The classic 1944 collection of ten short stories by the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award–winning author and journalist Incomparable in their dramatic clarity and emotional force, the ten gems in this collection affirm Katherine Anne Porter’s genius for writing stories, as Eudora Welty observed, “with a power that stamps them to their very last detail on the memory.” The collection includes The Old Order, a sequence of short stories that paints a devastating portrait of the racial inequities that plague life in the American South, as well as other selected stories such as “The Leaning Tower” and “The Downward Path to Wisdom”.
In this unconventional biography, the author recounts the tower's rich history, from its abortive beginnings in 1173 through to its ongoing stabilization today, and examines the various symbolisms that have projected on it throughout the ages.
From the New York Times bestselling author of Rump, comes the true story behind another unlikely hero: a grumpy dwarf who gets tangled up in Snow White's feud with the wicked queen. Ever since he was a dwarfling, Borlen (nicknamed "Grump") has dreamed of visiting The Surface, so when opportunity knocks, he leaves his cavern home behind. At first, life aboveground is a dream come true. Queen Elfrieda Veronika Ingrid Lenore (E.V.I.L.) is the best friend Grump always wanted, feeding him all the rubies he can eat and allowing him to rule at her side in exchange for magic and information. But as time goes on, Grump starts to suspect that Queen E.V.I.L. may not be as nice as she seems. . . . When the queen commands him to carry out a horrible task against her stepdaughter Snow White, Grump is in over his head. He's bound by magic to help the queen, but also to protect Snow White. As if that wasn't stressful enough, the queen keeps bugging him for updates through her magic mirror! He'll have to dig deep to find a way out of this pickle, and that's enough to make any dwarf Grumpy indeed. "Liesl Shurtliff writes the perfect middle-grade page-turners that fourth graders can gobble down on the plane, train, and automobile trips ahead this summer. . . . [she] excels at turning familiar worlds on their heads. --The New York Times Book Review "Hilarious and heartfelt . . . Lovable Borlen's grumpy first-person narration explores themes of belonging, friendship, and doing the right thing. Sure to please fans of reimagined fairy tales." --Kirkus "A hilarious reimagining of its origin story with a wonderfully detailed world and interesting twists on classic characters. Sure to be a hit with fantasy fans looking for comedy." --Booklist "The story moves at a fast pace and deftly balances lighthearted humor with emotional weight. . . .a sure hit for Shurtliff's fans." --School Library Journal
A masterful collection of short stories exposing the seamy undercurrents of small-town American life from Charles Jackson, celebrated author of The Lost Weekend. A selection of Jackson’s finest tales, The Sunnier Side and Other Stories explores the trials of adolescence in America during the tumultuous years of the early twentieth century. Set in the town of Arcadia in upstate New York, the stories in this collection address the unspoken issues—homosexuality, masturbation, alcoholism, to name a few—lurking just beneath the surface of the small-town ideal. The Sunnier Side showcases Jackson at the height of his storytelling powers, reaffirming his reputation as a boundary-pushing, irreverent writer years ahead of his time.
My stories are fragments of a larger plan, Katherine Anne Porter once wrote. And on another occasion she praised a critic who perceived that all her work, from the very beginning, was part of an "unbroken progression, all related." In Truth and Vision in Katherine Anne Porter's Fiction, Darlene Unrue examines the encompassing themes that underlie Porter's shorter fiction and that combined to create the haunting events of her complex metaphorical novel, Ship of Fools. Porter believed that men and women are compelled toward discovering the truth about their existence, but that the nature of our world makes those truths difficult to discern. In her writing, Unrue finds, Porter explored not only this basic human need to confront the truth, but also the bewilderment and suffering that are so often the results of failing to fulfill that need. Often in Porter's fiction the movement toward truth is obstructed by the hollow beliefs and illusions that abound in the world--by the seductions of ideology and dogmatic religion, by romantic love or the vision of a golden past. Clinging to such illusions, using them to lend a false coherence to their lives, Porter's characters are led away from the hard realization that truth requires accepting the existence of the unknowable at the center of life, and that what is knowable lies within themselves. Drawing on essays, reviews, letters, and notes, as well as on the intricate fabric of the fiction, this study traces Porter's pursuit of the truth through the creation of a body of fiction in which, from fragments of life, she could assemble an honest vision of the world.
Children gather on a playground to describe their favorite monuments around the globe, but they may have misheard the names of each one and their imaginations run wild with possibilities.
Critical Approaches Frye: The Road of Excess Knights: King Lear as Metaphor Kushner: The Critical Method of Gaston Bachelard Gershman: Surrealism: Myth and Reality Applications The Writer and His Method Winner: Myth as a Device in the Works of Chekhov Nothnagle: Myth in the Poetic Creation of Agrippa D'Aubigne Campbell: The Transformation of Biblical Myth: MacLeish's Use of the Adam and Job Stories Hiller: The Symbolism of Gestus in Brecht's Drama Sr. Joselyn: Animal Imagery in Katherine Anne Porter's Fiction The Work Examined--Archetypes and Interpretations LaGuardia: Chastity, Regeneration, and World Order in All's Well that Ends Well Jones: Immortality in Two of Milton's Elegies Dougherty: Of Ruskin's Gardens Kern: Myth and Symbol in Criticism of Faulkner's "The Bear" Welliver: The De Vulgari Eloquentia and Dante's Quasi After-Life Vickery: The Golden Bough: Impact and Archetype
Designed as a companion to The Columbia Literary History of the United States, this compilation of 31 major essays covers the American novel from the 1700s to the present, although the majority deal with the 20th century. Within each era, themes, genres, and topics such as realism, gender, romance, and technology are discussed in depth, as well as modern Canadian, Caribbean, and Latin American fiction. Each essayist selects only the authors who best illustrate the topic, thus subtly skewing the view of the literary scene at that time. The volume also covers women, minorities, popular fiction, and the book marketplace. ISBN 0-231-07360-7: $59.95.
