'Russell Hoban's imagination knows no bounds ... darkly funny and profound' The Times 'You want to buy my death for a million pounds!' Piccadilly Circus tube station is an unlikely location for a pact with the Devil, but this is where Jonathan Fitch first meets Mr Rinyo-Clacton. Devastated after his girlfriend Serafina has left him, Jonathan agrees that this mysterious stranger will pay him a million pounds for a year, if he agrees to die at the end of it. What could possibly go wrong? 'A poignant and engaging fable of ownership and surrender' Philip Hensher, Mail on Sunday 'Nothing is accidental or optional in this jewelled clockwork egg of a book ... Hoban is a hugely skilled, moving and endlessly entertaining writer' The Times Literary Supplement

Over the last dozen years, the writings of Richard Taruskin have transformed the debate about "early music" and "authenticity." Text and Act collects for the first time the most important of Taruskin's essays and reviews from this period, many of which now classics in the field. Taking a wide-ranging cultural view of the phenomenon, he shows that the movement, far from reviving ancient traditions, in fact represents the only truly modern style of performance being offered today. He goes on to contend that the movement is therefore far more valuable and even authentic than the historical verisimilitude for which it ostensibly strives could ever be. These essays cast fresh light on many aspects of contemporary music-making and music-thinking, mixing lighthearted debunking with impassioned argumentation. Taruskin ranges from theoretical speculation to practical criticism, and covers a repertory spanning from Bach to Stravinsky. Including a newly written introduction, Text and Act collects the very best of one of our most incisive musical thinkers.

One of the greatest historians of the twentieth century, Arnaldo Momigliano (1908-1987) is known for his path-breaking studies of ancient Greek and Roman history. The encyclopedic knowledge of the ancient world that Momigliano brought to his work, however, enabled him to make connections between ancient history and the subsequent study of that history. His sweeping vision stretched from antiquity to the present day. In Momigliano and Antiquarianism, Peter N. Miller brings together an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars to provide the first serious study of Momigliano's history of historical scholarship. At its core, this collection is devoted to one of Momigliano's most celebrated subjects, the history of antiquarianism, and one of his most audacious claims, that the decay of early modern antiquarianism actually gave birth to the modern cultural sciences - history, sociology, anthropology, art history, archaeology, and history of religion. Filling a gap in the scholarship, this erudite collection will prove fascinating to teachers and students of classics, history, and the human sciences.

In March 1996, a Nielsen survey found that 56 million people over the age of 16 in the U.S. and Canada have access to the Internet. If the current rate of growth continues, by the year 2000, over 50% of the US population will have access to the Internet. With as many as 50,000 new Web sites beginning each day, most Internet users would find the prospect of an Internet "yellow pages" both appealing and useful. Now, from the definitive leader in Internet publishing, Michael Wolff, comes NetGuide. Looking for a spouse? Try Marriage Brokers Online. Eager for the latest on your favorite sport? Try ESPNET SportsZone. Want a good book? Consult dozens of library catalogues or dip into The Iliad, Great Expectations, Black Beauty, or other literature online. NetGuide is the first in Dell's new series of Internet guidebooks. It is a comprehensive volume divided into helpful sections that provide simple, practical advice about everything readers need to know to surf the net: from choosing a modem to finding the right online service to locating the obscurest of sites. NetGuide provides a fun and informative list of Web sites in the following subject areas: ò Entertainment (including movies, television, music) ò Sci-fi ò Fun & Games (including comics, cartoons, video games) ò Home & Health ò The Digital World ò Virtual Newsstand (including magazines, newspapers) ò Politics & Government (including international, domestic) ò Dollars & Sense (including personal finance, taxes) In addition to other subject areas, NetGuidealso includes hundreds of Internet addresses for current information on topics ranging from television shows, to music, to literature (check out the Online University site at cc.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/index.html, for electronic versions of such classics as Moby Dick), and everything else in between. Packed with invaluable advice, NetGuideis the most complete listing of what's on the net and how to get there. The ultimate guide for every Internet user, from part-time browsers to full-time "netheads," NetGuideis now finally available in a convenient paperback edition.

This book is correctly regarded as one of Trotsky's finest classics. It is a product of a sharp polemic within the American trotskyist movement during the period 1939-40. This was a dispute which touched on the very fundamentals of Marxism. It was for this reason that Trotsky himself participated in this struggle in the form of a series of articles and letters that are brought together in this volume. The issues covered concern the essence of Marxist theory and deal with such questions as: The class nature of the Soviet state. The defence of the Soviet Union against imperialist attack. Bolshevik principles of organisation. Dialectical Materialism. This book is Trotsky at his best: profound, concise and theorectically razor sharp.

This Elibron Classics title is a reprint of the original edition published by Innes & Sons in Philadelphia, 1922.

This is a reproduction of the original artefact. Generally these books are created from careful scans of the original. This allows us to preserve the book accurately and present it in the way the author intended. Since the original versions are generally quite old, there may occasionally be certain imperfections within these reproductions. We're happy to make these classics available again for future generations to enjoy!

The dread shadow of Nazism falls upon the Carnovsky family, three generations of Jews who believe themselves totally assimilated into German society. David, who has prospered in "enlightened, civilized" Berlin and considers himself "more German than the Germans”, cannot rationalize the momentous events engulfing him. His son Georg, a famous doctor, taught by his father to be "Jewish at home, a German in the street", is stripped of his practice, his possessions, and ultimately his illusions. And his young son Jegor is pulled between his love for the fatherland and the Jewishness he scorns. A tragedy of torn loyalties, this powerful and panoramic novel has become one of the classics of our time.

"A celebration of the power and wonder of lifelong reading-both secular and sacred Zibby Owens, My Most Anticipated Books 2025 In Children of the Book, Ilana Kurshan explores the closeness forged when family life unfolds against a backdrop of reading together. Kurshan, a mother of five living in Jerusalem, at first struggles to balance her passion for literature with her responsibilities as a parent. Gradually she learns how to relate to reading not as a solitary pursuit and an escape from the messiness of life, but rather as a way of teaching independence and forging connection. Introducing her children to sacred and secular literature-including the beloved classics of her childhood-helps her become both a better mother and a better reader. Chief among the books Kurshan reads with her children is the Five Books of Moses, known as the Torah, which Jews the world over read in synchrony as part of the liturgical cycle. In the five parts of this memoir, Kurshan explores the surprising resonances between the biblical text and her experiences as a mother and a reader - from the first picture books that create the world through language for little babies, to the moment our children begin reading on their own leaving us behind, atop the mountain, as they enter new lands without us. A testament to the enduring power of shared texts, Children of the Book celebrates the deep pleasures of books"-- Provided by publisher.

"Gene Gutowski's name is associated with some of the great films of the twentieth century: the Oscar-winning masterpiece The Pianist, Repulsion, Cul-de-sac, and Fearless Vampire Killers. Producer of many of Roman Polanski's classics, Gene Gutowski shares here his extraordinary memoirs: those of a Polish Jew, alone in occupied Warsaw after the deportation of his entire family. As a young man who, with the blind courage of one who has nothing to lose, took incredible risks, he narrowly escaped the many horrors of life in Nazi-occupied Poland. In an extraordinary twist of destiny, and thanks to his prodigious resourcefulness, Gene Gutowski found himself in Germany in 1945, working as an American counter-espionage agent. After the war, he made his way to New York, where he worked as a fashion illustrator and TV producer, then on to London, where he became a successful producer and member of the jet set during the sixties. Finally, he achieved Hollywood consecration with the three Oscars won by The Pianist. It is an extremely endearing personality that reveals itself here, modest about the difficulties overcome, honest about the successes and failures. Gene Gutowski's youth was a thumb of the nose to death and totalitarianism, and his journey is a formidable life lesson"--back cover.

This series reprints the best of the titles in Islamic Studies that were published by Brill before 1970. Titltes that have been out of print for a long time, but are still important for libraries and scholars will become easily available to a wider audience. The best of two centuries of scholarship, newly typeset and with new introductions by some of the foremost scholars in Islamic Studies make the Brill Classics in Islam an indispensable part of any islamic studies collection. In Knowledge Triumphant, Franz Rosenthal observes that the Islamic civilization is one that is essentially characterized by knowledge ('ilm), for "ilm is one of those concepts that have dominated Islam and given Muslim civilization its distinctive shape and complexion." With an introduction by Dimitri Gutas. FRANZ ROSENTHAL (1914-2003) was Sterling Professor of Arabicand Semitic Studies at Yale University until his retirement in 1985.

Vincente Minnelli, Hollywood's Dark Dreamer is the first full-length biography of Vincente Minnelli, one of the most legendary and influential directors in the twentieth century, encompassing his life, his art, and his artistry. Minnelli started out as a set and costume designer in New York, where he first notably applied his aesthetic principles to the Broadway stage design of Scheherazade. He became the first director of New York's Radio City Music Hall, as well as some of the most lavish Broadway musicals, including Ziegfeld Follies, and brought Josephine Baker back from Paris to star in his shows. As a film director, he discovered Lena Horne in a Harlem nightclub and cast her in his first movie, the legendary musical Cabin in the Sky. The winner of the Director Oscar for Gigi, the first film to win in all nine of its Oscar nominations, Minnelli directed such classics as the Oscar-winning An American in Paris, Meet Me in St. Louis, Father of the Bride, The Bad and the Beautiful, and Some Came Running. He was married to Judy Garland, who he met on the set of Meet Me in St. Louis and directed in such landmark films as The Clock; their daughter is actress-singer Liza Minnelli.

Oxford and Cambridge are two of the most fabled academic institutions in the world; graduates include John Milton and Lord Byron, Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin, and, more recently, President Bill Clinton. For eight centuries, students have journeyed to Oxbridge to drink in the nectar of the classics and train in the sports of the Greeks. Then, in 1990, American writer Bruce Feiler arrived... Looking for Class is a hilarious and enlightening account of a year at Oxford and Cambridge by a talented young writer who won wide acclaim for his first book, Learning to Bow, an educational odyssey set in Japan. For his new adventure abroad, Feiler lived as a graduate student at Cambridge. He has written this comic expose with the dry wit of a British novelist and the irreverence of an American journalist. The result is a bawdy and illuminating pageant of British life, a cross between P. G. Wodehouse and P. J. O'Rourke, Brideshead Revisited and Animal House. Feiler shows us Oxbridge from all angles - the garden parties and formal balls, high-minded dormitory debates and late-night drinking Olympics, stuffy tutorials and weeklong exams. Along the way, he matches wits with the quickest tongue in the school during an "English-style" debate; rows in Cambridge's most exclusive athletic ritual; and learns lessons in love from a Rhodes Scholar. At a time when America's meritocracy is draping itself in the fine cloth of elite British education, Bruce Feiler has ventured into the dark and dusty halls of Anglo academia and demystified British education. What he has discovered is entertaining, informative, and highly relevant to our own educational system. Bruce Feiler is one of the most promising young writers at work today. With remarkable insight, he penetrates Oxford and Cambridge, a world romanticized but rarely seen.

“Humpty Dumpty” is the story of the defeat of passion. In this novel our civilization with all its biological and psychological ancestry laid bare, rises to overpower one of its supermen. Savaron, the man, with a skyrocket for a soul, hurls himself against the invisible monster—the lifeless decaying thing he identifies as society. Genius holds carnival in Savaron's mind. Brilliantly and futilely he struggles to extricate himself from the grip of the crowd-men of his day. His brain for a little while illuminates the way for him. Love corrupts him, conventions repudiated by his mind steal into his heart, confusion begins to knock his brain and Savaron, the gay and unscrupulous giant, finds himself fastened to the earth of Lilliput. In this Novel Hecht has outwritten the promise of Erik Dorm and Gargoyles. More epithetical than the former and vaster in scope and clearer in detail than the latter, “Humpty Dumpty” emerges as one of the most vivid and daring of modern excursions into the soul of man. Ben Hecht was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, journalist, and novelist. A journalist in his youth, he went on to write 35 books and some of the most enjoyed screenplays and plays in America. He received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some seventy films. In the 1910s and 1920s, Hecht became a noted journalist, foreign correspondent, and literary figure. In the late 1920s, his co-authored, reporter-themed play, The Front Page, became a Broadway hit. American Screenwriters calls him “one of the most successful screenwriters in the history of motion pictures”. Hecht received the first Academy Award for Best Story for Underworld (1927). Many of the screenplays he worked on are now considered classics.

Buchwald, Buchwald, oh time in thy flight/ is best read on the run/ than pondered by night. The annual crop from the daily columns -- a smattering of classics (the Old and New Nixon dialogues), a number of lotus-eating position papers on continuing debates (Vietnam, Henry Kissinger, football TV weekends, Women's Lib, etc.), and a few highly volatile contributions, marvelous when first read on the 8:32, now faded by time but always with a hint of hilarity. There's Scotty Reston's mysterious Chinese appendectomy during which a bug was undoubtedly sewn in, one which operates on monosodium glutamate; or snatches from the ""Poems of Richard Nixon"" (""lakes sparkle as birds sing/ it's a good day to bomb Cambodia""); or an interview with Apathy who won by a landslide or. . . . Perhaps you won't want to read them all, but it's nice to know they're here.

Tender Buttons - Objects--Food--Rooms Matisse Picasso and Gertrude Stein with Two Shorter Stories Three Lives - Stories of The Good Anna, Melanctha and The Gentle Lena

Collection of stories Bio Edna Ferber (August 15, 1885 - April 16, 1968) was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her novels include the Pulitzer Prize-winning So Big (1924), Show Boat (1926; made into the celebrated 1927 musical), Cimarron (1930; adapted into the 1931 film which won the Academy Award for Best Picture), Giant (1952; made into the 1956 film of the same name) and Ice Palace (1958), which also received a film adaptation in 1960. Ferber's novels generally featured strong female protagonists, along with a rich and diverse collection of supporting characters. She usually highlighted at least one strong secondary character who faced discrimination, ethnic or otherwise. Ferber's works often concerned small subsets of American culture, and sometimes took place in exotic locations she had visited but was not intimately familiar with, such as Texas or Alaska. She thus helped to highlight the diversity of American culture to those who did not have the opportunity to experience it. Some novels are set in places she had not visited. (wikipedia.org)

Written in the tradition of the classic American noir of Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain, In Praise of Lies is a brilliantly clever, fiendishly funny crime novel about a woman who raises poisonous snakes and the man who loves her enough to attempt murder.... Jose Guber is in love with a deadly woman. While writing his next crime novel, he is in search of a unique murder weapon, which is how he meets Melissa, a serologist who specializes in venomous snakes. Melissa becomes rather too interested in Jose's dastardly plots--unashamedly plagiarized from the classics: Chesterton, Poe, Dostoevsky, his editor none the wiser--and she especially likes the ones where diabolical women seduce and corrupt weak men. Melissa makes it clear that she would like to adapt one of the plots to dispose of her present husband, enabling Jose and Melissa to be together. But the course of true love and homicide does not always run smoothly, certainly not when the accomplice rattlesnake gets depressed and everything that can go wrong does go hilariously haywire. With sharp wit and impressive agility, Patricia Melo leads the reader into a teasing world of deviousness. Literary puzzles and comic swipes at book publishing trends are added pleasures in what is, above all, a glorious page-turner.

This is a reproduction of the original artefact. Generally these books are created from careful scans of the original. This allows us to preserve the book accurately and present it in the way the author intended. Since the original versions are generally quite old, there may occasionally be certain imperfections within these reproductions. We're happy to make these classics available again for future generations to enjoy!

This collection of 37 stories by a master of the form features tales that are sometimes funny, sometimes violent, and sometimes weird and nightmarish: in short, it is quintessential Gerald Kersh. Kersh (1911-1968) published more than thirty books, including the noir classic Night and the City (1938) and Fowlers End (1957), which Anthony Burgess called "one of the great comic novels of the century," as well as hundreds of short stories which were once ubiquitous in British and American magazines. But though he has been championed by Angela Carter, Harlan Ellison, Ian Fleming, Michael Moorcock and others, Kersh has undeservedly fallen into neglect since his death. This is the first-ever reprint of Neither Man Nor Dog (1946), one of the author's scarcest volumes. Kersh's novels Fowlers End and The Great Wash and the short story collections Nightshade and Damnations , On an Odd Note , and Clock Without Hands are also available from Valancourt. "[B]rutal but highly talented ... at least one [story] is ... a little masterpiece, and all of them possess the virtue of being highly readable." - J.D. Beresford, The Guardian "[E]xplosive with violence . . . The best of them are very good. The unfailing fertility of his imagination is indeed to be wondered at . . . For entertainment of a strong kind, Mr. Kersh would be hard to beat." - Times Literary Supplement "Kersh tells a story, as such, rather better than anybody else." - Pamela Hansford Johnson, Daily Telegraph