In 1930s Paris, where one cheap hotel room is very like another, a young woman is teaching herself indifference. She has escaped personal tragedy and has come to France to find courage and seek independence. She tells herself to expect nothing, especially not kindness, least of all from men. Tomorrow, she resolves, she will dye her hair blonde. Views: 219
This is the classic reference on world history, recognized as the most comprehensive general history ever written, the result of four decades of work by Will and Ariel Durant -- a set that The New York Times called "a splendid, broad panorama of hereditary culture in words and images that the layman can fully understand." This series began as an effort to write a history on the nineteenth century, an undertaking that Will Durant realized could only be understood in terms of what had come before. So the Durants embarked on an encyclopedic survey of all civilization, ancient and modern, Occidental and Oriental.
The books:
Our Oriental Heritage (Volume 1): Will Durant opens his massive survey of civilized history with a sweeping look at the Orient: the Egyptians, who perfected monumental architecture, medicine and mummification; the Babylonians, who developed astronomy and physics; the Judeans, who preserved their culture in the immortal books of the Old Testament; and the Persians, who ruled the largest empire in recorded history before Rome.
The Life of Greece (Volume 2): Will Durant's survey of ancient Greece shows us the origins of democracy and the political legacy to the Western world; the golden age of Athens, its architecture, poetry, drama, sculpture and Olympic contests; the blossoming of philosophical thought amid a society still rooted in slavery and barbarism; and the mysterious lost island of Crete, land of the Minotaur and the Labyrinth.
Caesar and Christ (Volume 3): Spanning a millenium in Roman history, the third volume in the Durants' series shows us a world-conquering Roman army, undefeated, unafraid and...vegeterian; Hannibal, who transported an army of elephants over the Alps to invade Rome; Julius Caesar, who brought Western Europe under Roman rule; the life and Passion of Christ; and the struggle of the rising church.
The Age of Faith (Volume 4): Over 1,000 years, we meet the Christian ascetics and martyrs, including Simeon Stylites, who sat atop a pillar for 30 years, exposed to rain, sun, and snow, and rejoiced as worms ate his rotting flesh; the saints, including Augustine, the most influential philosopher of his age; Mohammed, the desert merchant who founded a religion that conquered one-third of the known world in two centuries; and the Italian poet Dante, whose sensibility marks the transition to the Renaissance.
The Renaissance (Volume 5): In this volume, Will Durant examines the economic seeds -- the growth of industry, the rise of banking families, the conflicts of labor and capital -- for Italy's emergence as the first nation to feel the awakening of the modern mind. He follows the cultural flowering from Florence to Milan to Verona and eventually to Rome, allowing us to witness a colorful pageant of princes, queens, poets, painters, sculptors and architects. We see humanity moved boldly from a finite world to an infinite one.
The Reformation (Volume 6): In Europe's tumultuous emergence from the Middle Ages, we encounter two rival popes fighting for control of a corrupt, cynical church; the Hundred Years' War and 13-year-old warrior Joan of Arc; Christopher Columbus' accidental discovery of the New World; and Martin Luther, who defied the pope and ultimately led Northern Europe into the age of individualism.
The Age of Reason Begins (Volume 7): In one of Europe's most turbulent centuries, Philip II of Spain sees his "invincible" armada suffer defeat at the hands of England; Elizabeth I of England receives assistance from explorer Walter Raleigh and pirate Francis Drake; and new appeals for reason and science are exemplified in the ideas of Copernicus, Galileo and Descartes.
The Age of Louis XIV (Volume 8): This installment is the biography of a period some consider the apex of modern European civilization. "Some centuries hence," Frederick the Great predicted to Voltaire, "they will translate the good authors of the time of Louis XIV as we translate those of the age of Pericles or Augustus." Those authors are lovingly treated here: Pascal and Fenelon, Racine and Boileau, Mme. de Sevigne and Mme. de La Fayette, and, above all, the philosopher-dramatist Moliere, exposing the vices and hypocrisies of the age.
The Age of Voltaire (Volume 9): A biography of a great man and the period he embodied. We witness Voltaire's satiric work in the salons and the theater as well as his banishment to England. With him we view the complex relationships between nobility, clergy, bourgeoisie and peasantry in the France of Louis XV. We explore the music of Bach and the struggle between Frederick the Great and Maria Theresa of Austria. And finally we hear an imaginary discussion between Voltaire and Pope Benedict XIV on the significance and value of religion.
Rousseau and Revolution (Volume 10): This volume ranges over a Europe in ferment, but centers on the passionate rebel-philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who contended with Voltaire for the mind of Europe. Rousseau condemned civilization as a disease, glorified the noble savage, proclaimed to the world with equal intensity his own love affairs and the natural rights of man, and became the patron saint of the French Revolution and social upheavals across the globe for two centuries.
The Age of Napoleon (Volume 11): The final volume. Napoleon is the archetypical hero, whose restless, ambitious, and intelligent mind dominated his age and has never ceased to fascinate the world he helped fashion. Yet even Bonaparte is dwarfed by the age that took his name. For, the Durants have re-created the life, the history, the arts, the science, the politics, the philosophy, the manners and the morality, the very spirit of the turbulent epoch that began with the French Revolution, ended with the fall of the emperor and ushered in the modern world. Views: 219
In their second explosive adventure, the Four Just Men must sacrifice one of their own Her rise through the ranks of the Red Hundred was swift and inexorable. From scraps of conversation overheard in her father's kitchen, she crafted speeches that brought men to tears. When the time came for bloodshed, she did not hesitate—generals and princes died by her hand. As her beauty grew, so did her influence. Now the Woman of Gratz and the anarchist horde in her thrall are ready to declare war—on London, whose streets and tube stations they want to sow with fear, and on the Four Just Men, the only organization powerful enough to stop them. Of course, Manfred, Gonsalez, and Poiccart—aided in this adventure by the mysterious and wealthy Bernard Courtlander—are still wanted by Scotland Yard for the assassination of the foreign secretary. Recognizing her advantage, the Woman of Gratz pounces—even though it means betraying her ideals, and... Views: 218
“Wonderful…razor-sharp.”
—Los Angeles Times Book Review
“Excellent….A plot and a chase as good as anything he has ever written.”
—Bergan Record
In Elmore Leonard’s The Hunted, “crime fiction’s greatest living practitioner” (Washington Post) carries the action far from his usual Detroit, Miami, and Los Angeles milieus, all the way to the Middle East. There no lack of excitement and suspense—and the trademark Leonard dialogue—in this superior tale of a fugitive hiding under the radar in Israel, until a well-publicized Good Samaritan act attracts the unwanted attention of well-armed Motown mobsters who are now coming to get him. The author who introduced the world to U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (in his novels Pronto and Riding the Rap, before the lawman became the star of the hit TV drama Justified), the Grand Master shows why the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel calls him “the all-time king of the whack job crime novelists,” and goes on to say that “Elmore Leonard tops them all”…including John D. MacDonald, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, Robert B. Parker, and quite possibly every major mystery writer the U.S. has ever produced. Views: 218
When orphaned young Maria Merryweather arrives at Moonacre Manor, she feels as if she’s entered Paradise. Her new guardian, her uncle Sir Benjamin, is kind and funny; the Manor itself feels like home right away; and every person and animal she meets is like an old friend. But there is something incredibly sad beneath all of this beauty and comfort—a tragedy that happened years ago, shadowing Moonacre Manor and the town around it—and Maria is determined to learn about it, change it, and give her own life story a happy ending. But what can one solitary girl do?
A new-fashioned story that is as wonderful as the best fairy tales. Views: 218
The Treasured Writings of Kahlil Gibran" represents the most comprehensive volume of works of the Lebanese poet and philosopher ever published. This enriching collection of stories, prose poems, verse, parables and autobiographical essays comprising the major body of Kahlil Gibran's works have been carefully translated and edited by a noted trio of Gibran scholars... Martin L. Wolf, Anthony R. Ferris and Andrew Dib Sherfan.
Each of the ten books included in this beautifully bound collectors' volume has been hailed by critics as literary masterpieces. The works in this collection clearly demonstrate why critics regard Kahlil Gibran as eminently among the world's great writers. His writings reflect the wistful beauty, fierce anger, lofty majesty and the abiding peace that Eastern wisdom achieves in its contemplation.
Often revered as the Dante of the twentieth century, the immortal savant of Lebanon, Kahlil Gibran created verses and lyric prose which impart to the reader a grand symphony of sparkling joys. These qualities have made Kahlil Gibran master of the written word. Views: 218
A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERYThe government's security department have asked private detective Nigel Strangeways to keep a discreet eye on Professor Alfred Wagley, a research scientist who is spending the Christmas holidays in the South-West of England. But someone else is also very interested in the professor and his work, and when his young daughter is kidnapped, Nigel finds himself in a race to avert a tragedy.A Nigel Strangeways murder mystery - the perfect introduction to the most charming and erudite detective in Golden Age crime fiction.;MORE VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERIES MARGERY ALLINGHAMMystery Mile Police at the Funeral Sweet Danger Flowers for the Judge The Case of the Late Pig The Fashion in Shrouds Traitor's PurseCoroner's Pidgin More Work for the Undertaker The Tiger in the... Views: 218
O’Hara did for fictional Gibbsville, Pennsylvania what Faulkner did for Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi: surveyed its social life and drew its psychic outlines, but he did it in utterly worldly terms, without Faulkner’s taste for mythic inference or the basso profundo of his prose. Julian English is a man who squanders what fate gave him. He lives on the right side of the tracks, with a country club membership and a wife who loves him. His decline and fall, over the course of just 72 hours around Christmas, is a matter of too much spending, too much liquor, and a couple of reckless gestures. That his calamity is petty and preventable only makes it more powerful. In Faulkner, the tragedies all seem to be taking place on Olympus, even when they’re happening among the low-lifes. In O’Hara, they could be happening to you. Views: 217
When a successful but brutish playwright is stabbed to death in the aftermath of a wild party, there is no shortage of suspects – but which is the killer? In his latest assignment, Chicago Chronicle crime reporter Hank Janson finds himself participating in a striptease party game, being roughed up by the police investigators and dodging the attentions of a determined nymphomaniac, while he desperately tries to separate the clues from the red herrings. With their erotic pin-up covers and hardboiled crime tales, the Hank Janson pulp paperbacks were a British publishing sensation in the 1940s and 1950s, selling millions of copies to readers craving escapism from post-war austerity. Prosecutions under Britain's then-harsh obscenity laws dealt them a severe blow, however, and today they are highly sought after by collectors. The Lady Has a Scar, originally published in 1950, is one of the most risqué of these classic novels. It is reissued by Telos Publishing... Views: 217
Set against the epic backdrop of the battle of Troy, Troilus and Criseyde is an evocative story of love and loss. When Troilus, the son of Priam, falls in love with the beautiful Criseyde, he is able to win her heart with the help of his cunning uncle Pandarus, and the lovers experience a brief period of bliss together. But the pair are soon forced apart by the inexorable tide of war and - despite their oath to remain faithful - Troilus is ultimately betrayed. Regarded by many as the greatest love poem of the Middle Ages, Troilus and Criseyde skilfully combines elements of comedy and tragedy to form an exquisite meditation on the fragility of romantic love, and the fallibility of humanity. Views: 216
Poirot is approached by a girl who shared a flat with two other girls in London. She is convinced she is a murderer. With rumours of weapons and blood stains and no hard evidence can Poirot determine whether she's guilty, innocent or mad? Views: 216
An early novel from the great rediscovered Hungarian writer Saaacute;ndor Marai," The Rebels" is a haunting story of a group of alienated boys on the cusp of adult life-andpossibly death-during World War I.
It is the summer of 1918, and four boys approaching graduation are living in a ghost town bereft of fathers, uncles, and older brothers, who are off fightingat the front. The boys know they will very soon be sent to join their elders, and in their final weeks of freedom they begin acting out their frustrations and fears in a series of subversive games and petty thefts. Butwhen they attract the attention of a stranger in town-an actor with a traveling theater company--their games, and their lives, begin to move in a direction they could not have predicted and cannotcontrol, and one that reveals them to be strangers to one another. Resisting and defying adulthood, they find themselves still subject to its baffling power even in their attemptedrebellion. "From the Trade Paperback edition." Views: 216
The Naked Communist was a best seller in the early 1960s, selling more than 1.5 million copies. It found its way into the libraries of the CIA, the FBI, the White House, and homes all across America and overseas in Spanish and excerpted in other languages.
In this hard-hitting book an urgent need is finally fulfilled. In one exciting, readable volume, the incredible story of Communism is graphically told. We believe this to be the most vivid and comprehensive book on the subject ever published. It contains a distillation of more than a hundred books and treatises on Communism, many written by Marxist authors. We see the Communist the way he sees himself---stripped of propaganda and pretense. Hence the title, "The Naked Communist." Here is explained Communism's amazing appeal, its history, and its basic and unchanging concepts---even its secret time-table of conquest! Vital questions are clearly answered---Who gave Russia the A-bomb? How did the FBI fight the battle of the underground? Why did the West lose 600 million allies after World War II? What really happened in Korea? What is Communism's great secret weapon? Is there an answer to Communism? What lies ahead? Views: 216
An investigative reporter, a beautiful young journalist, and United States and Soviet intelligence forces must race to find a dangerous secret weapon—a mysterious capsule with the power to change the course of world history.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied. Views: 215
