Книги издательства Daedalus Books
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2008
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From the reign of Tsar Nicholas II to the brutal cult of Stalin to the ebullient, uncertain days of perestroika, nowhere has the inextricable relationship between politics and culture been more starkly illustrated than in twentieth-century Russia. In the first book to fully examine the intricate and often deadly interconnection between Russian rulers and Russian artists, cultural historian Solomon Volkov (who experienced firsthand many of the events he describes) brings to life the human stories behind some of the greatest masterpieces of our time. Here is Tolstoy, who used his godlike place among the Russian people to rail against the autocracy, even as he eschewed violence; Gorky, the first native writer to openly welcome the revolution and who would go on to become Stalin's closest cultural advisor; Solzhenitsyn, who famously brought the horrors of the Soviet regime to light. Here. too, are Nabokov, Pasternak, Mayakovsky, Akhmatova. In each case, Volkov analyzes the alternate determination and despair, hope and terror borne by writers in a country where, in Solzhenitsyn's maxim, a great writer is like a second government. This is also the story of the nation's leading lights in painting, music, dance, theater, and cinema — Kandinsky and Malevich, Rachmaninoff and Stravinsky, Diaghilev and Nijinsky, Stanislavsky and Meyerhold, and Eisenstein and Tarkovsky — and the ways in which their triumphs influenced, and were influenced by, the leadership of the time. With an insider's insight, Volkov describes what it was like to work under constant threat of arrest, exile, or execution. He reminds us of the many artists who were compelled to live as emigres, and explores not only their complicated relationships with their adopted countries but Russia's love-hate relationship with Western culture as a whole — a relationship that has grown increasingly charged in the wake of the Soviet Union's collapse. Epic in scope and intimate in detail, The Magical Chorus is the definitive account of a remarkable era in Russia's complex cultural life.
Название: Shakespeare: The World as a Stage
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2009
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This exquisitely illustrated edition of Bill Bryson's best-selling biography of William Shakespeare takes the reader on an enthralling guide through Elizabethan England and the eccentricities of Shakespearean scholarship. Bill Bryson's Shakespeare pairs our most celebrated writer in history with one of the most cherished writers in the English language today. In this elegant new illustrated edition, the superstitions, academic discoveries and myths surrounding the life of our greatest poet and playwright are evoked through a series of full-colour paintings, drawings, portraits, documents and photographs. Bryson also includes the recent discoveries of the Cobbe portrait and the remains of Shakespeare's first theatre in Shoreditch. Examining centuries of myths, half-truths and downright lies, Bryson — with his inimitable wit and intelligence — has attempted to make sense of the man behind the masterpieces. In a journey through the streets of Shakespeare's time, he brings to life the hubbub of Elizabethan England and a host of characters along the way. Bryson celebrates the glory of Shakespeare's language — his ceaseless inventiveness gave us hundreds of now indispensable phrases, images and words — and delights in details of his fall-outs and folios, poetry and plays.
Название: The Divided Ground: Indians, Settlers, and the Northern Borderland of the American Revolution
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2006
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In 1761, at a boarding school in New England, a young Mohawk Indian named Joseph Brant first met Samuel Kirkland, the son of a colonial clergyman. They began a long and intense relationship that would redefine North America. For nearly fifty years, their lives intertwined, at first as close friends but later as bitter foes. Kirkland served American expansion as a missionary and agent, promoting Indian conversion and dispossession. Brant pursued an alternative future for the continent by defending an Indian borderland nestled between the British in Canada and the Americans, rather than divided by them. By telling their dramatic story, Alan Taylor illuminates the dual borders that consolidated the new American nation after the Revolution. By constricting Indians within reservation lines, the Americans sought to control their northern boundary with the British Empire, which lingered in Canada. The border became firm as thousands of settlers established farms, held as private property, all around the new reservations. This struggle also pitted the federal government against the leaders of New York, competing to control the lands and the Indians of the border country. They contended for the highest of stakes because the transformation of Indian land constructed the wealth and the power of states, nations, and empires in North America. In addition to land, the frontier contest pivoted on murders, which repeatedly tested who had legal jurisdiction: Indians or newcomers. To assert power, the contending regimes sought to try and execute Indians or settlers who killed one another. To defend native autonomy, however, the Indians asserted an alternative by covering the graves ofvictims with presents to console their kin. When the gallows replaced covered graves, the Indians lost their middle position as free peoples. Taylor breaks with the stereotype of Indians as defiant but doomed traditionalists, as noble but futile defenders of ancient ways. In fact, the borderland Indians demonstrated remarkable adaptability and creativity in coping with the contending powers and with the growing numbers of invading settlers. Led by Joseph Brant, the natives tried to manage, rather than entirely to block, the process of settlement. Taylor shows that they did so in ways meant to preserve Indian autonomy and prosperity. Rather than sell lands for a song to governments, the Indians sought greater control and revenue by leasing lands directly to settler tenants. But neither the British nor the American leaders could accept Indians as landlords, as competitors in the construction of power from land in North America. Once a middle ground, the borderland became a divided ground, partitioned between the British Empire and the American republic.
Название: Born Bad
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2009
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THE POWERFUL NEW BESTSELLER FROM ONE OF THE NATION'S FAVOURITE STORYTELLERS Harry always knew he would go back on day! Eighteen years ago when he was a boy, he had made a decision that drove him from the pace he knew and loved. In those early years, between boy and man, he had carved out a life for himself, and somehow, he had found a semblance of peace.Yet through every waking moment during those long aching years, he was haunted by what happened when he was a boy. He had never forgotten that warm, carefree girl with the laughing eyes.The he recalled the sadness, the bad timings and even now, he could not forgive himself. They say you never forget your first love and it's true. You could have a dozen loving relationships and even settle down with someone you would die for, but your first love is always there, safe and protected in your heart and soul. Now for the first time in all those years, Harry is heading back. Excited, afraid, and full of doubts, he knows he has no choice. Rightly or wrongly, he needs to know the outcome of what happened all those years ago. And most importantly, he needs to find forgiveness.
Название: Three-Corned Hat
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2003
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Rooted in the medieval ballad tradition and recounted to the author by a Spanish goatherd, The Three-Cornered Hat relates a madcap series of romantic misadventures. The basis of Manuel de Falla's popular ballet of the same name, it appears here with Captain Poison, a witty «taming-of-the-shrew» tale that reverses the sexual roles. Presented in the original Spanish with an excellent new English translation, an informative introduction to Stanley Appelbaum and his work, and footnotes by the author.
Название: My First Love Affair and Other Stories
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2002
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Twenty selections include humorous, touching tales about life in the shtetl, lovingly translated from the Yiddish with all the warmth and spirit of the originals. Features Progress in Kasrilevke, Summer Romances, Birth, There's No Dead, Someone to Envy, Three Widows, Homesick, On America, A Home Away from Home, and more.
Название: The Technique of Leaded Glass
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2003
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Illustrated survey with expert on Tiffany glass as its guide. Topics include traditional and stained glass items; Tiffany revival; varieties of glass and tools; soldering; cutting glass; design; window ornaments; lead cane lampshades; copper foil techniques. For crafters at every level of experience. 252 black-and-white illustrations. 8 full-color illustrations. Bibliography. Index.
Название: The Bonds of Interest-Dual Language
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2006
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Jacinto Benavente y Martinez was one of Spain's most important dramatists of the 20th century and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1922. Los Intereses Creados ' main figure is Crispin, the spectacular puppet master who manipulates the other characters with invisible strings. A sparkling satire on selfishness and greed in the modern world.
Название: Brothers Karamazov
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2005
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This brilliant work by one of Russia's foremost novelists teems with greed, passion, depravity, and complex moral issues. Three brothers, involved in the brutal murder of their despicable father, find their lives irrevocably altered as they are driven by intense, uncontrollable emotions of rage and revenge.
Название: Anna Karenina
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2008
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Tolstoy's tumultuous tale of passion and self-discovery marks a turning point in the author's career. His compelling, emotional saga recounts the effects of nonconformist behavior — a society woman's adulterous affair and a landowner's unconventional quest for a meaningful existence — against a backdrop of late 19th-century Russia.
Название: The New York Trilogy
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2009
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The New York Trilogy is an astonishing and original book: three cleverly interconnected novels that exploit the elements of standard detective fiction and achieve a new genre that is all the more gripping for its starkness. In each story the search for clues leads to remarkable coincidences in the universe as the simple act of trailing a man ultimately becomes a startling investigation of what it means to be human. Auster's book is modern fiction at its finest: bold, arresting and unputdownable.
Название: The White Castle
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2009
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The White Castle, Orhan Pamuk's celebrated first novel, is the tale of a young Italian scholar captured by pirates and put up for auction at the Istanbul slave market. Acquired by a brilliant Turkish inventor, he is set to work on projects to entertain the jaded Sultan.
Название: Lord of the Flies
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2009
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A plane crashes on a desert island and the only survivors, a group of schoolboys, assemble on the beach and wait to be rescued. By day they inhabit a land of bright fantastic birds and dark blue seas, but at night their dreams are haunted by the image of a terrifying beast. As the boys' delicate sense of order fades, so their childish dreams are transformed into something more primitive, and their behaviour starts to take on a murderous, savage significance. First published in 1954, Lord of the Flies is one of the most celebrated and widely read of modern classics.
Название: The Plot Against America
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2004
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In this alternate history, Pulitzer Prize winner Roth considers what it would be like for his Newark family — and for a million such families all over the country — during the menacing years of a Charles Lindbergh presidency, when American citizens who happened to be Jews would have every reason to expect the worst.
Название: Living Color
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2007
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Red, blue, yellow, green, orange, purple, pink — animals can be startlingly colorful. Why are they found in so many shades, tints, and hues? From the scarlet ibis to the blue-tongued skink, award-winning author/illustrator Steve Jenkins depicts a whole world of colorful animals in his signature style. Living Color explores a range of animals from old favorites like the pink flamingo to rare and fascinating creatures such as the long-wattled umbrella bird and the ringed caecilian. How do the brilliant feathers, scales, shells, and skin of these animals help them survive? Find out in this strikingly beautiful book how animals use color to warn predators, signal friends, attract a mate, or hide from their enemies.
Название: Everyman
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2006
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Philip Roth's new novel is a candidly intimate yet universal story of loss, regret, and stoicism. The best-selling author of The Plot Against America now turns his attention from one family's harrowing encounter with history (New York Times) to one man's lifelong skirmish with mortality. The fate of Roth's everyman is traced from his first shocking confrontation with death on the idyllic beaches of his childhood summers, through the family trials and professional achievements of his vigorous adulthood, and into his old age, when he is rended by observing the deterioration of his contemporaries and stalked by his own physical woes. A successful commercial artist with a New York ad agency, he is the father of two sons from a first marriage who despise him and a daughter from a second marriage who adores him. He is the beloved brother of a good man whose physical well-being comes to arouse his bitter envy, and he is the lonely ex-husband of three very different women with whom he's made a mess of marriage. In the end he is a man who has become what he does not want to be. The terrain of this powerful novel — Roth's twenty-seventh book and the fifth to be published in the twenty-first century — is the human body. Its subject is the common experience that terrifies us all. Everyman takes its title from an anonymous fifteenth-century allegorical play, a classic of early English drama, whose theme is the summoning of the living to death.
Название: Christmas at Fairacre
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2007
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Have a happy Christmas in the English countryside with a volume of three heartwarming holiday tales from Miss Read. As frost sparkles on cottage roofs and smoke rises from chimneys, the English village of Fairacre is a perfect vision of Christmas joy — but even in this cozy community, celebrations of the season do not always go as expected. In this enchanting holiday collection, Miss Read shares three of her most beloved and memorable Christmas tales. In Village Christmas, the Emery family is preparing to celebrate their first Christmas in Fairacre, having moved from London just three months before, and to welcome the birth of their fourth child. When the unexpected happens on Christmas morning, their new neighbors, the elderly Waters sisters, are fortunately nearby to lend a hand. The Christmas Mouse takes us to the nearby village of Caxley. Mrs. Berry has just finished her Christmas Eve preparations when a winter storm brings two visitors seeking refuge to her hospitable home. Their chance encounter will make this an unforgettable Christmas for them all. In No Holly for Miss Quinn, a family emergency disrupts Miss Quinn's plans for a quiet and fuss-free holiday. She agrees to look after her brother's three young children while their mother is ill and soon finds herself swept away by holiday traditions, the infectious enthusiasm of the children, and the surprising arrival of someone from her past. For uplifting reading, no one rivals Miss Read. Her delightful Christmas tales brim with good cheer and the spirit of Christmas itself.
Название: Deaf Sentence
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2008
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A witty, tender novel about the travails of old middle age, from a Booker finalist Desmond Bates is a recently retired linguistics professor vexed by his encroaching deafness and at loose ends in his personal life. Without the purposeful routine of the academic year, he finds his role reduced to that of escort and house-husband while his wife as late-flowering career as the owner of a home design store flourishes. The monotony of his days is relieved only by wearisome journeys to London to check on the welfare of his querulous, elderly father, an ex-dance musician. But these discontents are nothing compared to the affliction of hearing loss, which is a constant source of domestic friction and social embarrassment. It is through his deafness that Desmond inadvertently gets involved with a young woman who seeks his support in matters academic and not so academic; and whose wayward and unpredictable behavior threatens to destabilize his life completely. Deaf Sentence is a funny, moving account of one man as effort to come to terms with deafness and death, aging and mortality, the comedy and tragedy of human life.
Название: In Other Words
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2004
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When ideas fail, words come in handy. But sometimes you can't find the right word, and what you want to say can't be found in the dictionary. English has its limitations, but the expression you're searching for may exist in another language. In Other Words is a unique collection of well-known and absolutely obscure untranslatables — linguistic gems that convey a feeling or notion with satisfying precision yet resist simple translation. This quirky lexicon of hard-to-translate words gives the reader a new way to look at the world and how words relate to us. The words are arranged by region or country of origin, and a brief introduction to each section--each done by a respected translator — gives insight into the culture of the people as well as the language. Each of these singular words is cleverly and thoroughly defined, with interesting details and references throughout. The search for that elusive mot juste may be over.
Название: Bangkok Haunts
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2007
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Sonchai Jitpleecheep — the devout Buddhist Royal Thai Police detective who led us through the best sellers Bangkok 8 and Bangkok Tattoo — returns in this blistering new novel. Sonchai has seen virtually everything on his beat in Bangkok's District 8, but nothing like the video he's just been sent anonymously: Few crimes make us fear for the evolution of our species. I am watching one right now. He's watching a snuff film. And the person dying before his disbelieving eyes is Damrong — a woman he once loved obsessively and, now it becomes clear, endlessly. And there is something more: something at the end of the film that leaves Sonchai both figuratively and literally haunted. While his investigation will lead him through the office of the ever-scheming police captain, Vikorn (Don't spoil a great case with too much perfectionism, he advises Sonchai); in and out of the influence of a perhaps psychotic wandering monk; and eventually into the gilded rooms of the most exclusive men's club in Bangkok (whose members will do anything to protect their identities, and to explore their most secret fantasies), it also leads him to his own simple bedroom where he sleeps next to his pregnant wife while his dreams deliver him up to Damrong... Ferociously smart and funny, furiously fast-paced, and laced through with an erotic ghost story that gives a new dark twist to the life of our hero, Bangkok Haunts does exactly that from first page to last.
