Daedalus Books

This illustrated guidebook for students and theater fans alike explores and explains the plot, characters, setting, action, and most significant moments in Hamlet. It provides a two-CD audio reading of the play; bold black and white illustrations to help you visualize the action; modular chapters providing structured, easy-to-grasp information; scene-by-scene summaries to explain the dialogue; and maps and diagrams of actions, plot points, and motivations. «The characters are introduced, first the major and then the minor: 'This is Hamlet's girlfriend. Her name is Ophelia. She is both a loving girlfriend and an obedient daughter. Unfortunately for her, these roles will clash.' The power bases are introduced, and then the main plot and subplots. The allegiances among the people are represented by diagrams showing the connections. The graphic representation of the plot and characters could be very useful for students who are experiencing Shakespeare's works for the first time. A concluding time line outlines the main action scene by scene, and an appendix explains historical sources of the play and offers some background about Shakespeare».

Organized in an A-to-Z format, this thesaurus provides a wide range of synonyms from mainstream vocabulary to colorful alternatives. The book includes thousands of slang, informal, and regional words, clearly labeled for proper context. Each synonym list springs from a concise definition, while words with related meanings show cross-references to one another. As additional support, hundreds of Core Synonym Paragraphs explain the different nuances in meaning of some of the most basic and important synonyms in English.

The paper engineer behind such artistic pop-up books as The Night Before Christmas and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz offers this book of 26 alphabetical Christmas pop-ups, each presented behind a simple colored flap with an initial letter. «N» reveals a nutcracker opening his eyes and working his mouth, «S» is a 3-D snowflake, and two snowmen wave hello under «F», for friends. Each flap (which looks much like a Christmas card) has a multicolored interior with a white pop-up figure. Though ideal for beginning readers, this delightful book can be shared with the family and kept with the Christmas decorations.

»The Constant Gardener» is a magnificent exploration of the new world order by one of the most compelling and elegant storytellers of our time. The novel opens in northern Kenya with the gruesome murder of Tessa Quayle — young, beautiful, and dearly beloved to husband Justin. When Justin sets out on a personal odyssey to uncover the mystery of her death, what he finds could make him not only a suspect among his own colleagues, but a target for Tessa's killers as well. A master chronicler of the betrayals of ordinary people caught in political conflict, John le Carre portrays the dark side of unbridled capitalism as only he can. In «The Constant Gardener» he tells a compelling, complex story of a man elevated through tragedy, as Justin Quayle — amateur gardener, aging widower, and ineffectual bureaucrat — discovers his own natural resources and the extraordinary courage of the woman he barely had time to love.

Narnia: A magical land full of wonder and excitement. A place where you will meet Aslan, the bravest of lions, and a beautiful but wicked Witch. There are lots of other fabulous creatures too: giants and dwarfs and animals that talk. It all begins when four children — Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy — discover a strange old wardrobe. Stepping inside, they find that it's stranger still, because behind all the fur coats there is a wondrous land of trees and mountains, all glistening with snow. The White Witch has spread an icy winter everywhere. Only Aslan can defeat her and reverse her wicked spell. The children must find the lion before it is too late. If they fail, the Witch will make them her prisoners forever. In the fifty years since it was written, The Lion, the Witch And the Wardrobe has become one of the great classics of children's literature. Now younger children can share the magical experience, stepping into a world of enchantment that will forever lure them back.

A young woman caught in the rivalry between Queen Mary and her half sister, Elizabeth, must find her true destiny amid treason, poisonous rivalries, loss of faith, and unrequited love. It is winter, 1553. Pursued by the Inquisition, Hannah Green, a fourteen-year-old Jewish girl, is forced to flee Spain with her father. But Hannah is no ordinary refugee. Her gift of «Sight», the ability to foresee the future, is priceless in the troubled times of the Tudor court. Hannah is adopted by the glamorous Robert Dudley, the charismatic son of King Edward's protector, who brings her to court as a «holy fool» for Queen Mary and, ultimately, Queen Elizabeth. Hired as a fool but working as a spy; promised in wedlock but in love with her master; endangered by the laws against heresy, treason, and witchcraft, Hannah must choose between the safe life of a commoner and the dangerous intrigues of the royal family that are inextricably bound up in her own yearnings and desires. Teeming with vibrant period detail and peopled by characters seamlessly woven into the sweeping tapestry of history, The Queen's Fool is another rich and emotionally resonant gem from this wonderful storyteller.

When Theodore Gumbril hits upon the notion of designing a type of pneumatic trouser (a comfort to all travellers, indispensable to first-nighters, the concert-goers' friends) to ease the discomfort of the sedentary life, he decides the time has come leave his position as a housemaster in a boys' public school and seek his fortune in the metropolis. But post-First-World-War London seems to be gripped by a fever of hedonism. Gumbril is soon caught up in the delirious world of aesthetes extraordinaire Mercaptan, Casimir Lypiatt and the thoroughly civilised Myra Viveash, and finds his burning ambitions are beginning to lose their urgency... A contemporary commentator coined the word 'futilitarian' to describe the type of desultory, pleasure-seeking intellectual Huxley pinned so mercilessly to the literary map in Antic Hay. Wickedly funny and deliciously barbed, the novel epitomises the glittering neuroticism of its decade.

It has been said of Ernest Hemingway that half the writers of the twentieth century have tried to imitate him and the other half have tried not to. A towering figure in the pantheon of American letters, the leading voice of the 'lost generation', winner of the Nobel Prize for literature and a Pulitzer Prize, Hemingway is known around the world for the brilliance of his writing. The Essential Hemmingway is the perfect introduction to his astonishing, wide-ranging body of work. This impressive collection includes the full text of Fiesta, Hemingway's first major novel; long extracts from his three greatest works of fiction, A Farewell to Arms, To Have and Have Not and For Whom the Bell Tolls; twenty-five complete stories; and the breathtaking epilogue to Death in the Afternoon.

Since its launch in 1999, Darby Conley's Get Fuzzy has become one of the most popular comic strips in newspaper syndication, online, and in books. Get Fuzzy books have sold over half a million copies and topped best-seller lists — and now the lovable characters land on this delightful soft-cover journal.

Timothy Brights doesn't exactly live up to his name. Brought up to regard copious flows of money as his birthright, he can't understand why the funds have been cut off, nor why friends he recruited as Lloyds' Names no longer want to talk to him. When gambling fails, Timothy turns to embezzlement, but it's the lesser offence of helping himself to some strangely aromatic tobacco that propels him up the motorway and into bed with the Chief Constable's wife. The Chief Constable has just survived charges of bribery and perjury and is not too concerned that his efforts to dispose of Timothy involve false imprisonment, breaking and entering, and a spot of GBH. It is only when the Chief tries to frame his old adversary, the upright Miss Midden, hat things begin to go seriously wrong as his underhand ploy opens up the way to spectacular mayhem.

Now in paperback: Alice Sebold's luminous first novel — one of the most celebrated literary debuts of recent seasons — that builds out of a family's grief the most hopeful and joyful of stories.

A dictionary written to help the high-school student succeed. 100,000 entries. More than 1,000 revised illustrations. Abundant word history, synonym paragraphs, and examples sentences.

In February 1917, the centuries-old empire of the Czars collapses. Eight months later, revolutionaries under Lenin's leadership, take power. Few would have gambled on this government of inexperienced militants against a force of armed counter-revolutionaries sustained by the West. But mobilization of the people, the power of the Red Army and political police, the experience gained during the war and, not least, Lenin's skill in directing the new political economy, allow the Bolsheviks to strengthen their hold.

Decorated with Edward Gorey's unicycling puss in a rugby jersey, this little blue address book is pretty on the outside, handy on the inside, with 112 pages and space for over 400 names, home addresses, e-mail addresses, and phone numbers. The page edges are alphabetically indexed (additional cats appear within), while the smart red wire binding lets the book lie flat (or even fold back), and the thoughtful elastic band keeps the whole arrangement neatly closed. It measures about 4 x 5 inches.

These funny stories all contain favourite characters such as Posy Bates, Dilly the Dinosaur, flying dogs and dancing cows.

40 affordable projects featuring the newest bead styles and fashions. Crafters will learn basic beading and jewelry making with the help of over 250 color photographs for a wealth of ideas.

The cat's pajamas, the bee's knees, and the whole nine yards rolled into one, this true feast for wordlovers delightfully skewers commonly accepted word origin myths and etymological folk tales. The real story of a world or phrase's origin and evolution is often much stranger — and much more humorous — than the commonly accepted one; the many entries will certainly leave you happy as a clam. Happy as a clam? Really — what's so happy about being a clam? The saying makes much more sense when it's paired with its missing second half: at high water. Now a clam at high water is a safe clam, and thus a happy clam. The confusion surrounding the word kangaroo caused so much trouble that the Aborigines thought this English word meant any edible animal; they asked whether the cattle being unloaded from ships were kangaroos. From the bawdy to the sublime, Quinion's explanations and delightful asides truly prove that the proof is in the pudding.

In a particularly insightful examination of the spirituality and ethics of Middle-earth in «The Lord of the Rings,» Curry argues that Tolkien found a way to provide something close to Spirit in a secular age, and focuses on three main aspects of this monumental work of literature.

Denis Stone, a naive young poet, is invited to stay at Crome, a country house renowned for its gatherings of 'bright young things'. Crome's hosts, the world-weary Henry Wimbush and his exotic wife Pricilla are joined by a party of colourful guests whose intrigues and opinions ensure Denis' stay is a memorable one. In the course of the weekend Henry tells his guests fantastical stories from the history of the house, Mr. Barbeque-Smith invents inspirational aphorisms conceived in trances, Mary dispenses with her virginity on the roof, the local vicar prophesies the Apocolypes, the annual Crome Fair takes place and Denis tries to capture it all in poetry and has his heart broken.

A colour encyclopedia providing an authoritative overview of the Japanese garden flora.

The fifteenth novel in the bestselling Marcus Didius Falco series is a tale of corruption, informers and the Roman courts of law. Following his trip to Londinium, Falco takes up employment with Paccius Africanus and Silius Italicus, two lawyers at the top of their trade. For the trial of a senator they need Falco to make an affidavit confirming repayment of a loan. Having been out of the country, and starved of Forum gossip for some time, Falco has little interest in this, so he makes his deposition and then leaves. The prosecution is successful and a large financial judgment is made, but one month later the senator is dead, apparently by suicide. The heirs are now in a situation of not having to pay up. Silius Italicus decides to start a new prosecution and, with a little coercion, Falco joins the action. Blinded by the vision of rich pickings to be gained by a winning verdict, Falco temporarily forgets that, if they fail, the financial penalties leveled against the informers who brought the case are potentially enormous.

Henry Wilt is back. The hapless community college teacher is satirist Tom Sharpe's most famous character, introduced in the eponymous 1976 novel «Wilt» and the subsequent television film of the same name that starred Griff Rhys Jones. In this latest misadventure, Wilt's fifth, the expected impossible scenarios, outsized characters, knotty plot twists, and buckets of sexual innuendo abound.

Aglaya Stepanova Revkina is a true believer in Stalin — so much so that when Khrushchev comes to power and statues of Stalin are pulled down all over the Soviet Union, Aglaya takes the one she helped erect in her provincial town of Dolgov and installs it in her apartment as a potent totem. In this arch satire by the author of «The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin», Aglaya and her statue watch as Khrushchev relents to Brezhnev, Brezhnev relents to stagnation, and the U.S.S.R. itself dissolves away in dissent. But even the new freedom has its perils, and some wonder if Russia just needs a strong leader again.

What a swashbuckling read! A dashingly illustrated hardcover packed with facts and trivia, this comprehensive volume explains it all, in thrilling detail: who the pirates of the past really were, their countries of origin, their crews, life on their ships, navigating the high seas, their weapons and methods of attack, and much more. Read about the myths, meet some famous fictional and real-life privateers, trace their routes on maps, shiver at accounts of their fearsome progress through history, and learn about archaeological pirate ship recoveries.