The Labrador Fiasco


Margaret Atwood - 1996
    Printed on high-quality paper, designed by Jeff Fisher, the books should become collectors' items. This title is "The Labrador Fiasco" by Margaret Atwood.

Lady Anna


Anthony Trollope - 1874
    It is a tightly constructed and passionate study of enforced marriage in the world of Radical politics and social inequality. "Lady Anna" records the lifelong attempt of Countess Lovel to justify her claim to her title, and her daughter Anna's legitimacy, after her husband announces that he already has a wife. Anna falls in love with the journeyman tailor and young Radical Daniel Thwaite, but her mother wishes her to marry her cousin, heir to her father's title. Can Anna be allowed - can she allow herself - to change her mind? Though the conclusion is a foregone one, Trollope's ambivalence on the question is profound, and the novel both intense and powerful.Excerpt from Lady Anna:Of course She told her father. Of course she invoked every Murray in and out of Scotland. Of course there were many threats. A duel was fought up near London, in which Lord Lovel consented to be shot at twice, - declaring that after that he did not think that the circumstances of the case required that he Should be shot at any more. In the midst of this a daughter was born to her and her father died, - during which time She was still allowed to live at Lovel Grange. But what was it expedient that she should do? He declared that he had a former wife when he married her, and that therefore she was not and could not be his wife. Should she institute a prosecution against him for bigamy, thereby acknowledging that She was herself no wife and that her Child was illegitimate? From such evidence as she could get, She believed that the Italian woman whom the earl in former years had married had died before her own marriage. The earl declared that the countess, the real countess, had not paid her debt to nature, till some months after the little ceremony which had taken place in Apple thwaite Church. In a moment of weakness Josephine fell at his feet and asked him to renew the ceremony. He stooped over her, kissed her, and smiled. My pretty child, he said, Why should I do that? He never kissed her again.

Foundation's Fear


Gregory Benford - 1997
    It is the monumental story of a Galactic Empire in decline, and the secret society of scientists who seek to shorten the inevitable Dark Age with the science of psychohistory. Now, with the permission -- and blessing -- of the Asimov estate, the epic saga continues.Fate -- and a cruel Emperor's arbitrary power -- have thrust Hari Seldon into the First Ministership of the Empire against his will. As the story opens, Hari is about to leave his quiet professorship and take on the all but impossible task of administering 25 million inhabited worlds from the all-steel planet of Trantor. With the help of his beautiful bio-engineered "wife" Dors and his alien companion Yugo, Seldon is still developing the science that will transform history, never dreaming that it will ultimately pit him against future history's most awesome threat.

Under the Volcano


Malcolm Lowry - 1947
    His debilitating malaise is drinking, an activity that has overshadowed his life. On the most fateful day of the consul's life—the Day of the Dead—his wife, Yvonne, arrives in Quauhnahuac, inspired by a vision of life together away from Mexico and the circumstances that have driven their relationship to the brink of collapse. She is determined to rescue Firmin and their failing marriage, but her mission is further complicated by the presence of Hugh, the consul's half brother, and Jacques, a childhood friend. The events of this one significant day unfold against an unforgettable backdrop of a Mexico at once magical and diabolical.Under the Volcano remains one of literature's most powerful and lyrical statements on the human condition, and a brilliant portrayal of one man's constant struggle against the elemental forces that threaten to destroy him.

Mrs Craddock


W. Somerset Maugham - 1902
    But she discovers that little in her marriage to the dutiful and sensible Edward meets her expectations. And as passion dies, she finds herself trapped in a loveless, oppressive marriage.

The Green Knight


Iris Murdoch - 1993
    An attempt by the sharp, feral, and uncommonly intelligent Lucas Graffe to murder his sensual and charismatic half-brother Clement is interrupted by a stranger—whom Lucas strikes and leaves for dead. When the stranger mysteriously reappears, with specific demands for reparation, the Graffes’ circle of idiosyncratic family and friends is disrupted—for the demands are bizarre, intrusive, and ultimately fatal.