Daedalus Books

In her first published mystery, Agatha Christie introduces readers to the heroic detective, Hercule Poirot. This is a classic murder mystery set in the outskirts of Essex. The victim is the wealthy mistress of Styles Court. The list of suspects is long and includes her gold-digging new spouse and stepsons, her doctor, and her hired companion.

Outdoor living is no longer defined as a simple patio with a few tables and chairs — today, homeowners are designing remarkable spaces in which to eat, relax, meditate, swim, and even sleep! Author Michelle Kodis reveals how to create a customized oasis in nearly any type of setting. Whether building new or redesigning an existing yard, Ultimate Backyards offers inspiration for outdoor spaces no matter the climate or budget — design is the key to creating a unique and personalized space. Learn how to connect an outdoor area architecturally to its environment, whether in the country, a suburb, or a busy urban locale. See first-hand the ways in which architects study a home's surroundings and then make them an integral part of the living space. Thirty case studies share stories, photos, and information on the challenges facing each project at its beginning, and the beautiful end result. Helpful sidebars offer suggestions and solutions on topics such as sustainability, using recycled materials, setting and staying within a budget, and what to do with a really small space. Sections include: Outdoor Rooms — outside spaces that dramatically increase the size and usable space of a home, from screened porches to outdoor family and play rooms; Indoor/Outdoor Combination — outdoor spaces designed to enhance an indoor/outdoor connection, such as a bedroom that opens directly to the outside; Water — pools, spas, ponds, and spaces that utilize water as the focal point; and, Creative Landscapes — landscapes that go beyond the ordinary to truly connect the house to its setting.

In this follow-up to her bestselling Sex with Kings, Eleanor Herman reveals the truth about what goes on behind the closed door of a queen's boudoir. Impeccably researched, filled with page-turning romance, passion, and scandal, Sex with the Queen explores the scintillating sexual lives of some of our most beloved and infamous female rulers. She was the queen, living in an opulent palace, wearing lavish gowns and dazzling jewels. She was envied, admired, and revered. She was also miserable, having been forced to marry a foreign prince sight unseen, a royal ogre who was sadistic, foaming at the mouth, physically repulsive, mentally incompetent, or sexually impotent — and in some cases all of the above.How did queens find happiness? In courts bristling with testosterone — swashbuckling generals, polished courtiers, and virile cardinals — many royal women had love affairs.Anne Boleyn flirted with courtiers; Catherine Howard slept with one. Henry VIII had both of them beheaded.Catherine the Great had her idiot husband murdered, and ruled the Russian empire with a long list of sexy young favorites.Marie Antoinette fell in love with the handsome Swedish count Axel Fersen, who tried valiantly to rescue her from the guillotine.Empress Alexandra of Russia found emotional solace in the mad monk Rasputin. Her behavior was the spark that set off the firestorm of the Russian revolution.Princess Diana gave up her palace bodyguard to enjoy countless love affairs, which tragically led to her early death. When a queen became sick to death of her husband and took a lover, anything could happen — from disgrace and death to political victory. Some kings imprisoned erring wives for life; other monarchs obligingly named the queen's lover prime minister.The crucial factor deciding the fate of an unfaithful queen was the love affair's implications in terms of power, money, and factional rivalry. At European courts, it was the politics — not the sex — that caused a royal woman's tragedy — or her ultimate triumph.

It's Christmastime And irrepressible, excitable Curious George has just the spirit for it. He can't wait to help his best friend, The Man with the Yellow Hat, pick out their holiday tree. At the tree farm, however, amid all the excitement of finding the perfect specimen, George gets carried away, as usual — top his favorite tree Hiding in the tree's branches, George finds himself delivered to the local children's hospital, where his tree trimming antics cheer the children and he gets to meet a jolly man in a bright red suit.

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 twenty years there has found to be the most interesting, curious, delicious, or down-right fun. In more than 170 entries he writes about subjects as wide-ranging as architecture and zingue-zingue-zoun (in the local patois, a word meant to describe the sound of a violin), as diverse as expatriates, Aix-en-Provence, the Provencal character, legends, lavender, linguistic oddities, the museum of the French Foreign Legion, the museum of the corkscrew, the origins of La Marseillaise, and a bawdy folklore character named Fanny. And, of course, he writes about food and drink: vin rose, truffles, olives, melons, bouillabaisse, the cheese that killed a Roman emperor, even a cure for indigestion. The wonderful accompanying artwork includes curiosities Mayle has gathered over the years — matchbooks, drawings, century-old ads, photos, tourist brochures, maps. Provence A-Z is a delight for Peter Mayle's ever-growing audience and the perfect complement to any guidebook on Provence, or, for that matter, France.

A series of intimate letters chronicles the amorous misadventures of the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont — two rivals who use their bodies as weapons in the war of the sexes. Set in the final days of the Ancien Regime, Laclos' dark and erotic epistolary milestone has been a bountiful source of inspiration for filmmakers and stage producers.

The compelling story of a young Muslim boy coming to terms with both his growing manhood and his need to feel a part of a larger family than his own, which is fatherless. It leads him into contact with Islamic extremists.

The diverse peoples of Britain and Ireland are revealed not only by physical characteristics but also through structures and settlements, place names and dialects. Using the latest genetic and archaeological research, the author shows how different peoples traded, settled and conquered, establishing the 'tribal' and regional roots still apparent today. Its vast scope considers the impact of prehistoric peoples and Celtic tribes, Romans and Vikings, Saxons and Normans, Jews and Huguenots, as well as the increasing population movements of the last century.

Where can you find the 'Devil's footprints'? What happened at the 'hangman's stone'? Did Sweeney Todd, the demon barber of Fleet Street, ever really exist? Where was King Arthur laid to rest? Bringing together tales of hauntings, highwaymen, family curses and lovers' leaps, this magnificent guide will take you on a magical journey through England's legendary past.

New title! The first visual dictionary to incorporate dictionary-scale definitions. More than 20,000 clear and concise terms and 6,000 full-color, highly detailed illustrations are grouped into 17 chapters outlining subjects from astronomy to sports. ideal for teachers, parents, translators, and students.

This, the second and final volume of Stephen Walsh's magisterial biography of Igor Stravinsky, begins in 1934, when Stravinsky is fifty-two and living in France. Already regarded by many as the most important composer of his generation, Stravinsky is nevertheless at this point a fairly unhappy expatriate, all too aware of the war clouds beginning to gather. Though he still maintains a family life with his wife and children, much of his time is spent with his mistress, Vera Sudeykina, while traveling around Europe giving concerts in order to earn the money to support his dependents-which include a number of relatives. Composing, of course, remains the center of his existence. But changes are imminent: within only a few years his wife, Katya, will be dead, his family scattered, and Stravinsky himself, together with Vera, starting over again in America. Stravinsky: The Second Exile follows the composer through the remainder of his long life, years during which he produces such masterworks as The Rake's Progress and Symphony in C, and achieves a new level of fame as a conductor and raconteur in his own right. With a dazzling command of sources in several languages and a keen feeling for accuracy in situations where truth and falsehood have become blurred, Walsh traces and illuminates Stravinsky's increasingly complex and often agonized family relationships along with his crucially important connection with his associate Robert Craft. Walsh is also, as a musicologist and critic, able to speak with knowledge and wit about Stravinsky's work, expertly describing and assessing the composer's musical journey from the neoclassicism of his late French and early American periods, through hisearly essays in serial technique, and on finally to the astonishing intricacies of his final compositions. The first volume of this biography, Stravinsky: A Creative Spring, was received with glowing praise for its insight, narrative skills, and readability. The period covered here, beset as it is with myths and misconceptions, is handled with even greater authority. Carefully weighed, eloquent, packed with rich and fascinating detail, it casts a brilliant new light on one of the greatest artists of our time.

Artie Wu and Quincy Durant, one of Southern California's unlikeliest pairs, find that the local mix-up they are looking into has suddenly expanded in space, from Vietnam to Washington, and in time, through twenty years of intrigue and deception.

This heart warming children's book blends the foundations of language and master-works from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts into a lovely journey that both parent and child will enjoy. Twenty-six works from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon accompany delightful prose that unites the alphabet and art in bold color. As the first ABC book published by the VMFA, it surely will be the quintessential gift for children for years to come.

Talented historian Maya Jasonoff offers an alternative history of the British Empire. It is not about conquest — but rather a collection of startling and fascinating personal accounts of cross-cultural exchange from those who found themselves on the edges of Empire. A Palladian mansion filled with western art in the centre of old Calcutta, the Mughal Emperor's letters in an archive in the French Alps, the names of Italian adventurers scratched into the walls of Egyptian temples: in this imaginative book, Maya Jasanoff delves into the stories behind artefacts like these to uncover the lives of collectors in India and Egypt who lived on the frontiers of European empire. Edge of Empire traces their exploits to tell an intimate history of imperialism. Written and researched on four continents, Edge of Empire tells a story about the making of European empires, ones that break away from the grand narratives of power, exploitation, and resistance, to delve into the personal dimensions of imperialism. She asks what people brought to imperial frontiers and what they took away, and what motives drove them, whether ambition, opportunism, curiosity, or greed. This rich and compelling book enters a world where people lived, loved, and died, and identified with each other across cultures much more than our prejudices about 'Empire' might suggest.

• Over 200 best-of-the-year photos. • Index of top photographers and their representatives, plus technical information. Art directors, designers, photographers, students, and everyone who’s interested in the latest and most innovative photography needs a copy of Photo Annual 2006. This eagerly anticipated yearly anthology presents the latest in cutting-edge images, with profiles of top photographers and full contact information plus camera and film information on each picture. An inspiring resource, a practical art book, Photo Annual 2006 gathers the finest work of the year into one exciting volume.

The carpenter Gepetto has carved an extraordinary marionette called Pinocchio out of a special piece of wood. But what a scamp that Pinocchio turns out to be! He pulls off Gepetto's wig and races out the door in search of adventure. Pinocchio finds plenty, but he is so mischievous and so very disobedient that despite the advice of Cricket and the Blue Fairy, he always seems to land in trouble. Yet Pinocchio is also kindhearted and loving, traits that, if he can only learn to behave, may help him realize his dream of becoming a real boy. For over a hundred years, children have delighted in this tale, now in a handsome new edition for a new generation.

The extraordinary images of Surrealist master, Rene Magritte, often began in a viewfinder. In this major study, the first of its kind, noted photography critic and Magritte scholar, Patrick Roegiers draws revealing connections between the artist's paintings and his use of the emerging medium of photography, which Magritte used as a hobby, as a serious component of his painting, and as an art in itself. Examining more than 200 previously unpublished photographs from Magritte's personal collection, Roegiers traces Magritte's life and work through his photography, and uncovers important source material for the paintings. We see here pictures of friends (including the Belgian Surrealists Scutenaire, Nouge and Mesens) and acquaintances, often photographed by Magritte in stage-managed tableaux. We glimpse his wife, muse, and model Georgette, posing whimsically and earnestly as the couple decamp for Paris in 1927 and return to Brussels three years later. And perhaps most importantly, Magritte's photographic self-portraits provide crucial insight into the creation of the iconic bowler-hatted figure in Magritte's paintings, and of key works such as Clairvoyance (1936). Every image had meaning for Magritte. Using the lens as a way of confronting the visible, he photographed trivial objects, surroundings and situations in order to explore the most unpredictable reaches of the imaginary. This all-encompassing look at what Magritte saw through the camera, and what he did in front of it, adds substantially to our appreciation of the artist who gave us the eye of The False Mirror.

In this follow-up to CAPTAIN ALATRISTE, the valiant Diego Alatriste returns for another adventure of swordplay, narrow escapes, and political intrigue within the corrupt Spanish court of the 1620s. Sword-for-hire Alatriste accepts a commission from Vicente de la Cruz to assist him and his sons in freeing his daughter, Elvira, from a convent where she is forced to submit to the attentions of an influential and lecherous priest, Fray Juan Coroado. De la Cruz must resort to this desperate measure because when he last attempted to see his daughter, Fray Juan threatened to reveal the stain on the family name — i.e., that de la Cruz's great-grandfather was a Jew. Death awaits anyone caught breaking into a convent, as Alatriste well knows, but the true risks of the rescue attempt only become plain after he is faced with a shocking betrayal.

A well-known American journalist travels to Germany to write about the Allied occupation — and also to find the German woman with whom he had an affair before the war began. In war-ravaged Berlin, he finds more than he expected, including a murdered American soldier and a stunning level of postwar corruption that is inextricably mixed with the American and Russian rocket projects.

To a generation in full revolt against any form of authority, «Tune in, turn on, drop out» became a mantra, and its popularizer, Dr. Timothy Leary, a guru. A charismatic and brilliant psychologist, Leary became first intrigued and then obsessed by the effects of psychedelic drugs in the 1960s while teaching at Harvard, where he not only encouraged but instituted their experimental use among students and faculty. What began as research into human consciousness turned into a mission to alter consciousness itself. Leary transformed himself from serious social scientist into counterculture shaman, embodying the idealism and the hedonism of an age of revolutionary change. Timothy Leary is the first major biography of one of the most controversial figures in postwar America.

Punctuation reveals the writer: haphazard commas, for example, reveal haphazard thinking; clear, lucid breaks reveal clear, lucid thinking. Punctuation can be used to teach the writer how to think and how to write. This short, practical book shows authors the benefits that can be reaped from mastering punctuation: the art of style, sentence length, meaning, and economy of words. There are full-length chapters devoted to the period, the comma, the semicolon, the colon, quotation marks, the dash and parentheses, the paragraph and section break, and a cumulative chapter on integrating them all into «The Symphony of Punctuation.» Filled with exercises and examples from literary masters (Why did Poe and Melville rely on the semicolon? Why did Hemingway embrace the period?), A Dash of Style is interactive, highly engaging, and a necessity for creative writers as well as for anyone looking to make punctuation their friend instead of their mysterious foe.

»Troubled restaurant inspector Danny Skinner is engaged on a quest to find the mysterious father his mother will not identify. He discovers that a television chef's book, «The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs», may hold the necessary clues. Unraveling this classified information is the key to learning the crippling compulsions that threaten to wreck his young life. His ensuing journey takes him from Europe's festival city of Edinburgh to the foodie city of San Francisco.» «But the hard-drinking, womanizing Skinner has a strange nemesis in the form of model-railway enthusiast Brian Kibby. It is Skinner's unfathomable, obsessive hatred of Kibby that takes over everything, threatening to destroy not only Skinner and his mission but also those he loves most dearly. When Kibby contracts a horrific, debilitating, and undiagnosable disease, Skinner understands that his destiny is inextricably bound to that of his hated rival, and he is faced with a terrible dilemma». «The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs» is a gothic parable about the great obsessions of our time: food, sex, and minor celebrity, and it is a brilliant examination of identity, male rivalry, and the need to belong in the world.

A provocative account of colonial America, exploring the key events, individuals, and themes of this pivotal period. From the fearful crossing of the stormy Atlantic to the growth of the early settlements, to the French and Indian War and the unrest of the 1760s, Polk brilliantly traces the progress of the colonies to the point where the break with England was inevitable.

Virtually all versions of the legend of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table are derived from Thomas Malory's «Morte d'Arthur», one of the most renowned works of English literature. Yet the author, a 15th-century knight, has remained an enigma, while the scant historical records imply he was a criminal, imprisoned for rape, ambush, and attacks on abbeys. Historian, writer, and broadcaster Christina Hardyment uncovers a different Malory, however, from new historical research and a critical examination of the only known manuscript of his book. In this history, illustrated with photographs and reproductions of medieval manuscripts and miniatures, she describes a soldier and a connoisseur of literature, who served under Henry V and remained loyal to the Lancasters in the War of the Roses. Imprisoned largely for his political stance, Malory wished for and wrote of a nobler time.