On a snowy Saturday night in 1979, after making love for the first time, high school senior Karen Ann McNeil confides the dark visions she's been suffering to her boyfriend, Richard. Only a few hours later she descends into a coma. Nine months after that, she gives birth to a daughter, Megan, her child by Richard. Karen remains comatose for the next 18 years. Richard and her circle of friends reside in an emotional purgatory throughout the next two decades, passing through careers as models, film special-effects technicians, doctors, and demolition experts before finally being reunited while working on a conspiracy-driven supernatural series. Upon Karen's reawakening, life grows as surreal as the television show. Strange, apocalyptic events begin to occur. Later, amid the world's rubble, Karen, Richard, and their friends attempt to restore their own humanity.
Published to international critical and popular acclaim, this intensely romantic yet stunningly realistic novel spans three generations and the unimaginable gulf between the First World War and the present. As the young Englishman Stephen Wraysford passes through a tempestuous love affair with Isabelle Azaire in France and enters the dark, surreal world beneath the trenches of No Man's Land, Sebastian Faulks creates a world of fiction that is as tragic as A Farewell to Arms and as sensuous as The English Patient. Crafted from the ruins of war and the indestructibility of love, Birdsong is a novel that will be read and marveled at for years to come.
California’s gold country, 1850. A time when men sold their souls for a bag of gold and women sold their bodies for a place to sleep. Angel expects nothing from men but betrayal. Sold into prostitution as a child, she survives by keeping her hatred alive. And what she hates most are the men who use her, leaving her empty and dead inside.
Then she meets Michael Hosea, a man who seeks his Father’s heart in everything. Michael obeys God’s call to marry Angel and to love her unconditionally. Slowly, day by day, he defies Angel’s every bitter expectation, until despite her resistance, her frozen heart begins to thaw. But with her unexpected softening comes overwhelming feelings of unworthiness and fear. And so Angel runs. Back to the darkness, away from her husband’s pursuing love, terrified of the truth she no longer can deny: her final healing must come from the One who loves her even more than Michael does . . . the One who will never let her go.
A powerful retelling of the story of Gomer and Hosea, Redeeming Love is a life-changing story of God’s unconditional, redemptive, all-consuming love.
Rob is a pop music junkie who runs his own semi-failing record store. His girlfriend, Laura, has just left him for the guy upstairs, and Rob is both miserable and relieved. After all, could he have spent his life with someone who has a bad record collection? Rob seeks refuge in the company of the offbeat clerks at his store, who endlessly review their top five films; top five Elvis Costello songs; top five episodes of Cheers.
Rob tries dating a singer, but maybe it's just that he's always wanted to sleep with someone who has a record contract. Then he sees Laura again. And Rob begins to think that life with kids, marriage, barbecues, and soft rock CDs might not be so bad.
Taken from the poverty of her parents' home in Portsmouth, Fanny Price is brought up with her rich cousins at Mansfield Park, acutely aware of her humble rank and with her cousin Edmund as her sole ally. During her uncle's absence in Antigua, the Crawford's arrive in the neighbourhood bringing with them the glamour of London life and a reckless taste for flirtation.
Mansfield Park is considered Jane Austen's first mature work and, with its quiet heroine and subtle examination of social position and moral integrity, one of her most profound.
Passion divides and unites a spirited pair of lovers in a 16th-century battle of the sexes. Witty dialogue and slapstick humor abound in this ever-popular comedy. Inexpensive, unabridged edition perfect for students.
In Wizard's First Rule, Richard Cypher's world was turned upside down. Once a simple woods guide, Richard was forced to become the Seeker of Truth, to save the world from the vile dominance of Darken Rahl, the most viciously savage and powerful wizard the world had ever seen. He was joined on this epic quest by his beloved Kahlan, the only survivor among the Confessors, who brought a powerful but benevolent justice to the land before Rahl's evil scourge. Aided by Zedd, the last of the wizards who opposed Rahl, they were able to cast him into the underworld, saving the world from the living hell of life under Rahl.
But the veil to the underworld has been torn, and Rahl, from beyond the veil, begins to summon a sinister power more dreadful than any he has wielded before. Horrifying creatures escape through the torn veil, wreaking havoc on the unsuspecting world above.
If Rahl isn't stopped, he will free the Keeper itself, an evil entity whose power is so vast and foul that once freed, it can never again be contained.
Richard and Kahlan must face Rahl and the Keeper's terrible minions. But first, Richard must endure the ministrations of the Sisters of the Light, or die from the pain of magic that is his birthright and his curse. While Richard undertakes the arduous journey to the forbidden city of the Sisters, Kahlan must embark upon a long and dangerous mission to Aydindril, citadel of the old wizards, where she hopes to find Zedd and the help only he can lend to their desperate cause.
War, suffering, torture, and deceit lie in their paths, and nothing will save them from a destiny of violent death, unless their courage and faith are joined with luck and they find the elusive...Stone of Tears.
The Bridges of Madison County tells the story of Robert Kincaid, the photographer and free spirit searching for the covered bridges of Madison County, and Francesca Johnson, the farm wife waiting for the fulfillment of a girlhood dream. This novel gives voice to the longings of men and women everywhere-and shows us what it is to love and be loved so intensely that life is never the same again.
Neil Klugman and pretty, spirited Brenda Patimkin - he of poor Newark, she of suburban Short Hills - meet one summer and dive into an affair that is as much about social class and suspicion as it is about love.
The novella, the first book published by Philip Roth, explores issues of both class and Jewish assimilation into American culture.
Margaret Mary, the eldest Concannon sister, is a glass artist with an independent streak as fierce as her volatile temper. Hand-blowing glass is a difficult and exacting art, and while she may produce the delicate and the fragile, Maggie is a strong and opinionated woman, a Clare woman, with all the turbulence of that fascinating west country.
One man, Dublin gallery owner Rogan Sweeney, has seen the soul in Maggie's art, and vows to help her build a career. When he comes to Maggie's studio, her heart is inflamed by their fierce attraction—and her scarred past is slowly healed by love.
With ravishing beauty and unsettling intelligence, Michael Ondaatje's Booker Prize-winning novel traces the intersection of four damaged lives in an Italian villa at the end of World War II. Hana, the exhausted nurse; the maimed thief, Caravaggio; the wary sapper, Kip: each is haunted by the riddle of the English patient, the nameless, burned man who lies in an upstairs room and whose memories of passion, betrayal, and rescue illuminate this book like flashes of heat lightning.
In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare creates a violent world, in which two young people fall in love. It is not simply that their families disapprove; the Montagues and the Capulets are engaged in a blood feud. In this death-filled setting, the movement from love at first sight to the lovers' final union in death seems almost inevitable.
And yet, this play set in an extraordinary world has become the quintessential story of young love. In part because of its exquisite language, it is easy to respond as if it were about all young lovers.
Sophie's Choice is a poignant and deeply moving novel that intertwines the narratives of three distinct individuals. At the heart of the story is the aspiration of a young man from the South, who holds an unwavering dream of becoming a writer. This ambition is set against the backdrop of a tumultuous love affair, marked by both passion and strife, between a brilliant Jewish man and a captivating Polish woman.
The novel delves into the harrowing past of the woman, Sophie, revealing a traumatic wound that haunts her—the very wound that propels both her and Nathan, her lover, on a path towards destruction. Sophie's Choice explores themes of love, guilt, and the lasting impact of the past on the present, making it a timeless exploration of the human condition.
Paradise, the first book in the Second Opportunities series, is a tale of love, betrayal, and redemption. It follows the story of corporate raider Matthew Farrell, who has transformed from a poor, scruffy kid from Indiana's steel mills into a powerful figure courted by world leaders and closely watched by the media. Matthew is prepared to move in on the Bancroft empire, a legendary department store chain.
Meredith Bancroft, a cool and composed executive in her family's business, once defied her father to marry the intensely magnetic Matt Farrell, leading to a short-lived and disastrous marriage. Now, with the Bancroft firm facing a hostile takeover, Meredith must face Matt once again. As the tension between them escalates, they are haunted by memories that are both sweet and painful. Suspicion and restlessness grow, and they are left wondering if they can trust each other and seize the chance at a tender miracle that lies before them.
From New York Times bestselling author Julie Garwood, whose novels have enchanted millions of readers worldwide, comes a breathtakingly romantic novel about a mismatched young wife and husband who, despite their differences in background and temperament, fall inexorably in love. The Bride sweeps readers back to the savage beauty of medieval Scotland....
By the king's edict, Alec Kincaid, mightiest of the Scottish lairds, must take an English bride. And Jaime, the youngest daughter of Baron Jamison, is his choice. From his first glimpse of the proud and beautiful English lady, Alec felt a burning hunger stir within him. This was a woman worthy of his fearless warrior's spirit. And he aches to touch her, tame her, possess her...forever.
But with the wedding vows, Jamie pledges her own secret oath: She will never surrender her love to this Highland barbarian. He was everything her heart warned her against -- an arrogant, brooding scoundrel whose rough good looks and seductive embrace fire her blood. But when strange accidents begin to threaten Jamie's life and an old rumor that Alec killed his first wife spreads anew, something far more dangerous than desire threatens to conquer her senses.
With all the storytelling power and insight into the human heart that have made her one of the bestselling authors of our time, Julie Garwood takes readers on an unforgettable romantic journey rich in humor, suspense, and historical detail.
Outlander, a novel by Diana Gabaldon, offers an unrivaled blend of storytelling and unforgettable characters, set against a richly detailed historical backdrop. The story begins in the Scottish Highlands in 1945, where Claire Randall, a former British combat nurse, is reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon. However, her life takes an unexpected turn when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient circles that dot the British Isles and is transported back in time to 1743.
Suddenly, Claire becomes an outlander in a Scotland embroiled in war and clan raids. Amidst the dangers, her only chance of safety lies in the hands of Jamie Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior. As Claire navigates this new world, she faces a torn existence between her fidelity to her husband and the compelling attraction to Jamie. This spellbinding novel weaves together adventure, passion, and history, resulting in a love story that transcends time itself.
Published two weeks after his seventieth birthday, Ada, or Ardor is one of Nabokov's greatest masterpieces, the glorious culmination of his career as a novelist. It tells a love story troubled by incest. It is also at once a fairy tale, epic, philosophical treatise on the nature of time, parody of the history of the novel, and erotic catalogue. Ada, or Ardor is no less than the supreme work of an imagination at white heat.
This is the first American edition to include the extensive and ingeniously sardonic appendix by the author, written under the anagrammatic pseudonym Vivian Darkbloom.
Abducted from her convent school, headstrong Scottish beauty Jennifer Merrick does not easily surrender to Royce Westmoreland, Duke of Claymore. Known as "The Wolf", his very name strikes terror in the hearts of his enemies. But proud Jennifer will have nothing to do with the fierce English warrior who holds her captive, this handsome rogue who taunts her with his blazing arrogance.
Boldly she challenges his will until the night he takes her in his powerful embrace, awakening in her an irresistible hunger. And suddenly, Jennifer finds herself ensnared in a bewildering web… a seductive, dangerous trap of pride, passion, loyalty, and overwhelming love.
Love in a Stranger's Eyes...
Elly:
In town, they called her "Crazy Widow Dinsmore." But Elly was no stranger to their ridicule—she had been an outsider all her life, growing up in a boarded-up old house under the strict eye of her eccentric grandparents. Now she was all alone, with two little boys to raise, and a third child on the way.
Will:
He drifted into Whitney, Georgia, one lazy afternoon in the summer of 1941, hoping to put his lonely past behind him. He yearned for the tenderness he had never known, the home he'd never had. All he needed was for someone to give him a chance.
Then he saw her classified ad: WANTED—A husband. When he stepped across Elly Dinsmore's cluttered yard, Will Parker knew he had come home at last...
The Persian Boy traces the last years of Alexander the Great's life through the eyes of his lover, Bagoas. Abducted and gelded as a boy, Bagoas was sold as a courtesan to King Darius of Persia, but found freedom with Alexander after the Macedonian army conquered his homeland.
Their relationship sustains Alexander as he weathers assassination plots, the demands of two foreign wives, a sometimes-mutinous army, and his own ferocious temper. After Alexander’s mysterious death, we are left wondering if this Persian boy understood the great warrior and his ambitions better than anyone.
A magnificent coming-of-age story steeped in nostalgia, Norwegian Wood blends the music, the mood, and the ethos that were the sixties with a young man’s hopeless and heroic first love.
Toru, a quiet and preternaturally serious young college student in Tokyo, is devoted to Naoko, a beautiful and introspective young woman, but their mutual passion is marked by the tragic death of their best friend years before. Toru begins to adapt to campus life and the loneliness and isolation he faces there, but Naoko finds the pressures and responsibilities of life unbearable. As she retreats further into her own world, Toru finds himself reaching out to others and drawn to a fiercely independent and sexually liberated young woman.
Once and Always, one of Judith McNaught's most masterful and moving love stories, powerfully brings to life the fiery passion of a free-spirited American beauty and a troubled English lord.
Suddenly orphaned and alone, Victoria Seaton sails the vast ocean, eager to reclaim her heritage at Wakefield, the sumptuous English estate of a distant cousin, the notorious Lord Jason Fielding. Bewildered by his arrogance yet drawn to his panther-like grace, she senses the painful memories that smolder in his eyes. When he gathers her at last into his arms, arousing a sweet, insistent hunger, they wed and are embraced by fierce, consuming joy -- free from the past's cruel grasp. Then, in a moment of anguish, Victoria discovers the treachery at the heart of their love... a love she had dreamed would triumph not just once, but always.
The powerful, visionary, Booker Award–winning novel about the complicated relationships between three outcasts of mixed European and Maori heritage.
In a tower on the New Zealand sea lives Kerewin Holmes: part Maori, part European, asexual and aromantic, an artist estranged from her art, a woman in exile from her family. One night her solitude is disrupted by a visitor—a speechless, mercurial boy named Simon, who tries to steal from her and then repays her with his most precious possession. As Kerewin succumbs to Simon’s feral charm, she also falls under the spell of his Maori foster father Joe, who rescued the boy from a shipwreck and now treats him with an unsettling mixture of tenderness and brutality. Out of this unorthodox trinity Keri Hulme has created what is at once a mystery, a love story, and an ambitious exploration of the zone where indigenous and European New Zealand meet, clash, and sometimes merge.
Originally written in 1952 but not published until 1985, Queer is an enigma - both an unflinching autobiographical self-portrait and a coruscatingly political novel. It is Burroughs' only realist love story and a montage of comic-grotesque fantasies that paved the way for his masterpiece, Naked Lunch.
Set in Mexico City during the early fifties, Queer follows William Lee's hopeless pursuit of desire from bar to bar in the American expatriate scene. As Lee breaks down, the trademark Burroughsian voice emerges; a maniacal mix of self-lacerating humor and the Ugly American at his ugliest. A haunting tale of possession and exorcism, Queer is also a novel with a history of secrets, as this new edition reveals.
Shadow of the Moon takes readers on an enthralling journey back to the vast, intoxicating romance of India under the British Raj. In this captivating tale, Winter de Ballesteros, a beautiful English heiress, returns to her beloved India, only to find herself amidst the chaos and passion of a land on the brink of rebellion.
This is also the tale of Captain Alex Randall, her dedicated protector, who is consumed by an aching desire to possess her. As India erupts into the fiery chaos of the Mutiny, Winter and Alex are thrust together in a desperate and unforgettable struggle for survival.
Filled with the mystery of moonlit palace gardens and the whisperings of passion and intrigue, M. M. Kaye masterfully evokes an era that is both of its time and timeless. This is a saga of desperate, consuming love forged in the fires of a war that threatens to topple an empire.
New York City is subsumed in arctic winds, dark nights, and white lights, its life unfolds, for it is an extraordinary hive of the imagination, the greatest house ever built, and nothing exists that can check its vitality. One night in winter, Peter Lake, orphan and master-mechanic, attempts to rob a fortress-like mansion on the Upper West Side.
Though he thinks the house is empty, the daughter of the house is home. Thus begins the love between Peter Lake, a middle-aged Irish burglar, and Beverly Penn, a young girl, who is dying.
Peter Lake, a simple, uneducated man, because of a love that, at first he does not fully understand, is driven to stop time and bring back the dead. His great struggle, in a city ever alight with its own energy and besieged by unprecedented winters, is one of the most beautiful and extraordinary stories of American literature.
The Betrothed unfolds in the picturesque landscape of Lombardy during the tumultuous Spanish occupation of the late 1620s. This compelling historical novel portrays the enduring passion of two young lovers, Renzo and Lucia, whose dreams of marriage are thwarted by the petty tyrant, Don Rodrigo, who covets Lucia for himself.
Forced to flee, the lovers are cruelly separated and face numerous perils including plague, famine, and imprisonment. They encounter a variety of intriguing characters: the mysterious Nun of Monza, the fiery Father Cristoforo, and the sinister "Unnamed". Their journey is a vivid exploration of love, power, and faith against the backdrop of seventeenth-century Italian life.
The Betrothed is celebrated as one of the greatest European historical novels, offering a whirling panorama of society and a profound reflection on human resilience and hope amidst adversity.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a profound narrative that explores the story of a young woman deeply in love with a man who is caught in a battle between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing habits. Another strand of the story involves one of his mistresses and her modestly faithful lover. This compelling novel skillfully weaves together geographically distant locales, ingenious and playful musings, and a diverse array of styles, asserting its place as a significant accomplishment by one of the world's truly exceptional writers.
In his second collection of stories, as in his first, Carver's characters are peripheral people--people without education, insight or prospects, people too unimaginative to even give up. Carver celebrates these men and women.
The most celebrated story collection from “one of the true American masters” (The New York Review of Books)—a haunting meditation on love, loss, and companionship, and finding one’s way through the dark that includes the iconic and much-referenced title story featured in the Academy Award-winning film Birdman. "Raymond Carver's America is ... clouded by pain and the loss of dreams, but it is not as fragile as it looks. It is a place of survivors and a place of stories.... [Carver] has done what many of the most gifted writers fail to do: He has invented a country of his own, like no other except that very world, as Wordsworth said, which is the world to all of us." —The New York Times Book Review
Another Country is a novel of passions--sexual, racial, political, artistic--that is stunning for its emotional intensity and haunting sensuality, depicting men and women, blacks and whites, stripped of their masks of gender and race by love and hatred at the most elemental and sublime. In a small set of friends, Baldwin imbues the best and worst intentions of liberal America in the early 1970s.
Set in Greenwich Village, Harlem, and France, among other locales, this book delves deep into the personal and societal struggles of the era, making it a timeless exploration of human connections and the forces that challenge them.
David Champlin is a black man born into poverty in Depression-era New Orleans who achieves great success and then sacrifices everything to lead his people in the difficult, day-by-day struggle of the civil rights movement.
Sara Kent is the beloved and vital white girl who loved David from the moment she first saw him, but they struggle over David's belief that a marriage for them would not be right in the violent world he had to confront.
First published in 1966, this epic has become one of the most loved American bestsellers.
En 1963, cuatro años antes de la publicaciĂłn de Cien años de soledad, apareciĂł en MĂ©xico una novela singular, historia de amor sombrĂa, misteriosa, que cambiĂł el tono de la narrativa mexicana de tan profunda y sorprendente manera como Pedro Páramo de Juan Rulfo: Los recuerdos del porvenir.
La asombrosa novela de Elena Garro es gótica y barroca. Más que una crónica -que sà lo es, de la Revolución Mexicana y de la guerra de los Cristeros- es una nostalgia y una soledad, es la voz de un pueblo iluminado, hallado y perdido, que habla en una primera persona desesperanzada y triste.
Una familia y otra familia, más las amantes solitarias, el loco del pueblo, las cuscas, los soldados, las beatas, un cura y un sacristán, más un campanario y una joven endemoniada de amor por el general Francisco Rosas, constituyen los solistas, las parejas y las comparsas de esta bella, ebria y condenada Danza de la Muerte.
Goethe’s Faust reworks the late medieval myth of a brilliant scholar so disillusioned he resolves to make a contract with Mephistopheles. The devil will do all he asks on Earth and seeks to grant him a moment in life so glorious that he will wish it to last forever. But if Faust does bid the moment stay, he falls to Mephisto and must serve him after death. In this first part of Goethe’s great work, the embittered thinker and Mephistopheles enter into their agreement, and soon Faust is living a rejuvenated life and winning the love of the beautiful Gretchen. But in this compelling tragedy of arrogance, unfulfilled desire, and self-delusion, Faust heads inexorably toward an infernal destruction.
The best translation of Faust available, this volume provides the original German text and its English counterpart on facing pages. Walter Kaufmann's translation conveys the poetic beauty and rhythm as well as the complex depth of Goethe's language. Includes Part One and selections from Part Two.
NAME: Valentine Michael Smith
ANCESTRY: Human
ORIGIN: Mars
Valentine Michael Smith is a human being raised on Mars, newly returned to Earth. Among his people for the first time, he struggles to understand the social mores and prejudices of human nature that are so alien to him, while teaching them his own fundamental beliefs in grokking, watersharing, and love.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a timeless classic that delves into the heart of a sleepy Southern town, exposing the moral dilemmas that shake its foundation. First published in 1960 and awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1961, Harper Lee's novel captures the essence of innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos.
This compelling narrative is told through the eyes of a young girl named Scout, whose father, Atticus Finch, is a lawyer tasked with defending a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime. Set against the backdrop of the mid-1930s Depression in Alabama, the story is a profound commentary on the virulent prejudice that plagues the town. Atticus's quiet heroism and the events that unfold challenge the conscience of a community steeped in hypocrisy and violence.
Lee herself described the book as a simple love story, yet it resonates with readers as much more—a reflection on human behavior and societal norms.
Against the backdrop of Isla Negra - the sea and wind, the white sand with its scattering of delicate wild flowers, the hot sun and salty smells of the Pacific - the poet sets the poems in celebration of his love. The subject of that love is Matilde Urrutia de Neruda, Pablo's beloved wife.
This collection offers a vibrant translation of Neruda’s sensual and erotic poetry. Famous for his politically engaged lyrics, the Nobel Laureate also wrote bold and sexual sonnets, capturing the spirit and verbal dexterity of this lesser-known genre.
Breve e intensa novela publicada en 1948, este logrado fruto de la denominada "literatura existencial" le dio a su autor un reconocimiento que traspasó las fronteras nacionales. El túnel es la mejor introducción al universo prodigioso de Ernesto Sábato; un clásico de las letras del continente, una historia sobre el drama del hombre arrojado en el sinsentido más doloroso: la conciencia de la nada.
El narrador describe una historia de amor y muerte en la que muestra la soledad del individuo contemporáneo. No están ausentes de esta trama policial y de suspenso, la locura y la increĂble reflexiĂłn del protagonista, el pintor Juan Pablo Castel, debatiĂ©ndose por comprender las causas que lo arrastraron a matar a la mujer que amaba, MarĂa Iribarne, y que era su Ăşnica vĂa de salvaciĂłn. En este alucinante drama de la vida interior, seres intrincados en la bestial bĂşsqueda de comprensiĂłn ceden a la mentira, la hipocresĂa y los celos desmedidos hasta el crimen más inexplicable. Aventura amorosa, aventura onĂrica, aventura del ser que dan testimonio de un asesinato, de cierta memoria culpable y de una valiente introspecciĂłn.
TĂ©cnicamente perfecta y de lectura apasionante, El tĂşnel excede el negativismo ácido de Sartre y la frenĂ©tica huida hacia el vacĂo que plantea El extranjero de Camus, pero tiene de esos dos maestros literarios la impronta genial que hace de la escritura una radiografĂa del alma atormentada.
A pilot stranded in the desert awakes one morning to see, standing before him, the most extraordinary little fellow. "Please," asks the stranger, "draw me a sheep." And the pilot realizes that when life's events are too difficult to understand, there is no choice but to succumb to their mysteries. He pulls out pencil and paper... And thus begins this wise and enchanting fable that, in teaching the secret of what is really important in life, has changed forever the world for its readers.
Few stories are as widely read and as universally cherished by children and adults alike as The Little Prince. It will capture the hearts of readers of all ages.
Nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it. Like the Skin Horse, Margery Williams understood how toys—and people—become real through the wisdom and experience of love.
The Velveteen Rabbit, or How Toys Become Real, is not just a tale about a stuffed rabbit's wish to become real, but it's also a story that celebrates the power of love and the value of enduring and nurturing relationships.
Anna Karenina is a sophisticated woman who abandons her empty existence as the wife of Karenin and turns to Count Vronsky to fulfil her passionate nature - with tragic consequences. Levin, a reflection of Tolstoy himself, often expresses the author's own views and convictions.
Set against a vast and richly textured canvas of nineteenth-century Russia, the novel explores the complex interplay between love, family happiness, and the societal constraints that exist within the dynamics of city and country life. As the story unfolds, Anna's ill-fated affair with Vronsky leads to a life-altering crisis, while Levin's journey takes on a deeper philosophical significance.
The novel's seven major characters create a dynamic imbalance, exploring the variations on love and the search for happiness. Tolstoy's powerful narrative invites readers not to judge but to watch, presenting a panorama of humanity in all its flawed beauty.
Louisa May Alcott's classic tale of four sisters.
Grown-up Meg, tomboyish Jo, timid Beth, and precocious Amy. The four March sisters couldn't be more different. But with their father away at war, and their mother working to support the family, they have to rely on one another. Whether they're putting on a play, forming a secret society, or celebrating Christmas, there's one thing they can't help wondering: Will Father return home safely?
It is no secret that Alcott based Little Women on her own early life. While her father, the freethinking reformer and abolitionist Bronson Alcott, hobnobbed with such eminent male authors as Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne, Louisa supported herself and her sisters with "woman’s work,” including sewing, doing laundry, and acting as a domestic servant. But she soon discovered she could make more money writing. Little Women brought her lasting fame and fortune, and far from being the "girl’s book” her publisher requested, it explores such timeless themes as love and death, war and peace, the conflict between personal ambition and family responsibilities, and the clash of cultures between Europe and America.
Wuthering Heights, Emily Bront's only novel, is a tale of passion and revenge on the Yorkshire moors. At its heart lies the tumultuous relationship between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, and how their unresolved passion eventually leads to their destruction, affecting those around them. First published in 1847, Bront's work was initially met with mixed reviews but has since become an undisputed classic of English literature.
This novel is known for its complex structure, reminiscent of Russian nesting dolls, and its innovative narrative that was controversial at the time of publication. The dark and tragic story, set in a stark and austere setting, explores themes of social class, love, and the impact of vengeance. The intense emotional depth of the story transforms a simple tale into one with the resonance of ancient tragedy.
Bront wrote under the pseudonym Ellis Bell and her work was posthumously edited by her sister Charlotte. The novel's title comes from the remote Yorkshire manor, Wuthering Heights, which forms the central focus of the story's tumultuous events.
'It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.' Thus memorably begins Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, one of the world's most popular novels.
Pride and Prejudice is an 1813 novel of manners written by Jane Austen. The novel follows the character development of Elizabeth Bennet, the dynamic protagonist of the book who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness.
Mr. Bennet, owner of the Longbourn estate in Hertfordshire, has five daughters, but his property is entailed and can only be passed to a male heir. His wife also lacks an inheritance, so his family faces becoming very poor upon his death. Thus, it is imperative that at least one of the girls marry well to support the others, which is a motivation that drives the plot.
Twelfth Night, named for the twelfth night after Christmas, marks the end of the festive season and sets the stage for a romantic comedy of love and power. The play introduces us to the Countess Olivia, an independent woman in charge of her own household, who captures the attention of Duke Orsino. Her other suitors include her pompous steward, Malvolio, and the foppish Sir Andrew Aguecheek.
Amidst this tangled web of unrequited love arrives the shipwrecked twins, Viola and Sebastian, each believing the other to be dead. Viola, disguised as a boy, enters the service of the Duke, becoming his emissary to Olivia—and unexpectedly becoming the object of Olivia's affection. As the story unfolds, the play delves into the complexity of love and the joyful resolution of mistaken identities and romantic entanglements.
It is 1911. The Coronation Day of King George V. The Williams, a Welsh coal-mining family, is linked by romance and enmity to the Fitzherberts, aristocratic coal-mine owners. Lady Maud Fitzherbert falls in love with Walter von Ulrich, a spy at the German Embassy in London. Their destiny is entangled with that of an ambitious young aide to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and to two orphaned Russian brothers, whose plans to emigrate to America fall foul of war, conscription and revolution.
Five families, American, German, Russian, English, and Welsh, move through the dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for women's suffrage. The plot contains profanity, graphic sexual situations, and violence. Book #1
This book developed from a journal of my thoughts and feelings recorded in response to the shock of my wife’s diagnosis of Pancreatic Cancer in December 2015. Initially, I kept it as a personal diary of things that I believed were important at the time, including the poems and prose I wrote which sprang organically from the events as they unfolded. Whilst these few short months were extremely challenging, at times shocking and ultimately tragic, they were also a time of great love.
Hopefully, I have captured some of those few moments of pure happiness, humour and joy which I believe will not only help other people touched by cancer but will show sufferers and their families that there is no right or wrong way to behave, just as long as you continue to show how much you care and as much as possible, be there for each other.
Matilde MartĂnez es una pediatra decidida a cambiar el mundo. Eliah Al-Saud es un soldado profesional, demasiado cĂnico para creer que es posible cambiarlo. Sin embargo, cuando Eliah y Matilde se conocen, la atracciĂłn es innegable, y, pese a sus diferencias, caen rendidos ante la pasiĂłn que los domina.
Su romance se convertirá en una aventura peligrosa, con el conflicto palestino-israelà y una amenaza atómica como telones de fondo. Una adictiva novela contemporánea en la que dos personajes intensos y cautivadores lucharán por sus vidas y las de sus seres queridos, pero ¿conseguirán también salvar su amor?
Two lovers, two hearts, one soul.
Only joined can they be truly complete. Only joined can they survive the darkness.
The Fey King Rain and his truemate Ellysetta share a passionate love unrivaled in the history of their world—and a forbidden power that made them outcasts from the Fading Lands. As war looms and the evil mages of Eld threaten to rip their world asunder, they must fight to defend the very kingdom and people who reviled them.
Only by trusting completely in their love—and in themselves—can Rain and Ellysetta hope to defeat the gathering forces of Darkness. But it will take more than the strength of their devotion to endure. They must unlock the secrets of the past and find the courage to embrace the dangerous destiny that awaits them.
Only they can save their world, but that victory might cost them their lives.