|
Showing 1 - 11 of
11 matches in All Departments
Dr. Tom More has created a stethoscope of the human spirit. With it, he embarks on an unforgettable odyssey to cure mankind's spiritual flu. This novel confronts both the value of life and its susceptibility to chance and ruin.
|
The Moviegoer (Paperback)
Walker Percy; Afterword by Paul Elie
|
R473
R356
Discovery Miles 3 560
Save R117 (25%)
|
Ships in 10 - 15 working days
|
A monument to sloth, rant and contempt, a behemoth of fat, flatulence and furious suspicion of anything modern - this is Ignatius J. Reilly of New Orleans, noble crusader against a world of dunces. In magnificent revolt against the twentieth century, Ignatius propels his monstrous bulk among the flesh-pots of a fallen city, filling his Big Chief tablets with invective, until his maroon-haired mother decrees that Ignatius must go to work.
Released by Louisiana State University Press in 1980, A Confederacy
of Dunces is nothing short of a publishing phenomenon. Rejected by
countless publishers and submitted by the author's mother years
after his suicide, the book won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for
fiction. Today there are almost two million copies in print
worldwide in eighteen languages. Now, for the first time, John
Kennedy Toole's comic masterpiece is available in a large print
edition. Toole's lunatic and sage novel introduces one of the most
memorable characters in American literature, Ignatius Reilly, whom
Walker Percy dubs "slob extraordinaire, a mad Oliver Hardy, a fat
Don Quixote, a perverse Thomas Aquinas rolled into one." Set in New
Orleans, A confederacy of Dunces outswifts Swift, one of whose
essays gives the book its title. As its characters burst into life,
they leave the region and literature forever changed by their
presence-Ignatius and his mother; Miss Trixie, the octogenarian
assistant accountant at Levi Pants; inept, wan Patrolman Mancuso;
Darlene, the Bourbon Street stripper with a penchant for poultry;
Jones the jivecat in spaceage dark glasses. Included here is the
introduction that writer and New Orleans resident Andrei Codrescu
composed for the book's twentieth anniversary. Set in oversized
type for ease in reading, the large print edition will gratify both
first-timers seeking to discover this modern-day classic and
longtime afficionados wishing to reread a favorite novel.
Will Barrett (also the hero of Percy's The Last Gentleman) is a lonely widower suffering from a depression so severe that he decides he doesn't want to continue living. But then he meets Allison, a mental hospital escapee making a new life for herself in a greenhouse. The Second Coming is by turns touching and zany, tragic and comic, as Will sets out in search of God's existence and winds up finding much more.
In Message in the Bottle, Walker Percy offers insights on such varied yet interconnected subjects as symbolic reasoning, the origins of mankind, Helen Keller, Semioticism, and the incredible Delta Factor. Confronting difficult philosophical questions with a novelist's eye, Percy rewards us again and again with his keen insights into the way that language possesses all of us.
Lancelot Lamar is a disenchanted lawyer who finds himself confined in a mental asylum with memories that don't seem worth remembering. It all began the day he accidentally discovered he was not the father of his youngest daughter, a discovery which sent Lancelot on modern quest to reverse the degeneration of America. Percy's novel reveals a shining knight for the modern age--a knight not of romance, but of revenge.
A good local history is an excellent and agreeable thing. It
pleases on two counts. It satisfies the curiosity of the
inhabitants of a region, whether newcomers or old settlers,
especially if no adequate history had existed before. It dispels
myths, corrects old wives' tales. And, if the history is
first-rate, it goes beyond a factual account of persons and places,
the particularities of a region, and shows the significance of
these human happenings in a larger scheme of things, in this case
the emergence of a new nation. Ellis's history succeeds on both
counts. It is a delightful and authoritative account of lore which
not even St. Tammanyites may have heard of. Did you know, for
example, that there was once a flourishing wine industry in St.
Tammany Parish? That local vineyards produced excellent red and
white wines, the red from Concord grapes, the white from Herbemont?
Did you know that in 1891 a rice crop of 50,000 barrels was
harvested, half the entire output of South Carolina? . . . Ellis
has rendered this pleasant and authoritative history in a graceful
and lively style and with a genuine affection for the people he
writes about. Walker Percy From the Foreword
Returning home to the small Louisiana parish where he had praticed psychiatry, Dr. Tom More quickly notices something strange occuring with the townfolk, a loss of inhibitions. Behind this mystery is a dangerous plot drug the local water supply, and a discovery that takes More into the underside of the American search for happiness.
"The letters are a marvel of literary and artistic criticism; they include narrative blueprints, historical insights, and the occasional personal anecdote."—Kenneth Smith, Washington Times
In the late 1940s, Walker Percy and Shelby Foote, friends since their teenage years in Greenville, Mississippi, began a correspondence that would last until Percy's death in 1990. Walker Percy, the highly regarded author of The Moviegoer, wrote six novels, two volumes of philosophical writings, and numerous essays. Shelby Foote met with early success as a novelist, but his reputation today rests more upon his massive three-volume narrative history of the Civil War, and his role as commentator in Ken Burns's documentary The Civil War.
The correspondence between Percy and Foote traces their lives from the beginning of their respective careers, when they were grappling fiercely and openly with their ambitions, artistic doubts, and personal problems. Although they discuss such serious matters as the death of Foote's mother and Percy's battle with cancer, their letters are full of sly humor and good-natured ribbing. Jay Tolson has selected, edited, and annotated the letters of these two remarkable writers to shed light on their relationship and their literary careers.
"This is a wonderful book, essential reading for anyone interested in the lives and work of Shelby Foote and Walker Percy."—Washington Post
Will Barrett is a 25-year-old wanderer from the South living in New York City, detached from his roots and with no plans for the future, until the purchase of a telescope sets off a romance and changes his life forever.
|
You may like...
Loot
Nadine Gordimer
Paperback
(2)
R398
R330
Discovery Miles 3 300
|