- Table View
- List View
Present Times: A Novel
by David StoreyFrom "the leading novelist of his generation" (the Daily Telegraph)--a story about marriage, family, and 1 man's 2nd chance At age 47, former playwright Frank Attercliffe lives with 2 of his 5 children in a 4-bedroom apartment on Walton Lane on the outskirts of an English suburb. For the past 3 years, his wife, Sheila, has been living with Maurice, a car dealer who owns a Rolls-Royce, a Bentley, and a Jaguar--a man rumored to have killed 3 people in car accidents. Attercliffe cowrites a weekend football roundup for the local sports column, and after a match, he is introduced to the beautiful actress Phyllis Gardner at his favorite watering hole. That night, however, Sheila comes home, having left Maurice and given up her current lover, Gavin. She wants to move back to Walton Lane with the entire family--but she wants Attercliffe to move out. With its cast of eccentric and endearing characters, including Attercliffe's loquacious fellow journalists, his alcoholic mentor, and the daughters who force him to live in the moment, Present Times is a novel about marriage, changing family values, and 2nd acts.
A Serious Man: A Novel
by David StoreyA successful playwright, painter, and novelist confronts his mortality and the past during a major life crisis in this novel by Man Booker Prize–winning author David Storey Richard Fenchurch has had a long and successful career as a playwright, painter, and novelist. But at age 65, he is coming apart at the seams. Fearing he will do something drastic if he remains alone, Fenchurch&’s married daughter, Harriet, takes charge of his life. She moves her father from his squalid London apartment to his ancestral mansion, where he courted his 1st wife—Harriet&’s mother, Bea—whom he met at a Christmas dance. Home again, with ghosts all around, Fenchurch journeys back in time while struggling to maintain his freedom and sanity. Past and present seamlessly intersect through the rich landscape of memory as Fenchurch begins to ruminate on his passionate affair 35 years earlier with his mother-in-law. In spite of their nearly 30-year age difference, the beautiful, exotic Isabella became the enduring love of his life. He relives his other romantic relationships as well, and through it all is plagued by self-doubt, depression, and guilt about how he has fared as a husband, a father, a friend, and a lover. Both a witty, spot-on portrayal of the indignities of age and an ardent evocation of youthful love, A Serious Man is above all a story about family.
A Temporary Life: A Novel
by David StoreyAn art teacher searches for meaning in a strange town as his wife spirals into madness in this stunning novel from Man Booker Prize-winning author David Storey Colin Freestone had not planned to live in northern England. The people here are so passionate and raw that he does not expect to ever understand them or feel at ease. But when his wife, Yvonne, fell sick, she would only accept psychiatric care if she could be near her mother, so Colin had no choice but to move north. As Yvonne wastes away in the hospital, sinking deeper and deeper into a terrifying and incomprehensible madness, Colin tries to make sense of his strange surroundings. He may live here now, but he will never call it home. To pass the time, he takes a job teaching art at a second-rate college that is headed by a nutrition-crazed dean. Colin makes friends, meets women, and plays tennis, but nothing can distract him from the fact that his wife is slowly dying and he is helpless to stop it.
Thin-Ice Skater: A Novel
by David StoreyA 17-year-old is sent to the country to live with his much-older half-brother and falls into an unexpected affair in this novel by Man Booker Prize-winning author David Storey The narrator of Storey's 11th novel is an angst-ridden 17-year-old who shares intimate details of his life in the form of memos written to himself. Born in Beverly Hills, California, Richard "Rick" Audlin now lives with his film producer half-brother, Gerry--who is 35-years his senior--in a rambling old Victorian house in Hampstead. Gerry's 2nd wife, Martha, is a former film star who has been committed to a mental institution. When Gerry has to go abroad on business, he trundles Rick off to the home of his long-estranged sibling, James (Rick's other half-brother), who lives on the outskirts of a remote village and is the author of 7 unpublished crime novels. It is James's wife, Clare, who meets Rick at the station. Flirty and attractive, she soon draws Rick into an illicit liaison. But Rick senses that something else is going on--something that will eventually lead him to a shattering secret in his family . . . and the thin ice they're all skating on.
Vintage Book Of Fathers
by L Guinness Louise GuinnessIdeal fathers, cruel fathers, puffed-up-with-pride fathers, horribly and humanly flawed fathers: this wonderful anthology contains a whole range of experience from the amazed joy of new fatherhood, to the pains of bereavement, from the comic and eccentric Papa to the sinister and silent Dad. Louise Guinness has collected irresistible extracts spanning nearly three thousand years, from Homer and the Bible to present day, from Chaucer to Beatrix Potter, Rabelais to Seamus Heaney.
Conversation Piece (Virago Modern Classics #219)
by Molly KeaneWhen Oliver visits Pullinstown, he is introduced to wild days of hunting and shooting, and to characters like his cousins, with their passion for horses and trickery, and Sir Richard, elderly, but a match for his headstrong offspring. The author has also written under the pseudonym, M.J. Farrell.
I'll Never Be Young Again (Virago Modern Classics #116)
by Daphne Du MaurierA COMING-OF-AGE TALE OF ADVENTURE AND LOVE, FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF REBECCA'The iron of the bridge felt hot under my hand. The sun had been upon it all day. Gripping hard with my hands I lifted myself on to the bar and gazed down steadily on the water passing under . . . I thought of places I would never see, and women I should never love'As far as Richard's father, a famous poet, is concerned, his son has no talent as a writer and will never amount to anything. In a moment of crisis, Richard decides to end his life, but is saved by Jake, a passing stranger. The two men, both at turning points in their lives, set out for adventure, jumping aboard a ship to Norway. Their travels take them through Europe and they form a passionate friendship. But in bohemian Paris Richard meets Hesta, a music student who inspires him to follow his artistic dreams.No other popular writer has so triumphantly defied classification . . . She satisfied all the questionable criteria of popular fiction, and yet satisfied the exacting requirements of "real literature", something very few novelists ever do - Margaret Forster
The Olivia Curtis Novels: Invitation to the Waltz and The Weather in the Streets (The Olivia Curtis Novels #2)
by Rosamond LehmannTen years separate these two poignant novels featuring the same young woman, by the New York Times–bestselling “novelist in the grand tradition” (Anita Brookner). British novelist Rosamond Lehmann “has always written brilliantly of women in love” (Margaret Drabble). In her pair of novels featuring Olivia Curtis—a shy, romantic, and hopeful seventeen-year-old looking forward to her first dance, and later, a sadder young woman in her twenties who still longs to capture lost passion—Lehmann creates “a completely compelling intimacy” that lingers long after the stories are over (Hermione Lee, The Guardian). Invitation to the Waltz: Seventeen-year-old Olivia Curtis has been invited to her first dance. She is thrilled and terrified. In her diary, she confides her hopes, doubts, and fears—about her pretty, confident older sister, Kate; her precocious baby brother, James; her eccentric country neighbors; and of course, the upcoming party, which she is sure will be the crowning event of her life. Divided into three parts—Olivia’s birthday, the day leading up to the dance, and the event itself—Invitation to the Waltz beautifully captures the conflicting emotions of a teenager on the threshold of womanhood. “Utterly charming and so desperately true that it almost hurts.” —The New York Times The Weather in the Streets: Ten years older with a failed marriage behind her, Olivia runs into Rollo Spencer, her girlhood crush from the ball, on a train, and is swept up in a heated but clandestine affair, since Rollo is married. Lehmann’s “honest” and “powerful” novel charts the tempestuous course of Olivia and Rollo’s forbidden relationship, from the first throes of passion through the toll of their deception on Olivia as she confronts the harsh reality of being the other woman (Kirkus Reviews). “A vividly realized, painfully convincing story of a love affair, written in Lehmann’s characteristic spare, poetic prose.” —Joyce Carol Oates
The Physiology of Marriage
by Honoré De BalzacMarriage is not an institution of nature. The family in the east is entirely different from the family in the west. Man is the servant of nature and the institutions of society are grafts, not spontaneous growths of nature. Laws are made to suit manners, and manners vary.
Private Life
by Mary Ann Newman Josep Maria De SagarraPrivate Life holds up a mirror to the moral corruption in the interstices of the Barcelona high society Sagarra was born into. Boudoirs of demimonde tramps, card games dilapidating the fortunes of milquetoast aristocrats - and how they scheme to conceal them - fading manors of selfish scions, and back rooms provided by social-climbing seamstresses are portrayed in vivid, sordid, and literary detail. The novel, practically a roman-à-clef for its contemporaries, was a scandal in 1932. The 1960's edition was bowdlerized by Franco's censors. Part Lampedusa, part Genet, this translation will bring an essential piece of 20th-century European literature to the English-speaking public.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Eight Little Faces
by Kate GosselinBecoming the parents of eight children in less than four years has definitely presented both trials and blessings to Jon and Kate Gosselin. In this very personal close-up of their family life, Kate comments on the life lessons God has taught her. Featuring themes like trust, perseverance, joy, and encouragement, each two-page spread includes a photograph from the Gosselin family album, words from Kate, and topical Scripture verses. This book makes the perfect gift for any fan of the Gosselin’s television show Jon & Kate Plus 8, which is featured on TLC, as well as any mother struggling with the demands of small children.
The Fortnight in September: A Novel
by R.C. SherriffThis charming, timeless classic about a family of five setting out on their annual seaside vacation is &“the most uplifting, life-affirming novel I can think of...the beautiful dignity to be found in everyday living has rarely been captured more delicately&” (Kazuo Ishiguro).Meet the Stevens family, as they prepare to embark on their yearly holiday to the coast of England. Mr. and Mrs. Stevens first made the trip to Bognor Regis on their honeymoon, and the tradition has continued ever since. They stay in the same guest house and follow the same carefully honed schedule—now accompanied by their three children, twenty-year-old Mary, seventeen-year-old Dick, and little brother Ernie. Arriving in Bognor they head to Seaview, the guesthouse where they stay every year. It&’s a bit shabbier than it once was—the landlord has died and his wife is struggling as the number of guests dwindles every year. But the family finds bliss in booking a slightly bigger cabana, with a balcony, and in their rediscovery of the familiar places they visit every year. Mr. Stevens goes on his annual walk across the downs, reflecting on his life, his worries and disappointments, and returns refreshed. Mrs. Stevens treasures an hour spent sitting alone with her medicinal glass of port. Mary has her first small taste of romance. And Dick pulls himself out of the malaise he&’s sunk into since graduation, resolving to work towards a new career. The Stevenses savor every moment of their holiday, aware that things may not be the same next year. Delightfully nostalgic and soothing, The Fortnight in September is an extraordinary novel about ordinary people enjoying life&’s simple pleasures.
Highland Fling
by Nancy MitfordIn Highland Fling--Nancy Mitford's first novel, published in 1931--a set of completely incompatible and hilariously eccentric characters collide in a Scottish castle, where bright young things play pranks on their stodgy elders until the frothy plot climaxes in ghost sightings and a dramatic fire. Inspired in part by Mitford's youthful infatuation with a Scottish aristocrat, her story follows young Jane Dacre to a shooting party at Dulloch Castle, where she tramps around a damp and chilly moor on a hunting expedition with formidable Lady Prague, xenophobic General Murgatroyd, one-eyed Admiral Wenceslaus, and an assortment of other ancient and gouty peers of the realm, while falling in love with Albert, a surrealist painter with a mischievous sense of humor. Lighthearted and sparkling with witty banter, Highland Fling was Mitford's first foray into the delightful fictional world for which the author of The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate later became so celebrated.With an Introduction by Julian Fellowes, creator of Downton Abbey.
The Loving Spirit (Vmc Ser. #548)
by Daphne Du MaurierDaphne du Maurier's lushly written novel . . . is a rapturous celebration of the beauties of the Cornish landscape - Michele Roberts----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Cornwall, 1900s. Plyn Boat Yard is a hive of activity, and Janet Coombe longs to share in the excitement of seafaring: to travel, to have adventures, to know freedom.But constrained by the times, instead she marries her cousin Thomas, a boat builder, and settles down to raise a family.Janet's loving spirit - the passionate yearning for adventure and for love - is passed down to her son, and through him to his children's children. As generations of the family struggle against hardship and loss, their intricately plotted history is set against the greater backdrop of war and social change in Britain. Her debut novel, The Loving Spirit established du Maurier's reputation and style with an inimitable blend of romance, history and adventure.
The Loving Spirit (Virago Modern Classics #128)
by Daphne Du MaurierDaphne du Maurier's lushly written novel . . . is a rapturous celebration of the beauties of the Cornish landscape - Michele Roberts ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Cornwall, 1900s. Plyn Boat Yard is a hive of activity, and Janet Coombe longs to share in the excitement of seafaring: to travel, to have adventures, to know freedom.But constrained by the times, instead she marries her cousin Thomas, a boat builder, and settles down to raise a family.Janet's loving spirit - the passionate yearning for adventure and for love - is passed down to her son, and through him to his children's children. As generations of the family struggle against hardship and loss, their intricately plotted history is set against the greater backdrop of war and social change in Britain. Her debut novel, The Loving Spirit established du Maurier's reputation and style with an inimitable blend of romance, history and adventure.
Mad Puppetstown (Virago Modern Classics #225)
by Molly KeaneIn the early 1900s Easter lives with her Aunt Brenda, her cousins Evelyn and Basil, and their Great-Aunt Dicksie in an imposing country house, Puppetstown, which casts a spell over their childhood. Here they spend carefree days taunting the peacocks in Aunt Dicksie's garden, shooting snipe and woodcock, hunting, and playing with Patsy, the boot boy. But the house and its inhabitants are not immune to the 'little, bitter, forgotten war in Ireland' and when it finally touches their lives all flee to England. All except Aunt Dicksie who refuses to surrender Puppetstown's magic. She stays on with Patsy, living in a corner of the deserted house while in England the cousins are groomed for Society. But for two of them those wild, lost Puppetstown years cannot be forgotten.
East Wind: The Saga of a Chinese Family (Oriental Novels Of Peal S. Buck Ser. #Vol. 8)
by Pearl S. BuckThe classic coming-of-age novel about a young Chinese woman torn between Eastern and Western cultures by the Nobel Prize–winning author of The Good Earth. Kwei-lan is a traditional Chinese girl—taught by her mother to submit in all things, &“as a flower submits to sun and rain alike.&” Her marriage was arranged before she was born. As she approaches her wedding day, she&’s surprised by one aspect of her anticipated life: Her husband-to-be has been educated abroad and follows many Western ideas that Kwei-lan was raised to reject. When circumstances push the couple out of the family home, Kwei-lan finds her assumptions about tradition and modernity tested even further. East Wind: West Wind is a sensitive, early exploration of the cross-cultural themes that went on to become a hallmark of Buck&’s acclaimed novels. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Pearl S. Buck including rare images from the author&’s estate.
The Fool of the Family
by Margaret KennedyContinuing the story of the Sanger family that began in The Constant Nymph, this novel focuses on Caryl, the only member of the Sanger family who seems to lack talent and a spirit of adventure. Central to the novel is Caryl's complex relationship with his talented, wayward brother Sebastian. When Sebastian seduces Fenella, the girl Caryl hopes to marry, lifelong tensions come to a head.
A Note In Music: A Novel (Virago Modern Classics #243)
by Rosamond LehmannGrace Fairfax lives with her dull, conventional husband Tom in a grey manufacturing town in the north of England. At thirty-four she finds that her external life of dreary routine fails to match up to her lush, wistful and dreamy internal life. Norah, her energetic and chaotic friend, is equally settled in her own marriage to an irritable university professor.Then Hugh Miller and his sister Claire descend upon the quiet town. On all four, the hypnotic charm of these two visitors exerts an enchanting spell. And after their departure, life - having been violently disrupted - will never be quite the same again . . .
Warning Hill: A Novel
by John P. MarquandA poor boy falls in love with a privileged young woman and learns a bitter lesson about the haves and the have-nots in this dramatic tale from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Late George Apley As a young boy, Tom Michael walked with his father, Alfred, along the streets of Michael's Harbor, Massachusetts, and gazed across the water at the stately mansions on Warning Hill. Imagining the lives of the families inside those majestic homes was an enjoyable distraction, a cherished bond between father and son. Years later, after the shocking tragedy of his father's suicide, Tom holds the memory of those walks dear. When he meets and falls in love with Marianne Jellett, daughter of the self-made millionaire Grafton Jellett, he is thrilled to know one of Warning Hill's most prominent families. He is wholly unprepared for the pain that Marianne will cause him, and for the discovery of a connection between the ruthless Grafton and his father's death. A mesmerizing tale of passion, power, and vengeance, Warning Hill was the first of John P. Marquand's novels to be set in the stratified New England landscape that defined his legendary career.
Ex-Wife
by Ursula ParrottAn instant bestseller when it was published anonymously in 1929—the story of a divorce and its aftermath, which scandalized the Jazz Age. It's 1924, and Peter and Patricia have what looks to be a very modern marriage. Both drink. Both smoke. Both work, Patricia as a head copywriter at a major department store. When it comes to sex with other people, both believe in &“the honesty policy.&” Until they don&‘t. Or, at least, until Peter doesn&‘t—and a shell-shocked, lovesick Patricia finds herself starting out all over again, but this time around as a different kind of single woman: the ex-wife. An instant bestseller when it was published anonymously in 1929, Ex-Wife captures the speakeasies, night clubs, and parties that defined Jazz Age New York—alongside the morning-after aspirin and calisthenics, the lunch-hour visits to the gym, the girl-talk, and the freedoms and anguish of solitude. It also casts a cool eye on the bedrooms and the doctor&’s offices where, despite rising hemlines, the men still call the shots. The result is a unique view of what its author Ursula Parrott called &“the era of the one-night stand&”: an era very much like our own.
Taking Chances (Virago Modern Classics #226)
by Molly KeaneThose who suffered because of her might think of Mary that she hurt others, herself she could not hurt; but Jer, knowing her better...knew she hurt herself perhaps most deeply. Since the death of her parents, Roguey, Maeve and Jer have cared for one another and for Sorristown, their elegant home. Together they have fished and hunted, unravelled secrets by bedroom fires and sipped gin cocktails. But this pattern of intimacy is about to be broken by Maeve's marriage to Rowley. A week before the wedding, her bridesmaid Mary arrives. Meeting her for the first time Rowley describes Mary as a 'factor for disturbance', little realising the extent to which his prophecy will prove true for each of them.
Young Entry (Virago Modern Classics #232)
by Molly KeanePrudence, at nineteen, is reckless, laughing, wild; the despair of her elderly guardians. With her best friend, the subversive but very female Peter, she rackets round the Irish countryside among her beloved horses and dogs. But she feels betrayed by Peter's growing interest in the new Master of Hounds, 'Saxon' Major Anthony Countless. And what is Prudence to make of handsome Toby Sage, neighbour, huntsman and accredited flirt? Or of an inexplicable haunting? First published in 1928, this high-spirited novel with its subtle erotic undercurrents, is a glorious story of a ramshackle, tolerant society and of Prudence's turbulent coming of age.
All the Conspirators
by Christopher IsherwoodParents and children are still just as deadly but they are no longer invariably polite and restrained, and there are no longer (as Cyril Connolly once put it) "atrocities witnessed at tea in the drawing-room." Christopher Isherwood was only twenty-one when he began his first novel, All the Conspirators, in 1926; it was published in England two years later. In his introduction to the first American edition (published by New Directions in 1958), the author explained: "[All the Conspirators] records a minor engagement in what Shelley calls 'the great war between the old and young.'" In many ways this novel (like the classic Berlin Stories) is a "period piece" growing out of a particular historical situation--clashes between parents and children are still just as deadly but they are no longer invariably polite and restrained, and there are no longer (as Cyril Connolly once put it) "atrocities witnessed at tea in the drawing-room." But Isherwood's singular perceptions of the older generation holding on and the younger trying to wrench free are as valid today as they were half a century ago.
Downright Dencey
by Caroline Dale SnedekerThis treasure of a novel is set on the island of Nantucket just before the War of 1812. Much more than a tale of whaling ships and gentle Quaker eccentricities, it is a tale of friendship-the kind most truly espoused by these 'plain' folk, with all the struggle and complexity one should expect. Dionis (Dencey) Coffyn is a mystery to her mother, Lydia, whose stern exterior hides a heart that breaks every time her husband Captain Tom goes to sea. Within a context of outward simplicity of living and inward intricacy of relationship, Dencey matures from the little girl who, in unquakerly violence of temper, throws a rock that wounds the town outcast. She becomes a young woman ready to bear her part in life with grace and courage. "Downright Dencey" is a probing portrayal of the power of love to overcome social barriers and religious strictures.<P><P> Newbery Medal Honors book