George MacDonald was one of the foremost fantasy writers of the 19th century and influenced just about every writer that came after him. He was a mentor of Lewis Carroll, a friend of Mark Twain's, and a man who helped shape the works of authors like Tolkien. Views: 339
Founded on the tenets of Alcoholics Anonymous, a bachelor can turn to other members of the circle whenever the urge to take a woman out to dinner surfaces. Views: 339
Hailed as the final memorial to the work of a great scholar and teacher and a wise and noble mind, this work paints a lucid picture of the medieval world view, as historical and cultural background to the literature of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Views: 339
Joyce Carol Oates’s Wonderland Quartet comprises four remarkable novels that explore social class in America and the inner lives of young Americans. In A Garden of Earthly Delights, Oates presents one of her most memorable heroines, Clara Walpole, the beautiful daughter of Kentucky-born migrant farmworkers. Desperate to rise above her haphazard existence of violence and poverty, determined not to repeat her mother’s life, Clara struggles for independence by way of her relationships with four very different men: her father, a family man turned itinerant laborer, smoldering with resentment; the mysterious Lowry, who rescues Clara as a teenager and offers her the possibility of love; Revere, a wealthy landowner who provides Clara with stability; and Swan, Clara’s son, who bears the psychological and spiritual burden of his mother’s ambition.
A masterly work from a writer with “the uncanny ability to give us a cinemascopic vision of her America” (National Review), A Garden of Earthly Delights is the opening stanza in what would become one of the most powerful and engrossing story arcs in literature.
A Garden of Earthly Delights is the first novel in the Wonderland Quartet. The books that complete this acclaimed series, Expensive People, them, and Wonderland, are also available from the Modern Library.
From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 339
Life in Ibiza can be glorious and fast, especially for those who have money. Sarah Cassells is an intelligent girl and has many admirers. Having completed her training as a chef, she hears of her father's violent death on the island, and refuses to believe it when told it was suicide. Views: 338
Oliver Barrett IV found his true soulmate when he met and fell in love with Jenny Cavilleri. Their love was magical, exhilarating . . . and though heartbreakingly brief, it was enough to last a lifetime. Or so Oliver told himself.
Two years have passed since Jenny was taken from him, and Oliver truly believes he will never love again. Then one day, Marcie—beautiful and mysterious—enters his world . . . and suddenly the future holds a golden new promise.
The poignant and unforgettable sequel to the beloved classic Love Story is a beautiful tale of one man's journey out of the lonely darkness of grief and back into love's warm embrace— a story that will capture your heart as only Erich Segal can. Views: 338
The War is over, but only just, and San Francisco is still crammed with military uniforms. Of course, being San Francisco, it's also crammed with Bohemians (in a few years, they'll be known as Beatniks). Noel Bruce straddles both camps: By day she's a straight-laced driver for the Navy, but at night she lets her hair down and parties with her flamboyant art-school chums. The party comes to a screeching halt, however, when a dead body turns up in a sculptor's studio, and the artists discover that pretentious mannerisms and amusing facial hair provide little defense against the chill of fear. As in Skeleton Key, the heroine is a working woman, and, like all of Offord's novels, My True Love Lies provides an intriguing bridge between old-fashioned, 1930s-style plotting and a kind of feminism that feels startlingly up-to-date. Views: 338
Elmo Thackeray died the richest man in Texas, leaving his vast fortune to be divided between his relatives and friends. Ole Devil Hardin was asked to gather together the beneficiaries of the will and deliver them to the Thackeray family house. Ole Devil gave the order for his famous Floating Outfit to ride.Dusty Fog, Mark Counter, the Ysabel Kid and Waco thought their troubles would be over when they delivered the legatees to the old house. They were wrong. Under the terms of the will, the last legatee alive inherited the entire fortune — and it looked as if one of them intended to be the survivor who claimed it all. Views: 337
"A warm-hearted, readable story, crammed with lively incident and remarkable characters."
THE ATLANTIC
David Harper was an orphan, loney and impoverished. But his longing to embrace the world that abandoned him was stronger than the harsh realities. And even though he's a con man and petty thief at a carnival, he still dreams. For it was there that David learned about love and about women--all of whom taught him the riches of himself.
Here is a rich segment of American life--a magic blend of longing and wisdom, saltiness, simplicity, and compassion. Views: 337
Long hailed as a seminal work of modernism in the tradition of Joyce and Kafka, and now available in a supple new English translation, Italo Svevo’s charming and splendidly idiosyncratic novel conducts readers deep into one hilariously hyperactive and endlessly self-deluding mind. The mind in question belongs to one Zeno Cosini, a neurotic Italian businessman who is writing his confessions at the behest of his psychiatrist. Here are Zeno’s interminable attempts to quit smoking, his courtship of the beautiful yet unresponsive Ada, his unexpected–and unexpectedly happy–marriage to Ada’s homely sister Augusta, and his affair with a shrill-voiced aspiring singer. Relating these misadventures with wry wit and irony, and a perspicacity at once unblinking and compassionate, Zeno’s Conscience is a miracle of psychological realism. Views: 337
TURBULENT recent events have kept Perry Rhodan and his friends so occupied that they have neglected to pay sufficient attention to the Antis-as the worshipers of the secret Baalol cult are generally known. And thus the "10 Year Plan" of the Antis, which aimed at spreading the narcotic drug Liquitiv throughout the inhabited worlds of the Galaxy, could be launched without interference. The effects of this plan had already been exposed by the results of an alarming investigation on the planet Lepso by Division 3 which had intensified further research of the Liquitiv case. What at first had occupied only a few agents of the Solar Imperium had become a major government operation since the situation on Terra and its colonial planets, as well as Arkon, had become desperate. The necessary precautions had been disregarded for years after renowned research scientists had come to the conclusion that the new liqueur Liquitiv was extremely potent in delaying the natural aging process of the human organism and providing new vigor to those imbibing it. The disastrous error had already been revealed-but this alone did not improve the situation which had to be normalized by radical steps as Perry Rhodan realized--FALSE FRONT! Views: 337
Herman Melville's The Confindence-Man: His Masquerade was the tenth, last, and most perplexing book of his decade as a professional man of letters. After it he gave up his ambitious effort to write works that would be both popular and profound and turned to poetry. The book was published on April 1--the very day of its title character's April Fools' Day masquerade on a Mississippi River Steamboat. Views: 337
Darkover, planet of wonder, world of mystery, has been a favorite of science fiction readers for many years. For it is a truly alien sphere--a world of strange intelligences, of brooding skies beneath a ruddy sun, and of powers unknown to Earth. In this novel, Marion Zimmer Bradley tells of the original coming of the Earthmen, of the days when Darkover knew not humanity. This is the full-bodied novel of what happened when a colonial starship crashlanded on that uncharted planet to encounter for the first time in human existence the impact of the Ghost Wind, the psychic currents that were native only to that world, and the price that every Earthling must pay before Darkover could claim him for itself. Views: 336
Adventure becomes nightmare
Locals claim it is haunted and refuse to put a single toe past the front door, but to siblings Peter, Celia, and Margaret, the Priory is nothing more than a rundown estate inherited from their late uncle—and the perfect setting for a much-needed holiday. But when a murder victim is discovered in the drafty Priory halls, the once unconcerned trio begins to fear that the ghostly rumors are true and they are not alone after all! With a killer on the loose, will they find themselves the next victims of a supernatural predator, or will they uncover a far more corporeal culprit? Views: 336
'If we don't sit here where have we to go?' 'Well, there's our walk every day. And we are allowed out twice if it is fine, and our boating in summer, and our little visits to the church and to the convents.' 'And you're twenty-one and I'm nineteen and a half,' Kitty said hysterically. 'My God, what a life!' Gerald O'Donovan's novel Vocations (1921) is set in a small town in late Victorian Ireland, and is a searing indictment of priests competing to acquire girls and their dowries for the church, and exploiting their high social status.Winnie and Kitty Curtin, the two daughters of the wealthy grocer, are being firmly driven towards the Sisters of Mercy by their determined mother. Kitty's furious resistance to becoming a nun is thwarted by a most unattractive suitor, and Winnie's glad embrace of the veil is driven by her secret passion for Father Burke.O'Donovan was ordained in 1895, and was a friend of Lady Gregory, W B Yeats and George Moore, and a supporter of Gaelic League. He... Views: 336
