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The Lyre and the Lambs
By Sydney Avey. 2014
A feast of family can be a plate load of problems b It s the Sixites…
Modernity and tradition clash as two newlywed couples set up house together Dee and her daughter Valerie move with their husbands into a modern glass house Valerie built in a proudly rural Los Altos California neighborhood When their young relatives start showing up and moving in the neighbors get suspicious Then a body is found in the backyard and the life they are trying to build comes undone Father Mike is back to guide Dee through a difficult time with humor and grace even as his own life is unraveling Now he s going to have to take some of his own advice about love The sequel to The Sheep Walker s Daughter The Lyre and the Lambs explores the passions that draw people together and the faith it takes overcome traumaThe Post-Office Girl
By Joel Rotenberg, Stefan Zweig. 1982
2009 PEN Translation Prize FinalistThe logic of capitalism, boom and bust, is unremitting and unforgiving. But what happens to human…
feeling in a completely commodified world? In The Post-Office Girl, Stefan Zweig, a deep analyst of the human passions, lays bare the private life of capitalism.Christine toils in a provincial post office in post-World War I Austria, a country gripped by unemployment. Out of the blue, a telegram arrives from Christine's rich American aunt inviting her to a resort in the Swiss Alps. Christine is immediately swept up into a world of inconceivable wealth and unleashed desire. She feels herself utterly transformed: nothing is impossible. But then, abruptly, her aunt cuts her loose. Christine returns to the post office, where yes, nothing will ever be the same.Christine meets Ferdinand, a bitter war veteran and disappointed architect, who works construction jobs when he can get them. They are drawn to each other, even as they are crushed by a sense of deprivation, of anger and shame. Work, politics, love, sex: everything is impossible for them. Life is meaningless, unless, through one desperate and decisive act, they can secretly remake their world from within.Cinderella meets Bonnie and Clyde in Zweig's haunting and hard-as-nails novel, completed during the 1930s, as he was driven by the Nazis into exile, but left unpublished at the time of his death. The Post-Office Girl, available here for the first time in English, transforms our image of a modern master's achievement.Plunkitt of Tammany Hall
By Peter Quinn, William L. Riordan. 1995
Plunkitt of Tammany HallA Series of Very Plain Talks on Very Practical PoliticsWilliam L. Riordan "Nobody thinks of drawin' the…
distinction between honest graft and dishonest graft." This classic work offers the unblushing, unvarnished wit and wisdom of one of the most fascinating figures ever to play the American political game and win. George Washington Plunkitt rose from impoverished beginnings to become ward boss of the Fifteenth Assembly District in New York, a key player in the powerhouse political team of Tammany Hall, and, not incidentally, a millionaire. In a series of utterly frank talks given at his headquarters (Graziano's bootblack stand outside the New York County Court House), he revealed to a sharp-eared and sympathetic reporter named William L. Riordan the secrets of political success as practiced and perfected by him and fellow Tammany Hall titans. The result is not only a volume that reveals more about our political system than does a shelfful of civics textbooks, but also an irresistible portrait of a man who would feel happily at home playing ball with today's lobbyists and king makers, trading votes for political and financial favors. Doing for twentieth-century America what Machiavelli did for Renaissance Italy, and as entertaining as it is instructive, Plunkitt of Tammany Hall is essential reading for those who prefer twenty-twenty vision to rose-colored glasses in viewing how our government works and why. With an Introduction by Peter Quinnand a New AfterwordHappy New Year! and Other Stories (Dover Thrift Editions)
By Curt Leviant, Sholom Aleichem. 1995
One of the most beloved and prolific writers of Yiddish literature, Sholom Aleichem (1859–1916) produced a wealth of wonderful stories…
that combine traditional Jewish oral humor with Western literary tradition. For years a living legend, he wrote enduring gems of fiction, eleven of which are included in this entertaining collection.The master storyteller brilliantly recaptures the joy and tribulations of Jewish life in such tales as "Geese," "At the Doctor's," "Three Widows," "The Passover Eve Vagabonds," "On America," "Someone to Envy," "Three Calendars," "The Ruined Passover," the title story, and two others. Introduced and ably translated by Curt Leviant, these tales sparkle with wit, wisdom, and a warm humanity that will appeal to a wide audience of readers, especially those with an interest in Jewish cultural life.The Canterville Ghost and Other Stories (Dover Thrift Editions)
By Oscar Wilde. 2001
Renowned for his poetry, plays, essays, and conversational skills, Oscar Wilde also wrote delightfully entertaining works of short fiction. This…
volume includes four of his finest. Most celebrated is The Canterville Ghost, an engaging, comical tale centering around the ghost of Sir Simon de Canterville, who for some 300 years had terrorized the residents and employees of Canterville Chase. When the manor is bought by the Otises, an American family that refuses to believe in such "supernatural" nonsense, hilarious results ensue.Three other stories include "The Sphinx Without a Secret," a tale of an enigmatic woman who carries the key to a mystery with her to the grave; "The Model Millionaire," a charming story of a "delightful, ineffectual young man with a perfect profile and no profession"; and "Lord Arthur Savile's Crime." Rounding out the volume are Wilde's lyrical Poems in Prose: "The Artist," "The Doer of Good," "The Disciple," "The Master," "The House of Judgment," and "The Teacher of Wisdom."These diverting works offer general readers and devotees of the author a generous sampling of the wit, whimsy, and imaginative gusto of one of the 19th century's most scintillating masters of the English language.Chronicle of the Murdered House
By Margaret Jull Costa, Benjamin Moser, Lúcio Cardoso, Robin Patterson. 2016
Lúcio Cardoso's 1959 novel-a true modern classic-tells the story of a traditional family's slippage into social and moral decline. Employing…
a variety of narrative devices-including letters, diaries, memoirs, statements, confessions, and accounts penned by the various characters-the author weaves a complex and thoroughly engaging tale, hauntingly brought to life by a prose style unique in Brazilian literature.A Month in the Country
By Larissa Volokhonsky, Richard Pevear, Ivan Turgenev, Richard Nelson. 2014
"Pevear and Volokhonsky are at once scrupulous translators and vivid stylists of English."-The New YorkerOne week before her thirtieth birthday,…
the simple life of dutiful wife and mother Natalya is upended when the arrival of her son's charming new tutor unleashes a whirlwind of love, lust, and jealousy. This revelatory new translation by renowned playwright Richard Nelson along with Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky-the foremost contemporary translators of classic Russian literature, including the best-selling Oprah's Book Club selection, Anna Karenina-marks the second of a series of translations of important Russian plays to be published over the next ten years.Richard Nelson's many plays include Rodney's Wife, Goodnight Children Everywhere, Drama Desk-nominated Franny's Way and Some Americans Abroad, Tony Award-nominated Two Shakespearean Actors, and James Joyce's The Dead (with Shaun Davey), for which he won a Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical. His The Apple Family: Scenes from Life in the Country will be published by Theatre Communications Group in early 2014.Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky have produced acclaimed translations of Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Nikolai Gogol, Anton Chekhov, and Mikhail Bulgakov. Their translations of The Brothers Karamazov and Anna Karenina won the 1991 and 2002 PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prizes. Pevear, a native of Boston, and Volokhonsky, of St. Petersburg, are married to each other and live in Paris.Heidi: Adapted for Young Readers (Dover Children's Thrift Classics)
By Johanna Spyri, Thea Kliros. 1998
Beloved classic about the effervescent, nature-loving Swiss miss who ultimately transforms the lives of many people -- among them Clara,…
a handicapped young lady from a wealthy German family; Peter, a goatherd, and his blind grandmother; and above all, Heidi's embittered, reclusive grandfather.James Joyce The Dover Reader (Dover Thrift Editions)
By James Joyce. 2015
"A comprehensive, accessible introduction to Joyce's work and provides the reader glimpses into some of the lesser read corners of…
his bibliography." -- The Lexicon DevilInfluential and innovative, James Joyce (1882-1941) led the vanguard of 20th-century fiction. Sooner or later, most undergraduates encounter him, and many scholars devote their entire careers to his exuberantly eloquent prose. Joyce's experimental use of language and stream-of-consciousness techniques continues to captivate modern readers and writers, and this anthology offers a first-rate introduction to the Irish author's fiction and poetry.A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Joyce's coming-of-age novel, appears here in its entirety. Readers will also find the complete texts of the short story collection Dubliners, and the play Exiles. Additional contents include highlights from Ulysses, universally acknowledged as among the English language's most challenging and rewarding novels, and Chamber Music, an early book of poems.Snow White and Other Fairy Tales (Dover Children's Thrift Classics)
By Jacob, Grimm. 1994
Journey to a timeless world of elves, giants, and witches with this collection of 11 fairy tales. In addition to…
the tale of the fairest of them all and her dwarf friends, it recounts the stories of "The Brave Little Tailor," The Elves and the Shoemaker," "The Twelve Dancing Princesses," and more.Dubliners
By James Joyce. 1993
Although James Joyce began these stories of Dublin life in 1904, when he was 22, and had completed them by…
the end of 1907, they remained unpublished until 1914 — victims of Edwardian squeamishness. Their vivid, tightly focused observations of the life of Dublin's poorer classes, their unconventional themes, coarse language, and mention of actual people and places made publishers of the day reluctant to undertake sponsorship.Today, however, the stories are admired for their intense and masterly dissection of "dear dirty Dublin," and for the economy and grace with which Joyce invested this youthful fiction. From "The Sisters," the first story, illuminating a young boy's initial encounter with death, through the final piece, "The Dead," considered a masterpiece of the form, these tales represent, as Joyce himself explained, a chapter in the moral history of Ireland that would give the Irish "one good look at themselves." But in the end the stories are not just about the Irish; they represent moments of revelation common to all people.Now readers can enjoy all 15 stories in this inexpensive collection, which also functions as an excellent, accessible introduction to the work of one of the 20th century's most influential writers. Dubliners is reprinted here, complete and unabridged, from a standard edition.The Sheep Walker’s Daughter
By Sydney Avey. 2013
Does it really matter where you come from?In 1953, a war widow’s difficult mother dies before revealing the identity of…
her daughter’s father and his cultural heritage. As Dee sorts through what little her mother left, she unearths puzzling clues that raise more questions: Why did Leora send money every month to the Basque Relief Agency? Why is her own daughter so secretive about her soon-to-be published book? And what does an Anglican priest know that he isn’t telling?All of this head-spinning mystery breaks a long, dry period in Dee’s life and leads her to embark on an odyssey. She might just as well lose her job and see where the counsel of her new spiritual advisor and the attentions of an enigmatic ex-coworker lead her.The Sheep Walker’s Daughter pairs a colorful Basque immigrant history of loss, survival, and tough choices with one woman’s search for identity and fulfillment. Dee’s journey will take her through the Northern and Central California valleys of the 1950s and reach across the world to the Basque Country.Along the way, she will discover who she is and why family history matters.The Greatest Stories of Robert Louis Stevenson: Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Suicide Club, The Body Snatcher, and Other Short Stories
By Herman Graf, Robert Louis Stevenson. 2018
The Best Short Works of One of English Literature’s Most Masterful Storytellers Collected in a Single Volume Known mostly for…
his seminal full-length works, such as the famous classics Treasure Island and Kidnapped, Robert Louis Stevenson’s masterful short fiction is often overshadowed. Now these pioneering works in the English short story tradition are presented here, collected in a single volume. Including the beloved novella "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," which G. K. Chesterton called “a double triumph,” and “The Merry Men,” as well as stories like “The Suicide Club” and “The Rajah’s Diamond” from the acclaimed 1882 collection New Arabian Nights, The Greatest Stories of Robert Louis Stevenson immerses you in Stevenson’s extraordinary worlds—thrilling tales of pure adventure and suspense, glorious evocations of the beauty of the Scottish countryside, and characters painted with the same vigor and energy as his most well-known creations. Showcasing his brilliant and lucid prose, his dramatic skill, and his perfect sense of pace that made him a celebrity during his time and a landmark author in the history of English literature, Stevenson’s enduring stories continue to capture the imagination of the contemporary reader and rightly belong to popular mythology today.The Housing Lark (Penguin Modern Classics Ser.)
By Sam Selvon. 2020
The humorous yet poignant novel of West Indian migrant life in London that adds an iconic voice to the growing…
Caribbean canonA Penguin ClassicSet in London in the 1960's, when the UK encouraged its Commonwealth citizens to emigrate as a result of the post-war labor shortage, The Housing Lark explores the Caribbean migrant experience in the "Mother Country" by following a group of friends as they attempt to buy a home together. Despite encountering a racist and predatory rental market, the friends scheme, often comically, to find a literal and figurative place of their own. Will these motley folks, male and female, Black and Indian, from Trinidad and Jamaica, dreamers, hustlers, and artists, be able to achieve this milestone of upward mobility? Unique and wonderful, comic and serious, cynical and tenderhearted, The Housing Lark poses the question of whether their "lark," or quixotic idea of finding a home, can ever become a reality. Kittitian-British novelist and playwright Caryl Phillips contributes a foreword, while postcolonial literature scholar Dohra Ahmad provides a contextual introduction.Return of the Spirit (Three Continents Press Ser.)
By Tawfiq Al-Hakim. 2012
The celebrated, revolutionary novel from a pioneering Egyptian writer Tawfiq al-Hakim, now for the first time in Penguin Classics with…
a foreword by Egyptian writer Alaa Al-AswanyFirst published in Arabic in 1933, Egyptian playwright and novelist Tawfiq Al-Hakim's Return of the Spirit follows a patriotic young Egyptian and his extended family as they grapple with the events leading up to the 1919 Egyptian revolution. Though often cited as an apprenticeship novel in the vein of Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man with a touch of failed romance a la Goethe's Sorrow of Young Werther, Al-Hakim's classic is most recognized for being a trailblazing political novel that illustrates the way one man's spiritual awakening ties to a political awakening of a nation. While enthusiasm for the book was stifled in the mid-20th century due to a shift in Egyptian government rule, the 2011 Tahrir revolution in Egypt caused it to be examined anew as a strong expression of nationalist solidarity and an exposé of the heritage-stripping power of Western colonialism that resonates with 21st-century Egyptians. Return of the Spirit is considered Al-Hakim's most important novel despite writing more plays than novels, and his adept understanding of class and culture within Egyptian society has cemented his place as one of the country's most celebrated writers and cultural critics.Robinson Crusoe, an adventure tale that fascinated such thinkers as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Karl Marx, Virginia Woolf, and J. M. Coetzee,…
has been an international best-seller for three hundred years. An adventure tale involving cannibals, pirates, and shipwrecks, it embodies economic, social, political, and philosophical themes that continue to be relevant today. Moreover, the notion of isolation on a deserted island and a fascination with survival continue to be central to countless popular cinema and television programs. This edition of the novel with its introduction, line notes, and full bibliographical notes provides a uniquely scholarly presentation of the novel. There has been no other edition like it. Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.Black Shack Alley
By Joseph Zobel. 1997
The semi-autobiographical, Caribbean novel that explores shifting race relations in early twentieth-century colonial Martinique, with a foreword by Martinican author…
Patrick ChamoiseauA Penguin ClassicFollowing in the tradition of Richard Wright's Black Boy, Joseph Zobel's semi-autobiographical 1950 novel Black Shack Alley chronicles the coming-of-age of José, a young boy grappling with issues of power and identity in colonial Martinique. As José transitions from childhood to young adulthood and from rural plantations to urban Fort-de-France on a quest for upward mobility, he bears witness to and struggles against the various manifestations of white supremacy, both subtle and overt, that will alter the course of his life. His ally in this struggle is his grandmother, M'man Tine, who fights her own weariness to release at least one child from the plantation village, a dirt street lined with the shacks of sugarcane workers. Zobel's masterpiece, the basis for the award-winning film Sugar Cane Alley directed by Euzhan Palcy, is a powerful testament to twentieth-century life in Martinique, with a foreword by award-winning Martinican author Patrick Chamoiseau.The Three Musketeers: In Easy-To-Read-Type (Dover Children's Thrift Classics)
By Alexandre Dumas. 1994
Swashbuckling novel, filled with high adventure, royal intrigue and romance, relates the escapades of D'Artagnan and his three friends --…
Athos, Porthos and Aramis -- and their involvement in the secret plots of Cardinal Richelieu and his beautiful but treacherous spy, Lady de Winter. Specially adapted and illustrated for young readers.Memoirs of Montparnasse
By John Glassco. 2007
Memoirs of Montparnasse is a delicious book about being young, restless, reckless, and without cares. It is also the best…
and liveliest of the many chronicles of 1920s Paris and the exploits of the lost generation. In 1928, nineteen-year-old John Glassco escaped Montreal and his overbearing father for the wilder shores of Montparnasse. He remained there until his money ran out and his health collapsed, and he enjoyed every minute of his stay. Remarkable for their candor and humor, Glassco's memoirs have the daft logic of a wild but utterly absorbing adventure, a tale of desire set free that is only faintly shadowed by sadness at the inevitable passage of time.Every Seventh Wave
By Daniel Glattauer. 2009
Have you ever just clicked with someone? - the sequel to the international bestseller Love Virtually about a relationship conducted…
by email.Love Virtually ends as Leo leaves Austria for America. He and Emmi have still not met, but the intensity of their e-mail correspondence has been threatening Emmi's marriage. Leo returns from Boston and gradually resumes his e-mail contact with Emmi. But he has plans to settle down with Pamela, the woman he met in America. In an attempt to draw a line under their relationship, Emmi and Leo at last agree to meet in person.Translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch and Katharina Bielenberg