Download or read book The Quincunx written by Charles Palliser and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 1990-11-27 with total page 802 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An extraordinary modern novel in the Victorian tradition, Charles Palliser has created something extraordinary—a plot within a plot within a plot of family secrets, mysterious clues, low-born birth, high-reaching immorality, and, always, always the fog-enshrouded, enigmatic character of 19th century—London itself. “So compulsively absorbing that reality disappears . . . One is swept along by those enduring emotions that defy modern art and a random universe: hunger for revenge, longing for justice and the fantasy secretly entertained by most people that the bad will be punished and the good rewarded.”—The New York Times “A virtuoso achievement . . . It is an epic, a tour de force, a staggeringly complex and tantalizingly layered tale that will keep readers engrossed in days. . . . The Quincunx will not disappoint you. It is, quite simply, superb.”—Chicago Sun-Times “A bold and vivid tale that invites the reader to get lost in the intoxicating rhythms of another world. And the invitation is irresistible.”—San Francisco Chronicle “A remarkable book . . . In mood, color, atmosphere and characters, this is Charles Dickens reincarnated . . . It is an immersing experience.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review “To read the first pages is to be trapped for seven-hundred odd more: you cannot stop turning them.”—The New Yorker “Few books, at most a dozen or two in a lifetime, affect us this way. . . . For sheer intricacy and ingenuity, for skill and clarity of storytelling, it is the kind of book readers wait for, a book to get lost in.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer
Download or read book The Garden of Cyrus written by Sir Thomas Browne and published by . This book was released on 1736 with total page 58 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Hidden Keys written by André Alexis and published by Coach House Books. This book was released on 2016-09-19 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Giller Prize winner André Alexis’s contemporary take on the quest narrative is an instant classic. Although the Green Dolphin is a bar of ill repute, it is there that Tancred Palmieri, a thief with elegant and erudite tastes, meets Willow Azarian, an aging heroin addict. She reveals to Tancred that her very wealthy father has recently passed away, leaving each of his five children a mysterious object that provides one clue to the whereabouts of a large inheritance. Willow enlists Tancred to steal these objects from her siblings and solve the puzzle. A Japanese screen, a painting that plays music, an aquavit bottle, a framed poem, and a model of Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater: Tancred is lured in to this beguiling quest, and even though Willow dies before he can begin, he presses on. As he tracks down the treasure, however, he must enlist the help of Alexander von Wurfel, esteemed copyist, and fend off Willow's heroin dealers, a young albino named "Nigger" Colby and his sidekick, Sigismund "Freud" Luxemburg, a club-footed psychopath, both of whom are eager to get their paws on this supposed pot of gold. And he must mislead Detective Daniel Mandelshtam, his most adored friend. Based on a reading of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, The Hidden Keys questions what it means to be honorable and what it means to be faithful.
Download or read book The Unburied written by Charles Palliser and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2000-11 with total page 437 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Victorian England, Dr. Courtine is invited to spend the days before Christmas with a friend from his youth. Courtine finds himself drawn into a haunting world of avarice, skullduggery, and exceptional evil stemming from a 200-year-old murder.
Download or read book Fifteen Dogs written by André Alexis and published by Coach House Books. This book was released on 2015-03-23 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2015 Scotiabank Giller Prize Finalist for the 2015 Toronto Book Awards Winner of the 2015 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize "[Alexis] devises an inventive romp through the nature of humanity in this beautiful, entertaining read … A clever exploration of our essence, communication, and how our societies are organized." – Kirkus Reviews "This might be the best set-up of the spring." – The Globe & Mail "André Alexis has established himself as one of our preeminent voices." – Toronto Star — I wonder, said Hermes, what it would be like if animals had human intelligence. — I'll wager a year's servitude, answered Apollo, that animals – any animal you like – would be even more unhappy than humans are, if they were given human intelligence. And so it begins: a bet between the gods Hermes and Apollo leads them to grant human consciousness and language to a group of dogs overnighting at a Toronto veterinary clinic. Suddenly capable of more complex thought, the pack is torn between those who resist the new ways of thinking, preferring the old 'dog' ways, and those who embrace the change. The gods watch from above as the dogs venture into their newly unfamiliar world, as they become divided among themselves, as each struggles with new thoughts and feelings. Wily Benjy moves from home to home, Prince becomes a poet, and Majnoun forges a relationship with a kind couple that stops even the Fates in their tracks. André Alexis's contemporary take on the apologue offers an utterly compelling and affecting look at the beauty and perils of human consciousness. By turns meditative and devastating, charming and strange, Fifteen Dogs shows you can teach an old genre new tricks. André Alexis was born in Trinidad and grew up in Canada. His debut novel, Childhood, won the Books in Canada First Novel Award, the Trillium Book Award, and was shortlisted for the Giller Prize and the Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. His other previous books include Asylum, Beauty and Sadness, Ingrid & the Wolf and, most recently, Pastoral, which was also nominated for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and was named a Globe and Mail Top 100 book of 2014.
Download or read book The Quincunx The Mompessons written by Charles Palliser and published by Canelo + ORM. This book was released on 2018-07-19 with total page 495 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Desperate times and darker mysteries abound in this extraordinary historical thriller With their savings rapidly running out, and the world turning against them, John and his mother are pursued by bailiffs and forced to move. Taking refuge with the Isbister family, they flee upon discovering a shocking dark side to their hosts. But then their luck seems to change when they discover the hospitable Miss Quilliam. And a way out of debt and disaster seems to offer itself with a momentous decision, one that will shape everything: to sell the most valuable thing they own. Life is never so easy, and cruelty, danger and disease are never far away... The second Part of the unputdownable classic, The Quincunx, is the ideal read for fans of S.J. Parris or Peter Ackroyd. Praise for The Quincunx ‘Grips like steel... it’s a book to make you miss your stop on the bus or the train, keep you up at night and wake you early... a formidable achievement’ Kaleidoscope, BBC Radio 4 ‘His brilliant and entertaining pastiche of the mid-nineteenth-century novel’ The Times ‘A brilliant and deeply eccentric attempt to reproduce an early Victorian novel...it combines massive scope with minute detail – there is a cast of thousands, but every figure is lovingly painted. The plot is so thick the spoon stands up in it, and by the end, the reader has toured the whole of late Regency society... Magnificent – gripping and beautifully written; the sort of book that sends you into a trance of pleasure’ Independent ‘Charles Palliser has realised a world that can almost be smelt and tasted as it pours off the page of this gripping, extraordinary novel’ Daily Telegraph ‘His plot is of an intricacy that Wilkie Collins himself might have envied... an astonishing achievement’ Scotsman The Quincunx 1 The Huffams 2 The Mompessons 3 The Clothiers 4 The Palphramonds 5 The Maliphants
Download or read book Rustication A Novel written by Charles Palliser and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2013-11-04 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of Publishers Weekly's Best Books of the Year. "A literary Dr. Frankenstein, [Palliser] has stitched together parts of Jane Austen and Edgar Allan Poe. The result is deliciously wicked." —Ron Charles, Washington Post Charles Palliser's work has been hailed as "so compulsively absorbing that reality disappears" (New York Times). Since his extraordinary debut, The Quincunx, his works have sold over one million copies worldwide. With his novel, Rustication, he returns to the town of Thurchester, which he evoked so hauntingly in The Unburied. It is winter 1863, and Richard Shenstone, aged seventeen, has been sent down—"rusticated"—from Cambridge under a cloud of suspicion. Addicted to opium and tormented by sexual desire, he finds temporary refuge in a dilapidated old mansion on the southern English coast inhabited by his newly impoverished mother and his sister, Effie. Soon, graphic and threatening letters begin to circulate among his neighbors, and Richard finds himself the leading suspect in a series of crimes and misdemeanors ranging from vivisection to murder. Atmospheric, lurid, and brilliantly executed, Rustication is sure to spin readers into its "spider's web of intrigue and violence" (Jane Jakeman, The Independent).
Download or read book The Quincunx written by Charles Palliser and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2014-02-19 with total page 802 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An extraordinary modern novel in the Victorian tradition, Charles Palliser has created something extraordinary—a plot within a plot within a plot of family secrets, mysterious clues, low-born birth, high-reaching immorality, and, always, always the fog-enshrouded, enigmatic character of 19th century—London itself. “So compulsively absorbing that reality disappears . . . One is swept along by those enduring emotions that defy modern art and a random universe: hunger for revenge, longing for justice and the fantasy secretly entertained by most people that the bad will be punished and the good rewarded.”—The New York Times “A virtuoso achievement . . . It is an epic, a tour de force, a staggeringly complex and tantalizingly layered tale that will keep readers engrossed in days. . . . The Quincunx will not disappoint you. It is, quite simply, superb.”—Chicago Sun-Times “A bold and vivid tale that invites the reader to get lost in the intoxicating rhythms of another world. And the invitation is irresistible.”—San Francisco Chronicle “A remarkable book . . . In mood, color, atmosphere and characters, this is Charles Dickens reincarnated . . . It is an immersing experience.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review “To read the first pages is to be trapped for seven-hundred odd more: you cannot stop turning them.”—The New Yorker “Few books, at most a dozen or two in a lifetime, affect us this way. . . . For sheer intricacy and ingenuity, for skill and clarity of storytelling, it is the kind of book readers wait for, a book to get lost in.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer
Download or read book Pastoral written by André Alexis and published by Coach House Books. This book was released on 2014-04-21 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Praise for André Alexis's previous books: "Astonishing . . . an irresistible, one-of-a-kind work."—Quill & Quire "Alexis [has an] astute understanding of the madly shimmering, beautifully weaving patterns created by what we have agreed to call memory."—Ottawa Citizen There were plans for an official welcome. It was to take place the following Sunday. But those who came to the rectory on Father Pennant's second day were the ones who could not resist seeing him sooner. Here was the man to whom they would confess the darkest things. It was important to feel him out. Mrs Young, for instance, after she had seen him eat a piece of her macaroni pie, quietly asked what he thought of adultery. André Alexis brings a modern sensibility and a new liveliness to an age-old genre, the pastoral. For his very first parish, Father Christopher Pennant is sent to the sleepy town of Barrow. With more sheep than people, it's very bucolic—too much Barrow Brew on Barrow Day is the rowdiest it gets. Bu things aren't so idyllic for Liz Denny, whose fiancé doesn't want to decide between Liz and his more worldly mistress Jane, and for Father Pennant himself, who greets some miracles of nature—mayors walking on water, talking sheep—with a profound crisis of faith. André Alexis was born in Trinidad and grew up in Canada. His debut novel, Childhood, won the Books in Canada First Novel Award, the Trillium Book Award, and was shortlisted for the Giller Prize and the Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. His books include Asylum and Ingrid and the Wolf.
Download or read book Ring written by André Alexis and published by Coach House Books. This book was released on 2021-09-28 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE GLOBE AND MAIL BEST BOOKS OF 2021 CBC BOOKS THE BEST CANADIAN FICTION OF 2021 A fresh take on the romance novel from the Giller Prize–winning author of Fifteen Dogs From their first meeting, it was clear that Gwen and Tancred were meant to be together. But, as we know, the course of true love never did run smooth. Gwen’s mother, intuiting that her daughter is in love, gives her a magic ring that has been passed down through endless generations of mothers and daughters. This ring grants its wearer the opportunity to change three things about her beloved. Like all blessings, this may also be a curse. Ring turns the literary romance upside down and shakes out its pockets. It’s a playful meditation on the past, on magic, on race, on honour, on faith, and, yes, on love. Following on the heels of Pastoral, Fifteen Dogs, The Hidden Keys, and Days by Moonlight, Ring completes Alexis’s Quincunx, a group of five genre-bending, philosophically sophisticated, and utterly delightful novels. “A great novel doesn’t try to answer questions, but, like Days by Moonlight, complicates them. ” —The Globe and Mail on Days by Moonlight “This imaginative travelogue will amuse readers even as it raises weightier issues. ” —Publishers Weekly on Days by Moonlight “I’m far from being a dog person, but as a book person I loved this smart, exuberant fantasy from start to finish. ” —The Guardian on Fifteen Dogs “A clever exploration of our essence, communication, and how our societies are organized. ” —Kirkus Reviews on Fifteen Dogs "Ring raises questions about love, marriage, fidelity, and the divine." —Canadian Writers Abroad
Download or read book The Rings of Saturn written by W. G. Sebald and published by New Directions Publishing. This book was released on 2016-11-08 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The book is like a dream you want to last forever" (Roberta Silman, The New York Times Book Review), now with a gorgeous new cover by the famed designer Peter Mendelsund A masterwork of W. G. Sebald, now with a gorgeous new cover by the famed designer Peter Mendelsund The Rings of Saturn—with its curious archive of photographs—records a walking tour of the eastern coast of England. A few of the things which cross the path and mind of its narrator (who both is and is not Sebald) are lonely eccentrics, Sir Thomas Browne’s skull, a matchstick model of the Temple of Jerusalem, recession-hit seaside towns, wooded hills, Joseph Conrad, Rembrandt’s "Anatomy Lesson," the natural history of the herring, the massive bombings of WWII, the dowager Empress Tzu Hsi, and the silk industry in Norwich. W.G. Sebald’s The Emigrants (New Directions, 1996) was hailed by Susan Sontag as an "astonishing masterpiece perfect while being unlike any book one has ever read." It was "one of the great books of the last few years," noted Michael Ondaatje, who now acclaims The Rings of Saturn "an even more inventive work than its predecessor, The Emigrants."
Download or read book Curse of the Quincunx written by Vincenzo Spiaggi and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2018-02-10 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the Middle Ages and after two hundred and fifty years of inbreeding, this geographically isolated community of genetically diseased killers is all but destroyed by an earthquake. Its few survivors scatter to the four winds and resettle afar. Now, a mad man tries to resurrect their lineage, hoping to recreate an army of mercenaries from what remains of their genetically noxious descendants. Waiting for them are the agents of World Interconnect (WI-7), who attempt to stifle this deadly march of evil. WI-7s quest is international; its failure would be catastrophic.
Download or read book The Quincunx The Maliphants written by Charles Palliser and published by Canelo + ORM. This book was released on 2018-07-19 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The final gripping part of this classic historical mystery With the will finally in his grasp, John may be able to prove his inheritance, and put an end to the deadly plots and endless machinations that have plagued his life. But betrayal hides around every corner. Will justice narrowly fall through his fingers one last time? Upon uncovering a dastardly plot to trick Henrietta into a marriage that would steal the fortune, John must do everything in his power to stop it. But can John, who has struggled so hard and for so long, finally be in reach of peace? The unputdownable, final instalment of the bestselling The Quincunx is perfect for fans of Andrew taylor, AD Swanston and Carol Hedges. Praise for The Quincunx ‘Grips like steel... it’s a book to make you miss your stop on the bus or the train, keep you up at night and wake you early... a formidable achievement’ Kaleidoscope, BBC Radio 4 ‘His brilliant and entertaining pastiche of the mid-nineteenth-century novel’ The Times ‘A brilliant and deeply eccentric attempt to reproduce an early Victorian novel...it combines massive scope with minute detail – there is a cast of thousands, but every figure is lovingly painted. The plot is so thick the spoon stands up in it, and by the end, the reader has toured the whole of late Regency society... Magnificent – gripping and beautifully written; the sort of book that sends you into a trance of pleasure’ Independent ‘Charles Palliser has realised a world that can almost be smelt and tasted as it pours off the page of this gripping, extraordinary novel’ Daily Telegraph ‘His plot is of an intricacy that Wilkie Collins himself might have envied... an astonishing achievement’ Scotsman The Quincunx The Huffams The Mompessons The Clothiers The Palphramonds The Maliphants
Download or read book The Quincunx The Palphramonds written by Charles Palliser and published by Canelo + ORM. This book was released on 2018-07-19 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A classic Victorian mystery full of intrigue, deadly plots and devastating twists and turns Falsely imprisoned in an asylum, John escapes from their clutches with the help of the kindly Digweed family. Starting a new life in hiding with them may feel safer, but they survive by scavenging the sewers of London. Summoning his strength, and on discovering the existence of a second will that could be his salvation, John must go undercover in the guise of a servant, into the very heart of the enemy themselves... The fourth part of the classic and beloved The Quincunx is perfect for fans of Michel Faber and S.J. Parris. Praise for The Quincunx ‘Grips like steel... it’s a book to make you miss your stop on the bus or the train, keep you up at night and wake you early... a formidable achievement’ Kaleidoscope, BBC Radio 4 ‘His brilliant and entertaining pastiche of the mid-nineteenth-century novel’ The Times ‘A brilliant and deeply eccentric attempt to reproduce an early Victorian novel...it combines massive scope with minute detail – there is a cast of thousands, but every figure is loveingly painted. The plot is so thick the spoon stands up in it, and by the end, the reader has toured the whole of late Regency society... Magnificent – gripping and beautifully written; the sort of book that sends you into a trance of pleasure’ Independent ‘Charles Palliser has realised a world that can almost be smelt and tasted as it pours off the page of this gripping, extraordinary novel’ Daily Telegraph ‘His plot is of an intricacy that Wilkie Collins himself might have envied... an astonishing achievement’ Scotsman The Quincunx 1 The Huffams 2 The Mompessons 3 The Clothiers 4 The Palphramonds 5 The Maliphants
Download or read book Notes on Nets Or The Quincunx Practically Considered written by Charles Bathurst and published by . This book was released on 1837 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Minor Episodes written by Garry Thomas Morse and published by Chaos! Quincunx. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes Minor Episodes, a tribute to surrealist narrative and film technique, and Major Ruckus, a parody of speculative fiction.
Download or read book Constance written by Lawrence Durrell and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2012-06-12 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the Second World War in full fury, Constance must explore the psyche of a mad world in order to save herself and those closest to her in the third volume of the Avignon Quintet. Durrell’s beautiful Avignon Quintet continues with this harrowing, tumultuous installment. Here the protagonist is Constance, a psychoanalyst and mystic struggling for clarity in a world on fire with war, hatred, and inexplicable brutality. Her quest for sanity takes her through the deserts of Egypt (and into the arms of the leader of a suicide cult), through war-ravaged Poland, and finally into ancient Avignon. In the fields of southern France, Constance sees a religious historical drama come to a close—a mysterious narrative that began with the Knights Templar and ends with Hitler’s mad grab for power.
