Download or read book Stempenyu A Jewish Romance written by Sholom Aleichem and published by Melville House. This book was released on 2012-11-06 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Even the most pious Jew need not shed so many tears over the destruction of Jerusalem as the women were in the habit of shedding when Stempenyu was playing. The first work of Sholom Aleichem’s to be translated into English—this long out-of-print translation is the only one ever done under Aleichem’s personal supervision—Stempenyu is a prime example of the author’ s hallmark traits: his antic and often sardonic sense of humor, his whip-smart dialogue, his workaday mysticism, and his historic documentation of shtetl life. Held recently by scholars to be the story that inspired Marc Chagall’s “Fiddler on the Roof” painting (which in turn inspired the play that was subsequently based on Aleichem’s Tevye stories, not this novella), Stempenyu is the hysterical story of a young village girl who falls for a wildly popular klezmer fiddler—a character based upon an actual Yiddish musician whose fame set off a kind of pop hysteria in the shtetl. Thus the story, in this contemporaneous “authorized” translation, is a wonderful introduction to Aleichem’s work as he wanted it read, not to mention to the unique palaver of a nineteenth-century Yiddish rock star.
Download or read book Stempenyu written by Sholem Aleichem and published by . This book was released on 1913 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Stempenyu A Jewish Romance written by Sholom Aleichem and published by Melville House. This book was released on 2007-12-14 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Even the most pious Jew need not shed so many tears over the destruction of Jerusalem as the women were in the habit of shedding when Stempenyu was playing. The first work of Sholom Aleichem’s to be translated into English—this long out-of-print translation is the only one ever done under Aleichem’s personal supervision—Stempenyu is a prime example of the author’ s hallmark traits: his antic and often sardonic sense of humor, his whip-smart dialogue, his workaday mysticism, and his historic documentation of shtetl life. Held recently by scholars to be the story that inspired Marc Chagall’s “Fiddler on the Roof” painting (which in turn inspired the play that was subsequently based on Aleichem’s Tevye stories, not this novella), Stempenyu is the hysterical story of a young village girl who falls for a wildly popular klezmer fiddler—a character based upon an actual Yiddish musician whose fame set off a kind of pop hysteria in the shtetl. Thus the story, in this contemporaneous “authorized” translation, is a wonderful introduction to Aleichem’s work as he wanted it read, not to mention to the unique palaver of a nineteenth-century Yiddish rock star.
Download or read book Stempenyu A Jewish Romance written by Sholom Aleichem and published by Melville House. This book was released on 2007-12-14 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Even the most pious Jew need not shed so many tears over the destruction of Jerusalem as the women were in the habit of shedding when Stempenyu was playing. The first work of Sholom Aleichem’s to be translated into English—this long out-of-print translation is the only one ever done under Aleichem’s personal supervision—Stempenyu is a prime example of the author’ s hallmark traits: his antic and often sardonic sense of humor, his whip-smart dialogue, his workaday mysticism, and his historic documentation of shtetl life. Held recently by scholars to be the story that inspired Marc Chagall’s “Fiddler on the Roof” painting (which in turn inspired the play that was subsequently based on Aleichem’s Tevye stories, not this novella), Stempenyu is the hysterical story of a young village girl who falls for a wildly popular klezmer fiddler—a character based upon an actual Yiddish musician whose fame set off a kind of pop hysteria in the shtetl. Thus the story, in this contemporaneous “authorized” translation, is a wonderful introduction to Aleichem’s work as he wanted it read, not to mention to the unique palaver of a nineteenth-century Yiddish rock star.
Download or read book Wonder of Wonders written by Alisa Solomon and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2013-10-22 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sparkling and eye-opening history of the Broadway musical that changed the world In the half-century since its premiere, Fiddler on the Roof has had an astonishing global impact. Beloved by audiences the world over, performed from rural high schools to grand state theaters, Fiddler is a supremely potent cultural landmark. In a history as captivating as its subject, award-winning drama critic Alisa Solomon traces how and why the story of Tevye the milkman, the creation of the great Yiddish writer Sholem-Aleichem, was reborn as blockbuster entertainment and a cultural touchstone, not only for Jews and not only in America. It is a story of the theater, following Tevye from his humble appearance on the New York Yiddish stage, through his adoption by leftist dramatists as a symbol of oppression, to his Broadway debut in one of the last big book musicals, and his ultimate destination—a major Hollywood picture. Solomon reveals how the show spoke to the deepest conflicts and desires of its time: the fraying of tradition, generational tension, the loss of roots. Audiences everywhere found in Fiddler immediate resonance and a usable past, whether in Warsaw, where it unlocked the taboo subject of Jewish history, or in Tokyo, where the producer asked how Americans could understand a story that is "so Japanese." Rich, entertaining, and original, Wonder of Wonders reveals the surprising and enduring legacy of a show about tradition that itself became a tradition. Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles.
Download or read book The Lemoine Affair written by Marcel Proust and published by Melville House. This book was released on 2012-11-06 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Their friend Marcel Proust had killed himself after the fall in diamond shares, a collapse that annihilated a part of his fortune. This is the first-ever translation into English of this startling tour-de-force by one of the twentieth century’s greatest writers. The Lemoine Affair was inspired by the real-life French scandal involving Henri Lemoine, who claimed he could manufacture diamonds from coal and convinced numerous people—including officers of the De Beers diamond mine company and Proust himself—to invest in the scheme. In a series of pastiches—imitations written in the style of other writers—Proust tells the story of the embarrassment rippling across high society Paris in the wake of the scandal, poking fun at himself (in one story, a character declares that Marcel Proust is so embarrassed he’s suicidal) while lampooning some of France’s greatest writers, including Flaubert, Balzac, and Saint-Simon. Full of sophisticated wit and dazzling wordplay, and rife with allusions to his friend and fictional characters, many Proust scholars see the dead-on mimicry of The Lemoine Affair—written soon after Proust’s rejection of society life—as the work by which he honed his own unique, masterly voice. The Art of The Novella Series Too short to be a novel, too long to be a short story, the novella is generally unrecognized by academics and publishers. Nonetheless, it is a form beloved and practiced by literature's greatest writers. In the Art Of The Novella series, Melville House celebrates this renegade art form and its practitioners with titles that are, in many instances, presented in book form for the first time.
Download or read book The Devil written by Leo Tolstoy and published by Melville House. This book was released on 2012-11-06 with total page 113 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "I am acting badly," thought Yevgeny, "But what's one to do? Anyhow it is not for long." Leo Tolstoy is known for epic novels that brilliantly dissect society, but the novella The Devil may be the most personally revealing—and startling—fiction he ever wrote. He thought it so scandalous, in fact, that he hid the manuscript in the upholstery of a chair in his office so his wife wouldn't find it, and he would never allow it to be published in his lifetime. Perhaps that's because the gripping tale of an aristocratic landowner slowly overcome with unrelenting sexual desire for one of the peasants on his estate was strikingly similar to an affair Tolstoy himself had. Regardless, the tale—presented here with the two separate endings Tolstoy couldn't decide between—is a scintillating study of sexual attraction and human obsession. The Art of The Novella Series Too short to be a novel, too long to be a short story, the novella is generally unrecognized by academics and publishers. Nonetheless, it is a form beloved and practiced by literature's greatest writers. In the Art Of The Novella series, Melville House celebrates this renegade art form and its practitioners with titles that are, in many instances, presented in book form for the first time.
Download or read book The Enchanted Wanderer written by Nikolaĭ Semenovich Leskov and published by Melville House Publishing. This book was released on 2012 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new translation of the hilarious picaresque about a man with an indomitable spirit The Enchanted Wanderer is a Russian Candide with a revolutionary edge, a picaresque that features a fast-talking monk named Ivan who is at war, it seems, with every level of society. Working as a carriage man for a Count, Ivan accidentally causes the death of a monk, which leads to his being ostracized by the local peasantry . . . until the dead monk returns as a ghost to guide him through trouble upon trouble.
Download or read book The Union Jack written by Imre Kertész and published by Melville House. This book was released on 2013-07-09 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "It was...unnecessary for me to fret about who the murderer was: Everybody was." A haunting, never-before-translated, autobiographical novella by the 2002 Nobel Prize winner. An unnamed narrator recounts a simple anecdote, his sighting of the Union Jack—the British Flag—during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, in the few days preceding the uprising's brutal repression by the Soviet army. In the telling, partly a digressive meditation on "the absurd order of chance," he recalls his youthful self, and the epiphanies of his intellectual and spiritual awakening—an awakening to a kind of radical subjectivity. In his Nobel address Kertesz remembered: "I, on a lovely spring day in 1955, suddenly came to the realization that there exists only one reality, and that is me, my own life, this fragile gift bestowed for an uncertain time, which had been seized, expropriated by alien forces, and circumscribed, marked up, branded—and which I had to take back from 'History', this dreadful Moloch, because it was mine and mine alone..." The Contemporary Art of the Novella series is designed to highlight work by major authors from around the world. In most instances, as with Imre Kertész, it showcases work never before published; in others, books are reprised that should never have gone out of print. It is intended that the series feature many well-known authors and some exciting new discoveries. And as with the original series, The Art of the Novella, each book is a beautifully packaged and inexpensive volume meant to celebrate the form and its practitioners.
Download or read book Freya of the Seven Isles written by Joseph Conrad and published by Melville House. This book was released on 2012-11-06 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is a degree of bliss too intense for elation. This little-known novella from one of the masters of the form is so unusual for Joseph Conrad's work in several respects, although not in its exotic maritime setting or its even more exotic prose—it is unusual in that it is one of his very few works to feature a woman as a leading character, and to take the form of a romance. Still, it's a Conradian romance: a sweeping saga set in the Indian Ocean basin, against a turbulent background of barely suppressed hostilities between Dutch and British merchant navies, told by one of Conrad's classically detached narrators. In the end, the unique perspective of the sharply etched character of Freya is one of Conrad's most piercing studies of how the lust for power can drive men to greatness—or its opposite. The Art of The Novella Series Too short to be a novel, too long to be a short story, the novella is generally unrecognized by academics and publishers. Nonetheless, it is a form beloved and practiced by literature's greatest writers. In the Art Of The Novella series, Melville House celebrates this renegade art form and its practitioners with titles that are, in many instances, presented in book form for the first time.
Download or read book The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg written by Mark Twain and published by Melville House. This book was released on 2012-11-06 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Why, you simple creatures, the weakest of all weak things is a virtue which has not been tested in the fire." Written on hotel stationary while in Europe on the run from American creditors, soon after the death of a daughter, The Man That Corrupted Handleyburg is often cited as a work of bitter cynicism—a statement on America, to some, on the Dreyfus Case, to others—created by a weary author at the end of his career. Another appreciation, however, is that it is, simply, Mark Twain at his best. The story of a mysterious stranger who orchestrates a fraud embarrassing the hypocritical citizens of "incorruptible" Hadleyburg. The novella is an exceptionally crafted work intertwining a devious and suspenseful plot with some of the wittiest dialogue Twain ever wrote. And like the most masterful literature, it subverts any notion of easy conclusion: is Hadleyburg ruined, or liberated? Is the mysterious stranger Satan, or a hero? Is this a book of revenge, or redemption? One thing is clear: This brilliant novella is a complex and compassionate consideration of the human character by a master at the height of his form. The Art of The Novella Series Too short to be a novel, too long to be a short story, the novella is generally unrecognized by academics and publishers. Nonetheless, it is a form beloved and practiced by literature's greatest writers. In the Art Of The Novella series, Melville House celebrates this renegade art form and its practitioners with titles that are, in many instances, presented in book form for the first time.
Download or read book The Horla written by Guy De Maupassant and published by Melville House. This book was released on 2012-11-06 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our woe is upon us. This chilling tale of one man’s descent into madness was published shortly before the author was institutionalized for insanity, and so The Horla has inevitably been seen as informed by Guy de Maupassant’s mental illness. While such speculation is murky, it is clear that de Maupassant—hailed alongside Chekhov as father of the short story—was at the peak of his powers in this innovative precursor of first-person psychological fiction. Indeed, he worked for years on The Horla’s themes and form, first drafting it as “Letter from a Madman,” then telling it from a doctor’s point of view, before finally releasing the terrified protagonist to speak for himself in its devastating final version. In a brilliant new translation, all three versions appear here as a single volume for the first time. The Art of The Novella Series Too short to be a novel, too long to be a short story, the novella is generally unrecognized by academics and publishers. Nonetheless, it is a form beloved and practiced by literature's greatest writers. In the Art Of The Novella series, Melville House celebrates this renegade art form and its practitioners with titles that are, in many instances, presented in book form for the first time.
Download or read book The Duel written by Heinrich von Kleist and published by Melville House. This book was released on 2011-08-16 with total page 66 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: About This Book "No amount of wisdom could possibly make sense of the mysterious verdict which God intended through this duel." A new translation of a key work by one of European literature’s most important early writers. One of the few novellas written by the master German playwright, The Duel was considered by Thomas Mann and others to be one of the great works of German literature. The story of a virtuous woman slandered by a nobleman, it is a precise study of a subject that fascinated von Kleist: That people are sometimes seemingly punished for their very innocence. This Is An Enhanced eBook This eBook contains Illuminations—additional curated material that expand the world of Kleist’s novella through text and illustrations—at no additional charge. "Illuminations" contains writings by Paul the Deacon - J.G. Millingen - Sir Walter Scott - Johann Ludwig Uhland - Miguel de Cervantes - Andrew Lang - John Carl Blankenagel - Louis and Regis Senac - Alfred Hutton - Fiore de Liberi and a collection of the twelve laws of chivalry. Illustrations include: Gerhard von Kugelgen - Johannes Gehrts - Jörg Breu Jüngere and Pauls Hector Mair - Achilles Emperaire - George Muhlberg and others. Also included is The Duelist’s Supplement – “The Art of Dueling: How To Shoot and Slash Your Way To Satisfaction” which includes an entire facsimile scan of Fior de Liberi's Flower of Battle.
Download or read book The Duel written by Giacomo Casanova and published by Melville House. This book was released on 2011-08-16 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: About This Book In this autobiographical tale, a young dandy is forced to flee his hometown after falling afoul of the authorities. But sheltering in the royal court he finds treachery and insult and is eventually positioned into a meaningless confrontation over a woman he cares nothing about. Told with debonair wit and a merciless attitude toward high society, the tale becomes a tense adventure that leads to a surprising outcome. This Is A Melville House “HybridBook” HybridBooks are a union of print and electronic media: Purchasers of this print edition also receive Illuminations—additional curated material that expands the world of Casanova's novella through text and illustrations—at no additional charge. To obtain the Illuminations for The Duel by Giacomo Casanova, simply scan the QR code (or follow a url) found at the back of the print book; the link leads to a landing page where you can download a file for your preferred electronic reading device. Included are excerpts from work by Havelock Ellis - W.E. Garrett Fisher - Richard von Kraft Ebbing - Arthur Schnitzler - Arthur Symonds - Mark Twain - And the entire version of Casanova's duel as written in his personal memoirs. Full-color art by Francesco Casanova - Anton Raphael Mengs - Jean-Marc Nattier - Johann Berka - an 1841 map of Weehawken - "An Air Balloon Engagement" by J. Barrow - and portraits of the ten most deadly duelists. Also included: “Famous Duels, Duelists, and Dueling Grounds”
Download or read book The Distracted Preacher written by Thomas Hardy and published by Melville House. This book was released on 2012-08-28 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the master of Victorian tragedy, the surprisingly comic adventures of a man caught between romance and religion. When young Mr. Stockdale arrives in a small village to fill in for the Methodist minister, he finds himself pining for his comely new landlady. But she leads a mysterious life, keeping odd hours and speaking in hushed tones. As his love for her grows, he’s soon at the center of a hilarious high-stakes adventure, complete with slapstick, hijinks, and a marauding band of cross-dressers. And he’s forced to choose: follow his heart or his higher purpose? *** This is a Hybrid Book. Melville House HybridBooks combine print and digital media into an enhanced reading experience by including with each title additional curated material called Illuminations — maps, photographs, illustrations, and further writing about the author and the book. The Melville House Illuminations are free with the purchase of any title in the HybridBook series, no matter the format. Purchasers of the print version can obtain the Illuminations for a given title simply by scanning the QR code found in the back of each book, or by following the url also given in the back of the print book, then downloading the Illumination in whatever format works best for you. Purchasers of the digital version receive the appropriate Illuminations automatically as part of the ebook edition.
Download or read book The Duel written by Anton Chekhov and published by Melville House. This book was released on 2011-08-16 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: About This Book "Hate you!" Laevsky said quietly, breathing heavily. "I've hated you a long time!" This new translation of the literary masterpiece— which combines a beautiful romance with high suspense— is here presented for the first time as a stand-alone volume. One of Chekhov’s most important lengthy works, this remarkable story gives a startling twist to his classic, ongoing study of bourgeois romance when he sets it on a collision course with a decaying, Czarist concept of honor. It ends in the ultimate Chekhovian observation: that fate is often ludicrous. This Is A Melville House “HybridBook” HybridBooks are a union of print and electronic media: Purchasers of this print edition also receive Illuminations—additional illustrated material that expand the world of Chekhov’s novella through text and illustrations—at no additional charge. To obtain the Illuminations for The Duel by Anton Chekhov, simply scan the QR code (or follow a url) found at the back of the print book, which leads to a page where you can download a file for your preferred electronic reading device. "Illuminations" contains writings by Mikhail Lermontov - Ivan Goncharov - Alexander Pushkin - Herbert Spencer - Friedrich Nietzsche - Jack London - Thomas Paine - Francis Bacon - Charles McKay – And a guide to the game of vint. Full-color illustrations include: William Hogarth - James Joseph Tissot - Jan Steen - The Shahnameh and more. Also Included: “Against The Duel: Writing In Protest of Dueling”
Download or read book The Girl with the Golden Eyes written by Honore de Balzac and published by Melville House. This book was released on 2007-10-01 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the night came, he went to the meeting-place, and quietly let himself be blindfolded. Raw as Honoré de Balzac is famed to be, this daring novella—never before published as a stand-alone book—is perhaps the most outlandish thing he ever wrote. While still concerned with the depiction of the underside of Parisian life, as is most of Balzac’s oeuvre, The Girl with the Golden Eyes considers not the working lives of the poor, but the sex lives of the upper crust. In a nearly boroque rendering with erotically charged details as well as lush and extravagant language, The Girl with the Golden Eyes tells the story of a rich and ruthless young man in nineteenth century Paris caught up in an amorous entanglement with a mysterious beauty. His control slipping, incest, homosexuality, sexual slavery, and violence combine in what was then, and still remains, a shocking and taboo-breaking work. The Art of The Novella Series Too short to be a novel, too long to be a short story, the novella is generally unrecognized by academics and publishers. Nonetheless, it is a form beloved and practiced by literature's greatest writers. In the Art Of The Novella series, Melville House celebrates this renegade art form and its practitioners with titles that are, in many instances, presented in book form for the first time.
