Social Linguistics

A dead woman is discovered in the parlor of an empty luxury home in New York's famed Gramercy Park. Thus opens Anna Katharine Green's popular detective novel That Affair Next Door.

Mary and George love each other in early childhood, but George's father tears them apart, not believing that Mary, a bailiff's daughter, will be a fit match for his son. The family travel to America to pursue the father's dream of wealth. During George's absence, Mary moves to Scotland and, in order to survive, is forced into a marriage of convenience. George returns after 10 years to search for his promised bride and becomes obsessed and infatuated with a Mrs Van Brandt. Is the pursuit beginning to affect his sanity?

A missing national treasure. A dancer who might be a spy. A double agent. An old actor. A murder. How are they all interconnected? Desmond Okewood, new to the British Secret Service, must impersonate a German agent, infiltrate a band of traitors, and discover the connections.

This unforgettable children’s classic has been captivating children and adults alike for almost a century. Rebecca’s widowed mother has a failing farm, meager resources, and seven children to raise. When her spinster sisters offer Rebecca a home and an education, Mrs. Randall bundles her second eldest into a stagecoach with a kiss and an admonition to stay out of mischief. Could she be asking too much of the free-spirited imp with sparkling eyes and insatiable curiosity?

Victory is the story of a loner who believes that the best way to avoid life's pain and pitfalls is to distance himself from others. In spite of his misgivings, Axel Heyst agrees to manage a coal company on a remote island. When the company eventually fails, he again turns his back on people and society, more convinced than ever that his original philosophy was right.

Tarzan the Untamed brings World War I to Africa and to Lord Greystoke! A company of Huns in East Africa targets the famous Tarzan of the Apes to be captured as a prisoner of war. Lord and Lady Greystoke's estate becomes a battleground, launching this seventh adventure of Tarzan. Savage lions, a lost city, madmen, Huns and an aeroplane play important parts in this potboiler by the master of adventure.

With the speed of the great apes, Tarzan rushed through the jungle toward his home and family. But he was already too late. The marauders had been there before him. His farm was in shambles and no one was left alive. Of his beloved wife there was only a charred, blackened corpse, still wearing the rings he had given her. Silently, he buried the body and swore his terrible vengeance against those who had done this terrible deed. Then he set out grimly to track them...

Le narrazioni sono in crisi da tempo. Da bussole capaci di dare senso all'esistenza collettiva sono ormai diventate una merce come tutte le altre. Ridotte ad ancelle del capitalismo, si trasformano in storytelling e lo storytelling, ormai ubiquo, scade nella pubblicità, nel consumo di informazioni. L'accumulo di notizie ha preso, insomma, il posto delle storie. Dati e informazioni, però, frammentano il tempo, ci isolano e ci bloccano in un eterno presente, vuoto e privo di punti di riferimento. A diventare impossibile è la felicità stessa.

A who-done-it mystery from Anna Katharine Green written in 1917 begins immediately with a murder by Native American arrow within a museum. Who is the young girl who is murdered, and why is she alone? No one knows. Who is the woman right next to her? Ms. Green develops her story and characters, and the intrigue builds. Is the murderer a man or woman?

It first surfaced in the gripes of GIs during World War II and was captured early on by the typewriter of a young Norman Mailer. Within a generation it had become a basic notion of our everyday moral life, replacing older reproaches like lout and heel with a single inclusive category. We have conflicting attitudes about the A-word, but considering how much the word does for us, and to us, it hasn't gotten nearly the attention it deserves - at least until now.

Stevenson's brooding historical romance demonstrates his most abiding theme, the elemental struggle between good and evil, as it unfolds against a hauntingly beautiful Scottish landscape, amid the fierce loyalties and violent enmities that characterized Scottish history.

In Why Do We Say That, we've rounded up 101 of the most commonly used idioms and "hit the nail on the head" by providing the historical context behind each one. Don't be a "deer in the headlights" when someone asks you the meaning of "straw man" or "up a creek without a paddle." This book has got you covered.

We all learn at least one language as children. But what does it take to learn six languages...or seventy? In Babel No More, Michael Erard, "a monolingual with benefits," sets out on a quest to meet language superlearners and make sense of their mental powers. On the way he uncovers the secrets of historical figures like Italian cardinal Giuseppe Mezzofanti, who was said to speak seventy-two languages; Emil Krebs, a pugnacious German diplomat, who spoke sixty-eight languages; and Lomb Kat, a Hungarian who taught herself Russian by reading Russian romance novels.

Why do we love to swear so much? Why do we get so offended when others do it? In this lively and amusing exploration of the various puzzles that surround swearing, philosopher Rebecca Roache argues that what makes swearing offensive is not really the words at all: the offensiveness lies in what we don't say. The unspoken—and usually unconscious—inferences that speakers and listeners make about each other are key to explaining swearwords' capacity to shock.

When Mike Jackson's father suffers a serious financial setback, all Mike's hopes of "Varsity Blue" and a career playing his beloved cricket are dashed. Instead, he must go out and earn his living - in the alien world of the New Asiatic Bank, under the management of his nemesis Mr. John Bickersdyke. At first, all seems black; but then Mike finds that he has an ally, in the immaculate form of the irrepressible Psmith, who is likewise sentenced to a career in commerce. And Psmith has plans for the reform of Mr Bickersdyke....

The survivors of the shipwrecked 18th century vessel Glen Carrig fight for their lives amidst a vast continent of weeds. Mysterious wrecks, horrific monsters, and swashbuckling adventure!

George and Weedon Grossmith were born in London into a theatrical family, and it was natural that they should both take up careers on the stage. Weedon initially studied art but later joined his brother, George, in the theatre.

F. Scott Fitzgerald is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. He wrote this collection of eight short stories in 1920 for magazines such as Colliers and The Saturday Evening Post. This collection includes: "The Offshore Pirate", "Dalyrimple Goes Wrong", "Head and Shoulders", "Benediction", "Bernice Bobs Her Hair", "The Cut Glass Bowl", "The Four Fists", and "The Ice Palace".

Mary Louise is a young girl, very honest and wise beyond her years. This, at times put her at odds with her classmates at school, but she is mature enough to not be bothered by their attitudes for the most part. Mary Louise lived with her mother and grandfather, with whom she was very close. She is upset and then astounded to find out that her grandfather is running from the law. As the other children at school find out the circumstances surrounding her situation, they begin to relentlessly tease and trouble her.

Between Conniston, of His Majesty's Royal Northwest Mounted Police, and Keith, the outlaw, there was a striking physical and facial resemblance. Both had observed it, of course. It gave them a sort of confidence in each other. Between them it hovered in a subtle and unanalyzed presence that was constantly suggesting to Conniston a line of action that would have made him a traitor to his oath of duty. For nearly a month he had crushed down the whispered temptings of this thing between them.