Amazon.com
The brilliant Italian writer Italo Calvino (1923-1985) compiled Fantastic Tales: Visionary and Everyday, a historical overview of great fantastic literature of the 19th century. Many of his 26 selections are from well-known authors (Sir Walter Scott, Honoré de Balzac, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens, Ivan Turgenev, Guy de Maupassant, Robert Louis Stevenson, Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, and H.G. Wells), but Calvino largely avoided their best-known stories; the only inclusions likely to be familiar to many Americans are Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown," Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart," and H.G. Wells's "The Country of the Blind." The remaining contributors range from moderately well-known to obscure. So the reader who purchases Fantastic Tales gains not only an intelligently annotated anthology of superb fiction, but, in one pleasant sense, a collection of mostly new stories.
Interestingly, some of the finest stories are by authors least known in America. Théophile Gautier's beautifully written, wrenchingly ironic "The Beautiful Vampire" establishes the traditions for romantic vampire fiction. Mérimée's "The Venus of Ille," a tale of culture clashes (Parisian and rural, ancient classical, and contemporary Christian), is sharp, well-written, and uncommonly horrific. With the gorgeous "A Lasting Love," the sole woman contributor, Vernon Lee, paints the most vivid portrait of obsessive, transcendent, destructive love.
Caveat: Calvino's introductions sometimes reveal more of the plot than readers will like. --Cynthia Ward
Book Description
Compiled by Italo Calvino, one of the essential writers of the twentieth century (and editor of the best-selling Italian Folktales), Fantastic Tales is a rich and wide-ranging collection of twenty-six classic, uncanny tales from the nineteenth century written by an intriguing panoply of European and American authors. Master storyteller himself, Calvino has contributed an informative introduction to the collection, and an engaging précis to each story.
As Calvino writes in Fantastic Tales, which traces the genre from its roots in German Romanticism to the ghost stories of Henry James: "The fantastic tale is one of the most characteristic products of nineteenth-century narrative. For us, it is also one of the most significant. . . . As it relates to our sensibility today, the supernatural element at the heart of these stories always appears freighted with meaning, like the revolt of the unconscious, the repressed, the forgotten. . . . In this we see the modern dimension of the fantastic, the reason for its triumphant resurgence in our times."
Fantastic Tales is a fantastically canonical anthology assembled by an editor who, in the words of Salman Rushdie, "possesses the power of seeing into the deepest recesses of human minds and then bringing their dreams back to life. "
Italo Calvino's works include The Road to San Giovanni, Numbers in the Dark, Six Memos for the Next Millennium, The Baron in the Trees, If On a Winter's Night a Traveler, Invisible Cities, and Mr. Palomar. Calvino died in 1985.
Customer Reviews:
Hoping to be swept away..........2001-07-13
I was instead disappointed. I enjoyed Italo's Italian Folktakes so much that I thought this would be another endless read. Instead, I found it dry and methodical. While some of the stories were intriguing, the majority were immature works created by talented authors. Meaning, many of the stories just didn't have the direction, plot, or moral I expect from a "fantastic tale."
The Literary Fantastic According to the Master Himself.......2000-06-29
The stories collected in this volume span through some several hundred years and many languages. The authors represented wrote not only in the genre of the fantastic, they are recognized masters. But here we find their finest, eeriest, most bizarre and phantasmagoric tales. Reading through the book provides a real sense of the development of the ghost story and the fantasy through the years.
Perhaps of even greater importance, for those of us who are Calvino fans, we can see what stories the Italian fabulist cherished most, what he read and what influenced him. He places each book in a historical and literary context, and the opening essay is truly key to understanding Calvino's theories of the fantastic, which in themselves make this book worth buying!
Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Review of Contemporary Fiction, published by Review of Contemporary Fiction on June 22, 1998. The length of the article is 1081 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Fantastic Tales: Visionary and Everyday. (book reviews)
Author: David Ian Paddy
Publication:
The Review of Contemporary Fiction (Refereed)
Date: June 22, 1998
Publisher: Review of Contemporary Fiction
Volume: 18
Issue: 2
Page: 234
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
In the twenty-first centruy humanity has united after countless years of warfare, and turns toward the stars. But when an alien spacecraft crashlands in the South Pacific bearing visitors from another world, the Vulcans, Earth must decide whether to extend the hand of friendship, or the fist of war.
In the distant future, horrible dreams torment Admiral James T. Kirk, dreams prompted by his reading of Strangers From the Sky, a book about that historic first contact. He dreams of an alternate reality where he somehow changed the course of history, and destroyed the Federation before it began.
Customer Reviews:
~ Earth's first contact with Vulcuns~.......2007-01-09
You won't find a better book in the Star Trek genre. Well written, close to canon. Bonanno captures Kirk,Spock and McCoy thoroughly, you can hear their voices as you read the story. Excellent, if you are a Trek fan don't miss this classic.
An oldie but a goodie.......2006-12-27
This is the rerelease of a book written in the early-to-mid 80's. It's still a great read. Bonanno brings the strengths of book-writing to a film property - flash backs, out-of-sequence story-telling and a wider landscape, and makes it all work.
Since it was written pre-almost-everything-else, there are a few anachronisms that must be forgiven, but I didn't find them distracting. The characters are spot on, the dillemma interesting, and the pace brisk. I remember reading this when it was first written and really enjoying knowing what was going on after the TV show and before the second movie. This time it takes a bit to re-orient where everything takes place (has this happened yet? No? Okay...)
The new characters are likable and instantly accessible. Of all the 40th Anniversary books, this is the one to read.
Separating fact from fantasy.......2006-09-25
A controversial best seller has been sweeping through the Federation and the Enterprise was no exception but when Dr. McCoy offered his copy to Capt. Kirk, Kirk was oddly resistent to reading it. When he finally began reading though he found that he could not put it down, that it even began to invade his dreams and sent him on a pilgrimage to one of the locations of the story. Had Kirk's obsession with the book driven him to madness?
When McCoy called in Spock to help him save Kirk they discovered that Kirk was not the only one who had a strange reaction to the novel, leading them all to question what was fantasy and what was reality. After all, everyone knew when Vulcans and humans first made contact and it was long before Kirk and Spock were born. Wasn't it?
Bonanno has woven a compelling story, her characterizations of the Enterprise crew that we all know and love is excellent. They, and the rest of the characters in the book all come to life as reasonable, believeable and engaging. She also manages to keep the various threads of the story interesting as they begin to wind their ways towards the climax.
This is a definite 'don't miss' for fans of the series and would also be enjoyable to anyone with more than a passing interest in classic Trek, particularly the earliest episodes.
A minor complaint........2006-08-14
While the book is good, my problem with it is the new foreword by the author. She mentions that the book was written six years before the official first contact between humans and Vulcans depicted in the movie "First Contact" set in 2063 - wrong. That was not the first contact between humans and Vulcans in the STAR TREK universe. The TRUE first contact in the official cannon STAR TREK universe was depicted in the STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE episode "Carbon Creek" in which a Vulcan science vessel observing the launch of the Earth satellite SPUTNIK 1 on October 4, 1957, crashed and it's survivors had to interact with humans (the humans not knowing that they were aliens, of course) while waiting for a Vulcan rescue ship to come for them. A minor objection, of course, but MWB should have realized this.
Kirk and Spock remember the First Contact before "First Contact".......2006-04-28
In the "Star Trek" novel "Strangers From the Sky," there is a controversial best-selling book of the same title that James T. Kirk picks up to read on the recommendation of his old friend Leonard McCoy. The book by Garamet Jen-Saunor challenges the well establish fact that Earth's first encounter with alien life occurred when the UNSS "Icarus" first encountered the humanoid people of Alpha Centauri in 2048. Instead, Jen-Saunor argues that humanity's first contact with an alien species happened years earlier and whatever happened was so monumentally important and dangerous that all records of the incident have been erased and both worlds have kept the secret for almost two centuries. The theory is interesting enough as alien contract conspiracy theories go, but when Kirk starts reading the book he starts having nightmares. Then the Admiral discovers that Spock is having the same dreams and the two old friends get together to do a Vulcan mind meld, to see if they can unlock the past.
"Star Trek" fans have to be a bit confused because as the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" movie "First Contact" taught us, when Zephram Cochrane lauched the "Phoenix" on Apri 5, 2063 and achieved warp drive for the first time, he caught the attention of the "T'plana'hath," a Vulcan survey ship, which lands on Earth and makes first contact with humans. But all you need to do to make this all work out is to replace what happened in "First Contact" with the story of the "Icarus" and it still works out. In fact, the idea that we are now talking about Vulcans instead of Alpha Centaurians makes everything resonate a bit more. So I do not see a major problem with making most of what is here with the official canon and you can sort things out as you will.
Margaret Wander Bonanno divides her "Strangers From the Sky" novel into two books. The first takes place in "those nebulous years" between the encounter of the "Enterprise" with V'ger in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," and the death of Spock in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan." The second book takes us back to when Captain Kirk was the new commander of the "Enterprise," and much closer to Lt. Commander Gary Mitchell, Lieutenant Lee Kelso, and Dr. Elizabeth Dehner (who you should recognize as characters from the first-season episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before"), than he is to his Vulcan first officer.
What is interesting in this novel is seeing more of the Kirk-Mitchell relationship before it all when horribly bad, and contrasting that with the awkward early stages of the Kirk-Spock relationship. This would be worth pursuing against lots of storylines, every without (yet another) time travel plot, although involving the Vulcans does bring the relationship between Kirk and Spock into sharper focus. Bonanno also does a nice job of working in Kelso and Dehner into the plot as well, so that a much better appreciation of their characters. So this is an above average "Star Trek," which does fill in some of the blanks for the early years of Kirk and Spock, which is always a plus with these books. You can also see "Strangers From the Sky" as part of the long string of stories, part of the canon and otherwise, that have explored the tensions between Earthlings and Vulcans. There sure are a lot of those.
Product Description
5 massmarket paperback Star Trek Titles - Final Frontier - Strangers From the Sky - Enterprise - Lost Years - Prime Directive
Product Description
multiple books ship as one item. save on shipping/handling charges.
Product Description
multiple books ship as one item. save on shipping/handling charges.
Average customer rating:
|
Five Star Christian Fiction - The Stranger From Medina (Five Star Christian Fiction)
Paul Bagdon
Manufacturer: Five Star
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Board book
 Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Westerns
| Genre Fiction
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Fiction
| Literature & Fiction
| Christianity
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Fiction
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1594142211 |
Book Description
Book 3 in the West Texas Sunrise series
The West Texas town of Burnt Rock has a new preacher. Handsome and sophisticated, Reverend Warner soon wins the affection and respect of the congregation, but he seems particularly drawn to lady rancher Lee Morgan. Ben Flood is not taken in so quickly. He's shaken the minister's hand and found it heavily callused . . . and doesn't the minister have an unusual fondness for guns? When a blizzard hits Burnt Rock, the truth plays out in both murder and redemption.
Average customer rating:
|
Star Trek Strangers From The Sky
Bonanno
Manufacturer: Pocket Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Star Trek
| Media
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: B000G9UUVO |
Product Description
"Strangers From The Sky"encompasses two different eras in the lives of Kirk and Spock.
Customer Reviews:
Stranger from Arizona by Norman A. Fox (Large Print Western).......2006-09-01
Description from the book dust jacket:
It was a rough, lonesome trail from Pleasant Valley, Arizona to Spurlock, Montana, but gunslinger Clint Tracy knew he had to ride it - or else the secret that ate at him would devour him for sure. He'd have no peace until he finished his business up North. But when he arrives in Spurlock, he finds trouble got there first - Hugh McCoy of Broken Box lies dying in Doc Smeed's office, apparently the victim of Johnny Lovett's bullet. The men at Broken Box and at Johnny's ranch - Diamond L - have their guns poised, and Clint Tracy senses an all-out range war in the works ...
Average customer rating:
- A book to live with
- Review of Wine Report 2007
- Not a book for H. Moon "MHC"
- Review the contents before buying this book.
- A 'must' for any wine buff who wants to latest news on the greatest wines
|
Wine Report 2006 (Wine Report)
Tom Stevenson
Manufacturer: DK ADULT
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Spirits
| Drinks & Beverages
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| Subjects
| Books
Buying Guides
| Wine
| Drinks & Beverages
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| Subjects
| Books
Wine & Winemaking
| Wine
| Drinks & Beverages
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| Subjects
| Books
Consumer Guides
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
All Deals
| Blowout Books
| Stores
| Books
Cooking, Food & Wine
| Blowout Books
| Stores
| Books
Reference
| Blowout Books
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
The New Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition
-
The Oxford Companion to Wine, 3rd Edition
-
Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book 2005 (Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book)
-
Matt Kramer's New California Wine: Making Sense of Napa Valley, Sonoma, Central Coast, and Beyond
-
Parker's Wine Buyer's Guide 6th Edition : The Complete, Easy-to-Use Reference on Recent Vintages, Prices, and Ratings for More Than 8,000 Wines from All the Major Wine Regions
ASIN: 0756613205 |
Book Description
The essential insider's guide to the world of wine, this book provides readers with the latest wine information, including hot tips on recent vintages and the best bargains. Rounded out with helpful Top 10 lists, local prices, and good wine investments, it's a must for every wine enthusiast who wants to keep up with the constantly-changing (and sometimes daunting) world of wine.
Customer Reviews:
A book to live with.......2007-09-24
It is my best companion, since the first one released in 2004.
C'est le Creme dela Creme.
Superb !
Schiffini, J. P. (The Century Club co-founder)
Review of Wine Report 2007.......2007-01-10
The Wine Report 2007 is packed with valuable information including up-to-date, expertly written analyses of global wine regions. All serious wine aficionados should keep a copy handy for quick reference.
Not a book for H. Moon "MHC".......2007-01-10
H. Moon, you should never have purchased this book! Wine Report is not a book for anybody, it's not even a book for just any old wine drinker. It's for true wine fanatics, wine geeks, wine nerds. It's unashamedly elitist. Sales should be restricted to those with a certain level of wine knowledge. It's for those people who already know the basics of Bordeaux and, indeed, a bit about Lebanon. If you expect more information on Bordeaux than Lebanon in an annual guide, then you need to be guided by a traditional pocket reference, and frankly nobody does that better than Hugh Johnson. The amount of change annually in emerging wine countries like Lebanon obviously far exceeds the amount of change annually in classic regions like Bordeaux. The geeks and nerds amongst us who have a traditional level of wine reference in their skull desperately seek to keep up to speed on what is new or has changed throughout the entire world of wine. That includes Bordeaux, of course, and David Peppercorn covers it admirably, but knowledgeable wine enthusiasts expect and understand that the amount of change in Bordeaux will be relatively minimal.
Review the contents before buying this book........2006-12-26
This book may be helpful to some wine lovers. But, there's problem in the
organization of the book. For example, only 9 pages are allocated to
Bordeaux wine. It's the same number of pages for Lebanon wine. I'm not
a fan of Bordeaux wine. But, most wine lover will need more information
of Bordeaux, Italy and Chille wines contained in this book.
A 'must' for any wine buff who wants to latest news on the greatest wines.......2005-12-06
Seeking a pocket guide to the wine world which offers the latest insider's information on new vintages, upcoming trends, new discoveries, and the latest harvest predictions? You can't go wrong with Wine Report 2006, which was rated the 'Best Wine Book in the World 2004 and 2005' by Gourmand International: it packs a wealth of updated facts in a truly pocket-sized - albeit thick - edition and is a 'must' for any wine buff who wants to latest news on the greatest wines.
Book Description
The Beer & Ale Wholesale Industry report features 2006 current and 2007 forecast estimates on the size of the industry (sales, establishments, employment) nationally and for all 50 U.S. States and over 300 metro areas. The report also includes industry definition, 5-year historical trends on industry sales, establishments and employment and estimates on up to 10 sub-industries.
Book Description
The Beer & Wine & Liquor Stores Industry report features 2006 current and 2007 forecast estimates on the size of the industry (sales, establishments, employment) nationally and for all 50 U.S. States and over 300 metro areas. The report also includes industry definition, 5-year historical trends on industry sales, establishments and employment and estimates on up to 10 sub-industries.
Book Description
The Distilleries & Alcohol-Making Industry report features 2006 current and 2007 forecast estimates on the size of the industry (sales, establishments, employment) nationally and for all 50 U.S. States and over 300 metro areas. The report also includes industry definition, 5-year historical trends on industry sales, establishments and employment and estimates on up to 10 sub-industries.
Book Description
The Wine & Alcoholic Beverages Wholesales report features 2006 current and 2007 forecast estimates on the size of the industry (sales, establishments, employment) nationally and for all 50 U.S. States and over 300 metro areas. The report also includes industry definition, 5-year historical trends on industry sales, establishments and employment and estimates on up to 10 sub-industries.
Book Description
The Wineries & Wine-Making Industry report features 2006 current and 2007 forecast estimates on the size of the industry (sales, establishments, employment) nationally and for all 50 U.S. States and over 300 metro areas. The report also includes industry definition, 5-year historical trends on industry sales, establishments and employment and estimates on up to 10 sub-industries.
Book Description
The 2006 Worldwide Wine & Alcoholic Beverages Wholesale Industry report features 2006 current and 2007 forecast estimates on the size of the industry (sales, establishments, employment) for the U.S. and 45 of the largest countries in the world. The report also includes industry definition, 5-year historical trends on industry sales, establishments and employment and estimates on up to 10 sub-industries, including wine coolers, spirits, mixers and champagne.
Average customer rating:
|
Take-Home Trade Market Report 2006
Key Note Publications Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
General
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| Subjects
| Books
Cooking, Food & Wine
| Subjects
| e-Docs
| Formats
| Books
General
| Business
| PDF (printable)
| Formats
| e-Docs
| Formats
| Books
ASIN: B000KLPG1C
Release Date: 2006-10-01 |
Average customer rating:
|
Wine Market Report Plus 2006
Key Note Publications Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
General
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| Subjects
| Books
Cooking, Food & Wine
| Subjects
| e-Docs
| Formats
| Books
General
| Business
| PDF (printable)
| Formats
| e-Docs
| Formats
| Books
ASIN: B000KLPG30
Release Date: 2006-10-01 |
Average customer rating:
|
Wines & Vines special report; Vintage 2006: North America's growing regions.(Report): An article from: Wines & Vines
Gale Reference Team
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
General
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Management
| Management & Leadership
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| Subjects
| Books
Cooking, Food & Wine
| Subjects
| e-Docs
| Formats
| Books
Management
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| e-Docs
| Formats
| Books
General
| Business & Investing
| HTML
| Formats
| e-Docs
| Formats
| Books
Management
| Business & Investing
| HTML
| Formats
| e-Docs
| Formats
| Books
ASIN: B000NPWA64
Release Date: 2007-02-20 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Wines & Vines, published by Thomson Gale on January 1, 2007. The length of the article is 10539 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Wines & Vines special report; Vintage 2006: North America's growing regions.(Report)
Author: Gale Reference Team
Publication:
Wines & Vines (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 88
Issue: 1
Page: 102(18)
Article Type: Report
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Books:
- Farmhouse and Country Plans: 300 Fresh Designs from Classic to Modern
- Felix in the Underworld
- First World Third Class and Other Tales of the Global Mix (Texas Pan American Literature in Translation)
- Fortune Daughter
- Fourplay: A Novel
- Funeral Music for Freemasons (New Directions Book)
- Garbo Laughs
- Geronimo Rex
- Girl Anatomy: A Novel
- Gods Go Begging
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- History: Fiction or Science
- CMMI
- U.S. Master Estate and Gift Tax Guide
- Why Are So Many Black Men in Prison
- All-American Car-i-oke
- Come Back: A Mother and Daughter's Journey Through Hell and Back
- Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About Colleges
- 145 Things to Be When You Grow Up
- When Washington Crossed the Delaware: A Wintertime Story for Young Patriots
- Joint Committee On Statutory Instruments: 11th Report, Session 2003-2004
Novelties & Souvenirs: Collected Short Fiction
Demons of the Night: Tales of the Fantastic, Madness, and the Supernatural from Nineteenth-Century France
NUMBERS IN THE DARK: And Other Stories
Italian Folktales
The Baron in the Trees
