Anthologies
Despite rigid moral codes, some nineteenth-century writers flaunted convention by producing erotica published by underground houses and distributed widely, much to the chagrin of religious and political leaders of the Victorian Age. And while today it seems that writing about sexuality is completely uninhibited, it pales in comparison to the steamy and graphic yet romantically inviting and colorful works authored many years ago.Erotic Tales of the Victorian Age includes selections from the spicy "Eveline" by Anonymous, the story of a resourceful young woman who enjoys teasing various men by letting her hands wander; "My Secret Life" by "Walter", which explores the author's carnal travellog; the lusty "Rosa Fielding" by Anonymous; "Therese Raquin" by Emile Zola; "My Life and Loves" by Frank Harris; the infamous "Venus in India" by Charles Devereaux, describing the author's sexual exploits as a member of the British Army; "The Perfumed Garden" by Sir Richard Burton, which reads like a Victorian Joy of Sex; tantalizing extracts from Dracula by Bram Stoker, and more.
Savor classic erotic literature from throughout the ages with Erotic Classics I and II . Erotic Classics I includes Vatsyayana’s Kama Sutra , The Memoirs of Fanny Hill by John Cleland, Justine by Marquis de Sade, Indiana by George Sand, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s Venus in Furs , Emile Zola’s Nana , and The Autobiography of a Flea by Stanislas de Rhodes. HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.
Cat fanciers will want to curl up with this collection of tales about felines of many temperaments ― adventurous, naive, crafty, and independent. Nearly thirty stories offer a rich variety of moods and settings, from H. P. Lovecraft's chilling tale of revenge, "The Cats of Ulthar," to Honoré de Balzac's droll satire of British respectability, "The Afflictions of an English Cat." Selections include Emile Zola's fable "Cat's Paradise," in which an indoor cat takes to the streets; "Gipsy" by Booth Tarkington, a brilliant study of a wild cat; "The Cat that Walked by Himself" from Rudyard Kipling's Just So stories; "Tom Quartz" by Mark Twain; "How a Cat Played Robinson Crusoe" by Charles G. D. Roberts; Charles Perrault's classic rendition of "Puss in Boots"; and entrancing cat tales by Saki, Bram Stoker, Théophile Gautier, and others.
Explore the fascinating lives and loves of the greatest novelists, poets, and playwrights. From William Shakespeare and Jane Austen to Gabriel García Márquez and Toni Morrison, Writers explores more than 100 biographies of the world’s greatest writers. Trace the friendships, loves, and rivalries that inspired each individual and affected their writing, revealing insights into the larger-than-life characters, plots, and evocative settings that they created. You will also uncover details each writer’s most famous pieces and understand the times and cultures they lived in - see how the world influenced them and how their works influenced the world. Writers introduces key ideas, themes, and literary techniques of each figure, revealing the imaginations, and personalities behind some of the world's greatest novels, short stories, poems, and plays. A diverse variety of authors are covered, from the Middle Ages to present day, providing a compelling glimpse into the lives of the people behind the page.
The 20 stories collected in the present volume, all written during the 19th century, may not be real contes de fées, in the sense of the classic works of the Comtesse de Murat and Madame d'Aulnoy, but they do retain conscious echoes of the originals, and despite the interference in the genre's subsequent history, they maintain residues of the same spirit as well as fragments of imagery. Some writers developed the more broadly comic aspect of the genre; others created "authentic" folkloristic materials in a semi-reverent manner, while maintaining a certain contemporary relevance. Finally, a few managed to take the reborn genre of contes de fées to new extreme of symbolist fantasies in the pages of newspapers. Taken together, these stories are a belated testament to the enterprise and creativity of their distinguished predecessors of the 1690s.