Realism for the Masses is an exploration of how the concept of realism entered mass culture, and from there, how it tried to remake “America.” The literary and artistic creations of American realism are generally associated with the late nineteenth century. But this book argues that the aesthetic actually saturated American culture in the 1930s and 1940s and that the Left social movements of the period were in no small part responsible. The book examines the prose of Carlos Bulosa...

Realism for the Masses, is an exploration of how the concept of realism entered mass culture, and from there, how it tried to remake "America." The literary and artistic creations of American realism are generally associated with the late nineteenth century. But this book argues that the aesthetic actually saturated American culture in the 1930s and 1940s and that the left social movements of the period were in no small part responsible. The book examines the prose of Carlos Bulos...

To the Lighthouse is a 1927 novel by Virginia Woolf. A landmark of high modernism, the novel centres on the Ramsays and their visits to the Isle of Skye in Scotland between 1910 and 1920.Following and extending the tradition of modernist novelists like Marcel Proust and James Joyce, the plot of To the Lighthouse is secondary to its philosophical introspection. The novel includes little dialogue and almost no action; most of it is written as thoughts and observation...

From memoir to journalism, personal essays to cultural criticism, this indispensable anthology brings together works from all genres of creative nonfiction, with pieces by fifty contemporary writers including Cheryl Strayed, David Sedaris, Barbara Kingsolver, and more.Selected by five hundred writers, English professors, and creative writing teachers from across the country, this collection includes only the most highly regarded nonfiction work published since 1970...

The first edition of The New Cold War was published to great critical acclaim and Edward Lucas has established himself as a top expert in the field, appearing on numerous programs, including Lou Dobbs, MSNBC, NBC Nightly News, CNN, and NPR.In this new revised and updated edition for 2009, Lucas reveals:-The truth about the corrupt elections that made Dmitri Medvedev President of Russia-How, as prime minister, Vladimir Putin remains the de facto leader of Russi...

AMERICA , THIS IS YOU R ROAD MAP TO THE FUTURE—A RETURN TO THE GUIDIN G PRINCI PLES OF OU R FOUNDIN G FATHERS . . .The United States is at a crossroads. Our national debt is rising, our social programs are unsustainable, and our government is expanding at an alarming rate. As American citizens, we have a choice. We can continue on our current path of policies that threaten our freedoms, our families, and our finances—or we can join the powerful new resurgence of the age-old princip...

Herman Melville's epic tale of obsession has all the ingredients of a first rate drama--fascinating characters in solitude and society, battles between good and evil, a thrilling chase to the death--and yet its allusions, digressions, and sheer scope can prove daunting to even the most intrepid reader. George Cotkin's Dive Deeper provides both a guide to the novel and a record of its dazzling cultural train. It supplies easy-to-follow plot points for each of the novel's 135 sections before...

Elizabeth Bishop represents a full-scale examination of Bishop's work—poetry, prose, and selected unpublished material—to reveal how personal loss becomes implicated in her vision of self as fluid and unfixed and, at the same time, how gender and sexual identity inform the experience of loss in the act of writing. Susan McCabe argues that Bishop counters modernist claims for an autonomous art object and an impersonal artist; Bishop's writing never represents an escape into perfect...

The plants and landscape at Rowan Oak are the “little postage stamp of soil” that William Faulkner owned, walked, and tended for over thirty years during the writing of many of his short stories and novels. Faulkner saw and smelled the earth and listened to sounds from the cultivated grounds and the surrounding woods. This is the place that offered him refuge for writing and provided him food from its garden, fruit and nut trees, and pasture for his horses and a milk cow. Rowan Oak boasts ...

Relations between China and Russia have evolved dramatically since their first diplomatic contact, particularly during the twentieth century. During the past decade China and Russia have made efforts to strengthen bilateral ties and improve cooperation on a number of diplomatic fronts. The People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation maintain exceptionally close and friendly relations, strong geopolitical and regional cooperation, and significant levels of trade. In The Future of ...

This volume contains the complete text of seven books. Six of them, Damn! A Book Of Calumny, A Book Of Prefaces, A Book Of Burlesques, The American Credo, In Defense Of Women, and Europe After 8:15 were written by H. L. Mencken.

A seventh book, The Antichrist, was written by F. W. Nietzsche and translated by Mencken, who also wrote the forward to it.The book has been r...

“A dazzling compendium of fiction and literary essays…a banquet…joyous…superb.” —Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal. From the author of The Tunnel.This definitive collection brings together the finest fiction and essays of William Gass, one of America’s most celebrated stylists. Spanning his entire career, it offers both a rich introduction for new readers and an essential volume for longtime admirers.Inside, you’ll find Gass’s masterful short...