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books tagged “Modern Classics”
books tagged “Modern Classics”
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20,000 Leagues under the Seaby Pauline Francis, Jules VerneISBN 0237526883 (0-237-52688-3)
Softcover, Evans Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: '20,000 Leagues under the Sea'Book summary:A huge sea monster has attacked and wrecked several ships from beneath the sea. Professor Arronax bravely joins a mission to hunt down the beast. He goes aboard the Nautilus, a secret submarine helmed by the mysterious Captain Nemo. At first, the mission is exciting, as Nemo takes the ship on a voyage around the underwater world. But when things start to go wrong, Arronax finds there is no escape from the Nautilus -- he is now Captain Nemo's captive, 20,000 leagues under the sea! [via]
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Ada: Or, Ardor a Family Chronicleby Vladimir NabokovISBN 0297179357 (0-297-17935-7)
Hardcover, Weidenfeld & Nicolson
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Ada: Or, Ardor a Family Chronicle'Book summary:On the country estate of his art-collecting uncle, Van Veen meets Ada, his beautiful cousin. Their relationship flourishes, but both were born into one of America's illustrious families, a vast over-extended empire, and this causes problems for the lovers. [via]
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Angel Pavementby J. B. PriestleyISBN 0226682102 (0-226-68210-2)
Softcover, Univ of Chicago Pr
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The Angelic Avengersby Isak DinesenISBN 0226152901 (0-226-15290-1)
Hardcover, University of Chicago Press
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Angelic Avengers'Book summary:Lucan has been orphaned and Zosine has been deserted, and London is a hostile place for two young girls without a home. Bound together by poverty, grief and their shared years at school, they set out to make a future for themselves in new surroundings. They are adopted by the austere, puritanical Reverend Pennhallow and his wife, and in their large, gloomy house they become immersed in study. But, after a chain of disturbing events, it does not take long before they realize that the cleric and his wife are not all they seem to be ... [via]
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Aspern Papers and Other Storiesby Henry James, Adrian PooleISBN 0192836161 (0-19-283616-1)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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At Swim-Two-Birdsby Flann O'BrienISBN 0246108908 (0-246-10890-8)
Hardcover, Hart-Davis, MacGibbon
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Black Beautyby Anna SewellISBN 0307122174 (0-307-12217-4)
Hardcover, Random House Childrens Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Black Beauty'Book summary:A horse is a horse of course unless of course the horse is Black Beauty. Animal-loving children have been devoted to Black Beauty throughout this century, and no doubt will continue through the next. Although Anna Sewell's classic paints a clear picture of turn-of-the-century London, its message is universal and timeless: animals will serve humans well if they are treated with consideration and kindness.
Black Beauty tells the story of the horse's own long and varied life, from a well-born colt in a pleasant meadow to an elegant carriage horse for a gentleman to a painfully overworked cab horse. Throughout, Sewell rails--in a gentle, 19th-century way--against animal maltreatment. Young readers will follow Black Beauty's fortunes, good and bad, with gentle masters as well as cruel. Children can easily make the leap from horse-human relationships to human-human relationships, and begin to understand how their own consideration of others may be a benefit to all. (Ages 9 to 12) [via]
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Bluest Eyeby Toni MorrisonISBN 0307278441 (0-307-27844-1)
Softcover, Vintage Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Bluest Eye'Book summary:Oprah Book Club® Selection, April 2000: Originally published in 1970, The Bluest Eye is Toni Morrison's first novel. In an afterword written more than two decades later, the author expressed her dissatisfaction with the book's language and structure: "It required a sophistication unavailable to me." Perhaps we can chalk up this verdict to modesty, or to the Nobel laureate's impossibly high standards of quality control. In any case, her debut is nothing if not sophisticated, in terms of both narrative ingenuity and rhetorical sweep. It also shows the young author drawing a bead on the subjects that would dominate much of her career: racial hatred, historical memory, and the dazzling or degrading power of language itself.
Set in Lorain, Ohio, in 1941, The Bluest Eye is something of an ensemble piece. The point of view is passed like a baton from one character to the next, with Morrison's own voice functioning as a kind of gold standard throughout. The focus, though, is on an 11-year-old black girl named Pecola Breedlove, whose entire family has been given a cosmetic cross to bear:
You looked at them and wondered why they were so ugly; you looked closely and could not find the source. Then you realized that it came from conviction, their conviction. It was as though some mysterious all-knowing master had given each one a cloak of ugliness to wear, and they had each accepted it without question.... And they took the ugliness in their hands, threw it as a mantle over them, and went about the world with it.
There are far uglier things in the world than, well, ugliness, and poor Pecola is subjected to most of them. She's spat upon, ridiculed, and ultimately raped and impregnated by her own father. No wonder she yearns to be the very opposite of what she is--yearns, in other words, to be a white child, possessed of the blondest hair and the bluest eye.This vein of self-hatred is exactly what keeps Morrison's novel from devolving into a cut-and-dried scenario of victimization. She may in fact pin too much of the blame on the beauty myth: "Along with the idea of romantic love, she was introduced to another--physical beauty. Probably the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought. Both originated in envy, thrived in insecurity, and ended in disillusion." Yet the destructive power of these ideas is essentially colorblind, which gives The Bluest Eye the sort of universal reach that Morrison's imitators can only dream of. And that, combined with the novel's modulated pathos and musical, fine-grained language, makes for not merely a sophisticated debut but a permanent one. --James Marcus [via]
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Breakfast of Championsby Kurt VonnegutISBN 0224008889 (0-224-00888-9)
Hardcover, Cape
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Breakfast of Champions'Book summary:"We are healthy only to the extent that our ideas are humane." So reads the tombstone of downtrodden writer Kilgore Trout, but we have no doubt who's really talking: his alter ego Kurt Vonnegut. Health versus sickness, humanity versus inhumanity--both sets of ideas bounce through this challenging and funny book. As with the rest of Vonnegut's pure fantasy, it lacks the shimmering, fact-fueled rage that illuminates Slaughterhouse-Five. At the same time, that makes this book perhaps more enjoyable to read.
Breakfast of Champions is a slippery, lucid, bleakly humorous jaunt through (sick? inhumane?) America circa 1973, with Vonnegut acting as our Virgil-like companion. The book follows its main character, auto-dealing solid-citizen Dwayne Hoover, down into madness, a condition brought on by the work of the aforementioned Kilgore Trout. As Dwayne cracks, then crumbles, Breakfast of Champions coolly shows the effects his dementia has on the web of characters surrounding him. It's not much of a plot, but it's enough for Vonnegut to air unique opinions on America, sex, war, love, and all of his other pet topics--you know, the only ones that really count. [via]
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Briefing for a Descent into Hellby Doris May LessingISBN 0224005073 (0-224-00507-3)
Hardcover, Cape
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Captains Courageousby Rudyard Kipling, Leonee OrmondISBN 0192837400 (0-19-283740-0)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Captains Courageous'Book summary:Harvey Cheyne is the over-indulged son of a millionaire. When he falls overboard from an ocean liner her is rescued by a Portuguese fisherman and, initially against his will, joins the crew of the We're Here for a summer. Through the medium of an exciting adventure story, Captain's Courageous (1897) deals with a boy who, like Mowgli in The Jungle Book, is thrown into an entirely alien environment. This is the only edition of the novel in print, and it offers a stimulating introduction and detailed notes which help readers navigate among the historical, geographical, and maritime references found in the book. [via]
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The Card Level 3by Arnold BennettISBN 019422998X (0-19-422998-X)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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Chekhov, Five Major Playsby Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, Ronald HingleyISBN 0195022505 (0-19-502250-5)
Hardcover, Oxford University Press
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The Complete Short Stories of H.G. Wellsby H. G. WellsISBN 0312158556 (0-312-15855-6)
Hardcover, St Martins Pr
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The Complete Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea a New Translation of Jules Verne's Science Fiction Classicby Jules Verne, Emanuel J. MickelISBN 0253338107 (0-253-33810-7)
Hardcover, Indiana Univ Pr
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The Complete Works of Oscar Wildeby Oscar Wilde, Ian Small, Russell Jackson, Bobby FongISBN 0198119607 (0-19-811960-7)
Hardcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde'Book summary:This volume of Poems and Poems in Prose inaugurates the Oxford English Texts Complete Works of Oscar Wilde. It provides texts of Wilde's one-hundred and nineteen poems and poems in prose, including twenty-one never published in his lifetime, together with the publishing history of each poem, and a detailed commentary on allusions and echoes, imagery, and points of biographical interest. [via]
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The Complete Works Of Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray, The 1890 and 1891 Textsby Oscar Wilde, Ian Small, Russell Jackson, Joseph BristowISBN 0198187726 (0-19-818772-6)
Hardcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Complete Works Of Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray, The 1890 and 1891 Texts'Book summary:This is the third volume in the Oxford English Texts edition of the works of Oscar Wilde. This definitive variorum edition of Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray reprints the thirteen-chapter and twenty-chapter versions of this famous story as separate works. The volume provides readers with the most detailed account available of the considerable changes that Wilde made to a controversial narrative that appeared in two, very different editions in 1890 and 1891 respectively. [via]
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A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Courtby Mark Twain, M. Thomas IngeISBN 0192839020 (0-19-283902-0)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court'Book summary:A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is one of Twain's best-loved tales. A pioneering work of science fiction, it vibrates with slapstick comedy and serious social commentary as well. In this complex and ambitious tour de force, an inventive nineteenth-century resident of Hartford named Hank Morgan travels back in time to sixteenth-century England where he tries to introduce modern technology and political ideas. Along the way he founds the first tabloid, the Camelot Weekly Hosannah and Literary Volcano, organizes a game of baseball between armor-clad knights, and "keeps up a steady fire of flippancies, so frequent that no reader registers all of them on the first go-around," as Louis Budd reminds us in his introduction. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is Twain's most complex and disturbing meditation on technology, as well as a powerful consideration of politics and power. The original illustrations by Dan Beard, chosen by Twain himself to illustrate the book, brilliantly mix buffoonery with sharp social satire in an effective counterpoint to the text. By turns side-splittingly funny and somberly thought-provoking, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is Twain at his finest. [via]
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A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889by Mark Twain, Shelley Fisher FishkinISBN 0195114108 (0-19-511410-8)
Hardcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889'Book summary:One of Twain's best-loved stories next to his classic tales of Huck and Tom, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court vibrates with slapstick comedy and serious social commentary. While Hank Morgan, Twain's time-displaced Yankee traveler, keeps up a steady stream of flippancies, founding the first tabloid, the Camelot Weekly Hosannah and Literary Volcano, and organizing a game of baseball between armor-clad knights, he also keeps up a steady commentary on the social mores of King Arthur's court, criticizing the hereditary social classes and state church still strong in the Victorian England of Twain's own day, and championing women's suffrage and union labor organization. Widely regarded as one of the first science fiction novels, this edition also features an introduction by Kurt Vonnegut, our own twentieth century master of satiric social commentary and science fiction. It also features the original illustrations by Dan Beard, chosen by Twain himself to illustrate the book, whose drawings brilliantly mix buffoonery with sharp social satire: sharp-eyed readers, for instance, will spot that the model for Merlin, Hank's nemesis, is none other than Tennyson, whose Idylls of the King made the romantic vision of King Arthur's court nearly a sacred Victorian cult. By turns side-splittingly funny and somberly thought-provoking, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is Twain at his finest. [via]
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Crime and Punishmentby Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Jessie Coulson, Richard Arthur PeaceISBN 0192833839 (0-19-283383-9)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Crime and Punishment'Book summary:Crime and Punishment is one of the most important novels of the nineteenth century. It is the story of a murder committed on principle, of a killer who wishes to set himself outside and above society. The novel is marked by Dostoevsky's own harrowing experience in penal servitude, and yet contains moments of wild humor. This new edition of the authoritative and readable Coulson translation comes with a challenging new introduction and notes that elucidate many of the novel's most important--and difficult--aspects. [via]
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Daisy Miller and Other Storiesby Henry JamesISBN 0192835432 (0-19-283543-2)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Daisy Miller and Other Stories'Book summary:The tale of Daisy's irruption into staid European society enjoyed, as did Daisy herself, a succès de scandale; and it has remained one of Jamess most popular short stories. Like the others collected here--'Pandora,' 'The Patagonia,' and 'Four Meetings'-- it describes a confrontation between different values in a changing world. Is the new independent American girl enchanting in her spontaneity, alarming in her unpredictability, or merely vulnerable in her ignorance of social codes? Hung about with make admirers who seek, uncertainly, to grasp the new phenomenon, Daisy marches on undiscourageable, to her triumphant--or tragic--destiny.
This volume contains prefaces by Henry James, a chronology of his life, and editor's notes. [via]More editions of Daisy Miller and Other Stories:
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The Day of the Triffidsby Pauline Francis, John WyndhamISBN 0237525364 (0-237-52536-4)
Softcover, Evans Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Day of the Triffids'Book summary:The triffids are a monstrous species of stinging plant; they walk, they talk, they dominate the world. The narrator of this novel wakes up in hospital to find that, by missing the end of the world, he has survived to witness a new world. But the new world that awaits him is fantastic and horrific. [via]
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Death in Veniceby Thomas Mann, Naomi RitterISBN 0312120028 (0-312-12002-8)
Softcover, Bedford/st Martins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Death in Venice'Book summary:This critical edition of Thomas Manns 1912 German modernist novella reprints the widely praised translation by David Luke together with critical essays that approach the work from 5 contemporary critical perspectives and highly praised editorial apparatus that introduces students to the novel and the perspectives.[via]More editions of Death in Venice:
The Diary of a Nobodyby George Grossmith, Weedon Grossmith, Kate FlintISBN 0192833278 (0-19-283327-8)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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Die Physikerby Friedrich DurrenmattISBN 0195009088 (0-19-500908-8)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Die Physiker'Book summary:Contains the complete text of a new satire written in the form of a mystery drama. [via]
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The Europeansby Henry James, Ian Campbell RossISBN 0192835009 (0-19-283500-9)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Europeans'Book summary:Eugenia, an expatriated American, is the morganatic wife of a German prince, who is about to reject her in favor of a state marriage. With her artist brother Felix Young she travels to Boston to visit relatives she has never before seen, in hopes of making a wealthy marriage. The men of Boston soon realize her deceitfulness, and she returns to Europe, feeling that her fortune-hunting scheme is impractical in unsusceptible America.
Its wit, gaiety, and what Rebecca West calls its "clear sunlit charm" have made this masterly short novel the most popular of James's novels. [via]More editions of The Europeans:
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Five Plays: Ivanov, the Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, and the Cherry Orchardby Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, Ronald HingleyISBN 0192834126 (0-19-283412-6)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Five Plays: Ivanov, the Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, and the Cherry Orchard'Book summary:Chekhov's worldwide reputation as a dramatist rests on five great plays: ivanov, the seagull, uncle vanya, three sisters, and the cherry orchard. All are presented in this collection, taken from the authoritative oxford chekhov, in ronald hingley's acclaimed translation. Hingley has also written an introduction specifically for this volume in which he provides a detailed history of chekhov's involvement in the theater and an assessment of his accomplishment as a dramatist [via]
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Flaubert's Parrotby Julian BarnesISBN 0224022229 (0-224-02222-9)
Hardcover, J. Cape
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Flaubert's Parrot'Book summary:Just what sort of book is Flaubert's Parrot, anyway? A literary biography of 19th-century French novelist, radical, and intellectual impresario Gustave Flaubert? A meditation on the uses and misuses of language? A novel of obsession, denial, irritation, and underhanded connivery? A thriller complete with disguises, sleuthing, mysterious meetings, and unknowing targets? An extended essay on the nature of fiction itself?
On the surface, at first, Julian Barnes's book is the tale of an elderly English doctor's search for some intriguing details of Flaubert's life. Geoffrey Braithwaite seems to be involved in an attempt to establish whether a particularly fine, lovely, and ancient stuffed parrot is in fact one originally "borrowed by G. Flaubert from the Museum of Rouen and placed on his worktable during the writing of Un coeur simple, where it is called Loulou, the parrot of Felicité, the principal character of the tale."
What begins as a droll and intriguing excursion into the minutiae of Flaubert's life and intellect, along with an attempt to solve the small puzzle of the parrot--or rather parrots, for there are two competing for the title of Gustave's avian confrere--soon devolves into something obscure and worrisome, the exploration of an arcane Braithwaite obsession that is perhaps even pathological. The first hint we have that all is not as it seems comes almost halfway into the book, when after a humorously cantankerous account of the inadequacies of literary critics, Braithwaite closes a chapter by saying, "Now do you understand why I hate critics? I could try and describe to you the expression in my eyes at this moment; but they are far too discoloured with rage." And from that point, things just get more and more curious, until they end in the most unexpected bang.
One passage perhaps best describes the overall effect of this extraordinary story: "You can define a net in one of two ways, depending on your point of view. Normally, you would say that it is a meshed instrument designed to catch fish. But you could, with no great injury to logic, reverse the image and define the net as a jocular lexicographer once did: he called it a collection of holes tied together with string." Julian Barnes demonstrates that it is possible to catch quite an interesting fish no matter how you define the net. --Andrew Himes [via]
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Generation Xby Douglas CouplandISBN 031205436X (0-312-05436-X)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Generation X'Book summary:Generation X should feel dated--its title is no longer a part of the zeitgeist, and the generation it defined has been irrevocably changed. Gen Xers--the post-boomers born in the 1960s and even the late '50s--are no longer the socially terrified twentysomethings that populate Douglas Coupland's first and finest novel. The economic boom of the late 1990s dragged them out of their McJobs and back into the corporate world, transforming them into younger versions of the yuppies that Coupland lampoons so well. Surprisingly, though, the culture that is described in Generation X has not changed all that much; it has simply been passed on, in an Internet-friendly form, to the latest crop of bright young things.
Those who missed Generation X when it first appeared may be surprised to find that most of the associations that have been tacked on to its catchphrase title are not present in the novel. Coupland's characters--Dag, Claire, and Andy, three young neurotics from "good" upper-middle-class homes--are not financially ambitious, but they are not slackers either. Rather than drearily complaining that there is nothing worth doing, they are trying very hard to make sense of their lives and their culture. They do this by telling stories to each other, desperately and sincerely. Andy likens his friends' need for storytelling to the proceedings of an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting:
"Never be afraid to cough up a bit of diseased lung for the spectators," said a man who sat next to me at a meeting once, a man with skin like a half-cooked pie crust and who had five grown children who would no longer return his phone calls: "How are people ever going to help themselves if they can't grab onto a fragment of your own horror? People want that little fragment, they need it. That little piece of lung makes their own fragments less scary." I'm still looking for a description of storytelling as vital as this.
Storytelling is an ancient invention; Coupland simply restates its importance in a world of short attention spans and jump-cutting media. This side of Generation X hasn't aged at all and isn't likely to. And the other, better-known side of the novel--Coupland's razor-sharp cultural field guide--will remain relevant as long as university graduates still have to choose between economic uncertainty and corporate monoculture and still respond by refusing to grow up in conventional ways. Anyone who has avoided Generation X because of its unfortunate association with a few demographic buzzwords should consider giving Coupland a second look. --Jack Illingworth [via] -
The Glass Bead Gameby Hermann Hesse, Richard Winston, Clara WinstonISBN 0312278497 (0-312-27849-7)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Glass Bead Game'Book summary:The final novel of Hermann Hesse, for which he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946, The Glass Bead Game is a fascinating tale of the complexity of modern life as well as a classic of modern literature[via]
Set in the 23rd century, The Glass Bead Game is the story of Joseph Knecht, who has been raised in Castalia, the remote place his society has provided for the intellectual elite to grow and flourish. Since childhood, Knecht has been consumed with mastering the Glass Bead Game, which requires a synthesis of aesthetics and scientific arts, such as mathematics, music, logic, and philosophy, which he achieves in adulthood, becoming a Magister Ludi (Master of the Game).More editions of The Glass Bead Game:
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The Glass Bead Game (Magister Ludi)by Hermann HesseISBN 022461844X (0-224-61844-X)
Hardcover, Cape
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Glass Bead Game (Magister Ludi)'Book summary:The Glass Bead Game, for which Hesse won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946, is the authors last and crowning achievement, the most imaginative and prophetic of all his novels. Setting the story in the distant postapocalyptic future, Hesse tells of an elite cult of intellectuals who play an elaborate game that uses all the cultural and scientific knowledge of the Ages. The Glass Bead Game is a fascinating tale of the complexity of modern life as well as a classic of modern literature.[via]
This edition features a Foreword by Theodore Ziolkowski that places the book in the full context of Hesses thought.More editions of The Glass Bead Game (Magister Ludi):
The Good Companionsby J. B. PriestleyISBN 0226682234 (0-226-68223-4)
Softcover, Univ of Chicago Pr
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The Good Soldierby Thomas C. Moser, Ford Madox FordISBN 019283620X (0-19-283620-X)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Good Soldier'Book summary:First published in 1915, Ford Madox Ford's The Good Soldier begins, famously and ominously, "This is the saddest story I have ever heard." The book then proceeds to confute this pronouncement at every turn, exposing a world less sad than pathetic, and more shot through with hypocrisy and deceit than its incredulous narrator, John Dowell, cares to imagine. Somewhat forgotten as a classic, The Good Soldier has been called everything from the consummate novelist's novel to one of the greatest English works of the century. And although its narrative hook--the philandering of an otherwise noble man--no longer shocks, its unerring cadences and doleful inevitabilities proclaim an enduring appeal.
Ford's novel revolves around two couples: Edward Ashburnham--the title's soldier--and his capable if off-putting wife, Leonora; and long-transplanted Americans John and Florence Dowell. The foursome's ostensible amiability, on display as they pass parts of a dozen pre-World War I summers together in Germany, conceals the fissures in each marriage. John is miserably mismatched with the garrulous, cuckolding Florence; and Edward, dashing and sentimental, can't refrain from falling in love with women whose charms exceed Leonora's. Predictably, Edward and Florence conduct their affair, an indiscretion only John seems not to notice. After the deaths of the two lovers, and after Leonora explains much of the truth to John, he recounts the events of their four lives with an extended inflection of outrage. From his retrospective perch, his recollections simmer with a bitter skepticism even as he expresses amazement at how much he overlooked.
Dowell's resigned narration is flawlessly conversational--haphazard, sprawling, lusting for sympathy. He exudes self-preservation even as he alternately condemns and lionizes Edward: "If I had had the courage and the virility and possibly also the physique of Edward Ashburnham I should, I fancy, have done much what he did." Stunningly, Edward's adultery comes to seem not merely excusable, but almost sublime. "Perhaps he could not bear to see a woman and not give her the comfort of his physical attractions," John surmises. Ford's novel deserves its reputation if for no other reason than the elegance with which it divulges hidden lives. --Ben Guterson [via]
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The Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the Worldby Haruki MurakamiISBN 0241131448 (0-241-13144-8)
Hardcover, Hamish Hamilton
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World'Book summary:By the author of "A Wild Sheep Chase", which won the Noma Literary Award for New Writers, this novel combines science-fiction, satire and a warning of the dangerous powers of corporations. [via]
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The Hound of the Baskervillesby Arthur Conan Doyle, W.W. RobsonISBN 019283519X (0-19-283519-X)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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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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The Hound of the Baskervilles: Stage 4 1,400 Headwordsby Arthur Conan Doyle, Patrick Nobes, Jennifer BassetISBN 019423035X (0-19-423035-X)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Hound of the Baskervilles: Stage 4 1,400 Headwords'Book summary:Dartmoor. A wild, wet place in the Southwest of England. A place where it is easy to get lost, and to fall into the soft green earth which can pull the strongest man down to his death. A man is running for his life. Behind him comes an enormous dog - a dog from his worst dreams, a dog from hell. Between him and a terrible death stands only one person - the greatest detective of all time, Sherlock Holmes. [via]
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The House of Mirthby Edith Wharton, Martha BantaISBN 0192835793 (0-19-283579-3)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The House of Mirth'Book summary:"The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth," warns Ecclesiastes 7:4, and so does the novel by Edith Wharton that takes its title from this call to heed. New York at the turn of the century was a time of opulence and frivolity for those who could afford it. But for those who couldn't and yet wanted desperately to keep up with the whirlwind, like Wharton's charming Lily Bart, it was something else altogether: a gilded cage rather than the Gilded Age.
One of Wharton's earliest descriptions of her heroine, in the library of her bachelor friend and sometime suitor Lawrence Selden, indicates that she appears "as though she were a captured dryad subdued to the conventions of the drawing room." Indeed, herein lies Lily's problem. She has, we're told, "been brought up to be ornamental," and yet her spirit is larger than what this ancillary role requires. By today's standards she would be nothing more than a mild rebel, but in the era into which Wharton drops her unmercifully, this tiny spark of character, combined with numerous assaults by vicious society women and bad luck, ultimately renders Lily persona non grata. Her own ambivalence about her position serves to open the door to disaster: several times she is on the verge of "good" marriage and squanders it at the last moment, unwilling to play by the rules of a society that produces, as she calls them, "poor, miserable, marriageable girls.
Lily's rather violent tumble down the social ladder provides a thumbnail sketch of the general injustices of the upper classes (which, incidentally, Wharton never quite manages to condemn entirely, clearly believing that such life is cruel but without alternative). From her start as a beautiful woman at the height of her powers to her sad finale as a recently fired milliner's assistant addicted to sleeping drugs, Lily Bart is heroic, not least for her final admission of her own role in her downfall. "Once--twice--you gave me the chance to escape from my life and I refused it: refused it because I was a coward," she tells Selden as the book draws to a close. All manner of hideous socialite beasts--some of whose treatment by Wharton, such as the token social-climbing Jew, Simon Rosedale, date the book unfortunately--wander through the novel while Lily plummets. As her tale winds down to nothing more than the remnants of social grace and cold hard cash, it's hard not to agree with Lily's own assessment of herself: "I have tried hard--but life is difficult, and I am a very useless person. I can hardly be said to have an independent existence. I was just a screw or a cog in the great machine I called life, and when I dropped out of it I found I was of no use anywhere else." Nevertheless, it's even harder not to believe that she deserved better, which is why The House of Mirth remains so timely and so vital in spite of its crushing end and its unflattering portrait of what life offers up. --Melanie Rehak [via]
The Illustrated Zuleika Dobson, Or, An Oxford Love Storyby Max BeerbohmISBN 0300033893 (0-300-03389-3)
Hardcover, Yale University Press
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The Inspector Barlach Mysteries: The Judge And His Hangman And Suspicionby Friedrich Durrenmatt, Joel Agee, Sven BirkertsISBN 0226174441 (0-226-17444-1)
Softcover, Univ of Chicago Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Inspector Barlach Mysteries: The Judge And His Hangman And Suspicion'Book summary:This volume offers bracing new translations of two precursors to the modern detective novel by Friedrich Dürrenmatt, whose genre-bending mysteries recall the work of Alain Robbe-Grillet and anticipate the postmodern fictions of Paul Auster and other contemporary neo-noir novelists. Both mysteries follow Inspector Barlach as he moves through worlds in which the distinction between crime and justice seems to have vanished. In The Judge and His Hangman, Barlach forgoes the arrest of a murderer in order to manipulate him into killing another, more elusive criminal. And in Suspicion, Barlach pursues a former Nazi doctor by checking into his clinic with the hope of forcing him to reveal himself. The result is two thrillers that bring existential philosophy and the detective genre into dazzling convergence.[via]More editions of The Inspector Barlach Mysteries: The Judge And His Hangman And Suspicion:
Journey from Jim Crow: The Desegregation of Southern Transitby Catherine A. BarnesISBN 0231053800 (0-231-05380-0)
Hardcover, Columbia University Press
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The Jungleby Christopher Phelps, Upton Beall SinclairISBN 0312400373 (0-312-40037-3)
Softcover, Bedford/st Martins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Jungle'Book summary:Upton Sinclairs novel The Jungle, which inspired passage in 1906 of the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act, stands as a classic of twentieth-century American literature and social protest. In this accessible and thorough edition by Christopher Phelps, a critical introduction addresses the wide range of issues raised by the text, including early twentieth-century working conditions, immigrant community, race and gender, political reform, and the continuing relevance of Sinclairs investigation. This edition uses the most widely recognized text of The Jungle the Doubleday, Page edition published in 1906 and provides an illuminating supporting document: President Theodore Roosevelts delivery to Congress of the official report that confirmed The Jungles shocking allegations about the Chicago meatpacking industry. Questions for consideration, a chronology, and a selected bibliography help contextualize Sinclairs novel and provide students with resources for further study.[via]More editions of The Jungle:
The Jungleby James R. Barrett, Upton Beall SinclairISBN 0252014944 (0-252-01494-4)
Hardcover, Univ of Illinois Pr
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The Jungleby Upton Beall SinclairISBN 0252014804 (0-252-01480-4)
Softcover, Univ of Illinois Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Jungle'Book summary:Upton Sinclair's The Jungle is a vivid portrait of life and death in a turn-of-the-century American meat-packing factory. A grim indictment that led to government regulations of the food industry, The Jungle is Sinclair's extraordinary contribution to literature and social reform. [via]
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Kimby Rudyard Kipling, Alan SandisonISBN 0192835130 (0-19-283513-0)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Kim'Book summary:La gran novela de Kipling y una de las grandes novelas inglesas del XX.
[via]
Kim es sin duda la gran novela del Premio Nobel Rudyard Kipling. Publicada en 1901. Cuenta la historia de un chico, huérfano de un soldado del regimiento irlandés. Su nombre completo es Kimball OHara, pero se le conoce como Kim. La novela tiene lugar en la India, cuando era aún una colonia británica. Kim pasa su infancia en Lahore donde se encuentra a un lama tibetano que se propone encontrar un río místico. Kim le acompañará en su viaje, durante el que se encontrará al regimiento de su padre, que le adoptará y le enviará a la escuela, aunque en sus vacaciones continuará con su búsqueda. Con el tiempo, Kim será seleccionado por el Coronel Creighton como joven promesa para los servicios secretos. Bajo las órdenes del indio Huree Babu se convierte en un distinguido miembro del los servicios secretos, obteniendo unos papeles de espías rusos en el Himalaya. La novela es una maravillosa evocación de la vida en la India bajo el dominio británico y en última instancia el retrato de un alma dividida entre Oriente y Occidente. 
King, Queen, Knaveby Vladimir Vladimirovich NabokovISBN 0297761773 (0-297-76177-3)
Hardcover, Weidenfeld & Nicolson
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Les Liaisons Dangereusesby Choderlos De Laclos, Douglas ParmeeISBN 0192838679 (0-19-283867-9)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Les Liaisons Dangereuses'Book summary:The complex moral ambiguities of seduction and revenge make Les Liaisons dangereuses 1782 one of the most scandalous and controversial novels in European literature. Its prime movers, the Vicomte de Valmont and the Marquise de Merteuil--gifted, wealthy, and bored--form an unholy alliance and turn seduction into a game. And they play this game with such wit and style that it is impossible not to admire them, until they discover mysterious rules that they cannot understand. In the ensuing battle there can be no winners, and the innocent suffer with the guilty. This new translation gives Laclos a modern voice, and readers will be able to judge whether the novel is as "diabolical" and "infamous" as its critics have claimed, or whether it has much to tell us about a world we still inhabit. [via]
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The Life of a Useless Manby Maxim GorkyISBN 0233963480 (0-233-96348-0)
Hardcover, Deutsch
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The Midwich Cuckoosby Pauline Francis, John WyndhamISBN 0237526891 (0-237-52689-1)
Softcover, Evans Publishing Group
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Moby Dickby Herman Melville, Tony TannerISBN 0192833855 (0-19-283385-5)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Moby Dick'Book summary:This innovative, scholarly edition of Moby Dick offers unprecedented access to the revisions Herman Melville made to the original 1851 American version of the novel and illuminates all changes which scholars have made to create the classic that readers know today. The fluid text feature illuminates the personal, social, and cultural context of Melvilles writing process, right on the page, while also offering fresh contextual notes, illustrations, and other apparatus to make this the most reader-friendly and therefore most teachable edition available today.
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The Naked and the Deadby Norman MailerISBN 0312265050 (0-312-26505-0)
Softcover, Picador USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Naked and the Dead'Book summary:Hailed as one of the finest novels to come out of the Second World War, The Naked and the Dead received unprecedented critical acclaim upon its publication and has since become part of the American canon. This fiftieth anniversary edition features a new introduction created especially doe the occasion by Norman Mailer.[via]
Written in gritty, journalistic detail, the story follows an army platoon of foot soldiers who are fighting for the possession of the Japanese-held island of Anopopei. Composed in 1948, The Naked and the Dead is representative of the best in twentieth-century American writing.More editions of The Naked and the Dead:
Night and Dayby Virginia Woolf, Suzanne RaittISBN 0192837842 (0-19-283784-2)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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O Pioneers!by Willa Cather, Marilee LindemannISBN 0192832166 (0-19-283216-6)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'O Pioneers!'Book summary:O Pioneers!, Willa Cather's second novel, tells the story of an immigrant family's struggle to save their Nebraska farm. Cather's placement of a strong and capable woman at the center of the story, her realistic depiction of life on the midwestern prairie, and her vivid portrayal of the immigrant experience at the turn of the century make O Pioneers! a true American classic. [via]
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Orlando: A Biographyby Virginia WoolfISBN 0192834738 (0-19-283473-8)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr on Demand
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Orlando: A Biography'Book summary:In 1928, way before everyone else was talking about gender-bending and way, way before the terrific movie with Tilda Swinton, Virginia Woolf wrote her comic masterpiece, a fantastic, fanciful love letter disguised as a biography, to Vita Sackville-West. Orlando enters the book as an Elizabethan nobleman and leaves the book three centuries and one change of gender later as a liberated woman of the 1920s. Along the way this most rambunctious of Woolf's characters engages in sword fights, trades barbs with 18th century wits, has a baby, and drives a car. This is a deliriously written, breathless-making book and a classic both of lesbian literature and the Western canon. [via]
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The Painted Veilby W. Somerset MaughamISBN 0307277771 (0-307-27777-1)
Softcover, Vintage Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Painted Veil'Book summary:Set in England and Hong Kong in the 1920s, The Painted Veil is the story of the beautiful but love-starved Kitty Fane. When her husband discovers her adulterous affair, he forces her to accompany him to the heart of a cholera epidemic. Stripped of the British society of her youth and the small but effective society she fought so hard to attain in Hong Kong, she is compelled by her awakening conscience to reassess her life and learn how to love.
The Painted Veil is a beautifully written affirmation of the human capacity to grow, to change, and to forgive. [via]More editions of The Painted Veil:
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Perfumeby Patrick SuskindISBN 0307277763 (0-307-27776-3)
Softcover, Knopf Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Perfume'Book summary:An acclaimed bestseller and international sensation, Patrick Suskind's classic novel provokes a terrifying examination of what happens when one man's indulgence in his greatest passionhis sense of smellleads to murder.
In the slums of eighteenth-century France, the infant Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with one sublime gift-an absolute sense of smell. As a boy, he lives to decipher the odors of Paris, and apprentices himself to a prominent perfumer who teaches him the ancient art of mixing precious oils and herbs. But Grenouille's genius is such that he is not satisfied to stop there, and he becomes obsessed with capturing the smells of objects such as brass doorknobs and frest-cut wood. Then one day he catches a hint of a scent that will drive him on an ever-more-terrifying quest to create the "ultimate perfume"the scent of a beautiful young virgin. Told with dazzling narrative brillance, Perfume is a hauntingly powerful tale of murder and sensual depravity.
Translated from the German by John E. Woods. [via]More editions of Perfume:
The Physicistsby Friedrich DurrenmattISBN 0224009133 (0-224-00913-3)
Hardcover, Cape
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The Picture of Dorian Grayby Oscar Wilde, Isobel MurrayISBN 0192833650 (0-19-283365-0)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'Book summary:A lush, cautionary tale of a life of vileness and deception or a loving portrait of the aesthetic impulse run rampant? Why not both? After Basil Hallward paints a beautiful, young man's portrait, his subject's frivolous wish that the picture change and he remain the same comes true. Dorian Gray's picture grows aged and corrupt while he continues to appear fresh and innocent. After he kills a young woman, "as surely as if I had cut her little throat with a knife," Dorian Gray is surprised to find no difference in his vision or surroundings. "The roses are not less lovely for all that. The birds sing just as happily in my garden."
As Hallward tries to make sense of his creation, his epigram-happy friend Lord Henry Wotton encourages Dorian in his sensual quest with any number of Wildean paradoxes, including the delightful "When we are happy we are always good, but when we are good we are not always happy." But despite its many languorous pleasures, The Picture of Dorian Gray is an imperfect work. Compared to the two (voyeuristic) older men, Dorian is a bore, and his search for ever new sensations far less fun than the novel's drawing-room discussions. Even more oddly, the moral message of the novel contradicts many of Wilde's supposed aims, not least "no artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style." Nonetheless, the glamour boy gets his just deserts. And Wilde, defending Dorian Gray, had it both ways: "All excess, as well as all renunciation, brings its own punishment." [via]
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The Portrait of a Ladyby Henry James, Nicola BradburyISBN 0192833693 (0-19-283369-3)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Portrait of a Lady'Book summary:When Isabel Archer, a young American with looks, wit, and imagination, arrives in Europe, she sees the world as "a place of brightness," full of possibility. Rejecting suitors who offer her wealth and devotion, she follows her own path and finds it leads to a dark and constricted future. The Portrait of a Lady is the masterpiece of James's middle period, and Isabel is his most engaging central character. This edition provides a new introduction and notes, and includes Henry James's own Preface. [via]
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The Rainbowby D. H. Lawrence, Kate FlintISBN 0192835246 (0-19-283524-6)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Rainbow'Book summary:In The Rainbow (1915) Lawrence challenged the customary limitations of language and convention to carry into the structures of his prose the fascination with boundaries and space that characterize the entire novel. Condemned and suppressed on first publication for its open treatment of sexuality and its "unpatriotic" spirit, the novel chronicles the lives of three generations of the Brangwen family over a period of more than 60 years, setting them against the the emergence of modern England. [via]
Riceyman Stepsby BennettISBN 0304931527 (0-304-93152-7)
Hardcover, Cassell
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Robinson Crusoeby Daniel Defoe, Thomas Keymer, James KellyISBN 0192833421 (0-19-283342-1)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Robinson Crusoe'Book summary:This popular series of readers has now been completely revised and updated, using a new syllabus and new word structure lists. Readability has been ensured by means of specially designed computer software. Words that are above level but essential to the story are explained within the text, illustrated, and then reused for maximum reinforcement. [via]
More editions of Robinson Crusoe:
- Robinson Crusoe: ISBN 0195853369 (0-19-585336-9)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr - Robinson Crusoe: ISBN 0237522837 (0-237-52283-7)
Softcover, Evans Publishing Group - Robinson Crusoe: ISBN 0192833820 (0-19-283382-0)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr - Robinson Crusoe: ISBN 019422984X (0-19-422984-X)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr - Robinson Crusoe: ISBN 0192833421 (0-19-283342-1)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
- Robinson Crusoe: ISBN 0195853369 (0-19-585336-9)
Seven Pillars of Wisdomby T. E. LawrenceISBN 022400896X (0-224-00896-X)
Hardcover, Cape
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Shameby Salman Rushdie, Salman RudhdieISBN 0312270933 (0-312-27093-3)
Softcover, Picador USA
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Sister Carrieby Theodore Dreiser, Lee Clark MitchellISBN 0192835742 (0-19-283574-2)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Sister Carrie'Book summary:Sister Carrie, Theodore Dreiser's revolutionary first novel, was published in 1900--sort of. The story of Carrie Meeber, an 18-year-old country girl who moves to Chicago and becomes a kept woman, was strong stuff at the turn of the century, and what Dreiser's wary publisher released was a highly expurgated version. Times change, and we now have a restored "author's cut" of Sister Carrie that shows how truly ahead of his time Dreiser was. First and foremost, he has written an astute, nonmoralizing account of a woman and her limited options in late-19th-century America. That's impressive in and of itself, but Dreiser doesn't stop there. Digging deeply into the psychological underpinnings of his characters, he gives us people who are often strangers to themselves, drifting numbly until fate pushes them on a path they can later neither defend nor even remember choosing.
Dreiser's story unfolds in the measured cadences of an earlier era. This sometimes works brilliantly as we follow the choices, small and large, that lead some characters to doom and others to glory. On the other hand, the middle chapters--of which there are many--do drag somewhat, even when one appreciates Dreiser's intentions. If you can make it through the sagging midsection, however, you'll be rewarded by Sister Carrie's last 150 pages, which depict the harrowing downward spiral of one of the book's central characters. Here Dreiser portrays with brutal power how the wrong decision--or lack of decision--can lay waste to a life. --Rebecca Gleason [via]
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Sons and Loversby D. H. Lawrence, David TrotterISBN 0192838601 (0-19-283860-1)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Sons and Lovers'Book summary:Sons and Lovers was the first modern portrayal of a phenomenon that later, thanks to Freud, became easily recognizable as the Oedipus complex. Never was a son more indentured to his mother's love and full of hatred for his father than Paul Morel, D.H. Lawrence's young protagonist. Never, that is, except perhaps Lawrence himself. In his 1913 novel he grappled with the discordant loves that haunted him all his life--for his spiritual childhood sweetheart, here called Miriam, and for his mother, whom he transformed into Mrs. Morel. It is, by Lawrence's own account, a book aimed at depicting this woman's grasp: "as her sons grow up she selects them as lovers--first the eldest, then the second. These sons are urged into life by their reciprocal love of their mother--urged on and on. But when they come to manhood, they can't love, because their mother is the strongest power in their lives."
Of course, Mrs. Morel takes neither of her two elder sons (the first of whom dies early, which further intensifies her grip on Paul) as a literal lover, but nonetheless her psychological snare is immense. She loathes Paul's Miriam from the start, understanding that the girl's deep love of her son will oust her: "She's not like an ordinary woman, who can leave me my share in him. She wants to absorb him." Meanwhile, Paul plays his part with equal fervor, incapable of committing himself in either direction: "Why did his mother sit at home and suffer?... And why did he hate Miriam, and feel so cruel towards her, at the thought of his mother. If Miriam caused his mother suffering, then he hated her--and he easily hated her." Soon thereafter he even confesses to his mother: "I really don't love her. I talk to her, but I want to come home to you."
The result of all this is that Paul throws Miriam over for a married suffragette, Clara Dawes, who fulfills the sexual component of his ascent to manhood but leaves him, as ever, without a complete relationship to challenge his love for his mother. As Paul voyages from the working-class mining world to the spheres of commerce and art (he has fair success as a painter), he accepts that his own achievements must be equally his mother's. "There was so much to come out of him. Life for her was rich with promise. She was to see herself fulfilled... All his work was hers."
The cycles of Paul's relationships with these three women are terrifying at times, and Lawrence does nothing to dim their intensity. Nor does he shirk in his vivid, sensuous descriptions of the landscape that offers up its blossoms and beasts and "shimmeriness" to Paul's sensitive spirit. Sons and Lovers lays fully bare the souls of men and earth. Few books tell such whole, complicated truths about the permutations of love as resolutely without resolution. It's nothing short of searing to be brushed by humanity in this manner. --Melanie Rehak [via]
The Spoils of Poyntonby Henry James, Bernard Arthur RichardsISBN 0192837796 (0-19-283779-6)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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A Summer of Faulkner: As I Lay Dying/ The Sound and the Fury/ Light in Augustby William FaulknerISBN 0307275329 (0-307-27532-9)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Summer of Faulkner: As I Lay Dying/ The Sound and the Fury/ Light in August'Book summary:The 2005 Summer Selection is available in an exclusive three volume boxed edition that includes a special readers guide with an introduction by Oprah Winfrey.
Titles include:
As I Lay Dying
This novel is the harrowing account of the Bundren familys odyssey across the Mississippi countryside to bury Addie, their wife and mother. Told in turns by each of the family membersincluding Addie herselfthe novel ranges in mood from dark comedy to the deepest pathos. Originally published in 1930.
The Sound and the Fury
First published in 1929, Faulkner created his hearts darling, the beautiful and tragic Caddy Compson, whose story Faulkner told through separate monologues by her three brothersthe idiot Benjy, the neurotic suicidal Quentin and the monstrous Jason.
Light in August
Light in August, a novel about hopeful perseverance in the face of mortality, features some of Faulkners most memorable characters: guileless, dauntless Lena Grove, in search of the father of her unborn child; Reverend Gail Hightower, who is plagued by visions of Confederate horsemen; and Joe Christmas, a desperate, mysterious drifter consumed by his mixed ancestry. Originally published in 1932.
Take a seat in Oprahs Classroom and sign up for Faulkner 101 on www.oprah.com/bookclub.
[via]More editions of A Summer of Faulkner: As I Lay Dying/ The Sound and the Fury/ Light in August:
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Turn of the Screwby Henry James, Tim LustigISBN 0192834045 (0-19-283404-5)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Turn of the Screw and Other Stories'Book summary:Whether viewed as a subtle, self-conscious exploration of the haunted house of Victorian culture, filled with echoes of sexual and social unease, or simply as "the most hopelessly evil story we have ever read," The Turn of the Screw is probably the most famous of ghostly tales and certainly the most eerily equivocal. This new edition includes three rarely reprinted ghost stories from the 1890s, "Sir Edmund Orme," "Owen Wingrave," and "The Friends of the Friends," as well as relevant extracts from James's notebooks and journals. [via]
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Turn of the Screwby Peter G. Beidler, Henry JamesISBN 0312080832 (0-312-08083-2)
Softcover, Bedford/st Martins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Turn of the Screw'Book summary:Henry James' short novels provide an overview of his entire career and serve as an excellent introduction to his singular art and imagination. This collection includes The Turn of the Screw, Daisy Miller, The Beast in the Jungle, An International Episode, The Aspern Papers and The Altar of the Dead. Major course adoption potential. [via]
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Typhoon and Other Talesby Joseph Conrad, Cedric WattsISBN 0192837877 (0-19-283787-7)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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Visitby Friedrich DurrenmattISBN 0224009176 (0-224-00917-6)
Hardcover, Cape
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The Voyage Outby Virginia Woolf, Lorna SageISBN 0192837117 (0-19-283711-7)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons (Opinions)by Kurt VonnegutISBN 022401076X (0-224-01076-X)
Hardcover, Cape
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons (Opinions)'Book summary:The bestselling author of Hocus Pocus offers a rare glimpse into his magic world, as he presents this indignant, outrageous, always witty, and deeply-felt collection of his reviews, essays, and speeches. "Vonnegut at his unnerving best."--Providence Bulletin. Reissue. [via]
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What Maisie Knewby Henry James, Adrian PooleISBN 0192835912 (0-19-283591-2)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'What Maisie Knew'Book summary:What Maisie Knew (1897) represents one of James's finest reflections on the rites of passage from wonder to knowledge, and the question of their finality. The child of violently divorced parents, Maisie Farange opens her eyes on a distinctly modern world. Mothers and fathers keep changing their partners and names, while she herself becomes the pretext for all sorts of adult sexual intrigue.
In this classic tale of the death of childhood, there is a savage comedy that owes much to Dickens. But for his portrayal of the child's capacity for intelligent `wonder', James summons all the subtlety he devotes elsewhere to his most celebrated adult protagonists. Neglected and exploited by everyone around her, Maisie inspires James to dwell with extraordinary acuteness on the things that may pass between adult and child. In addition to a new introduction, this edition of the novel offers particularly detailed notes, bibliography, and a list of variant readings. [via]More editions of What Maisie Knew:
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William Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dyingby Nicolas TredellISBN 0231121881 (0-231-12188-1)
Hardcover, Columbia Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'William Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying'Book summary:This Guide explores the wealth of critical material generated by these two exceptional works of modernist fiction. From the initially mixed critical responses to the novels in the early 1930s, the Guide follows the enormous growth of interest in Faulkner's work across six decades. New writings shaped by a range of critical theories are discussed, offering the reader a clear view of the place now given to one of America's most innovative and influential novelists.
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Winesburg, Ohioby Sherwood AndersonISBN 0192839772 (0-19-283977-2)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Winesburg, Ohio'Book summary:Winesburg, Ohio (1919) is Sherwood Anderson's masterpiece, a cycle of short stories concerning life in a small town at the end of the nineteenth century. At the center is George Willard, a young reporter who becomes the confidant of the town's solitary figures. Anderson's stories influenced countless American writers including Hemingway, Faulkner, Updike, Oates and Carver. This new edition corrects errors made in earlier editions and takes into account major criticism and textual scholarship of the last several decades. [via]
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A Wrinkle in Time: Library Editionby Madeleine L'EngleISBN 0312367546 (0-312-36754-6)
Softcover, Feiwel & Friends
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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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Urdu
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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secretsby J. K. Rowling, Darakhshanda Asghar KhokharISBN 0195798767 (0-19-579876-7)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'Book summary:This is an Urdu translation of the international best-seller, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, by J. K. Rowling. [via]
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Harry Potter Aur Azkaban Ka Qaidi / Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkabanby J. K. Rowling, Darakhshanda Asghar KhokharISBN 0195799151 (0-19-579915-1)
Hardcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Harry Potter Aur Azkaban Ka Qaidi / Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban'Book summary:This is the urdu version of the third book in the hugely popular series. It provides a faithful version of all present or potential readers of Urdu. [via]
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Spanish
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La Misteriosa Llama De La Reina Loanaby Umberto Eco, Helena Lozano MirallesISBN 0307350029 (0-307-35002-9)
Softcover, Random House Espanol
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› Find signed collectible books: 'La Misteriosa Llama De La Reina Loana'Book summary:Es triste despertarte una mañana en una cama de hospital y ser incapaz de reconocer a tu mujer y a tus hijos, abrir los ojos y no recordar cuál es tu profesión, ni dónde vives o cuáles son tus gustos a la hora de comer y beber. Esa es la desconcertante realidad de Giambattista Bodoni, Yambo para los amigos, un hombre de sesenta años que, tras sufrir un accidente, ha perdido por completo la memoria personal, la más ligada a las emociones, y en cambio conserva intacta la memoria histórica, así que sabe muy bien quién es Napoleón, pero ve su propia vida como si acabara de inaugurarla.
Para ayudarle en el proceso de recuperación, su esposa Paola insiste en que pase una temporada en el caserón de Solara, un pueblo en las colinas piamontesas. Ahí Yambo vivió su infancia, y en el desván están guardados los libros, los tebeos, los discos, los recortes de periódico y los carteles de las películas que lo acompañaron en los primeros años de su vida. Inicia así una labor casi detectivesca para reencontrarse con el pasado a través de estos objetos, que para él no son recuerdos sino hipótesis de trabajo, cosas nuevas que le hablan de un mundo que fue el suyo y el de todas las personas que vivieron en primera persona los momentos más importantes de la historia del siglo XX. Las fotos de Mussolini se juntan con las imágenes de Flash Gordon y Mandrake, Salgari le da la mano al ratón Mickey, y los negros uniformes de las juventudes fascistas se mezclan con las redacciones escolares de ese niño que fue Yambo, mientras el rostro de una mujer amada y el recuerdo de un crimen atroz asoman en la niebla. [via]More editions of La Misteriosa Llama De La Reina Loana:
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El Veijo y el Marby Ernest HemingwayISBN 0307274195 (0-307-27419-5)
Softcover, Random House Mondadori
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› Find signed collectible books: 'El Veijo y el Mar'Book summary:Una de las historias más grandes jamás contadas
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En Cuba, un viejo pescador ya en el crepúsculo de su vida, pobre y sin suerte, cansado de regresar cada día sin pesca, emprende una última y arriesgada travesía en busca de una gran pieza. Cuando al fin logra dar con ella, comienza una feroz lucha. Y el regreso a puerto, con el acoso de los elementos y los tiburones, se convierte en una última prueba. Como un rey mendigo, coronado por su imbatible dignidad, el viejo pescador culmina finalmente su destino.
En la cúspide de su maestría, Hemingway alumbró una historia en cuya sencillez vibra el clásico tema del valor ante la derrota, del triunfo personal sacado de la pérdida. El viejo y el mar lo confirmó como uno de los escritores más significativos del siglo XX, obteniendo el Premio Pulitzer y allanando su carrera hacia el Premio Nobel.More editions of El Veijo y el Mar:
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