In the seventh book in The Performers saga, it is 1873 and impoverished Sophie Lackland must marry if she is to escape a lifeof genteel poverty. Then comes a letter telling of the death of her step-grandmamma, and of a strange bequest which could make it possible for Sophie to fulfil her ambition to qualify as a physician. So Sophie sets off for London, to a new life, new career and Gilbert Stacey, who offers her charm, tenderness and excitement.

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This tale follows the adventures of John of Gamala during the years of Roman occupation, political infighting, and lawlessness that resulted in the destruction of the Temple in AD 70. It puts the reader at the heart of the conflict between Rome and the greedy political groups and robber bands of Palestine. Although fighting a losing struggle, John keeps his integrity and honor intact, even overcoming slavery and eventually becoming a procurator after the struggle. Solomon Joseph Solomon RA (16 September 1860 - 27 July 1927) was a British painter, a founding member of the New English Art Club and member of the Royal Academy.Solomon's family was Jewish, and his sister, Lily Delissa Joseph (née Solomon), was also a painter.He made an important contribution to the development of camouflage in the First World War, working in particular on tree observation posts and arguing tirelessly for camouflage netting.... George Alfred Henty (8 December 1832 - 16 November 1902) was a prolific English novelist and war correspondent.He is best known for his historical adventure stories that were popular in the late 19th century. His works include The Dragon & The Raven (1886), For The Temple (1888), Under Drake's Flag (1883) and In Freedom's Cause (1885).G. A. Henty was born in Trumpington, near Cambridge. He was a sickly child who had to spend long periods in bed. During his frequent illnesses he became an avid reader and developed a wide range of interests which he carried into adulthood. He attended Westminster School, London, and later Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he was a keen sportsman. He left the university early without completing his degree to volunteer for the Army Hospital Commissariat when the Crimean War began. He was sent to the Crimea and while there he witnessed the appalling conditions under which the British soldier had to fight. His letters home were filled with vivid descriptions of what he saw. His father was impressed by his letters and sent them to The Morning Advertiser newspaper which printed them. This initial writing success was a factor in Henty's later decision to accept the offer to become a special correspondent, the early name for journalists now better known as war correspondents.Shortly before resigning from the army as a captain in 1859 he married Elizabeth Finucane. The couple had four children. Elizabeth died in 1865 after a long illness and shortly after her death Henty began writing articles for the Standard newspaper. In 1866 the newspaper sent him as their special correspondent to report on the Austro-Italian War where he met Giuseppe Garibaldi. He went on to cover the 1868 British punitive expedition to Abyssinia, the Franco-Prussian War, the Ashanti War, the Carlist Rebellion in Spain and the Turco-Serbian War. ........

Her holiday peace was shattered!Quiet and solitude, the doctor had advised Samantha. But it vanished completely when novelist Bart Jackson arrived unannounced at Gable Cottage and took up residence there.Samantha had been crazy to fall for him. He had swept into her life like a typhoon and would as quickly sweep out of it when summer was over. It seemed he couldn'tovercome his long-standing fear of commitment. If she were sensible she would pack her bags and run far away.Unfortunately, falling in love hadnothing to do with common sense...

This is not a book of documents, snippets or worthy speeches. Instead it presents the original essays and the moments of insight that told us what Australia is and could be. These are the essential statements - from historians, reporters, novelists, mavericks and visionaries - that take us from Federation to the present - day, and tell a story of national self - discovery. There is the Frenchman who saw that Australia was a 'workingman's paradise', and the historian who explained why. The two reporters who realised the true significance of Gallipoli and conveyed it to the nation. Russel Ward on the Australian Legend, Robin Boyd on the Australian Ugliness, Donald Horne on the Lucky Country, W.E.H. Stanner on the Great Australian Silence and Anne Summers on Manzone Country. Real Matildas, Cultural Cringers, Future Eaters and Forgotten People - and much more. Memorably written and cohesive, this is the essential sourcebook of the words that made Australia. Includes essays by Miles Franklin, Albert Metin, Ellis Ashmead - Bartlett, Keith Murdoch, Maybanke Anderson, D.H. Lawrence, W.K. Hancock, P.R. Stephensen, Vance Palmer, Robert Menzies, A.A. Phillips, Manning Clark, Russel Ward, Barry Humphries, Robin Boyd, Donald Horne, W.E.H. Stanner, Humphrey McQueen, Hugh Stretton, Anne Summers, Miriam Dixson, Bernard Smith, Paul Kelly, Geoffrey Blainey, Tim Flannery, David Malouf, Inga Clendinnen, Noel Pearson, Judith Brett and Ghassan Hage.

Spanish American fiction became a world phenomenon in the twentieth century through multilanguage translations of such novels as Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, Manuel Puig's Kiss of the Spider Woman, Octavio Paz's Labyrinth of Solitude, and Isabel Allende's House of the Spirits. Yet these "blockbusters" are only a tiny fraction of the total, rich outpouring of Spanish-language literature from Latin America. In this book, Naomi Lindstrom offers English-language readers a comprehensive survey of the century's literary production in Latin America (excluding Brazil). Discussing movements and trends, she places the famous masterworks in historical perspective and highlights authors and works that deserve a wider readership. Her study begins with Rodó's famous essay Ariel and ends with Rigoberta Menchú's 1992 achievement of the Nobel Prize. Her selection of works is designed to draw attention, whenever possible, to works that are available in good English translations. A special feature of the book is its treatment of the "postboom" period. In this important concluding section, Lindstrom discusses documentary narratives, the new interrelations between popular culture and literary writing, and underrepresented groups such as youth cultures, slum dwellers, gays and lesbians, and ethnic enclaves. Written in accessible, nonspecialized language, Twentieth-Century Spanish American Fiction will be equally useful for general readers as a broad overview of this vibrant literature and for scholars as a reliable reference work.

Matt Cohen's stories have been widely anthologized and have appeared in distinguished periodicals and journals in Canada, Britain and the United States. "Lives of the Mind Slaves" features 7 short stories -- one of which (Trotsky's First Confessions') was written especially for this book -- and a brilliant novella. Cohen's novella, Golden Whore of the Heartland, explores the conflict between the spontaneity of passion -- a chance affair -- and the comfort of commitment and belonging. The Sins of Tomas Benares' explores the theme of love over generations. 'Caf? Le Dog' is a celebration of all that remains inexplicable in the attractions between men and women. Racial Memories' is vintage Cohen -- a story about a not-so-classic Jewish family. "Lives of the Mind Slaves" contains the best of Cohen's two previous short story collections, "Caf? Le Dog" and "Living on Water."

Two novellas of young men embracing a mystical past In “Dorchester, Home and Garden,” a thirty-year-old adolescent, Maishe, returns to a burnt-out Jewish district on Blue Hill Avenue. He is swept up by angels and dropped among the bums of the Boston Common, in a city through which Isaiah and the Greek philosophers wander. “Onan’s Child” recasts this narrator as the biblical Onan, who refused to sleep with his wife, Tamar. It is a tale of a Kabbalistic world where angels go astray and the clay of the earth, still warm, cries out for human seed.

The White Man in the Tree is a comedy of cultural misunderstandings set in the Caribbean, New York, and Paris, a novella and eight stories about people who, because of their differences, misjudge each other. Whether it is a sophisticated European filmmaker, an ambitious young black Haitian woman, a promising politician obsessed with women's feet, or a fish-out-of-water rabbi in search of a kosher chicken in Curaçao, each of Kurlansky's characters engages us with impulses and interactions that are by turns comic, insightful, and poignant. The White Man in the Tree is an affectionate portrait of a unique society, where Europe, America, Africa, and Asia meet Latin America.

(One of 100 Signed Jacketed Hardcover Novella) There is only one truth Gorel of Golirisgunslinger, addict, touched by the Black Kissis interested in: finding a way back home, to the great empire from which he had been stolen as a child and from which he had been flung, by sorcery, far across the World. It started out simple: get to Falang-Et, find the mirror, find what truth it may hold. But nothing is simple for Gorel of Goliris...When Gorel forms an uneasy allianceand ménage à troiswith an Avian spy and a half-Merlangai thief, things only start to get complicated. Add a murdered merchant, the deadly Mothers of the House of Jade, the rivalry of gods and the machinations of a rising Dark Lord bent on conquest, and things start to get out of hand. Only one things for sure: by the time this is over, there will be blood. Not to mention sex and drugs . . . or guns and sorcery.

Konrad Bercovici (1881-1961) was born in Romania, then emigrated to the United States via Paris. He wrote articles for Harper's Magazine, as well as novels, biographies, and travel books.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1909 edition. Excerpt: ...about him, brisk things up. By the time he had reached Harley Street, he had the finest premises in the City, plate-glass and mahogany, commissionaires in uniform, everything, and more, that he had seen at the private bank when he had cashed cheques. He had inherited the novelist's imagination, a dangerous gift for the business man into which he saw himself develop. He had not said a word to his uncles about his father's health. He could not bring the words to his lips. Then, too, ever since he had made his decision, hope, those high fallacious hopes integral to his youth, grew strong, that when he was with his father, looking after him, sharing his work, David would improve in health, grow happier, healthier. It was difficult to say when or how Sebastian had first realised that his father was not a happy man, but certainly the knowledge was there. CHAPTER VII. Snnasrmn had to break the news of his decision to his parents. He planned to do it at dinner, he even arranged a little scene. He would announce it carelessly, he mentally rehearsed'the exact shade of carelessness, he looked forward to his mother's dismay, and how he would meet it, to his father's surprise. David must never know the true reason; it was then he felt a throb of heroism again, and a sickening reaction of anxiety. But his schemes fell through. Stella had announced herself convalescent, and had released Vanessa from the attendance that she saw' was irksome. Stella knew her sister. When Vanessa's eyes wore that far-off look, and her answers came slowly, sometimes unreasonably, Vanessa should be in her library. Stella knew Vanessa would not have written novels had she been a happy woman; happy women do not write. But, ignorant of...

"The Frontier Garrison" is the first English translation of "Az elõretolt helyõrség" by the Hungarian novelist Jenõ Rejtõ (1905-1943), originally published in 1939 under the pen name of "P. Howard." The translator, Balint Kacsoh (a university professor) also annotated the edition. The preface provides biographical data of Jenõ Rejtõ in historical and literary context. The genre is fiction; elements of action, adventure, mystery, and comedy are mixed in the story. It is suitable for young readers and adults. Synopsis: Action and adventure are mixed with a healthy dose of offbeat humor in this P. Howard classic, set in the second half of the 1930s. Harrincourt is dishonorably discharged from the French Naval Academy for a prank. He realizes that his carefree behavior put the livelihood of his widowed mother and teenage sister in jeopardy. To secure their financial future, he pays the premium on his life insurance policy and joins the French Foreign Legion destined to Africa, where his death "in the course of professional duty" would be all but guaranteed. While in basic training in Oran, he unwittingly becomes mixed up in murder and espionage and encounters the ghost of a murdered woman who has a penchant for singing. In short order, his unit is dispatched to a frontier garrison established to support French colonial expansion into equatorial Africa. Rival foreign powers, however, attempt to thwart the French plans and Harrincourt finds himself in the crossfire of international intrigue and falls in love with the beautiful woman whose haunting ghost follows the legionnaires as they march through the deadly Sahara. It is up to Harrincourt to save the day and uncover the secret of a mysterious watch, even if it might mean foregoing the death benefit his insurance policy would pay to his family.

Product Description Ivan Klima has been acclaimed by Booklist as "one of the most important literary voices of Eastern Europe, on a par with Havel, Konrad, and Haraszti." His novels Waiting for the Dark, Waiting for the Light and The Ultimate Intimacy have established him as a writer with a uniquely wry perspective on human affection. In Lovers for a Day, he delivers a beautiful and masterfully crafted collection of short stories on the theme of love. In "Heaven Hell Paradise," a doctor who has escaped to London comes back to communist Czechoslovakia to be with his lover and realizes too late that he barely knows her. And in "A Baffling Choice," a young woman begins an affair with an older man who lives in her apartment building, right under the nose of his wife. The dreams and frustrations of the student cafeteria and the turmoil of political exile in the early 1960s evolve into portraits of people struggling with responsibility, fidelity, and absence, haunted by a terrible guilt when their desires begin to become reality. Klima's unique wisdom creates a personal political history of Prague that is an acute and moving examination of our attempts to find freedom in love. Amazon.com Review Ranging over nearly three decades, the stories collected in Ivan Klíma's Lovers for a Day offer a fine cross section of the Czech writer's career. Yet the book also traces the misunderstandings and frustrations, the hopes and disenchantments of an entire nation--where, ironically enough, Klíma's creations were banned until the mid-1990s. How does this fictional barometer work? The earlier tales, which tend toward dissections of private life, seldom mention the Communist regime--yet their protagonists are so thoroughly warped by political circumstance that even love becomes an avatar of control and constraint. In the later, post-perestroika stories, Klíma's characters explore their newfound freedom. Yet that, too, turns out to be something of a mixed bag, in both the public and private sector. No wonder the judge in "It's Raining Out" finds his new beat--divorce court--nearly as dispiriting as the old regime's political trials: He would divorce couples on grounds of infidelity or mutual incompatibility. Some of them were husbands and wives who had stopped living together long ago, but in spite of that, he could never rid himself of the conviction that most of the divorces were unnecessary, that people were attempting to escape the inescapable: their own emptiness, their own incapacity to share their lives with another person. For Klíma's countryman desire represents a zone of freedom: an assertion of the unique self in the face of a collective state. For Klíma, alas, eros is yet another venue for repression. Suggesting that national politics might inscribe itself onto the deepest contours of the individual, he's able to write about both at once. It's a grim equation, perhaps. But Klíma's mastery of the medium, and his rare emotional intelligence, make for a superb exposition of love among the ruins. --Burhan Tufail From Publishers Weekly Sophisticated readers may expect to admire anything new from the justly revered Czech novelist (Waiting for the Light, Waiting for the Dark). Many of them will be disappointed with these 12 short stories. Klima's tales are sorted into three unequal sections: "Lovers for One Night" collects five stories from the 1960s, while "Intimate Conversations" and "About Love and Death" hold seven from the '80s and '90s. All these dejected fictions concern the success or failure of hopeful myths of intimacyAbut they are not equally successful. The fiction from the '60s tends to drown in involuted rhetoric; sometimes it's trite, other times it's supercharged with languid enervations and prominent symbolism through which the characters barely appear. It's hard to know whether the translator or Klima is responsible for such clunky prose as "She knew everything. She knew precisely why it was w

The classic novelization of one of Broadway’s most enduring and beloved musicals, updated with a beautiful new cover. Maria is young and innocent and has never known love—until Tony. And Tony, searching for life beyond the savagery of the streets, has discovered love for the first time with her, too. But Maria’s brother is the leader of the Sharks and Tony had once led the rival Jets. Now, both gangs are claiming the same turf and with tensions rising to the point of explosion, it seems there is no way to stop a rumble. Tony promised Maria that he would stay out of it. But will he be able to keep his word or will their newfound love be destroyed by violence or even death? Evocative and unforgettable, this novelization brings out all of the depth, drama, and beauty of one of the most enduring stories in the history of American theater.

In this book, Dvir Abramovich brings together a batch of timeless classical Hebrew novels, short stories, and poems, and furnishes readers with commentaries and critical readings of each landmark work. The selection of seminal texts include masterpieces from Yehuda Amichai, Haim Gouri, Amos Oz, Dvorah Baron, Shaul Tchernichovsky, Chaim Nachman Bialik, Hanoch Bartov, Shulamit Hareven, and Aharon Megged. Each interpretative essay includes a bio-graphical overview of the author whose opus is explored. This collection will prove exceptionally useful for teachers who wish to introduce their students to the treasures of contemporary Israeli fiction and are searching for reflective analyses and searching insights. Guaranteed to ignite discussion and debate, this informative and entertaining volume, written in an accessible and lively style, will appeal to a general and academic audience and will tempt readers to read or re-read these great works.

Product description In this book, Dvir Abramovich brings together a batch of timeless classical Hebrew novels, short stories, and poems, and furnishes readers with commentaries and critical readings of each landmark work. The selection of seminal texts include masterpieces from Yehuda Amichai, Haim Gouri, Amos Oz, Dvorah Baron, Shaul Tchernichovsky, Chaim Nachman Bialik, Hanoch Bartov, Shulamit Hareven, and Aharon Megged. Each interpretative essay includes a bio-graphical overview of the author whose opus is explored. This collection will prove exceptionally useful for teachers who wish to introduce their students to the treasures of contemporary Israeli fiction and are searching for reflective analyses and searching insights. Guaranteed to ignite discussion and debate, this informative and entertaining volume, written in an accessible and lively style, will appeal to a general and academic audience and will tempt readers to read or re-read these great works. Review In Hebrew Classics: A Journey Through Israel's Timeless Fiction and Poetry Dvir Abramovich offers us an intimate and delightful tour through the pastures of Hebrew literature. A refreshing meeting awaits us with writers of various generations who had grown up in separate landscapes and some in the midst of diverse languages...One of the unique characteristics of the book is the choice of literary works that it deals with, free of the bonds of genre definitions. We are offered 'delectable meals' that include interpretive studies of poems and stories of various kinds. The common denominator for this selection is the presentation of texts as junctions of flavour and passion within the rich and fascinating history of modern Hebrew literature. This provides the reader with the ability to experience a bird's eye view of these creative works. This book is a tribute to Hebrew literature, written with love and with the wish to share this love. This is obvious both from the detailed and sensitive studies, and from the commendable descriptive, festive and elegant language. (Yigal Schwartz, Professor of Hebrew Literature and Head of Heksherim: The Research Center for Jewish and Israel Culture, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) Abramovich has done a scrupulous job in scrutinizing these key texts of contemporary Hebrew fiction. The care with which he sets them in their historical and cultural contexts should be instructive for all readers interested in Israel and its predicaments. (Robert Alter, Class of 1937 Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature) The next best thing to reading modern Hebrew literature in the original is getting to know it through the eyes of a lover who is willing to share his passion. In Hebrew Classics: A Journey Through Israel's Timeless Fiction and Poetry Dvir Abramovich invites us to get to know its major figures and his introductions to their work make us eager to know them better. A true scholar can do no better. (Ruth Wisse, Martin Peretz Professor of Yiddish Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature) About the Author Dvir Abramovich (PhD University of Melbourne) is director of the University of Melbourne's Centre for Jewish History and Culture and a senior lecturer in Hebrew and Jewish Studies. He was editor of the Australian Journal of Jewish Studies for eight years and president of the Australian Association of Jewish Studies from 2006 to 2010. He has published widely in the area of Israeli and Jewish literature and is co-editor of the book Testifying to the Holocaust (2008) and author of Back to the Future: Israeli Literature of the 1980s and 1990 (2010).

Uses popular literary material - sermons, novels, journals, etc. - to show the growth of a German-Jewish ideology and subculture in the first half of the 19th century. Argues that this subculture was the response of the Jewish minority to partial political emancipation and social integration. It was partial since Jews could not deny their religious and national identity, and German society was not willing to accept them even if they did so. Although designed to foster integration, the German-Jewish subculture encouraged the growth of a new identity, and thus greater separatism.

Few writers have inspired such affection ain their contemporaries, and in later generations of readers, as Robert Louis Stevenson. And yet, difficult though it is to resist the generous, enchanting personality tht shines out from his letters, it is even harder to define it. A descendant of Calvinists who spent his youth in a Bohemian milieu, a lover of his native Scotland who became committed to exile, a man whose humorous enjoyment of human foibles did not preclude an awareness of the nightmarish background against which some lives are lived - Stevenson was highly complex, with a deep sense of moral ambiguities which runs throughout his work. He could have no abler or more sympathetic biographer than David Daiches, Professor of English Studies at Sussex University, and author of an earlier book on the master (Robert Louis Stevenson: A Revaluation) as well as of biographies of Burns and Scott in this series. In a brilliant and absorbing text, Professor Daiches traces Stevenson's life, from his childhood and early manhood in Scotland (whose scenery and townscapes inspired his work throughout his life), through his visits to France and the United States, and on to his las years in Samoa. Professor Daiches also discusses Stevenson's writings, explaining how he harnessed the disparate elements in his nature so that they fertilized his imagination while he developed his gifts as a romancer, essayist, poet and historical novelist, from his early travel books and Treasure Island - the greatest of all adventure stories for boys - to the tragic conflict so superbly realised in Weir of Hermiston, the masterpiece which he did not live to complete.

Luc Lévesque is a celebrated Quebec novelist and the anointed Voice of a Generation. In his hometown of Montreal, he is revered as much for his novels about the working-class neighbourhood of Saint-Henri as for his separatist views. But this is 2001. The dreams of a new nation are dying, and Luc himself is increasingly dissatisfied with his life. Hannah is Luc's wife. She is also the daughter of a man who served as a special prosecutor during the October Crisis. For years, Hannah has worked faithfully as Luc's English translator. She has also spent her adult life distancing herself from her English-speaking family. But at what cost? Hugo is their troubled fourteen-year-old son. Living in the shadow of a larger-than-life father, Hugo is struggling with his own identity. In confusion and anger, he commits a reckless act that puts everyone around him on a collision course with the past.