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The Philosophy of Mr. B*rtr*nd R*ss*ll: With an Appendix of Leading Passages from Certain Other Works. A Skit. (Routledge Library Editions: Russell)
by Philip E. B. JourdainThis skit of Bertrand Russell’s philosophy was originally published in 1918 by Russell’s correspondent friend Jourdain. The introduction explains that the contents purport to be lost papers written by Mr. B*rtr*nd R*ss*ll, a contemporary of Bertrand Russell. This politically humorous volume from the early 20th Century parodies the writing style of Russell as well as his theories.
Big Gay Wedding: A Novel
by Byron LaneNamed one of Shondaland and Town & Country's Best Books of May • Named one of Lambda Literary's Most Anticipated LGBTQIA+ Books • Named one of Cosmopolitan's Best Books of 2023 (So Far)An unashamedly proud, loud, and hilarious novel about a small town that’s forever changed by a big gay wedding, perfect for fans of Red, White & Royal Blue and The GuncleTwo grooms. One mother of a problem.Barnett Durang has a secret. No, not THAT secret. His widowed mother has long known he’s gay. The secret is Barnett is getting married. At his mother’s farm. In their small Louisiana town. She just doesn’t know it yet.It’ll be an intimate affair. Just two hundred or so of the most fabulous folks Barnett is shipping in from the “heathen coasts,” as Mom likes to call them, turning her quiet rescue farm for misfit animals into a most unlikely wedding venue.But there are forces, both within this modern new family and in the town itself, that really don’t want to see this handsome couple march down the aisle. It’ll be the biggest, gayest event in the town’s history if they can pull it off, and after a glitter-filled week, nothing will ever be the same. Big Gay Wedding is an uplifting book about the power of family and the unconditional love of a mother for her son.
The People of the River: Large Print (The Commissioner Sanders Stories #2)
by Edgar WallaceThe second installment in the enthralling exploits of Commissioner Sanders, Great Britain&’s man in colonial AfricaCommissioner Sanders should have known better than to go on vacation. He is just a few days from his offices in British West Africa when he receives word from his second in command that trouble, always at a simmer in this jungle outpost, is about to come to a boil. He rushes home, arriving just in time for a meeting of the chiefs of his territory, who have been misled by an ambitious agitator named Bosambo into thinking that Sanders is dead. Sanders&’s return staves off rebellion, but Bosambo&’s power grab is not over yet. To keep the province from erupting into all-out tribal warfare, Sanders must outsmart the most brilliant chieftain in Africa. In these rip-roaring adventures, the heroic commissioner contends with malaria, ju-ju, and the whims of government officials safely ensconced in their London offices. The People of the River is both a good-natured thrill ride and a fascinating historical document. This ebook features a new introduction by Otto Penzler and has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.
Fraulein Schmidt And Mr Anstruther: A Virago Modern Classic (Virago Modern Classics #394)
by Elizabeth von ArnimThis enchanting novel tells the story of the love affair between Rose-Marie Schmidt and Roger Anstruther. A determined young woman of twenty-five, Rose-Marie is considered a spinster by the inhabitants of the small German town of Jena where she lives with her father, the Professor. To their homes comes Roger, an impoverished but well-born young Englishman who wishes to learn German: Rose-Marie and Roger fall in love. But the course of true love never did run smooth: distance, temperament and fortune divide them. We watch the ebb and flow of love between two very different people and see the witty and wonderful Rose-Marie get exactly what she wants.
The Iron Heel
by Jack LondonThe Iron Heel treads upon the faces of the poor. Determined to crush the working class at any cost, the brutal dictatorship incites a paranoid atmosphere of witch-hunting hysteria, employing gangs of thugs to stifle free speech. Avis Everhard, wife of a labor leader, narrates this gripping novel. In moving terms, she reveals the wretched poverty that props up aristocratic wealth and recounts the desperate struggles of revolutionaries against the insidious rise of the Iron Heel. George Orwell hailed this prescient tale as "a truer prophecy of the future than either Brave New World or The Shape of Things to Come." Written more than a century ago, Jack London's harrowing vision of class warfare and a totalitarian state anticipates the development of fascism, the spread of terrorism, and the oppressive forces of government surveillance and authority. A short novel with remarkable depth, it continues to resonate with modern readers as both a satire and a warning.
The Adventures Of Elizabeth In Rugen: A Virago Modern Classic (Virago Modern Classics #397)
by Elizabeth von ArnimIn 1901 the 'real' Elizabeth holidayed on the Baltic island of Rügen with just her maid, a coachman, a carriage piled with luggage, and a woman friend. From such unpromising beginnings Elizabeth weaves a captivating farrago around her encounters. There's the snobbish bishop's wife and her personable, handsome son, a dressmaker and, astonishingly, a long-lost cousin -- Charlotte -- who is trying to evade the pursuit of her husband, the maddeningly genial old professor. Here, with delightfully astringent humour, Elizabeth recounts the misadventures that befall her. And, as she immortalised her Pomeranian wilderness in the famous ELIZABETH AND HER GERMAN GARDEN, she now writes enticingly of this remote and attractive island.
Friars Club Encyclopedia of Jokes: Revised and Updated! Over 2,000 One-Liners, Straight Lines, Stories, Gags, Roasts, Ribs, and Put-Downs
by Alan King Barry Dougherty H. Aaron Cohl Friars Club Drew CareyFinally in paperback?with lots of brand-new jokes from today's top comedians. What could be funnier than a great joke? How about 2,000 great jokes? In this side?splitting compendium, revised and updated and featuring a new introduction by Drew Carey, members of the world-renowned Friars Club and other comedians provide zingers for every occasion, situation, and taste. Organized alphabetically and by topic, this book is made for browsing, but it's also perfect for finding icebreakers for social occasions, adding a touch of humor to business speeches, and spicing up toasts. Hundreds of the best-known comedians are represented, including Sarah Silverman, Ellen Degeneres, Lewis Black, Ray Romano, Milton Berle, Carol Burnett, George Burns, George Carlin, Johnny Carson, Billy Crystal, Phyllis Diller, Bob Hope, Alan King, Richard Lewis, Bob Newhart, Rita Rudner, Jerry Seinfeld, Robin Williams, and tons more.
Kipps: With an introduction by D.J. Taylor
by H.G. Wells'FIRST ELECTRICITY. AND THEN TELEPHONES. I FEEL AS IF I WERE LIVING IN AN H G WELLS NOVEL' DOWAGER COUNTESS OF GRANTHAM'You can enjoy the novel as a jolly yarn about faux pas - there's a bit of Kipps in most of us - but you also sense that Wells found its theme a little close to the bone . . . As social inequality threatens to rise, it's hard not to wonder - despite the happy ending - if Kipps belongs to britain's future as well as its past' GuardianOrphaned at an early age, raised by his aunt and uncle, and apprenticed for seven years to a draper, Artie Kipps is stunned to discover upon reading a newspaper advertisement that he is the grandson of a wealthy gentleman and the inheritor of his fortune. Thrown dramatically into the upper classes, he struggles desperately to learn the etiquette and rules of polite society. But as he soon discovers, becoming a `true gentleman' is neither as easy nor as desirable as it at first appears...
Christian Science (Classics To Go)
by Mark TwainChristian Science is a 1907 book by the American writer Mark Twain (1835–1910). The book is a collection of essays Twain wrote about Christian Science, beginning with an article that was published in Cosmopolitan in 1899. Although Twain was interested in mental healing and the ideas behind Christian Science, he was hostile towards its founder, Mary Baker Eddy (1821–1910). Twain's first article about Christian Science was published in Cosmopolitan in 1899. A humorous work of fiction, it describes how he fell over a cliff while walking in Austria, breaking several bones. A Christian Science practitioner who lived nearby was sent for, but could not attend immediately and so undertook to provide an "absent healing."
A Double Barrelled Detective Story
by Mark TwainAmerica’s greatest satirist sets his sights on England’s most celebrated detective in this boisterous tale of revenge, murder, and the limits of logic Tortured, humiliated, and abandoned by her fiancé, a woman gives birth to a boy with an unusual gift. Blessed with a bloodhound’s sense of smell, Archy Stillman can track a man clear across the country. His mother, who has spent sixteen years dreaming of vengeance, finally has the means to achieve it. She sets her teenage son on his father’s trail with instructions to ruin the man as thoroughly as he ruined her. Years later, Archy has been swept up in the California Gold Rush when a deadly explosion rocks his mining camp. The accused, an English immigrant, begs the help of his visiting uncle: the legendary sleuth Sherlock Holmes. But the incomparable investigator will find that in the Wild West, his brilliant powers of deduction are no match for Archy’s superhuman nose. A delightful send-up of the mystery genre, A Double Barrelled Detective Story is thrilling fun from first page to last. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.
The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg: And Other Stories And Essays (The Art of the Novella)
by Mark Twain"Why, you simple creatures, the weakest of all weak things is a virtue which has not been tested in the fire."Written on hotel stationary while in Europe on the run from American creditors, soon after the death of a daughter, The Man That Corrupted Handleyburg is often cited as a work of bitter cynicism--a statement on America, to some, on the Dreyfus Case, to others--created by a weary author at the end of his career. Another appreciation, however, is that it is, simply, Mark Twain at his best. The story of a mysterious stranger who orchestrates a fraud embarrassing the hypocritical citizens of "incorruptible" Hadleyburg. The novella is an exceptionally crafted work intertwining a devious and suspenseful plot with some of the wittiest dialogue Twain ever wrote. And like the most masterful literature, it subverts any notion of easy conclusion: is Hadleyburg ruined, or liberated? Is the mysterious stranger Satan, or a hero? Is this a book of revenge, or redemption? One thing is clear: This brilliant novella is a complex and compassionate consideration of the human character by a master at the height of his form. The Art of The Novella Series Too short to be a novel, too long to be a short story, the novella is generally unrecognized by academics and publishers. Nonetheless, it is a form beloved and practiced by literature's greatest writers. In the Art Of The Novella series, Melville House celebrates this renegade art form and its practitioners with titles that are, in many instances, presented in book form for the first time.
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
by Mark TwainA nineteenth-century American travels back in time to sixth-century England in this darkly comic social satire.
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
by Edwin AbbottThe beloved science fiction classic In Flatland, the more sides a man has, the more powerful he is. Triangles are laborers and soldiers. Squares and pentagons are middle-class doctors and lawyers. Hexagons are nobility. Women, however, are straight lines, incapable of advancement in a two-dimensional world. Everything in Flatland is clear-cut and orderly, until the day an average citizen—a Square—dreams of a land of three dimensions. If three dimensions are possible, why not four? Or one? Soon, the Square&’s provocative imagination and corresponding adventures threaten to turn the whole of Flatland against him. First published in 1884, two decades before Einstein&’s theory of relativity defined time as the fourth dimension, Edwin Abbott&’s Flatland is both a prescient exploration of the unseen and a delightful skewering of Victorian social strictures. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.
The Annotated Archy and Mehitabel
by Don MarquisGenerations of readers have delighted in the work of the great American humorist Don Marquis, who was frequently compared to Mark Twain. These free-verse poems, which first appeared in Marquis's New York newspaper columns, revolve around the escapades of Archy, the philosophical cockroach who was once a poet, and Mehitabel, a streetwise alley cat who was once Cleopatra. Reincarnated as the lowest creatures on the social scale, they prowl the rowdy streets of New York City in between the world wars. The antics of these two immortal characters are now made available for the first time in their original order of publication in this unique, comprehensive collection, which features many poems never before reprinted. First time in Penguin Classics Archy and Mehitabel is considered the inspiration for E. B. White's Charlotte's Web Features many new poems never reprinted since they were first published early in the twentieth century Introduction places Marquis in the context of American humor and the history of satire .
Law of the Land
by Greg TaylorHow was it that the Torrens system, a mid-nineteenth-century reform of land titles registration from distant South Australia, gradually replaced the inherited Anglo-Canadian common law system of land registration? In The Law of the Land, Greg Taylor traces the spread of the Torrens system, from its arrival in the far-flung outpost of 1860s Victoria, British Columbia, right up to twenty-first century Ontario.Examining the peculiarity of how this system of land reform swept through some provinces like wildfire, and yet still remains completely unknown in three provinces, Taylor shows how the different histories of various regions in Canada continue to shape the law in the present day. Presenting a concise and illuminating history of land reform, he also demonstrates the power of lobbying, by examining the influence of both moneylenders and lawyers who were the first to introduce the Torrens system to Canada east of the Rockies.An exact and fluent legal history of regional law reforms, The Law of the Land is a fascinating examination of commonwealth influence, and ongoing regional differences in Canada.
Queen Lucia & Miss Mapp
by E. F. BensonE. F. Benson's beloved Mapp and Lucia novels are sparkling, classic comedies of manners set against the petty snobberies and competitive maneuverings of English village society in the 1920s and 1930s.Benson's series revolves around two unforgettable characters, both forceful and irrepressible women who dominate their respective villages in southern England and who will eventually end up hilariously at war with each other. Lucia is the more deadly of the two, with her pretentious tastes, treacherous charm, and lust for power. Miss Elizabeth Mapp, on the other hand, is younger and more forceful and able to terrify her opponents into submission. Benson introduces these splendid comic creations in the first two novels of the series, Queen Lucia (1920) and Miss Mapp (1922).
The Palliser Novels Volume One: Can You Forgive Her?, Phineas Finn, and The Eustace Diamonds (The Palliser Novels)
by Anthony TrollopeThree novels of propriety and politics in Victorian England—the basis for the BBC adaptation.Also known as the Parliamentary Novels, the first three books in Anthony Trollope&’s renowned series follow the lives of an aristocrat, his wife, and the political and social circles in which they move.Can You Forgive Her?: This revealing romp through proper society follows three different women who dare to defy Victorian standards.Phineas Finn: An adventurous Irishman sets out to find his fortune among proper English society—and winds up entering the world of Parliament.The Eustace Diamonds: An ambitious, keenly intelligent woman finds that lying is the easiest way to get through life.
Dead Famous: An Unexpected History of Celebrity from Bronze Age to Silver Screen
by Greg Jenner'Fizzes with clever vignettes and juicy tidbits... [a] joyous romp of a book.' Guardian'A magical mystery tour through the history of celebrity - eye opening, provocative, triumphant.' Kate Williams, bestselling author and historian'A fascinating, rollicking book in search of why, where and how fame strikes. Sit back and enjoy the ride.' Peter FrankopanCelebrity, with its neon glow and selfie pout, strikes us as hypermodern. But the famous and infamous have been thrilling, titillating, and outraging us for much longer than we might realise. Whether it was the scandalous Lord Byron, whose poetry sent female fans into an erotic frenzy; or the cheetah-owning, coffin-sleeping, one-legged French actress Sarah Bernhardt, who launched a violent feud with her former best friend; or Edmund Kean, the dazzling Shakespearean actor whose monstrous ego and terrible alcoholism saw him nearly murdered by his own audience - the list of stars whose careers burned bright before the Age of Television is extensive and thrillingly varied. Celebrities could be heroes or villains; warriors or murderers; brilliant talents, or fraudsters with a flair for fibbing; trendsetters, wilful provocateurs, or tragic victims marketed as freaks of nature. Some craved fame while others had it forced upon them. A few found fame as small children, some had to wait decades to get their break. But uniting them all is the shared origin point: since the early 1700s, celebrity has been one of the most emphatic driving forces in popular culture; it is a lurid cousin to Ancient Greek ideas of glorious and notorious reputation, and its emergence helped to shape public attitudes to ethics, national identity, religious faith, wealth, sexuality, and gender roles. In this ambitious history, that spans the Bronze Age to the coming of Hollywood's Golden Age, Greg Jenner assembles a vibrant cast of over 125 actors, singers, dancers, sportspeople, freaks, demigods, ruffians, and more, in search of celebrity's historical roots. He reveals why celebrity burst into life in the early eighteenth century, how it differs to ancient ideas of fame, the techniques through which it was acquired, how it was maintained, the effect it had on public tastes, and the psychological burden stardom could place on those in the glaring limelight. DEAD FAMOUS is a surprising, funny, and fascinating exploration of both a bygone age and how we came to inhabit our modern, fame obsessed society.
How the Two Ivans Quarrelled (The Art of the Novella)
by Nikolai Gogol John Cournos"How dared you, in disregard of all decency, call me a goose?"This lesser-known work is perhaps the perfect distillation of Nikolai Gogol's genius: a tale simultaneously animated by a joyful, nearly slapstick sense of humor alongside a resigned cynicism about the human condition. In a sharp-edged translation from John Cournos, an under-appreciated early translator of Russian literature into English, How The Two Ivans Quarreled is the story of two long-time friends who have a falling out when one of them calls the other a "goose." From there, the argument intensifies and the escalation becomes more and more ludicrous. Never losing its generous antic spirit, the story nonetheless transitions from whither a friendship, to whither humanity, as it progresses relentlessly to its moving conclusion. The Art of The Novella Series Too short to be a novel, too long to be a short story, the novella is generally unrecognized by academics and publishers. Nonetheless, it is a form beloved and practiced by literature's greatest writers. In the Art Of The Novella series, Melville House celebrates this renegade art form and its practitioners with titles that are, in many instances, presented in book form for the first time.
The Mummy!: A Victorian Tale of the 22nd Century
by Jane Webb LoudonWithin a decade of the 1818 publication of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, another Englishwoman invented a foundational work of science fiction. Seventeen-year-old Jane Webb Loudon took up the theme of reanimation, moved it three hundred years into the future, and applied it to Cheops, an ancient Egyptian mummy. Unlike Shelley's horrifying, death-dealing monster, this revivified creature bears the wisdom of the ages and is eager to share his insights with humanity. Cheops boards a hot-air balloon and travels to 22nd-century England, where he sets about remedying the ills of a corrupt government.In recounting Cheops' attempts to put the futuristic society to rights, the young author offers a fascinating portrait of the preoccupations of her own era as well as some remarkably prescient predictions of technological advances. The Mummy! envisions a world in which automatons perform surgery, undersea tunnels connect England and Ireland, weather-control devices provide crop irrigation, and messages are transmitted with the speed of cannonball fire. The first novel to feature the concept of a living mummy, this pioneering tale offers an engaging mix of comedy, politics, and science fiction.
The Stoned Family Robinson
by J. D. Wyss J. P. LinderFor many days we had been tempest-tossed--and our stash was soaked. Six times had the darkness closed over a gnarly scene, and returning light as often brought a renewed jones while the storm raged on and after seven days all hope was lost of finding that magical island to grow our free-range weed unnoticed by narcs. Forget the classic you knew as a child; you've never seen the Robinsons have so much fun being shipwrecked--until now. In this "highlarious" update of the beloved family adventure, you can smoke up with the whole Robinson family while they are shipwrecked on an uncharted tropical island. From constructing a home made entirely of weed and sampling the millions of strains of pot they find on the island to trying to make a bong out of a coconut, this book will leave you jonesing for more!
Dragon Wizard (Dragon Princess #3)
by S. Andrew SwannIt has been a year since former thief Frank Blackthorne became Princess of Lendowyn and married a dragon. He's coming to terms with his new life, but during the royal anniversary banquet, an elven prince reads a scroll of evil magic and Frank's world is turned upside-down. Again. The scroll's spell causes a murderous rampage in a palace full of noble dignitaries, so it's no surprise Frank's visitors are angry. The Elf-King Timoras threatens war but Frank can't do anything about it: because of the same bit of scroll magic, the ex-Dragon Lucille has taken over the princess's body, unaware that Frank is still there, locked in her skull. And worst of all, the fate of everyone may soon rest on the shoulders of the man responsible for the whole mess, someone who should be safely dead...
What Would Jurgen Klopp Do?: Life Lessons from a Champion
by Tom VictorTHE PERFECT GIFT FOR FOOTBALL FANSThere's no one quite like Klopp. Players love him, Liverpool fans love him - even those who should hate him, want a hug from him. He's charismatic, charming, a master tactician and his unrivalled passion for his team and the game has made him one of football's most beloved personalities.So, let's face it, in these uncertain times, we all could do with being a bit more like Klopp. The perfect gift for any football fan in your life; from how to make the perfect dinner-party klopptails to cultivating your Top of the Klopps playlist - this is a celebration of football's greatest manager and a guide to winning in your own life.'All of us have to do whatever we can to protect one another. This should be the case all the time in life, but in this moment I think it matters more than ever.' - Jurgen Klopp
The Horrors
by Charles DemersComedian-author Charlie Demers, whose brain-bending brand of black humour will be familiar to followers of CBC Radio's The Debaters, offers his madcap perspective in a new collection of essays highlighting a wide range of topics under the heading of Bad Things. The Horrors is presented abecedarian-style, despoiling a beloved children's book tradition in order to explore personal hangups that range from the slightly awkward to the down-right terrible.Beginning with 'A' for 'Adolescence,' Demers recalls his sexless teenage years spent in a Trotskyist sect, and 'B' for 'Bombing' offers a first-person account of the agonies of stand-up comedy gone wrong. 'E' for 'End of the World' explores the wacky world of Preppers (YouTube how-to-prepare-for-the-apocalypse experts), while 'F' for 'Fat' explains what life is like for those with both testicles and breasts. Other essays creep toward the pain side of the hilarity/agony line: 'D' for 'Depression' and 'M' for 'Motherlessness' traverse topics that more balanced minds might hesitate to make light of.Fortunately, Demers does not let tact or sensibility deter him from pushing humour to its hysterical limit in order to examine our deepest fears. With artful insight, he never minimizes the very real pain inherent in some topics and uses comedy as a catharsis rather than a numbing agent. Dark, smart and funny, in the sunny world of The Book of Awesome and The Happiness Project, The Horrors will be a shadow... or at least a shadow puppet.