In The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, celebrated Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima creates a haunting portrait of a young man’s obsession with idealized beauty and his destructive quest to possess it fully.
Mizoguchi, an ostracized stutterer, develops a childhood fascination with Kyoto’s famous Golden Temple. While an acolyte at the temple, he fixates on the structure’s aesthetic perfection and it becomes his one and only object of desire. But as Mizoguchi begins to perceive flaws in the temple, he determines that the only true path to beauty lies in an act of horrific violence. Based on a real incident that occurred in 1950, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion brilliantly portrays the passions and agonies of a young man in postwar Japan, bringing to the subject the erotic imagination and instinct for the dramatic moment that marked Mishima as one of the towering makers of modern fiction. With an introduction by Donald Keene; Translated from the Japanese by Ivan Morris.
(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) Views: 594
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of a landmark work of juvenile fictionThis much-loved and widely read classic is the moving story of one girl's struggle to remain brave during the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans. In 1941, eleven-year-old Yuki is looking forward to Christmas when disaster strikes: she and her family, along with everyone of Japanese descent on the West Coast, are labeled enemy aliens. The FBI arrests her father, and she, her mother, and her brother are imprisoned in a bleak and dusty camp surrounded by barbed wire in the Utah desert. There, she and her family experience both true friendship and heart-wrenching tragedy.Journey to Topaz explores the consequences of prejudice and the capacities of the human spirit. First published in 1971, this novel was the first children's book about the wartime incarceration written by a Japanese American. This fiftieth anniversary edition features new cover art, a refreshed design, and a... Views: 594
A hitherto unknown pornographic manuscript of Robert Burns is found in the effects of a dead schoolmaster of impeccable reputation. Max Arbuthnot, an Edinburgh lawyer and a rich man, who at the age of sixty has a rampant appetite for the pleasures of the flesh, takes charge of it. As the manuscript is lost, found again, stolen, and variously shuttles back and forth, the infection of its bawdiness creates havoc in Edinburgh. It's ultimate fate is only decided after a series of bizarre adventures. Part farce, part satire on manners and social attitudes, The Merry Muse sparkles from beginning to end. It is the work of a master, written at the height of his powers. Views: 594
Star Trek and Twilight Zone writer Jerry Sohl's most beloved novel.Dr. Winfield Costigan had designed his "Needle" as a boon to medical research. But few men are able to let well enough alone, and when the Inland Electronics Company puts up a huge sum to finance the project, Costigan constructs a needle big enough to allow a man to step inside. At a secret testing, Glenn Basher of Inland Electronics draws the short straw and passes through the eye of the needle. Trouble is, he does not reappear.Naturally, the police begin to show interest in the case of the missing man. Interference by the press and finally the meddling of a fanatic bring things to a most eerie climax on "the other side" of the needle.This is science fiction of a most entertaining variety—a fantastic adventure in time, but peopled with fully developed characters in situations that allow them to react in a most human way."Jerry Sohl undoubtedly possesses one of the most imaginative minds of our day."—Houston... Views: 594
Tom's eBooks 2021
Henry Louis Hasse (February 7, 1913 – May 20, 1977) was an American science fiction author and fan. He is probably known best for being the co-author of Ray Bradbury's first professionally published story, "Pendulum", which appeared in November 1941 in Super Science Stories. Hasse co-authored two more published stories with Bradbury: "Gabriel's Horn" (1943) and "Final Victim" (1946).
Hasse's novelette "He Who Shrank" is anthologized in both the classic 1946 collection Adventures in Time and Space, edited by Raymond J. Healy and J. Francis McComas, and in Isaac Asimov's memoir of 1930s science fiction Before the Golden Age. Views: 593
Meet best friends Fred (Big Dog) and Ted (Little Dog) in P. D. Eastman’s classic Beginner Book. Though one is big and one is little, and one loves green and one loves red, these pup pals—along with their helpful acquaintance, Bird—prove that opposites can be the very best of friends.
Originally created by Dr. Seuss, Beginner Books encourage children to read all by themselves, with simple words and illustrations that give clues to their meaning.
From the Hardcover edition. Views: 593
When the moon is full at Blandings, strange things happen: among them the commissioning of a portrait of The Empress, twice in succession winner in the Fat Pigs Class at the Shropshire Agricultural Show. What better choice of artist, in Lord Emsworth's opinion, than Landseer. The renowned painter of The Stag at Bay may have been dead for decades, but that doesn't prevent Galahad Threepwood from introducing him to the castle - or rather introducing Bill Lister, Gally's godson, so desperately in love with Prudence that he's determined to enter Blandings in yet another imposture. Add a gaggle of fearsome aunts, uncles and millionaires, mix in Freddie Threepwood, Beach the Butler and the gardener McAllister, and the moon is full indeed. Views: 593
Written in the 1920s, Zweig’s work of literary criticism and biography might today be titled Masters of Memoir. In it, Stefan Zweig – one of the 20th century’s most widely-published writers – describes the creative process and work of authors for whom no subject is as compelling as the material of their own lives.
Adepts in Self-Portraiture examines the lives and work of three men who represent, in Zweig’s view, three levels of development in autobiographical writing. The first and most basic level is evinced by Giacomo Casanova, the Venetian womanizer who records his sexual and social conquests, adventures and escapes, without attempting to analyze or even reflect on them. The second level of self-portraiture is exemplified by Stendhal, the French pioneer of psychological fiction, who kept voluminous notebooks on his own experience of life and on whom no nuance of feeling seems to have been lost. Russian master Leo Tolstoy represents the third and highest level of autobiographical writing in which the psychological is imbued with the spiritual and ethical.
In Adepts, Stefan Zweig examines the impulses that give rise to life writing and anticipates the current popularity of the memoir form.
(Cover: Self-Portrait by Susan Erony, oil, acrylic, burnt paper on canvas, 2000, 24" x 18", Collection Cape Ann Museum)
**About the Author
Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) was an outstanding Austrian novelist, playwright, journalist, and biographer whose work became very popular in the US, South America, and Europe especially between the 1920s and 1930s. In 1904 he earned his doctorate degree in philosophy at the University of Vienna. Throughout his life he remained a pacifist, and instead of becoming a soldier at the start of World War I, he worked in the Archives of the Ministry of War. He became friends with notable people in history, including Romain Rolland, Sigmund Freud, and Arthur Schitzler. Among his most famous writings are Beware of Pity, Chess Story, and his memoir The World of Yesterday.
Laurence Mintz is an independent scholar and visual artist. He was senior editor at Transaction Publishers for more than fifteen years. His main area of interest is in European cultural studies. Views: 593
A Jeeves and Wooster novel
The beefy 'Stilton' Cheesewright has drawn Bertie Wooster as red-hot favourite in the Drones club annual darts tournament - which is lucky for Bertie because otherwise Stilton would have beaten him to a pulp and buttered the lawn with him. Stilton does not, after all like men who he thinks are trifling with his fianc�e's affections.
Meanwhile Bertie has committed a more heinous offence by growing a moustache, and Jeeves strongly disapproves - which is unfortunate, because Jeeves's feudal spirit is desperately needed. Bertie's Aunt Dahlia is trying to sell her magazine Milady's Boudoir to the Trotter Empire and still keep her amazing chef Anatole out of Lady Trotter's clutches. And Bertie? Bertie simply has to try to hold onto his moustache and hope he gets to the end in one piece. Views: 593
A Heart Divided is the fourth and final volume in Jin Yong's high stakes, tension-filled epic Legends of the Condor Heroes series, where kung fu is magic, kingdoms vie for power and the battle to become the ultimate kung fu master unfolds.China: 1200 A.D.Guo Jing and Lotus have escaped Qiu Qianren's stronghold, but at a steep price: Lotus has been mortally wounded. The only one who could save her life is Duan, King of the South, a man skilled and renowned for his healing. But little do they know that danger awaits, including a plan to tear them apart. As the Mongol armies descend on China, Guo Jing will have to make the toughest decision of all—rejoin the people who raised him to avenge his father or fight against his homeland. The ultimate battle for China and Guo Jing's future plays out in the sweeping, high stakes adventure of A Heart Divided, where one choice can change the world. Views: 592
A unique entry in the Böll library, Irish Journal records an eccentric tour of Ireland in the 1950's. An epilogue written fourteen years later reflects on the enormous changes to the country and the people that Böll loved. Irish Journal is a time capsule of a land and a way of life that has disappeared.
From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 592
#7) This edition of Lewis's classic fantasy fiction is packaged specifically for adults. Complementing the look of the author's non-fiction books, and anticipating the forthcoming Narnia feature films, this edition contains an exclusive P. S. section about the history of the book, plus a round-up of the first six titles. Views: 592
"ATTACK!" Rhodan ordered for the second time inside a few seconds. Grenoble and Raft were witnesses to an event which previously they could only have imagined in a dream. Filled with admiration, they watched their chief, Perry Rhodan, standing next to Col. Sikerman at the controls and giving his orders. The Administrator's eyes were a little narrower than usual but otherwise his face showed no signs of excitement. And yet Rhodan had just pronounced the death sentence of several hundred Druufs. He would not do it without reason, for when he could avoid it, Rhodan preferred not to kill his enemies. When he killed them, it was only to save the lives of others.The Drusus wheeled about and climbed into the sky at a crazy speed towards the waiting Druufs. Two of the Druuf ships streaked straight into the destructive fire of the battlespacer... This is but a sample of the action and excitement that awaits you in— BLAZING SUN! Views: 592
