Download or read book The Diary of a Chambermaid written by Octave Mirbeau and published by e-artnow. This book was released on 2021-05-07 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The novel presents itself as the diary of Mademoiselle Célestine R., a chambermaid. Her first employer fetishizes her boots, and she later discovers the elderly man dead, with one of her boots stuffed into his mouth. Later on, Célestine becomes the maid of an upper class couple, Lanlaire, and is perfectly aware that she is entangled in the power struggles of their marriage. Célestine ends by becoming a café hostess, who mistreats her servants in turn! Excerpt: "To-day, September 14, at three o'clock in the afternoon, in mild, gray, and rainy weather, I have entered upon my new place. It is the twelfth in two years. Of course I say nothing of the places which I held in previous years. It would be impossible for me to count them. Ah! I can boast of having seen interiors and faces, and dirty souls. And the end is not yet. Judging from the really extraordinary and dizzy way in which I have rolled, here and there, successively, from houses to employment-bureaus, and from employment-bureaus to houses, from the Bois de Boulogne to the Bastille, from the Observatory to Montmartre, from the Ternes to the Gobelins, everywhere, without ever succeeding in establishing myself anywhere, the masters in these days must be hard to please. It is incredible..."
Download or read book Torture Garden written by Octave Mirbeau and published by Library of Alexandria. This book was released on 2020-09-28 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One evening some friends were gathered at the home of one of our most celebrated writers. Having dined sumptuously, they were discussing murder—apropos of what, I no longer remember probably apropos of nothing. Only men were present: moralists, poets, philosophers and doctors—thus everyone could speak freely, according to his whim, his hobby or his idiosyncrasies, without fear of suddenly seeing that expression of horror and fear which the least startling idea traces upon the horrified face of a notary. I—say notary, much as I might have said lawyer or porter, not disdainfully, of course, but in order to define the average French mind. With a calmness of spirit as perfect as though he were expressing an opinion upon the merits of the cigar he was smoking, a member of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences said: “Really—I honestly believe that murder is the greatest human preoccupation, and that all our acts stem from it... “ We awaited the pronouncement of an involved theory, but he remained silent. “Absolutely!” said a Darwinian scientist, “and, my friend, you are voicing one of those eternal truths such as the legendary Monsieur de La Palisse discovered every day: since murder is the very bedrock of our social institutions, and consequently the most imperious necessity of civilized life. If it no longer existed, there would be no governments of any kind, by virtue of the admirable fact that crime in general and murder in particular are not only their excuse, but their only reason for being. We should then live in complete anarchy, which is inconceivable. So, instead of seeking to eliminate murder, it is imperative that it be cultivated with intelligence and perseverance. I know no better culture medium than law.” Someone protested. “Here, here!” asked the savant, “aren't we alone, and speaking frankly?” “Please!” said the host, “let us profit thoroughly by the only occasion when we are free to express our personal ideas, for both I, in my books, and you in your turn, may present only lies to the public.” The scientist settled himself once more among the cushions of his armchair, stretched his legs, which were numb from being crossed too long and, his head thrown back, his arms hanging and his stomach soothed by good digestion, puffed smoke−rings at the ceiling: “Besides,” he continued, “murder is largely self−propagating. Actually, it is not the result of this or that passion, nor is it a pathological form of degeneracy. It is a vital instinct which is in us all—which is in all organized beings and dominates them, just as the genetic instinct. And most of the time it is especially true that these two instincts fuse so well, and are so totally interchangeable, that in some way or other they form a single and identical instinct, so that we no longer may tell which of the two urges us to give life, and which to take it—which is murder, and which love. I have been the confidant of an honorable assassin who killed women, not to rob them, but to ravish them. His trick was to manage things so that his sexual climax coincided exactly with the death−spasm of the woman: 'At those moments,' he told me, 'I imagined I was a God, creating a world!”
Download or read book The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris written by Gouverneur Morris and published by . This book was released on 1888 with total page 690 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A biography of Gouverneur Morris (1752-1816) by his granddaughter, making extensive use of his letters and diary.
Download or read book Cracking Gilles Deleuze s Crystal written by Barry Nevin and published by . This book was released on 2020-05-31 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reassessing the unique qualities of Renoir's influential visual style by interpreting his films through Gilles Deleuze's film philosophy, and through previously unpublished production files, Barry Nevin provides a fresh and accessible interdisciplinary perspective that illuminates both the consistency and diversity of Renoir's oeuvre.
Download or read book Sister written by Rosamund Lupton and published by Crown. This book was released on 2011-12-20 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Lupton enters the highly charged ring where the best psychological detective writers spar... Like Kate Atkinson, Patricia Highsmith and Ruth Rendell… Both tear-jerking and spine-tingling, Sister provides an adrenaline rush that could cause a chill on the sunniest afternoon." —The New York Times Book Review When her mom calls to tell her that Tess, her younger sister, is missing, Bee returns home to London on the first flight. She expects to find Tess and give her the usual lecture, the bossy big sister scolding her flighty baby sister for taking off without letting anyone know her plans. Tess has always been a free spirit, an artist who takes risks, while conservative Bee couldn’t be more different. Bee is used to watching out for her wayward sibling and is fiercely protective of Tess (and has always been a little stern about her antics). But then Tess is found dead, apparently by her own hand. Bee is certain that Tess didn’t commit suicide. Their family and the police accept the sad reality, but Bee feels sure that Tess has been murdered. Single-minded in her search for a killer, Bee moves into Tess's apartment and throws herself headlong into her sister's life--and all its secrets. Though her family and the police see a grieving sister in denial, unwilling to accept the facts, Bee uncovers the affair Tess was having with a married man and the pregnancy that resulted, and her difficultly with a stalker who may have crossed the line when Tess refused his advances. Tess was also participating in an experimental medical trial that might have gone very wrong. As a determined Bee gives her statement to the lead investigator, her story reveals a predator who got away with murder--and an obsession that may cost Bee her own life. A thrilling story of fierce love between siblings, Sister is a suspenseful and accomplished debut with a stunning twist.
Download or read book S bastien Roch written by Octave Mirbeau and published by Dedalus European Classics. This book was released on 2000 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a classic portrait of a boy''s psychological, sexual and political coming of age in provincial France, set against the background of the Belle Epoque'
Download or read book 21 Days of a Neurasthenic written by Octave Mirbeau and published by French Literature. This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Octave Mirbeau, author of The Torture Garden and Diary of a Chambermaid, wrote this scathing novel on the cusp of the twentieth century. Driven mad by modern life, Georges Vasseur leaves for a rest cure, where he encounters corrupt politicians, amnesiac coquettes, cheerfully sadistic killers, imperialist generals, and quack psychiatrists. Hypocrites are eternal, and not much has changed since Mirbeau wrote this acid portrait of his era.
Download or read book The Secret Language of Film written by Jean-Claude Carrière and published by Pantheon. This book was released on 1994 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Carriere, whose screenwriting credits include The Tin Drum, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and Cyrano de Bergerac, explores the vocabulary of the visual language of film. Filled with anecdote and insight, this book provides readers with an illuminating new way to see and enjoy the movies.
Download or read book The Diary of Dr John William Polidori 1816 Relating to Byron Shelley Etc Edited and Elucidated by William Michael Rossetti written by John William Polidori and published by Read Books Ltd. This book was released on 2019-02-15 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1911, this vintage book contains extracts from the diary of John William Polidori, and chiefly those parts relating to his relationships with Byron, Shelley, and others of the Romantic movement. John William Polidori (7 September 1795 – 24 August 1821) was an English writer and physician famous for his associations with the Romantic movement and for being, as many maintain, the creator of the vampire genre of fantasy fiction. His most notable work was the short story "The Vampyre" (1819). This volume will appeal to those with an interest in the life of Polidori and especially those who he associated with, namely Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Other notable works by this author include: “Cajetan” (1816), “Boadicea” (1816), and “On the Punishment of Death” (1816). Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially-commissioned new introduction of the author.
Download or read book Red Rooms written by Cherie Dimaline and published by Red Rooms. This book was released on 2013-05 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Red Rooms is a unique journey articulating the lives of the Native patrons of an urban hotel as seen through the eyes of the hotels cleaning lady. The characters face the crises in their lives in ways that are easily identifiable and not uncommon to Native people. What is unique about this collection of stories is Dimaline's sometimes cryptic, sometimes comedic, always compassionate and visionary housekeeper who offers hindsight, insight and foresight to the reader in the representation of their lives."Haunting and complex Red Rooms is the Native Rosetta Stone. A lovely tour de force from an up-and-coming writer to watch."Eden Robinson
Download or read book The Invention of the Western Film written by Scott Simmon and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2003-06-30 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Table of contents
Download or read book The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer written by Joyce Reardon and published by Disney Electronic Content. This book was released on 2002-02-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the turn of the twentieth century, Ellen Rimbauer became the young bride of Seattle industrialist John Rimbauer, and began keeping a remarkable diary. This diary became the secret place where Ellen could confess her fears of the new marriage, her confusion over her emerging sexuality, and the nightmare that her life would become. The diary not only follows the development of a girl into womanhood, it follows the construction of the Rimbauer mansion called Rose Red; an enormous home that would be the site of so many horrific and inexplicable tragedies in the years ahead. The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life at Rose Red is a rare document, one that gives us an unusual view of daily life among the aristocracy in the early 1900s, a window into one woman's hidden emotional torment, and a record of the mysterious events at Rose Red that scandalized Seattle society at the time - events that can only be fully understood now that the diary has come to light. Edited by Joyce Reardon, Ph.D. as part of her research, the diary is being published as preparations are being made by Dr. Reardon to enter Rose Red and fully investigate its disturbing history.
Download or read book Sophie Calle The Hotel written by and published by . This book was released on 2021-11-16 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A forensic conceptualist's inventory of the ordinary and extraordinary lives in a Venetian hotel In 1981 Sophie Calle took a job as a chambermaid for the Hotel C in Venice, Italy. Stashing her camera and tape recorder in her mop bucket, she not only cleans and tidies, but sorts through the evidence of the hotel guests' lives. Assigned 12 rooms on the fourth floor, she surveys the state of the guests' bedding, their books, newspapers and postcards, perfumes and cologne, traveling clothes and costumes for Carnival. She methodically photographs the contents of closets and suitcases, examining the detritus in the rubbish bin and the toiletries arranged on the washbasin. She discovers their birth dates and blood types, diary entries, letters from and photographs of lovers and family. She eavesdrops on arguments and love-making. She retrieves a pair of shoes from the wastebasket and takes two chocolates from a neglected box of sweets, while leaving behind stashes of money, pills and jewelry. Her thievery is the eye of the camera, observing the details that were not meant for her, or us, to see. The Hotel now manifests as a book for the first time in English (it was previously included in the book Double Game). Collaborating with the artist on a new design that features enhanced and larger photographs, and pays specific attention to the beauty of the book as an object, Siglio is releasing its third book authored by Calle, after The Address Book (2012) and Suite Vénitienne (2015). Sophie Calle (born 1953) is an internationally renowned artist whose controversial works often fuse conceptual art and Oulipo-like constraints, investigatory methods and the plundering of autobiography. The Whitechapel Gallery in London organized a retrospective in 2009, and her work has been shown at the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Hayward Gallery and Serpentine, London; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, among others. She lives and works in Paris.
Download or read book True Sisters written by Sandra Dallas and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2012-04-24 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Four women seeking the promise of salvation and prosperity in a new land.
Download or read book Weird Women written by Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly and published by . This book was released on 1900 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Wisdom s Kiss written by Catherine Gilbert Murdock and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2011-08-15 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Magic, cunning, and one very special cat join forces in this hilarious, extraordinary tale by the author of the Dairy Queen trilogy and Princess Ben. Princess Wisdom, known as Dizzy, longs for a life of adventure beyond the staid old kingdom of Montagne. Tips, a soldier, longs to keep his true identity a secret. Fortitude, an orphaned maid, longs only for Tips. These three souls might possibly attain their dreams while preserving their empire from ruin — if only they can bear one another’s company long enough to come up with a plan.
Download or read book Bu uel written by John Baxter and published by Carroll & Graf Pub. This book was released on 1998 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traces the life of the controversial Spanish director most famous for "Un Chien Andalou," "Belle de Jour," and "The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoisie"
