While they are discussing the possible illnesses they may have, Jerome, Harris, and George all realize they suffer from the same thing-working too much. Upon the realization, the three best friends decide that they must go on a vacation. After rejecting the ideas of a sea trip or country stay, because Jerome doesn't like the sea, and Harris finds the country to be dull, the men decide on a boat trip. With their bags packed and with the company of...

First published in 1925, "Manhattan Transfer" by American author John Dos Passos is an engrossing portrayal of urban life in New York City from the Gilded Age to the Jazz Age. Critically acclaimed and widely considered to be his most important work, Dos Passos tells the story of the city as it grows and changes through the perspectives of many of its inhabitants. The city itself is a central character of the novel. It is exciting and glamorous, but...

The Rise of Silas Lapham, by William Dean Howells, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics: • New introductions commissioned from todays top writers and scholars • Biographies of the authors • Chronologies...

The main character, Ann, is born into poverty in 1947. It shows how her family controls her and keeps her in poverty through their attitudes regarding gender inequality, immigrants, and minorities. We learn from her how to break this cycle to get out of poverty. She grows up in Brooklyn with a single mother and an absentee father and tells the story through her memories. You hear about the three generations of women who were chained to poverty because...

After a family member tragically falls ill, Una Golden was forced to move from Pennsylvania to New York in order to get a job to help support her family. Set in the early 1900s, going to the big city as a single woman was daunting and unconventional, but Una is dedicated to helping her family. After diligently job searching and excelling in additional training and education, Una discovers that she has the skills to be a talented commercial real estate...

"Isabel Bolton, an acclaimed National Book Award finalist, tells the spellbinding tale of Margaret Sylvester. She is in her eighties, lives alone in a New York hotel room, and decides, after considerable deliberation, to reread an unpublished manuscript about her life. Her poignant and sometimes tragic story is communicated with astonishing brevity and immediacy"--

Meet Lenny Bird. He's in his mid-twenties, big and burly, with a ravenous appetite. He's a larger-than-life, eccentric, impetuous, exuberant photographer who has recently relocated from Oklahoma to Los Angeles. Travel with him through various jobs, relationships and experiences as he confronts life head-on. In his job as a photojournalist, Lenny is obsessed with getting perfect, unique photographs. He is an unconventional employee who dislikes bureaucrats...

La producción literaria de Kajii Motojirō se ubica en una fase crucial del Japón moderno. Tras el gran terremoto de Kantō (1923), surge en el mundo intelectual la necesidad de redefinir la identidad japonesa. Aunque Kajii recoge los estímulos de las principales corrientes literarias de la época, su contenido y su estilo no son atribuibles a una corriente concreta. En los quince relatos recopilados en la presente antología, su prosa lírica...

Han pasado muchos años desde que el protagonista de este relato, que escribe desde una mazmorra en la que, sin saber cómo ni por quién, ha sido confinado, observaba desde su ventana el deprimente espectáculo de la existencia en el Barrio Viejo, e imaginaba una vida emocionante en los extramuros, alejado de sus hermanos, de su abnegada e inexpresiva madre y de una niñera sumida en la desesperanza. La llegada intempestiva de una extraña joven...

"Un ir y venir (las vueltas de la vida)" es una novela autobiográfica, con una narración sencilla, pero significativa. A lo largo de la vida del personaje, se desarrolla la historia del país donde habita, cuyos hechos nos impactan a todos. Los lectores lo acompañamos desde su infancia en el campo, pasando por su etapa de conscripto y, luego, durante sus años como carabinero y, ahora, en su rol de guardia de banco. Conocemos de su amor por su...