is illustrated with Chinese paintings selected by Asian art expert Dr. Stephen Little. The perfect depiction of plants, animals, and birds expresses harmony with nature, the principal teaching of the Tao; the mountainous landscapes are the heavenly home of the Tao. Each brushstroke is painted with precision, just as each word of Mitchell's translation speaks with unmatched power.
This inspired translation, combined with the best images in Chinese art, will ensure that the Tao Te Ching continues to exert a profound influence into the next century.
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Tao Te Ching: The Book of Meaning and Lifeby Lao Tzu, Richard WilhelmISBN 0140190600 (0-14-019060-0)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Tao Te Ching: The Book of Meaning and Life'Book summary:No other work of Chinese literature has attracted as much attention as Lao Tzu's "Tao Te Ching". It has been translated more often than any other book except the Bible and more commentaries have been written on it than any other Chinese classic. Both philosophical speculation and mystical reflection, the "Tao Te Ching" is about the harmony and flow of life and the necessity for affinity to it. [via]
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The Thirty-Nine Stepsby John BuchanISBN 0140011307 (0-14-001130-7)
Softcover, Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
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Turn of the Screwby Henry JamesISBN 0140030263 (0-14-003026-3)
Hardcover, Penguin
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Turn of the Screw'Book summary:"The Turn of the Screw and The Aspern Papers" combines two of Henry James' most popular works into one conveniently sized volume. "The Turn of the Screw" is an intense psychological tale of terror. Beginning in an old house on Christmas Eve, it is the story of a Governess who comes to live with and take care of two young children. The Governess loves her new position in charge of the young children, however she is soon disturbed when she begins to see ghosts. In "The Aspern Papers" we have the story of a man who travels to Venice in search of Juliana Bordereau, whom he believes is in possession of some personal letters of the famous and now dead American poet, Jeffrey Aspern. Readers will delight in this classic collection of Henry James' most popular novellas. [via]
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The Twitsby Roald Dahl, Quentin BlakeISBN 0140346406 (0-14-034640-6)
Softcover, Penguin USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Twits'Book summary:They're disgusting and despicable--they're the Twits! "It's nothing but delicious riddance to rotten rubbish, all deftly illustrated by Quentin Blake. Parents may turn chartreuse or puce at the descriptions of the Twits, but kids will squeal in delighted disgust."--School Library Journal [via]
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Under the Volcanoby Malcolm Lowry, Vollmann, William T. (AFT), Stephen SpenderISBN 0061120154 (0-06-112015-4)
Softcover, Perennial
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Under the Volcano'Book summary:Regardless of what his apologists say, Under the Volcano is Malcolm Lowry's only wholly successful book. Fortunately, it is a masterpiece. Reading it is like willingly submitting yourself to a bout of delirium tremens, with all of the disorientation, terror, and pity that that implies. Under the Volcano isn't an easy book to get through; it is extravagantly lurid and deeply allusive, and its protagonist, Consul Geoffrey Firmin, is a hopeless wreck of a human being. Nonetheless, Lowry's seemingly self-indulgent horrors are justified by the immense power of his fiction.
Under the Volcano takes place in Quahnahac, Mexico, on the Day of the Dead in November 1939, in the shadow of European war. Firmin is in the process of violently drinking himself to death, alternately cowering in the comfort of his few, half-estranged friends and lashing out at them. His ex-wife, Yvonne, has returned from her flight to the United States to attempt to bring Firmin back into line. His younger brother, Hugh, wishes to slip over to Spain to join the last feeble resistance against Franco's fascist government. Firmin's long, doomed day is a progress through metaphysical dread and faint hopes of redemption--hopes that are always dashed by politics, mescal, and the failure of love.
This is one of the handful of fictions that gave the 20th century the Infernos it so urgently deserved. Lowry's attention to the Second World War is oblique, almost evasive, but Under the Volcano somehow remains one of the best literary attempts to grapple with modernity's most terrible moment. Indispensable. --Jack Illingworth [via]
Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-Earthby J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher TolkienISBN 0048231797 (0-04-823179-7)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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Webster's New World College Dictionaryby Michael Agnes, Webster, Websters New WorldISBN 0028631188 (0-02-863118-8)
Hardcover, Websters New World
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Webster's New World College Dictionary'Book summary:While the text edition of this dictionary has collected kudos from numerous newspapers throughout its previous editions, many users may find that the CD-Rom replaces the book as a handy quick-reference instrument. The disk loads in a matter of minutes, and offers a linked thesaurus with the dictionary--you can choose one or both reference tools, and you can customize both with your particular notes. Kids who are told to "look it up" when they ask mom how to spell a word will love the Misspeller's Dictionary included on the disk, which can easily translate spellings like "wierd" and "anoy". Using the thesaurus while using the dictionary allows you to click easily between words, using the former to extend your vocabulary while checking the specific definitions in the latter to ensure precise usage.
The text edition has many special features that make it a useful complement to the disk, as well as a star in its own right. Several pages of simple colored maps show the placement of everything from Colorado to Cameroon. There are anatomical illustrations, historical photographs, and a 40-page reference supplement that covers everything from the rules of punctuation to the periodic table of elements. Word definitions are clear, and with 163,000 entries, chances are you'll find the word you're hunting for. Synonyms for many words are included in shaded areas near the original word (you'll find pious, religious, and sanctimonious alongside devout), which is a big help when you're searching for the perfect word. --Jill Lightner
- System requirements:
- Pentium recommended
- Windows 95/98 or Windows NT 4.0
- 16 MB RAM
- 5 MB free hard disk space, 100 MB free hard disk space for full installation
- 2X CD-ROM drive
More editions of Webster's New World College Dictionary:
- Webster's New World College Dictionary: ISBN 0028631196 (0-02-863119-6)
Hardcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc - Webster's New World College Dictionary: ISBN 002863120X (0-02-863120-X)
Hardcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc - Webster's New World College Dictionary: ISBN 0028634713 (0-02-863471-3)
Hardcover, Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, John - Webster's New World College Dictionary: ISBN 0028634748 (0-02-863474-8)
Hardcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc - Webster's New World College Dictionary: ISBN 0028631188 (0-02-863118-8)
Hardcover, Websters New World
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Wide Sargasso Seaby Jean RhysISBN 0140028781 (0-14-002878-1)
Hardcover, Penguin
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Wide Sargasso Sea'Book summary:In 1966 Jean Rhys reemerged after a long silence with a novel called Wide Sargasso Sea. Rhys had enjoyed minor literary success in the 1920s and '30s with a series of evocative novels featuring women protagonists adrift in Europe, verging on poverty, hoping to be saved by men. By the '40s, however, her work was out of fashion, too sad for a world at war. And Rhys herself was often too sad for the world--she was suicidal, alcoholic, troubled by a vast loneliness. She was also a great writer, despite her powerful self-destructive impulses.
Wide Sargasso Sea is the story of Antoinette Cosway, a Creole heiress who grew up in the West Indies on a decaying plantation. When she comes of age she is married off to an Englishman, and he takes her away from the only place she has known--a house with a garden where "the paths were overgrown and a smell of dead flowers mixed with the fresh living smell. Underneath the tree ferns, tall as forest tree ferns, the light was green. Orchids flourished out of reach or for some reason not to be touched."
The novel is Rhys's answer to Jane Eyre. Charlotte Brontë's book had long haunted her, mostly for the story it did not tell--that of the madwoman in the attic, Rochester's terrible secret. Antoinette is Rhys's imagining of that locked-up woman, who in the end burns up the house and herself. Wide Sargasso Sea follows her voyage into the dark, both from her point of view and Rochester's. It is a voyage charged with soul-destroying lust. "I watched her die many times," observes the new husband. "In my way, not in hers. In sunlight, in shadow, by moonlight, by candlelight. In the long afternoons when the house was empty."
Rhys struggled over the book, enduring rejections and revisions, wrestling to bring this ruined woman out of the ashes. The slim volume was finally published when she was 70 years old. The critical adulation that followed, she said, "has come too late." Jean Rhys died a few years later, but with Wide Sargasso Sea she left behind a great legacy, a work of strange, scary loveliness. There has not been a book like it before or since. Believe me, I've been searching. --Emily White [via]
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Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Languageby Steven PinkerISBN 0060958405 (0-06-095840-5)
Softcover, Perennial
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language'Book summary:Human languages are capable of expressing a literally endless number of different ideas. How do we manage it--so effortlessly that we scarcely ever stop to think about it? In Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language, a look at the simple concepts that we use to devise works as complex as love sonnets and tax laws, renowned neuroscientist and linguist Steven Pinker shows us how. The latest linguistic research suggests that each of us stores a limited (though large) number of words and word-parts in memory and manipulates them with a much smaller number of rules to produce every writing and utterance, and Pinker explains every step of the way with engaging good humor.
Pinker's enthusiasm for the subject infects the reader, particularly as he emphasizes the relation between how we communicate and how we think. What does it mean that a small child who has never heard the word wug can tell a researcher that when one wug meets another, there are two wugs? Some rule must be telling the child that English plurals end in -s, which also explains mistakes like mouses. Is our communication linked inextricably with our thinking? Pinker says yes, and it's hard to disagree. Words and Rules is an excellent introduction to and overview of current thinking about language, and will greatly reward the careful reader with new ways of thinking about how we think, talk, and write. --Rob Lightner [via]
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