Nowhere does his art appear in so quintessential a form as in Notes from Underground, certainly one of the most revolutionary and original works in world literature; nowhere is his thought presented with such authority as in "The Grand Inquisitor," an episode of central importance taken from his last and greatest novel, The Brothers Karamazov. In both these vital works Dostoevsky confronts the reader with the tragic grandeur of man, indeed, with a whole philosophy of tragedy: the tragedy of the individual and freedom, the tragedy of the historical process, the tragedy of universal evil.Relevant works included by Chernyshevsky, Schedrin and Dostoevsky.

    Yet when left alone for a few days by his brother, he struggles with his overwhelming desire for alcohol, succumbs to it and, in the resulting prolonged agony, goes over much of his life up to and including the lost weekend.

    Meticulously researched, this is more than a last-days thriller. It is a passionate, convicting, and moving portrait of the character and heart of Christ.In book one, Blood of Heaven, death-row inmate Michael Coleman serves as the guinea pig in a genetic experiment involving the blood of Christ. The results are astounding. But behind the scenes, a monstrous plot emerges that only Coleman and accomplice Katherine Lyon can stop.In Threshold, Brandon Martus, troubled possessor of an uncanny gift, becomes the subject of a paranormal research project. But when the experiment goes awry, Brandon and scientist Sarah Weintraub are plunged headlong into a terrifying supernatural conflict . . . and a destiny neither of them could have envisioned.In Fire of Heaven, Brandon and Sarah, joined in marriage, become living examples of Christ and his church. Accepting their identity as the two witnesses of Revelation, they are purified through fiery trials that show them the incalculable depths of God's love. And as hellish forces make their bid for world dominion, Brandon and Sarah must proclaim that love to an apostate church . . . and judgment on a rebellious planet.This riveting volume will keep your reading lamp on past midnight. But to say that Bill Myers has given us a gripping, masterfully crafted tale is to tell only half the story. Fire of Heaven Trilogy is a portrait of Christ's burning love, and a message of encouragement--and warning--to his bride, the church.

    Maynard's novel captures love as one approaches middle age in contemporary America.

    A former resident of St. Louis, where he founded the Observable Poetry reading series, he now lives in Hillsborough, North Carolina.

    In December 1962, shortly before her suicide, Plath moved with her two children to London from the Hughes's home in Devon. Focusing on the weeks after their arrival, but weaving back through the years of Plath's marriage, Kate Moses imagines the poet juggling the demands of motherhood and muse, shielding her life from her own mother, and by turns cherishing and demonizing her relationship with Ted. Richly imagined yet meticulously faithful to the actual events of Plath's life, Wintering is a remarkable portrait of the moments of bravery and exhilaration that Plath found among the isolation and terror of her depression

    But just lift the lid, slide the first tape from its ghostly sleeve, and you'll soon embrace the hypnotic realm of the undead.Book 1, Interview with the Vampire, opens with the seductive purr of F. Murray Abraham (Amadeus) stating, "I was a 25-year-old man when I became a vampire, and the year was 1791." And so our ultimate antihero, Louis, begins the elaborate retelling of his long, tortured life as a vampire. Winding through the ages, from New Orleans to Paris, we follow Louis and his undying mentor, Lestat, as they feed on humans, whet their carnal appetites, and uncover an underworld of vampire brethren.Interview with the Vampire, read by F.Murray AbrahamRunning time: 3 hours on 2 Audio Cassettes-----------------------------------------------Book 2, The Vampire Lestat, brings us up to date, with Lestat waking from his earthen slumber to join the ranks of rock superstardom before sitting down to share the tale of his own haunting initiation into the vampire world. Michael York (Cabaret) puts his wonderfully fluid, cosmopolitan voice to good use, adding a dash of sly humor to this fast-paced, satisfying blend of sex and blood and rock and roll.The Vampire Lestat, read by Michael York Running time: 3 hours on 2 Audio Cassettes-----------------------------------------------Book 3, The Queen of the Damned, takes us back, all the way back to ancient Egypt, exposing the origins of the vampire way. Narrating in eerily serene and gracious tones, Kate Nelligan (The Prince of Tides) leads us gently down this bloody path of immortal desires. David Purdham gives the voice of Lestat a wistful quality, tinged with an evil relish that exposes the master vampire's sanguine tastes.Queen of the Damned, read by Kate Nelligan and David PurdhamRunning time: 3 hours on 2 Audio Cassettes-----------------------------------------------Anne Rice has continued her Vampire Chronicles beyond these three novels, but that shouldn't make this collection any less tempting to either the undead initiate or certified vampire junkie. --George LaneyTotal: 6 Audio Cassettes / 9 hours~

    Khrushchev is hurling threats, a U.S. spy plane has been shot down over the Soviet Union, tensions are rising. Berlin has been cut off from the West: it’s only a matter of weeks until the Wall will be erected. The United States and Americans abroad face dangers they had never imagined. Against this backdrop, the best-selling novelist and historian James Carroll tells an unforgettable love story that illuminates a key moment in history with the passions of those who lived it. Three teenagers from an American school in West Germany travel to Berlin to join a May Day rally on the Communist side of the divided city. Propelled by nadve ideals and in rebellion against preordained futures, they stumble into the center of an international incident. Paul, the father of one of the boys, and Charlotte, the elegant German-born mother of another, set off to rescue their children from the East German Stasi, which has detained them. Over the course of a weekend, Paul and Charlotte struggle with personal secrets, growing passion, and the weight of a generation that survived World War II only to face the loss of its children to the engulfing paranoia of the Cold War. Secret Father inexorably pulls the reader into the heart of flashpoint Berlin. In this powerful tale, missed signals, cloaked motives, false postures, and panicked responses echo tragically across borders and generations.

    The twenty-five-year-old unhappy lover to a fat dungeon mistress, affectionately nicknamed "Little Failure" by his high-achieving mother, Vladimir toils his days away as a lowly clerk at the bureaucratic Emma Lazarus Immigrant Absorption Society. When a wealthy but psychotic old Russian war hero appears, Vladimir embarks on an adventure of unrelenting lunacy that takes us from New York's Lower East Side to the hip frontier wilderness of Prava--the Eastern European Paris of the nineties. With the help of a murderous but fun-loving Russian mafioso, Vladimir infiltrates the Prava expat community and launches a scheme as ridiculous as it is brilliant.Bursting with wit, humor, and rare insight, The Russian Debutante's Handbook is both a highly imaginative romp and a serious exploration of what it means to be an immigrant in America.

    He has an operating theatre in the basement of his chateau and keeps his partner Eve imprisoned in her bedroom, a room he has equipped with an intercom and 300-watt speakers through which he bellows orders. Eve is only allowed out to be paraded at cocktail parties and on the last Sunday of each month, when the couple visit a young woman in a mental asylum. Following these outings, Lafargue humiliates Eve by forcing her to perform lewd sexual acts with strangers while he watches through a one-way mirror. In alternating chapters, Jonquet introduces seemingly unrelated characters - a criminal on the run after murdering a policeman, and an abducted young man who finds himself chained naked in a dark chamber, forced to endure all manner of physical torture at the hands of a mysterious stranger, whom he calls 'Mygale', after a type of tropical spider. All of these characters are caught in a deceitful web, doomed to meet their fate.

    Let the reader beware. This is a shocking book - not for its candor and daring but for its cruelty and scorn, its shattering impact, and its terrifying vision of reality. What begins as a vacation idyll gradually turns into a dark parable of modern society, revealing the insensate barbarity of man.The opening is as bright as summer, as calm as a cobra dozing in the sun. But, as summer and compassion wane, the author strips away the pretense of youth and lays bare the blunt, primeval urge to crush, defile, betray. The tragic, inevitable outcome exposes the depths of moral corruption and the violation of the soul.In this tale of depravity, Evan Hunter has written a novel that is a work of art. Its theme and portent are inescapable, its insolence cauterizing, its humor outrageous - a brilliant stabbing, altogether unforgettable book.

    So, when he's found murdered in their exquisitely appointed kitchen, no one is surprised to find Rosie's prints all over the weapon.The suburban English teacher is the prime suspect -- the police's only suspect. And she knows she'll spend the rest of her life in the prison library unless she can unmask the real killer. Going into Manhattan on the lam, Rosie learns more about Richie than she ever wanted to know. And more about herself than she ever dreamed possible.

    Released from the social constraints of her traditional Jewish family, and thrown into the glorious, colorful world of theater, Marjorie finds herself entangled in a powerful affair with the man destined to become the greatest-and the most destructive-love of her life.Rich with humor and poignancy, Marjorie Morningstar is a classic love story, one that spans two continents and two decades in the life of its heroine. This unforgettable paean to youthful love and the bittersweet sorrow of a first heartbreak endures as one of Herman Wouk's most beloved creations.

    Partly an ideological tale, dealing with the inherently colonial mindset of Puerto Rico (and thus the perennial theme of Puerto Rican pride against the Northamerican influence), partly a violent and heartrending family saga, and partly a coming-of-age tale, this novel still reverberates in today's urban Puerto Rico, where the rural pastures depicted in this novel (with René Marqués's stunning prose) have largely been forgotten.

    In 1948, Pictorial Review Jackson, a ten-year-old black boy, and his brother, Slim, hitchhike from North Carolina to New York City, observing the strange life-styles of people they encounter.