The Assumption of the Rogues and Rascals


Book Description

First published in 1978, and widely considered to be the sequel to her masterpiece 'By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept', this remarkable book further established Smart's reputation as a brave and inspirational writer. A still beautiful woman, 31 years old with four children by a faithless lover, cannot break the habit of expectation. She must learn to submit to the cold, bare, unglamorous tenets of reality - the untenable position of love. She must learn to deflect Grand Passion into an acceptance of the rogues and rascals with their radiant faces, who buy her a bitter with borrowed cash. Out of a passionate youth, through pain and harsh revelation, she has attained a maturity - a certain knowledge that the cost of rapture is high and that there is no looking back. Hers is a voice that distils a woman's determination for survival - a voice that rises up from everyday life, from the bus queue, the Underground, the pub - and in Elizabeth Smart's hand is wrought into something magnificent.










The Assumption of the Rogues & Rascals


Book Description

United States. Thus began one of the most extraordinary, intense and ultimately tragic love affairs of our time. They never married but Elizabeth bore George Barker four children and their relationship provided the impassioned inspiration for one of the most moving and immediate chronicles of a love affair ever written - By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept. Originally published in 1945, this remarkable book is now widely recognized as a classic work of poetic.




When Rogues Fall Out


Book Description

From stealing bejewelled necklaces to antique clocks, Toke cons a host of gullible individuals out of priceless heirlooms. But then he meets Hughes and the scam spirals out of control. Then there's the case of the murdered Inspector Badger. Will Dr Thorndyke solve the conundrums which hoodwink and hinder the cleverest of crime readers?




Defending the Undefendable


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Rogues and Vagabonds


Book Description

Reproduction of the original: Rogues and Vagabonds by George R. Sims




A Book of Scoundrels


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The Canadian Book of Snobs


Book Description

Are you a snob? Then why not learn to do it right? Study this revolutionary work and become a Canadian Snob of Distinction! Victoria Branden has traced the history of Snobbery from its pre-human roots to our own era, in our own country, and has enunciated the definitive Theory of Snobbery. She examines its evolution from its crude beginnings to its present confused state, with detailed study of the most important types of snobbery, distinguishing Goodsnobs from Badsnobs, experts from fumbling amateurs. Snobbery has influenced history at least as much as the invention of the wheel or the printing press, which were probably actually inspired by snob instincts. Always staunchly patriotic, Ms. Branden has given particular attention to Canadian Snobs, who have been until this time gravely neglected in both life and literature, and has provided Canadian Snobmodels by which we can be guided to higher and better levels of Snobbery. She finds a certain lack of professionalism among Canadian Snobs: Snobbery is not acknowledged as an Olympic contender, and has received no recognition in this year's "black budget." So there is much to be done, urgently! Branden has thoughtfully provided Snobexercises (video later) by which you can develop Snobmuscle. Careful study, with diligent practice and iron self-discipline, will help you to achieve great heights of Snob-expertise, using techniques and materials particularly suited to the Canadian climate and social mores. Other how-to books claim to "make it easy" to succeed. We do not. Achieving Snob-distinction is hard, gruelling, and incessant work - but the rewards are incalculable. Any jerk can be a snob, and usually is. But to be a truly Great Snob, an upper-case Snob, a Snob who will go down in history like Beau Brummell or Oscar Wilde ah, that is attainable only by the few.




Cloud Atlas (20th Anniversary Edition)


Book Description

#1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • A timeless, structure-bending classic that explores how actions of individual lives impact the past, present and future—from a postmodern visionary and one of the leading voices in fiction Featuring a new afterword by David Mitchell and a new introduction by Gabrielle Zevin, author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow One of the New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century • Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize Cloud Atlas begins in 1850 with Adam Ewing, an American notary voyaging from the Chatham Isles to his home in California. Ewing is befriended by a physician, Dr. Goose, who begins to treat him for a rare species of brain parasite. The novel careens, with dazzling virtuosity, to Belgium in 1931, to the West Coast in the 1970s, to an inglorious present-day England, to a Korean superstate of the near future where neocapitalism has run amok, and, finally, to a postapocalyptic Iron Age Hawaii in the last days of history. But the story doesn’t end even there. The novel boomerangs back through centuries and space, returning by the same route, in reverse, to its starting point. Along the way, David Mitchell reveals how his disparate characters connect, how their fates intertwine, and how their souls drift across time like clouds across the sky. As wild as a video game, as mysterious as a Zen koan, Cloud Atlas is an unforgettable tour de force that, like its incomparable author, has transcended its cult classic status to become a worldwide phenomenon.