Penguin Selected Short Stories Вулф Вирджиния

One of the greatest French novelists, Balzac was also an accomplished writer of shorter fiction. This volume includes twelve of his finest short stories - many of which feature characters from his epic series of novels the Comedie Humaine. Compelling tales of acute social and psychological insight, they fully demonstrate the mastery of suspense and revelation that were the hallmarks of Balzac's genius. In The Atheist's Mass, we learn the true reason for a distinguished atheist surgeon's attendance at religious services; La Grande Breteche describes the horrific truth behind the locked doors of a decaying country mansion, while The Red Inn relates a brutal tale of murder and betrayal. A fascinating counterpoint to the renowned novels, all the stories collected here stand by themselves as mesmerizing works by one of the finest writers of nineteenth-century France

Изысканный роман Вирджинни Вулф "На маяк", в котором смешиваются и переплетаются времена действия • Лето, проведенное состоятельным семейством Рэмзи на острове Скай оказывается своеобразной британской "хроникой утраченного времени", - хрупкого, почти идиллического времени, обреченному на скорое разрушение Первой мировой войной. Вырастут дети, - кто-то уцелеет и повзрослеет, кто-то сложит голову на полях сражений. Забудутся мелкие неудачи и обиды. Будет заброшен старый дом, зарастет сад. Но воплотится ли в жизнь хоть для кого-то из детей Рэмзи мечта о поездке на далекий маяк? • Книга на английском языке • 'The Lighthouse was then a silvery, misty-looking tower with a yellow eye that opened suddenly and softly in the evening' • To the Lighthouse is at once a vivid impressionistic depiction of a family holiday, and a meditation on marriage, on parenthood and childhood, on grief, tyranny and bitterness

Джейкоб Фландерс - молодой человек, переходящий из подросткового возраста во взрослую жизнь в ходе туманного обряда посвящения. От его детства на продуваемых всеми ветрами берегах Корнуолла до студенческих лет в Кембридже. Его неуловимый, похожий на хамелеона характер постепенно раскрывается в потоке слабо связанных между собой происшествий и впечатлений: будь то письма его матери, разговоры его друзей или мысли женщин, которые его обожают. Затем мы видим его молодым человеком в 1914 году, пойманным в лучах лондонского уличного фонаря, когда Европа находится на грани войны • «Комната Джейкоба» — третий роман английской писательницы Вирджинии Вулф, написанный в 1922 году • Книга на английском языке • Jacob Flanders is a young man passing from adolescence to adulthood in a hazy rite of passage

Июнь 1939 года. Обитатели загородного года заняты подготовкой к ежегодному сельскому празднику. Из года в год на празднике ставят пьесу, посвященную истории Англии. Однако грядущая война темным облаком нависает над деревней. Меняется сама суть прошлого и настоящего, и напрашивается новый акт пьесы…Размышления и личные драмы персонажей, воспевают и в то же время высмеивают английскую идентичность, а автор пьесы, эксцентричная мисс Ла Троб, исполняет призрачную роль художника • Книга на английском языке • It is June in 1939, and the inhabitants of a country house prepare to host the annual village pageant in its grounds. It will tell the stories of English history, as it does every year. Yet the coming of war broods over the whole community, changing the meaning of past and present, and heralding a new act

Virginia Woolf's delicate second novel is both a love story and a social comedy, yet it also subtly undermines these traditions, questioning a woman's role and the very nature of experience. Its protagonist, Katharine Hilbery, is beautiful and privileged but uncertain of her future. She must choose between becoming engaged to the oddly prosaic poet William, and her dangerous attraction to the lower-class Ralph. As she tries to decide, the lives of two other women - women's rights activist Mary Datchet and Katharine's mother, struggling with the weight of history - impinge on hers with unexpected and intriguing consequences

Originally written to entertain, move or chill, the eight short stories in this collection accompanied by parallel English translations now also help students gain deeper insights into French literature and life • Arranged in approximate order of difficulty, the range of stories is wide, from the stylized wit of Raymond Queneau to the beautifully written ambiguities of Philippe Sollers, from Pierre Gascar’s exploration of childhood as a background to a tale of infidelity to Henri Thomas’s gentle, ironic look at war. All make wonderful reads in either language

This second volume of Italian Short Stories, with its parallel translations aims - as the first volume did - to exemplify the richness and variety of Italian writing of the twentieth century. In this volume, however, some of the language used is a little more advanced and the translations slightly less literal. Moravia and Calvino, both well known to British and American readers, appear again along with Italo Svevo, Comisso, Vittorini, Rigoni - Stern, Fenoglio and Pasolini so that the literature of both Rome and the provinces is fully represented. There are also discussions of the less familiar words and dialect expressions in the Italian text

This witty and amusing collection of short pieces shows Dickens liberated from the more formal and sustained demands of the novel and experimenting with a diverse range of fictional techniques. In his tales of the supernatural, he creates frighteningly believable, spine-tingling stories of prophetic dreams and visions, as well as more fantastical adventures with goblins and apparitions. Impressionistic sketches combine imaginatively heightened travel journals with wry observations of home and abroad, while in his dramatic monologues, Dickens demonstrates his talent for exploring the secret workings of the human mind. These short works display Dickens's exuberant sense of comedy and character as his imagination is given free rein

The eight stories in this volume offer a varied and representative collection of twentieth century German authors from a range of political and cultural backgrounds. Styles include the non-fictional manner of Kluge's montage technique and the contrasting classical storytelling of Penzoldt • With reading notes and parallel texts in German and English, this anthology is valuable to the German student of English as well as the English student of German. Reflecting trends in German literature, the stories have been selected for their quality as well as their readability, and will enhance the appreciation of both languages

The eight stories in this collection, by Moravian, Pavese, Pratolina, and other modern writers, have been selected as being representative of contemporary Italian writing. The English translations provided are literal rather than literary, and there are notes and biographies to help the student of Italian. However, the volume can also be helpful to Italians, who can improve their English by studying a strict rendering of stories with which thet may already be familiar

Much maligned in pre-war Germany, the short story enjoyed a creative rebirth in 1945. Initially imported by the Allies, the form also matched perfectly the prevailing mood of irony, objectivity and mistrust of the didactic • With the original German text running alongside English translations, this collection features stories from eight outstanding post-war authors including Heinrich Boll, Ilse Aichinger and Reinhard Lettau which students will find both educational and engrossing. Boll’s opening story 'Pale Anna' follows a soldier returning home, his situation comparable to that of the writer in the first months of peace: he knows no-one and has few words not linked to painful memories. This poignant narrative is followed by a variety of tales representing the diversity of the time and including satires, explorations of private obsessions and experiments in form and language

These eight stories by leading 20th century French writers offer fascinating insights into French life and literature and are accompanied by a parallel English text, making them valuable for both French and English language students • Among the diverse and entertaining stories in the collection are the wistful masterpiece ‘Green Tobacco’ by Clair Sainte-Soline; the exuberant tale of ‘The Ants’ by the post-war king of cafe society, Boris Vian, and a suspense in the nineteenth-century erotic tradition from Andre de Mandiargues