This study innovatively explores how Malory’s Morte Darthur responds to available literary vernacular Arthurian traditions—the French defined as theoretical in impulse, the English as performative and experimental. Negotiating these influences, Malory transforms constructions of masculine heroism, especially in the presentation of Launcelot, and exposes the tensions and disillusions of the Arthurian project. The Morte poignantly conveys a desire for integrity in narrative and subject-matter, but at the same time tests literary conceptualizations of history, nationalism, gender and selfhood, and considers the failures of social and legal institutionalizations of violence, in a critique of literary form and of social order.

"You are familiar with the salt of the earth. But did you know there is an even finer, more delicate essence?"

Take wisdom and imagination, responsibility and beauty, and mix them together in arcane proportions to form a rich and peculiar brine. The resulting "water of life" is an emotional muddy liquid, filled with existential sediment swirling in the light of secret reality and reflecting prismatic colors of hope and wonder. If allowed to evaporate -- escape, flee, ascend into the ether and join the music of the spheres -- what remains is the quintessence; a precious concentrate that is elusive and volatile, neither fully solid nor so illusory as to be devoid of pithy substance. It is the "Salt of the Air."

In this debut collection from the critically acclaimed author of "Dreams of the Compass Rose" and "Lords of Rainbow," the nineteen stories are distillations of myth and philosophy, eroticism and ascetic purity. Dipping into an ancient multi-ethnic well, they are the stuff of fantasy -- of maidens and deities and senior retirees, of emperors and artists and con artists, of warriors and librarians, of beings without a name and things very fey indeed....

Don't be afraid of ingesting ethereal salt.

Open your mind and inhale.

"Cautionary, sensual stories of love, reversal and revenge upend fairy tale conventions in Nazarian's lush collection... Sumptuous detail, twisty plots and surprising endings lift these extravagant tales." --"Publishers Weekly"

"These are beautiful, haunting confections, reminiscent of Tanith Lee's erotically charged tales... Fine shades of emotion, mythic grandeur, crystalline prose, sharp revisionist intelligence: these are Vera Nazarian's hallmarks..." --Nick Gevers, "Locus"

Vera Nazarian immigrated to the USA from the former USSR as a kid, sold her first story at the age of 17, and since then has published numerous works in anthologies and magazines, and has seen her fiction translated into eight languages.

She made her novelist debut with the critically acclaimed novel "Dreams of the Compass Rose ," followed by epic fantasy about a world without color, "Lords of Rainbow." Her novella "The Clock King and the Queen of the Hourglass" with an introduction by Charles de Lint made the Locus Recommended Reading List for 2005. This first collection "Salt of the Air ," with an introduction by Gene Wolfe, contains the 2007 Nebula Award-nominated "The Story of Love." Recent work includes the 2008 Nebula Award-nominated, baroque novella "The Duke in His Castle ."

Ancient myth, moral fables, eclectic philosophy, and her Armenian and Russian ethnic heritage play a strong part in all her work, combining the essences of things and places long gone into a rich evocation of wonder.

In addition to being a writer and award-winning artist, she is also the publisher of Norilana Books.

Official website: www.veranazarian.com

Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - Each Fairy Book demands a preface from the Editor, and these introductions are inevitably both mono-tonous and unavailing. A sense of literary honesty compels the Editor to keep repeating that he is the Editor, and not the author of the Fairy Tales, just as a distinguished man of science is only the Editor, not the Author of Nature. Like nature, popular tales are too vast to be the creation of a single modern mind. The Editor's business is to hunt for collections of these stories told by peasant or savage grandmothers in many climes, from New Caledonia to Zululand; from the frozen snows of the Polar regions to Greece, or Spain, or Italy, or far Lochaber. When the tales are found they are adapted to the needs of British children by various hands, the Editor doing little beyond guarding the interests of propriety, and toning down to mild reproofs the tortures inflicted on wicked step-mothers, and other naughty characters.

VAGABONDS! is a tumultuous and unexpectedly joyous novel of oppression and defiance among the people and spirits of Lagos. 'You don't read this novel. You swan dive into it, then gasp in wonder' Marlon James, author of A Brief History of Seven Killings 'Electrifying. A fierce, compulsively engaging and striking debut' Irenosen Okojie, author of Nudibranch Lagos is a city for all . . . you share this place with flesh and not-flesh, and it's just as much their city as it is yours. Eko, the spirit of Lagos, and his loyal minion Tatafo weave trouble through the streets of Lagos and through the lives of the 'vagabonds' powering modern Nigeria: the queer, the displaced and the footloose. With Tatafo as our guide we meet these people in the shadows. Among them are a driver for a debauched politician; a lesbian couple whose tender relationship sheds unexpected light on their experience with underground sex work; a mother who attends a secret spiritual gathering that shifts her reality. As their lives begin to intertwine-in markets and underground clubs, in churches and hotel rooms-the vagabonds are seized and challenged by the spirits who command the city. A force is drawing them all together, but for what purpose? In her debut novel VAGABONDS! Eloghosa Osunde tackles the insidious nature of Nigerian capitalism, corruption and oppression, and offers a defiant, joyous and inventive tribute to all those for whom life itself is a form of resistance. 'Every year promises the birth of the next literary superstar... and 2022 is no different. Coming with early acclaim from Marlon James, Eloghosa Osunde's VAGABONDS! is an exceptional debut, taking on queerness, capitalism and the societal vagabonds of Lagos' streets' i-D

'No one is better . . . eden sees Crace at the top of his game' - Telegraph Trouble has come to the garden. Its inhabitants live an eternal and unblemished life, tending to the bountiful fields, orchards and lakes, and serving their angelic masters. But now one of the gardeners has escaped, breaching the walls and making her way into the world beyond; a land of poverty, sickness and death - as well as liberty. The angels know there are those who would go to the ends of the earth to find her. Perhaps another fall is coming . . . 'Vivid and poetic . . . Crace writes with great flair and inimitable imagination' - Financial Times 'Since announcing his retirement in 2013, Jim Crace has had more comebacks than Kanye West, something for which we should all be thankful' - Spectator

'One of only two novels I've ever loved whose main characters are not human' BARBARA KINGSOLVER For fans of The Essex Serpent and The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock. 'By far my favourite book of of the year' Guardian One cold night, two newcomers emerge onto the streets of 1899 New York, and it is never the same again. But these two are more than strangers to this land, they are strangers to this world. From the depths of folkloric history come Chava the golem, a creature made of clay, brought to life by a disgraced rabbi and Ahmad, a djinni, born in the ancient Syrian desert and trapped in an old copper flask released accidentally by a tinsmith in a Lower Manhattan shop. Two companions who were never meant to be released, and never meant to meet. And when they do, their opposing natures will be sealed by a special bond, but one that is threatened by watching eyes, roaming owners and a misunderstanding world. A glittering gem of a novel, as spell-binding as it is compelling, The Golem and The Djinni asks us what we're made of and how we can break free.

'An extraordinary tale about love, longing, and the bond between mothers and daughters.' Vogue A Vulture 'Book We Can't Wait to Read in 2022' They had not lost anyone that year, or the ones they had lost were not worth remembering... Set in the fictional Kenyan town of Mapeli, Things They Lost tells the story of four generations of women, each haunted by the mysterious curse that hangs over the Brown family. At the heart of the novel is Ayosa Ataraxis Brown, twelve years old and the loneliest girl in the world. Okwiri Oduor's stunningly original debut novel sings with Kenyan folklore and myth as it traces Ayosa's fragile, toxic relationship with Nabumbo Promise, her mysterious and beguiling mother who comes and goes like tumbleweed: lost, but not quite gone.

Biblical research investigator Kemp Hastings sits quietly in the back of a classroom and absorbs the lecture from Dr. Darlene Gammay, her first public session since walking out of the university two weeks ago in a cloud of mystery. As the biblical scholar wraps up her lecture and watches Hastings approach her, Dr. Gammay has no idea that he is about to change her life forever.

Hastings has been tasked to authenticate a holy parchment recently found in the tomb of a Cistercian monk, hidden away for nearly five hundred years. After he engages help from Dr. Gammay, she inadvertently touches the ancient manuscript with her bare fingers, setting off a chain of holy, unnatural events that leads to the eventual discovery of a strange tattoo emblazoned across her shoulders. Now embroiled in an ancient mystery, the couple travels to Cairo to consult with a madcap museum curator who, unbeknownst to them, has already devised his own twisted plan.

In this intriguing biblical tale, chosen guardians of some of the most treasured items in the universe embark on an intrepid journey from a university classroom to Egypt and finally to Northern Scotland, where they are forced to battle underworld forces determined to remove one of them from existence forever.

'A magnificent small book to read urgently' Liberation Once upon a time in an enormous forest there lived a poor woodcutter and his wife. Around them a war wages, and hunger is a constant companion. Yet every night, the woodcutter's wife prays for a child. On a train crossing the forest, a Jewish father holds his twin children. His wife no longer has enough milk to feed them. In hopes of saving both their lives, he wraps his daughter in a shawl and gently throws her from the train. While foraging for food, the woodcutter's wife finds a bundle, a baby girl wrapped in a shawl. She knows that this little girl will be pursued, but she cannot ignore this gift: she will accept the precious cargo, and raise her as her own. . . Set against the horrors of the Holocaust and told with a fairytale-like lyricism, The Most Precious of Cargoes, translated from French by Frank Wynne, is a deeply moving fable about family and redemption, a story that reminds us that humanity can be found in the most inhumane of places.