Книги жанра Daedalus Books
Название: The Finkler Question
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2010
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He should have seen it coming. His life had been one mishap after another. So he should have been prepared for this one. Julian Treslove, a professionally unspectacular and disappointed BBC worker, and Sam Finkler, a popular Jewish philosopher, writer and television personality, are old school friends. Despite a prickly relationship and very different lives, they've never quite lost touch with each other — or with their former teacher, Libor Sevick, a Czechoslovakian always more concerned with the wider world than with exam results. Now, both Libor and Finkler are recently widowed, and with Treslove, his chequered and unsuccessful record with women rendering him an honorary third widower, they dine at Libor's grand, central London apartment. It's a sweetly painful evening of reminiscence in which all three remove themselves to a time before they had loved and lost; a time before they had fathered children, before the devastation of separations, before they had prized anything greatly enough to fear the loss of it. Better, perhaps, to go through life without knowing happiness at all because that way you had less to mourn? Treslove finds he has tears enough for the unbearable sadness of both his friends' losses. And it's that very evening, at exactly 11:30pm, as Treslove hesitates a moment outside the window of the oldest violin dealer in the country as he walks home, that he is attacked. After this, his whole sense of who and what he is will slowly and ineluctably change. The Finkler Question is a scorching story of exclusion and belonging, justice and love, aging, wisdom and humanity. Funny, furious, unflinching, this extraordinary novel shows one of our finest writers at his brilliant best.
Название: Firebird
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2010
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In the shadow of King Vaslav's Palace was a marvelous garden, and in the middle of that garden stood a tree that grew apples of solid gold, each one as dazzling as the sun. Someone is stealing the king's famous golden apples, and the culprit must be found. The palace gardener spots the luminous Firebird snatching the apples in the night. The king's two oldest sons are sent to capture it but fail. So Ivan, the youngest son, must go on the dangerous quest, befriending a gray wolf, winning both the Firebird and the heart of the beautiful Princess Helen. Saviour Pirotta's powerful retelling of this classic folktale plumbs the heart of human fears, courage, and love.
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2010
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Many of the greatest Russian authors, including Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov and Pushkin, produced crime and mystery fiction, a type of literature that was largely suppressed during the Soviet era because it did not glorify the state but, instead, gave individual characters the significance that the U.S.S.R. despised. With the fall of the Soviet Union, mystery writers have become some of the most successful novelists in Russia, and there is a renewed interest in, and appreciation of, the great crime classics of an earlier era. There have been few policemen, and virtually no private detectives or amateur sleuths, in Russian history worthy of approbation, and in consequence its literature is dramatically different from its Western counterparts. Criminals in Mother Russia tend to be caught or punished by their own consciences or by ghosts, and the notion of a criminal trial as we know it is utterly alien. Nonetheless, the enormous talent and passion of Russian authors has long been justly acclaimed, and the rare forays they made into the loosely defined genre of mystery fiction rank among the world's classics. This volume is the first collection ever devoted entirely to Russian crime fiction. Among the esteemed contributors are Anton Chekhov, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Nicolai Gogol, Maxim Gorky, Vladimir Nabokov, Vil Lipitov, Alexander Pushkin, Lev Sheinen, Boris Sokoloff and Leo Tolstoy.
Название: Heartstone
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2011
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Summer, 1545. England is at war, and Matthew Shardlake is about to encounter the most politically dangerous case of his career. While a massive French fleet prepares to attack, every able-bodied man is being pressed into military service. Meanwhile, an old servant of Queen Catherine Parr asks Shardlake to investigate claims of monstrous wrongs committed against a young ward of the court. Shardlake's inquiries take him and his loyal assistant, Jack Barak, to Hoyland Priory and Portsmouth, where the English fleet is gathering. There they uncover a startling link between the ward and a woman incarcerated in Bedlam. With a fantastic backdrop of wartime intrigue and a dramatic finale onboard one of Henry VIII's great warships, Heartstone is certain to catapult this internationally bestselling series to greater prominence.
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2009
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Berlin 1934. The Nazis have been in power for just eighteen months but already Germany has seen some unpleasant changes. As the city prepares to host the 1936 Olympics, Jews are being expelled from all German sporting organisations — a blatant example of discrimination. Forced to resign as a homicide detective with Berlin's Criminal Police, Bernie is now house detective at the famous Adlon Hotel. The discovery of two bodies — one a businessman and the other a Jewish boxer — involves Bernie in the lives of two hotel guests. One is a beautiful left-wing journalist intent on persuading America to boycott the Berlin Olympiad; the other is a German-Jewish gangster who plans to use the Olympics to enrich himself and the Chicago mob. As events unfold, Bernie uncovers a vast labour and construction racket designed to take advantage of the huge sums the Nazis are prepared to spend to showcase the new Germany to the world. It is a plot that finds its conclusion twenty years later in pre-revolution Cuba, the country to which Bernie flees from Argentina at the end of A Quiet Flame.
Название: Jane Eyre
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2012
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For decades, people have enjoyed losing themselves in the stories of classic literary characters, including wondering about the secrets hidden in Mr. Rochester's attic. The novels of Charlotte Bronte remain as popular, relevant, and enjoyable for the modern reader as they were for their contemporary readership, continuing to sell in the thousands. Elegantly packaged, with a textured, cloth-effect jackets, this novel will remain a must-read for generations to come.
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2010
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Dmitri Gurov — banker, husband, father of two and serial adulterer — is stunned to find that he has fallen in love: with Anna, a beautiful young lady with a lapdog. Haunted by the memory of their brief affair, Dmitri refuses to let her slip from his life. This is one of 13 tales in this collection of the best of Chekhov's short stories. Books that save lives come in one colour Choose (Penguin Classics) Red, Save Lives Penguin Classics has partnered with (Product) Red to bring you our selection of some of the best books ever written. We will be contributing 50 per cent of the profits from the sale of (Penguin Classics) Red editions to the Global Fund to help eliminate AIDS in Africa. Now great books can help save lives.
Название: The Lexicographer's Dilemma: The Evolution of 'Proper' English, from Shakespeare to South Park
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2011
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For language buffs and lexicographers, copy editors and proofreaders, and anyone who appreciates the connection between language and culture — the illuminating story of proper English. In its long history, the English language has had many lawmakers — those who have tried to regulate, or otherwise organize, the way we speak. The Lexicographer's Dilemma offers the first narrative history of these endeavors, showing clearly that what we now regard as the only correct way to speak emerged out of specific historical and social conditions over the course of centuries. As literary historian Jack Lynch has discovered, every rule has a human history, and the characters peopling his narrative are as interesting for their obsession as for their erudition. The struggle between prescriptivists, who prescribe a correct approach, and descriptivists, who analyze how language works, is at the heart of Lynch's story. From the sharp-tongued satirist Jonathan Swift, who called for a government sponsored academy to issue rulings on the language, and the polymath Samuel Johnson, who put dictionaries on a new footing, to John Horne Tooke, the crackpot linguist whose bizarre theories continue to baffle scholars; Joseph Priestley, whose political radicalism prompted riots; and the ever-crotchety Noah Webster, whose goal was to Americanize the English language — Lynch brings to life a varied cast as illuminating as it is entertaining. Grammatical rules or laws are not like the law of gravity, or laws against theft or murder — they're more like rules of etiquette, made by fallible people and subject to change. Charting the evolution of English, Jack Lynch puts today's debates — whether about Ebonics in the schools or split infinitives in the New York Times -in a rich historical context, and makes us appreciate anew the hard-won standards we now enjoy.
Название: I Don't Want to Go to the Hospital
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2013
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The Little Princess doesn't want to go to the hospital, and she does everything she can to avoid it. But when she is finally forced to go, she finds that she really rather likes it. Why? Because they treat her like a princess there!
Название: I Want a Party
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2011
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Its not Christmas or even her birthday, but the Little Princess wants a party! She sets out to organize the best party ever, with invitations, cake, games, and goodie bags. But when she forgets one little detail, it has big consequences.
Название: I Want My Light On
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2010
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I'm not so much afraid of the DARK! said the Little Princess. Im sort of more afraid of ghosts.Everyone insists there are NO such things as ghosts. But if thats the case, just what is lurking under the Little Princess bed?
Название: I Want My Mom
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2012
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Things aren't going well for the Little Princess. And there's only one person who can make them better... I?WANT? MY? MOM! But when the Little Princess at last learns to cope on her own, what does her mom, the Queen, feel?
Название: I Want to Win
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2012
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The Little Princess loves to win and at home everyone usually lets her. At school, even though she tries her hardest, it seems she can't do anything right. But she soon discovers that winning is much more fun when she really deserves it.
Название: I Want Two Birthdays
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2010
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The Little Princess wants to have two birthdays, just like the Queen, which means twice as many presents every year! When she realizes how much fun two birthdays are, she decides she wants three, then four. But the more birthdays she has, the less special they are. Perhaps having one birthday a year isn't so boring after all.
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2010
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Every kid knows that pirates talk funny, swing a big sword, and seek buried treasure — don’t they? What do we really know about Blackbeard, Madame Cheng, Sir Francis Drake, and other men and women of pirate history? What drove them to sail the high seas? What were their bad habits, favorite foods, and silly quirks? And did they actually talk like that? A lively style, lots of surprises, and solid research have made the Lives of... series of collective biographies popular with both kids and adults. Now the series returns, spanning the globe with profiles of the nineteen most notorious pirates in history.
Название: The Midden
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2004
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Timothy Brights doesn't exactly live up to his name. Brought up to regard copious flows of money as his birthright, he can't understand why the funds have been cut off, nor why friends he recruited as Lloyds' Names no longer want to talk to him. When gambling fails, Timothy turns to embezzlement, but it's the lesser offence of helping himself to some strangely aromatic tobacco that propels him up the motorway and into bed with the Chief Constable's wife. The Chief Constable has just survived charges of bribery and perjury and is not too concerned that his efforts to dispose of Timothy involve false imprisonment, breaking and entering, and a spot of GBH. It is only when the Chief tries to frame his old adversary, the upright Miss Midden, hat things begin to go seriously wrong as his underhand ploy opens up the way to spectacular mayhem.
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2010
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Guy Browning's Christmas bestseller is finally available in paperback. Just imagine how much easier life would be if you knew what you were doing. Wouldn't it be great to have clear, precise instructions for all those things you normally mess up? Here, for the first time in a perfectly portable paperback, are the essential rules for handling life's unavoidable little problems — handy, practical tips such as: what to do with your arm when you've failed to hail a taxi; how to share a romantic bath while avoiding the taps; how to give clear directions to a place you've never heard of; and the politest place to look in a full-length mirror. Never Push When It Says Pull will help eliminate minor social embarrassment, ease social intercourse, and prevent night sweats.
Название: Notes from Underground
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2009
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Notes from Underground is one of the most profound and most unsettling works of modern literature, prefiguring Dostoevskys later masterpieces such as Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and The Brothers Karamazov. The underground man has become one of the fixtures of the contemporary worldview. No discussion of the predicament of modern man would be complete without some allusion to this archetypal figure both prophetic and loathsome that towers over modern culture. The Notes from Underground are, as translator Boris Jakim says, A foul passageway leading into the profoundest secrets of the human heart, an abyss where the most loathsome thoughts are revealed. The Notes are a limbo without hope even of hell, a Book of Job without a happy ending, a waiting for nothing and no one (not even Godot). Nonetheless, entering into this underground that Dostoesky claims is in us all is necessary in order to understand not only this lowest of lows, but also the heights that lift man out of the depths into sanctity and exaltation. It is largely due to this masterful contrast that Notes from Underground is considered by many critics to be not only a pinnacle of existentialist literature, but also one of the greatest works of modern literature altogether.
Название: The People's Artist
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2008
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A study in contrasts, the career of Sergey Prokofiev spanned the globe, leaving him witness to the most significant political and historical events of the first half of the twentieth century. In 1918, after completing a program of studies at the St. Petersburg conservatory, Prokofiev escaped Russia for the United States and later France where, like most emigre artists of the time, he made Paris his home. During these hectic years, he composed three ballets and three operas, fulfilled recording contracts, and played recitals of tempestuous music. Scores were stored in suitcases, scenarios and librettos drafted on hotel letterhead. The constant uprooting and transience fatigued him, but he regarded himself as a person of action who, personally and professionally, traveled against rather that with the current. Thus, in 1936, as political anxieties increased in Western Europe, Prokofiev escaped back to Russia. Though at first pampered by the totalitarian regime, Prokofiev soon suffered official correction and censorship. He wrote and revised his late ballets and operas to appease his bureaucratic overseers but, more often than not, his labors came to naught.Following his official condemnation in 1948, many of his compositions were withdrawn from performance. Physical illness and mental exhaustion characterized his last years. Housebound, he journeyed inward, creating a series of works on the theme of youth whose music sounds despondently optimistic. The reasons for Prokofievs return to Russia and the specifics of his dealings with the Stalinist regime have long been mysterious. Owing to their sensitive political and personal nature, over half of the Prokofiev documents at the Russian State Archive have been sealed since their deposit there in 1955, two years after Prokofievs premature death. The disintegration of the Soviet Union did not lead to the rescinding of this prohibition. Author Simon Morrison is the first scholar, non-Russian or Russian, to receive the privilege to study them. Alongside wholly or partly unknown score materials, Morrison has studied Prokofievs never-seen journals and diaries, the original, unexpurgated versions of his official speeches, and the bulk of his correspondence. This new information makes possible for the first time an accurate study of the tragic second phase of Prokofievs career.Moving chronologically, Morrison alternates biographical details with discussions of Prokofievs major works, furnishing dramatic new insights into Prokofievs engagement with the Stalinist regime and the consequences that it had for his family and his health.
Жанр: Daedalus Books
Год: 2008
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If ever there was a book to make you switch off your television set, The Dangerous Book for Boys was it. And now, from the same authors, after the success of Things to Do and Things to Know, comes The Pocket Dangerous Book for Boy: Facts, Figures and Fun. 'The Dangerous Book for Boys' was the book of the year in 2006 and 2007, inspiring a newfound passion for adventure, fun and all things 'dangerous'. Now the authors have brought together all their facts: fun and frivolous, entertaining and useful, into a 'Pocket Dangerous Book for Boys: Facts, Figures and Fun. Ever wanted to know what the best ever scientific discoveries were? Or the most gruesome deaths of all time? How namy great men were assassinated? What were the pivotal moments of the last century? Facts, Figures and Fun is crammed with odd, interesting, facts which every boy should know.
