| Search | About | Preferences | Interact | Help | |
| 150 million books. 1 search engine. | ||
books tagged “Literary fiction” (Literary Fiction / literary fiction)
books tagged “Literary fiction”
›› Find signed collectible books by ''
-
Amulet Of Samarkandby Jonathan StroudISBN 0786852550 (0-7868-5255-0)
Softcover, Hyperion
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Amulet Of Samarkand'Book summary:Nathaniel is a boy magician-in-training, sold to the government by his birth parents at the age of five and sent to live as an apprentice to a master. Powerful magicians rule Britain, and its empire, and Nathaniel is told his is the "ultimate sacrifice" for a "noble destiny." If leaving his parents and erasing his past life isn't tough enough, Nathaniel's master, Arthur Underwood, is a cold, condescending, and cruel middle-ranking magician in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The boy's only saving grace is the master's wife, Martha Underwood, who shows him genuine affection that he rewards with fierce devotion. Nathaniel gets along tolerably well over the years in the Underwood household until the summer before his eleventh birthday. Everything changes when he is publicly humiliated by the ruthless magician Simon Lovelace and betrayed by his cowardly master who does not defend him.
Nathaniel vows revenge. In a Faustian fever, he devours magical texts and hones his magic skills, all the while trying to appear subservient to his master. When he musters the strength to summon the 5,000-year-old djinni Bartimaeus to avenge Lovelace by stealing the powerful Amulet of Samarkand, the boy magician plunges into a situation more dangerous and deadly than anything he could ever imagine. In British author Jonathan Stroud's excellent novel, the first of The Bartimaeus Trilogy, the story switches back and forth from Bartimaeus's first-person point of view to third-person narrative about Nathaniel. Here's the best part: Bartimaeus is absolutely hilarious, with a wit that snaps, crackles, and pops. His dryly sarcastic, irreverent asides spill out into copious footnotes that no one in his or her right mind would skip over. A sophisticated, suspenseful, brilliantly crafted, dead-funny book that will leave readers anxious for more. (Ages 11 to adult) --Karin Snelson [via]
More editions of Amulet Of Samarkand:
-
Asleepby Banana Yoshimoto, Michael EmmerichISBN 0802138209 (0-8021-3820-9)
Softcover, Grove Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Asleep'Book summary:Banana Yoshimoto's Asleep is actually three novellas: "Night and Night's Travelers", "Love Songs" and "Asleep". The death of those close to the narrator is a recurring theme in the stories with sleep being used as a vehicle in which the everyday is denied whilst more important spiritual matters--coming to terms with the death, and life, of loved ones--can be achieved. In "Night and Night's Travelers" the narrator's brother has died and his lover has begun sleepwalking--her night-walks are a communion, a curse and a blessing, and a route through to understanding. In "Love Songs", a woman involved with a man whose wife is in a coma begins to sleep uncontrollably. In "Asleep" the narrator is haunted by an old rival in a love triangle--again, through sleep, and perhaps through dreams or a certain kind of sensibility, a hitherto forbidden or foreclosed communion flourishes. Yoshimoto has a wonderfully light touch and whilst the characterisation in these novellas is slight and the mysticism a little cloying, the optimism is infectious and the sadness beautifully articulated. "Asleep" is well worth staying awake for.. [via]
Asta's Bookby Barbara VineISBN 0792717597 (0-7927-1759-7)
Hardcover, Chivers North Amer
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Asta's Book'More editions of Asta's Book:
At the Full and Change of the Moonby Dionne BrandISBN 0802137237 (0-8021-3723-7)
Softcover, Grove Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'At the Full and Change of the Moon'More editions of At the Full and Change of the Moon:
Black Springby Henry MillerISBN 0802131824 (0-8021-3182-4)
Softcover, Grove Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Black Spring'More editions of Black Spring:
Busman's Honeymoon: A Love Story with Detective Interruptionsby Dorothy L. SayersISBN 0792713664 (0-7927-1366-4)
Softcover, Chivers North Amer
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Busman's Honeymoon: A Love Story with Detective Interruptions'More editions of Busman's Honeymoon: A Love Story with Detective Interruptions:
The Call of the Wildby Jack London, Fred CarrilloISBN 079109104X (0-7910-9104-X)
Hardcover, Facts on File
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Call of the Wild'More editions of The Call of the Wild:
Carry Me Like Waterby Benjamin Alire SaenzISBN 0786861355 (0-7868-6135-5)
Hardcover, Hyperion Books
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Carry Me Like Water'More editions of Carry Me Like Water:
Celestial Navigationby Anne TylerISBN 0792719778 (0-7927-1977-8)
Hardcover, Chivers North Amer
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Celestial Navigation'More editions of Celestial Navigation:
-
Cereus Blooms at Nightby Shani MootooISBN 0802116337 (0-8021-1633-7)
Hardcover, Grove Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Cereus Blooms at Night'Book summary:There is much to admire about Shani Mootoo's first novel, Cereus Blooms at Night. In telling the tale of Mala Ramchandin, her sister, Asha, her childhood sweetheart Ambrose "Boyie" Mohanty, and the other inhabitants of the fictional Caribbean island of Lantanacamara, Mootoo has created a cast of remarkable characters capable of charming the reader. Narrated in part by Tyler, a young male nurse at a home for the elderly, Cereus begins with Mala's admission to the alms house in Paradise--the main city on Lantanacamara--under a cloud of mystery. The old lady won't speak and is suspected of a multitude of crimes, causing the head nurse of the home to keep her in restraints. Only Tyler is willing to care for her; it isn't long before Tyler, an outcast in Paradise because of his sexual orientation, and Mala, a pariah for other reasons, develop an unusual friendship.
For the first half of the book, Mootoo moves easily between Tyler's narrative and a third-person account of Mala's life as a child. The chapters covering the adoption of Mala's father, Chandin Ramchandin, by a white missionary and his wife and Chandin's obsession with his foster sister, Lavinia, offer a telling perspective on race and colonialism; later chapters detailing Chandin's descent into alcoholism, madness, and child abuse are occasionally overwrought, but the strong, child's-eye point of view of young Mala keeps the novel grounded. The second half of Cereus abandons both Tyler and the omniscient narrator, choosing to focus, instead, on Otoh Mohanty, the son of Mala's childhood friend, Boyie. Here Mootoo also introduces, for the first time, elements of the fantastic: a girl who "wills" herself to become a boy; a man who sleeps for weeks at a time, only waking one day each month; a mysterious, locked room that holds a horrifying secret. The result is pure melodrama wrapped up in lovely prose.
Even though the last half of the book seems too suddenly freighted towards the magical and improbable, and the happy ending is a trifle too contrived, Cereus Blooms at Night showcases Shani Mootoo's impressive mastery of language. And in Mala Ramchandin, she has created a tough and tender heroine who commands the reader's interest and sympathy from first page to last. --Alix Wilber [via]
More editions of Cereus Blooms at Night:
-
Chalktownby Melinda HaynesISBN 078686656X (0-7868-6656-X)
Hardcover, Hyperion Books
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Chalktown'Book summary:The lifeline of Melinda Haynes's novel Chalktown is a rutted, meandering dirt road that winds its way past the murky waterways and through the one-shop towns and backwoods of George County, Mississippi. It's also a red flag to anyone looking for a good dose of surreal Southern gothic. Here is the isolated shack of a disintegrating white-trash family, there the village dwellers who communicate solely by writing notes on the chalkboards in their front yards. One character is grotesquely scarred by an adult bout with chicken pox, while others are eaten up by less identifiable diseases and appetites. Dreams are pursued, discarded, and eerily enacted, always in the sort of luscious, graphic prose you would expect from the author of Mother of Pearl.
Perhaps the term family is a misnomer for the Sheehands, a bunch of misfits drawn together by impulse and wrenched apart by hope, desire, and murder. Fairy, the philandering father camped out in an old school bus, can't extricate himself from the burden of "women and their sticky flaws." His wife, Susan-Blair, is slowly burying herself beneath other people's possessions in her makeshift consignment store, even as she neglects her children and chats it up with the ever-present Christ of her Pentecostal upbringing. No wonder 16-year-old Hezekiah sets off down the road to Chalktown in the opening pages of the novel, carrying his disabled brother in a backpack. His encounters along the way make for a Robert Altman-like series of takes on the bizarre nature of reality in George County.
The literary landscape of the Deep South is, of course, teeming with eccentric characters. Yet Haynes's are so fleshed-out that the reader is left feeling almost crowded, like (to quote Susan-Blair) a "durn closet full a somebody else's coats. Coats put there by people who went on to someplace else, some other thing." The author is no less gifted at conveying a sense of place. She uses the colorful brushstrokes of a painter--which she also happens to be--to imbue this story with a dark, sultry, and unmistakably Southern feel. The result is a captivating, consuming read. --S. Ketchum [via]
More editions of Chalktown:
-
The Chosenby Harold BloomISBN 0791081737 (0-7910-8173-7)
Hardcover, Facts on File
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Chosen'Book summary:Enjoy a comprehensive analysis and summary of The Chosen. Includes biographical sketches, summaries, an annotated bibliography, contributor profiles and index. [via]
More editions of The Chosen:
-
A Christmas Carolby Charles Dickens, Shona McKellar, Andrew Wheatcroft, Andrew SachsISBN 078946246X (0-7894-6246-X)
Softcover, Dk Pub
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'A Christmas Carol'Book summary:A Christmas Carol is an essential part of Christmas for families everywhere. Since the book's publication in 1843, the story of miserly Scrooge's change of heart after the visit of three spirits has been encountered by children in innumerable books, plays, movies, and cartoons based on Dicken's ghost story. This edition introduces children to the powerful words of the original text in an abridgment based on the one Dickens made for his pubic readings. Andrew Wheatcroft's illustrations bring the classic scenes to life. Photography, paintings, and hundreds of facts explore Dicken's London, the wealth and the poverty, and Christmas customs and ideals then and now. Dickens's marvelous words and their fascinating context are brought together to inspire a new generation with Dickens's message -- that we can and we should change ourselves and our world for the better. [via]
More editions of A Christmas Carol:
Clouds of Witness: A Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteryby Dorothy L. SayersISBN 0792714350 (0-7927-1435-0)
Hardcover, Chivers North Amer
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Clouds of Witness: A Lord Peter Wimsey Mystery'More editions of Clouds of Witness: A Lord Peter Wimsey Mystery:
David Copperfieldby Harold BloomISBN 0791009378 (0-7910-0937-8)
Hardcover, Facts on File
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'David Copperfield'More editions of David Copperfield:
The Doormanby Reinaldo ArenasISBN 080213405X (0-8021-3405-X)
Softcover, Grove Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Doorman'-
Empire of the Senselessby Kathy AckerISBN 0802131794 (0-8021-3179-4)
Softcover, Grove Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Empire of the Senseless'Book summary:Acker continues her post-modern explorations with a story set in a bleak world where the society we know is dying in its own ruins.[via]More editions of Empire of the Senseless:
-
The Golem's Eyeby Jonathan StroudISBN 0786836547 (0-7868-3654-7)
Softcover, Miramax
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Golem's Eye'Book summary:Nathaniel is a boy magician-in-training, sold to the government by his birth parents at the age of five and sent to live as an apprentice to a master. Powerful magicians rule Britain, and its empire, and Nathaniel is told his is the "ultimate sacrifice" for a "noble destiny." If leaving his parents and erasing his past life isn't tough enough, Nathaniel's master, Arthur Underwood, is a cold, condescending, and cruel middle-ranking magician in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The boy's only saving grace is the master's wife, Martha Underwood, who shows him genuine affection that he rewards with fierce devotion. Nathaniel gets along tolerably well over the years in the Underwood household until the summer before his eleventh birthday. Everything changes when he is publicly humiliated by the ruthless magician Simon Lovelace and betrayed by his cowardly master who does not defend him.
Nathaniel vows revenge. In a Faustian fever, he devours magical texts and hones his magic skills, all the while trying to appear subservient to his master. When he musters the strength to summon the 5,000-year-old djinni Bartimaeus to avenge Lovelace by stealing the powerful Amulet of Samarkand, the boy magician plunges into a situation more dangerous and deadly than anything he could ever imagine. In British author Jonathan Stroud's excellent novel, the first of The Bartimaeus Trilogy, the story switches back and forth from Bartimaeus's first-person point of view to third-person narrative about Nathaniel. Here's the best part: Bartimaeus is absolutely hilarious, with a wit that snaps, crackles, and pops. His dryly sarcastic, irreverent asides spill out into copious footnotes that no one in his or her right mind would skip over. A sophisticated, suspenseful, brilliantly crafted, dead-funny book that will leave readers anxious for more. (Ages 11 to adult) --Karin Snelson [via]
More editions of The Golem's Eye:
-
Goodbye Tsugumiby Banana Yoshimoto, Michael EmmerichISBN 0802116388 (0-8021-1638-8)
Hardcover, Grove Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Goodbye Tsugumi'Book summary:Banana Yoshimoto's novels have made her an international sensation, and her most recent, Asleep, was a triumphant performance, delighting her many fans. Now she returns with a magical, offbeat story of a deep and complicated friendship between two young female cousins that ranks among her best work. Maria is the only daughter of an unmarried woman. She has grown up at the seaside alongside her cousin Tsugumi, a lifelong invalid who is charismatic, spoiled, and occasionally cruel. When Maria's father is finally able to bring Maria and her mother to Tokyo, it ushers Maria into a world of university enrollment, impending adulthood, and a "normal" family. Then Tsugumi invites Maria to spend a last summer by the sea, and a restful idyll becomes a time of dramatic growth, as Tsugumi finds love and Maria learns the true meaning of home and family. She also has to confront both Tsugumi's inner strength and the real possibility of losing her. Goodbye Tsugumi is a beguiling, resonant novel from one of the world's finest young writers. "Banana Yoshimoto is always alert to the marvelous." -- Elle [via]
More editions of Goodbye Tsugumi:
-
The Grand Complicationby Allen KurzweilISBN 0786885181 (0-7868-8518-1)
Softcover, Hyperion Books
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Grand Complication'Book summary:Penzler Pick, August 2001: Most avid readers love everything about books--not only the words, but also the paper, the edition, the age, the texture of the binding, all of which become part of the fascination for the printed word that makes a true bibliophile. So it is no wonder that the bibliophile mystery has achieved such popularity. The Grand Complication, well-written and well-researched, is the latest in a long line of such mysteries.
Alexander Short is a reference librarian who spends his days dealing with the minutiae of his work world. At night he goes home to his French wife who is also a book person. She makes pop-up books and other three-dimensional volumes, including a "girdle" that Alexander wears in the manner of medieval monks, tied around his middle and used for his "girdling" or taking notes--something Alexander does obsessively, to the detriment of his job. Two such people seem made for each other, but their obsessions make for a rocky marriage.
So Alexander is fascinated when he meets Henry James Jesson III, an elderly man with equally obsessive interests. He would like Alexander to help him after hours. In Jesson's Manhattan mansion there is a cabinet of curiosities that tell the life of an 18th-century inventor. But one of the compartments is empty. Jesson, and soon Alexander, are agog with curiosity about what was in that compartment. Finding out is half the fun of reading this book.
The other half, if you care (and somehow I think you do), is the design of the book itself. Kurzweil is the son of an engineer, and he designed the small icon, a gear, that appears on many of the book's pages. Over the course of the novel, which runs 360 pages, that gear turns 360 degrees. And then there are the endpapers.... --Otto Penzler [via]
More editions of The Grand Complication:
-
Great Apesby Will SelfISBN 0802135765 (0-8021-3576-5)
Softcover, Grove Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Great Apes'Book summary:Like Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis, Great Apes is a strange and twisted tale, a surreal satire on the human condition, and an omen for those who wander too far. After a long night of partying, Simon Dykes, a successful British painter, wakes up to find that his girlfriend has turned into a chimpanzee. In fact, the world Simon once knew has become a planet of apes. Convinced he is still human, Simon is confined to the emergency ward of a hospital and put under the care of Dr. Zack Busner, clinical psychologist, radical psychoanalyst, maverick drug researcher, and media personality. Written with the glittering satiric edge that is Self's hallmark, Great Apes is a hilarious, disturbing, and truly unforgettable novel.[via] 
Have His Carcaseby Dorothy L. SayersISBN 0792715888 (0-7927-1588-8)
Softcover, Chivers North Amer
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Have His Carcase'-
The Hound of the Baskervillesby Arthur Conan Doyle, Henry Brook, Bob HarveyISBN 0794505740 (0-7945-0574-0)
Softcover, Edc Pub
Find This Book
› 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]
More editions of The Hound of the Baskervilles:
-
How the Dead Liveby Will SelfISBN 0802138489 (0-8021-3848-9)
Softcover, Grove Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'How the Dead Live'Book summary:In April 1988, 65-year-old Lily Bloom quickly succumbs to cancer in the Royal Ear Hospital. ("Where do they keep the Royal Ear, I wonder? I think of it as very large--as big as a dinner tray--and very red, angrily red.") But after life there's death. Guided by an aborigine named Phar Lap Jones, she is transported by a Greek Cypriot minicab driver to the North London dead neighborhood of Dulston. There, accompanied by her dead son, Rude Boy, she's introduced to the 12-step Personally Dead meetings, and she watches over her living daughters--the cold, ambitious Charlotte, and her favorite, the heroin-addicted Natasha. "Natasha is peculiarly charged by the drug--and even by the mere anticipation of its effects. She shifts from being vulnerable and skittish and withdrawn to being strong and steady and extrovert. She's told me before that it makes her feel 'complete' and 'confident,' and I can see what she means. When she's off heroin she's a fucking nightmare--when she's on it she's a peach."
Since Will Self's face, voice, and, notoriously, life story are familiar to many who will never pick up his fiction, there's always the risk of reading How the Dead Live as autobiography. In which case, he's clearly based Lily on his New York-born Jewish mother, and he's wittily retooled large chunks of his own much-publicized addictions, transmuting himself into the beautiful and glamorously doomed Natasha. But Lily is feisty and articulate, with a complex history spanning two continents, two husbands, and a constantly re-created personality--a great literary creation. Self's sympathetic account of Lily's decline into her morphine-laden deathbed is deeply affecting, and his long-term obsession with London provides us with the utterly convincing Dulston. His treatment of modern Jewish life in North London (rather than New York) will find its fans and critics, but the novel grows beyond such local concerns. Ultimately, it is about the vexed relationship between the worries of contemporary Western life and a more transcendent spirituality--signaled by Self's opening gesture to The Tibetan Book of the Dead and by the all-seeing Phar Lap Jones. How the Dead Live is a big book with big ideas, and quite definitely Will Self's most ambitious and mature work to date. --Alan Stewart [via]
More editions of How the Dead Live:
-
The Hunchback of Notre- Dameby Victor HugoISBN 0786862351 (0-7868-6235-1)
Hardcover, Disney Press
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Hunchback of Notre- Dame'Book summary:Timed to coincide with the release of Disney's film adaptation coming in June, a classic novel with its original translation comes to life as Quasimodo saves Esmeralda once again, in an edition highlighted by artwork from the animated feature. [via]
More editions of The Hunchback of Notre- Dame:
In Cuba I Was a German Shepherdby Ana MenendezISBN 080213887X (0-8021-3887-X)
Softcover, Grove Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd'More editions of In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd:
-
In the Company of Angelsby Nicole KelbyISBN 0786885831 (0-7868-8583-1)
Softcover, Hyperion Books
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'In the Company of Angels'Book summary:A compelling novel of dark miracles and angelic visitation, set in a Nazi-occupied Belgian town that is scented by chocolate and haunted by war.
It is World War II, a small village in France near the border of Belgium. Marie Claire is a young French Jew, cared for by her grandmother, who cultivates flowers. A shattering of glass, and Marie Claires village is in rubble. Her grandmother is dead, everyone is dead. She flees to the root cellar of her grandmothers house and waits . . .
She is saved by two Belgian nuns who take Marie Claire away to their convent in Tournai, Belgium, where they have been hiding Jews for transport to Switzerland. It is then that the miracles begin. Is Marie Claire causing them? The answer to that question remains mysterious until the last pages of this entirely original debut. In a town scented with chocolate, haunted by memories of the past and the desperation of the present, the miraculous is sometimes hard to recognize. A suspenseful novel of enormous power and sensitivity, In the Company of Angels introduces a distinctly imaginative new voice in fiction. [via]
More editions of In the Company of Angels:
-
Kitchenby Banana Yoshimoto, Megan BackusISBN 0802115160 (0-8021-1516-0)
Hardcover, Grove Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Kitchen'Book summary:Two stories, "Kitchen" and "Moonlight Shadow," told through the eyes of a pair of contemporary young Japanese women, deal with the themes of mothers, love, transsexuality, kitchens, and tragedy. Reprint. NYT. [via]
More editions of Kitchen:
-
Lady Chatterley's Loverby D. H. LawrenceISBN 0802133347 (0-8021-3334-7)
Softcover, Grove Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Lady Chatterley's Lover'Book summary:Perhaps the most famous of Lawrence's novels, the 1928 Lady Chatterley's Lover is no longer distinguished for the once-shockingly explicit treatment of its subject matter--the adulterous affair between a sexually unfulfilled upper-class married woman and the game keeper who works for the estate owned by her wheelchaired husband. Now that we're used to reading about sex, and seeing it in the movies, it's apparent that the novel is memorable for better reasons: namely, that Lawrence was a masterful and lyrical writer, whose story takes us bodily into the world of its characters. [via]
More editions of Lady Chatterley's Lover:
Like Water for Chocolateby Thomas Christensen, Laura Esquivel, Carol ChristensenISBN 0792717848 (0-7927-1784-8)
Softcover, Chivers North Amer
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Like Water for Chocolate'More editions of Like Water for Chocolate:
-
The Lord of the Ringsby J. R. R. TolkienISBN 0791056651 (0-7910-5665-1)
Hardcover, Facts on File
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Lord of the Rings'Book summary:The struggle between good and evil in Middle Earth.
The title, J.R.R. Tolkiens The Lord of the Rings, part of Chelsea House Publishers Modern Critical Interpretations series, presents the most important 20th-century criticism on J.R.R. Tolkiens The Lord of the Rings through extracts of critical essays by well-known literary critics. This collection of criticism also features a short biography on J.R.R. Tolkien, a chronology of the authors life, and an introductory essay written by Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, Yale University. [via]
More editions of The Lord of the Rings:
-
Medieval Structure: The Gothic Vaultby James H. AclandISBN 0802018866 (0-8020-1886-6)
Hardcover, Univ of Toronto Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Medieval Structure: The Gothic Vault'More editions of Medieval Structure: The Gothic Vault:
The Member of the Weddingby Harold BloomISBN 0791081729 (0-7910-8172-9)
Hardcover, Facts on File
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Member of the Wedding'More editions of The Member of the Wedding:
-
The Metamorphoses of Ovidby David R. Slavitt, OvidISBN 0801847982 (0-8018-4798-2)
Softcover, Johns Hopkins Univ Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Metamorphoses of Ovid'Book summary:First published in 8 A.D. when he was 52, Ovid's epic poem contains profoundly entertaining tales of Adonis, Midas, Apollo, Icarus, and many others. (Poetry) [via]
-
Naked Lunchby William S. BurroughsISBN 0802132952 (0-8021-3295-2)
Softcover, Pub Group West
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Naked Lunch'Book summary:"He was," as Salon's Gary Kamiya notes, "20th-century drug culture's Poe, its Artaud, its Baudelaire. He was the prophet of the literature of pure experience, a phenomenologist of dread.... Burroughs had the scary genius to turn the junk wasteland into a parallel universe, one as thoroughly and obsessively rendered as Blake's."
Why has this homosexual ex-junkie, whose claim to fame rests entirely on one book--the hallucinogenic ravings of a heroine addict--so seized the collective imagination? Burroughs wrote Naked Lunch in a Tangier, Morocco, hotel room between 1954 and 1957. Allen Ginsberg and his beatnik cronies burst onto the scene, rescued the manuscript from the food-encrusted floor, and introduced some order to the pages. It was published in Paris in 1959 by the notorious Olympia Press and in the U.S. in 1962; the landmark obscenity trial that ensued served to end literary censorship in America.
Burroughs's literary experiment--the much-touted "cut-up" technique--mirrored the workings of a junkie's brain. But it was junk coupled with vision: Burroughs makes teeming amalgam of allegory, sci-fi, and non-linear narration, all wrapped in a blend of humor--slapstick, Swiftian, slang-infested humor. What is Naked Lunch about? People turn into blobs amidst the sort of evil that R. Crumb, in the decades to come, would inimitably flesh out with his dark and creepy cartoon images. Perhaps the most easily grasped part of Naked Lunch is its America-bashing, replete with slang and vitriol. Read it and see for yourself. [via]
Night of the Radishesby Sandra BenitezISBN 0786864001 (0-7868-6400-1)
Hardcover, Hyperion Books
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Night of the Radishes'More editions of Night of the Radishes:
Old Rosaby Reinaldo Arenas, Andrew Hurley, Ann Tashi SlaterISBN 0802134068 (0-8021-3406-8)
Softcover, Grove Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Old Rosa'-
Othelloby William Shakespeare, Wim ColemanISBN 078916082X (0-7891-6082-X)
Softcover, Perfection Learning
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Othello'Book summary:Othello The Shakespeare Parallel Text Series...William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in April 1564, and his birth is traditionally celebrated on April 23. The facts of his life, known from surviving documents, are sparse. He was one of eight children born to John Shakespeare, a merchant of some standing in his community. William probably went to the King's New School in Stratford, but he had no university education. In November 1582, at the age of eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway, eight years his senior, who was pregnant with their first child, Susanna. She was born on May 26, 1583. Twins, a boy, Hamnet ( who would die at age eleven), and a girl, Judith, were born in 1585. By 1592 Shakespeare had gone to London working as an actor and already known as a playwright. A rival dramatist, Robert Greene, referred to him as "an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers." Shakespeare became a principal shareholder and playwright of the successful acting troupe, the Lord Chamberlain's Men (later under James I, called the King's Men). In 1599 the Lord Chamberlain's Men built and occupied the Globe Theater in Southwark near the Thames River. Here many of Shakespeare's plays were performed by the most famous actors of his time, including Richard Burbage, Will Kempe, and Robert Armin. In addition to his 37 plays, Shakespeare had a hand in others, including Sir Thomas More and The Two Noble Kinsmen, and he wrote poems, including Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. His 154 sonnets were published, probably without his authorization, in 1609. [via]
More editions of Othello:
-
Ovid's Metamorphosesby Arthur GoldingISBN 0801870607 (0-8018-7060-7)
Softcover, Johns Hopkins Univ Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Ovid's Metamorphoses'Book summary:This landmark translation of Ovid was acclaimed by Ezra Pound as "the most beautiful book in the language (my opinion and I suspect it was Shakespeare's)". Ovid's deliciously witty and poignant epic starts with the creation of the world and brings together a series of ingeniously linked myths and legends in which men and women are transformedoften by loveinto flowers, trees, stones, and stars. Golding's robustly vernacular version was the first major English translation and decisively influenced Shakespeare, Spenser, and the character of English Renaissance writing.
[via]More editions of Ovid's Metamorphoses:
-
Painted Birdby Jerzy KosinskiISBN 080213422X (0-8021-3422-X)
Softcover, Grove Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Painted Bird'Book summary:Many writers have portrayed the cruelty people inflict upon each other in the name of war or ideology or garden-variety hate, but few books will surpass Kosinski's first novel, The Painted Bird, for the sheer creepiness in its savagery. The story follows an abandoned young boy who wanders alone through the frozen bogs and broken towns of Eastern Europe during and after World War II, trying to survive. His experiences and actions occur at and beyond the limits of what might be called humanity, but Kosinski never averts his eyes, nor allows us to. [via]
More editions of Painted Bird:
-
Pedro Paramoby Juan Rulfo, Margaret Sayers PedenISBN 0802133908 (0-8021-3390-8)
Softcover, Grove Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Pedro Paramo'Book summary:Dentro de su brevedad, determinada por el rigor y la concentración expresiva, Pedro Páramo sintetiza la mayor parte de los temas que han interesado siempre a los mexicanos, ese misterio nacional que el talento de Juan Rulfo ha sabido condensar por medio de los cotidianos habitantes de Comala, región inscrita ya en la mitología literaria universal.[via] 
The Playerby Michael TolkinISBN 0802135137 (0-8021-3513-7)
Softcover, Grove Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Player'More editions of The Player:
-
The Pleasure of My Companyby Steve MartinISBN 0786888016 (0-7868-8801-6)
Softcover, Hyperion Books
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Pleasure of My Company'Book summary:Readers expecting something zany, something crudely humorous from Steve Martin's second novel, The Pleasure of My Company, will discover much greater riches. While the book has a sense of humor, Martin moves everywhere with a gentler, lighter touch in this elegant little fiction that verges on the profound and poetic.
Daniel Pecan Cambridge is the narrator and central consciousness of the novel (actually a novella). Daniel, an ex-Hewlett-Packard communiqué encoder, is a savant whose closely proscribed world is bounded on every side by neuroses and obsessions. He cannot cross the street except at driveways symmetrically opposed to each, and he cannot sleep unless the wattage of the active light bulbs in his apartment sums to 1,125. Daniel's starved social life is punctuated by twice-weekly visits from a young therapist in training, Clarissa; by his prescription pick-ups from a Rite Aid pharmacist, Zandy; and by his "casual" meetings with the bleach-blond real estate agent, Elizabeth, who is struggling to sell apartments across the street. But Daniel's dysfunctional routines are shattered one day when he becomes entangled in the chaos of Clarissa's life as a single mother. Taking care of Clarissa's tiny son, Teddy, Daniel begins to emerge from the safety of logic, magic squares, and obsessive counting.
Martin's craftsmanship is remarkable. The tightly packed novella paints rich portraits with restraint and balance, including nothing extraneous to Daniel's world. The book does not try for pyrotechnics but is contented with a Zen-like simplicity in both prose and plot. Avoiding the crushing bleakness of much contemporary fiction, Martin insists through Daniel--a man haunted by horrors of his own making--that there is possibility for compassion, that broken lives can actually be healed. --Patrick O'Kelley [via]
More editions of The Pleasure of My Company:
-
Ptolemy's Gateby Jonathan StroudISBN 078683868X (0-7868-3868-X)
Softcover, Disney Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Ptolemy's Gate'Book summary:Three years after the events of The Golem`s Eye, the young magician Nathaniel is an established member of the British Government. But he faces unprecedented problems: foreign wars are going badly and Britain`s enemies are mounting attacks close to London. Increasingly distracted, he is treating Bartimaeus worse than ever: the long-suffering djinni is growing weak from too much time in this world, and his patience is at an end. Meanwhile, undercover in London, Kitty has been stealthily completing her research into magic and Bartimaeus` past. She hopes to break the endless cycle of conflict between djinn and humans - but will she be able to get anyone to listen? Before any of these problems can be resolved, disaster strikes London from an unexpected source and the destinies of Bartimaeus, Nathaniel, and Kitty are thrown together once more. They have to face treacherous magicians, a long-fermented conspiracy, and an enemy from `The Other Place` that threatens London and the world. Worst of all, they must somehow cope with each other.... Bartimaeus fans will be entranced by Stroud`s brilliantly conceived finale to the series - sure to be a major best seller.
[via]More editions of Ptolemy's Gate:
The Quiet Americanby Graham GreeneISBN 0792714199 (0-7927-1419-9)
Softcover, Chivers North Amer
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Quiet American'More editions of The Quiet American:
Rockboundby Frank Parker DayISBN 0802067239 (0-8020-6723-9)
Softcover, Univ of Toronto Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Rockbound'-
Room Temperatureby Nicholson BakerISBN 0802112242 (0-8021-1224-2)
Hardcover, Grove Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Room Temperature'Book summary:Nicholson Baker writes in 360-degree Sensurround--his descriptions of the seemingly banal awakening the most jaded of senses into recognition, admiration, and amusement. In Room Temperature, his self-deprecating, endlessly curious narrator is at home giving his baby girl a bottle and allowing his mind to wander. Uppermost in his thoughts are his wife and daughter, but there is also that obsession with commas and some concern with tiny taboos like nose-picking and stealing change from his parents. Truth-telling is the operative mode; at one point he tries to get his wife to explain a doodle by quoting a review of early Yeats: "Always true is always new." Room Temperature is a rare novel of domestic pleasure and stability, with a twist. "Was there ever a limit between us? Would disgust ever outweigh love?" Baker's alter ego asks, and seems determined to find out. [via]
More editions of Room Temperature:
The Second Scrollby A.M. Klein, Zailig Pollock, Elizabeth A. PophamISBN 0802044786 (0-8020-4478-6)
Hardcover, Univ of Toronto Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Second Scroll'More editions of The Second Scroll:
-
Shopgirlby Steve MartinISBN 0786885688 (0-7868-8568-8)
Softcover, Hyperion Books
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Shopgirl'Book summary:Steve Martin's first foray into fiction is as assured as it is surprising. Set in Los Angeles, its fascination with the surreal body fascism of the upper classes feels like the comedian's familiar territory, but the shopgirl of the book's title may surprise his fans. Mirabelle works in the glove department of Neiman's, "selling things that nobody buys any more." Spending her days waiting for customers to appear, Mirabelle "looks like a puppy standing on its hind legs, and the two brown dots of her eyes, set in the china plate of her face, make her seem very cute and noticeable." Lonely and vulnerable, she passes her evenings taking prescription drugs and drawing "dead things," while pursuing an on-off relationship with the hopeless Jeremy, who possesses "a slouch so extreme that he appears to have left his skeleton at home." Then Mr. Ray Porter steps into Mirabelle's life. He is much older, rich, successful, divorced, and selfish, desiring her "without obligation." Complicating the picture is Mirabelle's voracious rival, her fellow Neiman's employee Lisa, who uses sex "for attracting and discarding men."
The mutual incomprehension, psychological damage, and sheer vacuity practiced by all four of Martin's characters sees Shopgirl veer rather uncomfortably between a comedy of manners and a much darker work. There are some startling passages of description and interior monologue, but the characters are often rather hazy types. Martin tries too hard in his attempt to write a psychologically intense novel about West Coast anomie, but Shopgirl is still an enjoyable, if rather light, read. --Jerry Brotton [via]
The Siegeby Helen DunmoreISBN 0802117007 (0-8021-1700-7)
Hardcover, Grove Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Siege'More editions of The Siege:
-
Smilla's Sense of Snowby Peter HoegISBN 0792720245 (0-7927-2024-5)
Softcover, Chivers North Amer
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Smilla's Sense of Snow'Book summary:In this international bestseller, Peter Høeg successfully combines the pleasures of literary fiction with those of the thriller. Smilla Jaspersen, half Danish, half Greenlander, attempts to understand the death of a small boy who falls from the roof of her apartment building. Her childhood in Greenland gives her an appreciation for the complex structures of snow, and when she notices that the boy's footprints show he ran to his death, she decides to find out who was chasing him. As she attempts to solve the mystery, she uncovers a series of conspiracies and cover-ups and quickly realizes that she can trust nobody. Her investigation takes her from the streets of Copenhagen to an icebound island off the coast of Greenland. What she finds there has implications far beyond the death of a single child. The unusual setting, gripping plot, and compelling central character add up to one of the most fascinating and literate thrillers of recent years. [via]
Solomon Gursky Was Hereby Mordecai RichlerISBN 0788152629 (0-7881-5262-9)
Softcover, Diane Pub Co
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Solomon Gursky Was Here'More editions of Solomon Gursky Was Here:
Spilling Clarenceby Anne UrsuISBN 0786886625 (0-7868-8662-5)
Softcover, Hyperion Books
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Spilling Clarence'Book summary:In Anne Ursu's gracefully layered first novel, Spilling Clarence, a fire at a psychopharmaceutical plant releases a yellow cloud of psychoactive chemicals into the air of a sleepy college town named Clarence. Disturbing effects begin to show up in the townspeople, especially in the residents--mainly former professors--of the cleverly named Sunny Shadows retirement home. They find themselves remembering events and people they had long forgotten, or revisiting their favorite memories to find that new details have been recovered, a few of which they would rather have kept suppressed. Happiness is only sometimes a side effect of these startling recollections. In some ways, the chemical spill speeds along emotional processes that are already a staple of contemporary fiction: recovered memory, the discovery of unexpected connections, and the confrontation of the past. Some readers may find Ursu's plot too cinematic, but she is never glib or opportunistic. Like a good theorist, she pursues her idea to its logical, often surprising conclusion in the life of each of her characters. --Regina Marler [via]
-
The Tao of the Tao Te Ching: A Translation and Commentaryby Michael LarfargueISBN 0791409864 (0-7914-0986-4)
Softcover, State Univ of New York Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Tao of the Tao Te Ching: A Translation and Commentary'More editions of The Tao of the Tao Te Ching: A Translation and Commentary:
-
Theatrical Notebooks of Samuel Beckett Waiting for Godotby Samuel Beckett, James Knowlson, Douglad McMillanISBN 0802115489 (0-8021-1548-9)
Hardcover, Grove Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Theatrical Notebooks of Samuel Beckett Waiting for Godot'Book summary:A classic of modern theatre and perennial favorite of colleges and high schools. "One of the most noble and moving plays of our generation . . . suffused with tenderness for the whole human perplexity . . . like a sharp stab of beauty and pain".--The London Times. [via]
More editions of Theatrical Notebooks of Samuel Beckett Waiting for Godot:
-
The Tidewater Talesby John BarthISBN 080185556X (0-8018-5556-X)
Softcover, Johns Hopkins Univ Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Tidewater Tales'Book summary:"Tell me a story..." Katherine Shorter Sherritt Sagamore, 8 1/2 months pregnant, is a blue-blooded library scientist and founding mother of the American Society for the Preservation of Storytelling. Her husband Peter, 8 1/2 months nervous, is a blue-collar storyteller with a penchant for brevity. Sailing in the Chesapeake Bay, they tell each other tales to break the writer's block handed Peter by his Muse, to ease the weight of Katherine's pregnancy, to entertain, and to enlighten. Along with their stories, we learn of the Bay itselfpast and present. The beloved Chesapeake, where young Peter once indulged his Huck Finn fantasy, is in danger of becoming what he dubs a moral cesspool; where nature is in a losing struggle with man; where the hallowed Deniston School for Girls is being pressured by the CIA to sell land to the Soviet embassy; and where the old Sagamore homestead might or might not be the newest espionage station on the shoreline.
[via]More editions of The Tidewater Tales:
-
Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carriedby Harold BloomISBN 0791081710 (0-7910-8171-0)
Hardcover, Facts on File
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried'Book summary:"They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing--these were intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight. They carried shameful memories. They carried the common secret of cowardice.... Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to."
A finalist for both the 1990 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, The Things They Carried marks a subtle but definitive line of demarcation between Tim O'Brien's earlier works about Vietnam, the memoir If I Die in a Combat Zone and the fictional Going After Cacciato, and this sly, almost hallucinatory book that is neither memoir nor novel nor collection of short stories but rather an artful combination of all three. Vietnam is still O'Brien's theme, but in this book he seems less interested in the war itself than in the myriad different perspectives from which he depicts it. Whereas Going After Cacciato played with reality, The Things They Carried plays with truth. The narrator of most of these stories is "Tim"; yet O'Brien freely admits that many of the events he chronicles in this collection never really happened. He never killed a man as "Tim" does in "The Man I Killed," and unlike Tim in "Ambush," he has no daughter named Kathleen. But just because a thing never happened doesn't make it any less true. In "On the Rainy River," the character Tim O'Brien responds to his draft notice by driving north, to the Canadian border where he spends six days in a deserted lodge in the company of an old man named Elroy while he wrestles with the choice between dodging the draft or going to war. The real Tim O'Brien never drove north, never found himself in a fishing boat 20 yards off the Canadian shore with a decision to make. The real Tim O'Brien quietly boarded the bus to Sioux Falls and was inducted into the United States Army. But the truth of "On the Rainy River" lies not in facts but in the genuineness of the experience it depicts: both Tims went to a war they didn't believe in; both considered themselves cowards for doing so. Every story in The Things They Carried speaks another truth that Tim O'Brien learned in Vietnam; it is this blurred line between truth and reality, fact and fiction, that makes his book unforgettable. --Alix Wilber [via]
More editions of Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried:
Tough, Tough Toys for Tough, Tough Boysby Will SelfISBN 0802137024 (0-8021-3702-4)
Softcover, Grove Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Tough, Tough Toys for Tough, Tough Boys'Book summary:Will Self's tabloid-friendly reputation as a connoisseur of proscribed substances should not obscure the fact that he can write many of his contemporaries under the table. His latest collection, Tough, Tough Toys for Tough, Tough Boys, is filled with typically Selfish confections: gritty chunks of reality wrapped in a sweet shell of exquisitely funny and intelligent writing. Admittedly, some of the stories here feel a little underdeveloped, as if the author were flexing his literary muscles and showing how easily he can make highbrow style dirty-dance with his lowbrow obsessions, but even the least of them is a bravura performance by an expert wordsmith. Self's obvious pleasure in bringing his extraordinary talents to bear on the seamiest of subjects is irresistible: the description of a crack cocaine rush that closes the first story, for example, is quite possibly more intoxicating than the drug itself.
But the greater part of the book complements that dazzling style with deeper pleasures. As he ranges from the hilarious tale of a remarkable infant who babbles in business German ("Bemess-bemess-bemessungsgrundlage!") to a troubled psychiatrist's journey toward the abyss, Self shows an uncanny knack for mixing realism and absurdity. The closing piece, a short novella about a wrongly convicted sex offender's attempt to win a short-story prize, is the most assured of all. In this author's hands, the barely articulate conversations of career criminals are transformed into poetry, and the struggles of the central character are both moving and wickedly funny:
In prison, in the English winter, the word crepuscular acquires new resonance, new intensity.... For here and now is an eternity of forty-watt bulbs, an Empty Quarter of linoleum, and a lost world of distempered walls. It's an environment of corridors and walkways, a space that taunts with the idea of progression towards arrival; then delivers only a TV room full of modular plastic chairs and Styrofoam beakers napalmed by fag ends.
In Tough, Tough Toys for Tough, Tough Boys Will Self shows once again that he's someone to be reckoned with. The kind of writer a society needs, he uses his wit as a crowbar to pry open the cracks in our culture. --Simon Leake [via]More editions of Tough, Tough Toys for Tough, Tough Boys:
-
Treasure Islandby Robert Louis Stevenson, Henry Brook, Ian McNeeISBN 0794512305 (0-7945-1230-5)
Softcover, Edc Pub
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Treasure Island'More editions of Treasure Island:
-
Treasure Islandby Angela Wilkes, Sam Taplin, Peter DennisISBN 0794504116 (0-7945-0411-6)
Softcover, Edc Pub
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Treasure Island'Book summary:64 pages with colorful photos dispersed throughout book. Great introduction to this classic. Age 8 years and up. [via]
More editions of Treasure Island:
-
Tropic of Cancerby Henry MillerISBN 0802131786 (0-8021-3178-6)
Softcover, Grove Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Tropic of Cancer'Book summary:No punches are pulled in Henry Miller's most famous work. Still pretty rough going for even our jaded sensibilities, but Tropic of Cancer is an unforgettable novel of self-confession. Maybe the most honest book ever written, this autobiographical fiction about Miller's life as an expatriate American in Paris was deemed obscene and banned from publication in this country for years. When you read this, you see immediately how much modern writers owe Miller. [via]
More editions of Tropic of Cancer:
-
Tropic of Cancer/Tropic of Capricornby Henry MillerISBN 0802138438 (0-8021-3843-8)
Softcover, Grove Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Tropic of Cancer/Tropic of Capricorn'Book summary:Forty years have passed since Grove Press first published Henry Miller's landmark masterpiece -- an act that would forever change the face of American literature. Initially banned in America as obscene, Tropic of Cancer was first published in Paris in 1934. Only a historic court ruling that changed American censorship standards permitted its publication. Tropic of Cancer is now considered, as Norman Mailer said, "one of the ten or twenty great novels of our century." Also banned in America for almost thirty years, Tropic of Capricorn is now considered a cornerstone of modern literature. Together, Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn are a lasting testament to one of the greatest American writers of the twentieth century and his contribution not only to literature but to the cause of free speech. [via]
More editions of Tropic of Cancer/Tropic of Capricorn:
Unnatural Deathby Dorothy L. SayersISBN 0792712641 (0-7927-1264-1)
Softcover, Chivers North Amer
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Unnatural Death'-
Waiting for Godotby Samuel BeckettISBN 0802118216 (0-8021-1821-6)
Hardcover, Grove Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Waiting for Godot'Book summary:From an inauspicious beginning at the tiny Left Bank Theatre de Babylone in 1953, followed by bewilderment by American and British audiences, Waiting for Godot has become one of the most important and enigmatic plays of the past fifty years and a cornerstone of twentieth-century drama. Now in honor of the centenary of Samuel Beckett's birth, Grove Press is publishing a bilingual edition of the play. Originally written in French, Beckett translated the work himself, and in doing so chose to revise and eliminate various passages. With side-by-side text the reader can experience the mastery of Beckett's language and explore the nuances of his creativity.[via]
Upon being asked who Godot is, Samuel Beckett told Alan Schneider, "If I knew, I would have said so in the play." Although we may never know who we are waiting for, in this special edition we can rediscover one of the most magical and beautiful allegories of our time.More editions of Waiting for Godot:
-
Waiting for Godot: Tragicomedy in 2 Actsby Samuel BecketISBN 0802130348 (0-8021-3034-8)
Softcover, Grove Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Waiting for Godot: Tragicomedy in 2 Acts'Book summary:A seminal work of twentieth-century drama, Waiting for Godot was Samuel Beckett's first professionally produced play. It opened in Paris in 1953 at the tiny Left Bank Theatre de Babylone, and has since become a cornerstone of twentieth-century theater. The story line revolves around two seemingly homeless men waiting for someone-or something-named Godot. Vladimir and Estragon wait near a tree on a barren stretch of road, inhabiting a drama spun from their own consciousness. The result is a comical wordplay of poetry, dreamscapes, and nonsense, which has been interpreted as a somber summation of mankind's inexhaustible search for meaning. Beckett's language pioneered an expressionistic minimalism that captured the existentialism of post-World War II Europe. His play remains one of the most magical and beautiful allegories of our time. [via]
More editions of Waiting for Godot: Tragicomedy in 2 Acts:
-
The Weight of All Thingsby Sandra BenitezISBN 0786887036 (0-7868-8703-6)
Softcover, Hyperion Books
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Weight of All Things'Book summary:Now available in paperback -- "Bentez's third novel seamlessly blends fact with imagination, evoking the trauma of war more vividly than any newspaper account . . . beautifully illuminating." (Publishers Weekly starred review)
Sandra Bentez received international acclaim for her first two novels: A Place Where the Sea Remembers ("A quietly stunning work that leaves soft tracks in the heart" --Washington Post Book World) and Bitter Grounds ("The kind of book that fills your dreams for weeks" --Isabel Allende). Now she returns with an unforgettable tale of life in war-torn El Salvador. [via]
More editions of The Weight of All Things:
The Wild Life of Sailor and Lulaby Barry GiffordISBN 0802134548 (0-8021-3454-8)
Softcover, Grove Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Wild Life of Sailor and Lula'More editions of The Wild Life of Sailor and Lula:
-
William ShakespeareISBN 0791076555 (0-7910-7655-5)
Hardcover, Facts on File
Find This BookBook summary:In creating workds such as Hamlet and Macbeth, Shakespeare became the quintessential dramatist of the Western canon. This comprehensive volume places critical focus on Shakespeare's major comedies, histories, romances, and tragedies.
This title, William Shakespeare, part of Chelsea House Publishers Modern Critical Views series, examines the major works of William Shakespeare through full-length critical essays by expert literary critics. In addition, this title features a short biography on William Shakespeare, a chronology of the authors life, and an introductory essay written by Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, Yale University. [via]
More editions of William Shakespeare:
-
The Wings of the Doveby Henry JamesISBN 0786882514 (0-7868-8251-4)
Softcover, Hyperion Books
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Wings of the Dove'Book summary:The Wings of the Dove is a classic example of Henry James's morality tales that play off the naiveté of an American protagonist abroad. In early-20th-century London, Kate Croy and Merton Densher are engaged in a passionate, clandestine love affair. Croy is desperately in love with Densher, who has all the qualities of a potentially excellent husband: he's handsome, witty, and idealistic--the one thing he lacks is money, which ultimately renders him unsuitable as a mate. By chance, Croy befriends a young American heiress, Milly Theale. When Croy discovers that Theale suffers from a mysterious and fatal malady, she hatches a plan that can give all three characters something that they want--at a price. Croy and Densher plan to accompany the young woman to Venice where Densher, according to Croy's design, will seduce the ailing heiress. The two hope that Theale will find love and happiness in her last days and--when she dies--will leave her fortune to Densher, so that he and Croy can live happily ever after. The scheme that at first develops as planned begins to founder when Theale discovers the pair's true motives shortly before her death. Densher struggles with unanticipated feelings of love for his new paramour, and his guilt may obstruct his ability to avail himself of Theale's gift. James deftly navigates the complexities and irony of such moral treachery in this stirring novel. [via]
More editions of The Wings of the Dove:
With Your Crooked Heartby Helen DunmoreISBN 0802137709 (0-8021-3770-9)
Softcover, Grove Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'With Your Crooked Heart'More editions of With Your Crooked Heart:
-
The Wizard of Ozby L. Frank Baum, Mauro Evangelista, Kimberly MorrisISBN 0789444445 (0-7894-4444-5)
Hardcover, Dk Pub
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Wizard of Oz'Book summary:"There's a cyclone coming!" Uncle Henry shouts. But it is too late for his niece. Snatched away from her home in Kansas, Dorothy finds herself in the land of Oz. There she meets a Scarecrow, a Tin Woodman, and a Lion, and together they set off down the yellow brick road to seek the Wizard of Oz. For nearly 100 years, children have been entranced by the wonderful world of Oz. In this Young classics edition, children can enjoy the imaginary land of Oz and also learn about real life on the Kansas prairies 100 years ago. Photography and background information help to set the scene, and bring Dorothy and her friends to life for a new generation of children. [via]
More editions of The Wizard of Oz:
Results page: PREV 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101-141 NEXT
![[powered by Muze Inc.]](http://i.bookfinder.com/images/site/muze/powered_by_muze.gif){kind=small}