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books tagged “nineteenth century”
books tagged “nineteenth century”
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The Americanby Henry JamesISBN 0393090914 (0-393-09091-4)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The American'Book summary:The text reprinted in this volume is based on an examination of the five printed versions of The American (first published in 1877) which appeared in James's lifetime, and it is preceded by his "Preface to the New York Edition" (1907).
The textual history of the novel is traced in A Note on the Text; a list of substantive variants and emendations; a facsimile manuscript page showing James's method of revision; and a list of the installments of the novel as they appeared in The Atlantic.
"Backgrounds and Sources" includes relevant extracts from correspondence, reviews, and articles by James and others, and from his Notebooks and Hawthorne.
"Contemporary Reception" of the novel is illustrated by twenty-one American and English reviews.
"Twentieth-Century Criticism" is represented in essays by Leon Edel, Oscar Cargill, Irving Howe, Richard Poirier, Royal A. Gettmann, and James W. Tuttleton.
A Selected Bibliography is included for further study. [via] -
Annotated Aliceby Martin Gardner, Lewis Carroll, John TennielISBN 0393048470 (0-393-04847-0)
Hardcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Annotated Alice'Book summary:"What is the use of a book," thought Alice, "without pictures or conversations!"
Readers who share Alice's taste in books will be more than satisfied with The Annotated Alice, a volume that includes not only pictures and conversations, but a thorough gloss on the text as well. There may be some, like G.K. Chesterton, who abhor the notion of putting Lewis Carroll's masterpiece under a microscope and analyzing it within an inch of its whimsical life. But as Martin Gardner points out in his introduction, so much of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass is composed of private jokes and details of Victorian manners and mores that modern audiences are not likely to catch. Yes, Alice can be enjoyed on its own merits, but The Annotated Alice appeals to the nosy parker in all of us. Thus we learn, for example, that the source of the mouse's tale may have been Alfred Lord Tennyson who "once told Carroll that he had dreamed a lengthy poem about fairies, which began with very long lines, then the lines got shorter and shorter until the poem ended with fifty or sixty lines of two syllables each." And that, contrary to popular belief, the Mad Hatter character was not a parody of then Prime Minister Gladstone, but rather was based on an Oxford furniture dealer named Theophilus Carter.
Gardner's annotations run the gamut from the factual and historical to the speculative and are, in their own way, quite as fascinating as the text they refer to. Occasionally, he even comments on himself, as when he quotes a fellow annotator of Alice, James Kincaid: "The historical context does not call for a gloss but the passage provides an opportunity to point out the ambivalence that may attend the central figure and her desire to grow up." And then follows with a charming riposte: "I thank Mr. Kincaid for supporting my own rambling." There's a lot of information in the margins (indeed, the page is pretty evenly divided between Carroll's text and Gardner's), but the ramblings turn out to be well worth the time. So hand over your old copy of Lewis Carroll's classic to the kids--this Alice in Wonderland is intended entirely for adults. --Alix Wilber [via]
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The Annotated Hunting of the Snark: The Full Text of Lewis Carroll's Great Nonsense Epic The Hunting of the Snarkby Lewis Carroll, Martin Gardner, Henry Holiday, Adam GopnikISBN 0393062422 (0-393-06242-2)
Hardcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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Anton Chekhov's Playsby Eugene K. Bristow, Anton Pavlovich ChekhovISBN 0393091635 (0-393-09163-5)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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Anton Chekhov's Selected Playsby Anton Chekhov, Laurence SenelickISBN 0393924653 (0-393-92465-3)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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Axel's Castle: A Study in the Imaginative Literature of 1870-1930by Edmund WilsonISBN 039330194X (0-393-30194-X)
Softcover, Norton
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Blue at the Mizzenby Patrick O'BrianISBN 039332107X (0-393-32107-X)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Blue at the Mizzen'Book summary:Almost three decades after commencing his maritime epic with Master and Commander, Patrick O'Brian is still at it. The 20th episode, Blue at the Mizzen, is another swashbuckling adventure on the high seas, complete with romantic escapades from smoggy London to Sierra Leone, diplomacy, espionage, the intricacies of warfare, and imperial brinksmanship. As always, these events are bound up in the ongoing friendship between two officers of the Royal Navy. Jack Aubrey is the naval captain, bold yet compassionate, innovative yet cautious, as fearless in war as he is bumbling in affairs of the heart and household. His boon companion Stephen Maturin is the ship's surgeon--and additionally a spy for the British government, a wealthy Catalonian aristocrat, a doting Irish father, and an avid naturalist.
That may sound like a lot to keep track of. However, it's not necessary to carry around a scorecard or ship's roster while reading Blue at the Mizzen. The ostensible issue is whether Jack will finally be promoted to Admiral of the Blue. But long before he hears any word from the Napoleonic era's equivalent of Personnel, he loses half his crew to desertion, his ship undergoes a disastrous collision, and the entire company comes close to perishing in the ice-choked seas off Cape Horn. Meanwhile, the widowed Maturin issues a surprising proposal of marriage to a beautiful, mud-bespattered fellow naturalist while trekking through an African mangrove swamp. (The two lovebirds happen to be searching for a rare variant of Caprimulgus longipennis, the long-tailed nightjar, which they hope to surprise in full mating plumage.)
Still, this is hardly a plot-driven novel. O'Brian takes time to get anywhere, and invariably enjoys the journey more than the arrival. So even as we get constant hints of the climax to come--Jack's spectacular naval action on behalf of the infant Republic of Chile--we don't mind hearing about the nuances of shipboard existence or the secret life of the white-faced tree duck. We're treated, for example, to this snippet about managed care, circa 1816:
Poll, Maggie and a horse-leech from the starboard watch have been administering enemas to the many, many cases of gross surfeit that have now replaced the frostbites, torsions, and debility of the recent past, the very recent past. Strong, fresh, seal-meat has not its equal for upsetting the seaman's metabolism: he is much better kept on biscuits, Essex cheese, and a very little well-seethed salt pork--kept on short commons.
And we're grateful! We can only hope that the elderly author will favor us with at least one more novel, so that his avid followers can avoid their own form of short commons. Life without Aubrey and Maturin would be a deprivation indeed. --Andrew Himes [via]
The Bourgeois Experience: Victoria to Freud The Tender Passionby Peter GayISBN 0393319032 (0-393-31903-2)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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Buried Alive: The Terrifying History of Our Most Primal Fearby Jan BondesonISBN 039332222X (0-393-32222-X)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Buried Alive: The Terrifying History of Our Most Primal Fear'Book summary:What could be worse than waking up in a dark, confined space and realizing that you are in a sealed coffin? Jan Bondeson details the history--factual and fictional--of this primal fear in Buried Alive.
Premature burial has a long literary history, from Boccaccio's Decameron to Romeo and Juliet to Wilkie Collins's Jezebel's Daughter and, of course, Edgar Allan Poe's "Premature Burial" and other works. Macabre tales of narrow escapes owing to grave robbers and lazy gravediggers, as well as horrific stories of exhumed coffins containing bloodied, contorted corpses, were common in both the medical and the lay press in the 18th and 19th centuries. Bondeson shows how these stories reflected public fears--fears caused in part by the development of resuscitation techniques for drowning victims, which fed a growing doubt in the reliability of prevailing signs of death. The medical community was divided on the issue; some were offended that the general public doubted their ability to determine death. Others, however, searched for definitive signs of death, many of which seem ludicrous today (one suggestion involved sticking the finger of a suspected corpse in the doctor's ear; if life remained the doctor would hear a faint buzzing sound). Bondeson also describes, in gleeful detail, other systems developed to prevent premature burial, including elaborate security coffins with signaling devices inside. More remarkable are the "Leichenhäuser" or waiting mortuaries where corpses were kept in warm rooms until putrefaction was evident. Each corpse had a number of strings or wires attached to its fingers and toes, so that the slightest twitch would sound an alarm and medical aid could be brought immediately. These Leichenhäuser were built in many cities in German-speaking Europe; one built in Munich in 1808 featured both a common and a luxury section and was open to the public (Mark Twain visited in the 1880s); the Vienna Leichenhäus used an electronic warning system (though not in its separate section for suicides, it's interesting to note); and two were built in Stuttgart as late as 1875.
Were these precautions necessary? No "patient" ever actually revived while in any of the German waiting mortuaries, but Bondeson does describe some documented near-miss cases from the 20th century in which supposed corpses were revived. Throughout the book, Bondeson recounts old wives' tales, urban legends, and scientific study with equal levels of straightforwardness and humor--and, perhaps, a slight smirk. Though it's not for the squeamish (which is perhaps an unnecessary warning; what squeamish person is going to read a book about premature burial?), Buried Alive is an entertaining and eminently readable look at this little-known history. --Sunny Delaney [via]
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Byron's Poetryby Frank D. McConnell, George Gordon Byron ByronISBN 0393044521 (0-393-04452-1)
Hardcover, Norton
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Byron's Poetryby George Gordon Byron Byron, Frank D. McConnellISBN 039309152X (0-393-09152-X)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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The Chan's Great Continent: China in Western Mindsby Jonathan D. SpenceISBN 039331989X (0-393-31989-X)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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The Commodoreby Patrick O'BrianISBN 0393314596 (0-393-31459-6)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Commodore'Book summary:The seventeenth novel in the best-selling Aubrey/Maturin series of naval tales, which the New York Times Book Review has described as "the best historical novels ever written."
Having survived a long and desperate adventure in the Great South Sea, Captain Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin return to England to very different circumstances. For Jack it is a happy homecoming, at least initially, but for Stephen it is disastrous: his little daughter appears to be autistic, incapable of speech or contact, while his wife, Diana, unable to bear this situation, has disappeared, her house being looked after by the widowed Clarissa Oakes.
Much of The Commodore takes place on land, in sitting rooms and in drafty castles, but the roar of the great guns is never far from our hearing. Aubrey and Maturin are sent on a bizarre decoy mission to the fever-ridden lagoons of the Gulf of Guinea to suppress the slave trade. But their ultimate destination is Ireland, where the French are mounting an invasion that will test Aubrey's seamanship and Maturin's resourcefulness as a secret intelligence agent.
The subtle interweaving of these disparate themes is an achievement of pure storytelling by one of our greatest living novelists.
[via] -
The Country of the Pointed Firs and Other Storiesby Sarah Orne JewettISBN 0393311376 (0-393-31137-6)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Country of the Pointed Firs and Other Stories'Book summary:With an Introduction by Marjorie Pryse This edition of The Country of the Pointed Firs makes an American classic available in the form in which it was originally published in 1896. An edition published after the author's death had incorporated three "Dunnett Landing" stories into the novel as additional chapters; these stories appear here in a seperate section, along with a fourth story belonging to this group and four more tales. The four Dunnett Landing stories are "A Dunnett Shepheress," "The Foreigner," "The Queen's Twin," and "William's Wedding"; the four additional tales are "A White Heron," "Miss Tempy's Watchers," "Martha's Lady," and "Aunt Cynthy Dallett." Here in the fictional town of Dunnett's Landing on the coast of Maine, Sarah Orne Jewett introduces people-now mostly women, as many of the town's men have been lost at sea or moved away in this era of whaling's decline-who have lived next to the sea for generations and seem to share its strength, silence and mystery. In prose of exquisite simplicity, Jewett draws a resonant portrait of people creating and tending bonds of relationship in a landscape buffetted by the forces of isolation as well as nature's severity. [via]
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The Cultivation of Hatredby Peter GayISBN 0393312240 (0-393-31224-0)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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The Doctors' Plague: Germs, Childbed Fever, and the Strange Story of Ignac Semmelweisby Sherwin B. NulandISBN 039332625X (0-393-32625-X)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Doctors' Plague: Germs, Childbed Fever, and the Strange Story of Ignac Semmelweis'Book summary:A great medical detective story, by the author of the best-selling How We Die. SURGEON, SCHOLAR, BEST-SELLING AUTHOR, Sherwin B. Nuland is one of our finest chroniclers of the history of medicine. Obsessed for twenty-five years with Ignac Semmelweis's strange story. Nuland tells it with the urgency and insight gained from his own studies and clinical experience. Ignac Semmelweis is remembered for the now-commonplace notion that doctors must wash their hands before examining patients. In mid-nineteenth-century Vienna, however, this was a subversive idea. With deaths from childbed fever exploding, Semmelweis discovered that doctors themselves were spreading the disease. While his simple reforms worked immediately, they also threatened the medical establishment and so undid the passionate but selfdestructive Semmelweis that he failed to overturn the status quo, leaving it to later medical giants--Pasteur, Lister, and Koch--to establish conclusively the germ theory of disease. The Doctors' Plague is a riveting, revealing narrative of one of the key turning points in medical history. [via]
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Education of the Senses: The Bourgeois Experience Victoria to Freudby Peter GayISBN 0393319040 (0-393-31904-0)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Education of the Senses: The Bourgeois Experience Victoria to Freud'Book summary:In this work, Peter Gay draws on an array of primary sources to re-examine 19th-century sexual behaviour, overturning a number of stereotypes, especially about women and sexuality. [via]
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The Far Side of the Worldby Patrick O'BrianISBN 0393308626 (0-393-30862-6)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Far Side of the World'Book summary:JACK AUBREY, a brilliant and fearless captain in Nelson's navy, accepts a mission that will test his abilities to the limit: he is to set sail immediately for Cape Horn, to intercept a powerful frigate intent on wreaking havoc among British whalers. Aubrey's beloved ship, HMS Surprise, is up to the task, but many of her sailors are untried. Aubrey's confidant, ship's surgeon Stephen Maturin, has orders of his own in the world of secret intelligence. As the Surprise and her crew draw closer to the enemy, their journey grows ever more dangerous: murder, shipwreck, and a desperate rescue attempt await them in the far reaches of the Pacific. [via]
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The Fortune of Warby Patrick O'BrianISBN 0393308138 (0-393-30813-8)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Fortune of War'Book summary:"A marvellously full-flavoured, engrossing book, which towers over its current rivals in the genre like a three-decker over a ship's longboat."Times Literary Supplement
Captain Jack Aubrey, R. N., arrives in the Dutch East Indies to find himself appointed to the command of the fastest and best-armed frigate in the Navy. He and his friend Stephen Maturin take passage for England in a dispatch vessel. But the War of 1812 breaks out while they are en route. Bloody actions precipitate them both into new and unexpected scenes where Stephen's past activities as a secret agent return on him with a vengeance. [via]More editions of The Fortune of War:
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Frances Hodgson Burnett's the Secret Gardenby Frances Hodgson Burnett, Gretchen Holbrook GerzinaISBN 0393926354 (0-393-92635-4)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Frances Hodgson Burnett's the Secret Garden'Book summary:Frances Hodgson Burnett was the highest paid and most widely read woman writer of her time, publishing more than fifty novels and thirteen plays.
Born in England and transplanted to New York toward the end of the Civil War, Burnett made her home in both countries, and today both countries claim her as their own. The Secret Garden, her best-known work, became an instant modern classic and world-wide bestseller upon its publication in 1911. The text of this Norton Critical Edition is based on the first edition and is accompanied by explanatory annotations.
"Backgrounds and Contexts" and "Letters" illuminate important aspects of Burnetts life and work and include her own writings on gardens and their spiritual healing. Four illustrations point to Burnetts prominence in popular culture.
"Criticism" includes fourteen contemporary reviews and nine recent critical views of The Secret Garden, including Jerry Phillipss sociopolitical interpretation and Phyllis Bixlers comparative analysis of the Broadway musical adaptation of the novel.
A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included. [via]More editions of Frances Hodgson Burnett's the Secret Garden:
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Frederick Douglassby William S. McFeelyISBN 039331376X (0-393-31376-X)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Frederick Douglass'Book summary:A former slave, orator, journalist, autobiographer, and revolutionary on behalf of a just America, Douglass was a towering figure, at once consumately charismatic and flawed. In this biography, fresh and incisive in its research and interpretation, Freeley captures the many sides of this great and complex American, and recreates the high drama of a turbulent era. [via]
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The Free Women of Petersburgby Suzanne LebsockISBN 0393952649 (0-393-95264-9)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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The Gamblerby Fyodor Dostoevsky, Andrew R. MacAndrewISBN 0393316491 (0-393-31649-1)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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Grant: A Biographyby William S. McFeelyISBN 0393323943 (0-393-32394-3)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Grant: A Biography'Book summary:"Combines scholarly exactness with evocative passages....Biography at its best." Marcus Cunliffe, The New York Times Book Review; Winner of the Pulitzer Prize.
The seminal biography of one of America's towering, enigmatic figures. From his boyhood in Ohio to the battlefields of the Civil War and his presidency during the crucial years of Reconstruction, this Pulitzer Prize-winning biography traces the entire arc of Grant's life (1822-1885). "A moving and convincing portrait....profound understanding of the man as well as his period and his country." C. Vann Woodward, New York Review of Books "Clearsightedness, along with McFeely's unfailing intelligence and his existential sympathy...informs his entire biography." Justin Kaplan, The New Republic Illustrations [via] -
H.M.S Surprise: Library Editionby Patrick O'BrianISBN 0393307611 (0-393-30761-1)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'H.M.S Surprise: Library Edition'Book summary:"Few, very few books have made my heart thud with excitement. H.M.S. Surprise managed it."Helen Lucy Burke, Irish Press
Third in the series of Aubrey/Maturin adventures, this book is set among the strange sights and smells of the Indian subcontinent, and in the distant waters ploughed by the ships of the East India Company. Aubrey is on the defensive, pitting wits and seamanship against an enemy enjoying overwhelming local superiority. But somewhere in the Indian Ocean lies the prize that could make him rich beyond his wildest dream: the ships sent by Napoleon to attack the China Fleet... [via]More editions of H.M.S Surprise: Library Edition:
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The Hundred Daysby Patrick O'BrianISBN 0393319792 (0-393-31979-2)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Hundred Days'Book summary:The year is 1815, and Europe's most unpopular (not to mention tiniest) empire-builder has escaped from Elba. In The Hundred Days, it's up to Jack Aubrey--and surgeon-cum-spymaster Stephen Maturin--to stop Napoleon in his tracks. How? For starters, Aubrey and his squadron have been dispatched to the Adriatic coast, to keep Bonapartist shipbuilders from beefing up the French navy. Meanwhile, one Sheik Ibn Hazm is fomenting an Islamic uprising against the Allies. The only way to halt this maneuver is to intercept the sheik's shipment of gold--because in the Napoleonic era, as in our own, even the most ardent of mercenaries requires a salary.
The Hundred Days is the 19th (and, we are told, the penultimate) installment of O'Brian's epic. Like many of its predecessors, it features a fairly swashbuckling plot, complete with cannon fire, exotic disguises, and Aubrey's suspenseful, slow-motion pursuit of an Algerian xebek. Yet it never turns into a mere exercise in Hornblowerism. Partly this is due to O'Brian's delicate touch with character--the relationship between extroverted Aubrey and introverted Maturin has deepened with each book, and even Aubrey's reunion with his childhood companion Queenie Keith is full of novelistic nuance: "They sat smiling at one another. An odd pair: handsome creatures both, but they might have been of the same sex or neither." Nor does the author focus too exclusively on his dynamic duo. Indeed, The Hundred Days is very much a chronicle of a floating community, which Maturin describes as "his own village, his own ship's company, that complex entity so much more easily sensed than described: part of his natural habitat."
Finally, O'Brian shows his usual expertise in balancing the great events with the most minuscule ones. Other authors have written about battles at sea, and still others have recorded the rapid rise and fall of Napoleon's fortunes after his escape from confinement. But who else would give equal time--and an equal charge of delight--to Maturin's discovery of an anomalous nuthatch? --James Marcus [via]
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An Ideal Husbandby Oscar Wilde, Russell JacksonISBN 0393900681 (0-393-90068-1)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'An Ideal Husband'Book summary:New Mermaids are modernized and fully-annotated editions of classic English plays. Each volume includes:
" The playtext, in modern spelling, edited to the highest bibliographical and textual standards
" Textual notes recording significant changes to the copytext and variant readings
" Glossing notes explaining obscure words and word-play
" Critical, contextual and staging notes
" Photographs of productions where applicable
" A full introduction which provides a critical account of the play, the staging conventions of the time and recent stage history; discusses authorship, date, sources and the text; and gives guidance for further reading.
Edited and updated by leading scholars and printed in a clear, easy-to-use format, New Mermaids offer invaluable guidance for actor, student, and theatre-goer alike. [via]More editions of An Ideal Husband:
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The Ionian Missionby Patrick O'BrianISBN 0393308219 (0-393-30821-9)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Ionian Mission'Book summary:"O'Brian is one author who can put a spark of character into the sawdust of time, and The Ionian Mission is another rattling good yarn." Stephen Vaughan, The Observer
Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, veterans now of many battles, return in this novel to the seas where they first sailed as shipmates. But Jack is now a senior captain commanding a line-of-battle ship in the Royal Navy's blockade of Toulon, and this is a longer, harder, colder war than the dashing frigate actions of his early days. A sudden turn of events takes him and Stephen off on a hazardous mission to the Greek Islands, where all his old skills of seamanship and his proverbial luck when fighting against odds come triumphantly into their own. [via]More editions of The Ionian Mission:
Karl Marx: A Lifeby Francis WheenISBN 0393321576 (0-393-32157-6)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Karl Marx: A Life'Book summary:Karl Marx, whose influence on modern times has been compared to that of Jesus Christ, spent most of his lifetime in obscurity. Penniless, exiled in London, estranged from relations, and on the run from most of the police forces of Europe, his ambitions as a revolutionary were frequently thwarted, and his major writings on politics and economics remained unpublished (in some cases until after the Second World War). He has not lacked biographers, but even the most distinguished have been more interested in the evolution of his ideas than any other aspect of his life. Francis Wheen's fresh, lively, and moving biography of Marx considers the whole man--brain, beard, and the rest of his body. Unencumbered by ideological point scoring, this is a very readable, humorous, and sympathetic account. Wheen has an ear for juicy gossip and an eye for original detail. Marx comes across as a hell-raising bohemian, an intellectual bully, and a perceptive critic of capitalist chaos, but also a family man of Victorian conformity (personally vetting his daughters' suitors), Victorian ailments (carbuncles above all), and Victorian weaknesses (notably alcohol, tobacco, and, on occasion, his housekeeper). But there is great pathos, too, as Marx witnessed the deaths of four of his six children. For those readers who feel Marxism has given Marx a bad name, this is a rewarding and enlightening book. --Miles Taylor, Amazon.co.uk [via]
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The Letter of Marqueby Patrick O'BrianISBN 0393309053 (0-393-30905-3)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Letter of Marque'Book summary:When Jack Aubrey is unfairly deprived of his commission in the Royal Navy, Stephen Maturin comes to the rescue, purchasing the captain's former ship and outfitting it as a privateer, to be commanded by none other than Jack Aubrey. Soon the Surprise is off to sea, on a mission that Aubrey hopes will redeem his good name. The author's grasp of period detail is astonishing as ever--and so is his gift for pure entertainment. [via]
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Letters To A Spiritual Seekerby Henry David Thoreau, Bradley P. DeanISBN 0393327566 (0-393-32756-6)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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Lord Jimby Joseph ConradISBN 0393096564 (0-393-09656-4)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Lord Jim'Book summary:This compact novel, completed in 1900, as with so many of the great novels of the time, is at its baseline a book of the sea. An English boy in a simple town has dreams bigger than the outdoors and embarks at an early age into the sailor's life. The waters he travels reward him with the ability to explore the human spirit, while Joseph Conrad launches the story into both an exercise of his technical prowess and a delicately crafted picture of a character who reaches the status of a literary hero. A classic novel. [via]
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Maggie, a Girl of the Streetsby Stephen Crane, Thomas A. GullasonISBN 0393950247 (0-393-95024-7)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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Manhood at Harvard: William James and Othersby Kim TownsendISBN 0393039390 (0-393-03939-0)
Hardcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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The Mauritius Commandby Patrick O'BrianISBN 039330762X (0-393-30762-X)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Mauritius Command'Book summary:"Jack's assignment: to capture the Indian Ocean islands of Réunion and Mauritius from the French. That campaign forms the narrative thread of this rollicking sea saga. But its substance is more beguiling still..."-Elizabeth Peer, NewsweekCaptain Jack Aubrey is ashore on half pay without a command-until Stephen Maturin arrives with secret orders for Aubrey to take a frigate to the Cape of Good Hope under a commodore's pennant, there to mount an expedition against the French-held islands of Mauritius and La Réunion. But the difficulties of carrying out his orders are compounded by two of his own captains-Lord Clonfert, a pleasure-seeking dilettante, and Captain Corbett, whose severity pushes his crew to the verge of mutiny. [via]
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The Naked Heartby Peter GayISBN 0393038130 (0-393-03813-0)
Hardcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes 150th Anniversary: The Short Storiesby Arthur Conan Doyle, Leslie S. KlingerISBN 039305800X (0-393-05800-X)
Hardcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'New Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Novels A Study In Scarlet / The Sign Of Four / The Hound Of The Baskervilles / The Valley Of Fear'Book summary:The four classic novels of Sherlock Holmes, heavily illustrated and annotated with extensive scholarly commentary, in an attractive and elegant slipcase.
The publication of Leslie S. Klinger's brilliant new annotations of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's four classic Holmes novels in 2005 created a Holmes sensation. Klinger reassembles Doyle's four seminal novels in their original order, with over 1,000 notes, 350 illustrations and period photographs, and tantalizing new Sherlockian theories. Inside, readers will find:- A Study in Scarlet (1887)a tale of murder and revenge that tells of Holmes and Dr. Watson's first meeting;
- The Sign of Four (1889)a chilling tale of lost treasure...and of how Watson met his wife;
- The Hound of the Baskervilles (1901)hailed as the greatest mystery novel of all time; and
- The Valley of Fear (1914)a fresh murder scene that leads Holmes to solve a long-forgotten mystery.
Whether as a stand-alone volume or as a companion to the short stories, this classic work illuminates the timeless genius of Conan Doyle for an entirely new generation.
Two-color text; 300 illustrations [via]More editions of The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes 150th Anniversary: The Short Stories:
- The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes 150th Anniversary: The Short Stories: ISBN 0393059162 (0-393-05916-2)
Hardcover, W W Norton & Co Inc - New Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Novels A Study In Scarlet / The Sign Of Four / The Hound Of The Baskervilles / The Valley Of Fear: ISBN 039305800X (0-393-05800-X)
Hardcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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The Norton Anthology of American Literatureby Ronald GottesmanISBN 0393950263 (0-393-95026-3)
Hardcover, Norton
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Norton Anthology of American Literature'Book summary:The Norton Anthology of English Literature is an anthology of English literature published by the W. W. Norton & Company. First published in 1962, it has gone through nine editions in a half-century; as of 2006 there are over eight million copies in print, making it the publisher's best-selling anthology. M. H. Abrams, a critic and scholar of Romanticism, served as General Editor for its first seven editions, before handing the job to Stephen Greenblatt, a Shakespeare scholar and Harvard professor. Spread across six volumes and divided into two sets, the anthology provides an overview of poetry, drama, prose fiction, essays and letters from Beowulf to the beginning of the 21st century. [via]
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The Norton Anthology of English Literatureby M. H. AbramsISBN 0393950514 (0-393-95051-4)
Softcover, Norton & Company Limited, W. W.
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Norton Anthology of English Literature'Book summary:This anthology covers writers and works of English literature. Among the major works included are the complete texts of Milton's "Paradise Lost" and Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein"; Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night"; Beckett's tragicomic "Endgame"; and Achebe's "Things Fall Apart". The 7th edition features works by 60 women writers, 21 writers new to the "Norton Anthology", 20 represented with additional selections or reselected works. Fourteen new and expanded thematic clusters gather short texts that illuminate cultural, historical, and literary concerns within each period. Examining 20th-century literature in English, this edition reflects the global reach of literature in English with ten new authors - Jean Rhys, Chinua Achebe, Alice Munro, V. S. Naipaul, Anita Desai, Les Murray, Salman Rushdie, J. M. Coetzee, Eavan Boland, and Paul Muldoon. "The Persistence of English", a new essay by Geoffrey Nunberg, Stanford University and Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, provides a lively exploration of the English language - its emergence and spread, and its apparent "triumph" as a world language. Visual materials are included from several periods - Hogarth's satiric "Marriage A-la-Mode", engravings by Blake, and illustrations by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Period introductions, author headnotes, annotations, and bibliographies have been thoroughly revised, many completely rewritten, for the 7th Edition. New pedagogical features include timelines for each period and revised endpaper maps. The text is accompanied by 2 audio CDs. [via]
More editions of The Norton Anthology of English Literature:
- The Norton Anthology of English Literature: ISBN 0393950433 (0-393-95043-3)
Hardcover, Norton & Company Limited, W. W. - The Norton Anthology of English Literature: ISBN 0393151123 (0-393-15112-3)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc - Norton Anthology of English Literature: ISBN 0393947777 (0-393-94777-7)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc - The Norton Anthology of English Literature: ISBN 0393950484 (0-393-95048-4)
Softcover, Norton - The Norton Anthology of English Literature: ISBN 0393093018 (0-393-09301-8)
Hardcover, Norton - The Norton Anthology of English Literature: ISBN 0393151115 (0-393-15111-5)
Hardcover, W W Norton & Co Inc - Norton Anthology of English Literature: ISBN 0393947769 (0-393-94776-9)
Hardcover, W W Norton & Co Inc - Norton Anthology of English Literature: ISBN 0393947831 (0-393-94783-1)
Hardcover, W W Norton & Co Inc - The Norton Anthology of English Literature: ISBN 0393950514 (0-393-95051-4)
Softcover, Norton & Company Limited, W. W.
- The Norton Anthology of English Literature: ISBN 0393950433 (0-393-95043-3)
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The Norton Anthology of English Literatureby Stephen Greenblatt, M. H. AbramsISBN 0393925323 (0-393-92532-3)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Norton Anthology of English Literature'Book summary:Read by millions of students over seven editions, The Norton Anthology of English Literature remains the most trusted undergraduate survey of English literature available and one of the most successful college texts ever published.
Firmly grounded by the hallmark strengths of all Norton Anthologiesthorough and helpful introductory matter, judicious annotation, complete texts wherever possibleThe Norton Anthology of English Literature has been revitalized in this Eighth Edition through the collaboration between six new editors and six seasoned ones. Under the direction of Stephen Greenblatt, General Editor, the editors have reconsidered all aspects of the anthology to make it an even better teaching tool. [via]More editions of The Norton Anthology of English Literature:
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The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The Traditions in Englishby Susan Gubar, Sandra M. GilbertISBN 0393930130 (0-393-93013-0)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The Traditions in English'Book summary:Minimal shelfwear w/beginning to curl corners, stamp inside front cover, and bookstore label on back cover. No markings. Pages are clean and bright. Binding is tight. [via]
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The Norton Anthology of Poetryby Alexander W. AllisonISBN 039395224X (0-393-95224-X)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Norton Anthology of Poetry'Book summary:The fourth edition of this standard work contains 1800 poems by 300 poets, with 600 poems and 100 poets newly included. The anthology offers more poetry by women (40 new poets), with special attention to early women poets. The book also includes a greater diversity of American poetry, with double the number of poems by African American, Hispanic, native American and Asian American poets. There are 26 new poets representing the Commonwealth literature tradition: now included are more than 37 poets from Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Caribbean, South Africa and India. A reconsideration of many classic poets, from Shakespeare and Bradstreet to Larkin and Rich has been added in this edition, together with a wider representation of the beginnings of poetry in English: the Anglo-Saxon "Caedmon's Hymn" and selections from "Beowulf", as well as Middle English lyrics, popular riddles, romance, allegory, and the verse tales of Chaucer and Langland, are now included. The collection also includes short biographical sketches and a system of annotation. [via]
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The Norton Anthology of Poetryby Arthur M. EastmanISBN 0393099164 (0-393-09916-4)
Hardcover, Norton
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Norton Anthology of Poetry'Book summary:The fourth edition of this standard work contains 1800 poems by 300 poets, with 600 poems and 100 poets newly included. The anthology offers more poetry by women (40 new poets), with special attention to early women poets. The book also includes a greater diversity of American poetry, with double the number of poems by African American, Hispanic, native American and Asian American poets. There are 26 new poets representing the Commonwealth literature tradition: now included are more than 37 poets from Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Caribbean, South Africa and India. A reconsideration of many classic poets, from Shakespeare and Bradstreet to Larkin and Rich has been added in this edition, together with a wider representation of the beginnings of poetry in English: the Anglo-Saxon "Caedmon's Hymn" and selections from "Beowulf", as well as Middle English lyrics, popular riddles, romance, allegory, and the verse tales of Chaucer and Langland, are now included. The collection also includes short biographical sketches and a system of annotation. [via]
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The Norton Anthology of Poetry: Revised Shorter Editionby Not AvailableISBN 0393092518 (0-393-09251-8)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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The Norton Anthology of Poetryby W. W. NortonISBN 0393092402 (0-393-09240-2)
Hardcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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Nutmeg of Consolationby Patrick O'BrianISBN 0393309061 (0-393-30906-1)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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Pleasure Warsby Peter GayISBN 0393045706 (0-393-04570-6)
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The Political Economy of the Cotton South: Households, Markets, and Wealth in the Nineteenth Centuryby Gavin WrightISBN 0393056864 (0-393-05686-4)
Hardcover, Norton
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Red and the Blackby Stendhal, Robert M. AdamsISBN 0393098214 (0-393-09821-4)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Red and the Black'Book summary:The text of Stendhal's classic novel Le Rouge et le Noir in this volume is an entirely new translation which renders the novelist's strict, hard style into contemporary colloquial English. For the first time in an English translation, notes are given that explain the book's local allusions and concealed autobiographical reminiscences. Students interested in the backgrounds of the novel may read the newspaper account, for the first time in English, of the murder trial upon which some of the novel's events are founded. Other materials, on Stendhal's style and on the 1830's background, are also provided. As with all Norton Critical Editions in Continental literature, a number of commentaries are here translated for the first time: Henri Martineau, Jean Prevost, George Poulet, Jean-Pierre Richard, G. Tomasi di Lampedusa, Alain, Paul Valery, Paul Bourget, and Hippolyte Tame. Other critics are Erich Auerbach, Rene Girard, F. W. I. Hemmings, Jean-Paul Sartre, Andre Gide, Marcel Proust, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jose Ortega y Gasset, and Robert M. Adams.
Each Norton Critical Edition includes an authoritative text, contextual and source materials, and a wide range of interpretations-from contemporary perspectives to the most current critical theory-as well as a bibliography and a chronology of the author's life and work. [via]
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The Red Badge of Courageby Sculley Bradley, Stephen Crane, E. Hudson Long, Donald Pizer, Richmond Croom BeattyISBN 0393044351 (0-393-04435-1)
Hardcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Red Badge of Courage'Book summary:Stephen Crane's classic work [via]
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The Red Badge of Courageby Stephen CraneISBN 0393319547 (0-393-31954-7)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Red Badge of Courage'Book summary:"A classic work of American literature . . . in full, as the author wrote it." New York Times......"This is Red Badge as Crane actually wrote it." Boston Globe
The Red Badge of Courage is an American masterpiece-and yet the novel familiar to so many readers is not, in fact, the story Crane wrote. That story is the one printed here, as Henry Binder has recovered it, as fully as possible, from the author's final handwritten manuscript. Just prior to the first publication of The Red Badge of Courage in 1895, many key passages, phrases, words, and an entire chapter were deleted. Almost certainly, these deletions were made at the suggestions of Crane's editor, with the intention of satisfying a wider contemporary audience with a simpler story. The deletions were made hastily, not as careful or deliberate improvements. In this new, "authentic" (Herbert Mitgang, New York Times) text, Binder has restored the deleted material and followed the manuscript in many details; he has thus given us the version of Crane's gripping work in which the author's controlling vision is unmistakably present. Binder describes his editorial procedures and discusses the "new novel" that is the result, as well as providing textual notes. [via]More editions of The Red Badge of Courage:
The Reverse of the Medalby Patrick O'BrienISBN 0393309606 (0-393-30960-6)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Reverse of the Medal'Book summary:"An overwhelming, outstanding novel...!"Irish Times
Captain Jack Aubrey, R. N., ashore after a successful cruise, is persuaded by a casual acquaintance to make certain investments in the City. This innocent decision ensnares him in the London criminal underground and in government espionagethe province of his friend Stephen Maturin. Is Aubrey's humiliation and the threatened ruin of his career a deliberate plot? This dark tale is a fitting backdrop to the brilliant characterization and sparkling dialogue which O'Brian's readers have come to expect.
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The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincolnby Sean WilentzISBN 0393329216 (0-393-32921-6)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln'Book summary:Winner of the Bancroft Award: "Monumental&a tour de force&awesome in its coverage of political events."Gordon Wood, New York Times Book Review
Acclaimed as the definitive study of the period by one of the greatest American historians, The Rise of American Democracy traces a historical arc from the earliest days of the republic to the opening shots of the Civil War. Ferocious clashes among the Founders over the role of ordinary citizens in a government of "we, the people" were eventually resolved in the triumph of Andrew Jackson. Thereafter, Sean Wilentz shows, a fateful division arose between two starkly opposed democraciesa division contained until the election of Abraham Lincoln sparked its bloody resolution. Winner of the Bancroft Award, shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize, finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, a New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2005 and best book of New York magazine and The Economist. [via]More editions of The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln:
The Rise of Silas Laphamby William Dean Howells, Don L. CookISBN 0393091651 (0-393-09165-1)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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The Sea Captain's Wife: A True Story of Love, Race, And War in the Nineteenth Centuryby Martha HodesISBN 0393052664 (0-393-05266-4)
Hardcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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The Search for Modern Chinaby Jonathan D. SpenceISBN 0393307808 (0-393-30780-8)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Search for Modern China'Book summary:"A remarkable achievement...vivid...fluent, graceful.... A publishing event."Boston Globe
In this widely acclaimed history of modern China, Jonathan Spence achieves a fine blend of narrative richness and efficiency. Praised as "a miracle of readability and scholarly authority," (Jonathan Mirsky) The Search for Modern China offers a matchless introduction to China's history. [via]More editions of The Search for Modern China:
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The Surgeon's Mateby Patrick O'BrianISBN 0393308200 (0-393-30820-0)
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Surgeon's Mate'Book summary:"Vividly detailed 19th-century settings and dramatic tension punctuated with flashes of wry humor make O'Brian's nautical adventure a splendid treat."Publishers Weekly
Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin are ordered home by dispatch vessel to bring the news of their latest victory to the government. But Maturin is a marked man for the havoc he has wrought in the French intelligence network in the New World, and the attention of two privateers soon becomes menacing. The chase that follows through the fogs and shallows of the Grand Banks is as tense, and as unexpected in its culmination, as anything Patrick O'Brian has written. [via]More editions of The Surgeon's Mate:
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The Thirteen Gun Saluteby Patrick O'BrianISBN 039330907X (0-393-30907-X)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Thirteen Gun Salute'Book summary:"In length the series is unique; in qualityand there is not a weak link in the chainit cannot but be ranked with the best of twentieth century historical novels."T. J. Binyon, Independent
Captain Jack Aubrey sets sail for the South China Sea with a new lease on life. Following his dismissal from the Royal Navy (a false accusation), he has earned reinstatement through his daring exploits as a privateer, brilliantly chronicled in The Letter of Marque. Now he is to shepherd Stephen Maturinhis friend, ship's surgeon, and sometimes intelligence agenton a diplomatic mission to prevent links between Bonaparte and the Malay princes which would put English merchant shipping at risk.
The journey of the Diane encompasses a great and satisfying diversity of adventures. Maturin climbs the Thousand Steps of the sacred crater of the orangutans; a killer typhoon catches Aubrey and his crew trying to work the Diane off a reef; and in the barbaric court of Pulo Prabang a classic duel of intelligence agents unfolds: the French envoys, well entrenched in the Sultan's good graces, against the savage cunning of Stephen Maturin. [via]More editions of The Thirteen Gun Salute:
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The Trueloveby Patrick O'BrianISBN 0393310167 (0-393-31016-7)
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Truelove'Book summary:The fifteenth installment in Patrick O'Brian's widely claimed series of Aubrey/Maturin novels is in equal parts mystery, adventure, and psychological drama.
A British whaler has been captured by an ambitious chief in the sandwich islands at French instigation, and Captain Aubrey, R. N., Is dispatched with the Surprise to restore order. But stowed away in the cable-tier is an escaped female convict. To the officers, Clarissa Harvill is an object of awkward courtliness and dangerous jealousies. Aubrey himself is won over and indeed strongly attracted to this woman who will not speak of her past. But only Aubrey's friend, Dr. Stephen Maturin, can fathom Clarissa's secrets: her crime, her personality, and a clue identifying a highly placed English spy in the pay of Napoleon's intelligence service.
In a thrilling finale, Patrick O'Brian delivers all the excitement his many readers expect: Aubrey and the crew of the Surprise impose a brutal pax Britannica upon the islanders in a pitched battle against a band of headhunting cannibals. [via]More editions of The Truelove:
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Victorian People and Ideas: A Companion for the Modern Reader of Victorian Literatureby Richard Daniel AltickISBN 039309376X (0-393-09376-X)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Victorian People and Ideas: A Companion for the Modern Reader of Victorian Literature'Book summary:Life in the Victorian period, focusing on the social, religious, scientific, and artistic movements that characterized the age.
The reputation of the Victorian age in England has undergone many vicissitudes, but it is now higher than ever. In this important study, Richard D. Altick moves us toward an understanding of the social, intellectual, and theological crises that Carlyle and Dickens, Tennyson and Arnold were daily struggling to solve. And the issues were many: the revolution in class structure and class attitudes; the rise of utilitarianism and the evangelical spirit; the crisis in religion, including the Oxford movement and Darwinism; the democratization of culture; the place of art and the artist in an industrial, bourgeois society; the effects of industrialism, especially on the way people live. Altick brings to the discussion of these complicated questions the lively and sensitive intelligence that his many readers have come to expect. He includes contemporary illustrations and a full reference index. [via]More editions of Victorian People and Ideas: A Companion for the Modern Reader of Victorian Literature:
The Voyage of the Narwhalby Andrea BarrettISBN 0393319504 (0-393-31950-4)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Voyage of the Narwhal'Book summary:In Andrea Barrett's extraordinary novel of Arctic and personal exploration, maps are deceitful, ice all-powerful, and reputation more important than truth or human lives. When the Narwhal sets sail from Philadelphia in May 1855, its ostensible goal is to find the crew of a long-vanished expedition--or at least their relics--and be home before winter. Of course, if the men can chart new coasts and stock up on specimens en route, so much the better. And then there's the keen prospect of selling their story, fraught with danger and discovery, to a public thirsting for excitement. Zeke Voorhees, the Narwhal's young commander, is so handsome that he makes women stare and men "hum with envy"--perhaps not the best qualification for his post--but he seems loved by all. Only his brother-in-law-to-be, a naturalist, quietly mistrusts him, though he's determined to stand by the youth for his sister Lavinia's sake. At 40, eternal low-profiler Erasmus Darwin Wells has one disastrous expedition behind him and is praying for another scientific chance. He is, however, familiar with the physical risks they're taking, as well as the "long stretches when nothing happened except that one's ties to home were imperceptibly dissolved and one became a stranger to one's life."
And what of the women left behind? Lavinia knows little of the dangers of ice (though she's well schooled in isolation) and lives only for Zeke's return. Her companion, Alexandra Copeland, is less sanguine. Even after she's been given a secret career break--ghosting for an ailing engraver--she knows how invisible she is and how threatening her family's "dense net of obligations" will always be. Though they get less page time, Barrett is in fact as concerned with these women as she is with her seafarers. Like the heroines of her National Book Award-winning Ship Fever, who bump up against science and history in which only men's triumphs are written, they must somehow escape social tyranny or retreat into the consolations of storytelling or silence.
There is tyranny on board the Narwhal as well, as Zeke alternates between good will and paranoia, his closest companion an arctic fox he has "civilized" and who sits on his shoulder "like a white epaulet." (Alas, Sabine, like many of the men, is not to survive the journey.) Encounters with the Esquimaux--who might know more about the lost expedition than they're willing to share--not having gone according to plan, Zeke determines in late August to head for Smith Sound rather than home, despite the crew's protests. By mid-September, however, the craft is ice-locked, and it's clear they'll have to "winter over." At first the men make the best of their situation, magically sculpting cottages, castles, palaces, even a whale--and offering informal seminars in butchery, Bible studies, and basic navigation. However, as the weather worsens and Zeke grows increasingly despotic, morale plummets.
Barrett excels in both physical and social description, writing with a naturalist's precision and a passionate imagination. With quick strokes (backed up by intense research), she can fill us in on some sensible but threatening Esquimaux footgear: "All five were dressed in fur jackets and breeches, with high boots made from the leg skins of white bears. The men's feet, Erasmus saw, were sheltered by the bears' feet, with claws protruding like overgrown human toenails. Walking, the men left bear prints on the snow." The author also shines in panoramic scenes--her descriptions of the Arctic can only be called magnificent--and in small, precarious, personal moments. When Erasmus eventually returns to Philadelphia, minus his toes and his future brother-in-law, a grieving Lavinia takes to her bed. Eventually, however, she relents: "Lavinia stared straight ahead. Straight at Erasmus, her right hand tucked in her lap while her left turned a silver spoon back to front, front to back, the reflections melting, re-forming, and melting again.... Lavinia said softly, 'I forgive you.' Everyone knew she was speaking to Erasmus."
The Voyage of the Narwhal is full of blood-freezing surprises, a score of indelible characters, and heart-stopping mysteries. As Erasmus watches Alexandra draw landscapes he has seen before but missed something in, each pencil stroke is "like a chisel held to a cleavage plane: tap, tap, and the rock split into two sharp pieces, the world cracked and spoke to him." Readers of Andrea Barrett's novel will experience this sensation again and again. Packed with harsh truths about the not-always-true art of discovery, it is also among the most emotionally wrenching, subtle works of the century. --Kerry Fried [via]
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Wild Fruitsby Henry David Thoreau, Bradley P. Dean, Abigail RorerISBN 0393321150 (0-393-32115-0)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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The Wine Dark Seaby Patrick O'BrianISBN 0393312445 (0-393-31244-5)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Wine Dark Sea'Book summary:The sixteenth volume in the Aubrey/Maturin series, and Patrick O'Brian's first bestseller in the United States.
At the outset of this adventure filled with disaster and delight, Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin pursue an American privateer through the Great South Sea. The strange color of the ocean reminds Stephen of Homer's famous description, and portends an underwater volcanic eruption that will create a new island overnight and leave an indelible impression on the reader's imagination.
Their ship, the Surprise, is now also a privateer, the better to escape diplomatic complications from Stephen's mission, which is to ignite the revolutionary tinder of South America. Jack will survive a desperate open boat journey and come face to face with his illegitimate black son; Stephen, caught up in the aftermath of his failed coup, will flee for his life into the high, frozen wastes of the Andes; and Patrick O'Brian's brilliantly detailed narrative will reunite them at last in a breathtaking chase through stormy seas and icebergs south of Cape Horn, where the hunters suddenly become the hunted.
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The Wings of the Doveby Henry James, Richard A. Hocks, Joseph Donald CrowleyISBN 0393044785 (0-393-04478-5)
Softcover, W. W. Norton
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› 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]
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Women of No Importanceby Oscar Wilde, Ian SmallISBN 0393900711 (0-393-90071-1)
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The Yellow Admiralby Patrick O'BrianISBN 0393317048 (0-393-31704-8)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Yellow Admiral: Library Edition'Book summary:"There are those already planning this afternoon's trip to the bookstore. Their only reaction is: Thank god, Patrick O'Brian is still writing. To you, I say, not a moment to lose."John Balzar, Los Angeles Times
Life ashore may once again be the undoing of Jack Aubrey in The Yellow Admiral, Patrick O'Brian's best-selling novel and eighteenth volume in the Aubrey/Maturin series. Aubrey, now a considerable though impoverished landowner, has dimmed his prospects at the Admiralty by his erratic voting as a Member of Parliament; he is feuding with his neighbor, a man with strong Navy connections who wants to enclose the common land between their estates; he is on even worse terms with his wife, Sophie, whose mother has ferreted out a most damaging trove of old personal letters. Even Jack's exploits at sea turn sour: in the storm waters off Brest he captures a French privateer laden with gold and ivory, but this at the expense of missing a signal and deserting his post. Worst of all, in the spring of 1814, peace breaks out, and this feeds into Jack's private fears for his career.
Fortunately, Jack is not left to his own devices. Stephen Maturin returns from a mission in France with the news that the Chileans, to secure their independence, require a navy, and the service of English officers. Jack is savoring this apparent reprieve for his career, as well as Sophie's forgiveness, when he receives an urgent dispatch ordering him to Gibraltar: Napoleon has escaped from Elba. [via]
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