Night Games: And Other Stories and Novellas

Book Description

These artful new translations of nine of Schnitzler's most important stories and novellas reinforce the Viennese author's remarkable achievement.

Customer Reviews:

Mind games.......2007-03-10

Schnitzler is one of (if not the) pioneers of stream-of-consciousness prose, and his style is on full display in this collection. All of his characters are tortured souls who suffer their actions, who act out of lust and jealousy, and are uncomfortable with love and death - but accepting of them; for the former often leads to the latter, spiritually and physically. At the time these stories and novellas were written, the content, which features "moral decay", must have been quite shocking. Today, it's commonplace, obviously, but even though public scorn has been assuaged (except for the most public of figures), how the actions of those involved in affairs and other dubious (fun) behaviors play out in the mind, how each individual wrestles with his or her guilt over them is portrayed here with an authoritative pen by a master of the short form.

"Death of a Bachelor" is a masterpiece!

Reviewed.......2002-06-26

Ageing interns at Cahners Business Associates who will outlive any opinions they give need not be condescending by pushing the entire product line of conglomerate media franchises.

Illicit Love and Death in Imperial Vienna.......2002-05-29

Written in the late19th century, these stories show their age. They abound with high-class officers and lowly maidens. But in their careful search for thoughts and meanings, they presage Freudian analysis.

In ?Night Games?, Lieutenant Willi Kasda has to come up with 1?000 gulden within 24 hours. Seeing no other way, he joins a card game. But the devil in disguise is dealing the cards and the night spirals toward a disastrous ending. The description of the all-night game alone is an unforgettable piece of literature. Willi?s descent into hell is described in minute and gripping detail.

?The Dead are Silent?: Franz and Emma go for a night ride to the outskirts of town. There is an accident. leaving Emma to her own devices. How does she get home before her husband? A cliffhanger.

?Blind Geronimo and his Brother?: Geronimo and his brother Carlo are panhandlers. Geronimo plays the guitar and sings, while Carlo collects the offerings. When they were children, an accident caused by Carlo resulted in his brother?s blindness. Now Carlo sees the sole purpose of his life in caring for Geronimo. But can a blind man trust Carlo? Slowly but surely things fall apart.

?A Farewell?: Albert waits for his beloved Anna, who is closely watched by her husband. And he waits, getting more desperate by the hour and the day. What could possibly have happened? The story goes from bad to worse, carefully analyzing Albert?s frame of mind.

?The Second?: It shows us the idiocy of dueling and its code. The narrator is an almost professional second on such occasions. At the present one, Eduard Loiberger gets killed - who is to bring the news of this senseless death to Agatha, his widow? The narrator, who feels an attachment to Agatha, tries to accomplish this task.

?Baron von Leisenbogh?s Destiny?: The baron is deeply in love with Clara Hell, a singer. For ten years he follows her throughout Europe, without coming close to his goal. Will he be rewarded in the end? That is where the surprise comes in, deftly maneuvered by the author.

?The Widower?: Richard?s wife suddenly dies and he is devastated. But was she really the saint he imagined her to be? What about his best friend Hugo? And how to handle him? The solution is not exactly Freudian.

?Death of a Bachelor?: Three friends are called to the bedside of the bachelor who, however, just had died. He has left them a confession concerning the wives of each one. How do they deal with the letter? Three situations - can there be just one solution? Each friend has to examine his relation to his wife.

?Dream Story?: Fridolin and Albertine have an open marriage, telling each other what normally would be kept secret. But there is a difference. Fridolin has a nightly adventure that is quite real but sounds like a dream. He decides not to tell his wife about it. Albertine has a dream involving an unknown man and she tells her husband about it. Can Fridolin take it? Will the dream, to him, have some basis in fact?

Book Description

Full of mischief and valor, ribaldry and romance, The Arabian Nights is a work that has enthralled readers for centuries.

The origins of The Arabian Nights are obscure. About a thousand years ago a vast number of stories in Arabic from various countries began to be brought together; only much later was the collection called The Arabian Nights or the Thousand and One Nights.

Customer Reviews:

Classic Tales- Not To Be Skipped.......2006-02-21

If you read Husain Haddawy Arabian Nights then The Arabian Nights II is a must since it contains stories he omitted from his Arabian Nights Translation. While many may feel his translations are incomplete I still enjoy them. These and many other original Arabic stories give us a glimpse into a long forgotten time constantly diluted by their Disney counterparts. This book includes Sinbad the Sailor, Ali Baba, Ali Al Din ,et Al. I would not recommend this book as a nightly reader to children as some of the content proves extremely lewd however I found it hard to put down once started and would recommend The Arabian Nights II to anyone seeking a unique and adventurous story.

It's good for research, not reading.......2005-12-20

How many stories can you have within a story? Can ancient stories be improved upon? In my opinion the answer is yes, and not only with the Arabian nights but with many European tales as well.

How many times is the imagination sparked by talk of geni's, curses, and the like, but the stories are not well constructed. Reading here requires devotion. I would say it is an excellent reference book, but for fascinating tales, no.

Not the real thing.......2005-05-16

This is a very rum publication. Five years previous to its appearance Husain Haddawy produced as 'The Arabian Nights' a translation of the earliest extant version of the text (thirteenth- or fourteenth-century), which contains only a fraction of the full text known from nineteenth-century editions. In a polemical preface he denounced the full version as a dilution of a great original by the addition of masses of alien and inferior material. It must subsequently have been pointed out to him that a version of the Arabian Nights that omitted the best known stories would disappoint readers; consequently he then produced the present volume, made up largely of the popular tales 'Sindbad the Sailor', 'Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves', and 'Aladdin and his Lamp' -- even though, as he points out in the preface, the original Arabic texts of 'Ali Baba' and 'Aladdin', if they ever existed, have never been found and we are dependent on an eighteenth-century French 'translation' that is a fine piece of literature but far from authentic. A reader who wants to go beyond Haddawy's first volume would be well advised to go straight to one of the translations of the complete text, which contains much fine material omitted from both Haddawy's volumes. Of these the best known is Richard Burton's and the most readable that of Powys Mathers.

Enthralling.......2003-09-02

When I have started reading this collection of Arabic stories I was very pleasantly surprised by the excellent translation. The language flows smoothly and practically dances on the pages. The translation has engaged me and kept my attention, until I have finished the book alltogether. This rendition couldnt have possibly been improved.
As for the tales, this is not like Disney's Alladin or Sindbad. Do not be deceived into believing that the stories are effulgent with simple innocence. In parts, there is mild violence and subtle obscenties. However subtle, one might still consider them inappropriate for children. To make it simple, if this was a movie it would be rated pg-13. This aspect aside, the stories flow smoothly with enthralling tales of adventure, magic, and of course the cliche themes of love. Even though the tales of this book have been displayed on television, this rendition flavors them with fresh originality. The only regret is that one wont be guessing about the outcome of the adventures as the ending has been millions of times entrusted to the media and us...

Lovely, magical translation.......2001-07-11

This translation of some of the most beloved tales of the Arabian nights is irresistable.

Collected Fiction of William Hope Hodgson Volume 4: The Night Land & Other Romances (Collected Fiction of William Hope Hodgson)

Average customer rating:

Outstanding

Collected Fiction of William Hope Hodgson Volume 4: The Night Land & Other Romances (Collected Fiction of William Hope Hodgson)
William Hope Hodgson , and Jason Van Hollander
Manufacturer: Night Shade Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Graphic Novels | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Fantasy, Futuristic & Ghost | Romance | Subjects | Books

Epic | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Ghost Pirates and Other Revenants of the Sea: The Collected Fiction of William Hope Hodgson, Volume 3
The House on the Borderland and Other Mysterious Places (The Collected Fiction of William Hope Hodgson, Vol. 2)
The Collected Fantasies Of Clark Ashton Smith Volume 2: The Door To Saturn (Collected Fantasies)
The Collected Fantasies Of Clark Ashton Smith Volume 1: The End Of The Story (Collected Fantasies)
The Selected Stories of Manly Wade Wellman Volume 2: The Devil is Not Mocked & Other Warnings (Selected Stories of Manly Wade Wellman)

ASIN: 1892389428

Book Description

The fourth of a five volume set collecting all of Hodgson's published fiction. Each volume contains one of Hodgson's novels, along with a selection of thematically-linked short fiction. Introduction by Jeremy Lassen The Night Land # The Captain of the Onion Boat # Smugglers # The Girl with the Grey Eyes # Kind, Kind and Gentle Is She # A Timely Escape A Note On The Texts

Customer Reviews:

Outstanding.......2007-01-20

The Night Land is Hodgson's most complex work and not to everyone's taste. It is though an important foundation of fantasy literature much as Dunsany's King of Elfland's daughter is. The tragedy of Hodgson is that he died at tender age in the trenches of the first world war and his gift of writing was taken from us.
These books are my favourite not only for their content but the way in which the publishers have presented them. The Amazon picture does not give full justice to them - they are full size harcovers with blue faux? leather boards, no dustjacket, each book has a wonderful silver gilt lithograph? imprinted into the covers, illustrated within by Jason Van Hollander. Flat spine with silver compass floret and vol no , title , author , publisher. Back cover has silver guilt Hodgson portrait and occult border. Section sewn pages add to durability and I would imagine acid free paper.

Aladdin and Other Tales from the Arabian Nights (Puffin Classics - the Essential Collection)

Average customer rating:

Fantastic
Eastern stories that have captured the Western imagination!
Fantastic. Very interesting and a great read

Aladdin and Other Tales from the Arabian Nights (Puffin Classics - the Essential Collection)
Anonymous
Manufacturer: Puffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Short Story Collections | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The Story of Europe from the Fall of the Roman Empire to the Reformation (Yesterday's Classics)
Stories of Beowulf Told to the Children (Yesterday's Classics)
The Story of the Middle Ages (Yesterday's Classics)
Hands-On-History: Middle Ages: 20 Enchanting Art Projects and Other Creative Activities That Illuminate and Enrich Your Study of the Middle Ages
Son of Charlemagne (Living History Library (Warsaw, N.D.).)

ASIN: 0140367829

Customer Reviews:

Fantastic.......2007-08-27

This is a wonderful book, stayed up all night reading it and i couldn't put it down it was so exciting, i highly recommend this book :)

Eastern stories that have captured the Western imagination!.......2001-07-03

The Tales from the Arabian Nights are ancient stories of romance, suspense, mystery, magic and adventure originating from Persia, India and Arabia, originally functioning as the daily entertainment of ordinary people. They are woven together under the premise that they saved the life of Shahrazad, a queen whose husband executed each of his new wives after one night of marriage. By beginning an exciting story every evening, but withholding the ending, Shahrazad was able to convince the breathless king to spare her for another day until the next installment. Of course, after 1001 nights of devious story-telling, she had saved her life forever.

First introduced to the Western world in the eighteenth century, these stories have attained great popularity, and been retold many times, with "Aladdin" even being made into a Disney film. This collection features only a small selection of the best and most popular tales. Unlike many editions, it doesn't reflect the contemporary versions of the stories, but seeks to be faithful to the authentic Arabic sources. N.J. Dawood is well-equipped to retell these stories from the original Arabic. Born in Baghdad, Dawood attained a reputation as a scholar and received a university education in London. Amongst other projects he has translated "The Koran" and a complete collection of "Tales from the Thousand and One Nights."

Because this version intends to be faithful to the original Arabic, readers should not expect a sanitized Western interpretation. If you are looking for a fresh style that brings these stories to life for children in a modern Western audience, this is likely not the edition for you. These stories are unashamedly Arabic in character, and the religious aspect (Islam) is dominant throughout, where health and wealth, wine and women are bestowed as the blessing of Allah for obedience. But despite this, these stories continue to capture the Western imagination. Expect to read stories about powerful genies (jinees), magical lamps, talking animals, distant voyages, and impossible adventures.

This volume (a companion to "Sinbad the Sailor and Other Tales from The Arabian Nights") contains the well-known stories of "Aladdin", and "The Ebony Horse". Also represented are the lesser-known but equally fascinating "Khalifah the Fisherman" and "The Dream". A great opportunity to read stories that have stood the test of time in another culture - these are classics, and make a good introduction to the original cultural flavour of "Tales from the Arabian Nights"!

Fantastic. Very interesting and a great read.......1999-07-09

I was at the book shop and I saw this book and thought it looked interesting. I decided to buy it and as I started to read I was taken into another world. I love this book and recommend it to anyone and everyone.

Arabian Night's Entertainments (Oxford World's Classics)

Average customer rating:

Buyer Beware

Arabian Night's Entertainments (Oxford World's Classics)

Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Fairy Tales | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

British | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Arabian Nights: A Companion
The Libertine Reader: Eroticism and Enlightenment in Eighteenth-Century France
Fables of the East: Selected Tales 1662-1785
Theory of the Novel: A Historical Approach
Gulliver's Travels (Oxford World's Classics)

ASIN: 0192834797

Book Description

No other edition offers extensive textual apparatus such as explanatory notes, plot summaries, particularly vital as stories are complex and interwoven. The Sultan Schahriar's misguided resolution to shelter himself from the possible infidelities on his wives leads to an outbreak of barbarity in his kingdoms and a reign of terror in his court, stopped only by the resourceful Scheherazade. The tales with which Scheherazade nightly postpones the muderous intent of the sultan have entered our language and our lives like no other collection of narratives before or since. Sinbad, Aladdin, Ali Baba: all make their spectacular entrance on to the stage of English literary history in the Arabian Nights Entertainments (1704-17). The stories contained in this `store house of ingenious fiction' initiate a pattern of literary reference and influence which today remains as powerful and intense as it was throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This edition reproduces in its entirety the earliest English translation of the French orientalist Antoine Galland's Mille et une Nuits. This remained for over a century the only English translation of the story cycle, influencing an incalculable number of writers, and no other edition offers the complete text supplemented by full textual apparatus.

Customer Reviews:

Buyer Beware.......2007-06-19

The publisher's description of this book is misleading. The translation dates from 1706-1721 but has been typographically modernized (e.g., long "s" that looks like "f" has been replaced). The blather about "textual apparatus" sounds scholarly but amounts to a few pages of notes, an appendix containing plot summaries of the selections represented in this translation, a glossary of foreign terms, and an index. The introduction is plodding, patched together from other introductions, and tendentious.

Example: "For [Scheherazade] ... story-telling is nothing less than a matter of life and death. Again and again in the collection we encounter individuals whose lives depend upon the responses of their listeners to their tales. If, in the frame story which structures the entire body of narratives, for example, Scheherazade fails to persuade the sultan Schahriar to rescind his pledge to execute each of his new wives on the morning following their marriage, she will not only forfeit her own life, but effectively will be Schahriar's accomplice in sentencing an untold number of young women to a similar fate." The heroine's failure would make her an accomplice in murder? I think not. The point of the frame story is that she does indeed succeed in delaying Schahriar's demented vengeance and ultimately cures him of his psychopathy. Whether this is realistic is beside the point: it's a story.

The translation in this edition was extensively bowdlerized, making funny, bawdy, and fairly raw stories suitable for reading by gentlewomen of early 18th century England. This translation of the French Galland translation (1704-1721) from the Arabic has historical interest as the most widely available version of the "Nights" in English throughout the 18th century, but if you are looking for a good, honest translation of these wonderful stories, this is not it. I suggest the translation by Husain Haddawy, which is varied, strange, and wonderful, but not for the squeamish.

Average customer rating:

A decent pulp novel that never lives up to its promise
A David Goodis classic.

Night Squad
David Goodis
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Hard-Boiled | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Dark Chase
Cassidy's Girl
Black Friday: And Selected Stories
Of Tender Sin (Midnight Classics)
The Moon in the Gutter (Midnight Classics)

ASIN: 0679736980
Release Date: 1992-03-03

Book Description

When a cop goes bad, he can always become a crook. When a crook goes bad--that's when the Night Squad wants him.

David Goodis's irresistibly readable study of corruption is a masterly portrait of a man clawing his way back from betrayal--and betraying countless others along the way.

Customer Reviews:

A decent pulp novel that never lives up to its promise.......2000-09-15

NIGHT SQUAD has all the elements of classic hard-boiled pulp. You've got the anti-hero, Corey, a disgraced cop who figures the only way to stay alive is to go criminal. You've got mobsters who fear nothing except betrayal. You've got a mysterious branch of the police you have an unhealthy interest in the anti-hero's business. And you've got the ex-wife who, somehow, still manages to be in love with the big lug.

But it doesn't fall together.

David Goodis writes tough dialogue with the best of them. His novel BLACK FRIDAY is a wonder of desperation and fear. But NIGHT SQUAD has too many avenues that don't engage the reader. The ex-wife is too mysterious, and her reason for being in the story is never clear. It relies too heavily on coincidence. Repressed memories suddenly surface, to unsatisfactory effect. Corey's final stab at redemption doesn't ring true.

It's as if Goodis had a good, tight story, but then realized he didn't include enough cliche's. It's a good night's read, but it doesn't stick with you.

A David Goodis classic........1999-10-10

David Goodis could have been a Greek tragedy author two thousand years ago. In a riveting and limpid style David goodis classic hero is looking for redemption in a world where the goodies are bad and the baddies are good.

Average customer rating:

Streets of Night
John Dos Passos
Manufacturer: Susquehanna Univ Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadie (Penguin Classics)

Average customer rating:

Kate Chopin Short Stories

Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadie (Penguin Classics)
Kate Chopin
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

United States | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

British | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

At Fault (Thrift Edition)
A New-England Nun: And Other Stories (Penguin Classics)
The Pioneers (Signet Classics)
Cajun Country (Folklife in the South Series)
Creole: The History and Legacy of Louisiana's Free People of Color

ASIN: 0140436812

Customer Reviews:

Kate Chopin Short Stories.......2002-03-19

I loved this book! It is a collection of short stories, originally published singly in magazines. They provide a snapshot of life in Louisiana in the late 19th century, and truly fulfill this reader's desire to be transported to a different time and place.

In each story, often only a few pages long, the author paints a vivid picture a the characters, their circumstances, and motivations.

The theme of all the stories is change. Although the turns of events described are generally not monumental, they are often the catalyst for a significant change in a character. And sometimes the point is that there is no change.

Cheapest Nights and Other Stories (Unesco collection of representative works :)
Average customer rating:
Cheapest Nights and Other Stories (Unesco collection of representative works :)
Yusuf Idris
Manufacturer: Peter Owen Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

British | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0720605180

The Banquet of the Lords of Night and Other Stories
Average customer rating:

Short stories from Liz Williams

The Banquet of the Lords of Night and Other Stories
Liz Williams , and Tom Kidd
Manufacturer: Night Shade Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Anthologies | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Precious Dragon: A Detective Inspector Chen Novel (Detective Inspector Chen Novels)

The Demon And The City: A Detective Inspector Chen Novel (Detective Inspector Chen Novels)

Nine Layers of Sky

The Ghost Sister

The Jennifer Morgue

ASIN: 1892389932

Book Description

In such novels as The Poison Master, Empire of Bones, and Nine Layers of Sky, Liz Williams sparked readers' imaginations by creating worlds at once strange and familiar. Now this bold new writer brings her best short fiction together in one stunning collection. The stories featured in The Banquet of the Lords of Night have appeared in Asimov's, Interzone, Realms of Fantasy, and The Third Alternative, among others. The stories within the covers of The Banquet of the Lords of Night are varied in style and subject matter, but they are all powerfully written. From the breathtaking title story, "Banquet of the Lords of Night" about an Earth plunged into a world of darkness where light is against the law to the stunning "The Man from the Ministry" in which we learn the how far a mother will go where her family is concerned; Williams displays an astonishing breadth and variety of writing styles. Williams is equally at home writing galaxy-spanning science fiction like "Quantum Anthropology" as she is weaving a tale like "Adventures in the Ghost Trade" which incorporates demons, magic, the afterlife, and private detectives. "Williams's unique cross-genre voice is a reinvigorating one for SF, fantasy and horror." - Publishers Weekly (starred review) Contents: * Adventures in the Ghost Trade * Outremer * Skindancing * A Child of the Dead * The Sea of Time & Space * The Daykeeper * Dieudamour * Sharecropper * Nightside * Dog Years * Dancing Day * The Banquet of the Lords of Night * Loosestrife * Ancestors' Song * Orchidae * Quantum Anthropology * The Blood Thieves * The Man from the Ministry

Customer Reviews:

Short stories from Liz Williams.......2007-02-06

I found these stories very entertaining and, to some degree, they fore- shadow the Detective Chen novels.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books