Henri had a passion for Napoleon & Napoleon had a passion for chicken From Boulogne to Moscow Henri butchered for his Emperor & never killed a single man Meanwhile in Venice the city of chance & disguises Villanelle was born with the webbed feet of her boatman father
- but in the casinos she gambled her heart & lost As the soldier-chef's love for Napoleon turns to hate he finds the Venetian beauty & together they flee to the canals of darkness ' It's a fantasy a vivid dream inventive & brilliant' Guardian' As moving & funny as it is skilful & reflects the author's formidable appetite for life' Sunday Times'A book of great imaginative audacity & assurancebrilliantly physical (and funny) detail Times Literary Supplement' Its concentrated beautifully detailed prose recalls the diction of fairy tales; its plot incorporates their magic their shrewd wit & brutalitya deeply imagined & beautiful book often arrestingly so' New York Times
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GH a well-to-do Rio sculptress enters the room of her maid which is as clear & white 'as in an insane asylum from which dangerous objects have been removed' There she sees a cockroach
- black dusty prehistoric
- crawling out of the wardrobe & panicking slams the door on it Her irresistible fascination with the dying insect provokes a spiritual crisis in which she questions her place in the universe & her very identity propelling her towards an act of shocking transgression Clarice Lispector's spare deeply disturbing yet luminous novel transforms language into something otherworldly & is one of her most unsettling & compelling works Clarice Lispector was a Brazilian novelist & short story writer Her innovation in fiction brought her international renown References to her literary work pervade the music & literature of Brazil & Latin America She was born in the Ukraine in 1920 but in the aftermath of World War I & the Russian Civil War the family fled to Romania & eventually sailed to Brazil She published her first novel Near to the Wildheart in 1943 when she was just twenty-three & the next year was awarded the Graca Aranha Prize for the best first novel Many felt she had given Brazillian literature a unique voice in the larger context of Portuguese literature After living variously in Italy the UK Switzerland & the US in 1959 Lispector with her children returned to Brazil where she wrote her most influential novels including The Passion According to GH She died in 1977 shortly after the publication of her final novel The Hour of the Star

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Please note this is a region 2 DVD & will require a region 2 or region free DVD player in order to play On a windswept barren island Andreas lives simply & quietly until he becomes entangled with Anna a beautiful mysterious widow & a neighbouring couple harbouring their own sorrows & illusions But soon secrets from Andreas & Anna&s pasts threaten to destroy everything Actors Max Von Sydow Liv Ullman Bibi Andersson & Lars-Owe Carlberg Director Ingmar Bergman Certificate 12 years & over Year 1969 Screen Widescreen 1661 Languages Swedish
- Dolby Digital (10) Mono Additional Languages Italian Subtitles English ; Dutch ; Greek Duration 1 hour & 36 minutes (approx)
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I know nothing I am a tabula rasa a blank sheet of paper an unhatched egg I have not yet become a woman although I possess a woman's shape Not a woman no both more & less than a real woman Now I am a being as mythic & monstrous as Mother herself ' New York has become the City of Dreadful Night where dissolute Leilah performs a dance of chaos for Evelyn But this young Englishman's fate lies in the arid desert where a many-breasted fertility goddess will wield her scalpel to transform him into the new Eve ...

A dramatisation of the last twelve hours of the life of Jesus Christ Following a betrayal by his close friend Judas Jesus is arrested There follows a chain of events in which a man who claimed he was the son of God is persecuted by the will of Jewish high priests & at the hands of occupying Roman forces Aramaic dialogue with subtitles ...

Please note this is a region 2 DVD & will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play Mel Gibson directs this highly controversial & brutally visceral film about the suffering of Jesus Christ in the twelve hours leading up to his crucifixion Betrayed by Judas Iscariot Jesus is arrested & accused by the Pharisees of blasphemy punishable by death He is handed over to Roman soldiers who flagellate him until he is unrecognisable then ordered to carry the heavy wooden cross through the streets of Jerusalem to Golgotha where he is nailed to the cross As he dies he experiences his last temptation to momentarily doubt the presence of God his Father & to ask if he has been forsaken ...

Manolete is about legendary matador Manuel Rodriguez Sanchez (Brody) & his love affair with actress Lupe Sino (Cruz) The film is set in 1940s Spain & tells the story of matador Sanchez&s infatuation with Sino which continued until his death in the bullring in 1947 at 30 Actors Adrien Brody Penelope Cruz Ann Mitchell Nacho Aldeguer Pedro Casablanc Juan Echanove & Ruben Ochandiano Director Menno Meyjes Certificate 15 years & over Year 2007 Languages English Duration 1 hour & 30 minutes (approx) ...

In her excellent new novel Wendy Louise Bardsley takes the reader on a journey from Yorkshire to London Wales & Paris as she explores the remarkable life of Mary Wollstonecroft As a young woman Mary copes with a bullying father a subjugated mother sees young friends die in childbirth & from tuberculosis & whilst her elder brother Ned follows an unfettered path to a career as a lawyer Mary is deprived of a formal education All of these experiences combine to shape Mary's ideals for the improvement of the lot of women a subject she pursues passionately throughout her adult life Determined to improve her mind Mary reads writes & associates with learned men of the day Through her writing Mary meets publisher Joseph Johnson who introduces Mary not only to severalfamous writers of the time but also to artist Henri Fuseli with whom she becomes infatuated With the French Revolution raging Mary travels to Paris to experience the terror pervadingthe French capital Whilst there she meets & falls in love with Gilbert Imlay by whom she has a daughter But Imlay proves feckless & the relationship which began so passionately ends in tears Back in London Mary rejoins Joseph Johnson's cultural circle which

Includes:: William Godwin who has admired her for a long-time Mary & Godwin marry in March 1797 & in August 1797 their daughter also called Mary & who will grow up to be the future Mary Shelley is born But complications follow the birth & Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin dies on 10 September 1797 aged just 38 leaving her seminal work A Vindication of the Rights of Woman as a fitting epitaph to a remarkable story

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' Those most capable of being moved by passion are those capable of tasting the most sweetness in this life' Descartes is most often thought of as introducing a total separation of mind & body But he also acknowledged the intimate union between them & in his later writings he concentrated on understanding this aspect of human nature The Passions of the Soul is his greatest contribution to this debate It contains a profound discussion of the workings of the emotions & of their place in human life
- a subject that increasingly engages the interest of philosophers & intellectual & cultural historians It also sets out a view of ethics that has been seen as a radical reorientation of moral philosophy This volume also

Includes:: both sides of the correspondence with Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia one of Descartes's keenest disciples & shrewdest critics which played a crucial role in the genesis of The Passions as well as the first part of The Principles of Philosophy which sets out the key positions of Descartes's philosophical system ABOUT THE SERIES For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features including expert introductions by leading authorities helpful notes to clarify the text up-to-date bibliographies for further study & much more


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' Few writers give me such consistent pleasure' Zadie Smith Four siblings meet up in their grandparents' old house for three long hot summer weeks But under the idyllic surface lie shattering tensions Roland has come with his new wife & his sisters don't like her Fran has brought her children who soon uncover an ugly secret in a ruined cottage in the woods Alice has invited Kasim an outsider who makes plans to seduce Roland's teenage daughter & Harriet the eldest finds her quiet self-possession ripped apart when passion erupts unexpectedly Over the course of the holiday a familiar way of life falls apart forever ' Exquisite' The Times ' Wonderful' Guardian ' Magnificent' Sunday Times ...