The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (also known as The Pickwick Papers) is Charles Dickens\'s first novel. He was asked to contribute to the project as an up-and-coming writer following the success of Sketches by Boz, published in 1836 (most of Dickens\' novels were issued in shilling instalments before being published as complete volumes). Dickens (still writing under the pseudonym of Boz) increasingly took over the unsuccessful monthly publicatio after the original illustrator Robert Seymour had committed suicide. With the introduction of Sam Weller in chapter 10, the book became the first real publishing phenomenon, with bootleg copies, theatrical performances, Sam Weller joke books, and other merchandise. After the publication, the widow of Robert Seymour claimed that the idea for the novel was originally her husband\'s; however, in his preface to the 1867 edition, Dickens strenuously denied any specific input, writing that "Mr Seymour never originated or suggested an incident, a phrase, or a word, to be found in the book." \'One of my life\'s greatest tragedies is to have already read Pickwick Papers - I can\'t go back and read it for the first time\' Fernando Pessoa Few first novels have created as much popular excitement as The Pickwick Papers - a comic masterpiece that catapulted its twenty-four-year-old author to immediate fame. Readers were captivated by the adventures of the poet Snodgrass, the lover Tupman, the sportsman Winkle and, above all, by that quintessentially English Quixote, Mr Pickwick, and his cockney Sancho Panza, Sam Weller. From the hallowed turf of Dingley Dell Cricket Club to the unholy fracas of the Eatanswill election, via the Fleet debtors\' prison, characters and incidents spring to life from Dickens\'s pen, to form an enduringly popular work of ebullient humour and literary invention. This edition is based on the first volume edition of 1837, and includes the original illustrations. In his introduction, Mark Wormald discusses the genesis of The Pickwick Papers and the emergence of its central characters. Views: 486
In the late 1970s Ondaatje returned to his native island of Sri Lanka. As he records his journey through the drug-like heat and intoxicating fragrances of that "pendant off the ear of India, " Ondaatje simultaneously retraces the baroque mythology of his Dutch-Ceylonese family. An inspired travel narrative and family memoir by an exceptional writer. Views: 485
'Addictive! A twisty page-turner that had me on the edge of my seat from start to finish.' Roz Watkins 'Rose. Rose. Pick up, please. I know who killed her. I know who killed my real mum. I've worked it out.' When Rose's flighty stepsister Willow disappears to Cornwall, she can't help but roll her eyes. Willow is always taking off and there is always some kind of emergency. But after Willow discovers that she was adopted and her birth mother died in tragic circumstances, her trip to the coast sparks a search into her past. Two days later, when a package arrives at Rose's house containing a series of four polaroids of four different men, Rose knows that Willow is in trouble. Each photograph a possible murder suspect, their family life begins to unravel, leaving one crucial question unanswered... Who killed Willow's mother? * * * * * * * Readers LOVE Traces of Her! 'What a ride, more twists and turns than a Formula 1 race track' A.M. Castle 'Gripped me from start to finish...... Views: 485
In this classic novel Richard Yates, hailed as a preeminent chronicler of the American condition and author of the acclaimed Revolutionary Road, weaves a masterful, unflinching tale of two families brought together by chance, desperation, and desire.
Evan Shepard was born with good looks, bad luck, and a love for the open ro But it was on one such drive, with his father from rural Long Island into lower Manhattan, that Evan’s life would be changed forever. When their car breaks down on a Greenwich Village street, Evan’s father presses a random doorbell, looking for a telephone. Within hours, two families—sharing equally complex and addled histories—will come together. There will be flirtation. There will be a marriage. There will be a child, a new home… But as Evan moves further into the uncharted land of manhood, as the women and men around him come into focus, he faces roads not taken and a journey not made—in Richard Yates’ haunting exploration of human restlessness, family secrets, and a future shaped by them both.
From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 485
Tom Swift, Jr. -- working with the Navy -- tries to recover a crashed Jupiter probe at the bottom of the ocean. Tom\'s recovery efforts become a race against time, as the Brungarians move in to steal the probe and its scientific data. A thrilling Tom Swift, Jr. adventure! Views: 485
"Happy Times""in Norway" is a moving and delicately humorous picture of Undset's own blissful home life before her nation fell to the Nazi occupation. Captured here is the excitement of a Norwegian Christmas, the Seventeenth of May, and summer in the idyllic mountains, as well as the chaotic adventure of raising two energetic boys. With vivid detail and illuminating descriptions of the landscape, "Happy Times in Norway" is infused with the wish that those cherished days could come again. Views: 485
Stoner author John Williams's first novel is a searing look at a man's relationship with his absent father, and how early trauma manifests throughout one's lifeJohn Williams's first novel is a brooding psychological noir. Arthur Maxley is a young man at the end of his emotional rope. Having dropped out of college, he's holed up in a big-city hotel, living off an allowance from his family, feeling nothing but alone and doing nothing but drinking to forget it. What's brought him to this point? Something is troubling him, something is haunting him, something he cannot bring himself either to face or to turn away from. And now his father has come to town, a hail-fellow-well-met kind of guy. They've been estranged for years, and yet Arthur wants to meet—and so he does, reeling away from the encounter for a night of drinking and dancing and a final reckoning with the traumatizing past that readers will not soon forget. Views: 485
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. Views: 485
Alamut takes place in 11th Century Persia, in the fortress of Alamut, where self-proclaimed prophet Hasan ibn Sabbah is setting up his mad but brilliant plan to rule the region with a handful elite fighters who are to become his "living daggers." By creating a virtual paradise at Alamut, filled with beautiful women, lush gardens, wine and hashish, Sabbah is able to convince his young fighters that they can reach paradise if they follow his commands. With parallels to Osama bin Laden, Alamut tells the story of how Sabbah was able to instill fear into the ruling class by creating a small army of devotees who were willing to kill, and be killed, in order to achieve paradise. Believing in the supreme Ismaili motto “Nothing is true, everything is permitted,” Sabbah wanted to “experiment” with how far he could manipulate religious devotion for his own political gain through appealing to what he called the stupidity and gullibility of people and their passion for pleasure and selfish desires.
The novel focuses on Sabbah as he unveils his plan to his inner circle, and on two of his young followers — the beautiful slave girl Halima, who has come to Alamut to join Sabbah's paradise on earth, and young ibn Tahir, Sabbah's most gifted fighter. As both Halima and ibn Tahir become disillusioned with Sabbah's vision, their lives take unexpected turns.
Alamut was originally written in 1938 as an allegory to Mussolini's fascist state. In the 1960's it became a cult favorite throughout Tito's Yugoslavia, and in the 1990s, during the Balkan's War, it was read as an allegory of the region's strife and became a bestseller in Germany, France and Spain. Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, the book once again took on a new life, selling more than 20,000 copies in a new Slovenian edition, and being translated around the world in more than 19 languages. This edition, translated by Michael Biggins, in the first-ever English translation. Views: 485
Sarah is thrilled beyond words when she receives an assignment to return to Central Texas—the birth place of the first mission of love. On this trip, she is to find a companion for Tom’s mother, Allison. Will sweet Allison survive Sarah’s attempts at matchmaking? Can a widowed pastor’s wife find happiness again?Sarah is thrilled beyond words when she receives an assignment to return to Central Texas—the birth place of the first mission of love. On this trip, she is to find a companion for Tom’s mother, Allison. Will sweet Allison survive Sarah’s attempts at matchmaking? Can a widowed pastor’s wife find happiness again? Even though she’s more experienced now, Sarah continues to cause mishaps—and this time they aren’t all by accident! Allison is in for a ride of a lifetime.* Sarah Does it Again is a free, complimentary short story to the Sarah series by Gay N. Lewis. If this glimpse into Sarah’s antics makes you smile, please consider looking up her full-length novellas, as listed: Sarah: A Mission of Love, Sarah: Laney’s Angel, Sarah and the Widow’s Mate, and Sarah and a Midnight Cruise to Catalina Island, plus multiples novellas. All guaranteed to bring a chuckle and lighten your heart!* Views: 485
