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books tagged “french” (French)
books tagged “french”
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The Abyssinianby Willard Wood, Jean-Christophe RufinISBN 0393047164 (0-393-04716-4)
Hardcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Abyssinian'Book summary:At the heart of Jean-Christophe Rufin's marvelous first novel is a nugget of truth: in the year 1699, Louis XIV of France sent an embassy to the King of Abyssinia (modern-day Ethiopia). From this small fact Rufin has spun a mesmerizing tale of adventure, romance, and political intrigue that is one part Alexandre Dumas and two parts Rafael Sabatini, with just a dash of Brian Moore thrown in for good measure.
The hero of this epic tale is Jean-Baptiste Poncet, a young French doctor who has been practicing medicine without a license in Cairo. Poncet first comes to the notice of the authorities when the French consul in Egypt receives a secret message from a Jesuit priest commanding him in Louis's name to send a diplomatic mission to the king of Abyssinia. Foreigners--especially Christians--have not been welcome in that country since the Jesuits were expelled 50 years before, and a regular delegation would almost certainly be killed. When the consul, Monsieur de Maillet, hears that the Abyssinian monarch requires a doctor, however, he devises a plan to send Poncet both to cure and to convince the king to send a return delegation to Versailles.
Poncet has his own reasons for agreeing to go on this perilous mission: he has fallen in love with de Maillet's beautiful daughter, Alix. Unfortunately, he knows that "within the Frankish colony in Cairo, he was nothing more--whatever pains he took to hide his ancestry--than the son of a servant girl and an unknown man." The only hope he has of gaining the consul's blessing is to win Louis XIV's favor; bringing an Abyssinian embassy to Versailles might just do the trick. Poncet starts out for self-serving reasons; upon meeting King Negus, however, he comes to admire him, and soon finds himself jeopardizing his own future in order to thwart the political intrigues of his countrymen.
Rufin tells this larger-than-life tale with wit, sophistication, and a wholehearted enjoyment that shines through every sentence of this beautifully translated novel. Jean-Baptiste Poncet, a young man who "had been offered every opportunity for sadness and despair, yet ... had decided long ago that he would never succumb to such feelings," is a hero with heart, intelligence, and charm, and the book's many secondary characters are equally well developed. All in all, The Abyssinian marks a delightful literary debut. --Alix Wilber [via]
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The Anchor Anthology of French Poetry from Nerval to Valery in English Translation: From Nerval to Valery, in English Translationby Angel Flores, Patti SmithISBN 0385498888 (0-385-49888-8)
Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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Angels & Demonsby Dan BrownISBN 037543318X (0-375-43318-X)
Hardcover, Random House Large Print
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Angels & Demons'Book summary:It takes guts to write a novel that combines an ancient secret brotherhood, the Swiss Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire, a papal conclave, mysterious ambigrams, a plot against the Vatican, a mad scientist in a wheelchair, particles of antimatter, jets that can travel 15,000 miles per hour, crafty assassins, a beautiful Italian physicist, and a Harvard professor of religious iconology. It takes talent to make that novel anything but ridiculous. Kudos to Dan Brown (Digital Fortress) for achieving the nearly impossible. Angels & Demons is a no-holds-barred, pull-out-all-the-stops, breathless tangle of a thriller--think Katherine Neville's The Eight (but cleverer) or Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum (but more accessible).
Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is shocked to find proof that the legendary secret society, the Illuminati--dedicated since the time of Galileo to promoting the interests of science and condemning the blind faith of Catholicism--is alive, well, and murderously active. Brilliant physicist Leonardo Vetra has been murdered, his eyes plucked out, and the society's ancient symbol branded upon his chest. His final discovery, antimatter, the most powerful and dangerous energy source known to man, has disappeared--only to be hidden somewhere beneath Vatican City on the eve of the election of a new pope. Langdon and Vittoria, Vetra's daughter and colleague, embark on a frantic hunt through the streets, churches, and catacombs of Rome, following a 400-year-old trail to the lair of the Illuminati, to prevent the incineration of civilization.
Brown seems as much juggler as author--there are lots and lots of balls in the air in this novel, yet Brown manages to hurl the reader headlong into an almost surreal suspension of disbelief. While the reader might wish for a little more sardonic humor from Langdon, and a little less bombastic philosophizing on the eternal conflict between religion and science, these are less fatal flaws than niggling annoyances--readers should have no trouble skimming past them and immersing themselves in a heck of a good read. "Brain candy" it may be, but my! It's tasty. --Kelly Flynn [via]
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Asterix & Caesar's Giftby R. Goscinny, Albert UderzoISBN 0340215887 (0-340-21588-7)
Hardcover, French & European Pubns
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Asterix and the Black Goldby GoscinnyISBN 0340323671 (0-340-32367-1)
Softcover, Distribooks Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Asterix and the Black Gold'Book summary:More capers from Asterix and Obelix and the citizens of Gaul. [via]
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The Autobiography of Saint Therese of Lisieux: The Story of a Soulby John BeeversISBN 0385029039 (0-385-02903-9)
Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Autobiography of Saint Therese of Lisieux: The Story of a Soul'Book summary:Few spiritual figures have touched as many readers in the past century as Saint Therese of Lisieux, the saint popularly known as the Little Flower. Though she was only twenty-four years old when she died, her writings have had tremendous impact, making her one of the most popular spiritual writers in the twentieth century. Her autobiography, The Story of a Soul, has been a source of priceless inspiration ever since it was written, and has become the great spiritual bestseller of our time. A hundred years after her death in 1897, millions of copies have spread throughout the world and it has been translated into more than fifty languages.
[via]
The reason for the continued success of her autobiography is, quite simply, that it is unlike any work of devotion and spiritual insight ever written. Once it is read, it cannot be forgotten. Its appeal across cultures and generations has been extensive, moving both peasants and popes, men and women, young and old -- people of every kind of intelligence and education succumb to its spell. Yet is not a conventional work of religious devotion; instead, it is in many ways a supernatural book. In the words of Pope Pius XI, Saint Therese "attained the knowledge of supernatural things in such abundant measure that she was able to point out the sure way of salvation to others," and it is especially in The Story of a Soul that she has pointed out this sure way to the generations that have followed her. As Therese herself said of this book just prior to her death, "What I have written will do a lot of good. It will make the kindness of God better known."More editions of The Autobiography of Saint Therese of Lisieux: The Story of a Soul:
Babar and Father Christmasby Jean De Brunhoff, Merle S. HaasISBN 0375814442 (0-375-81444-2)
Hardcover, Random House Childrens Books
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A Barthes Readerby Roland Barthes, Susan SontagISBN 0374521441 (0-374-52144-1)
Softcover, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Barthes Reader'Book summary:A Barthes Reader gives one the image of Barthes as one of the great public teachers of our time, someone who thought out, argued for, and made available several steps in a penetrating reflection on language sign systems, texts- and what they have to tell us about the concept of being human. Susan Sontag's prefatory essay is one of her finest acts of criticism, informed by intellectual sympathy and a sure sense of the contours of the mind she is describing.[via]More editions of A Barthes Reader:
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Blackberry Wineby Joanne HarrisISBN 0380815923 (0-380-81592-3)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Blackberry Wine'Book summary:Joanne Harris's first novel, Chocolat, was set in the sleepy French village of Lansquenet, where enchantment, romance, and soft-centered truths issued from the local confectioner's shop. She returns to the same location for Blackberry Wine. But as the title suggests, she's shifted her focus from food to drink, choosing a half-dozen bottles of homemade plonk as the catalyst for her "layman's alchemy." And even the narrator is no human being but a faintly tannic Fleurie 1962: "A pert, garrulous wine, cheery and little brash, with a pungent taste of blackcurrant!"
There are, of course, some less vinous characters in the novel. Harris's protagonist, Jay Mackintosh, is a former literary star, now sadly stalled. He spends his time writing second-rate science fiction, leading a hollow media life, and drinking: "Not to forget, but to remember, to open up the past and find himself there again." Yet the nice, expensive wines don't do the trick. Instead, six "Specials"--a gift from his old friend Joe--function as Jay's magical elixir. Like Proust's lime-blossom tisane, they give him the gift of his memories but also unlock his future, which encourages him to flee the rut of his London life and buy a house in Lansquenet.
As Jay settles in, he contemplates his childhood friendship with Joe, whose idiosyncratic outlook was the inspiration for his only successful book. Meanwhile, he becomes involved in village life, encountering some familiar faces from Chocolat. Caro and Toinette, the snooty troublemakers, soon put in an appearance, and Josephine, the bar owner and battered wife of the earlier novel, becomes a real friend. But it's a new character, the enigmatic Marise, who becomes the focus of Jay's attention--and who helps to restore his literary joie de vivre. This feat of resurrection makes for a hugely enjoyable read. It also goes one step further in adding Lansquenet to the map of imaginary destinations, where daydreams can come true with intoxicating frequency. --Eithne Farry [via]
A Book of French Quotationsby Norbert GutermanISBN 0385413920 (0-385-41392-0)
Softcover, Knopf Publishing Group
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The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christby Joseph SmithISBN 038551316X (0-385-51316-X)
Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ'Book summary:For the twelve million members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints worldwide (six million in the United States), The Book of Mormon is literally the word of God, a companion volume to the Bible that contains the everlasting gospel. With the faith now of one of the fastest-growing religions in the country, Doubleday is proud to publish this first official trade edition of The Book of Mormon by special arrangement with the Church.
According to Mormon belief, The Book of Mormon was inscribed on golden plates by generations of prophets, quoted and abridged by the prophet-historian Mormon, and buried in the ground by Mormons son, Moroni. Fourteen centuries later, in 1823, the angel Moroni led Joseph Smith to the plates hidden in a hillside in upstate New York. Smith translated the ancient language into English through divine revelation.
The Book of Mormon narrates the historical, religious, political, and military events that shaped and continue to inform the Churchs teachings. The publication of this edition offers the opportunity to explore one of the largest denominations in America today. [via]More editions of The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ:
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Brazil Redby Jean-Christophe Rufin, Willard WoodISBN 0393052079 (0-393-05207-9)
Hardcover, Norton & Company, Incorporated, W. W.
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Brazil Red'Book summary:"BRAZIL RED tells the story of two orphaned children, Just and Colombe, who are dragged off on the French colonizing expedition--they are meant to learn the native languages and act as interpreters. Everything in this novel is outsized: the setting, a jungle still populated by cannibals; the characters, including Villegagnon, the expedition's eccentric leader, who might be a model for Cyrano or d'Artagnan; and the events, a dress rehearsal for the Wars of Religion ten years in the future. Packed with portraits, landscapes, and action, "Brazil Red is a novel about coming of age and discovering love. On a deeper level, the story follows the destinies and decisions of Just and Colombe, presenting two conflicting views of man and nature. On one hand, a conquering European civilization, offering liberation but delivering death. On the other, the Indian world, with its sensuality, its harmony, its sense of the sacred, its continual call to happiness. [via]
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Bridget Jones's Diaryby Helen FieldingISBN 0330332767 (0-330-33276-7)
Hardcover, Picador
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Bridget Jones's Diary'Book summary:In the course of the year recorded in Bridget Jones's Diary, Bridget confides her hopes, her dreams, and her monstrously fluctuating poundage, not to mention her consumption of 5277 cigarettes and "Fat units 3457 (approx.) (hideous in every way)." In 365 days, she gains 74 pounds. On the other hand, she loses 72! There is also the unspoken New Year's resolution--the quest for the right man. Alas, here Bridget goes severely off course when she has an affair with her charming cad of a boss. But who would be without their e-mail flirtation focused on a short black skirt? The boss even contends that it is so short as to be nonexistent.
At the beginning of Helen Fielding's exceptionally funny second novel, the thirtyish publishing puffette is suffering from postholiday stress syndrome but determined to find Inner Peace and poise. Bridget will, for instance, "get up straight away when wake up in mornings." Now if only she can survive the party her mother has tricked her into--a suburban fest full of "Smug Marrieds" professing concern for her and her fellow "Singletons"--she'll have made a good start. As far as she's concerned, "We wouldn't rush up to them and roar, 'How's your marriage going? Still having sex?'"
This is only the first of many disgraces Bridget will suffer in her year of performance anxiety (at work and at play, though less often in bed) and living through other people's "emotional fuckwittage." Her twin-set-wearing suburban mother, for instance, suddenly becomes a chat-show hostess and unrepentant adulteress, while our heroine herself spends half the time overdosing on Chardonnay and feeling like "a tragic freak." Bridget Jones's Diary began as a column in the London Independent and struck a chord with readers of all sexes and sizes. In strokes simultaneously broad and subtle, Helen Fielding reveals the lighter side of despair, self-doubt, and obsession, and also satirizes everything from self-help books (they don't sound half as sensible to Bridget when she's sober) to feng shui, Cosmopolitan-style. She is the Nancy Mitford of the 1990s, and it's impossible not to root for her endearing heroine. On the other hand, one can only hope that Bridget will continue to screw up and tell us all about it for years and books to come. --Kerry Fried [via]
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Caves of Steelby Isaac AsimovISBN 0345338200 (0-345-33820-0)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Caves of Steel'Book summary:A millennium into the future two advancements have altered the course of human history: the colonization of the galaxy and the creation of the positronic brain. Isaac Asimov's Robot novels chronicle the unlikely partnership between a New York City detective and a humanoid robot who must learn to work together. Like most people left behind on an over-populated Earth, New York City police detective Elijah Baley had little love for either the arrogant Spacers or their robotic companions. But when a prominent Spacer is murdered under mysterious circumstances, Baley is ordered to the Outer Worlds to help track down the killer. The relationship between Life and his Spacer superiors, who distrusted all Earthmen, was strained from the start. Then he learned that they had assigned him a partner: R. Daneel Olivaw. Worst of all was that the "R" stood for robot--and his positronic partner was made in the image and likeness of the murder victim! [via]
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Claudine at Schoolby Sidonie-Gabrielle ColetteISBN 0345300564 (0-345-30056-4)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group
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Crime and Punishmentby Fyodor Dostoyevsky, George Gibian, Jessie Senior CoulsonISBN 0393092925 (0-393-09292-5)
Softcover, Norton
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Crime and Punishment'Book summary:A Norton Critical Edition with the novel, letters from Dostoevsky and a collection of critical essays. [via]
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Divaby DelacortaISBN 0345312651 (0-345-31265-1)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group
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Fantomas: The Legendary French Thrillerby Marcel Allain, Pierre Souvestre, John AshberyISBN 0345344219 (0-345-34421-9)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Fantomas: The Legendary French Thriller'Book summary:"In the mode reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes and his ineradicable nemesis, the virtually immortal Professor Moriarty, Inspector Juve dedicates himself to the relentless pursuit of that evil genius Fantomas. He is, as they say in petrified Paris, "Nothing. . . Everything. . . Nobody. . . Somebody." And what does he do? He "spreads terror," diabolically, craftily beyond all imagining: slashes throats of kindly old ladies; stuffs strangled British socialites into trunks; boldly robs Russian princesses in their hotel rooms; pushes witnesses off speeding trains to their deaths. Can Juve prevail against that hellish power?" --Publishers Weekly [via]
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The First Century after Beatriceby Dorothy S. Blair, Amin MaaloufISBN 0349105995 (0-349-10599-5)
Hardcover, Abacus
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The First Century after Beatrice'Book summary:A French entomologist, attending a symposium in Cairo, finds a cruious kind of bean being on a market stall. It is claimed the beans, derived from the scarab beetle, have magic powers; specifically the power to guarantee the brith of a male infant - and when the entomologist does some research in to the matter, discovering the incidence of female birth has become increasingly rare, he is left in no doubt that the world has entered intoa critical phase of its history. As this beloved daughter Beatrice approaches maturity, the entomologist and his partner question the validity of gender bias, and attempt to redress the growing imbalance before it reaches irreversible proportions. But in the poverty and famine of the South, where male children can mean the difference between survival and starvation, the popularity of the scarab beans is already taking devastating effect. [via]
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The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-Analysisby Jacques LacanISBN 0393317757 (0-393-31775-7)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-Analysis'Book summary:Jacques Lacan's writings, and especially the seminars for which he has become famous, offer a controversial, radical reappraisal of the legacy bequeathed by Freud.
This volume is based on a year's seminar in which Dr. Lacan addressed a larger, less specialized audience than ever before, among whom he could not assume familiarity with his work. For his listeners then, and for his readers now, he wanted to "introduce a certain coherence into the major concepts on which psycho-analysis is based," namely, the unconscious, repetition, the transference, and the drive. Along the way he argues for a structural affinity between psychoanalysis and language, discusses the relation of psychoanalysis to religion, and reveals his particular stance on topics ranging from sexuality and death to alienation and repression. This book constitutes the essence of Dr. Lacan's sensibility. [via]More editions of The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-Analysis:
- The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-Analysis: ISBN 0393000796 (0-393-00079-6)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc - The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-Analysis: ISBN 0393011704 (0-393-01170-4)
Hardcover, Norton - The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-Analysis: ISBN 0393317757 (0-393-31775-7)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
- The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-Analysis: ISBN 0393000796 (0-393-00079-6)
French Grammarby ArragonISBN 0340391480 (0-340-39148-0)
Softcover, Trafalgar Square
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The French Revolution: A Historyby Thomas Carlyle, John D. RosenbergISBN 0375760229 (0-375-76022-9)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The French Revolution: A History'Book summary:The book that established Thomas Carlyles reputation when first published in 1837, this spectacular historical masterpiece has since been accepted as the standard work on the subject. It combines a shrewd insight into character, a vivid realization of the picturesque, and a singular ability to bring the past to blazing life, making it a reading experience as thrilling as any novel. As John D. Rosenberg observes in his Introduction, The French Revolution is one of the grand poems of [Carlyles] century, yet its poetry consists in being everywhere scrupulously rooted in historical fact.
This Modern Library Paperback Classics edition, complete and unabridged, is unavailable anywhere else. [via]More editions of The French Revolution: A History:
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The Hound of the Baskervillesby Arthur Conan DoyleISBN 0345350529 (0-345-35052-9)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'Book summary:We owe 1902's The Hound of the Baskervilles to Arthur Conan Doyle's good friend Fletcher "Bobbles" Robinson, who took him to visit some scary English moors and prehistoric ruins, and told him marvelous local legends about escaped prisoners and a 17th-century aristocrat who fell afoul of the family dog. Doyle transmogrified the legend: generations ago, a hound of hell tore out the throat of devilish Hugo Baskerville on the moonlit moor. Poor, accursed Baskerville Hall now has another mysterious death: that of Sir Charles Baskerville. Could the culprit somehow be mixed up with secretive servant Barrymore, history-obsessed Dr. Frankland, butterfly-chasing Stapleton, or Selden, the Notting Hill murderer at large? Someone's been signaling with candles from the mansion's windows. Nor can supernatural forces be ruled out. Can Dr. Watson--left alone by Sherlock Holmes to sleuth in fear for much of the novel--save the next Baskerville, Sir Henry, from the hound's fangs?
Many Holmes fans prefer Doyle's complete short stories, but their clockwork logic doesn't match the author's boast about this novel: it's "a real Creeper!" What distinguishes this particular Hound is its fulfillment of Doyle's great debt to Edgar Allan Poe--it's full of ancient woe, low moans, a Grimpen Mire that sucks ponies to Dostoyevskian deaths, and locals digging up Neolithic skulls without next-of-kins' consent. "The longer one stays here the more does the spirit of the moor sink into one's soul," Watson realizes. "Rank reeds and lush, slimy water-plants sent an odour of decay ... while a false step plunged us more than once thigh-deep into the dark, quivering mire, which shook for yards in soft undulations around our feet ... it was as if some malignant hand was tugging us down into those obscene depths." Read on--but, reader, watch your step! --Tim Appelo [via]
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House of Leavesby Mark Z. DanielewskiISBN 0375703764 (0-375-70376-4)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'House of Leaves'Book summary:Had The Blair Witch Project been a book instead of a film, and had it been written by, say, Nabokov at his most playful, revised by Stephen King at his most cerebral, and typeset by the futurist editors of Blast at their most avant-garde, the result might have been something like House of Leaves. Mark Z. Danielewski's first novel has a lot going on: notably the discovery of a pseudoacademic monograph called The Navidson Record, written by a blind man named Zampanò, about a nonexistent documentary film--which itself is about a photojournalist who finds a house that has supernatural, surreal qualities. (The inner dimensions, for example, are measurably larger than the outer ones.) In addition to this Russian-doll layering of narrators, Danielewski packs in poems, scientific lists, collages, Polaroids, appendices of fake correspondence and "various quotes," single lines of prose placed any which way on the page, crossed-out passages, and so on.
Now that we've reached the post-postmodern era, presumably there's nobody left who needs liberating from the strictures of conventional fiction. So apart from its narrative high jinks, what does House of Leaves have to offer? According to Johnny Truant, the tattoo-shop apprentice who discovers Zampanò's work, once you read The Navidson Record,
For some reason, you will no longer be the person you believed you once were. You'll detect slow and subtle shifts going on all around you, more importantly shifts in you. Worse, you'll realize it's always been shifting, like a shimmer of sorts, a vast shimmer, only dark like a room. But you won't understand why or how.
We'll have to take his word for it, however. As it's presented here, the description of the spooky film isn't continuous enough to have much scare power. Instead, we're pulled back into Johnny Truant's world through his footnotes, which he uses to discharge everything in his head, including the discovery of the manuscript, his encounters with people who knew Zampanò, and his own battles with drugs, sex, ennui, and a vague evil force. If The Navidson Record is a mad professor lecturing on the supernatural with rational-seeming conviction, Truant's footnotes are the manic student in the back of the auditorium, wigged out and furiously scribbling whoa-dude notes about life.Despite his flaws, Truant is an appealingly earnest amateur editor--finding translators, tracking down sources, pointing out incongruities. Danielewski takes an academic's--or ex-academic's--glee in footnotes (the similarity to David Foster Wallace is almost too obvious to mention), as well as other bogus ivory-tower trappings such as interviews with celebrity scholars like Camille Paglia and Harold Bloom. And he stuffs highbrow and pop-culture references (and parodies) into the novel with the enthusiasm of an anarchist filling a pipe bomb with bits of junk metal. House of Leaves may not be the prettiest or most coherent collection, but if you're trying to blow stuff up, who cares? --John Ponyicsanyi [via]
More editions of House of Leaves:
- House of Leaves: ISBN 0375420525 (0-375-42052-5)
Hardcover, Random House Inc - House of Leaves: ISBN 0375407324 (0-375-40732-4)
Softcover, Random House Inc - House of Leaves : A Novel: ISBN 0375410341 (0-375-41034-1)
Hardcover, Knopf Publishing Group - House of Leaves: ISBN 0375703764 (0-375-70376-4)
Softcover, Random House Inc
- House of Leaves: ISBN 0375420525 (0-375-42052-5)
How Many Years: A Memoirby Marguerite Yourcenar, Maria Louise AscherISBN 0374524939 (0-374-52493-9)
Softcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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How Obelix Fell into the Magic Potion When He Was a Little Boyby GoscinnyISBN 0340651482 (0-340-65148-2)
Softcover, Distribooks Inc
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I Who Have Never Known Menby Jacqueline HarpmanISBN 0380731819 (0-380-73181-9)
Softcover, HarperCollins Publishers
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The Importance of Being Earnestby Oscar WildeISBN 0380012774 (0-380-01277-4)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Importance of Being Earnest'Book summary:The Importance of Being Earnest shows a full measure of Oscar Wilde's legendary wit, and embodies more than any of his other plays, his decency and warmth. This edition contains substantial excerpts from the original four-act version which was never produed, as well as the full test of the final three-act version, selections from Wilde's correspondence, and commentary by George Bernard Shaw, Max Beerbohm, St. John Hankin, and James Agate. [via]
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Innocent Libertineby ColetteISBN 0374176825 (0-374-17682-5)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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Interview With the Vampireby Anne RiceISBN 0345337662 (0-345-33766-2)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Interview With the Vampire'Book summary:In the now-classic novel Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice refreshed the archetypal vampire myth for a late-20th-century audience. The story is ostensibly a simple one: having suffered a tremendous personal loss, an 18th-century Louisiana plantation owner named Louis Pointe du Lac descends into an alcoholic stupor. At his emotional nadir, he is confronted by Lestat, a charismatic and powerful vampire who chooses Louis to be his fledgling. The two prey on innocents, give their "dark gift" to a young girl, and seek out others of their kind (notably the ancient vampire Armand) in Paris. But a summary of this story bypasses the central attractions of the novel. First and foremost, the method Rice chose to tell her tale--with Louis' first-person confession to a skeptical boy--transformed the vampire from a hideous predator into a highly sympathetic, seductive, and all-too-human figure. Second, by entering the experience of an immortal character, one raised with a deep Catholic faith, Rice was able to explore profound philosophical concerns--the nature of evil, the reality of death, and the limits of human perception--in ways not possible from the perspective of a more finite narrator.
While Rice has continued to investigate history, faith, and philosophy in subsequent Vampire novels (including The Vampire Lestat, The Queen of the Damned, The Tale of the Body Thief, Memnoch the Devil, and The Vampire Armand), Interview remains a treasured masterpiece. It is that rare work that blends a childlike fascination for the supernatural with a profound vision of the human condition. --Patrick O'Kelley [via]
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Introduction to the Devout Lifeby FrancisISBN 0375725628 (0-375-72562-8)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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Jacques Pepin Celebratesby Jacques Pepin, Claudine Pepin, Christopher HirsheimerISBN 0375412093 (0-375-41209-3)
Hardcover, Random House Inc
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Jane Eyreby Charlotte Brontë, Diane JohnsonISBN 0375757600 (0-375-75760-0)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Jane Eyre'Book summary:In conjunction with the New York Public Library, Doubleday is proud to introduce a very special collector's series of literary masterpieces. Lavishly illustrated with rare archival material from the library's extensive resources, including the renowned Berg collection, these editions will bring the classics to life for a new generation of readers. In addition to original artwork, each volume contains a fascinating selection of unique materials such as handwritten diaries, letters, manuscripts, and notebooks. Simply put, this series presents the work of our most beloved authors in what may well be their most beautiful editions, perfect to own or to give. Published on the occasion of Doubleday's 100th birthday, the New York Public Library Collector's Editions are sure to become an essential part of the modern book lover's private library.
Our edition of Madame Bovary, which Vladimir Nabokov called "one of the most perfect pieces of poetical fiction known", features etchings from a rare 1905 French edition and a sampling of Nabokov's handwritten commentary on Flaubert's work. These rare materials from the archives of the New York Public Library will make our edition stand out from all other available versions. [via] -
Jean Anouilh Five Playsby Jean AnouilhISBN 0374522294 (0-374-52229-4)
Softcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Jean Anouilh Five Plays'Book summary:The great french playwright jean anouilh (1910-87) wrote both "pink" bittersweet comedies and "black" tragic dramas. Jean anouilh five plays-the finest english-language anthology of his works-crackles with both his sharp wit and his icy cynicism. In antigone, his preeminent play and exemplar of his themes and style, he creates a disturbing world in which fate may be no more than a game of role-playing. Eurydice, the ermine, the rehearsal, romeo and jeannette are the other plays included in this edition [via]
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Le Morte D'Arthurby Thomas MaloryISBN 0375753222 (0-375-75322-2)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Le Morte D'Arthur'Book summary:The legends of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table have inspired some of the greatest works of literature--from Cervantes's Don Quixote to Tennyson's Idylls of the King. Although many versions exist, Malory's stands as the classic rendition. Malory wrote the book while in Newgate Prison during the last three years of his life; it was published some fourteen years later, in 1485, by William Caxton. The tales, steeped in the magic of Merlin, the powerful cords of the chivalric code, and the age-old dramas of love and death, resound across the centuries.
The stories of King Arthur, Lancelot, Queen Guenever, and Tristram and Isolde seem astonishingly moving and modern. Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur endures and inspires because it embodies mankind's deepest yearnings for brotherhood and community, a love worth dying for, and valor, honor, and chivalry. [via]More editions of Le Morte D'Arthur:
A Man's Placeby Annie ErnauxISBN 0345378954 (0-345-37895-4)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group
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Memoirs of a Geishaby Arthur GoldenISBN 0375400117 (0-375-40011-7)
Hardcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Memoirs of a Geisha'Book summary:The first thing you notice about the audio version of Memoirs of a Geisha is that Arthur Golden's 428-page novel has been reduced to a scant two cassettes. But dismay quickly gives way to mounting pleasure as Elaina Erika Davis (Contact, As the World Turns) begins her delicate rendering of geisha culture in the years before World War II. Davis reads the abbreviated story of Sayuri with an authentic-sounding Japanese accent--one mixed with a magical combination of Asian reserve and theatrical energy. As Sayuri ages from a 9-year-old peasant girl to a popular geisha in her late 20s, Davis directs her voice gently away from curious youth to a tone that reflects Sayuri's uphill life.
From start to finish, the listener is absorbed in the elegant spirit of Davis's performance, eager to hear the next chapter of Sayuri's transformation into one of the most famous geishas of the century. How unfortunate, then, to learn that book readers not only get the basic story, but a fascinating look at the intricate rules and rituals of geisha culture. Here, for example, is one of the many revelations omitted from the cassette: "Japanese men, as a rule, feel about a woman's neck and throat the same way that men in the West might feel about a woman's legs.... In fact, a geisha leaves a tiny margin of skin bare all around the hairline, causing her makeup to look even more artificial.... When a man sits beside her, he becomes that much more aware of the bare skin beneath."
We're also denied several subplots--the aborted friendship between Sayuri and a geisha named Pumpkin, for example, or much of the story involving the man Sayuri is secretly in love with. But what remains is as precious as a traditional Japanese kimono--at once artistic, suggestive, and moving. --Ann Senechal [via]
The Memoirs of Hector Berliozby Hector Berlioz, David CairnsISBN 037541391X (0-375-41391-X)
Hardcover, Random House Inc
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The Memoirs of Hector Berlioz, Member of the French Institute: Including His Travels in Italy, Germany, Russia, and England, 1803-1865by Hector Berlioz, David CairnsISBN 0393006980 (0-393-00698-0)
Hardcover, Norton
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Neverwhereby Neil GaimanISBN 0380789019 (0-380-78901-9)
Softcover, Avon Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Neverwhere'Book summary:Neverwhere's protagonist, Richard Mayhew, learns the hard way that no good deed goes unpunished. He ceases to exist in the ordinary world of London Above, and joins a quest through the dark and dangerous London Below, a shadow city of lost and forgotten people, places, and times. His companions are Door, who is trying to find out who hired the assassins who murdered her family and why; the Marquis of Carabas, a trickster who trades services for very big favors; and Hunter, a mysterious lady who guards bodies and hunts only the biggest game. London Below is a wonderfully realized shadow world, and the story plunges through it like an express passing local stations, with plenty of action and a satisfying conclusion. The story is reminiscent of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but Neil Gaiman's humor is much darker and his images sometimes truly horrific. Puns and allusions to everything from Paradise Lost to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz abound, but you can enjoy the book without getting all of them. Gaiman is definitely not just for graphic-novel fans anymore. --Nona Vero [via]
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Nightby Elie Wiesel, Marion WieselISBN 0374500010 (0-374-50001-0)
Softcover, Hill & Wang Pub
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Night'Book summary:A New Translation From The French By Marion Wiesel[via]
Night is Elie Wiesel's masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and deeply poignant autobiographical account of his survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps. This new translation by Marion Wiesel, Elie's wife and frequent translator, presents this seminal memoir in the language and spirit truest to the author's original intent. And in a substantive new preface, Elie reflects on the enduring importance of Night and his lifelong, passionate dedication to ensuring that the world never forgets man's capacity for inhumanity to man.
Night offers much more than a litany of the daily terrors, everyday perversions, and rampant sadism at Auschwitz and Buchenwald; it also eloquently addresses many of the philosophical as well as personal questions implicit in any serious consideration of what the Holocaust was, what it meant, and what its legacy is and will be. -
Papa Smallby Lois LenskiISBN 0375827498 (0-375-82749-8)
Hardcover, Random House Childrens Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Papa Small'Book summary:In the dedication to her readers, Lois Lenski wrote: For all the children who asked: Is there a Mama Small and Baby Small? Yes, Papa Small has a family. Here they arewith my love. Your friend, Lois Lenski. Children will love seeing Papa Small and his family do many of the same things that their families do. [via]
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Paris to the Moonby Adam GopnikISBN 0375758232 (0-375-75823-2)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Paris to the Moon'Book summary:In 1995 Gopnik was offered the plush assignment of writing the "Paris Journals" for the New Yorker. He spent five years in Paris with his wife, Martha, and son, Luke, writing dispatches now collected here along with previously unpublished journal entries. A self-described "comic-sentimental essayist," Gopnik chose the romance of Paris in its particulars as his subject. Gopnik falls in unabashed love with what he calls Paris's commonplace civilization--the cafés, the little shops, the ancient carousel in the park, and the small, intricate experiences that happen in such settings. But Paris can also be a difficult city to love, particularly its pompous and abstract official culture with its parallel paper universe. The tension between these two sides of Paris and the country's general brooding over the decline of French dominance in the face of globalization (haute couture, cooking, and sex, as well as the economy, are running deficits) form the subtexts for these finely wrought and witty essays. With his emphasis on the micro in the macro, Gopnik describes trying to get a Thanksgiving turkey delivered during a general strike and his struggle to find an apartment during a government scandal over favoritism in housing allocations. The essays alternate between reports of national and local events and accounts of expatriate family life, with an emphasis on "the trinity of late-century bourgeois obsessions: children and cooking and spectator sports, including the spectator sport of shopping." Gopnik describes some truly delicious moments, from the rites of Parisian haute couture, to the "occupation" of a local brasserie in protest of its purchase by a restaurant tycoon, to the birth of his daughter with the aid of a doctor in black jeans and a black silk shirt, open at the front. Gopnik makes terrific use of his status as an observer on the fringes of fashionable society to draw some deft comparisons between Paris and New York ("It is as if all American appliances dreamed of being cars while all French appliances dreamed of being telephones") and do some incisive philosophizing on the nature of both. This is masterful reportage with a winning infusion of intelligence, intimacy, and charm. --Lesley Reed [via]
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The Practice of the Presence of Godby John J. Delaney, Nicolas HermanISBN 0385128614 (0-385-12861-4)
Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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The Practice of the Presence of Godby LawrenceISBN 0340269375 (0-340-26937-5)
Hardcover, Hodder & Stoughton
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Practice of the Presence of God'Book summary:This work contains letters, ways and spiritual principles of Brother Lawrence, the 17th-century French monk who in his monastery kitchen discovered an overwhelming delight in God's presence. [via]
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The Prince and the Nannyby Cara ColterISBN 0373039409 (0-373-03940-9)
Softcover, Harlequin Books
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Random House French-English English-French Dictionaryby Helene GutmanISBN 0345414381 (0-345-41438-1)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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Random House French-English English-French Dictionaryby Random House Staff, Helene GutmanISBN 0375700862 (0-375-70086-2)
Softcover, Random House Information Group
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Rebeccaby Daphne Du MaurierISBN 0380730405 (0-380-73040-5)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Rebecca'Book summary:"Last Night I Dreamt I Went To Manderley Again." So the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter remembered the chilling events that led her down the turning drive past ther beeches, white and naked, to the isolated gray stone manse on the windswept Cornish coast. With a husband she barely knew, the young bride arrived at this immense estate, only to be inexorably drawn into the life of the first Mrs. de Winter, the beautiful Rebecca, dead but never forgotten...her suite of rooms never touched, her clothes ready to be worn, her servant -- the sinister Mrs. Danvers -- still loyal. And as an eerie presentiment of evil tightened around her heart, the second Mrs. de Winter began her search for the real fate of Rebecca...for the secrets of Manderley. [via]
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The Robots of Dawnby Isaac AsimovISBN 0345315715 (0-345-31571-5)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Robots of Dawn'Book summary:A millennium into the future two advances have altered the course of human history: the colonization of the Galaxy and the creation of the positronic brain. Isaac Asimov's Robot novels chronicle the unlikely partnership between a New York City detective and a humanoid robot who must learn to work together.
Detective Elijah Baiey is called to the Spacer world Aurora to solve a bizarre case of roboticide. The prime suspect is a gifted roboticist who had the means, the motive, and the opportunity to commit the crime. There's only one catch: Baley and his positronic partner, R. Daneel Olivaw, must prove the man innocent. For in a case of political intrigue and love between woman and robot gone tragically wrong, there's more at stake than simple justice. This time Baley's career, his life, and Earth's right to pioneer the Galaxy lie in the delicate balance. [via] 
Romeo and Julietby William Shakespeare, James GibsonISBN 0333149297 (0-333-14929-7)
Hardcover, Macmillan
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A Royal Marriage: Royally Wedby Cara ColterISBN 0373194404 (0-373-19440-4)
Softcover, Silhouette Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Royal Marriage: Royally Wed'Book summary:FIT FOR A PRINCE! Rachel Rockford needed a knight in shining armor ... and Prince Damon Montague needed a wife. It didn't hurt that Rachel's adorable baby daughter provided the missing link Damon's parents and country demanded. Once, he'd had everything, but learned the hard way that even princes weren't above pain ... and loss. So now he chose to marry, to be a father, to involve himself in the search for Rachel's missing sister, but he would keep his heart locked away in chains not even sweet Rachel could unshackle. Only, Damon had sorely underestimated his princess bride.... [via]
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The Sand Childby Tahar Ben JellounISBN 0345357108 (0-345-35710-8)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group
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The Sea Wallby Marguerite Duras, Herma BriffaultISBN 0374519455 (0-374-51945-5)
Softcover, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
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Shogunby James ClavellISBN 0385292244 (0-385-29224-4)
Hardcover, Dell Publishing
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Shogun'Book summary:A bold English adventurer. An invincible Japanese warlord. A beautiful woman torn between two ways of life, two ways of love. All brought together in an extraordinary saga of a time and a place aflame with conflict, passion, ambition, lust, and the struggle for power...
From the Paperback edition. [via]More editions of Shogun:
Silkby Alessandro Baricco, Guido WaldmanISBN 0375703829 (0-375-70382-9)
Softcover, Knopf Publishing Group
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Something to Declareby Julian BarnesISBN 033048916X (0-330-48916-X)
Softcover, Trans-Atlantic Pubns
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Something to Declare'Book summary:Julian Barnes's long and passionate relationship with la belle France began more than forty years ago, and in these essays on the country and the culture he combines a keen appreciation, a seemingly infinite sphere of reference, and prose as stylish as classic haute couture.
Barnes's vision of France-"The Land Without Brussels Sprouts"-embraces its vanishing peasantry; its vanished hyper-literate pop singers, Georges Brassens, Boris Vian, and Jacques Brel ("[he] sang at the world as if it& could be saved from its follies and brutalities by his vocal embrace"); and the gleeful iconoclasm of its nouvelle vague cinema ("'The Underpass in Modern French Film' is a thesis waiting to be written").
He describes the elegant tour of France that Henry James and Edith Wharton made in 1907, and the orgy of drugs and suffering of the Tour de France in our own time. An unparalleled connoisseur of French writing and writers, Barnes gives us his thoughts on the prolific and priapic Simenon, on Sand, Baudelaire, and Mallarmé ("If literature is a spectrum, and Hugo hogs the rainbow, then Mallarmé is working in ultra-violet").
In several dazzling excursions into the prickly genius of Flaubert, Barnes discusses his letters; his lover Louise Colet; and his biographers (Sartre's The Family Idiot, "an intense, unfinished, three-volume growl at Flaubert, is mad, of course"). He delves into Flaubert's friendship with Turgenev; looks at the "faithful betrayal" of Claude Chabrol's film version of Madame Bovary; and reveals the importance of the pharmacist's assistant, the most major minor character in Flaubert's great novel: "if Madame Bovary were a mansion, Justin would be the handle to the back door; but great architects have the design of door-furniture in mind even as they lay out the west wing."
For lovers of France and all things French-and of Julian Barnes's singular wit and intelligence-Something to Declare is an unadulterated joy to read. [via]-
Sophie's Worldby Jostein Gaarder, Paulette MollerISBN 0374530718 (0-374-53071-8)
Softcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Sophie's World'Book summary:Wanting to understand the most fundamental questions of the universe isn't the province of ivory-tower intellectuals alone, as this book's enormous popularity has demonstrated. A young girl, Sophie, becomes embroiled in a discussion of philosophy with a faceless correspondent. At the same time, she must unravel a mystery involving another young girl, Hilde, by using everything she's learning. The truth is far more complicated than she could ever have imagined. [via]
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Stand on Zanzibarby John BrunnerISBN 0345347870 (0-345-34787-0)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Stand on Zanzibar'Book summary:A Hugo-award-winning novel of over-population, poitical struggles, and warped ethics. "A quite marvelous projection in which John Brunner landscapes a future that seems the natural foster child of the present...Everything compounds into a fractured tomorrow--from the population explosion to Marshall McLuhan to the Territorial Imperative to the underground press..."--Kirkus Reviews [via]
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Teach Yourself Frenchby J. AdamsISBN 0340057831 (0-340-05783-1)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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Toward the Postmodernby Jean-Francois LyotardISBN 0391037587 (0-391-03758-7)
Hardcover, Brill Academic Pub
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The Trialby Franz Kafka, Douglas Scott, Christopher Waller, J. P. SternISBN 033024468X (0-330-24468-X)
Softcover, Pan Macmillan
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Truly Daddyby Cara ColterISBN 0373193637 (0-373-19363-7)
Softcover, Harlequin Books
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Two Classics of the French Revolution: Reflections on the Revolution in France/the Rights of Manby Edmund Burke, Thomas PaineISBN 0385265778 (0-385-26577-8)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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Ulyssesby James Joyce, Danis RoseISBN 033035230X (0-330-35230-X)
Softcover, Trans-Atlantic Pubns
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Ulysses'Book summary:Ulysses has been labeled dirty, blasphemous, and unreadable. In a famous 1933 court decision, Judge John M. Woolsey declared it an emetic book--although he found it sufficiently unobscene to allow its importation into the United States--and Virginia Woolf was moved to decry James Joyce's "cloacal obsession." None of these adjectives, however, do the slightest justice to the novel. To this day it remains the modernist masterpiece, in which the author takes both Celtic lyricism and vulgarity to splendid extremes. It is funny, sorrowful, and even (in a close-focus sort of way) suspenseful. And despite the exegetical industry that has sprung up in the last 75 years, Ulysses is also a compulsively readable book. Even the verbal vaudeville of the final chapters can be navigated with relative ease, as long as you're willing to be buffeted, tickled, challenged, and (occasionally) vexed by Joyce's sheer command of the English language.
Among other things, a novel is simply a long story, and the first question about any story is: What happens?. In the case of Ulysses, the answer might be Everything. William Blake, one of literature's sublime myopics, saw the universe in a grain of sand. Joyce saw it in Dublin, Ireland, on June 16, 1904, a day distinguished by its utter normality. Two characters, Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom, go about their separate business, crossing paths with a gallery of indelible Dubliners. We watch them teach, eat, stroll the streets, argue, and (in Bloom's case) masturbate. And thanks to the book's stream-of-consciousness technique--which suggests no mere stream but an impossibly deep, swift-running river--we're privy to their thoughts, emotions, and memories. The result? Almost every variety of human experience is crammed into the accordian folds of a single day, which makes Ulysses not just an experimental work but the very last word in realism.
Both characters add their glorious intonations to the music of Joyce's prose. Dedalus's accent--that of a freelance aesthetician, who dabbles here and there in what we might call Early Yeats Lite--will be familiar to readers of Portrait of an Artist As a Young Man. But Bloom's wistful sensualism (and naive curiosity) is something else entirely. Seen through his eyes, a rundown corner of a Dublin graveyard is a figure for hope and hopelessness, mortality and dogged survival: "Mr Bloom walked unheeded along his grove by saddened angels, crosses, broken pillars, family vaults, stone hopes praying with upcast eyes, old Ireland's hearts and hands. More sensible to spend the money on some charity for the living. Pray for the repose of the soul of. Does anybody really?" --James Marcus [via]
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A Vow to Keepby Cara ColterISBN 0373198426 (0-373-19842-6)
Softcover, Harlequin Books
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The Walker-Through-Walls, and Other Storiesby Marcel AymeISBN 0370014707 (0-370-01470-7)
Hardcover, Bodley Head
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A Woman's Storyby Annie ErnauxISBN 0345376234 (0-345-37623-4)
Hardcover, Ballantine Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Woman's Story'Book summary:"A stunning, emotional testament...that may move some readers to think of their own mothrs, even in a way they hadn't before."
Annie Ernaux's mother has just died. She is the only child, so it is up to her to make the final arrangements. And it is up to her to remember the proud, vibrant, intense, and difficult woman who once was her mother before age and illness vanquished her. A poignant recollection of a mother's life in France before and after the war, this woman's story can only be known in part. Yet, in this case, that is enough.
An acclaimed bestseller in France, A WOMAN'S STORY is every women's story--a quiet jewel of a memoir, breathtaking and brilliant.
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK [via]More editions of A Woman's Story:
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A Wrinkle in Time: Library Editionby Madeleine L'EngleISBN 0374386137 (0-374-38613-7)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Wrinkle in Time: Library Edition'Book summary:Everyone in town thinks Meg is volatile and dull-witted and that her younger brother Charles Wallace is dumb. People are also saying that their father has run off and left their brilliant scientist mother. Spurred on by these rumors, Meg and Charles Wallace, along with their new friend Calvin, embark on a perilous quest through space to find their father. In doing so they must travel behind the shadow of an evil power that is darkening the cosmos, one planet at a time.
Young people who have trouble finding their place in the world will connect with the "misfit" characters in this provocative story. This is no superhero tale, nor is it science fiction, although it shares elements of both. The travelers must rely on their individual and collective strengths, delving deep into their characters to find answers.
A classic since 1962, Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time is sophisticated in concept yet warm in tone, with mystery and love coursing through its pages. Meg's shattering yet ultimately freeing discovery that her father is not omnipotent provides a satisfying coming-of-age element. Readers will feel a sense of power as they travel with these three children, challenging concepts of time, space, and the power of good over evil. (Ages 9 to 12) [via]
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Writing Degree Zeroby Roland Barthes, Susan Sontag, Annette LaversISBN 0374521395 (0-374-52139-5)
Softcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Writing Degree Zero'Book summary:In his first book, French critic Roland Barthes defines the complex nature of writing, as well as the social, historical, political, and personal forces responsible for the formal changes in writing from the classical period to recent times.[via]More editions of Writing Degree Zero:
French
Random House Webster's Dictionary: French-english English-frenchby Helene GutmanISBN 0375721932 (0-375-72193-2)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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Spanish
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LA Prisonniereby Malika OukfirISBN 0385601638 (0-385-60163-8)
Softcover, Bantam Books of Canada Ltd
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