This compelling satire details irresistible characteristics of social status in a small Midwestern town. Mr. and Mrs. Adams and their two children are members of the lower middle-class. Their daughter, Alice, wrestles with this economic classification and attempts to make the society folk of the town appreciate her. Because Alice has no social influence nor wealth and her presence is held in disregard by prospective suitors, Mrs. Adams tries to improve the situation by persuading her husband to leave a job he's held all his life and to establish a new career. After much apprehension and in possession of a glue formula stolen from his previous employer, he resigns his mediocre but satisfying employment which puts him in a predicament that leads to his professional downfall. Tarkington's understanding of class rivalries, social condescension, and financial avarice is evident in this tale where his main point indicates that in every joyless moment hope, though unexpected, is attainable. He illustrates how the Adams' laborious efforts are ultimately unsuccessful. Any intrusion by Alice and her mother on the upper class is unlikely and Tarkington's depiction of such is secretly amusing. Views: 43
Based on the testimony of dozens of GTS old-girls and this vibrant play is a joyous and harrowing dramatisation of the experiences of eight inmates and their reunion forty years later. Interspersed with song and storytelling, this is a tribute to mischief and humour in the face of hardship and inequality. Views: 43
Cyberbile is a candid, moving and sometimes shocking glimpse into the online world of today's teen generation. Based on interviews conducted by students, with teachers, parents and their fellow students, Cyberbile is a verbatim-based drama which speaks from and to the hearts of a Australia's young adults. Set against the backdrop of one of the most intriguing events in Newcastle's recent history—the grounding of the Pasha Bulka—Grounded is a coming of-age tale centred around Farrah, a young Novocastrian with a fascination for Newcastle's industrial port. Through her obsession we explore universal themes of isolation, belonging and identity and that time in your life when the obsessions of childhood get grounded in reality. Views: 42
SUMMARY:The Magnificent Ambersons, by Booth Tarkington, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics: New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work Comments by other famous authors Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations Bibliographies for further reading Indices & Glossaries, when appropriateAll editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works. Largely overshadowed by Orson Welles’s famous 1941 screen version, Booth Tarkington’s novel The Magnificent Ambersons was not only a best-seller when it first appeared in 1918—it also won the Pulitzer Prize.Set in the Midwest in the early twentieth century—the dawn of the automobile age—the novel begins by introducing the richest family in town, the Ambersons. Exemplifying aristocratic excess, the Ambersons have everything money can buy—and more. But George Amberson Minafer—the spoiled grandson of the family patriarch—is unable to see that great societal changes are taking place, and that business tycoons, industrialists, and real estate developers will soon surpass him in wealth and prestige. Rather than join the new mechanical age, George prefers to remain a gentleman, believing that “being things” is superior to “doing things.” But as his town becomes a city, and the family palace is enveloped in a cloud of soot, George’s protectors disappear one by one, and the elegant, cloistered lifestyle of the Ambersons fades from view, and finally vanishes altogether.A brilliant portrayal of the changing landscape of the American dream, The Magnificent Ambersons is a timeless classic that deserves a wider modern audience. Nahma Sandrow has written extensively about theater and cultural history, including the books Vagabond Stars: A World History of Yiddish Theater and Surrealism: Theater, Arts, Ideas. For many years a professor at Bronx Community College of the City University of New York, she has lectured at Oxford University, Harvard University, the Smithsonian, and elsewhere. Views: 36
In the savage 1942 winter siege of Leningrad, as the Russians fight off the Nazi invaders, three teenagers - Lika, Marat and Leondik - are thrown together. Losing everything from their past, they forge a new love that binds them and a new hope which keeps them alive: the promise of a better future.Arbuzov's classic of the 1960s is revived here in Nick Dear's stunning adaptation for the Tricycle Theatre, London in 2002. Views: 30
It is 1967. In separate wings of a Viennese hospital, two men lie bedridden. The narrator, named Thomas Bernhard, is stricken with a lung ailment; his friend Paul, nephew of the celebrated philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, is suffering from one of his periodic bouts of madness. As their once-casual friendship quickens, these two eccentric men begin to discover in each other a possible antidote to their feelings of hopelessness and mortality--a spiritual symmetry forged by their shared passion for music, strange sense of humor, disgust for bourgeois Vienna, and great fear in the face of death. Part memoir, part fiction, Wittgenstein's Nephew is both a meditation on the artist's struggle to maintain a solid foothold in a world gone incomprehensibly askew, and a stunning--if not haunting--eulogy to a real-life friendship. Views: 28
HE ALWAYS GOT HIS MAN...BUT WOULD HE GET HIS WOMAN? Nothing would stop U.S. Marshal Harlan Cole from capturing an escaped fugitive. Not even being forced to work side by side with his ex-lover, Wyoming Deputy Callie Glass, on a murder investigation. Harlan knows the case will open old wounds, but none as raw as the ones he inflicted on Callie long ago. Still, establishing an amiable partnership is vital if they are to complete their assignment. But the fury in her eyes and the fever in his blood prove too lethal a combination. The deeper they ride into the mountains on a manhunt, the more Harlan has to protect Callie from the chilling secrets of her past. Sensing the rekindling of an old flame, Harlan establishes one goal: keeping Callie alive long enough to win her back. Views: 28
EVERYONE HAS SECRETS. HERS MAY GET THEM KILLED. Breaking protocol and going
on the run with a protected witness wasn't in U.S. Marshal Ryan Jackson's
plans. And even though Jessica Delaney's testimony nearly put away a crime boss,
Ryan can't afford to trust her. Still, the duty-dedicated marshal will do whatever
it takes to protect Jessica and uncover the mole leaking her new identity. But staying
seconds ahead of the ruthless killers on their trail is easier than keeping himself safe
from Jessica's unexpected vulnerability and irresistible determination. Now, as the
net around them tightens, Ryan's deepest loss may be the one danger he never
anticipated. Views: 27
Four boys face the tricky transition to adulthood in Ella Hickson's riot of a play. Premiered at High Tide Festival 2012, then Nuffield Theatre, Southampton, and Soho Theatre, London. The Class of 2011 are about to graduate and Benny, Mack, Timp and Cam are due out of their flat. Stepping into a world that doesn’t want them, these boys start to wonder whether there’s any point in getting any older. How will they find the fight to make it as adults? Before all that they’re going to have one hell of a party. It’s hot and there’ll be girls. Predict a riot. 'Marvellous... a play that both powerfully captures the mood of a generation and addresses permanent truths with exhilarating flair' Independent 'Will leave you with laughter lines' Time Out 'Heartfelt directness of writing that taps into a generation torn between action and inertia' Guardian Views: 26
Osborne here delivers his trademark eloquence, rage and devastating wit. A Sense of Detachment satirises our heartless, profiteering society, while defending timeless human values. The End of Me Old Cigar examines the decadent lives of a collection of leading media figures. The television play Jill and Jack is a comic gem that satirises the conventions of its own genre while also being a close study of sexual warfare. A Place Calling Itself Rome is a powerful reworking of Shakespeare's Coriolanus. Views: 18
The latest novel from one of Latin America's greatest living writers tells the story of a man whose distant past comes to haunt him, leading him to uncover his ancestors' involvement in the sordid story behind 19th century human zoos in Europe.From the author of Death and the Maiden and other works that explore relations of power in the postcolonial world, comes the story of a man whose distant past comes to haunt him, leading him to uncover his ancestors' involvement in the sordid story behind 19th century human zoos in Europe. On Fitzroy Foster's fourteenth birthday on September 11th, 1981, he receives an unexpected and unwelcome gift: as his father snaps his picture with a Polaroid, another person's image appears in the photo. Fitzroy, together with his feisty childhood sweetheart, sets out on a voyage to discover this stranger's identity, in a journey that will take him into the darkest past of his own family history and on an epic sea adventure. In... Views: 18
