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Is It Just?
By Lori Chambers, Jenny Roth, Minnie Smith. 2011
Minnie Smith's (ca. 1874-1933) feminist domestic novel, Is It Just?, is a harsh critique of the injustices perpetuated by male-dominated…
society and law. Published in 1911, it tells the tragic story of Mary Pierce, who, through the actions of her selfish and lazy husband, loses her land, her social standing, and ultimately her life.In Is It Just?, the conventions of the domestic novel - episodic presentation, stock characters, contrived plots, and romantic conclusions - illustrate the superiority of female values and argue for expanded social, political, and legal rights for women. A critical introduction by Jenny Roth and Lori Chambers frames Smith's specific references to the laws and social geography of British Columbia, situating the novel in relation to its historic and literary importance. This unique work of domestic literature adds to our limited library of Canadian feminist writings of the first wave.The Writing on the Wall
By Hilda Glynn-Ward, Patricia Roy. 1974
With tales of a gruesome murder, a typhoid epidemic, corrupt politicians, and a Japanese invasion, The Writing on the Wall…
was intended to shock its readers when it was published in 1921. Thinly disguised as a novel, it is a propaganda tract exhorting white British Columbians to greater vigilance to prevent greedy politicians from selling out to the Chinese and Japanese. It was also designed to convince eastern Canada of British Columbia's need for protections against an onslaught of the 'yellow peril.'This novel is not exceptional in its extreme racism; it reiterates almost every anti-oriental cliché circulating in British Columbia at the time of its publication. While modern readers will find the story horrifying and unbelievable, it is in fact based on real incidents. Many of the views expressed were only exaggerated versions of ideas held throughout the country about non-Anglo-Saxon immigrants. The Writing on the Wall is a vivid illustration of the fear and prejudice with which immigrants were regarded in the early twentieth century.Honor Edgeworth
By Douglas Lochhead, Kate Madeleine Bottomley. 1973
In Honor Edgeworth the sole and sincere motive of the authoress has been to hold up to the mass the…
little picture of society, in one of its most marked phases, that she has sketched, as she watched its freaks and caprices from behind the scenes.Ottawa, in this work, is taken merely as a representative of all other fashionable cities, for the simple reason that it is better known to the writer than any other city of social repute. Her object in publishing the volume at all, if not clearly defined throughout the work, may be discovered here: it is primarily, to attract the attention of those who, if they wished, could exercise a beneficial influence over the sphere in which they live, to the moral depravities that at present are allowed so passively to float on the surface of the social tide. It would with the same word appeal to the minds and hearts of those women who are satisfied to remain slaves to the exactions of an unscrupulous society, at the sacrifice of their most womanly impulses, and their noblest energies; and would also remind some reckless sons of Ottawa, of how miserably they are contributing towards the future prosperity of their country, by adopting, as the only aim of their lives, the paltry ambition of an unworthy self-indulgence.The predominant feeling throughout the entire composition has been one of pure philanthropy, as the authoress desires to benefit her fellow-creatures, in as far as it lies in her very limited power.Guilty
By Douglas Lochhead, Lance Bilton. 1973
In the Midst of Alarms
By Robert Barr, Douglas Lochhead. 1973
Una noche en el Orient Express
By Veronica Henry. 2013
Un recado misterioso una promesa hecha a un amigo moribundo una propuesta inesperada un secreto que…
se remonta toda una vida Seis historias cuyo rumbo cambiar en un extraordinario viaje de Londres a Venecia Mientras el tren marcha salen a la luz relaciones confesiones y revelaciones Cuando los pasajeros lleguen a su destino su vida no volver a ser la misma www sumadeletras comVertigo
By Michael Hulse, W. G. Sebald. 2001
The beguiling first novel by W. G. Sebald, one of the most enormously acclaimed European writers of our time. Vertigo,…
W. G. Sebald's first novel, never before translated into English, is perhaps his most amazing and certainly his most alarming. Sebald--the acknowledged master of memory's uncanniness--takes the painful pleasures of unknowability to new intensities in Vertigo. Here in their first flowering are the signature elements of Sebald's hugely acclaimed novels The Emigrants and The Rings of Saturn. An unnamed narrator, beset by nervous ailments, is again our guide on a hair-raising journey through the past and across Europe, amid restless literary ghosts--Kafka, Stendhal, Casanova. In four dizzying sections, the narrator plunges the reader into vertigo, into that "swimming of the head," as Webster's defines it: in other words, into that state so unsettling, so fascinating, and so "stunning and strange," as The New York Times Book Review declared about The Emigrants, that it is "like a dream you want to last forever."My Lady of the Snows
By Douglas Lochhead, Margaret A. Brown. 1973
This work cannot be fully understood unless the reader is aware of the writer's motives. The book has a twofold…
meaning -- that of a political novel, and that of the portrayal of a great love and a religious drama. As Disraeli in his novels portrayed the political and social conditions of certain eras of his country, in a simple way this work is intended to portray the conditions existing in Canada at an era when the country was in a state of transition, with the idealistic conception of what the government of a country should be, the conception being based upon a knowledge of the inherent principles of Divine Right and upon Plato's Republic of Justice. The scene is laid prior to the last election during Sir John A. Macdonald's administration. There are no great questions at issue, politics are seen in their lowest form; the protective tariff had been adopted, and with the advent of machinery the old order of things was passing away; the new order had not yet brought any great issues before the people, and the election, commonly called the "Old Flag" election, was run merely on a sentiment of loyalty to the motherland. "My Lady of the Snows" is a woman who has been born "great," and one who has based her life on principles rather than the emotions, or Plato's theory that the emotions should remain subservient to the will.Dot It Down
By Douglas Lochhead, Alexander Begg. 1973
A Voyage to the Island of the Articoles
By Andre Maurois. 2012
"Dangerous, charming, and funny, this elegant miniature rediscovery will delight even brilliant minds."-Simon Van BooyAndré Maurois' novella, published in the…
same year as Margaret Mead's Coming of Age in Samoa, is about a couple who become shipwrecked on an uncharted South Seas Island and discover a race of literary zealots for whom every subject and feeling needs to be expressed as a form of literary art. As explained by Alberto Manguel, "An Articole will publish not only his Intimate Journal, but also his Journal of My Intimate Journal; and his wife will publish My Husband's Journal of His Intimate Journal."Any Deadly Thing
By Roy Kesey. 2013
Following the critical success of his debut collection, All Over, and of his debut novel, Pacazo, Roy Kesey now brings…
us a new gathering of short stories, Any Deadly Thing. These stories first appeared in magazines including McSweeney's, Subtropics, Ninth Letter and American Short Fiction, and have been widely anthologized; among them are winners of a Pushcart Prize special mention, an Honorable Mention in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, and The Missouri Review's Jeffrey E. Smith Editors' Prize in Fiction. With story locales ranging across the Americas to Europe and Asia, Kesey once again makes the full strange world his stage. "Perfect, masterful portraits of an international cross-section of wise, broken souls--hopeful, brutal, funny as hell, and heart-crushing, every last one." -Elizabeth Crane, author of We Only Know So Much "Roy Kesey is one of my favorite contemporary writers, and Any Deadly Thing is another triumph. These stories, reminiscent of William Gass in the remarkable way they combine a virtuoso playfulness and wit with an atmosphere of grimness and grief and heartbreak, range the world over for their brilliantly realized locales, but they share a deeper setting in what Gass calls 'the only holiness we have,' human consciousness. Kesey demonstrates once again that he is a spectacularly deft and empathetic priest of that creed, which is the only one for me." -Michael Griffith, author of TrophyThe Yellow Briar: A Story of the Irish on the Canadian Countryside
By Michael Gnarowski, Patrick Slater. 2008
Folktale, memoir, fiction, literary hoax, The Yellow Briar is all of these. Ostensibly the charming remembrance of an Irish orphan…
who escapes the Great Famine of 1840s Ireland and comes to the New World to seek a fresh start on the streets of Toronto and in the pioneer hinterland of Canada West (Ontario), the book was actually a fictional humbug perpetrated by John Mitchell, a Toronto lawyer, who first published the tale in 1933. Patrick Slater, the protagonist of the "memoir," is said to have died in 1924 but not before setting his saga down on paper. And what an account it is! The Globe and Mail felt that the book "gives a picture of Ontario to be found in no other work of fiction we know and has won for itself a permanent place in Canadian literature." If nothing else, Slater/Mitchell captures perfectly the lilt of the Irish and the wry wisdom of an old soul to paint an affecting portrait of trials and tribulations in a long-ago time.Invaders from the North: How Canada Conquered the Comic Book Universe
By John Bell. 2006
Short-listed for the 2007 CBA Libris Awards for Book Design of the Year What do Superman, Prince Valiant, Cerebus the…
Aardvark, and Spawn have in common? Their creators Joe Shuster, Harold Foster, Dave Sim, and Todd McFarlane are Canadians. And while many of the cutting-edge talents of contemporary comix and graphic novels are also from Canada artists such as Chester Brown, Seth, Dave Cooper, and Julie Doucet far too few Canadians realize their country had a remarkable involvement with the "funnies" long before. Invaders from the North profiles past and present comic geniuses, sheds light on unjustly neglected chapters in Canadas pop history, and demonstrates how this nation has vaulted to the forefront of international comic art, successfully challenging the long-established boundaries between high and low culture. Generously illustrated with black-and-white and colour comic covers and panels, Invaders from the North serves up a cheeky, brash cavalcade of flamboyant and outrageous personalities and characters that graphically attest to Canadas verve and invention in the world of visual storytelling.Vertigo
By Michael Hulse, W G Sebald. 2001
The beguiling first novel by W. G. Sebald, one of the most enormously acclaimed European writers of our time. Vertigo,…
W. G. Sebald's first novel, never before translated into English, is perhaps his most amazing and certainly his most alarming. Sebald--the acknowledged master of memory's uncanniness--takes the painful pleasures of unknowability to new intensities in Vertigo. Here in their first flowering are the signature elements of Sebald's hugely acclaimed novels The Emigrants and The Rings of Saturn. An unnamed narrator, beset by nervous ailments, is again our guide on a hair-raising journey through the past and across Europe, amid restless literary ghosts--Kafka, Stendhal, Casanova. In four dizzying sections, the narrator plunges the reader into vertigo, into that "swimming of the head," as Webster's defines it: in other words, into that state so unsettling, so fascinating, and so "stunning and strange," as The New York Times Book Review declared about The Emigrants, that it is "like a dream you want to last forever."Flying Free: Corey's Underground Railroad Diary, Book 2 (My America)
By Sharon Dennis Wyeth. 2002
Corey and his family have escaped from slavery and the South and are now living in Canada. They own their…
own land, have made new friends, and Corey gets to go to school. But danger still remains across the river in Ohio, where slave-catchers lurk, waiting to capture escaped slaves to bring them back to their former masters.Is It Just?
By Lori Chambers, Jenny Roth, Minnie Smith. 2011
Minnie Smith's (ca. 1874-1933) feminist domestic novel, Is It Just?, is a harsh critique of the injustices perpetuated by male-dominated…
society and law. Published in 1911, it tells the tragic story of Mary Pierce, who, through the actions of her selfish and lazy husband, loses her land, her social standing, and ultimately her life.In Is It Just?, the conventions of the domestic novel - episodic presentation, stock characters, contrived plots, and romantic conclusions - illustrate the superiority of female values and argue for expanded social, political, and legal rights for women. A critical introduction by Jenny Roth and Lori Chambers frames Smith's specific references to the laws and social geography of British Columbia, situating the novel in relation to its historic and literary importance. This unique work of domestic literature adds to our limited library of Canadian feminist writings of the first wave.Voy
By Gabi Mart nez. 2014
Literatura de viajes, nuevo periodismo, autoficción, parodia y metaliteratura en el nuevo libro de Gabi Martínez. «El convencimiento de estar…
donde debes y quieres es una de las grandes experiencias de la vida. Sentí que había llegado a un lugar que de alguna manera buscaba desde hacía mucho. Encontrar un lugar es bueno. Sí, es bueno.» Un joven periodista intenta localizar a Gabi Martínez, el escritor desaparecido en Nueva Zelanda cuando seguía la pista de un ave invisible tan real, o tan imaginaria, como las leyendas que la nombran. El reportero necesita entender qué motivos le llevaron a romper con su vida y desaparecer sin dejar rastro. Como hizo su propio padre, como ocurre con todos aquellos que no creen pertenecer a ningún lugar, los que se marchan mucho antes de emprender un viaje. Pero nunca existe una única versión de la historia. Por eso, la figura del viajero se va componiendo a medida que avanza la investigación, y las voces de su exmujer, alguno de sus amigos, varios guías de sus expediciones, compañeros de viaje o una de sus últimas amantes van perfilando al hombre en esencia, tan mezquino como espléndido, a medida que responden a las preguntas del periodista. No hay sólo una perspectiva, sino tantas como personas compartieron su vida. De la misma manera, Voy no es un único libro sino varios al tiempo. Es ficción, pero también literatura de viajes; es un relato de anhelos, pero también de desengaños; es comedia y a la vez drama. Una obra caleidoscópica que profundiza en el descubrimiento del yo a través de los otros, en la identidad como juego de espejos y en la utopía como final del viaje. Reseñas:«Desnudo literario integral que ve y sube la apuesta autoficcional de Coetzee en Verano.» Daniel Arjona, El Mundo «Un libro que se sale de lo común. Impecable e implacable. Un libro de búsquedas y sueños,de risas y quebrantos, de radical exploración personal a través del espejo que habitan los otros.» Tino Pertierra, La Nueva España «Deslumbrante (e impúdico) cruce entre el making of literario y la autobiografía. Imprescindible.» Jorge de Cominges, escritor «Gabi Martínez es un escritor de viajes introspectivo que encierra un pequeño Homero dentro mucho más revolucionario que en otros escritores. Ha sabido encontrar la manera de renovar la literatura viajera mediante enfoques inusuales, dejándose llevar por la misma osadía -y lucidez- que tuvo su precedente más claro y confeso: Bruce Chatwin, con quien comparte la capacidad de ruptura y de recreación. Literatura en vena.» Adolfo García Ortega, escritor, crítico y traductor, Club Cultura FNAC «Amplía el campo de acción del Verano de Coetzee (...) Me quito el sombrero: debe tenerse libertad y valentía para hacer un libro como éste. Da fuerza.» Mercè Ibarz, escritora «Martínez dista mucho de ser un escritor de viajes al uso y de manual (...). Podemos disfrutar de su originalidad, de un soberbio estilo de escritura y de muchas reflexiones sagaces de quien ha recorrido mundo y sabe de lo que habla. (...) Auténtico e intenso porque también en la vida, como demuestra Gabi en este libro, no debemos conformarnos con hacer turismo en los demás y en nosotros mismos.» Ángeles Prieto, La tormenta en un vaso «Una obra maestra.» La petita llibreriaTren fantasma a la Estrella de Oriente
By Paul Theroux. 2008
«Theroux es el canon por el que todo escritor de viajes debe juzgarse.»Observer Hace treinta años, Paul Theroux partió de…
Londres en un viaje de ida y vuelta por Asia en tren. Aquel relato -El gran bazar del ferrocarril- se convirtió en punto de referencia y su nombre en el más célebre de entre los autores de libros de viaje de su generación. Theroux vuelve ahora sobre sus pasos, a través del oeste de Europa, la India y Asia, para desvelar la ola de cambios que ha barrido los continentes. Un largo viaje que nos transporta del laberinto de Estambul a las ruinas de Merv o al superpoblado Delhi, de los ashrams de Bangalore a las barridas marginales de Singapur, de los templos de Angkor a la renacida Saigón, de la Ciudad Prohibida de Hue al Barrio Viejo de Hanói, de un inmenso sex shop en Tokio a un balneario en Wakkanai, del parque de los Ciervos en Nara al gulag de Perm... Reseña:«Un libro maravilloso insuflado de la agudeza de la madurez, que consigue aquello que un libro de viajes no puede obviar: logra que el lector desee ponerse en camino.»BooklistCuentos invisibles
By Pedro Sorela. 2002
Pedro Sorela emprende en estas páginas su viaje más largo: la distancia que separa un cuento de su historia. Estos…
cuentos son invisibles porque invisible es el lenguaje de la literatura, que no se puede filmar. También porque tratan de viajes, y el viaje es lo que se encuentra detrás de los ojos, no delante, y -al igual que la literatura- hace posible que de nuestra visión del mundo hagamos una creación. De una represa de aguas milenarias en la cima de los Andes a un motín de blancos en un río chino, de una persecución en Londres al renacimiento de un pobre tipo en Estambul, de una reunión de extravagantes en Helsinki a un Berlín improbable y sin embargo histórico, de un Madrid inédito a un Buenos Aires francés, los cuentos de Pedro Sorela ponen en evidencia el lado mentiroso de los pasaportes. Con humor y un idioma afilado, estos cuentos amplían el arco de una obra definida por la originalidad de la mirada y la sugerencia inherente a su doble condición de literatura y viaje. Reseñas:«Una experiencia humana intensa [...] un periplo abarcador de la existencia humana en el que entran componentes culturales, morales y hasta políticos, éstos no explícitos pero sí intencionados».Santos Sans Villaneva, El Cultural «Los relatos de Sorela prueban que ha viajado lo bastante para, como hubiera dicho Valle-Inclán, no ser arrogante cuando bien podría serlo».Víctor Andresco, El PaísCómo viajar sin ver
By Andrés Neuman. 1977
Un cruce entre la narrativa más actual y la crónica relámpago. Una visión literaria, al vuelo, de la geografía entera…
de la lengua. Reflexionando sobre el escaso tiempo previsto para recorrer cada país con el Premio Alfaguara, el autor se pregunta si hoy nuestros viajes consisten sobre todo en no ver. «¿Estaré por experimentar una hipérbole del turismo contemporáneo?», escribe. Pero el ritmo radical de su periplo está a punto de brindarle una oportunidad única: comparar todas las capitales latinoamericanas en una misma ráfaga. Andrés Neuman nos propone un recorrido vertiginoso por 19 países, interpretados por un ojo poético y político. Los presuntos no-lugares (aeropuertos, hoteles, taxis) quedan así convertidos en poderosos espacios de conflicto. Explorando con agudeza los dilemas de la identidad nacional y las contradicciones de la globalización, Cómo viajar sin ver es un diario innovador y divertido que experimentacon las formas de nuestro tiempo. Y que le toma el pulso a la vida cultural del continente, abordando no solamente a sus clásicos sino también a las nuevas generaciones de creadores. Un libro esencial para cualquier persona interesada en la historia, la actualidad y el futuro de Latinoamérica. Una manera distinta de pensar nuestra cultura cambiante y el sentido del viaje. Críticas:«A partir de ahora, todo viajero curioso que recorra Latinoamérica debería llevar consigo este libro portátil, apasionante y verdadero, de alguien que sabe oír y mirar sin prejuicios, con la lucidez que le proporciona su visión generosa.» Fernando Valls, Ínsula «Una obra estupenda. [...] Una América tan compleja, tan variada [...] que el lector piensa que no hay ficción capaz de competir con una realidad que parece albergarla.»José María Pozuelo Yvancos, ABC «En El viajero del siglo, por el que ha recibido el Premio de la Crítica, Neuman revisitaba la novela del siglo XIX, el viaje de ida; y del resultado de su gira ha nacido una narración del XXI: una antítesis, una cara B.»Ulises Fuentes, La Razón «Un libro de chispazos que no está edificado sobre la frivolidad o la brillantez visual, sino sobre la perspicacia de la mirada. Neuman tiene unas gafas que son sólo suyas, y a través de ellas miramos.»Luisgé Martín, Gente «Los fogonazos de Neuman iluminan Latinoamérica. El escritor radiografía la diversidad del continente.»Paula Corroto, Público «Su aguda percepción se renueva en cada aterrizaje. Aflora la magia viajera del autor, la calidad de un escritor como Andrés Neuman.»Gabriel Cetkovich, Clarín (Argentina) «Un conjunto de instantáneas divertidas, fugaces, conmovidas y conmovedoras, deslumbrantes destellos de una pluma privilegiada.»Guillermo Roz, Periodista Digital «Una virtuosa demostración de escritura al vuelo. Altamente observador, Neuman se concentra en cada instante y captura pequeños detalles que a otros escritores se les habrían escapado [...] Un vertiginoso retrato de Latinoamérica en todas sus miserias y glorias.»Kirkus Reviews (EE. UU.) «No se trata de una literatura de viajes convencional, y sin embargo el libro funciona. Eso es gracias al ojo de Neuman para el absurdo y la ironía. Más importante aún es su talento para lo sucinto. Lugares y personas quedan capturados en una sola, atinada frase [...]. Pese a los kilómetros que recorre, se regocija en la quietud, ya que su gran pasión es la lectura.»Oliver Balch, The Spectator (Reino Unido)