Literary Memoir

Karl August Böttiger war Zeitgenosse der großen Dichter und Denker von Weimar – und hielt alles fest, was ihm in die Quere kam: Stimmen und Bilder, Klatsch und Tratsch. Heute würde man Böttiger Züge eines Paparazzos zuschreiben, wenn er etwa über Goethes Häuslichkeit schreibt: "Abends sitzt er in einer wohlgeheizten Stube, eine weiße Fuhrmannsmütze auf dem Kopf, ein Moltumjäckchen und lange Flauschpantalons an." Böttiger machte sich mit seinen Schriften in Weimar so unbeliebt, dass er 1804 die Stadt verlassen musste.

"Who is Mr Ian Fleming, the creator of this—to put it mildly—rubbish?" The whole Bond phenomenon is attacked as pornography, capitalist filth and anti-socialist poison. Here, translated into English for the first time, you will also hear the long Russian critique of the Bond films by Maja Turovskaya published in 1966, and the extremely interesting account that appeared in Prague the following year of Sean Connery’s rise to fame. A bonus is the Bulgarian attempt to publish a novel in which Bond was killed.

Here are the remarkable life stories of nine famous people who have left their mark upon the world: Alexander the Great, Joan of Arc, Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton, George Washington, Ludwig van Beethoven, Louis Pasteur, Marie Curie, and Mahatma Gandhi.

Johann Ernst Biren, il mangiatore di carta, era per Balzac un esempio di "imperio del vizio". Eppure il poderoso scrittore gli dedica un brevissimo studio in un paio di pagine delle "Illusioni perdute", facendo mostra quasi di voler strappare il segreto nascosto di quel curioso personaggio.

Newbery Medalist Paul Fleischman reflects on his childhood with his award-winning father, Sid Fleischman, and details his own path to becoming a writer in this memorable audiobook that is part memoir, part travelogue, and part reflection on craft and creativity. Acclaimed author Paul Fleischman considers how growing up with a father who was an award-winning author helped to shape and inspire his own career. Paul and Sid Fleischman are the only father-son Newbery Medalists in history, and life in the Fleischman home was extraordinary.

A series of random sniper attacks, sexual assaults and murders continued at a relentless pace with no end in sight. The victims were both men and women, young and old, of all races and ethnicities. Most disturbingly, they had done nothing to place themselves in harm's way. They'd not visited the "bad" parts of town, frequented a gambling den, solicited prostitutes or sought out drug dealers. They were assaulted and murdered as they went about the routine activities of their lives, the kinds of things we all do without a second thought.

Imprisoned for preaching outside the Anglican Church, John Bunyan recorded the doubts, temptations, and hopes of his own spiritual journey, a journey later traveled by the searching sojourner in The Pilgrim's Progress.

From the best-selling book On The Road With Charles Kuralt, these classic stories represent Kuralt's defining, and perhaps finest, work. Never before released on audio, this collection ensures that his unforgettable voice will be heard by generations to come.

This critically acclaimed imaginary autobiography of Frédéric Chopin was given a privileged place in the Fryderyk Chopin Museum in Warsaw on his Bicentennial, "Since it's written by him," wrote the museum's director to the author. A work of lovely lyrical and musical accents written in Chopin's voice, Manuscript in Dreams brings to light the most meaningful moments and aspects of the composer’s life and work. Juana Rosa Pita threads together “manuscripts that appeared from dream to dream…” and the result is an ensemble of intimate pieces.

In the days just before the rise of the Internet, a music scene begins in the small Midwestern city of Terre Haute, Indiana and the local club owner has a fierce vision of the town becoming the next Seattle. But there is a long way to go for these scruffy upstarts. Some obstacles: a big-time music journalist with motivational difficulties, the antics of the musicians, a politician looking to make a name and the club owner's own personal drive.

This highly enjoyable account of the life of Jane Austen is regarded as the classic biography of one of the greatest English novelists. It illustrates not only the character and opinions of an unusually perceptive and gifted woman, but also the social life amonst the county gentry of Georgian England. Outside her writing, Jane Austen's main interest was her large and affectionate family and their circle of friends.

André Gide met Wilde many times and was one of the small number of celebrities who maintained contact with him until his death in Paris in 1900.

"Directing the Page" offers listeners an intimate exploration into the intertwined realms of filmmaking and literature as explored through the experiences of its author.

"Si je vous parle aujourd'hui, c'est qu'il y a une nouveauté. [...] Je ne veux plus voler, je ne veux plus mentir. Je veux mener une vie de morte, ouvertement, sans honte. C'est ce qu'on me demande, je suppose. Je suis une personne 'en plus', mais je suis là. Si j'étais véritablement indésirable, on me l'aurait signifié, je me serais liquéfiée, dissoute. Si je suis encore là, c'est qu'il y a un sens à ce non-être. À moi de le trouver. Voilà mon travail nouveau, voilà ma tâche." (Macha Méril)

The inspiring stories of six people who changed history, including Voltaire, the French writer who believed in equality for all; Charlotte Brontë, the British novelist who wrote Jane Eyre; Mark Twain, the American who wrote Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer; Jacques Prévert, the writer known in France as 'the People's Poet'; Ayn Rand, whose writing expressed her own philosophical ideas; and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who wrote about life in a Soviet Labour Camp.

The inspiring stories of six people who changed history, including Geoffrey Chaucer, writer of the first great works of English literature; William Shakespeare, writer of the greatest plays in history; Charles Dickens, who wanted to make England a better place; Victor Hugo, the French writer who cared about the poor; Leo Tolstoy, the man who wrote War and Peace; and Rudyard Kipling, who wrote The Jungle Book and won a Nobel Prize.

Mark Twain relates how he broke the news when he was still unknown. He was in Honolulu when the survivors from the harrowing open sea voyage of the clipper-ship Hornet arrive. He stayed up late to get the accounts of the sailors’ trials, writes through the night and relays a detailed account when the other reporters only had an outline report.

La biografía de una de las figuras más curiosas y relevantes de la literatura inglesa. De espíritu versátil e inquieto, éste notable homme de letres fue autor de novelas, cuentos, poemas, obras de teatro, ensayos, libros de viaje, pinturas, traducciones y crítica literaria, en donde expuso siempre su punto de vista sobre los efectos deshumanizadores de la modernidad y la industrialización, la salud emocional, la vitalidad, la espontaneidad, la sexualidad humana y el instinto.

Fue un novelista, dramaturgo y poeta francés nacido en 1910, cuya obra expresa una profunda rebelión contra la sociedad y sus costumbres, hablando sin pudor de la criminalidad, los prejuicios, el homosexualismo, etcétera, por lo que su lectura fue muy resistida en muchos países, pero alabado en otros.

Reconocido mundialmente como uno de los más importantes e influyentes del siglo XX, este escritor irlandés nacido en 1882, es mundialmente aclamado por su obra maestra, la espectacular y altamente simbólica Ulises (1922), y luego por su controvertida novela posterior, Finnegans Wake (1939).