Literary Biography

Un bizzarro e coinvolgente viaggio sentimentale: sedici anni dopo le tragicomiche peripezie raccontate in "Stupore e tremori" e in "Né di Eva né di Adamo", Amélie Nothomb torna in Giappone. È l'occasione per rivedere i luoghi e le persone amati dopo lo spaventoso terremoto di Fukushima del 2011.

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.

Learn about one of the most popular novelists of the 20th century in this well written, informative introduction. Perhaps best known for his seven-book children's series The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis also wrote extensively on religious topics concerning Christianity. Born to religious parents in Ireland, Lewis lost his faith as a young man but rediscovered it later in life through conversations with his friend and fellow author J.R.R. Tolkien.

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.

“Passionate, personal, insightful, testy, and unique.” —Kirkus (starred review) ""Verdelle offers us testimony in praise and consideration of life as a literary citizen and Black woman alongside the guiding light of Toni Morrison. This is a holy testimony, indeed, one that deserves to be...

Mississippi author Eudora Welty, the first living writer to be published in the Library of America series, mentored many of today's greatest fiction writers and is a fascinating woman, having lived the majority of the 20th century (1909-2001). Her life reflects a century of change and is closely entwined with many events that mark our recent history. This biography follows this 20th-century path while telling Welty's story, beginning with her parents and their important influence on her reading and writing life.

I would like to be remembered as someone who made people smile.' One of the great icons of our time, Khushwant Singh, 95, is a man of contradictions. An agnostic who's well-versed in the holy scriptures; a vocal champion of free speech who supported the Emergency; a 'dirty old man' who...

So here I am, delving into the past like Monsieur Poirot, not to solve a mystery, but to try to understand some of the events that have helped define the sort of person I have become. Some of it, naturally, is in the genes; but much of it is in the environment, in the circumstances in which we...

Bela Lugosi moriva, il 16 agosto 1956, pronunciando queste parole: "Io sono il conte Dracula, io sono il re dei vampiri, io sono immortale". E si racconta che l'ultimo visitatore venuto a rendere omaggio alla sua spoglia mortale vedesse fuggire attraverso la vetrata un gigantesco pipistrello nero.

Al nostro secolo è mancata la vocazione di costruire cattedrali. Ma c'è Raymond Isidore che costruì una cattedrale fatta di detriti. E la sorte volle che questo incongruo monumento, oggi considerato un luogo d'arte, sorgesse a Chartres. Dapprima fonditore, poi pulitore di rotaie e alla fine custode di discariche e cimiteri, Raymond Isidore, detto Picassiette, raccolse instancabilmente nella spazzatura frammenti di tazze, piatti e bicchieri, con i quali ricopriva ogni superficie e ogni suppellettile della sua casa.

Ripamonti, chi era costui? Un nome che alle orec­chie dei più non dice granché; o forse risveglia una vaga eco, persa nella nebbia dei ricordi scolastici: una delle fonti dei Promessi sposi - in verità, come sco­pri­remo, la prima e la più importante. In­curiosito da quella che gli ap­pa­riva quasi una damnatio memoriae, Franzosini ha comin­ciato a indagare sui reali motivi per i quali, dopo essere stato un protégé di Federico Borromeo - che lo no­minò Dottore dell'Ambrosiana e lo accolse nel palazzo arci­ve­scovile -, il presbitero-storico abbia subìto, pro­prio da parte del Cardinale, una "fiera per­secuzione", co­stata quat­­tro anni di carcere duro.

A raucous audiobook tour through the world of Mr. Darcy imitations, tailored gowns, and tipsy ballroom dancing The son of a devoted Jane Austen scholar, Ted Scheinman spent his childhood summers eating Yorkshire pudding, singing in an Anglican choir, and watching Laurence Olivier as Mr. Darcy...

This program includes archival recordings of Ernest Hemingway Hemingway's deeply reflective account of his destructive Paris affair and how it affected the legendary life he rebuilt after, as told to his best friend, the writer A.E. Hotchner. In June of 1961, A.E. Hotchner visited an old friend...

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.

A deeply humane new collection by a luminary of Bengali literature A radiant collection of poetry about womanhood, intimacy, and the body politic that together evokes the arc of an ordinary life. Nabaneeta Dev Sen's rhythmic lines explore the joys and agonies of first love, childbirth, and decay...

"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.

Behind the Hat isn’t a takedown. It’s a deep dive. Into the life, legacy, and low-key rebellion of Dr. Seuss. A man who went from drawing war propaganda to writing bedtime stories about revolution, empathy, and resistance. From Horton to Yertle, Sneetches to the Cat, this book explores the hidden messages, strange contradictions, and unexpected fire hiding in the stripes.

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.

When Jules Verne was born in 1828, his family had his future planned out for him. They expected him to become a lawyer, but he dreamed of writing. He started out writing more traditional poetry and plays, but then he began to create a new, unconventional kind of fiction. It combined adventure, the modern world of science and invention, and his personal view of the future. With fantastical characters, spaceships to the moon, and deep-sea submarines, his books told of things that would not actually occur for decades.

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.