Casa editrice: Scratch Books
The sequel to the critically acclaimed Reverse Engineering. Reverse Engineering II brings together contemporary classic stories with their authors' discussions of how they were written. An essential book for everyone interested in how fiction works...
Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere. In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author? The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme. Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature. Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made. If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something. In this volume we enjoy a favourite device of authors; the story is heading one way and suddenly twists in another direction entirely. In the pens of Ambrose Bierce, Nikolai Gogol, Saki and a host of others where you end up is the very question they propose. 01 - The Top 10 - The Twist - An Introduction 02 - Roman Fever by Edith Wharton 03 - The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant 04 - The Nose by Nikolai Gogol 05 - Miss Brill by Katherine Mansfield 06 - The Gift of the Magi by O Henry 07 - Desiree's Baby by Kate Chopin 08 - Man Size in Marble by Edith Nesbit 09 - An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce 10 - The Open Window by Saki 11 - The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan PoeMostra libro
Deborah Eisenberg is nearly unmatched in her mastery of the short-story form. Now, in her newest collection, she demonstrates once again her virtuosic abilities in precisely distilled, perfectly shaped studies of human connection and disconnection. From a group of friends whose luck in acquiring a luxurious Manhattan sublet turns to disaster as their balcony becomes a front-row seat to the catastrophe of 9/11; to the Roman holiday of a schoolteacher running away from the news of her ex-husband's life-threatening illness, and her unlikely guide, a titled art scout in desperate revolt against his circumstances and aging; to the too painful love of a brother for his schizophrenic sister, whose tragic life embitters him to the very idea of family, Eisenberg evokes "intense, abundant human lives" in which "everything that happens is out there waiting for you to come to it."Mostra libro
From the books that inspired the new Netflix series “Lupin” with Omar Sy. At Chateau de Maupertuis, death shadows Lady Jeanne Darcieux, as she escapes more than one attempted murder. But hero and gentleman burglar, Arsene Lupin is lying in wait and he can't help saving a stranger, especially if she's young and rich. The sixth story in Maurice Leblanc’s collection “The Confessions of Arsène Lupin” about gentleman thief and criminal mastermind, Arsene Lupin. A classic detective series perfect for readers who love Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes and Edgar Allan Poe’s C. Auguste Dupin. The Classic Tales with B. J. Harrison B. J. Harrison started his Classic Tales Podcast back in 2007, soaring to the top of the iTunes charts. He masterfully breathes life back into literary classics as he plays with a wide array of voices and accents and has produced over 500 audiobooks. His productions of Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse and Hamlet by Shakespeare are regularly seen at the top of audiobook charts. Now in collaboration with SAGA Egmont, his engaging narration of these famous stories is available to readers everywhere. Maurice Leblanc was a French author during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. He lived in Paris during the Belle Époque, and his literary legacy consists of novels and short stories. Though he wrote two well-received science fiction novels, he was most famous for his gentleman thief adventure series, Arsene Lupin. Thought to be based on the life of anarchist Marius Jacob, who had a very public trial in 1905, Lupin is a whip-smart, witty, and roguishly handsome master of disguise. Leblanc was compared to Arthur Conan Doyle throughout his career, and he even wrote a series of novellas where Lupin is introduced to and subsequently outwits the famous detective, Sherlock Holmes. Arsene Lupin has inspired many spin-offs including the hugely successful Japanese manga series “Lupin III” and a new Netflix series “Lupin” starring Omar Sy.Mostra libro
It is said that books are written to bring sunshine into our dull, grey lives – to show us places we want to escape to, lives we want to live, people we want to love. But there are also stories that can only be found in the deepest, darkest corners of the library. Stories about the unexplained, of lost souls, of things that go bump before the silence. Before the screaming. And some stories just disappear. Stories printed in old newspapers, broadcast live on the wireless, sometimes not even published at all – these are the stories you cannot find on even the dustiest of library shelves. This follow-up volume to the bestselling Ghosts from the Library resurrects forgotten tales of the supernatural by some of the most accomplished mystery authors of all time. Close the windows. Draw the curtains. Just don’t let the lights go out… The Wicked Spirits series, edited by Tony Medawar, is a sequel that takes traditional horror to new heights. This anthology of thrillers is a masterclass in suspenseful fiction, with each story more chilling than the last. For fans of Otto Penzler (The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries), and Leslie S. Klinger (H.P. Lovecraft). HarperCollins 2024Mostra libro
Enoch Arnold Bennett was born on the 27th May 1867 in Hanley, one of the six towns that formed the Potteries and that later joined together to become Stoke-On-Trent. After passing entrance examinations for Cambridge University his solicitor father instead decided that he should work for him, unpaid, in his thriving office. In the evenings the young Bennett wrote or studied and one skill he developed was Pitman’s shorthand which gave him entrance to a position as a clerk at a solicitor’s office in London. From there followed various jobs but none seemed to be able to ignite his career as a full-time author. By 1903 he had moved to live in Paris; he was 35, unmarried and keen to settle into his new life. In 1908 he published his first remarkable novel; ‘Clayhanger’, that drew on his earlier life in the Potteries. A prolific writer he was able to deliver very fine works but also write many that were described as ‘potboilers’. Despite this disclaimer many were lapped up by an audience eager for his prose and helped turn him into the most financially successful author of the times. As the First World War drew to a close, he was appointed to run the Ministry of Information. During the 1920s he was reputedly the highest paid literary journalist in the land and continued to write novels, plays and short stories. Arnold Bennett died in his flat at Chiltern Court on the 27th March 1931, from typhoid after drinking water in France on his last holiday. He was 63.Mostra libro
Throughout the long centuries of human history is the want, and the need, to share information, to exchange ideas and for that knowledge and experience, for curiosity and learning, to be the basis of a civil society. In literature the ambition is much narrower. In order to be known, to be popular, you had to be published. And for that people had to know you existed and your ideas worth reading. Obviously for most of humanity’s time people couldn’t read and texts couldn’t be published in any great number. In the 15th Century Gutenberg’s printing press began the revolution to address the second and by the 19th century had gathered pace with startling speed and mass distribution. Education for the many was brought in to help people understand more of their world and, with new skills, how to have a better place within it. Now, if the powers that owned the presses and means of distribution agreed an audience would now be able to avail themselves of your ideas, your printed words. Sadly, in the thirst for the new, the recent and the past fell from sight, relegated to dark corners and dusty shelves. But the printed word is rarely without someone, somewhere busying themselves through piles of papers and books rediscovering what a good story is, whatever its age. Sadly, in the thirst for the new, the recent and the past fell from sight, relegated to dark corners and dusty shelves. But the printed word is rarely without someone, somewhere busying themselves through piles of papers and books rediscovering what a good story is, whatever its age. In this volume we offer up a small selection of those talents whose time has now come again.Mostra libro
