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Showing 1 - 20 of 36 items
By Catrin Collier. 2014
A hidden past, a dangerous love and a voice to reach across the ages. A brand new title from best-selling…
author Catrin Collier. Allenstein, East Prussia, 1939 - Charlotte von Datski's parents hold a glittering ball to celebrate her eighteenth birthday and announce her engagement to a Prussian count. But Hitler is about to plunge the world into war... Soon, Charlotte will be forced to leave behind her beloved homeland and flee to England carrying a secret that both strengthens and torments her. Years later, Charlotte's granddaughter, Laura, is shocked when the truth about her grandmother's past comes to light. Laura persuades Charlotte to embark on a journey to her childhood home in Eastern Europe. There, as Charlotte re-reads her diary and recalls the one great love of her life, she finally faces the demons that have haunted her for over half a century.By Sophocles. 2015
Sophocles' play is a famous retelling of Aias's (Ajax's) demise. After the armor is awarded to Odysseus, Aias feels so…
insulted that he wants to kill Agamemnon and Menelaus. Athena intervenes and clouds his mind and vision, and he goes to a flock of sheep and slaughters them, imagining they are the Achaean leaders, including Odysseus and Agamemnon. When he comes to his senses, covered in blood, he realizes that what he has done has diminished his honor, and decides that he prefers to kill himself rather than live in shame.By Derrick A. Bell. 1996
Just like the songs of a gospel choir, the pieces in this book give voice to the hardships faced by…
African Americans. Through allegorical stories and fictional encounters, dreams and dialogues, it presents fresh perspectives on the different issues that concern blacks. Despite their tough subjects, however, these stories resound with laughter and compassion and a continuing theme of Christian love.By Frank Gibney. 2002
A newspaperman, an ex-Navy vice-admiral, a steel worker, a farmer, and the 124th Emperor of Japan himself-these are the fascinating…
heroes of Gibney's brilliant book about modern Japan. Strongly individual, everyone of them, the five yet share the common inheritance of Japan's precocious but unstable past.Through their lives and attitudes, Gibney gives us an invaluable analysis of this new sovereign nation so suddenly thrown into the world's power conflicts. He helps us understand the historical and social forces which make Japan what she is today-the old contracts and loyalties from which each of the Five Gentlemen is struggling to free himself and his country. Their courageous efforts to weld a new Japan from the remains of the old society, and to come to terms with the present, is as exciting as it is important. For, should they succeed, great hope for the free world lies in their success.By John Updike. 1974
To the list of John Updike's well-intentioned protagonists--Rabbit Angstrom, George Caldwell, Piet Hanema, Henry Bech--add James Buchanan, seen above as…
a young Congressman in the 1820's, and on the front cover as the harried fifteenth President of the United States (1857-1861). In a play meant to be read, Buchanan's political and private lives are represented as aspects of his spiritual life, whose crowning, condensing act is the act of dying. A wide-ranging Afterword rounds out the dramatic portrait of one of America's lesser known, and least appreciated, leaders.By John Huston, Miguel Covarrubias. 2015
The ill-fated lovers Frankie and Johnny were already legends by 1930 the year of this illustrated drama s publication…
The unique interpretation is a collaboration between John Huston the future director of The Maltese Falcon and other film classics and Miguel Covarrubias an influential painter and caricaturist Huston who reputedly interviewed a neighbor of the real-life Frankie and Johnny was inspired to adapt the tale of love gone wrong for a puppet show for which George Gershwin supplied musical accompaniment In addition to Huston s script and distinctive images by Covarrubias this edition features the Saint Louis Version of the folktale regarded as the most authentic version as well as 20 variations on the story and songBy Arthur Miller. 1954
A haunting examination of groupthink and mass hysteria in a rural community The place is Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, an…
enclave of rigid piety huddled on the edge of a wilderness. Its inhabitants believe unquestioningly in their own sanctity. But in Arthur Miller's edgy masterpiece, that very belief will have poisonous consequences when a vengeful teenager accuses a rival of witchcraft--and then when those accusations multiply to consume the entire village. First produced in 1953, at a time when America was convulsed by a new epidemic of witch-hunting, The Crucible brilliantly explores the threshold between individual guilt and mass hysteria, personal spite and collective evil. It is a play that is not only relentlessly suspenseful and vastly moving but that compels readers to fathom their hearts and consciences in ways that only the greatest theater ever can.By Luis Huizzi, Mohamed Bouzitoune. 2018
South of Calcutta, in one of the dim curves of the Hugli River, before inserting its dense wet arms into…
the clay sand, several children played with innocent joy as they dipped their tiny bodies in one of the nearby public fountains. The old city was cut off by the warm gray air that cut out the profiles of its distant buildings. The afternoon progressed, heavy as if wanting to glimpse his presence in an unappealable appointment with the night, still distant waiting for her in his warm and dark arms. A little farther on, on one of the almost invisible edges of the Garden Reach, was a scattered rustic farmhouse; its alleyways of humid earth, let escape a strange smell, that at times seemed to flee from the earth and to meet with the dirty puddles, that abounded for those days of spring. Women, dressed in rustic, light-colored saris, emerged for moments in the courtyards, barely divided by a few boards and cartons. Going up the most imperceptible alley, and after passing by the edge of the hill, you could see a ramshackle and chaotic hut. It was difficult to perceive the place of the entrance and, how much ...By Charles W. Chesnutt. 2020
In this landmark tale, one of the great American novelists exposed the harsh dimensions of Southern prejudice during post–Reconstruction era.…
Charles W. Chesnutt traces the intertwined lives of two prominent families: one headed by a newspaper editor and flagrant white supremacist; the other by the founder of a hospital for African Americans, whose biracial wife is the unacknowledged half-sister of the editor's wife. Their personal dramas unfold amid an atmosphere of public hysteria that erupts in a massacre — one based on an actual incident. The 1898 race riot of Wilmington, North Carolina, left a considerable number of African Americans dead and expelled thousands more from their homes. Chesnutt drew upon survivors' accounts, including those of members of his own family, for an authentic retelling of the facts. His powerful and passionate exploration of how miscegenation, social rank, and the concept of white supremacy gave rise to Jim Crow laws provides an insightful analysis of racial conflict at the turn of the twentieth century.By Martha Batalha. 2017
'Zesty' Daily Mail 'A real gem of a book' Stylist A wickedly funny tale of two rebellious sisters in 1940s…
Rio de Janeiro Euridice is bright and ambitious. But this is Brazil in the 1940s, and society expects her to be a loving wife and mother. While Antenor is busy congratulating himself on his excellent catch, Euridice spends her humdrum days ironing his shirts and removing the lumps of onion from his food, dreaming of the success she could have made of herself – as a writer, dressmaker or culinary whizz – in another life. Her free-spirited sister Guida, on the other hand, is the kind of person who was 'born knowing everything'. When she returns from her failed elopement with stories of heartbreak and loss, the lives of Euridice and her husband are thrown into confusion, with disastrous consequences. The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao is a darkly comic debut, bursting with vibrant Brazilian spirit and unforgettable characters – a jubilant novel about the emancipation of women.By Jacqueline Woodson. 2019
THE TIMES '100 BEST SUMMER READS'NEW YORK TIMES TOP 10 BESTSELLERLONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE 2020'Sublime' Candice Carty-Williams'An epic in…
miniature' Tayari Jones 'A banger' Ta-Nehisi Coates'Generous and big-hearted' Brit Bennett 'A true spell of a book' Ocean Vuong 'A proclamation' R.O. Kwon'A little masterpiece' Paula Hawkins'I adored this book' Elizabeth MacNeal'Pure poetry' Observer'A sharply focused gem' Sunday Times'Will remind you why you love reading' Stylist'Haunting' Guardian'A wonderful, tragic, inspiring story' Metro'Prose that sings off the page... Gorgeous' Mail on Sunday'A nuanced portrait of shifting family relationships' Financial Times'As seductive as a Prince bop' O, The Oprah Magazine'Razor-sharp' Vanity Fair'Dazzling... With urgent, vital insights into questions of class, gender, race, history, queerness and sex' New York Times An unexpected teenage pregnancy brings together two families from different social classes, and exposes the private hopes, disappointments and longings that can bind or divide us. From the New York Times-bestselling and National Book Award-winning author of Another Brooklyn and Brown Girl Dreaming. Brooklyn, 2001. It is the evening of sixteen-year-old Melody's coming of age ceremony in her grandparents' brownstone. Watched lovingly by her relatives and friends, making her entrance to the music of Prince, she wears a special custom-made dress - the very same dress that was sewn for a different wearer, Melody's mother, for a celebration that ultimately never took place.Unfurling the history of Melody's family - from the 1921 Tulsa race massacre to post 9/11 New York - Red at the Bone explores sexual desire, identity, class, and the life-altering facts of parenthood, as it looks at the ways in which young people must so often make fateful decisions about their lives before they have even begun to figure out who they are and what they want to be. *** ONE OF THE BOOKS OF THE YEAR FOR: New York Times; Washington Post; Time; USA Today; O, The Oprah Magazine; Elle; Good Housekeeping; Esquire; NPR; New York Public Library; Library Journal; Kirkus; BookRiot; She Reads; The Undefeated ***By John Krizanc. 1981
Available for the first time in over thirty years, John Krizanc’s internationally acclaimed play redefined the limits of theatre with…
its haunting tale of art, sex, violence, and political intrigue in Fascist Italy. In the late twenties the poet, war hero, and lothario Gabriele d’Annunzio waits in his opulent villa — a gift from Benito Mussolini in return for his political silence — for the arrival of the artist Tamara de Lempicka, who is to paint his portrait. What follows is a tale of art, sex, violence and the meaning of complicity in an authoritarian state. The action is directed by the reader/audience member, who decides which characters to follow and which narratives to experience. John Krizanc’s masterpiece redefined theatre and won six L.A. Drama Critics Circle Awards, six Dora Mavor Moore Awards, six Drama-Logue Awards, and six Mexican Association of Theatre Critics, and Journalists Awards for its original productions. Now available in a handsome new A List edition, Tamara is an astonishing piece of experimental art and a penetrating look into ethical choices in times of encroaching autocracy.By Nuala O'Connor. 2018
'Luminous' SEBASTIAN BARRY'Incandescent characters and mellifluous prose' LISA CAREY'Reminiscent of Edith Wharton at her very best' LIZ NUGENT_________The true story…
of a woman ahead of her time . . . In 1887, Isabel Bilton is the eldest of three daughters of a middle-class military family, growing up in a small garrison town. By 1891 she is the Countess of Clancarty, dubbed "the peasant countess" by the press, and a member of the Irish aristocracy. Becoming Belle is the story of the four years in between, of Belle's rapid ascent and the people that tried to tear her down. Reimagined by a novelist at the height of her powers, Belle is an unforgettable woman. Set against an absorbing portrait of Victorian London, hers is a timeless rags-to-riches story a la Becky Sharpe._________Praise for BECOMING BELLE'Nuala O'Connor has the thrilling ability to step back nimbly and enter the deep dance of time. This is a hidden history laid luminously before us of an exultant Anglo-Irish woman navigating the dark shoals and the bright fields of a life' SEBASTIAN BARRY, award-winning author of The Secret Scripture and Days Without End'Becoming Belle is so mesmerizing you will be distraught when it ends.O'Connor has resurrected a fiery, inexorable woman who rewrites the script on a stage supposedly ruled by men. Sensual, witty, daring, and unapologetically forward.' Lisa Carey, author of The Stolen Child'Belle's determination to live her life on her own terms and in defiance of her times makes her a fascinating subject' Irish Central'Masterful storytelling! I was putty in Nuala O'Connor's hands. She made the unsinkable Belle Bilton and her down-to-earth sister Flo real to me, and brought 1880's London to my living room. Encore! Encore!' Lynn Cullen, bestselling author of Mrs. Poe'A glorious novel in which Belle Bilton and 19th century London are brought roaring to life with exquisite period detail' Hazel Gaynor, New York Times bestselling author of A Memory of Violets'Thoroughly engrossing and entertaining read' Liz Nugent'Thrillingly dramatic and achingly moving and profoundly resonant into this present era' Robert Olen Butler, author of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain'O'Connor gently unfolds Belle's tale in a manner that is compelling and disarming. The ambience may be Victorian elegance but the sheer honesty of O'Connor's writing is sensual, authentic and earthy. A delight!' Rose Servitova, author of The Longbourn LettersBy Nella Larsen. 1986
"Quicksand and Passing are novels I will never forget. They open up a whole world of experience and struggle that…
seemed to me, when I first read them years ago, absolutely absorbing, fascinating, and indispensable."--Alice Walker "Discovering Nella Larsen is like finding lost money with no name on it. One can enjoy it with delight and share it without guilt." --Maya Angelou "A hugely influential and insightful writer." --The New York Times "Larsen's heroines are complex, restless, figures, whose hungers and frustrations will haunt every sensitive reader. Quicksand and Passing are slender novels with huge themes." -- Sarah Waters "A tantalizing mix of moral fable and sensuous colorful narrative, exploring female sexuality and racial solidarity."-Women's Studies International Forum Rutgers' all-time bestselling book, Nella Larsen's novels Quicksand (1928) and Passing (1929) document the historical realities of Harlem in the 1920s and shed a bright light on the social world of the black bourgeoisie. The novels' greatest appeal and achievement, however, is not sociological, but psychological. As noted in the editor's comprehensive introduction, Larsen takes the theme of psychic dualism, so popular in Harlem Renaissance fiction, to a higher and more complex level, displaying a sophisticated understanding and penetrating analysis of black female psychology.By Guinevere Glasfurd. 2022
'Tightly plotted and hugely readable' Jane Rogers, author of PROMISED LANDS'Marvellous . . . fans of immersive historical fiction, the…
18th century, all things French and a dash of peril, this one's for you' Emily Brand, author of THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF BYRON'Glasfurd deftly, elegantly captures this volatile world of impoverished attic rooms and gilded literary salons' DAILY MAIL'I thought of the books we carried and the hands that would one day hold them. The pages read, turned and discussed. And how the book would become thought and the thought then become the person gone out into the world. Let Gilbert try and put a stop to that.'After her father is disgraced, Delphine Vimond is cast out of her home in Rouen and flees to Paris. Into her life tumbles Chancery Smith, apprentice printer sent from London to discover the mysterious author of potentially incendiary papers marked only D. In a battle of wits with the French censor, Henri Gilbert, Delphine and Chancery set off in a frantic search for D's author. But who is D and does D even exist?Privilege is a story of adventure and mishap set against the turmoil of mid-18th century France at odds with the absolute power of the King who is determined to suppress opposition on pain of death. At a time when books required royal privilege before they could be published - a system enforced by the Chief Censor and a network of spies - many were censored or banned, and their authors harshly punished. Books that fell foul of the system were published outside France and smuggled back in at great risk.Costa-shortlisted author Guinevere Glasfurd has conjured a vibrant world of entitlement and danger, where the right to live and think freely could come at the highest cost.By Sófocles. 2022
Antígona, de Sòfocles, és segurament l’expressió literària antiga més sublim del conflicte humà entre els dictats de la consciència pròpia…
i les lleis establertes pels homes. Creont, rei de Tebes, ha prohibit sepultar el cadàver de Polinices, que s’ha alçat en armes contra ell. Antígona, però, la germana de Polinices, el desobeeix. I el seu acte i les conseqüències terribles que comporta també són l’expressió del sacrifici personal a causa d’un convenciment que, en aquest cas, té la raó de ser en la pietat entre germans. Ressenya:«La lluita per una justícia que està per damunt d'unes lleis concretes, la lluita pels drets no escrits, no legislats, però inherents en la persona humana..., aquest és el tema de l’Antígona. I per això és una de les tragèdies gregues més valorades.»De la introducció de Joan Castellanos i VilaBy Sófocles. 2022
Molts crítics consideren Èdip Rei l’obra mestra de Sòfocles. Èdip ha esdevingut rei de Tebes, després de vèncer l'Esfinx i…
de casar-se amb Iocasta, vídua del rei Laios. Sense saber-ho, Èdip ha mort el seu pare en una baralla quan tornava de Delfos de consultar l'oracle i s'ha casat amb la seva mare. Una terrible pesta s'ha ensenyorit de Tebes i Èdip cerca les causes de l'infortuni fent una consulta a l'oracle d'Apol·lo a Delfos i també a Tirèsias, el sacerdot endeví de Tebes. La resposta és clara: la pesta s'acabarà quan hagi estat venjada la mort de Laios. Èdip és l'heroi tràgic per antonomàsia: l’home just, intel·ligent, pietós envers els déus, que vol conèixer la veritat pel bé del seu poble, costi el que costi; i que no defalleix en l’intent de descobrir-la, malgrat que, a mesura que s’hi apropa, ja intueix que serà la causa de la seva ruïna. La solució diversa amb què Iocasta i Èdip afrontaran el coneixement de la veritat és també el reflex de dues maneres d’encarar les dificultats vitals.By Tennessee Williams. 1975
What's not to like about Tennessee Williams's most forthright work about homosexual love, with its gay figure skaters, runaways, and…
sex? An erotic, sensual, and comic novel that was a generation ahead of its time, Moise and the World of Reason has at its center the need of three people for each other: Lance, the beautiful black figure skater full of love and lust for young men as well as a craving for drugs; the nameless gay young narrator, a runaway writer from Alabama who lives near the piers of New York City's West Village, c. 1975, frantically filling notebooks with his observations; and Moise, a young woman who speaks in riddles and can never finish her paintings or consummate her affairs. The long unavailable Moise and the World of Reason represents a kind of uncensored Williams, radically frank, fully articulated, and deeply tender: a true gem.By Sophocles. 2015
Sophocles addresses themes of civil disobedience, fidelity, and love for family; and questions which law is greater: the gods' or…
man's--in this play that challenged many established mores of Ancient Greece.By Frederick Douglass. 2015
First published nearly a decade prior to the Civil War, The Heroic Slave is the only fictional work by abolitionist,…
orator, author, and social reformer Frederick Douglass, himself a former slave. It is inspired by the true story of Madison Washington, who, along with eighteen others, took control of the slave ship Creole in November 1841 and sailed it to Nassau in the British colony of the Bahamas, where they could live free. This new critical edition, ideal for classroom use, includes the full text of Douglass's fictional recounting of the most successful slave revolt in American history, as well as an interpretive introduction; excerpts from Douglass's correspondence, speeches, and editorials; short selections by other writers on the Creole rebellion; and recent criticism on the novella. Includes editing and supporting material by Robert S. Levine, John R. Mckivigan, Professor John Stauffer