European Comedy

This radical reappraisal of human history will change the way you look at the past. In this expansive yet abridged volume, academic pariah and pseudo-historian Fin Taylor re-writes the human story, from the Big Bang to the Second Plane (minus all the stuff we can skip in between). Reader, you...

“Probably the most finely accomplished and ... most enduring" translation (Los Angeles Times Book Review) of this essential work of world literature—from a renowned scholar and master teacher of Dante and an accomplished poet. “The Hollanders … act as latter-day Virgils, guiding us...

A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland From Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public, commonly referred to as A Modest Proposal, is a Juvenalian satirical essay written and published anonymously by Jonathan Swift in 1729. Swift suggests in his essay that the impoverished Irish might ease their economic troubles by selling children as food. By doing this he mocks the authority of the British officials.

She gave him her innocence . . . Lady Aline Marsden was brought up to marry a man of her own class, but from the moment she meets John McKenna, she risks everything to be with him. He gave her his heart Although their love is forbidden, McKenna's passion for the beautiful Aline is too compelling...

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER. We, The Drowned is an epic novel about generations of men who go to sea and the women and children they leave behind. Filled with adventure, cannibals, shrunken heads, prophetic dreams, forbidden passions, cowards, heroes, tragedies, love, and survival, this book takes...

Ireland. 1925. The war is over. But life will never be the same... ""Everything Santa Montefiore writes, she writes from the heart,” says JOJO MOYES. See why in this unforgettable story of love, loss, and life, perfect for fans of DOWNTON ABBEY and KATE MORTON. In the green hills of West Cork...

A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF 2025 An adrenaline-fueled thriller about a disgraced comedian-turned-politician who takes on the role of a lifetime: infiltrating a corrupt Eastern European country to spy on their brutal dictator Hal Knight, a comedian and movie star-turned politician, is no...

Bryson brings his unique brand of humour to travel writing as he shoulders his backpack, keeps a tight hold on his wallet and heads for Europe. Travelling with Stephen Katz—also his wonderful sidekick in A Walk in the Woods—he wanders from Hammerfest in the far north, to Istanbul on the cusp...

'I need you,' the tall, ridiculously good-looking missionary had declared, his words reverberating through the entire church. Wait—he wasn’t talking just to Josey? Oops, because suddenly she’s not in Gull Lake, Minnesota anymore. Instead, she's found herself in Moscow, Russia, as a missionary for a whole year. Oy! Really, she just wanted to escape her chaotic hometown, where her sister ran off and married her ex, and her heart still pines for Chase, 'the one that got away.' But life has a funny way of throwing snowballs, and now she's in Russia, spreading the good word and navigating ...

Honoré de Balzac Explained: The Human Comedy, Realism, French Society, Literary Ambition, and the Birth of the Modern Novel is a comprehensive and accessible guide to one of the most ambitious writers in literary history. In this in depth exploration, you will discover how Balzac built La Comédie Humaine into a vast interconnected portrait of nineteenth century France, capturing the rise of capitalism, the pressures of social mobility, and the psychological intensity of modern ambition. Whether you are new to Balzac or looking to deepen your understanding, this book provides clear insight...

"A gripping guide to the modern taming of the infinite." —New York Times Part history, part philosophy, part love letter to the study of mathematics, Everything and More is an illuminating tour of infinity. With his infectious curiosity and trademark verbal pyrotechnics, David Foster Wallace...

Hes a spy for the Clandestine Services Agency. Shes a spy for the CIA. Theyve been clashing on joint missions for months, but their worlds are about to seriously collide. Here are three things that I know. 1) Im an expert at reading body language, 2) I excel as an intelligence operative, and 3)...

An indispensable, richly informative, and always entertaining sourcebook on Provence by the writer who has made the region his own. Though organized from A to Z, this is hardly a conventional work of reference. It is rather a selection of those aspects of Provence that Peter Mayle in almost...

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Bookshop on the Corner and The Cafe by the Sea comes another enchanting, unforgettable novel of a woman who makes a fresh start on the beautiful Scottish Island of Mure—only to discover life has more surprises in store for her. When Flora...

Thunder at Twilight is a landmark historical vision, drawing on hitherto untapped sources to illuminate two crucial years in the life of the extraordinary city of Vienna—and in the life of the twentieth century. It was during the carnival of 1913 that a young Stalin arrived in Vienna on a...

Darcy's got the wealth and wit, but Elizabeth's heart is already spoken for. Cue the romance and shenanigans, because the game of love is about to get serious. **Elizabeth Bennet** It was supposed to be simple: come back to Derbyshire, see childhood friends, maybe fall in love. But that was before I realized George Darcy, the boy I’d set my heart on when I was just thirteen, was engaged to Lady Lucilla.

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning co-author of Billion Dollar Whale and Blood and Oil, and co-host of the Whale Hunting podcast, comes a dazzling true story of how a lost masterpiece came home and of the remarkable, flawed man who made it happen. British art dealer Oliver Hoare had spent his life...

Tom Jones is a splendid Hogarthian panorama of 18th-century English life and morals, encompassing both city and country, and comprising some of the greatest comic characters in British literature. First published in 1749, it was an instant success and has gone on to become a classic of its genre. Quite simply, there has never been anything like it.

From the provocative writer and filmmaker Virginie Despentes comes volume one of her acclaimed trilogy of novels, Vernon Subutex—short-listed for the Man Booker International Prize and the basis for the TV series of the same name. But who is Vernon Subutex? Vernon Subutex was once the...

A sweeping story of three generations of women, crossing from London to Ireland and back again, and the enduring effort to retrieve the secrets of the past It’s London, 1960, and Aoife Kelly—once the sparkling object of young men’s affections—runs pubs with her brusque, barking husband...