Search results for ""Joyce Carol Oates" "Pursuit""

Book SynopsisSince it was first published in 1818, Mary Shelley's seminal novel has generated countless print, stage and screen adaptations, but none has ever matched the power and philosophical resonance of the original. Composed as part of a challenge with Byron and Shelley to conjure up the most terrifying ghost story, Frankenstein narrates the chilling tale of a being created by a bright young scientist and the catastrophic consequences that ensue. Considered by many to be the first science-fiction novel, the tragic tale of Victor Frankenstein and the tortured creation he rejects is a classic fable about the pursuit of knowledge, the nature of beauty and the monstrosity inherent to man.Trade ReviewThe first novel of the scientific revolution and, incidentally, the first novel of science fiction. -- Brian Aldiss Frankenstein appeals to something very primal, but it's also about profound things, the very nature of life and death and birth. -- Kenneth Branagh How many fictional characters have made the great leap from literature to mythology; how many creatures of sheer language have stepped from the rhythms of their author's idiosyncratic voices into what might be called a collective cultural consciousness? -- Joyce Carol Oates The greatest novel of the Romantic movement. -- Michael Dirda

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Book Synopsis'I read Saint X in a night, captivated by its mystery but also by the smart, evocative way Schaitkin writes about race, loss and place.’ – Maggie Shipstead, The Guardian, ‘The 30 best holiday reads’ ‘Hypnotic, delivering acute social commentary on everything from class and race to familial bonds and community . . . I devoured Saint X in a day.’ – Oyinkan Braithwaite (author of My Sister, the Serial Killer), New York TimesClaire is only seven years old when her college-age sister Alison vanishes from the luxury resort on the Caribbean island of Saint X on the last night of her family’s vacation. Several days later Alison’s body is found in a remote spot on a nearby cay, and two local men, employees at the resort, are arrested. But the evidence is slim, the timeline against it, and the men are soon released. It’s national tabloid news, a lurid mystery that will go unsolved, but for Claire’s family, there is only the sad return home to broken lives.Years later, riding in a New York City taxi, Claire recognizes the name on the cab driver’s licence: Clive Richardson, one of the men originally suspected of murdering her sister. The fateful encounter sets her on an obsessive pursuit of the truth as to not only what happened on the night of Alison’s death, but the no-less-elusive question of exactly who was this sister she was barely old enough to know: a beautiful, changeable, provocative girl of eighteen at a turbulent moment of identity formation. As Claire doggedly shadows Clive, hoping to gain his trust, waiting for the slip that will uncover the truth, an unlikely intimacy develops between them, two people whose lives were forever marked by a tragedy.Alexis Schaitkin’s Saint X is a flawlessly drawn and deeply moving story that hurtles to a devastating end.Trade ReviewA remarkable debut . . . A richly polyphonic, prismatic novel . . . Issues are raised — tourism, racial bias, reality TV, sisterhood, excessive grief — but Schaitkin’s central preoccupation is with how we misperceive and misremember those around us. * Sunday Times *Saint X is hypnotic . . . Schaitkin's characters . . . are so intelligent and distinctive it feels not just easy, but necessary, to follow them. I devoured Saint X in a day. -- Oyinkan Braithwaite, author of My Sister, The Serial Killer * New York Times *Saint X imagines a chorus of voices in the aftermath of the alleged rape/murder of a privileged American girl vacationing in an exotic Caribbean country . . . irresistibly suspenseful and canny. -- Joyce Carol OatesA kaleidoscopic examination of race and privilege, family and self, told with the propulsive, kinetic focus of a crime thriller . . . I simply couldn’t stop reading. -- Chang-Rae LeeSaint X is more than the story of a missing girl. It’s a story about why such stories fascinate us . . . [It] also unpacks timely social and cultural issues — about grief, truth, white privilege and our murder-as-entertainment culture. * Washington Post *Saint X is captivating right from the jump. * Entertainment Weekly *Engrossing -- Vogue US, 'The 22 Best Books To Read This Winter'

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Book SynopsisPublished in 1818, Frankenstein has spellbound readers for generations and has inspired numerous retellings and sequels in every medium, making the myth familiar even to those who have never read a word of Mary Shelley’s novel. This freshly annotated, illustrated edition illuminates the novel and its electrifying afterlife.Trade ReviewThe Annotated Frankenstein…should appeal to scholars familiar with the novel as well as those exploring it for the first time. The editors, Susan J. Wolfson and Ronald Levao, situate the novel in its philosophical, literary, biographical and historical contexts, and provide apt illustrations and useful appendices (including examinations of the revised edition of 1831 and a timeline which juxtaposes the novel’s episodes with concurrent historical events). Its expansive, cream-coloured pages and generous margins render the volume a world unto itself, while emphasizing the worldly issues Shelley addressed in her uncanny tale. -- Michael Saler * Times Literary Supplement *First published in 1818, very possibly the most famous debut novel in English, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: Or, The New Prometheus has never been out of print. Far fewer people have read this somewhat difficult and didactic novel than know, or think that they know, who ‘Frankenstein’ was; long ago, the grotesque figure of Dr. Frankenstein’s Monster became detached from its literary context, as from its creator. Highly recommended is The Annotated Frankenstein, edited by Susan J. Wolfson and Ronald Levao, who seem to know, between them, all that there is to know about Frankenstein, including his myriad cinematic metamorphoses over the decades. -- Joyce Carol Oates * Globe and Mail *The Annotated Frankenstein, edited by Susan J. Wolfson and Ronald L. Levao, brings scholarship to life for the lay reader. This latest volume in the irresistible ‘annotated’ series from Harvard University Press presents the 1818 edition on oversize, creamy-white pages divided into two columns. While the story runs down the inside columns, helpful commentary runs alongside. Every geographical, biographical and literary allusion is explained; themes are highlighted; and obscure words are defined. A hundred color illustrations sprinkled throughout reproduce manuscript pages, works of art, medical etchings, portraits of Shelley and her friends, and scenes from movie treatments of this deathless tale. -- Ron Charles * Washington Post *The Annotated Frankenstein is a well-chosen collection of parts animated by a knowledgeable introduction; beyond that, it is a comprehensive work of breadth, depth, and interest enriched by over one hundred high-quality images. It is a beautiful, amiable companion… The Annotated Frankenstein achieves the editors’ ambitious goals… It offers the pleasures of a gift book while also providing readers with the fruits of decades of scholarship. Images, texts, and annotations together form an edition that is reputable, accurate, and insightful but also something more. Readers can luxuriate in the rich contexts the editors present… In beginning his story, Victor Frankenstein has insisted that intellectual pursuit provides ‘continual food for discovery and wonder.’ The success of The Annotated Frankenstein is that it allows Mary Shelley’s novel to do the same. -- Meoghan Cronin * Essays in Criticism *Mary Shelley’s classic tale of the doctor who awakened a monster gets an expanded treatment in the edition edited by Wolfson and Levao. This new treatment includes notes on Shelley’s life and highlights literary allusions within the book. -- Molly Driscoll * Christian Science Monitor *First published in 1818, Frankenstein, Or, the Modern Prometheus, has fascinated, horrified, alarmed and even enchanted us ever since. In fact, as the editors of this usefully and delightfully annotated and illustrated edition make clear, almost as soon as the book was published, the word ‘Frankenstein’ (so often wrongfully ascribed to the monster and not his creator) became synonymous with anything new, especially disturbing developments in science and technology. This edition will improve greatly one’s understanding of the book’s provenance and its era. * Globe and Mail *This is a serious work of interpretation. Wolfson and Levao offer the most extensively annotated edition of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in print, a book that serves the educated but nonspecialist reader. -- J. T. Lynch * Choice *This new edition of Shelley’s nearly 200-year-old novel is replete with supplements—explanatory notes, scholarly introductions, and other special features—that enhance the text itself. Wolfson and Levao provide useful information on the author’s milieu, including details about her parents, friends, and husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, focusing on the latter’s contributions to the novel’s birth and development. -- Morris Hounion * Library Journal *An impressive addition to the study of Frankenstein. While ideal for students of English, this book is accessible enough for anyone desiring a deeper reading of the novel, and does just what a well-annotated work should do, shedding a bright light not only on the text in question, but also on its historical moment and literary forebears. * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *Wolfson and Levao revivify the original 1818 version of Shelley’s classic in this illuminating annotated text. Beginning with a thoroughly researched introduction to the author’s life and the ‘life’ of Frankenstein, Wolfson and Levao draw parallels between the novel’s themes and the losses and turmoil that plagued Shelley. Moving along, their commentary draws from an abundance of criticism, focusing primarily on the novel’s allusions to Paradise Lost, Coleridge’s ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,’ and the myth of Prometheus. At a more local level, the duo dutifully notate Shelley’s ingenious use of language and her husband’s edits. This book is accessible enough for anyone desiring a deeper reading of the novel, and does just what a well-annotated work should do, shedding a bright light not only on the text in question, but also on its historical moment and literary forebears. -- Gabe Habash * Publishers Weekly *This is a superb edition. The annotations provide extensive guidance to the basic themes of the novel, the significance of the names of the characters, the geography of the text, historical dates and allusions, and textual revisions. -- Anne K. Mellor, University of California, Los AngelesThis is a splendid production, a happy convergence of topic and talent. Frankenstein could easily have been prey to a more sentimental and gossipy treatment; instead what emerges is thorough, spirited, and searching. The net effect is a downright moving portrait of author and novel both. -- Garrett Stewart, University of Iowa

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Book SynopsisWith a nod to the past, Mintz revisits an alternative to the goal-driven realities of contemporary childhood. An odyssey of psychological self-discovery and growth, this book suggests a vision of childhood that embraces risk and freedom—like the daring adventure on Huck’s raft.Trade Review[Mintz] proposes to set the record straight in his sweeping study of American childhood that effectively synthesizes a large body of scholarship on its subject. The result is an engaging, sober and often poignant account of how adults have viewed and treated children and, equally important, how children’s own experiences and life chances have been heavily influenced by economics, race and ethnicity… The compelling history of childhood he offers us is a valuable reminder that nostalgia for a golden age that never existed is not just misleading, but counterproductive. -- Eric Arnesen * Chicago Tribune *[An] often fascinating and massively documented exploration of four centuries of American childhood… Huck’s Raft is a work of scholarly integrity and humanist zeal. -- Joyce Carol Oates * Times Literary Supplement *The children of the past did possess something lost to their descendants of today: freedom. Once kids were allowed to ride their bikes all over town or idle away the summer in daydreams; they could fail a course or even a grade, and no one got overly excited about it; they might even make serious mistakes and find themselves pregnant or working on the line at Ford rather than studying lines of poetry at college. But now, in our test-driven, increasingly regimented educational system, we forthrightly aim to leave no child behind, which means that we leave no child alone. Slow learners must be sped up, dreamy kids must be made to focus, all must wear uniforms, and, eventually, all must have prizes—or at least AP courses. In the past, parents might exploit their kids as little more than indentured servants or simply ignore them. Today we are their chauffeurs and social secretaries… This is, then, a rich and stimulating book, revealing how much childhood has changed over the centuries and how much some things never change… I suppose that every generation of adults tends to feel, when regarding the young people around them, that the barbarians are at the gates. But really, there’s nothing for us to worry about: One day our children will have children of their own. -- Michael Dirda * Washington Post *Steven Mintz’ brilliant, wide-ranging, but remarkably concise study shows how complex an invention childhood has been in this country… The book is so good on the first 300 years or so of the story that it is somewhat surprising that Mintz is even more provocative on the last 50 years or so, especially on the most recent decade. It seems that no other account of Columbine or ‘No Child Left Behind’ has been as thoughtful or persuasive… This is history at its most instructive and engaging. -- William T. Hamilton * Bloomsbury Review *With the vast number of political and cultural decisions made in America under the guise of ’thinking of the children,’ a book like Steven Mintz’s brilliant Huck’s Raft, which actually does offer plenty of thinking about children, is long overdue. Mintz is aiming to write nothing less than a complete history of childhood in America, tracing kids’ lives from the Puritan era to today and examining the roles they’ve played as workers, soldiers, pioneers, inspirations, burdens, consumers and citizens. -- Matt Konrad * Ruminator *Were this simply a book of trivia about the years of childhood, it would be fascinating reading… However, this work is much more than a collection of curiosities. It is an ambitious attempt to retell the story of America with children as the focus of attention… This work of historical synthesis is likely to become a classic that future historians will be hard-pressed to surpass. -- Robert Holland * Richmond Times-Dispatch *[A] provocative, anecdote-packed analysis of American parents and their progeny. From Puritans to postmoderns, we have shaped our kids to match shifting cultural mores and social desires. -- Char Miller * San Antonio Express-News *Steven Mintz’s Huck’s Raft: A History of American Childhood offers an impressive and unprecedented synthesis of the relevant scholarly literature… [It] demonstrate[s] that childhood has never been a stable, innocent, or transcendent experience… Reflecting the prevailing literature, the book is a rainbow coalition of inclusion that arches over the panorama of American history. Anyone tempted to criticize the book as a ‘clip job’ misses the underlying importance of Mintz’s signal accomplishment… To any parent trying to figure out what [kind of kid] he’s got, the mundane manifestations of an innocent childhood are the clues to life. Mintz’s book makes some sense out of this mystery. -- James E. McWilliams * Texas Observer *[A] richly detailed study of how childhood in the U.S. has changed over time… Mintz uses history to debunk several myths—that childhood once was care-free, families were stable, and American childhood is the story of either steady progress or decline. -- Steven G. Kellman * USA Today Magazine *Mintz revisits the treatment of children from the Puritan era up to the edge of the millennium, which he calls ‘The Unfinished Century of the Child,’ showing that we have alternately vilified our offspring (the Puritans believed they were born in sin) and glorified them (Victorian parents saw them as pure and angelic)… Mintz’s thorough yet accessibly written study delves into the external forces that have shaped the lives of our young while also probing the internal developments in their collective consciousness. -- Janet Sassi * Library Journal *No aspect of American life is as shrouded in idealizing myth as childhood. In this compelling work of historical synthesis, Mintz argues forcefully…that for most of the past three centuries childhood has been the exception rather than the norm… That childhood has mostly been less than ideal is not surprising. What may be, for many readers, is Mintz’s portrait of just how far from the ideal this country has been—and perhaps continues to be—in meeting the health needs, education and welfare of all its children. * Publishers Weekly *At last, a synthesis of the scattered research on the history of youth. Meticulously researched and engagingly written, Mintz’s book is sure to become a classic. -- Stephanie Coontz, author of The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia TrapHuck’s Raft is a rich and fascinating study of the realities of children’s lives—and adults’ ideas about children and our responsibilities towards them—throughout our nation’s history. -- Marian Wright Edelman, President, Children’s Defense FundSteven Mintz’s remarkable and comprehensive book provides the first important synthesis of childhood in American history. Learned and rich in detail, it will become indispensable for all those who want to know more about children’s experiences over the past 400 years. -- Paula Fass, author of Kidnapped: Child Abduction in AmericaHuck’s Raft is a breath of fresh air. This engaging and compelling account of the history of childhood in America is a tonic by a first-rate historian that is both scholarly and beautifully written. A must read for all those concerned with our youth today and in times past. -- Frank F. Furstenberg, author of Managing to Make It: Urban Families and Adolescent SuccessSteven Mintz’s Huck’s Raft is the most comprehensive, culturally sensitive history of American childhood ever written. It illuminates in fascinating detail the variegated experience of the nation’s children, but it is equally successful in revealing the mentalities of the adults who have shaped childhood over time. This book is sure to become the standard in the field. -- John R. Gillis, author of A World of Their Own Making: Myth, Ritual, and the Quest for Family ValuesHuck’s Raft is simply the best overview of the history of childhood in the US. Through masterful scholarship and lively writing, it persuasively exposes some widespread myths about family history, while telling fascinating stories about children’s lives past and present. Mintz’s work shows that historical understanding can guide our responses to the problems of children today. -- Linda Gordon, author of The Great Arizona Orphan AbductionTable of ContentsPreface Prologue 1. Children of the Covenant 2. Red, White, and Black in Colonial America 3. Sons and Daughters of Liberty 4. Inventing the Middle-Class Child 5. Growing Up in Bondage 6. Childhood Battles of the Civil War 7. Laboring Children 8. Save the Child 9. Children under the Magnifying Glass 10. New to the Promised Land 11. Revolt of Modern Youth 12. Coming of Age in the Great Depression 13. Mobilizing Children for World War II 14. In Pursuit of the Perfect Childhood 15. Youthquake 16. Parental Panics and the Reshaping of Childhood 17. The Unfinished Century of the Child Notes Index

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