Today's (2/4/2012) New Book Releases on Literature & Fiction

In the fine mesh of these poems Kristina Maria Darling recovers from H.D.'s correspondence a dream city suffused with Eros and a chilly nostalgia. Here delicate, archetypical image making is counter-pointed by the wry convolutions of her footnotes and appendices. Definitions dilate into images, memory, hieroglyphs moving us deeper into the vascular corridors of a mystical sub consciousness. Eat this lotus and do not worry about going home. -JOE HALL, author of Pigafetta is My Wife /Virtually no found form goes unfound in Kristina Marie Darling's The Body is a Little Gilded Cage. Footnotes and appendices, letters and lists, definitions and glossaries compound architecturally into a devastatingly well-dressed, fin-de-siècle whole. Bedecked in feathers, bones, buttons and flowers, Darling's fragments coruscate and clink together, catching the light, catching your eye like the most decadent chandelier, illuminating your way through "the arcades of a cathedral" and showing you "maps of the hidden rooms" where you might find the ghost of Hilda Doolittle under "a cold, white moon." -KATHLEEN ROONEY, author of Oneiromance (an epithalamion) / Might I make a suggestion to the reader finding his or her way to Kristina Marie Darling's The Body Is a Gilded Cage? Imagine the subjective experience of a chandelier. And not just because of the chandelier's resemblance to a cage, and not just because a chandelier is, at its heart, a collection of fragments, but because of the very intricately beveled edge multiplying throughout. Imagine the chandelier observing reality, and you will understand how to read Darling's book of poems. -KENT SHAW, author of Calenture / Told in footnotes, glossaries, and mysterious, incomplete letters, The Body is A Little Gilded Cage transcends and expands traditional narrative with delightful results. Both sensual and sinister, it's a story concealed in the deep folds of velvet curtains, revealed a little bit more with each spin of dancers, each turn of the antique phonograph. -KRISTY BOWEN, author The Fever Almanac

"In Joshua Young's When the Wolves Quit, the palpable influences of cinema and surrealism are woven together in this luminous play-in-verse. The firing of a gun triggers this emotional investigation of faith, memory, and the afterlife. With the same ferocity of a fired bullet Young's work accelerates the reader through his poetic obsession where the woods are ghostly and the path through the thicket is somewhere off the stage. With ingenuity and his strong gifts as a storyteller, Joshua Young's tale invites readers to become major characters and to explore a place that is the "middle ground between closure and myth." - Oliver de la Paz, author of Requiem for the Orchard// "Long after reading it, Joshua Young's When the Wolves Quit still sits on my chest heavy as stone, lapping at my throat with a sometimes tongue and the always threat of teeth. When I scream blood-lust for new words, this book is what I greedily nightmare about." - J. A. Tyler, author of A Man of Glass & All the Ways We Have Failed// "A remarkable and delightful full-length debut, Joshua Young's When the Wolves Quit is a poetic Lynchian noir unlike any poetry before. Interrogating a familiar, provincial American space where "secrets are damp,/ caught in the space between the throat and the front teeth," Young entices us to step onto the stage itself. ENTER STAGE LEFT: someone disappears. ENTER STAGE RIGHT: see the missing through a keyhole- or worse, through the slats of your neighbor's nearly closed blinds. Brilliantly suppressing distinctions between poetry, drama, and fiction, here is a frightening polyphony of voices, where all become victims of their own crimes- where "suffering moves and breathes." The smallest details are even more disturbing, such as an out of tune piano plinking over the debris of other people's lives in half-abandoned rooms. When told in the book this is dream, we think nightmare. Most worryingly, Young manages to implicate an audience who is much too titillated by the oblique violence happening offstage. Just try to remove yourself from that association, reader." --Richard Greenfield, author of Tracer and A Carnage in the Lovetrees

In his examination of the excavation of ancient Assyria by Austen Henry Layard, Shawn Malley reveals how, by whom, and for what reasons the stones of Assyria were deployed during a brief but remarkably intense period of archaeological activity in the mid-nineteenth century. His book encompasses the archaeological practices and representations that originated in Layard's excavations, radiated outward by way of the British Museum and Layard's best-selling "Nineveh and Its Remains" (1849), and were then dispersed into the public domain of popular amusements. That the stones of Assyria resonated in debates far beyond the interests of religious and scientific groups is apparent in the prevalence of poetry, exhibitions, plays, and dioramas inspired by the excavation. Of particular note, correspondence involving high-ranking diplomatic personnel and museum officials demonstrates that the 'treasures' brought home to fill the British Museum served not only as signs of symbolic conquest, but also as covert means for extending Britain's political and economic influence in the Near East. Malley takes up issues of class and influence to show how the middle-class Layard's celebrity status both advanced and threatened aristocratic values. Tellingly, the excavations prompted disturbing questions about the perils of imperial rule that framed discussions of the social and political conditions which brought England to the brink of revolution in 1848 and resurfaced with a vengeance during the Crimean crisis. In the provocative conclusion of this meticulously documented and suggestive book, Malley points toward the striking parallels between the history of Britain's imperial investment in Mesopotamia and the contemporary geopolitical uses and abuses of Assyrian antiquity in post-invasion Iraq.

This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from the publisher's website (GeneralBooksClub.com). You can also preview excerpts of the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Volume: 5; Original Published by: Printed for the VillonSociety in 1885 in 88 pages; Description: Vols. 1-3 edited by G. L. Gomme; v. 4-5 edited by H. B. Wheatley.; Subjects: Literary Criticism / Books

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908. Excerpt: ... JACK AND THE BEANSTALK T NA village, far away, there once lived a poor woman with her son Jack. While Jack at heart was a nice boy, he was heedless and naughty. One morning his mother said with tears in her eyes: "Jack, you are a very bad boy. You have brought us to ruin by your bad tricks. We have no money, and nothing is left but the old cow. We must now starve for want of food." This made Jack very sad, and started him to think how he could mend matters. At last he thought of the cow, and his mother agreeing, he started off to market to sell her. He had not driven the cow very far, when he met a butcher, who asked him how much he would take for her. "What will you give me?" said easytempered Jack. "You may have these beautiful colored beans for her," said the butcher. Jack thought the beans were very pretty, and said, "All right, the cow is yours." Jack hastened home with the beans to his mother. But when his mother saw what he had brought home in return for the cow, she kicked the old hat in which he held the beans, and away they rolled in all directions. In the morning Jack went out into the garden, and what was his surprise to see that some of the beans had taken root and that the stalk was so thick that it made a kind of ladder, which reached to the sky. He at once climbed up the beanstalk, and there at the top a strange country spread out before him. Jack was taken aback by all this, and sat down to think what best to do. He was very hungry and sad, for he knew his mother was hungry also, and it was all his fault, too. All at once, as he looked up, he saw a beautiful young woman standing near him. She had a small white wand in her hand, at the top of which was a tiny peacock, made of pure gold. "I am a fairy, and if you do as I tell you, I will he...

This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from GeneralBooksClub.com. You can also preview excerpts from the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Original Published by: C.H. Kerr & company in 1893 in 102 pages; Subjects: Literary CriticismLiterature; United States; Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; Literary Criticism / Books & Reading;

This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from GeneralBooksClub.com. You can also preview excerpts from the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Literary CriticismEnglish literature; Catalogs, Publishers'; Publishers' catalogs; Great Britain; Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; Literary Criticism / Books & Reading; Reference / Bibliographies & Indexes; Reference / Catalogs;

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1915. Excerpt: ... THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN'S LIBRARY I Books as Room-mates THE selection of anybody or anything that one is to live with--animate or inanimate--is always an event of moment. But the precise importance of the act, and the way in which it must be done, are closely conditioned by the degree of intimacy of that life and by its relationships. One does not select a cook and a wife in the same way or for the same reasons. A suit of clothes and a picture are not chosen for the same qualities. And a book--which is a curious compound of the animate and the inanimate--the recorded soul of a human being clothed in paper and ink--may be selected for reasons that affect only its inanimate part or its soul as well. If it is to serve only as a decoration ("books do furnish a room so!" as we frequently hear it said) the soul may be disregarded; even the paperand-ink parts of the clothing may be absent. Why should we laugh at the newly rich who lines his "library" with dummies? He knows what he wants, and governs his selection accordingly. The man who buys books because it is the thing to have them, or because he thinks he will some day read them, or because he chooses to be considered "the owner of a library," will want the paper and ink part as well as the binding; but just what it may contain is of secondary importance. The "collector," who wants the books for their fine bindings or the rarity of the edition or the eminence of their former owners, will consider these points, and these only, in making his choice. He is not forming a library at all in the proper sense, and it is only chance that has made the objects of his solicitude books rather than postagestamps, or pottery, or old guns. His zeal is commendable enough, but it does not bring him within our present purvie...

This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from GeneralBooksClub.com. You can also preview excerpts from the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: ReferenceEnglish imprints; Great Britain; Reference / Bibliographies

This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from GeneralBooksClub.com. You can also preview excerpts from the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Original Published by: J.B. Lippincott company in 1916 in 169 pages; Subjects: Books and reading; Literary Criticism / Books & Reading; Literary Criticism / Children's Literature;

This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from GeneralBooksClub.com. You can also preview excerpts from the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Original Published by: Putnam and brother in 1856 in 212 pages; Subjects: Young men; Conduct of life; Fiction / General; Fiction / Literary; Self-Help / General; Self-Help / Personal Growth / Success; Self-Help / Personal Growth / General;

This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from GeneralBooksClub.com. You can also preview excerpts from the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Original Published by: Bull, Simmons and Co. in 1870 in 123 pages; Subjects: Fiction / Erotica; Literary Criticism / General; Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh;

Publisher: Houghton, Mifflin and Company Publication date: 1896 Subjects: History / General Humor / Form / Essays Literary Collections / Essays Literary Criticism / General Philosophy / General Travel / Essays

Volume: 2 General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1904 Original Publisher: John Lane Subjects: Biography

The book has no illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from the publisher's website (GeneralBooksClub.com). You can also preview excerpts of the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Original Publisher: The Macmillan company; Publication date: 1899; Subjects: History / General; Literary Collections / Essays;

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1897. Excerpt: ... tion to a subject like andirons. Andirons, handirons, endirons, or brand-irons, whichever the spelling, the meaning and use are the same--those movable irons upon which we arrange the wood from which to get the warm and cheery fire. The evolution of the andiron must have been synchronous with civilization itself. We go back to the savage, squatted in or before his tent: he has no andirons; a few sticks propped against one another or crossed upon the ashes, with the random smoke floating rudderless about his head and eyes--these were his sources of mingled comfort and discomfort. In the Highlands of Scotland even so late as 1800--so says Hugh Miller, in his " Schools and Schoolmasters "--the sitting-room of the family had its fire in the middle of the floor, a domestic bonfire, around which sat the inmates in a wide circle, the women on one side, the men on the other. Existence assumes at once a new and brighter dress with the incoming of chimneys, at least chimneys that draw well; while beneath, upon the hearth, stand the ready andirons, with, perhaps, an inside pair of shorter "creepers," as they were called, on which to build, with needful gangways for the passage of air, the household fire. In old England, and formerly in New England, the absence of andirons meant abject poverty. The mind's eye at once sees the process. Intemperance, the worst of sheriffs, the meanest, greediest, and most heartless of landlords, has seized and sold one thing after another to satisfy its demands. Only the andirons remain, a trifle yet to be had for so much brass or copper or iron. They, too, go; "the coal that was left" turns black and cold in the ashes; and of the family's joys and comfort at the ingleside nothing remains but ashes. On the other hand, have we not a fin...

This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from GeneralBooksClub.com. You can also preview excerpts from the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Volume: 10; Original Published by: Houghton, Mifflin and co. in 1896 in 286 pages; Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Science & Technology; History / General; Humor / Form / Essays; Literary Collections / Essays; Literary Criticism / American / General; Nature / General; Nature / Birds & Birdwatching;

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1922. Excerpt: ... THE YOUNG LADY IN BLUE' AS my wife says, I am by nature unduly sensitive to beauty. You wpuld hardly expect this fault in a sculptor--you who perhaps judge all sculptors from the war memorials you have seen. And with me, the worst of it is, I am even more susceptible to color than to form. My long acquaintance with form has put me on my guard against its wiles, and my joy in beautiful shapes is forever enhanced by the free play of my critical faculty. But in the presence of lovely color, I am unarmed, weak-kneed. All I can do is to take pleasure in it, for I do not know enough about it to be critical, in any satisfying way. This explains why I fell, and fell far, for the young lady in blue. I admit that I would not have done for Senator Bullwinkle just what I did for her. Yet, when I first saw the young lady, she was not in blue, if you forget for a moment her forgetme-not eyes. She was in deepest black, and, I have reason to believe, the most expensive and fashionable black to be had in New York. Gigi Arcangelo, my seldom-sinning super-assistant, broke all the rules of the studio when he let her in, that bright May afternoon. Gigi knew perfectly well that after a vexatious sitting from Senator Bullwinkle (who, in order to keep awake while posing, always had his speeches of a decade ago read aloud to him by my wife) I would be in no mood for trifling with mere beauty. Gigi knew that I needed three hours of uninterrupted work on my head of Christ, before I could well show it to an enlightened Bishop; he knew that I was behind with my Iowa figures; he knew that my bust of General Daly ought to have been finished, boxed, and shipped a month before; he knew that my big clay relief of the Spanker-Sampson children had developed a crack across the nose of the mi...

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1883. Excerpt: ... A RIDE ACROSS PALESTINE. Circumstances took me to the Holy Land without a companion, and compelled me to visit Bethany, the Mount of Olives, and the Church of the Sepulchre alone. I acknowledge myself to be a gregarious animal, or, perhaps, rather one of those which nature has intended to go in pairs. At any rate I dislike solitude, and especially travelling solitude, and was, therefore, rather sad at heart as I sat one night at Z 's hotel, in Jerusalem, thinking over my proposed wanderings for the next few days. Early on the following morning I intended to start, of course on horseback, for the Dead Sea, the banks of Jordan, Jericho, and those mountains of the wilderness through which it is supposed that Our Saviour wandered for the forty days when the devil tempted him. I would then return to the Holy City, and remaining only long enough to refresh my horse and wipe the dust from my hands and feet, I would start again for Jaffa, and there catch a certain Austrian steamer which would take me to Egypt. Such was my programme, and I confess that I was but ill contented with it, seeing that I was to be alone during the time. I had already made all my arrangements, and though I had no reason for any doubt as to my personal security during the trip, I did not feel altogether satisfied with them. I intended to take a French guide, or dragoman, who had been with me for some days, and to put myself under the peculiar guardianship of two Bedouin Arabs, who were to accompany me as long as I should remain east of Jerusalem. This travelling through the desert under the protection of Bedouins was, in idea, pleasant enough; and I must here declare that I did not at all begrudge the forty shillings which I was told by our British consul that I must pay them for their tr...

General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1831 Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: She gazed at him affectionately and seemed comforted. So then that is settled now ! she exclaimed : ah yes, 1 always thought you would stay; for I can't live without you; and my father can't live without you; and all our poor workmen and spinners, our good miners, for whprn you are always saying and doing something, and who, when they come for their wages or for relief, look with their whole souls into your kind eyes, these above all can never live without you. This calamity, said Edward, may hereafter make you, your father, me, and all of us happy. The discovery was inevitable; and perhaps, if it had not taken place now, it would have come at a time when it would have plunged us all in misery. If my father now, said Rose, were to have no objection, I might perhaps in time accustom myself to look upon you as my future husband. If I could but feel a little more respect and awe for you! If you would behave very roughly to me now and then, not always so kindly, but angrily and savagely at times, I might by and by grow reconciled to it. Edward went to his business. The uprore had ceast, and the whole house was now quiet and silent : it seemed as if people were afraid of evenbreathing: all walkt about softly and on tiptoe. News came that Eleazar was dead. Toward evening Edward went with the mayor and witnesses into old Balthasar's room. He was surprised to find him in bed. On being spoken to by his visitors he lifted himself up, stared fixedly at them, and seemed to know no one. Aha! reverend Sir, he cried out after a while, you are come to fetch away a second poor sinner today. It is a busy time in you...