Λογοτεχνία

Sir Waldo Hawkridge -- wealthy, handsome, eligible, illustrious, and known as 'The Nonesuch' for his athletic prowess -- believes he is past the age of falling in love. But when he comes North to inspect his unusual inheritance at Broom Hall in the West Riding, his arrival leads to the most entertaining of ramifications ... Georgette Heyer won the hearts of a huge worldwide readership with her peerless novels of historical romance - a readership which continues to this day - and in The Nonesuch, all her storytelling skills are in eveidence.

Nikolai Gogol’s novel Dead Souls and play The Government Inspector revolutionized Russian literature and continue to entertain generations of readers around the world. Yet Gogol’s peculiar genius comes through most powerfully in his short stories. By turns—or at once—funny, terrifying, and profound, the tales collected in The Nose and Other Stories are among the greatest achievements of world literature. These stories showcase Gogol’s vivid, haunting imagination: an encounter with evil in a darkened church, a downtrodden clerk who dreams only of a new overcoat, a nose that falls off a face and reappears around town on its own, outranking its former owner. Written between 1831 and 1842, they span the colorful setting of rural Ukraine to the unforgiving urban landscape of St. Petersburg to the ancient labyrinth of Rome. Yet they share Gogol’s characteristic obsessions—city crowds, bureaucratic hierarchy and irrationality, the devil in disguise—and a constant undercurrent of the absurd. Susanne Fusso’s translations pay careful attention to the strangeness and wonder of Gogol's style, preserving the inimitable humor and oddity of his language. The Nose and Other Stories reveals why Russian writers from Dostoevsky to Nabokov have returned to Gogol as the cornerstone of their unparalleled literary tradition.

Ο "Συμβολαιογράφος" (1855) είναι το καλύτερο αφήγημα του Αλέξανδρου Ρίζου Ραγκαβή: διαδραματίζεται στην Κεφαλονιά τη δεύτερη δεκαετία του 19ου αιώνα και αναβιώνει την κεφαλονίτικη κοινωνία της εποχής με μια ιστορία δολοπλοκίας, αγωνίας και ερωτικού πάθους, στην οποία οι ήρωες συγχέουν τα όρια ανάμεσα στο "καλό" και στο "κακό". Για τον νεοελληνιστή Roderick Beaton αυτή η "ρεαλιστική ιστορία δολοπλοκίας, αγωνίας και ρομάντζου", μπορεί άνετα να συμπεριληφθεί στην ομάδα εκείνη των μυθιστορημάτων των Collins και του Poe "και μεταξύ των πρώτων αστυνομικών μυθιστορημάτων που γράφτηκαν ποτέ".

"Homer's ""The Odyssey"" is an epic that has endured for thousands of years, and this ""Penguin Classics"" edition is translated by E.V. Rieu, revised by D.C.H. Rieu, and contains an introduction by Peter Jones. The epic tale of Odysseus and his ten-year journey home after the Trojan war forms one of the earliest and greatest works of Western literature. Confronted by natural and supernatural threats - from the witch Circe who turns his men into pigs, to the twin terrors of Scylla and Charybdis; from the stupefied Lotus-Eaters to the implacable enmity of the sea-god Poseidon himself - Odysseus must test his bravery and native cunning to the full if he is to reach his homeland safely. But the danger is no less severe in his native Ithaca, as Odysseus finds himself contending with the suitors who, in his absence, have begun to surround his wife Penelope...E.V. Rieu's translation of ""The Odyssey"" was the first ""Penguin Classic"" to be published, and has itself achieved classic status. For this edition, Rieu's text has been sensitively revised and a new introduction added to complement his original introduction. Seven greek cities claim the honour of being the birthplace of Homer (c. 8th-7th century BC), the poet to whom the composition of the Iliad and Odyssey are attributed. The ""Iliad"" is the oldest surviving work of Western literature, but the identity - or even the existence - of Homer himself is a complete mystery, with no reliable biographical information having survived. If you enjoyed ""The Odyssey"", you might like Homer's ""The Iliad"", also available in ""Penguin Classics"". ""One of the world's most vital tales...""The Odyssey"" remains central to literature"". (Malcolm Bradbury)."

A story of the passion between a man of fifty "plus" and a girl of nineteen, a seemingly not unusual situation were it not for the fact that everything that takes place between the two "protagonists* is constantly and faithfully recorded by someone: the mature "grey" woman who is the man's past and who chronicles the lovers' passion with adoration and respect. The place is Salonica, the Old Curiosity Shop, Africa and the prevailing element is Passion, destructive, merciless, rapacious, without inhibitions and "objections" until the End. This End which is their life in a state of decay and which moment by moment passes through the eyes of the "grey woman", a road parallet to that of city life and so very solitary. Their real find is not some sort of fate that awaits them or an ordinary death; it is not catastrophe or a normal ending for a newspaper story. Daring, harsh, rough and at the same time intensely erotic, Costoula Mitropoulou's book is yet another deep incision into the enernal problem of human relations and of the Passion that ends only with our own end.

The old man has gone 84 days without catching a fish, everything about him is old except his eyes, they are the colour of the sea. He finally catches a fish, but this is no ordinary fish, nor is his fierce and determined response.

Her beauty almost certainly saved her from the rising Nazi party and led to marriage with an Austrian arms dealer. Underestimated in everything else, she overheard the Third Reich's plans while at her husband's side, understanding more than anyone would guess. She devised a plan to flee in disguise from their castle, and the whirlwind escape landed her in Hollywood. She became Hedy Lamarr, screen star.

But she kept a secret more shocking than her heritage or her marriage: she was a scientist. And she knew a few secrets about the enemy. She had an idea that might help the country fight the Nazis...if anyone would listen to her.

A powerful novel based on the incredible true story of the glamour icon and scientist whose groundbreaking invention revolutionised modern communication, The Only Woman in the Room is a masterpiece.

A nomad and a swindler embark on an eccentric road trip in this picaresque, philosophical novel by the author of The Man Who Planted Trees. <p/>The south of France, 1950: A solitary vagabond walks through the villages, towns, valleys, and foothills of the region between northern Provence and the Alps. He picks up work along the way and spends the winter as the custodian of a walnut-oil mill. He also picks up a problematic companion: a cardsharp and con man, whom he calls "the Artist." The action moves from place to place, and episode to episode, in truly picaresque fashion. Everything is told in the first person, present tense, by the vagabond narrator, who goes unnamed. He himself is a curious combination of qualities--poetic, resentful, cynical, compassionate, flirtatious, and self-absorbed. <p/>While The Open Road can be read as loosely strung entertainment, interspersed with caustic reflections, it can also be interpreted as a projection of the relationship of author, art, and audience. But it is ultimately an exploration of the tensions and boundaries between affection and commitment, and of the competing needs for solitude, independence, and human bonds. As always in Jean Giono, the language is rich in natural imagery and as ruggedly idiomatic as it is lyrical.

In the Oresteia - the only trilogy in Greek drama which survives from antiquity - Aeschylus took as his subject the bloody chain of murder and revenge within the royal family of Argos.
Moving from darkness to light, from rage to self-governance, from primitive ritual to civilized institution, its spirit of struggle and regeneration is eternal.

First published in the 1950s to international acclaim, Margarita Liberaki's allegorical novel, The other Alexander, speaks to the opposing forces inherent in human nature. This exquisite poetic drama reenacts Greek tragedy in its evocation of a country riven by civil war and a family divided against itself.
A tyrannical father leads a double life; he has two families and gives the same first names to both sets of children. In an atmosphere of increasing unease and mistrust, the half-siblings meet, love, hate, and betray one another. Embroiled in absurdity, Liberaki's characters must confront their doubles, as individual and collective identity is called into question in this tale of psychological and political haunting.
Hailed by Albert Camus as "true poetry," Liberaki's sharp, riveting prose, with its echoes of Kafka, consolidates her place in European literature. Considered one of Greece's most distinctive voices, Margarita Liberaki is essential reading.