Family saga: books tagged “family saga” (9/13) @ BookFinder.com

Anna of the Five Towns

by Arnold Bennett, Peter Preston

ISBN 0460876538 (0-460-87653-8)
Softcover, Tuttle Pub

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Arcady

by Michael Williams

ISBN 0451455002 (0-451-45500-2)
Softcover, Penguin Group (Canada)

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Beloved

by Toni Morrison

ISBN 0451156595 (0-451-15659-5)
Softcover, Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated

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Book summary:

Toni Morrison gently reads her own Pulitzer Prize-winning work in the unabridged version of this riveting tale of ex-slave Sethe and the beloved ghost that haunts her. While Morrison makes occasional odd pauses in her reading, what is lost in smoothness is more than made up for in quiet intensity as the author reads words obviously deeply felt. Her intimate knowledge of the characters and their motivations lends this reading an authority that helps the listener sort out the breaks in time and dialogue in this complex story of a woman coming to terms with her enslaved past and the loss of her husband and baby daughter. (Running time: 12 hours, eight cassettes) --Kimberly Heinrichs [via]

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Blue Willow

by Deborah Smith

ISBN 0553296906 (0-553-29690-6)
Softcover, Bantam Books

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Blue Willow: ISBN 0553296906 (0-553-29690-6)
Softcover, Bantam Books

Born in Shame

by Nora Roberts

ISBN 051511779X (0-515-11779-X)
Softcover, Jove Pubns

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Born in Shame: ISBN 051511779X (0-515-11779-X)
Softcover, Jove Pubns

The Brothers K

by David J. Duncan

ISBN 0553563149 (0-553-56314-9)
Softcover, Bantam Books

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The Brothers K: ISBN 0553563149 (0-553-56314-9)
Softcover, Bantam Books

ISBN 9780553378498 (0-553-37849-X, 055337849X)

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The Brothers K

by David James Duncan

ISBN 055337849X (0-553-37849-X)
Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group

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Book summary:

Finally in trade paperback, complementing Bantam's new release of River Teeth and our consistently bestselling edition of The River Why, here is The Brothers K, a lyrical and lovely novel of family. [via]

More editions of The Brothers K:

The Brothers K: ISBN 055337849X (0-553-37849-X)
Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group

ISBN 9780449911549 (0-449-91154-3, 0449911543)

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The Chosen

by Chaim Potok

ISBN 0449911543 (0-449-91154-3)
Softcover, Ballantine Books

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Book summary:

Few stories offer more warmth, wisdom, or generosity than this tale of two boys, their fathers, their friendship, and the chaotic times in which they live. Though on the surface it explores religious faith--the intellectually committed as well as the passionately observant--the struggles addressed in The Chosen are familiar to families of all faiths and in all nations.

In 1940s Brooklyn, New York, an accident throws Reuven Malther and Danny Saunders together. Despite their differences (Reuven is a secular Jew with an intellectual, Zionist father; Danny is the brilliant son and rightful heir to a Hasidic rebbe), the young men form a deep, if unlikely, friendship. Together they negotiate adolescence, family conflicts, the crisis of faith engendered when Holocaust stories begin to emerge in the U.S., loss, love, and the journey to adulthood. The intellectual and spiritual clashes between fathers, between each son and his own father, and between the two young men, provide a unique backdrop for this exploration of fathers, sons, faith, loyalty, and, ultimately, the power of love. (This is not a conventional children's book, although it will move any wise child age 12 or older, and often appears on summer reading lists for high school students.) [via]

More editions of The Chosen:

The Chosen: ISBN 0449911543 (0-449-91154-3)
Softcover, Ballantine Books

Clayhanger

by Arnold Bennett

ISBN 0518190935 (0-518-19093-5)
Hardcover, Books for Libraries Press

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Clayhanger: ISBN 0518190935 (0-518-19093-5)
Hardcover, Books for Libraries Press

Dangerous Angels the Weetzie Bat Books

by Francesca Lia Block

ISBN 060616975X (0-606-16975-X)
Hardcover, Demco Media

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Dangerous Angels the Weetzie Bat Books: ISBN 060616975X (0-606-16975-X)
Hardcover, Demco Media

Dark Angel

by V. C. Andrews

ISBN 060602624X (0-606-02624-X)
Hardcover, Demco Media

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Dark Angel: ISBN 060602624X (0-606-02624-X)
Hardcover, Demco Media

Eating Fire and Drinking Water

by Arlene J. Chai

ISBN 0449911438 (0-449-91143-8)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group

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Eating Fire and Drinking Water: ISBN 0449911438 (0-449-91143-8)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group

The Fortunate Pilgrim

by Mario Puzo

ISBN 0553248596 (0-553-24859-6)
Softcover, Bantam Books

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The Fortunate Pilgrim: ISBN 0553248596 (0-553-24859-6)
Softcover, Bantam Books

ISBN 9780449911358 (0-449-91135-7, 0449911357)

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Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

by Fannie Flagg

ISBN 0449911357 (0-449-91135-7)
Softcover, Fawcett Books

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Book summary:

Folksy and fresh, endearing and affecting, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe is the now-classic novel of two women in the 1980s; of gray-headed Mrs. Threadgoode telling her life story to Evelyn, who is in the sad slump of middle age. The tale she tells is also of two women--of the irrepressibly daredevilish tomboy Idgie and her friend Ruth--who back in the thirties ran a little place in Whistle Stop, Alabama, a Southern kind of Cafe Wobegon offering good barbecue and good coffee and all kinds of love and laughter, even an occasional murder. And as the past unfolds, the present--for Evelyn and for us--will never be quite the same again...

"Airplanes and television have removed the Threadgoodes from the Southern scene. Happily for us, Fannie Flagg has preserved a whole community of them in a richly comic, poignant narrative that records the exuberance of their lives, the sadness of their departure. Idgie Threadgoode is a true original: Huckleberry Finn would have tried to marry her!"
--Harper Lee, Author of To Kill a Mockingbird

"A real novel and a good one... [from] the busy brain of a born storyteller."
--The New York Times

"It's very good, in fact, just wonderful."
--Los Angeles Times

"Funny and macabre."
--The Washington Post

"Courageous and wise."
--Houston Chronicle [via]

More editions of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe:

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe: ISBN 0449911357 (0-449-91135-7)
Softcover, Fawcett Books

ISBN 9780451167712 (0-451-16771-6, 0451167716)

The Godfather

by Mario Puzo

ISBN 0451167716 (0-451-16771-6)
Softcover, Signet

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Book summary:

The story of Don Vito Corleone, the head of a New York Mafia family, inspired some of the most successful movies ever. It is in Mario Puzo's The Godfather that Corleone first appears. As Corleone's desperate struggle to control the Mafia underworld unfolds, so does the story of his family. The novel is full of exquisitely detailed characters who, despite leading unconventional lifestyles within a notorious crime family, experience the triumphs and failures of the human condition. Filled with the requisite valor, love, and rancor of a great epic, The Godfather is the definitive gangster novel. [via]

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Hilda Lessways

by Arnold Bennett

ISBN 0518191109 (0-518-19110-9)
Hardcover, Ayer Co Pub

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Hilda Lessways: ISBN 0518191109 (0-518-19110-9)
Hardcover, Ayer Co Pub

ISBN 9780515120004 (0-515-12000-6, 0515120006)

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Holding the Dream

by Nora Roberts

ISBN 0515120006 (0-515-12000-6)
Softcover, Jove Pubns

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Book summary:

This book is the second in a trilogy. Raised together, Kate, Margo, and Laura are as close as real sisters, and when in need they return to Templeton House, their home and sanctuary. Kate finds herself running there when she is accused of embezzlement. That is not the only trial Kate faces; she suffers silently with a family secret she recently discovered. Practical to a fault, she intends to handle things her own way and in her own time, even if her stubbornness makes her ill. Byron De Witt, however, has other ideas. Nora Roberts is truly a gifted storyteller, and none of her books will disappoint. If you missed the first book in the trilogy Daring to Dream, hurry and get it. You don't want to miss Margo's story. Laura's story, Finding the Dream will be released in August 1997. [via]

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ISBN 9780451530462 (0-451-53046-2, 0451530462)

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Howards End

by E. M. Forster, Marler, Regina (AFT), Benjamin Demott

ISBN 0451530462 (0-451-53046-2)
Softcover, Signet Classic

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Book summary:

Margaret Schlegel, engaged to the much older, widowed Henry Wilcox, meets her intended the morning after accepting his proposal and realizes that he is a man who has lived without introspection or true self-knowledge. As she contemplates the state of Wilcox's soul, her remedy for what ails him has become one of the most oft-quoted passages in literature:

Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer.

Like all of Forster's work, Howards End concerns itself with class, nationality, economic status, and how each of these affects personal relationships. It follows the intertwined fortunes of the Schlegel sisters, Margaret and Helen, and the Wilcox family over the course of several years. The Schlegels are intellectuals, devotees of art and literature. The Wilcoxes, on the other hand, can't be bothered with the life of the mind or the heart, leading, instead, outer lives of "telegrams and anger" that foster "such virtues as neatness, decision, and obedience, virtues of the second rank, no doubt, but they have formed our civilization." Helen, after a brief flirtation with one of the Wilcox sons, has developed an antipathy for the family; Margaret, however, forms a brief but intense friendship with Mrs. Wilcox, which is cut short by the older woman's death. When her family discovers a scrap of paper requesting that Henry give their home, Howards End, to Margaret, it precipitates a spiritual crisis among them that will take years to resolve.

Forster's 1910 novel begins as a collection of seemingly unrelated events--Helen's impulsive engagement to Paul Wilcox; a chance meeting between the Schlegel sisters and an impoverished clerk named Leonard Bast at a concert; a casual conversation between the sisters and Henry Wilcox in London one night. But as it moves along, these disparate threads gradually knit into a tightly woven fabric of tragic misunderstandings, impulsive actions, and irreparable consequences, and, eventually, connection. Though set in the early years of the 20th century, Howards End seems even more suited to our own fragmented era of e-mails and anger. For readers living in such an age, the exhortation to "only connect" resonates ever more profoundly. --Alix Wilber [via]

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ISBN 9780517551875 (0-517-55187-X, 051755187X)

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The Illustrated Lark Rise to Candleford

by Flora Thompson, Julian Shuckburgh

ISBN 051755187X (0-517-55187-X)
Hardcover, Random House Value Pub

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Book summary:

Flora Thompson's memoirs of a childhood spent in the Oxfordshire hamlet of Juniper in the 1880s. [via]

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The Illustrated Lark Rise to Candleford: ISBN 051755187X (0-517-55187-X)
Hardcover, Random House Value Pub

ISBN 9780515124217 (0-515-12421-4, 0515124214)

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Inner Harbor

by Nora Roberts

ISBN 0515124214 (0-515-12421-4)
Softcover, Jove Pubns

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Book summary:

Inner Harbor, the highly anticipated close to the story of "the lives and loves of three brothers on the windswept shores of the Chesapeake Bay" that began in Sea Swept and Rising Tides, finds Philip, the last unwed Quinn brother, juggling his high-powered advertising job and his newfound family duty of helping to care for his young adopted brother, Seth. When Dr. Sybill Griffin shows up in the sleepy town of St. Christopher, Philip makes room in his hectic schedule for the mysterious woman who stirs his senses and threatens to steal his heart. And while Sybill can't deny her own growing feelings for the charismatic Quinn, the secret connection to Seth that she hides may destroy any chance that the two young lovers have at happiness. Full of heartwarming familial moments, tender romance, and a touch of tension, Inner Harbor is an outstanding conclusion to a truly stunning trilogy. [via]

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Inner Harbor: ISBN 0515124214 (0-515-12421-4)
Softcover, Jove Pubns

ISBN 9780517118290 (0-517-11829-7, 0517118297)

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Jane Austen

by Jane Austen

ISBN 0517118297 (0-517-11829-7)
Hardcover, Grammercy

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Book summary:

Collected together in one volume, The Complete Novels show the development of Austen as a writer and social commentator. From the early optimism and youthful energy of Northanger Abbey to the quiet and subtle art of Persuasion, this collection reveals the breadth of one of the best loved novelists of all time. [via]

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Jane Austen: ISBN 0517118297 (0-517-11829-7)
Hardcover, Grammercy

ISBN 9780451459855 (0-451-45985-7, 0451459857)

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The Last Light Of The Sun

by Guy Gavriel Kay

ISBN 0451459857 (0-451-45985-7)
Softcover, Roc

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Book summary:

From the multiple award-winning author of Tigana, A Song for Arbonne, and the three-book Fionavar Tapestry that "can only be compared to Tolkien's masterpiece" (Star-Phoenix), this powerful, moving saga evokes the Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, and Norse cultures of a thousand years ago.

Author Biography: Guy Gavriel Kay has been awarded the International Goliardos Prize for his work in the literature of the fantastic, is a two-time winner of the Aurora Award, and has been nominated three times for the World Fantasy Award. His works have been translated into 21 languages.

[via]

More editions of The Last Light Of The Sun:

ISBN 9780449912348 (0-449-91234-5, 0449912345)

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The Last Time I Saw Mother

by Arlene J. Chai

ISBN 0449912345 (0-449-91234-5)
Softcover, Ballantine Books

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Book summary:

When an oblique letter summons Caridad from Australia to her mother's side in the steamy Philippines, she travels there fearing loss. And loss she finds, but one that finally throws light on the whispers that dogged her life in this land where Spanish, Chinese, and Filipino cultures slap against one another. "The past defines us as much as the present," says Caridad. "Because mine was missing, I never felt whole." Four women--Caridad, her mother Thelma, aunt Emma, and cousin Ligaya--piece together the puzzle of a life begun in wartime. Their vantage points differ, but their stories are silver-tongued and spellbinding even as Ligaya's bitterness stains the pages and Emma's long, mute acceptance of fate's cruelty rings false. Wrapped around Caridad's story is a far bigger one of the years when the Japanese occupied the Philippines and American liberation forces decimated the country. [via]

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ISBN 9780451529305 (0-451-52930-8, 0451529308)

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Little Women

by Louisa May Alcott, Susan Straight

ISBN 0451529308 (0-451-52930-8)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics

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Book summary:

Little Women is one of the best-loved children's stories of all time, based on the author's own youthful experiences. It describes the family life of the four March sisters living in a small New England community, Meg, the eldest, is pretty and wishes to be a lady; Jo, at fifteen is ungainly and unconventional with an ambition to be an author; Beth is a delicate child of thirteen with a taste for music and Amy is a blonde beauty of twelve. The story of their domestic adventures, their attempts to increase the family income, their friendship with the neighbouring Lawrence family, and their later love affairs remains as fresh and beguiling as ever. Good Wives takes up the story of the March sisters, some three years later, when, as young adults, they must face up to the inevitable trials and traumas of everyday life in their search for individual happiness. [via]

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ISBN 9780460871419 (0-460-87141-2, 0460871412)

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Little Women and Good Wives

by Louisa May Alcott

ISBN 0460871412 (0-460-87141-2)
Softcover, Tuttle Pub

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Book summary:

Chronicles the humorous and sentimental fortunes of the four March sisters as they grow into young ladies and marry in nineteenth-century New England. [via]

More editions of Little Women and Good Wives:

Little Women and Good Wives: ISBN 0460871412 (0-460-87141-2)
Softcover, Tuttle Pub

London

by Edward Rutherfurd

ISBN 0517591812 (0-517-59181-2)
Hardcover, Crown Publishing Group

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London: ISBN 0517591812 (0-517-59181-2)
Hardcover, Crown Publishing Group

Lyon's Gate

by Catherine Coulter

ISBN 0515138975 (0-515-13897-5)
Softcover, Berkley Pub Group

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Lyon's Gate: ISBN 0515138975 (0-515-13897-5)
Softcover, Berkley Pub Group

ISBN 9780606241816 (0-606-24181-7, 0606241817)

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Maus: A Survivor's Tale, My Father Bleeds History

by Art Spiegelman

ISBN 0606241817 (0-606-24181-7)
Hardcover, Demco Media

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Book summary:

Some historical events simply beggar any attempt at description--the Holocaust is one of these. Therefore, as it recedes and the people able to bear witness die, it becomes more and more essential that novel, vigorous methods are used to describe the indescribable. Examined in these terms, Art Spiegelman's Maus is a tremendous achievement, from a historical perspective as well as an artistic one.

Spiegelman, a stalwart of the underground comics scene of the 1960s and '70s, interviewed his father, Vladek, a Holocaust survivor living outside New York City, about his experiences. The artist then deftly translated that story into a graphic novel. By portraying a true story of the Holocaust in comic form--the Jews are mice, the Germans cats, the Poles pigs, the French frogs, and the Americans dogs--Spiegelman compels the reader to imagine the action, to fill in the blanks that are so often shied away from. Reading Maus, you are forced to examine the Holocaust anew.

This is neither easy nor pleasant. However, Vladek Spiegelman and his wife Anna are resourceful heroes, and enough acts of kindness and decency appear in the tale to spur the reader onward (we also know that the protagonists survive, else reading would be too painful). This first volume introduces Vladek as a happy young man on the make in pre-war Poland. With outside events growing ever more ominous, we watch his marriage to Anna, his enlistment in the Polish army after the outbreak of hostilities, his and Anna's life in the ghetto, and then their flight into hiding as the Final Solution is put into effect. The ending is stark and terrible, but the worst is yet to come--in the second volume of this Pulitzer Prize-winning set. --Michael Gerber [via]

More editions of Maus: A Survivor's Tale, My Father Bleeds History:

Maus: A Survivor's Tale, My Father Bleeds History: ISBN 0606241817 (0-606-24181-7)
Hardcover, Demco Media

Maus: A Survivors's Tale/Here My Troubles Began

by Art Spiegelman

ISBN 0606241825 (0-606-24182-5)
Hardcover, Demco Media

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Maus: A Survivors's Tale/Here My Troubles Began: ISBN 0606241825 (0-606-24182-5)
Hardcover, Demco Media

The Morgan Women

by Beverly Byrne

ISBN 0553284681 (0-553-28468-1)
Softcover, Bantam Books

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The Morgan Women: ISBN 0553284681 (0-553-28468-1)
Softcover, Bantam Books

ISBN 9780515139532 (0-515-13953-X, 051513953X)

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Oceans of Fire

by Christine Feehan

ISBN 051513953X (0-515-13953-X)
Softcover, Berkley Pub Group

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Book summary:

oceans fire Christine Feehan book [via]

More editions of Oceans of Fire:

Oceans of Fire: ISBN 051513953X (0-515-13953-X)
Softcover, Berkley Pub Group

ISBN 9780553273601 (0-553-27360-4, 0553273604)

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Of Love And Shadows

by Isabel Allende

ISBN 0553273604 (0-553-27360-4)
Softcover, Bantam Books

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Book summary:

Beautiful and headstrong, Irene Beltrán works as a magazine journalista profession that belies her privileged upbringing and her engagement to an army captain. Her investigative partner is photographer Francisco Leal, the son of impoverished Spanish Marxist émigrés. Together, they form an unlikely but inseparable teamand Francisco quickly falls in love with the fierce and loyal Irene. When an assignment leads them to a young girl whom locals believe to possess miraculous powers, they uncover an unspeakable crime perpetrated by an oppressive regime. Determined to reveal the truth in a nation overrun by terror and violence, each will risk everything to find justiceand, ultimately, to embrace the passion and fervor that binds them.

Profoundly moving and ultimately uplifting, Of Love and Shadows is a tale of romance, bravery, and tragedy, set against the indelible backdrop of a country ruled with an iron fistand peopled with those who dare to challenge it.

[via]

More editions of Of Love And Shadows:

ISBN 9780451166890 (0-451-16689-2, 0451166892)

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The Pillars of the Earth

by Ken Follett

ISBN 0451166892 (0-451-16689-2)
Softcover, Signet

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Book summary:

Make this your next book club selection and everyone saves.
Get 15% off when you order 5 or more of this title for your book club.
Simply enter the coupon code FOLLETPILLARS at checkout.
This offer does not apply to eBook purchases. This offer applies to only one downloadable audio per purchase.

View our Ken Follett feature page.

Learn more about The Pillars of the Earth miniseries on Starz.

A spellbinding epic tale of ambition, anarchy, and absolute power set against the sprawling medieval canvas of twelfth-century England, this is Ken Follett's historical masterpiece.

Abridged edition read by Richard E. Grant

[via]

More editions of The Pillars of the Earth:

ISBN 9780606342391 (0-606-34239-7, 0606342397)

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Poisonwood Bible

by Barbara Kingsolver

ISBN 0606342397 (0-606-34239-7)
Hardcover, Demco Media

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Book summary:

Oprah Book Club® Selection, June 2000: As any reader of The Mosquito Coast knows, men who drag their families to far-off climes in pursuit of an Idea seldom come to any good, while those familiar with At Play in the Fields of the Lord or Kalimantaan understand that the minute a missionary sets foot on the fictional stage, all hell is about to break loose. So when Barbara Kingsolver sends missionary Nathan Price along with his wife and four daughters off to Africa in The Poisonwood Bible, you can be sure that salvation is the one thing they're not likely to find. The year is 1959 and the place is the Belgian Congo. Nathan, a Baptist preacher, has come to spread the Word in a remote village reachable only by airplane. To say that he and his family are woefully unprepared would be an understatement: "We came from Bethlehem, Georgia, bearing Betty Crocker cake mixes into the jungle," says Leah, one of Nathan's daughters. But of course it isn't long before they discover that the tremendous humidity has rendered the mixes unusable, their clothes are unsuitable, and they've arrived in the middle of political upheaval as the Congolese seek to wrest independence from Belgium. In addition to poisonous snakes, dangerous animals, and the hostility of the villagers to Nathan's fiery take-no-prisoners brand of Christianity, there are also rebels in the jungle and the threat of war in the air. Could things get any worse?

In fact they can and they do. The first part of The Poisonwood Bible revolves around Nathan's intransigent, bullying personality and his effect on both his family and the village they have come to. As political instability grows in the Congo, so does the local witch doctor's animus toward the Prices, and both seem to converge with tragic consequences about halfway through the novel. From that point on, the family is dispersed and the novel follows each member's fortune across a span of more than 30 years.

The Poisonwood Bible is arguably Barbara Kingsolver's most ambitious work, and it reveals both her great strengths and her weaknesses. As Nathan Price's wife and daughters tell their stories in alternating chapters, Kingsolver does a good job of differentiating the voices. But at times they can grate--teenage Rachel's tendency towards precious malapropisms is particularly annoying (students practice their "French congregations"; Nathan's refusal to take his family home is a "tapestry of justice"). More problematic is Kingsolver's tendency to wear her politics on her sleeve; this is particularly evident in the second half of the novel, in which she uses her characters as mouthpieces to explicate the complicated and tragic history of the Belgian Congo.

Despite these weaknesses, Kingsolver's fully realized, three-dimensional characters make The Poisonwood Bible compelling, especially in the first half, when Nathan Price is still at the center of the action. And in her treatment of Africa and the Africans she is at her best, exhibiting the acute perception, moral engagement, and lyrical prose that have made her previous novels so successful. --Alix Wilber [via]

More editions of Poisonwood Bible:

Poisonwood Bible: ISBN 0606342397 (0-606-34239-7)
Hardcover, Demco Media

ISBN 9780451525888 (0-451-52588-4, 0451525884)

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Pride and Prejudice

by Jane Austen, Margaret Drabble

ISBN 0451525884 (0-451-52588-4)
Softcover, Penguin Group (Canada)

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Book summary:

In a remote Hertfordshire village, far off the good coach roads of George III's England, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet -- a country squire of no great means and his scatterbrained wife -- must marry off their five vivacious daughters. At the heart of this all-consuming enterprise are the headstrong second daughter Elizabeth and her aristocratic suitor Fitzwilliam Darcy, two lovers in whom pride and prejudice must be overcome before love can bring the novel to its magnificent conclusion. [via]

More editions of Pride and Prejudice:

ISBN 9780517415122 (0-517-41512-7, 0517415127)

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Pride and Prejudice

by Outlet Book Company Staff, Random House Value Publishing Staff

ISBN 0517415127 (0-517-41512-7)
Hardcover, Random House Value Publishing

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Book summary:

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

Next to the exhortation at the beginning of Moby-Dick, "Call me Ishmael," the first sentence of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice must be among the most quoted in literature. And certainly what Melville did for whaling Austen does for marriage--tracing the intricacies (not to mention the economics) of 19th-century British mating rituals with a sure hand and an unblinking eye. As usual, Austen trains her sights on a country village and a few families--in this case, the Bennets, the Philips, and the Lucases. Into their midst comes Mr. Bingley, a single man of good fortune, and his friend, Mr. Darcy, who is even richer. Mrs. Bennet, who married above her station, sees their arrival as an opportunity to marry off at least one of her five daughters. Bingley is complaisant and easily charmed by the eldest Bennet girl, Jane; Darcy, however, is harder to please. Put off by Mrs. Bennet's vulgarity and the untoward behavior of the three younger daughters, he is unable to see the true worth of the older girls, Jane and Elizabeth. His excessive pride offends Lizzy, who is more than willing to believe the worst that other people have to say of him; when George Wickham, a soldier stationed in the village, does indeed have a discreditable tale to tell, his words fall on fertile ground.

Having set up the central misunderstanding of the novel, Austen then brings in her cast of fascinating secondary characters: Mr. Collins, the sycophantic clergyman who aspires to Lizzy's hand but settles for her best friend, Charlotte, instead; Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Mr. Darcy's insufferably snobbish aunt; and the Gardiners, Jane and Elizabeth's low-born but noble-hearted aunt and uncle. Some of Austen's best comedy comes from mixing and matching these representatives of different classes and economic strata, demonstrating the hypocrisy at the heart of so many social interactions. And though the novel is rife with romantic misunderstandings, rejected proposals, disastrous elopements, and a requisite happy ending for those who deserve one, Austen never gets so carried away with the romance that she loses sight of the hard economic realities of 19th-century matrimonial maneuvering. Good marriages for penniless girls such as the Bennets are hard to come by, and even Lizzy, who comes to sincerely value Mr. Darcy, remarks when asked when she first began to love him: "It has been coming on so gradually, that I hardly know when it began. But I believe I must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley." She may be joking, but there's more than a little truth to her sentiment, as well. Jane Austen considered Elizabeth Bennet "as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print". Readers of Pride and Prejudice would be hard-pressed to disagree. --Alix Wilber [via]

More editions of Pride and Prejudice:

Pride and Prejudice: ISBN 0517415127 (0-517-41512-7)
Hardcover, Random House Value Publishing

ISBN 9780517606094 (0-517-60609-7, 0517606097)

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Pride and Prejudice : Oxford World Classics

by Outlet Book Company Staff, Random House Value Publishing Staff

ISBN 0517606097 (0-517-60609-7)
Hardcover, Random House Value Publishing

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› Find signed collectible books: 'Pride and Prejudice : Oxford World Classics'

Book summary:

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

Next to the exhortation at the beginning of Moby-Dick, "Call me Ishmael," the first sentence of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice must be among the most quoted in literature. And certainly what Melville did for whaling Austen does for marriage--tracing the intricacies (not to mention the economics) of 19th-century British mating rituals with a sure hand and an unblinking eye. As usual, Austen trains her sights on a country village and a few families--in this case, the Bennets, the Philips, and the Lucases. Into their midst comes Mr. Bingley, a single man of good fortune, and his friend, Mr. Darcy, who is even richer. Mrs. Bennet, who married above her station, sees their arrival as an opportunity to marry off at least one of her five daughters. Bingley is complaisant and easily charmed by the eldest Bennet girl, Jane; Darcy, however, is harder to please. Put off by Mrs. Bennet's vulgarity and the untoward behavior of the three younger daughters, he is unable to see the true worth of the older girls, Jane and Elizabeth. His excessive pride offends Lizzy, who is more than willing to believe the worst that other people have to say of him; when George Wickham, a soldier stationed in the village, does indeed have a discreditable tale to tell, his words fall on fertile ground.

Having set up the central misunderstanding of the novel, Austen then brings in her cast of fascinating secondary characters: Mr. Collins, the sycophantic clergyman who aspires to Lizzy's hand but settles for her best friend, Charlotte, instead; Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Mr. Darcy's insufferably snobbish aunt; and the Gardiners, Jane and Elizabeth's low-born but noble-hearted aunt and uncle. Some of Austen's best comedy comes from mixing and matching these representatives of different classes and economic strata, demonstrating the hypocrisy at the heart of so many social interactions. And though the novel is rife with romantic misunderstandings, rejected proposals, disastrous elopements, and a requisite happy ending for those who deserve one, Austen never gets so carried away with the romance that she loses sight of the hard economic realities of 19th-century matrimonial maneuvering. Good marriages for penniless girls such as the Bennets are hard to come by, and even Lizzy, who comes to sincerely value Mr. Darcy, remarks when asked when she first began to love him: "It has been coming on so gradually, that I hardly know when it began. But I believe I must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley." She may be joking, but there's more than a little truth to her sentiment, as well. Jane Austen considered Elizabeth Bennet "as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print". Readers of Pride and Prejudice would be hard-pressed to disagree. --Alix Wilber [via]

More editions of Pride and Prejudice : Oxford World Classics:

Pride and Prejudice : Oxford World Classics: ISBN 0517606097 (0-517-60609-7)
Hardcover, Random House Value Publishing

The Protector's War

by S. M. Stirling

ISBN 0451460774 (0-451-46077-4)
Softcover, Roc

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Safe Harbor

by Christine Feehan

ISBN 0515143189 (0-515-14318-9)
Softcover, Berkley Pub Group

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More editions of Safe Harbor:

Safe Harbor: ISBN 0515143189 (0-515-14318-9)
Softcover, Berkley Pub Group

ISBN 9780606220477 (0-606-22047-X, 060622047X)

The Sandman Library

by Neil Gaiman

ISBN 060622047X (0-606-22047-X)
Hardcover, Demco Media

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The Sandman Library: ISBN 060622047X (0-606-22047-X)
Hardcover, Demco Media

War and Remembrance

by Herman Wouk

ISBN 0606125671 (0-606-12567-1)
Hardcover, Demco Media

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Westfield

by Roderick Thorp

ISBN 0517529726 (0-517-52972-6)
Hardcover, Random House Value Pub

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More editions of Westfield:

Westfield: ISBN 0517529726 (0-517-52972-6)
Hardcover, Random House Value Pub

ISBN 9780460011105 (0-460-01110-3, 0460011103)

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Wives and Daughters

by Elizabeth Gaskell

ISBN 0460011103 (0-460-01110-3)
Softcover, J M Dent & Sons Ltd

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Book summary:

1865 novel from the English novelist and short story writer, whose writings can be seen as critiques of Victorian era attitudes, particularly those toward women, with complex narratives and dynamic women characters. [via]

More editions of Wives and Daughters:

Wives and Daughters: ISBN 0460011103 (0-460-01110-3)
Softcover, J M Dent & Sons Ltd

ISBN 9780460876513 (0-460-87651-1, 0460876511)

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Wives and Daughters

by Pam Morris, Elizabeth Gaskell, Graham Handley

ISBN 0460876511 (0-460-87651-1)
Softcover, Tuttle Pub

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Book summary:

Molly seems fated to suffer, firstly from her father's ill-conceived remarriage, and then from seeing her friend Roger Hamley infatuated with Molly's stepsister Cynthia. Everyone relies on Molly, but when will she have a fulfilling life of her own? This study edition contains commentary. [via]

More editions of Wives and Daughters:

Wives and Daughters: ISBN 0460876511 (0-460-87651-1)
Softcover, Tuttle Pub

ISBN 9780525237709 (0-525-23770-4, 0525237704)

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The World According to Garp

by John Irving

ISBN 0525237704 (0-525-23770-4)
Hardcover, Penguin Group USA

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Book summary:

"Garp was a natural storyteller," says the narrator of John Irving's incandescent novel, referring to the book's hero, the novelist Garp, who has much in common with Irving himself. "He could make things up one right after the other, and they seemed to fit."

Irving packs wild characters and weird events into his classic--officially recognized as such in a Modern Library edition with a new introduction by the author--while amazingly maintaining the rough feel of realism in every scene and the pulse of life in every heart. Many novelists of his time might have populated a novel with a novelist protagonist whose life and books comment on each other and the novel we're reading. Transsexual football players, ball turret gunners lobotomized in battle, multiple adultery, unicycling bears, mad feminists who amputate their tongues in sympathy with the celebrated victim of a horrifying rape--Irving made them all people. Even the bear is a fitting character.

In a crucial episode, Garp's wife's seduction of a young man coincidentally occurs at the moment when Garp is delighting their young sons with a reckless car trick (one of the few scenes beautifully, eerily, heartbreakingly captured in the film version as well). Many authors would have been content with the harsh comedy of the scene, but Irving respects its integrity, and he builds the rest of the book on the consequences of the event. How does he get away with his killer cocktail of slapstick and horror? Because it's simply what we all face daily, rearranged into soul-satisfying art. "Life is an X-rated soap opera," according to Garp, and who can contradict him?

Rereading Garp 20 years later, one is struck by how elegantly Irving structures his bizarre and complex story. Take the two most celebrated bits in the book, the Under Toad and Garp's story "The Pension Grillparzer," which shimmers like an exquisite Kafkaesque insect in the amber of the novel. When Garp warns his son about the "undertow" at the beach, the boy imagines a monster out of Beowulf who lurks beneath the waves to suck you under: the "Under Toad." It's funny at first, but we soon find that the Under Toad is a metaphor with teeth--he connects with a prophetic dream of death in "The Pension Grillparzer," set in Vienna. Garp's son's last words are, "It's like a dream!" And as Irving--who studied at the University of Vienna--can certainly tell you, the German word for "death" sounds precisely like the English word "toad."

All that death, and yet Garp is mainly exuberant. This story is, as Garp's stuttering writing teacher puts it, "rich with lu-lu-lunacy and sorrow." It enriches literature, and our lives. --Tim Appelo [via]

More editions of The World According to Garp:

The World According to Garp: ISBN 0525237704 (0-525-23770-4)
Hardcover, Penguin Group USA

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