Service Alert
Delay in delivery of ZIP and Direct to Player materials
You may experience a delay in delivery of Direct to Player materials. All requests for materials will be delivered as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.
You may experience a delay in delivery of Direct to Player materials. All requests for materials will be delivered as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.
Showing 1 - 20 of 54 items
By Esteban Echeverría. 2018
Edición definitiva de dos textos fundacionales de la literatura argentina (El matadero es considerado el primer cuento argentino), con prólogo…
del escritor y crítico literario Martín Kohan, y nota preliminar a cargo de Alejandra Laera. «Ella va. Toda es oídos; / sobre salvajes dormidos / va pasando; escucha, mira, / se para, apenas respira, / y vuelve de nuevo a andar. / Ella marcha, y sus miradas / vagan en torno azoradas, / cual si creyesen ilusas / en las tinieblas confusas / mil espectros divisar.»La cautiva La cautiva y El matadero ocupan un lugar fundacional en la literatura argentina. Escritos por Esteban Echeverría a fines de la década de 1830, en ellos se diseña, respectivamente, el espacio del desierto inabarcable y el de la violencia política, dos motivos que recorren la poesía y la narrativa de todo el siglo XIX. La cautiva utiliza los recursos del Romanticismo para idealizar la civilización, corporizada en la protagonista, y demonizar al indio, haciendo de la frontera la cifra del encuentro con el Otro. En cambio, el lenguaje crudo de El matadero -publicado de manera póstuma y considerado con el tiempo el primer cuento argentino- pone en escena el enfrentamiento social y, con su crítica al rosismo, inaugura el uso político de la ficción. «Para Esteban Echeverría [...] la cultura popular adquiere ese doble signo: recelo ideológico y seducción estética. No obstante, en El matadero esta cuestión asume una inflexión particular; porque la cultura popular se despliega en él bajo su forma más crispada e intensa: la de la violencia.»Del prólogo de Martín KohanBy Harriet Beecher Stowe. 2006
Harriet Beecher Stowe's second antislavery novel was written partly in response to the criticisms of Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) by…
both white Southerners and black abolitionists. In Dred (1856), Stowe attempts to explore the issue of slavery from an African American perspective.Through the compelling stories of Nina Gordon, the mistress of a slave plantation, and Dred, a black revolutionary, Stowe brings to life conflicting beliefs about race, the institution of slavery, and the possibilities of violent resistance. Probing the political and spiritual goals that fuel Dred's rebellion, Stowe creates a figure far different from the acquiescent Christian martyr Uncle Tom. In his introduction to the classic novel, Robert S. Levine outlines the antislavery debates in which Stowe had become deeply involved before and during her writing of Dred. Levine shows that in addition to its significance in literary history, the novel remains relevant to present-day discussions of cross-racial perspectives.By Sonita Sarker, Shashi Deshpande. 1992
This moving and exquisitely crafted novel renders visible the extraordinary endurance and grace concealed in women's everyday lives. The lives…
of three women who are "haunted by fears, secrets, and deep grief" (Washington Post) are bound together by strands of life and hope--a binding vine of love, concern, and connection that spreads across chasms of time, social class, and even death. The Baltimore Sun declared the novel, "Chekhovian . . . Deshpande's story of a woman who loses a daughter is linked to the politics of India and its tradition of patriarchy."By Rm Johnson. 1999
RM Johnson's extraordinary debut is a stirring family portrait that resonates with emotion and wit, as a father faces death…
-- and the three sons he abandoned so many years before. "Mr. Harris, I'm sorry, but you have cancer." Although devastated to learn he has just one year to live, fifty-five-year-old Julius Harris has always known that the day would come when he would pay for walking out on his wife and three children twenty years earlier. Now, with a sudden and passionate determination to make his family whole again, Julius begins trying to find a way back to his sons. Caleb, the youngest, struggling to support a son and make his way in a relentless world, couldn't care less about his own absentee father. Middle son Marcus can't abide even his father's memory, which gets in the way of his committing to the one woman who has turned his life around. And Austin, Julius' eldest child, so adores what he remembers of his father that he's following in his footsteps, abandoning his wife and children just as Julius had done. Inspired by RM Johnson's own fragile family history, The Harris Men is his poignant exploration of the increasing problem of absentee fathers -- and of the compromises made by the families they leave behind. As the Harris men grapple with their fears and their choices, Johnson gets to the very heart of what it means to be a man.By Anita Miller, Hella S. Haasse. 1911
In this novel, set in the 15th century during the Hundred Years War between France and England, Hella Haasse brilliantly…
captures all the drama of one of the great ages of history.By Nadine Boehm-Schnitker, Susanne Gruss. 2014
This book provides a comprehensive reflection of the processes of canonization, (un)pleasurable consumption and the emerging predominance of topics and…
theoretical concerns in neo-Victorianism. The repetitions and reiterations of the Victorian in contemporary culture document an unbroken fascination with the histories, technologies and achievements, as well as the injustices and atrocities, of the nineteenth century. They also reveal that, in many ways, contemporary identities are constructed through a Victorian mirror image fabricated by the desires, imaginings and critical interests of the present. Providing analyses of current negotiations of nineteenth-century texts, discourses and traumas, this volume explores the contemporary commodification and nostalgic recreation of the past. It brings together critical perspectives of experts in the fields of Victorian literature and culture, contemporary literature, and neo-Victorianism, with contributions by leading scholars in the field including Rosario Arias, Cora Kaplan, Elizabeth Ho, Marie-Luise Kohlke and Sally Shuttleworth. Neo-Victorian Literature and Culture interrogates current fashions in neo-Victorianism and their ideological leanings, the resurrection of cultural icons, and the reasons behind our relationship with and immersion in Victorian culture.By Qiao Li. 2001
An epic spanning more than half a century of Taiwan's history, this breathtaking historical novel traces the fortunes of the…
Pengs, a family of Hakka Chinese settlers, across three generations from the 1890s, just before Taiwan was ceded to Japan as a result of the Sino-Japanese war, through World War II. Li Qiao brilliantly re-creates the dramatic world of these pioneers—and the colonization of Taiwan itself—exploring their relationships with the aboriginal peoples of Taiwan and their struggle to establish their own ethnic and political identities.This carefully researched work of fiction draws upon Li's own experiences and family history, as well as oral and written histories of the era. Originally published in Chinese as a trilogy, this newly translated edition is an abridgement for English-speaking readers and marks the work's first appearance in the English-speaking world. It was well-received in Taiwan as an honest—and influential—recreation of Taiwan's history before the relocation of the Republic of China from the mainland to Taiwan.Because Li's saga is so deeply imbued with the unique culture and complex history of Taiwan, an introduction explaining the cultural and historical background of the novel is included to help orient the reader to this amazingly rich cultural context. This informative introduction and the sweeping saga of the novel itself together provide an important view of Taiwan's little known colonial experience.By John Berger, Nella Bielski. 1989
El último retrato de Goya está inspirado en diversos episodios de la vida del artista, en una época de agitación…
política y guerras patrióticas. Durante el largo periodo de caos que marcó en España el salto de siglos entre el XVIII y el XIX, en una época de agitación política y guerras patrióticas, Francisco de Goya tuvo que ganarse la vida como pintor de Corte, haciendo retratos de familia real y de la aristocracia. Pero su retrato más importante quizá no sea ninguno de ellos, sino el fenomenal retablo que integran sus dibujos y grabados, hasta pintar el rostro monstruoso y revuelto de su tiempo. El último retrato de Goya está inspirado en diversos episodios de la vida del artista. Es, por así decirlo, una serie de diálogos de alto contenido iconográfico, la antítesis de una «comedia de época». Los autores, dando réplica al genio inventivo y a la tremenda expresividad de Goya, trazan una semblanza del pintor que nos lo sitúa en su tiempo sin dejar de presentárnoslo como un hombre que nos habla desde el presente, como si hubiera conocido nuestros problemas actuales, como si hubiera pintado el futuro.By Elizabeth Scala. 2020
The essential student companion for reading and understanding An ideal companion to The Canterbury Tales, this brief, accessible book introduces…
students to Chaucer’s tales and helps them understand the language, genres, forms, historical background, and critical history. This purchase offers access to the digital ebook only.By Maggie O'Farrell. 2020
"Remarkable . . . will leave you shaking with loss but also the love from which family is spun." Emma…
Donoghue, author of Room"Without a doubt one of the best novels I've ever read." Mary Beth Keane, author of Ask Again, YesTWO EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE. A LOVE THAT DRAWS THEM TOGETHER. A PLAGUE THAT THREATENS TO TEAR THEM APART.England, 1580. A young Latin tutor--penniless, bullied by a violent father--falls in love with an eccentric young woman: a wild creature who walks her family's estate with a falcon on her shoulder and is known throughout the countryside for her unusual gifts as a healer. Agnes understands plants and potions better than she does people, but once she settles on the Henley Street in Stratford she becomes a fiercely protective mother and a steadfast, centrifugal force in the life of her young husband. His gifts as a writer are just beginning to awaken when their beloved twins, Hamnet and Judith, are afflicted with the bubonic plague, and, devastatingly, one of them succumbs to the illness.A luminous portrait of a marriage, a shattering evocation of a family ravaged by grief and loss, and a hypnotic recreation of the story that inspired one of the greatest literary masterpieces of all time, Hamnet & Judith is mesmerizing and seductive, an impossible-to-put-down novel from one of our most gifted writers.Ch'oe Yun is a Korean author known for her breathtaking versatility, subversion of authority, and bold exploration of the inner…
life. Readers celebrate her creative play with fantasy and admire her deep engagement with trauma, history, and the vagaries of remembrance.In this collection's title work, There a Petal Silently Falls, Ch'oe explores both the genesis and the aftershocks of historical outrages such as the Kwangju Massacre of 1980, in which a reported 2,000 civilians were killed for protesting government military rule. The novella follows the wanderings of a girl traumatized by her mother's murder and strikes home the injustice of state-sanctioned violence against men and especially women. "Whisper Yet" illuminates the harsh treatment of leftist intellectuals during the years of national division, at the same time offering the hope of reconciliation between ideological enemies. The third story, "The Thirteen-Scent Flower," satirizes consumerism and academic rivalries by focusing on a young man and woman who engender an exotic flower that is coveted far and wide for its various fragrances. Elegantly crafted and quietly moving, Ch'oe Yun's stories are among the most incisive portrayals of the psychological and spiritual reality of post-World War II Korea. Her fiction, which began to appear in the late 1980s, represents a turn toward a more experimental, deconstructionist, and postmodern Korean style of writing, and offers a new focus on the role of gender in the making of Korean history.By Tarashankar Bandyopadhyay. 2011
A terrifying sound disturbs the peace of Hansuli Turn, a forest village in Bengal, and the community splits as to…
its meaning. Does it herald the apocalyptic departure of the gods or is there a more rational explanation? The Kahars, inhabitants of Hansuli Turn, belong to an untouchable "criminal tribe" soon to be epically transformed by the effects of World War II and India's independence movement. Their headman, Bonwari, upholds the ethics of an older time, but his fragile philosophy proves no match for the overpowering machines of war. As Bonwari and the village elders come to believe the gods have abandoned them, younger villagers led by the rebel Karali look for other meanings and a different way of life.As the two factions fight, codes of authority, religion, sex, and society begin to break down, and amid deadly conflict and natural disaster, Karali seizes his chance to change his people's future. Sympathetic to the desires of both older and younger generations, Tarashankar Bandyopadhyay depicts a difficult transition in which a marginal caste fragments and mutates under the pressure of local and global forces. The novel's handling of the language of this rural society sets it apart from other works of its time, while the village's struggles anticipate the dilemmas of rural development, ecological and economic exploitation, and dalit militancy that would occupy the center of India's post-Independence politics.Negotiating the colonial depredations of the 1939–45 war and the oppressions of an agrarian caste system, the Kahars both fear and desire the consequences of a revolutionized society and the loss of their culture within it. Lyrically rendered by one of India's great novelists, this story of one people's plight dramatizes the anxieties of a nation and the resistance of some to further marginalization.By Bangqing Han. 2005
Desire, virtue, courtesans (also known as sing-song girls), and the denizens of Shanghai's pleasure quarters are just some of the…
elements that constitute Han Bangqing's extraordinary novel of late imperial China. Han's richly textured, panoramic view of late-nineteenth-century Shanghai follows a range of characters from beautiful sing-song girls to lower-class prostitutes and from men in positions of social authority to criminals and ambitious young men recently arrived from the country. Considered one of the greatest works of Chinese fiction, The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai is now available for the first time in English. Neither sentimental nor sensationalistic in its portrayal of courtesans and their male patrons, Han's work inquires into the moral and psychological consequences of desire. Han, himself a frequent habitué of Shanghai brothels, reveals a world populated by lonely souls who seek consolation amid the pleasures and decadence of Shanghai's demimonde. He describes the romantic games played by sing-song girls to lure men, as well as the tragic consequences faced by those who unexpectedly fall in love with their customers. Han also tells the stories of male patrons who find themselves emotionally trapped between desire and their sense of propriety. First published in 1892, and made into a film by Hou Hsiao-hsien in 1998, The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai is recognized as a pioneering work of Chinese fiction in its use of psychological realism and its infusion of modernist sensibilities into the traditional genre of courtesan fiction. The novel's stature has grown with the recent discovery of Eileen Chang's previously unknown translation, which was unearthed among her papers at the University of Southern California. Chang, who lived in Shanghai until 1956 when she moved to California and began to write in English, is one of the most acclaimed Chinese writers of the twentieth century.By Inoue Yasushi. 2008
One of the world's most ruthless warriors, Chinggis Khan conquered nearly all of Asia in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries,…
transforming the scattered and impoverished Mongols into an exceptionally proud and powerful nation. In this riveting and thoroughly researched portrait, Japan's celebrated epic novelist drives at the root of the khan's great desires and insatiable appetite for supremacy.Beginning with his birth in 1162, The Blue Wolf follows the crucial alliances that led to Chinggis Khan's great campaigns in North China, Bukhara, and Samarkand, as well as the state of Khorazm. The khan was obsessed with his ancestry, not knowing whether he was the descendent of the blue wolf (mythical progenitor of the Mongols and the noble Borjigin line) or merely the bastard son of a Merkid tribesman. For Inoue Yasushi, Chinggis's ancestral anxiety lies at the center of his relentless push for empire. He struggled with his paternity as intensely as he fought his battles, and his victories stood as proof that the brave warrior was a true Mongol. The question of paternity also formed the largest wedge between Chinggis and his eldest son, Jochi, a boy born in captivity and of similarly questionable heritage. Hailed for its sophistication and rich imagining of a remote world, The Blue Wolf puts a human cast on a legendary force that changed Asia and the world.By Fiona Mitchell. 2019
Two women. Two children. But whose is whose?'An emotionally charged and thought-provoking read that any parent will relate to' Woman's…
WeeklyWhen two strangers, Tess and Annie, undergo IVF at an American clinic, their embryos are mixed up and each woman gives birth to the wrong child.The women only discover the devastating error three years later. Tess wants to swap the children back; Annie doesn't. As the pair wrangle, neither of them expect what unfolds.*******PRAISE FOR THE SWAP'A gripping, heartbreaking and original story which asks some important questions about motherhood and keeps you guessing until the very end, absolutely loved it.' - Clare Empson, author of HIM'A wonderfully written, thought provoking and moving read. I raced through the pages, desperate to know the outcome. Such a clever, original idea. I loved it.' - Claire Douglas'Oh how it was worth the wait! Fiona has crafted an emotive and credible read . . . Harrowing in parts, but uplifting in others, Fiona keeps the pace constant . . . deeply moving and beautifully written.' - Louise Jensen, author of THE SURROGATE and THE DATE'The hook on the cover would grab anyone, but it's the gorgeous writing, the stunning attention to detail, and the searingly difficult themes explored that kept me. I read this in just two days. The impossible dilemma is so sensitively addressed, and yet Mitchell has still created an addictive, page-turner. An unforgettable book.' - Louise Beech, author of THE LION'Just finished the brilliant THE SWAP by Fiona Mitchell and my heart aches. It explores the gut-wrenching dilemma of two women following an IVF mix-up. A gripping tale written with great sensitivity and humour, even in its darkest moments. Book club gold.' - Francesca Jakobi, author of BITTERBy Maureen Lee. 2002
Another wonderful Liverpool saga from bestselling author Maureen Lee.The product of an affair between a nurse and an injured American…
soldier during the Great War, Ruby O'Hagan's early life is spent in an orphanage. At sixteen she runs away with a farmworker, and two years later she is alone and homeless with her two daughters.Her friend, Mrs Hart, leaves her big friendly house for Ruby to look after, and it is here that her life unfolds. Her children leave but return when tragedy befalls them. Through all this, the enigmatic Matthew Flynn drifts in and out of Ruby's life. She ignores him until it is almost too late.By Prof Bernhard Schlink. 2018
A #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER'Bernhard Schlink speaks straight to the heart' New York Times'Brilliant... A tale of love and loss in…
20th century Germany' Evening Standard'A cleverly-constructed tale of cross-class romance' Mail on Sunday'A poignant portrait of a woman out of step with her time' Observer Olga is an orphan raised by her grandmother in a Prussian village around the turn of the 20th century. Smart and precocious, she fights against the prejudices of the time to find her place in a world that sees her as second-best.When she falls in love with Herbert, a local aristocrat obsessed with the era's dreams of power, glory and greatness, her life is irremediably changed.Theirs is a love against all odds, entwined with the twisting paths of German history, leading us from the late 19th to the early 21st century, from Germany to Africa and the Arctic, from the Baltic Sea to the German south-west.This is the story of that love, of Olga's devotion to a restless man - told in thought, letters and in a fateful moment of great rebellion.By Mitchell S. Jackson. 2013
'This novel is written with a breathtaking, exhilarating assurance and wit. Terrific' The Times 'A wrenchingly beautiful debut by a…
writer to be reckoned with' Jesmyn WardMitchell S. Jackson grew up black in a neglected neighbourhood in America's whitest city, Portland, Oregon. In the '90s, those streets and beyond had fallen under the shadow of crack cocaine and its familiar mayhem. In his commanding autobiographical novel, Jackson writes what it was like to come of age in that time and place, with a breakout voice that's nothing less than extraordinary.The Residue Years switches between the perspectives of a young man, Champ, and his mother, Grace. Grace is just out of a drug treatment programme, trying to stay clean and get her kids back. Champ is trying to do right by his mum and younger brothers, and dreams of reclaiming the only home he and his family have ever shared. But selling crack is the only sure way he knows to achieve his dream. In this world of few options and little opportunity, where love is your strength and your weakness, this family fights for family and against what tears one apart.Honest in its portrayal, with cadences that dazzle, The Residue Years signals the arrival of a writer set to awe.Winner Whiting Writers' AwardWinner Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary ExcellenceFinalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut FictionBy Sue Wilsher. 2016
The BRAND NEW wartime saga from the much-loved author of THE TILBURY POPPIES. Perfect for fans of Annie Murray and…
Donna DouglasWill she sacrifice her dreams to care for her family?Essex, 1959.Keep the family together, that's what her old mum always said. Put up and shut up. And that's what everyone else did around there.Flo earns her money as a scrubber, cleaning the cruise ships and dreaming of a day when she might sail away from her life in the Dwellings, the squalid tenements of Tilbury docks. Then the Blundell family are evicted from their home.Fred, Flo's husband, finds work at Monday's, a utopian factory town. Suddenly, it seems like everything is on the up for Flo Blundell and her children. Even Jeanie, Flo's sulking teenage daughter, seems to be thawing a little in her shiny new surroundings. But when Fred starts drinking again, he jeopardises the family's chance to escape poverty for good.Flo is faced with a terrible decision. Must she fight to keep her family together? Or could she strive for the life of her dreams - the kind of life she could have when her ship comes in?A heart-warming story of love, loss and friendship, set against the backdrop of post-war EnglandREAL READERS love Sue Wilsher's novels:'Emotional, sweeping and unputdownable!''A superbly good read''A powerful, gripping saga''A beautiful read. I hope there will be many more novels to follow this one'By Michael Lackey. 2021
Biofiction: An Introduction provides readers with the history, origins, evolution, and legitimization of biofiction, suggesting potential lines of inquiry, exploring…
criticisms of the literary form, and modeling the process of analyzing and interpreting individual texts. Written for undergraduate and graduate students, this volume combines comprehensive coverage of the core foundations of biofiction with contemporary and lively debates within the subject. The volume aims to confront and illuminate the following questions: • When did biofiction come into being? • What forces gave birth to it? • How does it uniquely function and signify? • Why has it become such a dominant aesthetic form in recent years? This introduction will give readers a framework for evaluating specific biofictions from writers as varied as Friedrich Nietzsche, George Moore, Zora Neale Hurston, William Styron, Angela Carter, Joyce Carol Oates, and Colm Tóibín, thus enabling readers to assess the value and impact of individual works on the culture at large. Spanning nineteenth-century origins to contemporary debates and adaptations, this book not only equips the reader with a firm grounding in the fundamentals of biofiction but also provides a valuable guide to the uncanny power of the biographical novel to transform cultural attitudes, perspectives, and beliefs.