Kinder sind so ungefähr das letzte, was sich Will Freeman, 36 Jahre alt und überzeugter Single, wünscht. Er lebt bequem von den Tantiemen eines Weihnachtsliedes, das sein Vater 1938 komponiert hat. Eines Tages führt ihn das Schicksal mit dem 12jährigen Marcus zusammen, der gerade ziemliche Probleme hat und unter der Trennung seiner Eltern leidet. Ein humorvoller Roman über Singles, Väter, Mütter und Kinder.
Its Berlin, 1940, and the city is filled with fear. At the house on 55 Jablonski Strasse, its various occupants try to live under Nazi rule in their different ways: the bullying Hitler loyalists the Persickes, the retired judge Fromm and the unassuming couple Otto and Anna Quangel. Then the Quangels receive the news that their beloved son has been killed fighting in France. Shocked out of their quiet existence, they begin a silent campaign of defiance, and a deadly game of cat and mouse develops between the Quangels and the ambitious Gestapo inspector Escherich. When petty criminals Kluge and Borkhausen also become involved, deception, betrayal and murder ensue, tightening the noose around the Quangels' necks...
An ancient bridge collapses over a gorge in Peru, hurling five people into the abyss. It seems a meaningless human tragedy. But one witness, a Franciscan monk, believes the deaths might not be as random as they appear. Convinced that the disaster is a punishment sent from Heaven, the monk sets out to discover all he can about the travellers. The five strangers were connected in some way, he thinks. There must be a purpose behind their deaths. But are their lost lives the result of sin? ...Or of love?
These three great plays by one of the founding fathers of the theatre of the absurd, are alive and kicking with tragedy and humour, bleakness and farce. In "Rhinoceros" we are shown the innate brutality of people as everyone, except for Berenger, turn into clumsy, unthinking rhinoceroses. "The Chairs" depicts the futile struggle of two old people to convey the meaning of life to the rest of humanity, while "The Lesson" is a chilling, but anarchically funny drama of verbal domination. In these three 'antiplays' dream, nonsense and fantasy combine to create an unsettling, bizarre view of society.
Thomas Hardy's last novel, "Jude the Obscure" is a fearless exploration of the hypocrisy of Victorian society, edited with an introduction by Dennis Taylor in "Penguin Classics". Jude Fawley's hopes of an education at Christminster University are dashed when he is trapped into marrying the wild, earthy Arabella, who later abandons him. Moving to Christminster to work as a stonemason, Jude meets and falls in love with his cousin Sue Bridehead, a sensitive, freethinking "New Woman". Refusing to marry merely for the sake of religious convention, Jude and Sue decide instead to live together, but they are shunned by society, and poverty soon threatens to ruin them. "Jude the Obscure", with its fearless and challenging exploration of class and sexual relationships, caused a public furore when it was first published and marked the end of Hardy's career as a novelist. This edition uses the unbowdlerized first-volume text of 1895, and includes a list for further reading, appendices and a glossary. In his introduction, Dennis Taylor examines biblical allusions and the critique of religion in "Jude the Obscure", and its critical reception that led Hardy to abandon novel writing.Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), born Higher Brockhampton, near Dorchester. Though he saw himself primarily as a poet, Hardy was the author of some of the late eighteenth century's major novels: "The Mayor of Casterbridge" (1886), "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" (1891), "Far from the Madding Crowd" (1874), and "Jude the Obscure" (1895). Amidst the controversy caused by "Jude the Obscure", he turned to the poetry he had been writing all his life. In the next thirty years he published over nine hundred poems and his epic drama in verse, "The Dynasts". If you enjoyed "Jude the Obscure", you might also like Thomas Hardy's "Tess of the D'Urbervilles", also available in "Penguin Classics". "Visceral, passionate, anti-hypocrisy, anti-repression...Hardy reaches into our wildest recesses." ("Evening Standard").
Yvonne, Frau von Geoffrey Firmin, britischer Ex-Konsul in einer mexikanischen Kleinstadt am Fuße des Popocatepetl, hat sich von ihrem Mann getrennt, außerstande, dessen Selbstvernichtung durch Trunksucht mitanzusehen oder gar zu verhindern. Schließlich kehrt sie zurück und setzt noch einmal alles daran, den Mann zu retten, den sie nach wie vor liebt. Gemeinsam mit Hugh, Geoffreys unstetem, ziellosem Halbbruder, kämpft sie um sein Leben und wird unaufhaltsam in den Strudel einer verlöschenden Trinkerexistenz hineingezogen.§Der Roman wurde von John Houston mit Albert Finney in der Hauptrolle verfilmt.
A magnificent saga set in the Celtic twilight of 10th century Ireland, when myth was law and magic was a power of nature, brilliantly brought to life: the legendary story of an evil stepmother opposed by a seventh child.
Welcome to a world turned upside down. One minute, Doris, from England, is playing hide-and-seek with her sisters in the fields behind their cottage. The next, someone puts a bag over her head and she ends up in the hold of a slave-ship sailing to the New World ...In this fantastically imaginative inversion of the transatlantic slave trade - in which 'whytes' are enslaved by black people - Bernardine Evaristo has created a thought-provoking satire that is as accessible and readable as it is intelligent and insightful. "Blonde Roots" brings the shackles and cries of long-ago barbarity uncomfortably close and raises timely questions about the society of today.
Struggling manufacturer Robert Moore has introduced labour saving machinery to his Yorkshire mill, arousing a ferment of unemployment and discontent among his workers. Robert considers marriage to the wealthy and independent Shirley Keeldar to solve his financial woes, yet his heart lies with his cousin Caroline, who, bored and desperate, lives as a dependent in her uncle's home with no prospect of a career. Shirley, meanwhile, is in love with Robert's brother, an impoverished tutor - a match opposed by her family. As industrial unrest builds to a potentially fatal pitch, can the four be reconciled? Set during the Napoleonic wars at a time of national economic struggles, "Shirley" (1849) is an unsentimental, yet passionate depiction of conflict between classes, sexes and generations.
In the twenty-one poems of the "Heroides", Ovid gave voice to the heroines and heroes of epic and myth. These deeply moving literary epistles reveal the happiness and torment of love, as the writers tell of their pain at separation, forgiveness of infidelity or anger at betrayal. The faithful Penelope wonders at the suspiciously long absence of Ulysses, while Dido bitterly reproaches Aeneas for too eagerly leaving her bed to follow his destiny, and Sappho the only historical figure portrayed here describes her passion for the cruelly rejecting Phaon. In the poetic letters between Paris and Helen the lovers seem oblivious to the tragedy prophesied for them, while in another exchange the youthful Leander asserts his foolhardy eagerness to risk his life to be with his beloved Hero.
Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization, and helped make us who we are.
}Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon{ meets }Young Bond{ in this new action adventure series. August, 1611. Young Jack Fletcher is shipwrecked off the coast of Japan and is rescued by legendary sword master, Masamoto Takeshi; and so his samurai training begins. Ages: 10+.
Many people regard Hegel's work as obscure and extremely difficult, yet his importance and influence are universally acknowledged. Professor Singer eliminates any excuse for remaining ignorant of the outlines of Hegel's philosophy by providing a broad discussion of his ideas and an account of his major works. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
They spend their days - and too many of their nights - at work. Away from friends and family, they share a stretch of stained carpet with a group of strangers they call colleagues. There's Chris Yop, clinging to his ergonomic chair; Lynn Mason, the boss, whose breast cancer everyone pretends not to talk about; Carl Garbedian, secretly taking someone else's medication; Marcia Dwyer, whose hair is stuck in the eighties; and Benny, who's just - well, just Benny. Amidst the boredom, redundancies, water cooler moments, meetings, flirtations and pure rage, life is happening, to their great surprise, all around them. "Then We Came to the End" is about sitting all morning next to someone you cross the road to avoid at lunch. It's the story of your life and mine.
Lise has been driven to distraction by working in the same office for sixteen years. So she leaves everything behind her, transforms herself into a laughing, garishly dressed temptress and flies abroad on the holiday of a lifetime.
Artist, architect, poet and philosopher, Leon Battista Alberti revolutionized the history of art with his theories of perspective in On Painting (1435). Inspired by the order and beauty inherent in nature, his groundbreaking work sets out the principles of distance, dimension and proportion; instructs the painter on how to use the rules of composition, representation, light and colour to create work that is graceful and pleasing to the eye; and stipulates the moral and artistic pre-requisites of the successful painter. On Painting had an immediate and profound influence on Italian Renaissance artists including Ghiberti, Fra Angelico and Veneziano and on later figures such as Leonardo da Vinci, and remains a compelling theory of art.
Five masterful dramatic works from one of the world's best-loved playwrights, Anton Chekhov's "Plays" is translated with notes by Peter Carson, and an introduction by Richard Gilman in "Penguin Classics". At a time when the Russian theatre was dominated by formulaic melodramas and farces, Chekhov created a new sort of drama that laid bare the everyday lives, loves and yearnings of ordinary people. "Ivanov" depicts a man stifled by inactivity and lost idealism, and "The Seagull" contrasts a young man's selfish romanticism with the stoicism of a woman cruelly abandoned by her lover. With 'the scenes from country life' of "Uncle Vanya", his first fully mature play, Chekhov developed his own unique dramatic world, neither tragedy nor comedy. In "Three Sisters" the Prozorov sisters endlessly dream of going to Moscow to escape the monotony of provincial life, while his comedy "The Cherry Orchard" portrays characters futilely clinging to the past as their land is sold from underneath them. Peter Carson's moving translations convey Chekhov's subtle blend of comedy, tragedy and psychological insight.In his introduction, Richard Gilman examines how Chekhov broke with theatrical conventions and discusses each play in detail. Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) was born in Taganrog, a port on the sea of Azov. In 1879 he travelled to Moscow, where he entered the medical faculty of the university, graduating in 1884. During his university years, he supported his family by contributing humorous stories and sketches to magazines. He published his first volume of stories, "Motley Tales", in 1886, and a year later his second volume "In the Twilight", for which he received the Pushkin Prize. Today his plays, including "Uncle Vanya", "The Seagull", and "The Cherry Orchard" are recognised as masterpieces the world over. If you enjoyed "Plays", you might like Chekhov's "The Shooting Party", also available in "Penguin Classics".
'Speak, memory', said Vladimir Nabokov. And immediately there came flooding back to him a host of enchanting recollections - of his comfortable childhood and adolescence, of his rich, liberal-minded father, his beautiful mother, an army of relations and family hangers - on and of grand old houses in St Petersburg and the surrounding countryside in pre-Revolutionary Russia. Young love, butterflies, tutors and a multitude of other themes thread together to weave an autobiography, which is itself a work of art.
"The Tain Bo Cualinge", centrepiece of the eighth-century Ulster cycle of heroic tales, is Ireland's great epic. It tells the story of a great cattle-raid, the invasion of Ulster by the armies of Medb and Ailill, Queen and King of Connacht, and their allies, seeking to carry off the great Brown Bull of Cualige. The hero of the tale is Cuchulainn, the Hound of Ulster, who resists the invaders single-handed while Ulster's warriors lie sick.
Frankie ist die Geschichte eines Reifeprozesses und einer großen Sehnsucht, der Sehnsucht, dabeizusein: beim Leben der Erwachsenen, hier bei der Hochzeit des Bruders, der von einer fremden Frau entführt wird. Frankies Ruf "Nehmt mich mit!", der ungehört dem abreisenden Paar nachhallt, ist der verzweifelte Ruf, den jedes alleingelassene Kind kennt.The novel that became an award-winning play and a major motion picture and that has charmed generations of readers, Carson McCullers"s classic "The Member of the Wedding" is available in small- format trade paperback for the first time. Here is the story of the inimitable twelve-year-old Frankie, who is utterly, hopelessly bored with life until she hears about her older brother"s wedding. Bolstered by lively conversations with her house servant, Berenice, and her six-year-old male cousin - not to mention her own unbridled imagination - Frankie takes on an overly active role in the wedding, hoping even to go, uninvited, on the honeymoon, so deep is her desire to be the member of something larger, more accepting than herself. "A marvelous study of the agony of adolescence" (Detroit Free Press), "The Member of the Wedding" showcases Carson McCullers at her most sensitive, astute, and lasting best.
Elizabeth Gaskell's chilling Gothic tales blend the real and the supernatural to eerie, compelling effect. 'Disappearances', inspired by local legends of mysterious vanishings, mixes gossip and fact; 'Lois the Witch', a novella based on an account of the Salem witch hunts, shows how sexual desire and jealousy lead to hysteria; while in The Old Nurse's Story a mysterious child roams the freezing Northumberland moors. Whether darkly surreal, such as 'The Poor Clare', where an evil doppelganger is formed by a woman's bitter curse, or mischievous like 'Curious, if True', a playful reworking of fairy tales, all the stories in this volume form a stark contrast to the social realism of Gaskell's novels, revealing a darker and more unsettling style of writing.
Although Hannah Arendt is considered one of the major contributors to social and political thought in the twentieth century, this is the first general anthology of her writings. This volume includes selections from her major works, including "The Origins of Totalitarianism", "Between Past and Future", "Men in Dark Times", "The Jew as Pariah", and "The Human Condition", as well as many shorter writings and letters. Sections include: extracts from her work on fascism, Marxism, and totalitarianism; her treatment of work and labour; her writings on politics and ethics; and, a section on truth and the role of the intellectual.
Flann O'Brien's first novel is a brilliant impressionistic jumble of ideas, mythology and nonsense. Operating on many levels it incorporates plots within plots, giving full rein to O'Brien's dancing intellect and Celtic wit. The undergraduate narrator lives with his uncle in Dublin, drinks too much with his friends and invents stories peopled with hilarious and unlikely characters, one of whom, in a typical O'Brien conundrum, creates a means by which women can give birth to full-grown people. Flann O'Brien's blend of farce, satire and fantasy result in a remarkable, astonishingly innovative book.
"It was I who removed de P- this morning." With these chilling words Victor Haldin shatters the solitary, industrious existence of Razumov, his fellow student at St Petersburg University. Razumov aims to overcome the denial of his noble birth by a brilliant career in the tsarist bureaucracy created by Peter the Great. But in pre-revolutionary Russia Peter's legacy is autocracy tempered by assassination; and Razumov is soon caught in a tragic web with Haldin's trustful sister Natalia in spy-haunted Geneva. Their fateful story is told by an elderly Englishman who loves Natalia but plays his part of a 'dense Westerner' to the end.
The archetypal Victorian melodrama, as heartfelt and moving today as when it was first published, Charles Dickens's "The Old Curiosity Shop" is edited with notes and an introduction by Norman Page in "Penguin Classics". Little Nell Trent lives in the quiet gloom of the old curiosity shop with her ailing grandfather, for whom she cares with selfless devotion. But when they are unable to pay their debts to the stunted, lecherous and demonic money-lender Daniel Quilp, the shop is seized and they are forced to flee, thrown into a shadowy world in which there seems to be no safe haven. Dickens's portrayal of the innocent, tragic Nell made "The Old Curiosity Shop" an instant bestseller that captured the hearts of the nation, even as it was criticised for its sentimentality by figures such as Oscar Wilde. Yet alongside the story's pathos are some of Dickens's greatest comic and grotesque creations: the ne'er-do-well Dick Swiveller, the mannish lawyer Sally Brass, the half-starved 'Marchioness' and the lustful, loathsome Quilp himself. This edition, based on the original text of 1841, contains an introduction by Norman Page discussing the various contrasting themes of the novel and its roots in Dickens's own personal tragedy, with prefaces to the 1841 and 1848 editions, a chronology, notes and original illustrations produced for the serial version. Charles Dickens is one of the best-loved novelists in the English language, whose 200th anniversary was celebrated in 2012. His most famous books, including "Oliver Twist", "Great Expectations", "A Tale of Two Cities", "David Copperfield" and "The Pickwick Papers", have been adapted for stage and screen and read by millions. If you enjoyed "The Old Curiosity Shop", you might like Dickens' "Hard Times", also available in "Penguin Classics".
The autobiography of an American icon 'I never think that people die. They just go to department stores'Andy Warhol - American painter, filmmaker, publisher, actor and major figure in the Pop Art movement - was in many ways a reluctant celebrity. Here, in his autobiography, he spills his secrets and muses about love, sex, food, beauty, fame, work, money, success, New York and America and its place in the world.But it is his reflections on himself, his childhood in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, the explosion of his career in the Sixties and his life among celebrities - from working with Elizabeth Taylor to partying with the Rolling Stones - that give a true insight into the mind of one of the most iconic figures in twentieth-century culture. Andy Warhol (1928-1987), was an American painter, filmmaker, publisher, actor, and a major figure in the Pop Art movement. He also produced a significant body of film work, including the famous Chelsea Girls; characterised the epoch with the now-famous expression 'fifteen minutes of fame'; produced the first album by The Velvet Underground; and was nearly killed just two days before the assassination of JFK.If you enjoyed The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, you might like 100 Artists' Manifestos, also available in Penguin Modern Classics. 'Acute. Accurate.Mr Warhol's usual amazing candor. A constant entertainment and enlightenment'Truman Capote
These three short works show Austen experimenting with a variety of different literary styles, from melodrama to satire, and exploring a range of social classes and settings. The early epistolary novel "Lady Susan" depicts an unscrupulous coquette, toying with the affections of several men. In contrast, "The Watsons" is a delightful fragment, whose spirited heroine - Emma - finds her marriage opportunities limited by poverty and pride. Meanwhile "Sanditon", set in a seaside resort, offers a glorious cast of hypochondriacs and spectators, treated by Austen with both amusement and scepticism.
In "Breaking the Spell" Daniel C. Dennett explores how the great ideas of religion have enthralled us for thousands of years - and whether we could (or should) break free. What is religion and how did it evolve? Is it the product of blind evolutionary instinct or of rational choice? Is the only way to live a good life through religion? Few forces in the world are as potent as religion: it comforts people in their suffering and inspires them to both magnificent and terrible deeds. In this provocative and timely book, Daniel C. Dennett seeks to uncover the origins of religion and discusses how and why different faiths have shaped so many lives, whether religion is an addiction or a genuine human need, and even whether it is good for our health. Arguing passionately for the need to understand this multifaceted phenomenon, "Breaking the Spell" offers a truly original - and comprehensive - explanation for faith. "Packed with a mass of intriguing detail and anecdote ...witty and clear prose". ("Observer"). "He's the "good cop" among religion's critics (Richard Dawkins is the "bad cop"), but he still makes people angry". ("New Statesman"). "Dennett writes with brio and humour".("Telegraph"). "Elegant, sharp-minded ...clear-eyed but courteous". ("Economist"). Daniel Dennett is one of the most original and provocative thinkers in the world. A brilliant polemicist and philosopher, he is famous for challenging unexamined orthodoxies, and an outspoken supporter of the Brights movement. His books include "Brainstorms", "Brainchildren", "Elbow Room", "Consciousness Explained", "Darwin's Dangerous Idea" and "Freedom Evolves".
Nine-year-old Oskar Schell is an inventor, amateur entomologist, Francophile, letter writer, pacifist, natural historian, percussionist, romantic, Great Explorer, jeweller, detective, vegan, and collector of butterflies. When his father is killed in the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Centre, Oskar sets out to solve the mystery of a key he discovers in his father
First written down in the eighth century AD, these early Irish stories depict a far older world part myth, part legend and part history. Rich with magic and achingly beautiful, they speak of a land of heroic battles, intense love and warrior ideals, in which the otherworld is explored and men mingle freely with the gods. From the vivid adventures of the great Celtic hero Cu Chulaind, to the stunning Exile of the Sons of Uisliu' a tale of treachery, honour and romance these are masterpieces of passion and vitality, and form the foundation for the Irish literary tradition: a mythic legacy that was a powerful influence on the work of Yeats, Synge and Joyce.
Enjoy an irresistible feast of humour and discover the joys of French rural living with Peter Mayle's bestselling, much-loved account of "A Year In Provence". Peter Mayle and his wife did what most of us only imagine doing when they made their long-cherished dream of a life abroad a reality: throwing caution to the wind, they bought a glorious two hundred year-old farmhouse in the Luberon Valley and began a new life. In a year that begins with a marathon lunch and continues with a host of gastronomic delights, they also survive the unexpected and often hilarious curiosities of rural life. From mastering the local accent and enduring invasion by bumbling builders, to discovering the finer points of boules and goat-racing, all the earthy pleasures of Provencal life are conjured up in this enchanting portrait.
The Sheltering Sky is a book about people on the edge of an alien space; somewhere, where, curiously, they are never alone" Michael Hoffman. Port and Kit Moresbury, a sophisticated American couple, are finding it more than a little difficult to live with each other. Endeavouring to escape this predicament, they set off for North Africa intending to travel through Algeria - uncertain of exactly where they are heading, but determined to leave the modern world behind. The results of this casually taken decision are horrible.
