Download or read book The Queen Of The Night written by Alexander Chee and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2016-02-02 with total page 573 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER, New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, and a Best Book of the Year from NPR, Boston Globe, BuzzFeed, and others. The mesmerizing story of one woman's rise from circus rider to courtesan to world-renowned diva—"a brilliant performance" (Washington Post). The Queen of the Night tells the captivating story of Lilliet Berne, an orphan who left the American frontier for Europe and was swept into the glamour and terror of Second Empire France. She became a sensation of the Paris Opera, with every accolade but an original role—her chance at immortality. When one is offered to her, she finds the libretto is based on her deepest secret, something only four people have ever known. But who betrayed her? With epic sweep, gorgeous language, and haunting details, Alexander Chee shares Lilliet’s cunning transformation from circus rider to courtesan to legendary soprano, retracing the path that led to the role that could secure her reputation—or destroy her with the secrets it reveals. “It just sounds terrific. It sounds like opera.”—The New Yorker “Sprawling, soaring, bawdy, and plotted like a fine embroidery.”—NPR

Download or read book Queen of the Night and Other Stories written by Olajire Olanlokun and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Drag Queen of Elfland written by Lawrence Schimel and published by Circlet Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Science fiction and fantasy short stories with gay and lesbian themes.

Download or read book Queen of the Night written by J. A. Jance and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2011-03-29 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every summer, the Queen of the Night flower blooms in the Arizona desert—a sacred event commemorated throughout the Tohono O'odham Nation. But this year, one couple's celebration is prematurely destroyed by gunfire . . . and the sole witness to the carnage is a little girl who has lost the only family she's ever known. Dr. Lani Walker recognizes the trauma of her own childhood reflected in her devastated young patient. Joining Dan Pardee—a member of the unorthodox Shadow Wolves border patrol—Lani vows to keep the child safe while tracking down a ruthless killer. Meanwhile, Lani's adoptive father, retired homicide detective Brandon Walker, sees a break in his investigation of the long unsolved murder of an Arizona State University coed—while his wife, Diana Ladd, relives terrible memories of a man whose death haunts her still.

Download or read book The Queen of Darkness and other stories written by Grazia Deledda and published by SCB Distributors. This book was released on 2023-03-24 with total page 106 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ancient traditions of Sardinia feature heavily in this early collection. The stories collected in The Queen of Darkness, published in 1902 shortly after Deledda’s marriage and move to Rome, reflect her transformation from little-known regional writer to an increasingly fêted and successful mainstream author. The two miniature psycho-dramas that open the collection are followed by stories of Sardinian life in the remote hills around her home town of Nuoro. The stark but beautiful countryside is a backdrop to the passions, misadventures and injustices which shape the lives of its rugged but all too human inhabitants. Graham Andersopn's translation was longlisted for The Women in Translation Prize.

Download or read book The Queen of Spades written by Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin and published by . This book was released on 1928 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Who will be queen of the tournament And other stories written by Robert St. John Corbet and published by . This book was released on 1868 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Hildur Queen of the Elves and Other Stories written by J.M. Bedell and published by Interlink Books. This book was released on 2016-03-01 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Out of the country’s fascinating geography and history emerge a plethora of poetic and imaginative Icelandic legends that hold a particular wary respect of nature, and a wry wisdom at turns gentle and sharp: that we human beings are mere tenants on earth, with no control over weather or ghosts or wild. On the one hand, these stories come out of the great wellspring of Scandinavian tales that have so influenced the Western imagination: Here are elves and trolls, ghosts, goblins, and monsters; drama and mystery and moral. But Iceland’s particular geography, its long nights and savage weather, also led to the development of a unique oral tradition, from which grew the famous Icelandic family sagas and stories.

Download or read book The Queen of Puerto Rico and Other Stories written by Joe Frank and published by William Morrow. This book was released on 1993 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Joe Frank has been called "the apostle of radio noir." In this first collection of stories, he takes us on an obsessive, violent, and sexual odyssey in which individual lives become emblematic of a larger spiritual crisis. He also captures on paper the same eerie speculation and humor he delivers in his late-night monologues on National Public Radio." "We meet characters who have jobs, not careers, who lead lives of half-steps, of rootlessness without cause. Frank's narratives result in a kaleidoscopic sense of time, wherein entire lives pass with a few brief moments of inchoate realization. Moments of comic lunacy blend with scenes of great poignancy and terror." "In the novella "Night," the protagonist wanders through a series of odd jobs, through prison, to Vietnam, to become the right-hand man of a television evangelist, and without any more purpose approaches his own death. In "Fat Man," a college student travels across the country stealing brownies from roadside Howard Johnsons and then spends the next year returning them. "Date" encapsulates a woman's entire life in her boyfriend's suggestions for her personal ad. "The Decline of the Spengler" is a wildly inventive radio play in which the narrative of a funeral is melded with the dreams of a playwright slowly slipping into madness." "In their desperation, the characters in Joe Frank's world, such as the "Fat Man," can only dream of meaningfulness: "You know, when I think about myself and the life I've led, I feel self-loathing, shame, and disgust. I'm a waste and a failure. But when I imagine myself as a character in a novel ... well, I think I'm pretty interesting, kind of off-beat, intriguing, entertaining."" "For years, Joe Frank's broadcasts have invited millions of listeners to the strange world of his mesmerizing stories. In this, his first book, Frank effortlessly segues to the printed page and imparts a new resonance to his narrative inventions."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Download or read book Who Will be Queen of the Tournament and Other Stories With Illustrations written by Robert Saint John Corbet and published by . This book was released on 1868 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Queen of None written by Natania Barron and published by Solaris. This book was released on 2024-05-21 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First in a sumptuous, female-led Arthurian Fantasy Romance trilogy When Anna Pendragon was born, Merlin prophesied: "Through all the ages, and in the hearts of men, you will be forgotten." Married at twelve, and a mother soon after, Anna - the famed King Arthur's sister - did not live a young life full of promise, myth, and legend. She bore three strong sons and delivered the kingdom of Orkney to her brother by way of her marriage. She did as she was asked, invisible and useful for her name, her status, her dowry, and her womb. Twenty years after she left her home, Anna returns to Carelon at Arthur's bidding, carrying the crown of her now-dead husband, Lot of Orkney. Past her prime and confined to the castle itself, she finds herself yet again a pawn in greater machinations and seemingly helpless to do anything about it. Anna must once again face the demons of her childhood: her sister Morgen, Elaine, and Morgause; Merlin and his scheming Avillion priests; and Bedevere, the man she once loved. To say nothing of new court visitors, like Lanceloch, or the trouble concerning her own sons. Carelon, and all of Braetan, is changing, though, and Anna must change along with it. New threats, inside and out, lurk in the shadows, and a strange power begins to awaken in her. As she learns to reconcile her dark gift, and struggles to keep the power to herself, she must bargain her own strength, and family, against her ambition and thirst for revenge.

Download or read book The Queen of Spades and other Stories written by Alexander Pushkin and published by Library of Alexandria. This book was released on 2020-09-28 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There was a card party at the rooms of Narumoff, a lieutenant in the Horse Guards. A long winter night had passed unnoticed, and it was five o'clock in the morning when supper was served. The winners sat down to table with an excellent appetite; the losers let their plates remain empty before them. Little by little, however, with the assistance of the champagne, the conversation became animated, and was shared by all. "How did you get on this evening, Surin?" said the host to one of his friends. "Oh, I lost, as usual. I really have no luck. I play mirandole. You know that I keep cool. Nothing moves me; I never change my play, and yet I always lose." "Do you mean to say that all the evening you did not once back the red? Your firmness of character surprises me." "What do you think of Hermann?" said one of the party, pointing to a young Engineer officer. "That fellow never made a bet or touched a card in his life, and yet he watches us playing until five in the morning." "It interests me," said Hermann; "but I am not disposed to risk the necessary in view of the superfluous." "Hermann is a German, and economical; that is the whole of the secret," cried Tomski. "But what is really astonishing is the Countess Anna Fedotovna!" "How so?" asked several voices. "Have you not remarked," said Tomski, "that she never plays?" "Yes," said Narumoff, "a woman of eighty, who never touches a card; that is indeed something extraordinary!" "You do not know why?" "No; is there a reason for it?" "Just listen. My grandmother, you know, some sixty years ago, went to Paris, and became the rage there. People ran after her in the streets, and called her the 'Muscovite Venus.' Richelieu made love to her, and my grandmother makes out that, by her rigorous demeanour, she almost drove him to suicide. In those days women used to play at faro. One evening at the court she lost, on parole,to the Duke of Orleans, a very considerable sum. When she got home, my grandmother removed her beauty spots, took off her hoops, and in this tragic costume went to my grandfather, told him of her misfortune, and asked him for the money she had to pay. My grandfather, now no more, was, so to say, his wife's steward. He feared her like fire; but the sum she named made him leap into the air. He flew into a rage, made a brief calculation, and proved to my grandmother that in six months she had got through half a million rubles. He told her plainly that he had no villages to sell in Paris, his domains being situated in the neighbourhood of Moscow and of Saratoff; and finally refused point blank. You may imagine the fury of my grandmother. She boxed his ears, and passed the night in another room.

Download or read book The Queen of Spades and other stories written by Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin and published by CROOME & CO. This book was released on 2017-07-04 with total page 94 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alexander Sergueievitch Pushkin came of a noble family, so ancient that it was traced back to that Alexander Nevsky who, in the thirteenth century, gained a great victory over the Swedes upon the ice of the River Neva, in token whereof he was surnamed "Nevsky" of the Neva. His mother, Nadejda Ossipovna Hannibal, was the grand-daughter of Abraham Petrovitch Hannibal, Peter the Great's famous negro. His father, Surguei Lvovitch Pushkin, was a frivolous man of pleasure. The poet was born on the 26th of May, 1799, at Moscow. He was an awkward and a silent child. He was educated by French tutors. A poor scholar, he read with eagerness whatever he could get in his father's library, chiefly the works of French authors. His brother states that at eleven years old Pushkin knew French literature by heart. This cannot, of course, be taken[Pg 2] literally; but it shows under what influence he grew up. In October, 1811, he entered the Lyceum of Tsarskoe Selo. Among the students a society was soon formed, whose members were united by friendship and by a taste for literature. They brought out several periodicals, in which tales and poems formed the chief features. Of this society (the late Prince Gortchakoff belonged to it) Pushkin was the leading spirit. His first printed poem appeared in the Messenger of Europe in 1814. At a public competition in 1815, at which the veteran poet Derjavin was present, Pushkin read his "Memories of Tsarskoe Selo." This poem, which contains many beautiful passages, so delighted Derjavin, that he wished to embrace the young author; but Pushkin fled in confusion from the hall. In June, 1817, Pushkin's free and careless student life ended. After finishing his course at the Lyceum he went to St. Petersburg, and, though he entered thoroughly into the dissipated pleasures of its turbulent youth, he still clung to the intellectual society of such men as Jukovsky and Karamsin, men occupied in literature, whose friendship he valued very highly. At that time society was much disturbed. Political clubs were everywhere being formed. In every drawing-room new views were freely and openly advanced; and in these discussions the[Pg 3] satire and brilliant verse of Pushkin attracted general attention. These at last brought him into great danger. But Karamsin came to his rescue, and managed to get him an appointment at Ekaterinoslavl, in the office of the Chief Inspector of the Southern Settlements. There he remained till 1824, travelling from place to place, first with the Raevskys to the Caucasus, and thence again with them through the Crimea. This journey gave him materials for his "Prisoner of the Caucasus," and "Fountain of Bachtchisarai." Both poems reveal the influence of Byron. Towards the end of 1820 he went to Bessarabia with his chief, who had just been appointed viceroy of the province. Once, on account of some quarrel, this person, Insoff by name, sent Pushkin to Ismail. There the poet joined a band of gypsies and remained with them for some time in the Steppes. In 1823 he went to Odessa, having been transferred to the office of the new governor-general, Count Vorontsoff, who succeeded Insoff. Here he wrote part of "Evguenie Onegin," a sort of Russian "Don Juan," full of sublime passages and varied by satire and bitter scorn. This work has lately been formed the subject of a very successful opera by Tchaikovski, who took from Pushkin's poems a story now known and admired by every educated Russian. The poet, however, did not get on with his new[Pg 4] chief. A scathing epigram upon Vorontsoff led the count to ask for Pushkin's removal from Odessa, "where," he said, "excessive flattery had turned the young maids head." To be continue in this ebook...

Download or read book Preeto and Other Stories written by Rakhshanda Jalil and published by Niyogi Books. This book was released on 2018-09-20 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a world where more women are joining the work force, where ever more are stepping out from their secluded and cloistered world and can be physically seen in larger numbers, this collection seeks to explore how male writers in Urdu view and consequently present or represent the women of their world. In her Introduction, Rakhshanda Jalil traces the history of ‘writings on women’ by both male and female writers — from the doyens of Urdu literature to contemporary writers dealing with contemporary issues, setting the mood for the stories in this collection and giving the reader a sampler of what to expect in the ensuing pages. The collection includes themes which are timeless as well as topics that are an outcome of the times we live in. Starting with two of the four pillars of the Urdu short story – Rajinder Singh Bedi and Krishan Chandar – who can be credited with introducing a realistic portrayal of women in Urdu fiction, the stories in this volume offer multiple ways of ‘seeing’ women.

Download or read book Studies in Indian Writing in English written by Mittapalli Rajeshwar and published by Atlantic Publishers & Distri. This book was released on 2000 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During The Seventy Years Of Its Effective History Indian Writing In English Crossed Many Miles Stones And Has Come To Be Finally Accepted As A Major Literature Of The World. Having Won Almost Every Important Literary Prize In The Recent Few Years, Iwe Has Become Immensely Popular With The Common International Readers And Critics Alike. If Its Being Prescribed For Study In Universities Across The World Is Any Indication, The Place Of Iwe In The Canon Is Secure Forever.This Anthology Of Critical Articles Attempts To Evaluate Some Of The Major Indian Poets And Novelists And Their Influential Works From Refreshingly New Perspectives Historical, Socio-Economic, Existential, Mythological, Philosophical-Religious And Environmental.The Writers Studied Here Include Anand, Narayan, Raja Rao, Malgonkar, Bhattacharya, Joshi, Desai, Markandaya, Sahgal, Ezekiel And Ramanujan. An Interesting Addition To This Volume Are A Couple Of Articles On The Diaspora Writers Such Rohinton Mistry And The South African Indian Poets And Novelists.It Is Hoped That This Book Will Prove Itself Highly Useful To All Who Are Seriously Interested In Indian Writing In English.

Download or read book Monsieur Parent Queen Hortense Fascination and Other Stories written by Guy de Maupassant and published by . This book was released on 1910 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Warrior Queen of Mars and other Stories written by Alexander Blade and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2019-03-16 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Princesses, Warrior Queens and Goddesses best describes the Tales you will read in this classic science fiction compilation that features four complete stories from the best and brightest writers of the genre. 1.....Warrior Queen of Mars...Iceland was the perfect place for a secret military operation...We had thought of it, but so had the Martians many ages ago. 2.....The Golden Princess...Somewhere out of nothing, Professor Ross was making Gold. It just couldn't be but it was. Enough to make Nick Hall gamble on it...until the Drums came. 3.....Daughter of the Snake God...Allan Curtis and Jo Matthews faced deadly danger even before they arrived in Peru; a murder, Nazi tanks, and Sacha! 4.....The Ice Queen...Somewhere in the frozen wastes was a fortune in furs. But guarding them was a girl, a white Tiger, and a lost World!