Two Days in the Life of the Terrestrial Globe and Other Stories
Two Days in the Life of the Terrestrial Globe and Other Stories

Author: Vladimir Fedorovich Odoevskiĭ (kni︠a︡zʹ)

Publisher: Alma Classics

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 132

ISBN-13: 9780714543888

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In the title piece of this collection a party of guests wonder at the great comet which has appeared in the sky, and give their predictions of what this ill omen portends for the Earth. Mixing elements of the Gothic with fantasy, this piece marks the dawn of Russian science fiction, and constitutes a prime example of the creativity and imagination of Odoevsky's story-telling. Including the much-loved children's story 'The Little Town in the Snuffbox', the mysteries 'Imbroglio' and 'The Black Glove', and the artistic portrait 'Beethoven's Last Quartet', this volume of Odoevsky's short stories represents some of the finest of early-nineteenth-century Russian short fiction.

Secretum
Secretum

Author: Francesco Petrarch

Publisher: Alma Books

Published: 2018-01-01

Total Pages: 177

ISBN-13: 0714547859

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By writing what he called a "e;secret book"e; - taking the shape of a conversation between himself and St Augustine - Petrarch aimed to compose a cathartic text which would alleviate his spiritual crisis and help him make further inroads towards knowledge and fulfilment.At once an intimate repository of his most personal thoughts and emotions and a literary masterpiece dealing with universal issues, Secretum - Petrarch's best-known work in Latin - is a fascinating and pioneering example of the autobiographical genre.

The Encyclopedia of the Gothic
The Encyclopedia of the Gothic

Author: William Hughes

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2015-10-06

Total Pages: 880

ISBN-13: 1119210410

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The Encylopedia of the Gothic features a series of newly-commissioned essays from experts in Gothic studies that cover all aspects of the Gothic as it is currently taught and researched, along with the development of the genre and its impact on contemporary culture. Comprises over 200 newly commissioned entries written by a stellar cast of over 130 experts in the field Arranged in A-Z format across two fully cross-referenced volumes Represents the definitive reference guide to all aspects of the Gothic Provides comprehensive coverage of relevant authors, national traditions, critical developments, and notable texts that define, shape, and inform the genre Extends beyond a purely literary analysis to explore Gothic elements of film, music, drama, art, and architecture. Explores the development of the genre and its impact on contemporary culture

Testament
Testament

Author: Francois Villon

Publisher: Alma Books

Published: 2018-01-01

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 0714546585

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The most celebrated of French medieval poets, Francois Villon makes poetry out the basest material - the raw urban life of Paris with its petty officials, students, clergy, tradesmen, pimps, whores and thieves. Despite successful studies, the young Villon immersed himself in this world, embarking on a career of petty crime that brought him repeated imprisonment. Condemned to death, but then reprieved and banished from Paris, he disappears from history in 1463, leaving behind a legend of poete maudit that has never lost its fascination. Dual language edition.

Humiliated and Insulted
Humiliated and Insulted

Author: Fyodor Dostoevsky

Publisher: Alma Books

Published: 2018-01-01

Total Pages: 417

ISBN-13: 0714545775

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First published in 1861, Humiliated and Insulted plunges the reader into a world of moral degradation, childhood trauma, unrequited love and irreconcilA-able relationships. At the centre of the story are a young struggling author, an orphaned teenager and a depraved aristocrat, who not only foreshadows the great figures of evil in Dostoevsky's later fiction, but is a powerful and original presence in his own right.This new translation catches the verve and tumult of the original, which - in concept and execution - affords a refreshingly unfamiliar glimpse of the author.

Poems
Poems

Author: Antonia Pozzi

Publisher: Alma Books

Published: 2018-01-01

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 0714547883

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After her tragic death in December 1938 at the early age of twenty-six, Antonia Pozzi's poems - which she had been secretly writing for years - were brought to light and became the object of great critical attention, going through several editions in Italy and being translated into all the major European languages. Since then, her reputation has risen steadily, and she is now considered one of the greatest Italian poets of the twentieth century.

Orange World and Other Stories
Orange World and Other Stories

Author: Karen Russell

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2019-05-14

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 0525656146

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From the Pulitzer Finalist and universally beloved author of the New York Times best sellers Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove, a stunning new collection of short fiction that showcases Karen Russell’s extraordinary, irresistible gifts of language and imagination. Karen Russell’s comedic genius and mesmerizing talent for creating outlandish predicaments that uncannily mirror our inner in lives is on full display in these eight exuberant, arrestingly vivid, unforgettable stories. In“Bog Girl”, a revelatory story about first love, a young man falls in love with a two thousand year old girl that he’s extracted from a mass of peat in a Northern European bog. In “The Prospectors,” two opportunistic young women fleeing the depression strike out for new territory, and find themselves fighting for their lives. In the brilliant, hilarious title story, a new mother desperate to ensure her infant’s safety strikes a diabolical deal, agreeing to breastfeed the devil in exchange for his protection. The landscape in which these stories unfold is a feral, slippery, purgatorial space, bracketed by the void—yet within it Russell captures the exquisite beauty and tenderness of ordinary life. Orange World is a miracle of storytelling from a true modern master.

Hadji Murat
Hadji Murat

Author: Leo Tolstoy

Publisher: Alma Books

Published: 2018-01-01

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 1847492312

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Hadji Murat, one of the most feared and venerated mountain chiefs in the Caucasian struggle against the Russians, defects from the Muslim rebels after feuding with his ruling imam, Shamil. Hoping to protect his family, he joins the Russians, who accept him but never put their trust in him - and so Murat must find another way to end the struggle.Tolstoy knew as he was writing this, his last work of fiction, that it would not be published in his lifetime, and so gave an uncompromising portrayal of the Russians' faults and the nature of the rebels' struggle. In the process, he shows a mastery of style and an understanding of Chechnya that still carries great resonance today.

Three Novellas
Three Novellas

Author: Leo Tolstoy

Publisher: Alma Books

Published: 2018-01-01

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 0714546003

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One of Tolstoy's last published works of fiction, The Devil revolves around the young landowner Yevgeny's irrepressible lust for Stepanida, a sensual peasant woman. Even when he gets married to a respectable upper-class lady, he finds himself unable to put an end to his encounters with Stepanida, and becomes increasingly consumed by guilt and helplessness in the face of his urges.In some ways comparable to the controversial Kreutzer Sonata, The Devil shows Tolstoy at his most salacious, and addresses the conflicts between desire, social norms and personal conscience. Also included in this volume is Family Happiness, one of Tolstoy's earliest works, an entertaining and cynical account of marriage from the perspective of a disillusioned wife, and A Landowner's Morning.

Memoirs of a Good-for-Nothing
Memoirs of a Good-for-Nothing

Author: Joseph von Eichendorff

Publisher: Alma Books

Published: 2018-01-01

Total Pages: 129

ISBN-13: 0714547611

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Eichendorff's prose masterpiece - a picaresque account of the wanderings of a young man who leaves home after a row with his father, and who eventually finds love with the girl of his dreams - is one of the best-known classics of German literature. Deeply imbued with the style and sentiment of German Romanticism, and philosophical and poetic in its approach to nature and existence, "e;Memoirs of a Good-for-Nothing"e; is at once an exhilarating romp and an exemplary distillation of nineteenth-century thought.