A terrible accident say the local police. But why did Beulah leave her cabin without a coat? It was thirty below in Parson's Cove. Someone must have forced her, amateur sleuth, Mabel Wickles suggests to her friend, Flori. Nobody seems to know anything, and Mabel is becoming frustrated.When Mabel witnesses some strange goings-on one night in the vacant house next door, she perks up. A person or persons unknown appear to be using the empty house for nefarious purposes. Could they be connected to Beulah's death? Mabel suspects they might and she sets out to investigate.But Mabel should be cautious. One unsuspecting resident of Parson's Cove has already slipped and died. She might be next.

    At the time Jameson was actually writing the book, in the mid to late seventies, there was a major reaction against deconstruction and poststructuralism. As one of the most significant literary theorists, Jameson found himself in the unenviable position of wanting to defend his intellectual past yet keep an eye on the future. With this book he carried it off beautifully. A landmark publication, The Political Unconscious takes its place as one of the most meaningful works of the twentieth century.

    

    . .We know what life was like for Victoria and Albert, but what was it like for a commoner? How did it feel to cook with coal and wash with tea leaves? Drink beer for breakfast and clean your teeth with cuttlefish? Dress in whalebone and feed opium to the baby? Catch the omnibus to work and wash laundry while wearing a corset? How To Be A Victorian is a new approach to history, a journey back in time more intimate, personal, and physical than anything before. It is one told from the inside out--how our forebears interacted with the practicalities of their world--and it's a history of those things that make up the day-to-day reality of life, matters so small and seemingly mundane that people scarcely mention them in their diaries or letters. Moving through the rhythm of the day, from waking up to the sound of a knocker-upper man poking a stick at your window, to retiring for nocturnal activities, when the door finally closes on twenty-four hours of life, this astonishing guide illuminates the overlapping worlds of health, sex, fashion, food, school, work, and play.If you liked The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century or 1000 Years of Annoying the French, you will love this book.

    Now How Beautiful It Is And How Easily It Can Be Broken reveals all at once the enormous stature of Mendelsohn's achievement and demonstrates why he is considered one of our greatest critics. Writing with a lively intelligence and arresting originality, he brings his distinctive combination of scholarly rigor and conversational ease to bear across eras, cultures, and genres, from Roman games to video games.His interpretations of our most talked-about films—from the work of Pedro Almodóvar to Brokeback Mountain, from United 93 and World Trade Center to 300, Marie Antoinette, and The Hours—have sparked debate and changed the way we watch movies. Just as stunning and influential are his dispatches on theater and literature, from The Producers to Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex, from The Lovely Bones to the works of Harold Pinter. Together these thirty brilliant and engaging essays passionately articulate the themes that have made Daniel Mendelsohn a crucial voice in today's cultural conversation: the aesthetic and indeed political dangers of imposing contemporary attitudes on the great classics; the ruinous effect of sentimentality on the national consciousness in the post-9/11 world; the vital importance of the great literature of the past for a meaningful life in the present.How Beautiful It Is And How Easily It Can Be Broken makes it clear that no other contemporary thinker is as engaged with as many aspects of our culture and its influences as Mendelsohn is, and no one practices the vanishing art of popular criticism with more acuity, humor, and feeling.

    A VINTAGE ORIGINAL.What do we see when we read? Did Tolstoy really describe Anna Karenina? Did Melville ever really tell us what, exactly, Ishmael looked like? The collection of fragmented images on a page - a graceful ear there, a stray curl, a hat positioned just so - and other clues and signifiers helps us to create an image of a character. But in fact our sense that we know a character intimately has little to do with our ability to concretely picture our beloved - or reviled - literary figures.In this remarkable work of nonfiction, Knopf's Associate Art Director Peter Mendelsund combines his profession, as an award-winning designer; his first career, as a classically trained pianist; and his first love, literature - he thinks of himself first, and foremost, as a reader - into what is sure to be one of the most provocative and unusual investigations into how we understand the act of reading.

    Their first biographer, Mrs Gaskell, transformed their story of literary ambition into one of the great legends of the 19th century, a dramatic tale of three lonely sisters playing out their tragic destiny on top of a windswept moor. Lucasta Miller reveals where this image came from and how it took such a hold on the popular imagination.Each generation has rewritten the Brontës to reflect changing attitudes - towards the role of the woman writer, towards sexuality, towards the very concept of personality. The Brontë Myth gives vigorous new life to our understanding of the novelists and their culture. It is a witty, erudite and refreshingly unsentimental unravelling of what Henry James described as "the most complete intellectual muddle ever achieved on a literary question by our wonderful public."

    The Hands of Time: When a young American woman vanishes without a trace from a quaint fishing village on the coast of England only one person knows the truth, but he remains silent, safe in the knowledge that she will never be found. Meanwhile, Valerie Crane finds herself transported to the year 1605. Terrified and confused, she turns for help to the Whitfield brothers, who take her in and offer her a home. Both Alexander and Finlay Whitfield fall in love with the mysterious woman who shows up on their doorstep, creating a love triangle that threatens to consume them all. Valerie must make her choice, deciding between the brother who will lead her down the path of destruction and one who will give her the love she couldn’t find in her own time. A Leap of Faith: Alone and bereft, Valerie’s sister, Louisa, makes the fateful decision to follow her sister into the seventeenth century. But, the best laid plans often go awry, and she finds herself on the wrong continent, and in the wrong year. Louisa must cross the Atlantic to get to Virginia, hoping that Valerie is still there in 1620, and face the uncertainty of her situation as she makes the dangerous journey to the New World. Will the two sisters reunite, or will they pass like ships in the night, never knowing how close they came to finding each other? A World Apart: Reunited with her sister at last, Louisa settles in colonial Virginia, but an unexpected visitor throws life into turmoil once again by offering Valerie and Louisa an opportunity to return to the future. Before the sisters have a chance to make a decision, the unthinkable happens; ripping the family apart, and scattering them over continents and time itself. No one is spared as child is torn from parents, sister is parted from sister, and a devastating famine threatens the colony. The Whitfields and Sheridans must fight for survival and face challenges they never imagined as they are cast a world apart. A Game of Shadows: It’s 1624, and the Whitfields finally arrive in England, eager to spend time with Louisa and Kit, but their visit is not the happy reunion they’d hoped for. In the meantime in 1777, Abbie and Finn go behind enemy lines to spy for the Revolution, putting themselves in grave danger. The slightest mistake can mean the difference between life and death, and tear them apart forever. Even Finn’s knowledge of what’s to come is not enough to keep them safe from their own carelessness. Unexpected revelations, long-buried secrets, and unforeseen reunions threaten to destroy everything the Whitfields and Sheridans hold dear, throwing their lives into turmoil once again. Shattered Moments: Murder, blackmail, long buried secrets, and a tender new romance take center stage in Shattered Moments, the final installment of The Hands of Time Series as the Whitfields and Sheridans face their toughest challenges yet.

    Maggie Nelson provides the first extended consideration of the roles played by women in and around the New York School of poets, from the 1950s to the present, and offers unprecedented analyses of the work of Barbara Guest, Bernadette Mayer, Alice Notley, Eileen Myles, and abstract painter Joan Mitchell as well as a reconsideration of the work of many male New York School writers and artists from a feminist perspective.

    . . Powers of Horror is an excellent introduction to an aspect of contemporary French literature which has been allowed to become somewhat neglected in the current emphasis on paraphilosophical modes of discourse. The sections on Céline, for example, are indispensable reading for those interested in this writer and place him within a context that is both illuminating and of general interest." -Paul de Man

     When criminal defense attorney Dylan Wood returns from a defeat in the courtroom, he thinks the worst is over. His client will go to prison, and Dylan will move on. But he learns the hard way that not every client is willing to accept the judgment of his peers. Suddenly Dylan has twenty-four hours to overturn the guilty verdict. If he fails, a ruthless, sexy woman who gives new meaning to the term femme fatale will go public with the dark secret of Dylan's own past, destroying his life and those of everyone he loves. This time Dylan is defending himself, and he'll do whatever it takes to survive—even if it means breaking the laws he's sworn to uphold. Web of Lies is a standalone thriller, set in the same Philadelphia legal world as the Jessie Black Legal Thriller series. (Although prosecutor Jessie Black appears in the story, she is not the main character.) If you like gritty crime stories, vividly-drawn characters, and surprising twists and turns, you'll love Larry A. Winters's page-turning story of justice gone crazy. Buy Web of Lies to experience this nail-biting legal thriller today!

    He is quickly disappointed when a dead body turns up floating in the Great Dismal Swamp. And this is not just any dead body. Ashley Myrtle was the wife of a prominent local politician. Greg soon discovers that Ashley, an apparent drowning victim, may have been murdered. Unfortunately, no one wants to believe him. The mayor, the woman's husband, an old boyfriend and even her coworkers seem eager to rule her death an accidental drowning. With help from a reluctant FBI agent, Greg follows a trail of small town secrets and lies to discover what really happened on that cold spring day. Refusing to give up, he discovers a vital clue deep in the swamp that leads to the killer. But justice won't be served until he can prove it was a case of murder.

    But when her con man cousin Nick suddenly disappears, Kate’s own plans are put on hold as she is forced to deal with bounty hunters, criminals, and a relentless private detective, all looking for Nick - and looking to Kate for answers. Spurred on by family loyalty and her reluctant curiosity, Kate wades into the murky waters of Nick’s illegal activities and finds herself facing her greatest challenge yet: office work.Fresh and very funny, Happy Endings wraps up the Kate McCall series, which features a fearless and impulsive young woman absolutely determined to make a success of her business on her own terms and in her own way. Written for fans of humorous fiction as well as those who like imperfect female PIs and quirky cases, this lighthearted series will also appeal to anyone who enjoys a great read, memorable characters and a happy ending.

    S. Eliot, Marcel Proust, James Joyce, and Gertrude Stein. As Alfred Kazin later wrote, "Wilson was an original, an extraordinary literary artist . . . He could turn any literary subject back into the personal drama it had been for the writer."

    He found in the fabric of familiar episodes new shades of meaning, new configurations of character and intent. He brought a poetic imagination to the task of reconstructing a live tradition for Americans, and the result is a genuinely consistent and integrated expression of the American inheritance. Williams did not invent the native conscience, but he rediscovered it, often in the more remote gestures of history, and has here given it enduring stature in prose."In the American Grain is a fundamental book, essential if one proposes to come to terms with American literature." -- Times Literary Supplement