In the fall of 1948, Ernest Hemingway made his first extended visit to Italy in thirty years. His reacquaintance with Venice, a city he loved, provided the inspiration for Across the River and into the Trees, the story of Richard Cantwell, a war-ravaged American colonel stationed in Italy at the close of the Second World War, and his love for a young Italian countess. A poignant, bittersweet homage to love that overpowers reason, to the resilience of the human spirit, and to the worldweary beauty and majesty of Venice, Across the River and into the Trees stands as Hemingway's statement of defiance in response to the great dehumanizing atrocities of the Second World War. Hemingway's last full-length novel published in his lifetime, it moved John O'Hara in The New York Times Book Review to call him "the most important author since Shakespeare." Views: 534
In Piemburgem, the deceptively peaceful-looking capital of Zululand, Kommandant van Heerden, Konstabel Els and Luitenant Verkramp continue to terrorise true Englishman and even truer Zulus in their relentless search for a perfect South Africa.
Kommandant van Heerden, that great Anglophile, gropes his way towards attaining true 'Englishness' in the company of the eccentric Dornford Yates Club. But Luitenant Verkramp, whose hatred of all things English is surpassed only by his fear of sex, sets in motion an experiment in mass chastity (with the help of a lady psychiatrist), which has remarkable and quite unforeseen results. Views: 533
Emily Thorne considered her-self the steady, quiet one of her family; she carried on with her job, saved for the future, hardly gave a thought to love and marriage. But was it true, or was she simply unawakened? Perhaps her stormy relationship with the wealthy Demis Kaladonis would provide the answer. Views: 533
A scholar, a goblin, and a gnome, among others, pursue the secrets of a vanished ancient race through a wasteland of dark magic in this enthralling fantasy quest adventure
On an Earth that is different from ours, the young scholar Mark Cornwall becomes a target of the Inquisition, and specifically its most evil and obsessed agent, Beckett. Damned for asking questions, Mark is forced to escape over the border into the Wastelands, a magical realm that is home to all manner of flesh-devouring monsters. Luckily he will not have to make his journey alone. He is accompanied by a cadre of stalwart companions, including the rafter goblin Oliver, Snively the gnome, and secretive Mary from one of three parallel planes. Somewhere beyond the vengeful, blood-hungry Hellhounds, somewhere past the horrific legacy of the now-destroyed Chaos Beast, the mysteries of the Old Ones are waiting to be revealed—and only those with the courage to seek them will be able to alter the destiny of their worlds.
In Enchanted Pilgrimage, Clifford D. Simak ingeniously blends elements of science fiction into a savory fantasy stew. The award-winning Grand Master of science fiction spreads his wings and takes glorious flight into a bold new realm of magic and adventure, demonstrating why he remains one of the most acclaimed storytellers in the literature of the remarkable.
Views: 533
Along with his faithful dog Argos, eleven-year-old Hugh Copplestone decides to leave his Aunt and Uncle's house after one beating too many, and heads for Oxford to seek his fortune.
When he meets a group of strolling players along the way, Hugh joins them, becoming part of their acting troupe. A new life meeting jugglers, puppet players, quack doctors and ballard singers starts for Hugh as the Players travel the country, and, as one of the Dusty-Feet, Hugh also experiences the freedom and fellowship of life on the road. Views: 533
Pulled down from the clouds at the end of a kite string, Mary Poppins is back. In Mary’s care, the Banks children meet the King of the Castle and the Dirty Rascal, visit the upside-down world of Mr. Turvy and his bride, Miss Topsy, and spend a breathless afternoon above the park, dangling from a clutch of balloons. Views: 533
When everyone who has read Leonard Dykes's unpublished manuscript--including the author himself--is found dead, Nero Wolfe, along with his sidekick, decides to set a trap. Views: 533
One of the most distinguished critics and innovative authors of the twentieth century, Virginia Woolf published two novels before this collection appeared in 1921. However, it was these early stories that first earned her a reputation as a writer with "the liveliest imagination and most delicate style of her time." Influenced by Joyce, Proust, and the theories of William James, Bergson, and Freud, she strove to write a new fiction that emphasized the continuous flow of consciousness, time's passage as both a series of sequential moments and a longer flow of years and centuries, and the essential indefinability of character.
Readers can discover these and other aspects of her influential style in the eight stories collected here, among them a delightful, feminist put-down of the male intellect in "A Society" and a brilliant and sensitive portrayal of nature in "Kew Gardens." Also included are "An Unwritten Novel," "The String Quartet," "A Haunted House," "Blue & Green," "The Mark on the Wall," and the title story.
In recent years, Woolf's fiction, feminism, and high-minded sensibilities have earned her an ever-growing audience of readers. This splendid collection offers those readers not only the inestimable pleasures of the stories themselves, but an excellent entrée into the larger body of Woolf's work. Views: 532
It takes a lot of sweat,
blood, and effort to colonize an alien world. When you've succeeded,
however badly, you don't want to give it all up.The colony on Arcon was split into three distinct parties:The BLUES: "Let's change people to fit this world."The GREENS: "Let's change the world to fit humanity."The YELLOWS: "Let's get out of here and go somewhere else."For a long time, the Yellows were pariahs; subjects of base humor and discimination. Until they built a starship of their own! Views: 532
Before his 1959 breakthrough, Naked Lunch, an unknown William S. Burroughs wrote Junky, his first novel. It is a candid eye-witness account of times and places that are now long gone, an unvarnished field report from the American post-war underground. Unafraid to portray himself in 1953 as a confirmed member of two socially-despised under classes (a narcotics addict and a homosexual), Burroughs was writing as a trained anthropologist when he unapologetically described a way of life - in New York, New Orleans, and Mexico City - that by the 1940's was already demonized by the artificial anti-drug hysteria of an opportunistic bureaucracy and a cynical, prostrate media. For this fiftieth-anniversary edition, eminent Burroughs scholar Oliver Harris has painstakingly recreated the author's original text, word by word, from archival typescripts and places the book's contents against a lively historical background in a comprehensive introduction. Here as well, for the first time, are Burroughs' own unpublished introduction and an entire omitted chapter, along with many "lost" passages, as well as auxiliary texts by Allen Ginsberg and others. Views: 532
In Rome for the Olympics, Drum witnesses an assassinationWhen he was in college, Kyle Ryder picked up athletic records effortlessly. Now he picks up girls. An Olympic-quality javelin thrower, he has recently fallen for a Czechoslovakian Amazon named Hilda, whose weapon of choice is the discus. On the eve of the Rome summer Olympics, Kyle’s father hires private detective Chester Drum to follow his son. He doesn’t mind the girl—it’s her Soviet handlers who make him nervous. The Olympic torch hasn’t even been lit when their love affair takes its first casualty. Their Italian go-between, Signor Mozzoni, is crossing the street when a Citroën runs him down. With their protector dead, Kyle and his girlfriend vanish. If Drum doesn’t find the missing athletes quickly, the Soviet trainers will give them a workout from which they’ll never recover. Views: 532
Over a quarter of a century after its first publication, the great and simple wisdom in this book continues to influence women's lives.
From the Hardcover edition. Views: 532
Winner of the Leacock Medal for Humor, this memoir captures life in a small northern town of Torgov's youth in the heady era of the 20th C from the Depression to WWII. Here Jewish merchants, English lawyers, Scots bankers, Ukrainian domestics and a few Chinese struggle to make a living in a remote outpost. And it is here that a young man, yearning for a larger life, turns his comic gaze. Views: 531
French naturalist Dr. Aronnax embarks on an expedition to hunt down a sea monster, only to discover instead the Nautilus, a remarkable submarine built by the enigmatic Captain Nemo. Together Nemo and Aronnax explore the underwater marvels, undergo a transcendent experience amongst the ruins of Atlantis, and plant a black flag at the South Pole. But Nemo's mission is one of revenge-and his methods coldly efficient. Views: 531
