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By Della Parker. 2016
'Brims with laughs, love, family and friendship. You will love this heartwarming read!' Trisha Ashley. Meet the Reading Group: six…
women in the seaside village of Little Sanderton come together every month to share their love of reading. No topic is off-limits: books, family, love and loss . . . and don't forget the glass of red!Grace knows that the holiday season is going to be different this year. No turkey, no tinsel, no gorgeously wrapped gifts under the tree . . . how on earth is she going to break it to her little boys that Christmas is effectively cancelled? And can she bear to tell anyone her embarrassing secret? Enter the Reading Group: Grace's life might have turned upside down but there's no problem they can't solve.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 Lucio V. Mansilla. 2018
Edición definitiva del clásico de Lucio V. Mansilla, con prólogo de Alan Pauls y nota preliminar a cargo de Alejandra…
Laera. «Si me hubieran dicho que los indios me iban a enseñar a conocer la humanidad, una carcajada homérica habría sido mi contestación. Como Gulliver, en su viaje a Liliput, yo he visto al mundo tal cual es en mi viaje a los ranqueles.» Originariamente publicadas como folletín, en 1870, en el diario La Tribuna, las cartas que componen este libro son el particular relato de la expedición de Lucio V. Mansilla Tierra Adentro y de su encuentro con los indios ranqueles. Con una minuciosidad por momentos cercana a la obsesión, en ellas el autor toma nota de los detalles de la geografía pampeana y describe lúcidamente los hábitos, costumbres y comportamientos del mundo indígena, ese gran Otro de la literatura argentina. Una excursión a los indios ranqueles no solo es la historia del contacto entre dos culturas, sino un clásico que, escrito con anterioridad a la constitución del Estado, supo advertir en la nación todas sus fatales contradicciones. «Pero pronto el desierto empieza a poblarse, primero con los ranqueles, luego con lo que Mansilla hace con ellos, ve en ellos, piensa y escribe sobre ellos [...] forzado a menudo a constatar, no sin perplejidad, las diversas lecciones de civilización que los ranqueles tienen para dar a los cristianos».Alan PaulsBy Don Beecher. 2012
Renowned today for his contribution to the rise of the modern European fairy tale, Giovan Francesco Straparola (c. 1480-c. 1557)…
is particularly known for his dazzling anthology The Pleasant Nights. Originally published in Venice in 1550 and 1553, this collection features seventy-three folk stories, fables, jests, and pseudo-histories, including nine tales we might now designate for 'mature readers' and seventeen proto-fairy tales. Nearly all of these stories, including classics such as 'Puss in Boots,' made their first ever appearance in this collection; together, the tales comprise one of the most varied and engaging Renaissance miscellanies ever produced. Its appeal sustained it through twenty-six editions in the first sixty years.This full critical edition of The Pleasant Nights presents these stories in English for the first time in over a century. The text takes its inspiration from the celebrated Waters translation, which is entirely revised here to render it both more faithful to the original and more sparkishly idiomatic than ever before. The stories are accompanied by a rich sampling of illustrations, including originals from nineteenth-century English and French versions of the text.As a comprehensive critical and historical edition, these volumes contain far more information on the stories than can be found in any existing studies, literary histories, or Italian editions of the work. Donald Beecher provides a lengthy introduction discussing Straparola as an author, the nature of fairy tales and their passage through oral culture, and how this phenomenon provides a new reservoir of stories for literary adaptation. Moreover, the stories all feature extensive commentaries analysing not only their themes but also their fascinating provenances, drawing on thousands of analogue tales going back to ancient Sanskrit, Persian, and Arabic stories.Immensely entertaining and readable, The Pleasant Nights will appeal to anyone interested in fairy tales, ancient stories, and folk creations. Such readers will also enjoy Beecher's academically solid and erudite commentaries, which unfold in a manner as light and amusing as the stories themselves.By W. I. Zard. 2014
So you want to hear my miserable tale? Bad idea. Go live vicariously through a girl whose life worked out…
the way she planned. A girl who didn't wake up one morning and find that her relatively simple, albeit disconnected life had been turned upside down and filled with the darkest of magic and worst of curses. Here I thought the SATs and college applications were complicated! Have you ever felt so completely lost and out of place you wondered if your life was really even yours? Well I have. I've lived most of my life feeling as though I were trapped in someone else's, so when I found out that I was born a witch, it all started to fall into place. That is until I met the tall, dark and mysterious Elliot and realized that dating in the mortal world has got nothing on the complication, desire and mistrust that surrounds romance in the magical world. It doesn't help that our families are mortal enemies either. Did Romeo and Juliet have to suffer plagued curses and time travel in their struggle? I think not. As tragic as their tale was, they were fully responsible for their fate, but not Athiya and Elliot. No, our story was completely out of our control.By Charles Dickens. 2012
En 2012 se cumplen doscientos años del nacimiento de Charles Dickens, el escritor por antonomasia de la Inglaterra victoriana, y…
uno de los autores más grandes de todos los tiempos. Entre sus obras más populares se cita siempre su extraordinaria novela corta Cuento de Navidad, donde retrata a un avaro ricachón, Ebenezer Scrooge, que recibe la visita moralizante de los espíritus de las navidades pasadas, las presentes y las futuras. Pero Dickens es autor de otros muchos relatos relacionados con la época navideña, que se reúnen, por primera vez en castellano, en este volumen. La Navidad es uno de los personajes dickensianos por excelencia, la época del año en la que sus asuntos favoritos, la pobreza, la caridad, la compasión, la ternura, la solidaridad o la esperanza, se dirimen y cobran mayor relevancia.By F. Scott Fitzgerald. 1925
"Reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's Trimalchio, an early and complete version of The Great Gatsby, is like listening to a familiar…
musical composition played in a different key and with an alternate bridge passage... There is a tradition in Fitzgerald studies that The Great Gatsby became a masterpiece in revision. This judgment is correct. Fitzgerald improved the novel in galleys; The Great Gatsby is a better novel than Trimalchilo. But Trimalchilo is a remarkable achievement, and different enough from Gatsby to merit consideration on its own. Trimalchilois a direct and straightforward narration of the story of Jay Gatsby, NIck Carraway, Jordan Baker, Tom and Daisy Buchanan, and Myrtle and George Wilson. The handling of plot details is sure-handed; the writing is graceful and confident. Trimalchilowill provide readers with new understanding of F. Scott Fitzgerald's working methods, fresh insight into his characters, and renewed appreciation of his genius." From the introduction.By Michael R. Katz, Michael Stanislawski, Vladimir Jabotinsky. 2005
"The beginning of this tale of bygone days in Odessa dates to the dawn of the twentieth century. At that…
time we used to refer to the first years of this period as the 'springtime,' meaning a social and political awakening. For my generation, these years also coincided with our own personal springtime, in the sense that we were all in our youthful twenties. And both of these springtimes, as well as the image of our carefree Black Sea capital with acacias growing along its steep banks, are interwoven in my memory with the story of one family in which there were five children: Marusya, Marko, Lika, Serezha, and Torik."--from The Five The Five is an captivating novel of the decadent fin-de-siècle written by Vladimir Jabotinsky (1880-1940), a controversial leader in the Zionist movement whose literary talents, until now, have largely gone unrecognized by Western readers. The author deftly paints a picture of Russia's decay and decline--a world permeated with sexuality, mystery, and intrigue. Michael R. Katz has crafted the first English-language translation of this important novel, which was written in Russian in 1935 and published a year later in Paris under the title Pyatero.The book is Jabotinsky's elegaic paean to the Odessa of his youth, a place that no longer exists. It tells the story of an upper-middle-class Jewish family, the Milgroms, at the turn of the century. It follows five siblings as they change, mature, and come to accept their places in a rapidly evolving world. With flashes of humor, Jabotinsky captures the ferment of the time as reflected in political, social, artistic, and spiritual developments. He depicts with nostalgia the excitement of life in old Odessa and comments poignantly on the failure of the dream of Jewish assimilation within the Russian empire.By Michael R. Katz, Nikolai Chernyshevsky, William G. Wagner. 1989
"No work in modern literature, with the possible exception of Uncle Tom's Cabin, can compete with What Is to Be…
Done? in its effect on human lives and its power to make history. For Chernyshevsky's novel, far more than Marx's Capital, supplied the emotional dynamic that eventually went to make the Russian Revolution."--Joseph Frank, The Southern ReviewAlmost from the moment of its publication in 1863, Nikolai Chernyshevsky's novel, What Is to Be Done?, had a profound impact on the course of Russian literature and politics. The idealized image it offered of dedicated and self-sacrificing intellectuals transforming society by means of scientific knowledge served as a model of inspiration for Russia's revolutionary intelligentsia. On the one hand, the novel's condemnation of moderate reform helped to bring about the irrevocable break between radical intellectuals and liberal reformers; on the other, Chernyshevsky's socialist vision polarized conservatives' opposition to institutional reform. Lenin himself called Chernyshevsky "the greatest and most talented representative of socialism before Marx"; and the controversy surrounding What Is to Be Done? exacerbated the conflicts that eventually led to the Russian Revolution.Michael R. Katz's readable and compelling translation is now the definitive unabridged English-language version, brilliantly capturing the extraordinary qualities of the original. William G. Wagner has provided full annotations to Chernyshevsky's allusions and references and to the, sources of his ideas, and has appended a critical bibliography. An introduction by Katz and Wagner places the novel in the context of nineteenth-century Russian social, political, and intellectual history and literature, and explores its importance for several generations of Russian radicals.By Alexander Pushkin, Robert Chandler, Elizabeth Chandler. 1957
Famous for his enormously influential poetry and plays, Alexander Pushkin is also beloved for his short stories. This collection showcases…
his tremendous range, which enabled him to portray the Russian people through romance, drama, and satire. The sparkling humor of the five "Tales of Belkin" contrasts with a dark fable of gambling and obsessive greed in "The Queen of Spades" and the masterful historical novella, "The Captain's Daughter," a story of love and betrayal set during a rebellion in the time of Catherine the Great.By Michael Henry Heim, Bohumil Hrabal, Adam Thirlwell. 1964
Rake, drunkard, aesthete, gossip, raconteur extraordinaire: the narrator of Bohumil Hrabal's rambling, rambunctious masterpiece Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in…
Age is all these and more. Speaking to a group of sunbathing women who remind him of lovers past, this elderly roué tells the story of his life--or at least unburdens himself of a lifetime's worth of stories. Thus we learn of amatory conquests (and humiliations), of scandals both private and public, of military adventures and domestic feuds, of what things were like "in the days of the monarchy" and how they've changed since. As the book tumbles restlessly forward, and the comic tone takes on darker shadings, we realize we are listening to a man talking as much out of desperation as from exuberance. Hrabal, one of the great Czech writers of the twentieth century, as well as an inveterate haunter of Prague's pubs and football stadiums, developed a unique method which he termed "palavering," whereby characters gab and soliloquize with abandon. Part drunken boast, part soul-rending confession, part metaphysical poem on the nature of love and time, this astonishing novel (which unfolds in a single monumental sentence) shows why he has earned the admiration of such writers as Milan Kundera, John Banville, and Louise Erdrich.By Theodore Dreiser, Clementine The Hedgehog. 2013
Sometimes reading the classics is a chore, but not so with the snarky annotations by Clementine the Hedgehog. Having made…
her debut as a weekly book reviewer of note on Tumblr in 2012, Clem now takes on Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser. On each page, she inserts her keen insights, dark sense of humor, and cut-the-crap commentary, crafting a 21st-century literary criticism for distraction addicts everywhere. "This is obviously my favorite review to date, as it was WRITTEN BY A HEDGEHOG, and COMES WITH A HEDGEHOG GIF."-Emma Straub"Tumblr book review series of the year."-Rachel Fershleiser, head of Tumblr literary outreachClementine Classics, a new series from Black Balloon Publishing, gives classic works of literature the contemporary annotations they deserve. Obsessed, possessed, and thoroughly distressed by the originals, today's writers riff, rant, praise, and flay these old books, giving them new life. The series' beautifully designed e-books are both an act of sincere literary criticism and a new, composite form of humor writing.By Guillermo Prieto. 2018
"Será mentira, yo no lo niego, pero invención no; porque como me lo contaron os lo cuento." Guillermo Prieto fue…
un ameno y prolífico escritor que exploró diversos géneros: cuadros de costumbres, crónica, poesía, teatro, historia y memorias. El lector encontrará en estas páginas una rica selección de crónicas de viajes que Prieto realizó por distintos puntos de la República Mexicana como Cuernavaca, Querétaro, Veracruz y Zacatecas, sin dejar de lado sus descripciones de Nueva York, cargadas de sentimientos patrióticos, retrato de distintos momentos del siglo XIX. En ellos es posible conocer tradiciones, costumbres, diversiones y gastronomía, que hoy son testimonios históricos nacionales. Esta edición estuvo a cargo de la doctora Lilia Vieyra Sánchez, académica del Instituto de Investigaciones Bibliográficas e historiadora experta en hemerografía del siglo XIX, quienrecientemente dio a conocer los "San Lunes de Fidel" y el "Cuchicheo semanario", 21 cuadros de costumbres y 15 crónicas, publicadas en La Colonia Española, que habían quedado fuera de las obras reunidas en 32 tomos de Guillermo Prieto. Edición de LILIA VIEYRA SÁNCHEZBy Clementine The Hedgehog. 2013
Sometimes reading the classics is a chore, but not so with the snarky annotations by Clementine the Hedgehog. Having made…
her debut as a weekly book reviewer of note on Tumblr in 2012, Clem now takes on Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser. On each page, she inserts her keen insights, dark sense of humor, and cut-the-crap commentary, crafting a 21st-century literary criticism for distraction addicts everywhere. "This is obviously my favorite review to date, as it was WRITTEN BY A HEDGEHOG, and COMES WITH A HEDGEHOG GIF."-Emma Straub"Tumblr book review series of the year."-Rachel Fershleiser, head of Tumblr literary outreachClementine Classics, a new series from Black Balloon Publishing, gives classic works of literature the contemporary annotations they deserve. Obsessed, possessed, and thoroughly distressed by the originals, today's writers riff, rant, praise, and flay these old books, giving them new life. The series' beautifully designed e-books are both an act of sincere literary criticism and a new, composite form of humor writing.By Michael Heim, Bohumil Hrabal, Adam Thirlwell. 1964
Rake, drunkard, aesthete, gossip, raconteur extraordinaire: the narrator of Bohumil Hrabal's rambling, rambunctious masterpiece Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in…
Age is all these and more. Speaking to a group of sunbathing women who remind him of lovers past, this elderly roué tells the story of his life--or at least unburdens himself of a lifetime's worth of stories. Thus we learn of amatory conquests (and humiliations), of scandals both private and public, of military adventures and domestic feuds, of what things were like "in the days of the monarchy" and how they've changed since. As the book tumbles restlessly forward, and the comic tone takes on darker shadings, we realize we are listening to a man talking as much out of desperation as from exuberance. Hrabal, one of the great Czech writers of the twentieth century, as well as an inveterate haunter of Prague's pubs and football stadiums, developed a unique method which he termed "palavering," whereby characters gab and soliloquize with abandon. Part drunken boast, part soul-rending confession, part metaphysical poem on the nature of love and time, this astonishing novel (which unfolds in a single monumental sentence) shows why he has earned the admiration of such writers as Milan Kundera, John Banville, and Louise Erdrich.By Michael R. Katz, Michael Stanislawski, Vladimir Jabotinsky. 2005
"The beginning of this tale of bygone days in Odessa dates to the dawn of the twentieth century. At that…
time we used to refer to the first years of this period as the 'springtime,' meaning a social and political awakening. For my generation, these years also coincided with our own personal springtime, in the sense that we were all in our youthful twenties. And both of these springtimes, as well as the image of our carefree Black Sea capital with acacias growing along its steep banks, are interwoven in my memory with the story of one family in which there were five children: Marusya, Marko, Lika, Serezha, and Torik."--from The Five The Five is an captivating novel of the decadent fin-de-siècle written by Vladimir Jabotinsky (1880-1940), a controversial leader in the Zionist movement whose literary talents, until now, have largely gone unrecognized by Western readers. The author deftly paints a picture of Russia's decay and decline--a world permeated with sexuality, mystery, and intrigue. Michael R. Katz has crafted the first English-language translation of this important novel, which was written in Russian in 1935 and published a year later in Paris under the title Pyatero.The book is Jabotinsky's elegaic paean to the Odessa of his youth, a place that no longer exists. It tells the story of an upper-middle-class Jewish family, the Milgroms, at the turn of the century. It follows five siblings as they change, mature, and come to accept their places in a rapidly evolving world. With flashes of humor, Jabotinsky captures the ferment of the time as reflected in political, social, artistic, and spiritual developments. He depicts with nostalgia the excitement of life in old Odessa and comments poignantly on the failure of the dream of Jewish assimilation within the Russian empire.By Erin Lange. 2015
Una conmovedora y luminosa novela sobre la poco probable y, aun así, inquebrantable amistad entre un matón de instituto y…
un chico con síndrome de Down Una adivinanza no tiene sentido la primera vez que la oyes. La amistad entre Dane y Billy D. tampoco: ¿qué tienen en común el matón del instituto y un chico con síndrome de Down? En el caso de Billy y Dane, tienen un mismo problema: Dane no sabe quién es su padre, y Billy está decidido a reencontrarse con el suyo. Su amistad puede llevarlos a descubrir la verdad... ¿pero qué descubrirán sobre sí mismos? Enternecedora y lúcida, Cuando irrumpe lo extraordinario es una inolvidable historia sobre las segundas oportunidades, la amistad y el amor: una celebración de las personas y sucesos impensados que dan un vuelco a nuestras vidas. La crítica ha dicho... «La historia de dos personajes imperfectos y memorables.» Booklist «Dane no es unhéroe ni Billy D. una víctima inocente: Lange es demasiado buena como para eso. Ambos chicos son personas de carne y hueso con la capacidad de divertir, encandilar y enfurecer al lector, cuyas emociones oscilan deliciosamente entre la adoración y las ganas de chocarles la cabeza de uno contra la del otro de pura exasperación.» The GuardianBy Jules Verne. 2001
At a time when Verne is making a comeback in the US as a mainstream literary figure, Wesleyan is pleased…
to publish a new translation of one of his best-known novels, The Mysterious Island. Although several editions under the same title are in print, most reproduce a bowdlerized nineteenth-century translation which changes the names of the characters, omits several important scenes, and ideologically censors Verne's original text.The Mysterious Island was published in 1874, and it is one of Verne's longest novels. The plot depicts a group of men who have become castaways stranded on an island in the Pacific during the American Civil War. The novel describes their attempts not only to survive but also, with the aid of the scientific and technological know-how, to rebuild their world from the meager resources of the island. At the end, however, it is realized that Captain Nemo, from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, has secretly been helping the settlers. A marvelous adventure story, The Mysterious Island is also notable for its modern retelling of the utopian deserted-island myth, with repeated echoes of Robinson Crusoe and the Swiss Family Robinson. This Wesleyan edition features notes, appendices and an introduction by Verne scholar William Butcher, as well as reproductions of the illustrations from the original French edition.By E. T. Hoffman. 2018
On Christmas Eve, seven-year-old Marie and her eight-year-old brother Fritz anxiously await their Christmas gifts. When their godfather—a clock builder…
and toymaker—arrives, he unveils an ornate clockwork castle adorned with whirling figurines for the children. While Fritz plays with the clock, Marie is taken aside and given another gift—a nutcracker. After Fritz grabs the nutcracker from Marie and breaks its jaw by cracking too many nuts, their playtime ends and they head off to bed. When the clock strikes twelve, magic makes its way into this enduring tale and an epic battle ensues. This timeless classic, featuring all-new full-color and black-and-white illustrations by artist Arkady Roytman and abridged text by Gina Gold, is the perfect story to get anyone in the holiday spirit!By Lisa Dickenson. 2018
From the author of You Had Me at Merlot***THE 2018 KINDLE BESTSELLER***'You are all going to completely fall in love…
with this story' Holly Martin'Utterly fabulous, effortlessly modern, totally irresistible' HeatThe BRAND NEW feel-good, kick-ass novel about sisterhood and second chances. Perfect for fans of Sophie Kinsella, Lindsey Kelk, Mhairi McFarlane and Anna Bell. Available to PRE-ORDER now in paperback and ebook**** They're fixing up their childhood home. It's going to get messy. When Willow Lake asks her daughters for help renovating the family home, each has a reason to hesitate about returning to Maplewood . . . For quiet and bookish Emmy going back to the town that ridiculed her fills her with dread. The youngest Noelle is perfectly comfortable in herself now, but once wanted to fit in so badly that she walked away from her first love. A first love who still lives in Maplewood. And outspoken Rae is painfully aware of how much the townspeople hurt her little sisters growing up. She didn't protect them then, but there's no way she'll let history repeat itself. The sisters agree to go home and make the best of it. After all if they've changed over the years, it's possible the townspeople have too . . . isn't it?The BRAND NEW feel-good, kick-ass novel about sisterhood and second chances. Perfect for fans of Sophie Kinsella, Lindsey Kelk, Mhairi McFarlane and Anna Bell.Praise for Lisa Dickenson 'PERFECT' - Miranda Dickenson 'FLAWLESS' - Holly Martin 'Sprinkled with humour' - Cathy Bramley 'HILARIOUS' - Fabulous 'Will have you laughing out loud... A must read' - Daily Express 'DELICIOUS' - Jo Thomas 'A classic' - Sun 'SPARKLING' - Sunday Express 'Feisty, fun, and fierce!' - Ali McNamara 'HEART-WARMING' - Red 'Perfect poolside reading' - The Lady 'LOVELY' - Marie Claire 'UPLIFTING' - Bella