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Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age
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.The Five: A Novel of Jewish Life in Turn-of-the-Century Odessa
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.The Mysterious Island: The Secret Of The Island (Early Classics of Science Fiction)
By 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.A blockbuster illustrated book that captures what Americans love to read, The Great American Read: The Book of Books is…
the gorgeously-produced companion book to PBS's ambitious summer 2018 series. What are America's best-loved novels? PBS will launch The Great American Read series with a 2-hour special in May 2018 revealing America's 100 best-loved novels, determined by a rigorous national survey. Subsequent episodes will air in September and October. Celebrities and everyday Americans will champion their favorite novel and in the finale in late October, America's #1 best-loved novel will be revealed. The Great American Read: The Book of Books will present all 100 novels with fascinating information about each book, author profiles, a snapshot of the novel's social relevance, film or television adaptations, other books and writings by the author, and little-known facts. Also included are themed articles about banned books, the most influential book illustrators, reading recommendations, the best first-lines in literature, and more. Beautifully designed with rare images of the original manuscripts, first-edition covers, rejection letters, and other ephemera, The Great American Read: The Book of Books is a must-have book for all booklovers.The Complete Works of Kate Chopin (Southern Literary Studies)
By Kate Chopin, Per Seyersted. 1970
In 1969, Per Seyersted gave the world the first collected works of Kate Chopin. Seyersted's presentation of Chopin's writings and…
biographical and bibliographical information led to the rediscovery and celebration of this turn-of-the-century author. Newsweek hailed the two-volume opus -- "In story after story and in all her novels, Kate Chopin's oracular feminism and prophetic psychology almost outweigh her estimable literary talents. Her revival is both interesting and timely." Now for the first time, Seyersted'sComplete Works is available in a single-volume paperback. It is the first and only paperback edition of Chopin's total oeuvre. Containing twenty poems, ninety-six stories, two novels, and thirteen essays -- in short, everything Chopin wrote except several additional poems and three unfinished children's stories -- as well as Seyersted's original revelatory introduction and Edmund Wilson's foreword, this anthology is both a historical and a literary achievement. It is ideal for anyone who wishes to explore the pleasures of reading this highly acclaimed author.La Petite Fadette: Opéra-comique En 3 Actes (classic Reprint)
By George Sand. 2017
Set in the French countryside of George Sand’s childhood and narrated in the unique voice of a Berrichon peasant, La…
Petite Fadette is a beloved 1848 novel about identical twin brothers and Fadette, the mysterious waif with whom they both fall in love. The brothers, Landry and Sylvinet, belong to a highly respected farm family. When young Landry meets Fadette, whose very name suggests that she is a witch, he is captivated by the girl despite her lowly status and disreputable family. Sylvinet soon follows suit. Fadette’s relationship with the twins defies the patriarchal norms of French society as well as the expectations of the village, resulting in a tale of love, courage, and clever strategy winning out over superstition and prejudice.Often regarded as a simple country tale, Sand’s novel is layered with meaning, including subtle nods to the burgeoning desire for political and sexual equality in nineteenth-century France. This thoughtful critical translation by Gretchen van Slyke brings the complexity of the original story to life. Her introduction explores the autobiographical and political dimensions of the novel, and her translation preserves the rustic charm and archaic flavor of Sand’s language.An invaluable contribution to French literary studies and nineteenth-century literature studies, this new edition ensures that La Petite Fadette will be read by generations to come.The Complete Works of Kate Chopin (Southern Literary Studies)
By Kate Chopin, Per Seyersted. 1970
In 1969, Per Seyersted gave the world the first collected works of Kate Chopin. Seyersted's presentation of Chopin's writings and…
biographical and bibliographical information led to the rediscovery and celebration of this turn-of-the-century author. Newsweek hailed the two-volume opus -- "In story after story and in all her novels, Kate Chopin's oracular feminism and prophetic psychology almost outweigh her estimable literary talents. Her revival is both interesting and timely." Now for the first time, Seyersted'sComplete Works is available in a single-volume paperback. It is the first and only paperback edition of Chopin's total oeuvre. Containing twenty poems, ninety-six stories, two novels, and thirteen essays -- in short, everything Chopin wrote except several additional poems and three unfinished children's stories -- as well as Seyersted's original revelatory introduction and Edmund Wilson's foreword, this anthology is both a historical and a literary achievement. It is ideal for anyone who wishes to explore the pleasures of reading this highly acclaimed author.Faust: A Tragedy, Part I
By Eugene Stelzig, Johann Wolfgang van Goethe. 2019
Goethe is the most famous German author, and the poetic drama Faust, Part I (1808) is his best-known work, one…
that stands in the company of other leading canonical works of European literature such as Dante’s Inferno and Shakespeare’s Hamlet. This is the first new translation into English since David Constantine’s 2005 version. Why another translation when there are several currently in print? To invoke Goethe’s own authority when speaking of his favorite author, Shakespeare, Goethe asserts that so much has already been said about the poet-dramatist “that it would seem there’s nothing left to say,” but adds, “yet it is the peculiar attribute of the spirit that it constantly motivates the spirit.” Goethe’s great dramatic poem continues to speak to us in new ways as we and our world continually change, and thus a new or updated translation is always necessary to bring to light Faust’s almost inexhaustible, mysterious, and enchanting poetic and cultural power. Eugene Stelzig’s new translation renders the text of the play in clear and crisp English for a contemporary undergraduate audience while at the same time maintaining its leading poetic features, including the use of rhyme. Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.The Pocket Guide to Classic Books (Pocket Guides)
By Kieran Hughes. 2010
Everything you need to know about classic literature in one handy guide by lecturer Maureen Hughes. Covering everything from the…
authors to the plays themselves and their common themes, accessibility is a key selling point with factboxes highlighting key or curious facts about the subject. Its size makes it the perfect stocking filler for the Christmas market or at anytime of the year for those wanting more information about what theyre reading or studying in a handy, pocket-sized guide.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.Eugene Onegin: A Novel in Verse: Text (Vol. 1) (Princeton Classics #36)
By Vladimir Nabokov, Brian Boyd, Aleksandr Pushkin. 2018
When Vladimir Nabokov's translation of Pushkin’s masterpiece Eugene Onegin was first published in 1964, it ignited a storm of controversy…
that famously resulted in the demise of Nabokov’s friendship with critic Edmund Wilson. While Wilson derided it as a disappointment in the New York Review of Books, other critics hailed the translation and accompanying commentary as Nabokov’s highest achievement. Nabokov himself strove to render a literal translation that captured "the exact contextual meaning of the original," arguing that, "only this is true translation." Nabokov’s Eugene Onegin remains the most famous and frequently cited English-language version of the most celebrated poem in Russian literature, a translation that reflects a lifelong admiration of Pushkin on the part of one of the twentieth century’s most brilliant writers. Now with a new foreword by Nabokov biographer Brian Boyd, this edition brings a classic work of enduring literary interest to a new generation of readers.El verano peligroso (Documento Ser.)
By Ernest Hemingway. 2020
Un complejo y profundo autorretrato que desvela las cualidades que el Premio Nobel de Literatura Ernest Hemingway tiene en común…
con los mejores creadores del siglo XX. En 1959 Hemingway regresó a España para cumplir un encargo de la revista Life: escribir un artículo, ilustrado por fotógrafos de la talla de Burrows y Hotchner, sobre el duelo entre dos grandes toreros: Antonio Ordóñez y Luis Miguel Dominguín. A sus sesenta años y sufriendo los trastornos psicológicos que le empujarían a la muerte, el autor se reencontró con las imágenes que le habían cautivado en su juventud y de las cuales surgió El verano peligroso, un libro que contiene momentos del más puro Hemingway, donde lo que se sugiere cobra mayor importancia que lo que está escrito. Reseña:«Hemingway fue un entusiasta de la existencia y ese entusiasmo brilla en sus páginas.»Miguel Sánchez OstizThe Iliad
By Victor G. Ambrus, Nick Mccarty. 1997
Vivid illustrations by noted artist Victor Ambrus brings to life this new retelling of Paris' doomed love for Helen and…
the years of siege that roiled the ancient city of Troy. [Proofreader's Notes: Illustrations are not described as they add nothing to the text story. There is a "Glossary of Main Characters" at the end of the book, naming and describing their inter-relationships. This might be helpful to read before the story.The Short Stories of Oscar Wilde: An Annotated Selection
By Oscar Wilde. 2020
An innovative new edition of nine classic short stories from one of the greatest writers of the Victorian era.“I cannot…
think other than in stories,” Oscar Wilde once confessed to his friend André Gide. In this new selection of his short fiction, Wilde’s gifts as a storyteller are on full display, accompanied by informative facing-page annotations from Wilde biographer and scholar Nicholas Frankel. A wide-ranging introduction brings readers into the world from which the author drew inspiration.Each story in the collection brims with Wilde’s trademark wit, style, and sharp social criticism. Many are reputed to have been written for children, although Wilde insisted this was not true and that his stories would appeal to all “those who have kept the childlike faculties of wonder and joy.” “Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime” stands alongside Wilde’s comic masterpiece The Importance of Being Earnest, while other stories—including “The Happy Prince,” the tale of a young ruler who had never known sorrow, and “The Nightingale and the Rose,” the story of a nightingale who sacrifices herself for true love—embrace the theme of tragic, forbidden love and are driven by an undercurrent of seriousness, even despair, at the repressive social and sexual values of Wilde’s day. Like his later writings, Wilde’s stories are a sweeping indictment of the society that would imprison him for his homosexuality in 1895, five years before his death at the age of forty-six.Published here in the form in which Victorian readers first encountered them, Wilde’s short stories contain much that appeals to modern readers of vastly different ages and temperaments. They are the perfect distillation of one of the Victorian era’s most remarkable writers.Light and Dark: A Novel (Weatherhead Books on Asia)
By Sōseki Natsume. 2014
Light and Dark, Natsume Soseki's longest novel and masterpiece, although unfinished, is a minutely observed study of haute-bourgeois manners on…
the eve of World War I. It is also a psychological portrait of a new marriage that achieves a depth and exactitude of character revelation that had no precedent in Japan at the time of its publication and has not been equaled since. With Light and Dark, Soseki invented the modern Japanese novel.Recovering in a clinic following surgery, thirty-year-old Tsuda Yoshio receives visits from a procession of intimates: his coquettish young wife, O-Nobu; his unsparing younger sister, O-Hide, who blames O-Nobu's extravagance for her brother's financial difficulties; his self-deprecating friend, Kobayashi, a ne'er-do-well and troublemaker who might have stepped from the pages of a Dostoevsky novel; and his employer's wife, Madam Yoshikawa, a conniving meddler with a connection to Tsuda that is unknown to the others. Divergent interests create friction among this closely interrelated cast of characters that explodes into scenes of jealousy, rancor, and recrimination that will astonish Western readers conditioned to expect Japanese reticence.Released from the clinic, Tsuda leaves Tokyo to continue his convalescence at a hot-springs resort. For reasons of her own, Madam Yoshikawa informs him that a woman who inhabits his dreams, Kiyoko, is staying alone at the same inn, recovering from a miscarriage. Dissuading O-Nobu from accompanying him, Tsuda travels to the spa, a lengthy journey fraught with real and symbolic obstacles that feels like a passage from one world to another. He encounters Kiyoko, who attempts to avoid him, but finally manages a meeting alone with her in her room. Soseki's final scene is a sublime exercise in indirection that leaves Tsuda to "explain the meaning of her smile."El escándalo del siglo
By Gabriel García Márquez. 1983
Dejó muy claro Gabriel García Márquez que el periodismo siempre fue su principal pasión, la más perdurable y por la…
que quiso ser recordado: No quiero que se me recuerde por Cien años de soledad, ni por el premio Nobel, sino por el periódico. [...] Nací periodista y hoy me siento más reportero que nunca. Lo llevo en la sangre, me tira. Esta antología pretende ser la muestra más representativa de la tensión narrativa entre periodismo y literatura que recorrió toda su trayectoria como reportero. Cubriendo cuatro décadas, este delicioso viaje a través de medio centenar de textos muestra como el mejor oficio del mundo está en el corazón de la obra del premio Nobel colombiano. Con edición a cargo de Cristóbal Pera y prólogo de Jon Lee Anderson, este volumen contiene piezas tan indispensables como los reportajes escritos desde Roma sobre la muerte de una joven italiana, suceso que permitió al autor pintar un fresco incomparable de las élites políticas y artísticas delpaís en un marco de novela policiaca, crónicas sobre la vida tras el telón de acero, sobre la trata de blancas desde París hasta América Latina o apuntes sobre Fidel Castro o Pío XII. Encontramos también fragmentos tempranos en los que aparecen por primera vez las familias Buendía y Aracataca, junto con artículos que contemplan la política, la sociedad y la cultura bajo la luz sólida, profunda y experimentada de ese gran contador de historias que siempre será maestro de periodistas.Eugene Onegin: A Novel in Verse: Commentary (Vol. 2)
By Aleksandr Pushkin. 1991
When Vladimir Nabokov first published his controversial translation of Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin in 1964, the great majority of the edition…
was taken up by Nabokov’s witty and detailed commentary. Presented here in its own volume, the commentary is a unique and exhaustive scholarly masterwork by one of the twentieth century’s greatest writers—a work that Nabokov biographer Brian Boyd calls “the most detailed commentary ever made on” Onegin and “indispensable to all serious students of Pushkin’s masterpiece.”In his commentary, Nabokov seeks to illuminate every possible nuance of this nineteenth-century classic. He explains obscurities, traces literary influences, relates Onegin to Pushkin’s other work, and in a characteristically entertaining manner dwells on a host of interesting details relevant to the poem and the Russia it depicts. Nabokov also provides translations of lines and stanzas deleted by the censor or by Pushkin himself, variants from Pushkin’s notebooks, fragments of a continuation called “Onegin’s Journey,” the unfinished and unpublished “Chapter Ten,” other continuations, and an index.A work of astonishing erudition and passion, Nabokov’s commentary is a landmark in the history of literary scholarship and in the understanding and appreciation of the greatest work of Russia’s national poet.Telegrams of the Soul
By Peter Wortsman, Peter Altenberg. 2005
"If it be permitted to speak of 'love at first sound,' then that's what I experienced in my first encounter…
with this poet of prose." So said Thomas Mann of the work of PeterAltenberg. A virtuoso Fin-de-Siècle Viennese innovator of what he called the "telegram style" of writing, Altenberg's signature short prose straddles the line between the poetic and the prosaic, fiction and observation, harsh verity and whimsical vignette. Inspired by the prose poems of Charles Baudelaire and the Feuilleton--a light journalistic reflection of his day--Altenberg carved out a spare, strikingly modern aesthetic that speaks with an eerie prescience to our own impatient time. Peter Wortsman's new selection and translation reads like a sly lyrical wink from the turnof-the-century of the telegram to the turn-of-the-millennium of email.The Lord Chandos Letter and Other Writings: And Other Writings
By John Banville, Hugo Von Hofmannsthal, Joel Rotenber. 2005
Hugo von Hoffmannsthal made his mark as a poet, as a playwright, and as the librettist for Richard Strauss's greatest…
operas, but he was no less accomplished as a writer of short, strangely evocative prose works. The atmospheric stories and sketches collected here--fin-de-siècle fairy tales from the Vienna of Klimt and Freud, a number of them never before translated into English--propel the reader into a shadowy world of uncanny fates and secret desires. An aristocrat from Paris in the plague years shares a single night of passion with an unknown woman; a cavalry sergeant meets his double on the battlefield; an orphaned man withdraws from the world with his four servants, each of whom has a mysterious power over his destiny.The most influential of all of Hofmannsthal's writings is the title story, a fictional letter to the English philosopher Francis Bacon in which Lord Chandos explains why he is no longer able to write. The "Letter" not only symbolized Hofmannsthal's own turn away from poetry, it captured the psychological crisis of faith and language which was to define the twentieth century.The Annotated Emma
By Jane Austen, David M. Shapard. 2012
From the editor of the popular Annotated Pride and Prejudice comes an annotated edition of Jane Austen's Emma that makes…
her beloved tale of an endearingly inept matchmaker an even more satisfying read. Here is the complete text of the novel with more than 2,200 annotations on facing pages, including: -Explanations of historical context-Citations from Austen's life, letters, and other writings-Definitions and clarifications-Literary comments and analysis-Maps of places in the novel-An introduction, bibliography, and detailed chronology of events-Nearly 200 informative illustrations Filled with fascinating information about everything from the social status of spinsters and illegitimate children to the shopping habits of fashionable ladies to English attitudes toward gypsies, David M. Shapard's Annotated Emma brings Austen's world into richer focus.