The scene is teeming Zanzibar just before the American Civil War, when the Isle of Cloves was a center of African slave trade. To it comes Hero Athena Hollis, a Boston bluestocking filled with self-righteousness and bent on good deeds.
Then she meets Rory Frost, a cynical, wicked, shrewd and good-humored trader in slaves. What is Hero to make of him (and of her feelings for him)?
"Tightly plotted, crammed with detail and irresistibly romantic." (Cosmopolitan)
Note: M.M. Kaye is the author of The Far Pavilions, one of the great stories to emerge from British India. Views: 453
Imagine a world without hunger. With clothing and shelter for everyone. A world that is never too warm or too cold. A world where there are no decisions to be made, because everything is decided upon for the inhabitants.A utopia? Or a prison? Because paradise has a price.The story of one man: the last who can read the secret language of the machine that created the City - the last man who can change it. Views: 453
The Star is a science fiction short story by English writer Arthur C. Clarke. It appeared in the science fiction magazine Infinity Science Fiction in 1955 and won the Hugo award in 1956. The story was also published as Star of Bethlehem. Views: 453
s/t: All That Fall; Embers; Acts Without Words, I and II; Mimes This collection of Nobel Prize winner Samuel Beckett’s dramatic pieces includes a short stage play, two radio plays, and two pantomimes. The stage play Krapp’s Last Tape evolves a shattering drama out of a monologue of a man who, at age sixty-nine, plays back the autobiographical tape he recorded on his thirty-ninth birthday.
The two radio plays were commissioned by the BBC; All That Fall “plumbs the same pessimistic depths [as Waiting for Godot] in what seems a no less despairing search for human dignity” (London Times), and Embers is equally unforgettable theater, born of the ramblings of an old man and his wife. Finally, in the two pantomimes, Beckett takes drama to the point of pure abstraction with his portrayals of, in Act Without Words I, frustrated desired, and in Act Without Words I, corresponding motions of living juxtaposed in the slow despair of one man and the senselessly busy motion of another. Views: 453
The forest is a whole different world…Felix Salten’s classic story of wild and tame animals coming together is brought vividly to life in this refreshed edition, ideal for collecting.
To the animals of Lodge Farm, the woods are a forbidden place filled with danger and uncertainty. For the wild animals in the forest, the farm is just as frightening, because Man lives there. The two worlds are next to one another, but couldn’t be further apart.
When the groups, tame and wild, begin to interact, each begins to question how life would be different on the other side. Manni the donkey ventures into the forest for an adventure, while a doe and her two fawns seek the safety of the barn when poachers threaten them in the woods. Will the animals choose to stay in their new lives? Or will the call of home be too great? Views: 453
Guy Crouchback, determined to get into the war, takes a commission in the Royal Corps of Halberdiers. His spirits high, he sees all the trimmings but none of the action. And his first campaign, an abortive affair on the West African coastline, ends with an escapade which seriously blots his Halberdier copybook. Men at Arms is the first book in Waugh’s brilliant trilogy, Sword of Honour, which chronicles the fortunes of Guy Crouchback. The second and third volumes, Officers and Gentlemen and Unconditional Surrender, are also published in Penguin. Sword of Honour has recently been made into a television drama series, with screenplay by William Boyd. Views: 452
A semi-autobiographical, satirical novel that throws into perspective all of Gombrowicz's major literary, philosophical, psychological and social concerns. Throughout the book Gombrowicz ridicules the self-centred pomposity of the Polish community in Argentina. Views: 452
Earth officials were hard on the heels of the mysterious Sirian spy, Agent X, when he blasted off in a stolen spaceship. But before they could catch him, the master spy jettisoned the capsule that held his report into the icy rings of Saturn. In a flash, Lucky Starr and Bigman Jones found themselves in a race with the Sirian war fleet to recover it. When the Sirians couldn't find the capsule, they kidnapped Lucky and Bigman, bringing them to their secret military base on Titan. There the arrogant Sirian commander offered Lucky a terrible choice: turn traitor to Earth—or Bigman would die! It was not an idle threat. Views: 452
Assumed dead, Lady Anne Jocelyn meets varying degrees of welcome when she returns from Occupied France to her old life in England. Though her husband Sir Philip is not overjoyed to see her, he agrees to a trial reunion. But a murder raises his doubts, and then a second and third send Miss Silver to a curious consideration of life after death. Views: 452
Twenty years after he and his family were deported from Sighet to Auschwitz, Elie Wiesel returned to his town in search of the watch—a bar mitzvah gift—he had buried in his backyard before they left.
From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 452
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. New Directions is excited to reissue the Gardner classics, beginning with October Light, a complex relationship rendered in a down-to-earth narrative. October Light is one of John Gardner's masterworks. The penniless widow of a once-wealthy dentist, Sally Abbot now lives in the Vermont farmhouse of her older brother, 72-year-old James Page. Polar opposites in nearly every way, their clash of values turns a bitter corner when the exacting and resolute James takes a shotgun to his sister's color television set. After he locks Sally up in her room with the trashy blockbuster novel that has consumed her (and only apples to eat), the novel-within-the-novel becomes an echo chamber providing glimpses into the history of the family that spawned these bizarre, sad, and stubborn people. Gardner uses the turbulent siblings as a stepping-off point from which he expands upon the lives of their extended families, and the rural community that surrounds them. He also engages larger issues of how liberals and conservatives define themselves, and considers those moments when life transcends all their arguments. Views: 452
the circus of dr. laois like no circus youever saw—full of fantastichappenings, crammed withthe wonder and terror ofthe supernatural. And the stories Ray Bradbury haschosen to go with this famous novel are in keepingwith this special mood. E. B. WHITEtells of a machine that easily mightmake man obsolete. NIGEL KNEALEtells of the very sweet revengeof some be-devilled frogs. ROALD DAHLtells of an imaginative game that~turns into a horrifying nightmare. HENRY KUTTNERtells of a man who thinks he’sgetting the better part of a bargainwith the devil. These are only a few of the extraordinarytales in this volume. There goes the calliope, the trumpet,the drum . . . Get ready for THE CIRCUS OFDR. LAO and Other Improbable Stories — thegreatest show on—or off—the earth Views: 451
The year is 2203, and the ruler of the Universe is chosen according to the random laws of a strange game under the control of Quizmaster Verrick. But when Ted Bentley, a research technician recently dismissed from his job, signs on to work for Verrick, he has no idea that Leon Cartwright is about to become the new Quizmaster. Nor does he know that he’s about to play an integral part in the plot to assassinate Cartwright so that Verrick can resume leadership of a universe not nearly as random as it appears.
Winner of both the Hugo and John W. Campbell awards for best novel, widely regarded as the premiere science fiction writer of his day, and the object of cult-like adoration from his legions of fans, Philip K. Dick has come to be seen in a literary light that defies classification in much the same way as Borges and Calvino. With breathtaking insight, he utilizes vividly unfamiliar worlds to evoke the hauntingly and hilariously familiar in our society and ourselves.
From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 451
