When Sister Joan returns to London for a college reunion and learns of the murder of three of her ex-classmates, she becomes drawn into a macabre game with a killer acting upon old grudges and bent on revenge. Reprint.

The story is set in the seventeenth century, in the Duchy of Milan, then a Spanish possession in northern Italy; however, the plot is merely a pretext for the author to weave a timeless and universal tale that touches on every human feeling, passion, and behavior. In compelling fashion, love, hate, prejudice, vengeance, forgiveness, fear, courage, crime, punishment, redemption, treachery, loyalty, religion, superstition, love of country, devotion to duty, generosity, greed, art, science, politics, economics, and emigration come together in this book, making it, unquestionably, one of the giants of foreign literature. The book opens as two of Don Rodrigos toughs order the local parish priest, Father Abbondio, not to marry Lucia to Renzo--she a beautiful, honest and deeply religious country girl, he a sensible, upright and God-fearing craftsman. Don Rodrigo is an arrogant aristocrat able to impose his will on those around him thanks to an overall social structure that favors the powerful and preys on the downtrodden. He has forbidden the marriage because he has bet his cousin that he will seduce Lucia, and has set a deadline for his deed. The fearful priest obeys Don Rodrigos order, but a saintly monk, Brother Christopher, tries to dissuade him from lusting after the girl. Irritated by the friars plea, Don Rodrigo decides to kidnap Lucia, to be certain of possessing her before the expiration of the bet deadline. He fails because Lucia is not at home at the time of the attempted abduction. Trying to take advantage of a loophole in the law which allows two people to declare themselves man and wife (provided a priest is present), she and Renzo have gone to Father Abbondios residence, to force him to witness their exchange of vows. However, Father Abbondio, afraid of Don Rodrigos retribution, foils the two young peoples attempt. His screams cause his sexton to ring out the general alarm from the churchs bell tower. The fiancs, the would-be kidnappers, and the entire village are thrown in total disarray. Brother Christopher helps Lucia find safe haven in a convent, and makes arrangements for Renzo to find work in Milan, away from Don Rodrigos fury. Immediately after arriving in Milan, Renzo is, however, caught up in a bread riot sparked by a government-decreed price increase. He is framed and arrested as one of the riot ringleaders, but is able to escape to a neighboring country, where he is forced to disguise his identity. Since Don Rodrigos is not powerful enough to infiltrate Lucias place of asylum, he seeks the help of another man, "whose long arm often reached farther than his enemies eyes." Lucia is treacherously abducted and taken to this ferocious overlords castle, from where she is to be turned over to Don Rodrigo. However, the overlord has secretly been harboring serious concerns over his past crimes. Lucias plight and pleadings help precipitate his crisis of conscience. He goes to see Cardinal Federigo, who is on a pastoral visit in a nearby village, and, with the Cardinals encouragement, decides to change his way of life. Lucia is freed unharmed, but is still unable to return home because of the ever present threat from Don Rodrigo. So, she goes to live in Milan, under the protection of a powerful, well meaning, but rather eccentric couple. There, she has to wage a constant struggle with herself, because on the night of her abduction she had made a vow that she would remain a virgin if she could safely come out of that predicament. Though still deeply in love with Renzo, she is determined to keep her vow because of her strong religious faith. War, famine and pestilence further complicate the lives of the two young people but, at long last, Renzo is able to go looking for Lucia, and finds her in a hospital, recovering from the plague. Brother Christopher, who had gone to that same place to care for the diseased and the moribund, counsels Lucia on her vow, and releases her from it. Don Rodrigo dies from the plague, and the two fiancs are finally free to marry. They move to Renzos adopted country and from then on lead a comfortable and serene life, made all the more pleasant by their past suffering and their trust in God.

"Disarmingly honest, beautifully insightful. Crack open Vow and prepare to be quickly carried away by Plump's vivid prose, so-close-you-can-hear-it voice, and suspenseful storytelling skills." -- Redbook magazine

Seven essays celebrating the beauty of the imperfect marriage. We hear plenty about whether or not to get married, but much less about what it takes to stay married. Clichés around marriage—eternal bliss, domestic harmony, soul mates—leave out the real stuff. After marriage you may still want to sleep with other people. Sometimes your partner will bore the hell out of you. And when stuck paying for your spouse’s mistakes, you might miss being single. In Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give, Ada Calhoun presents an unflinching but also loving portrait of her own marriage, opening a long-overdue conversation about the institution as it truly is: not the happy ending of a love story or a relic doomed by high divorce rates, but the beginning of a challenging new chapter of which “the first twenty years are the hardest.” Calhoun’s funny, poignant personal essays explore the bedrooms of modern coupledom for a nuanced discussion of infidelity, existential anxiety, and the many other obstacles to staying together. Both realistic and openhearted, Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give offers a refreshing new way to think about marriage as a brave, tough, creative decision to stay with another person for the rest of your life. “What a burden,” Calhoun calls marriage, “and what a gift.”

Samson's Cords examines the radically different responses of John Milton, Andrew Marvell, and Samuel Butler to the existential crises caused by an explosion of loyalty oaths in Britain before and after 1660.

What does healthy intimacy look like? How we do we keep the energy and passion alive in long-term relationships? What practices can help us forgive our partner when he or she has hurt us? How can we get a new relationship off to a strong and stable start? What do we do if we feel restless in a relationship or attracted to someone outside of our partner? These are just some of the questions Zen master and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Thich Nhat Hanh has been asked by practitioners and readers alike. Deeply moved by the suffering that can be caused by these issues, he offers concrete guidance in his first ever writings on intimacy and healthy sexuality. Fidelity guides the reader to an understanding about how we can maintain our relationships; keep them fresh, and accepting and loving our partner for who they are. Fidelity gives concrete advice on how to stay attentive and nourishing of each other amidst the many responsibilities and pressures of daily life. Readers will learn how to foster open communication, dealing with anger and other strong emotions, learning to forgive, and practicing gratitude and appreciation. Fidelity is written for both couples in a committed relationship wanting to further develop a spiritual dimension in their lives together, and for those where infidelity or hurt may have occurred, and there is a need for best practices to re-weave the net of love and understanding. In addition to addressing everyday occurrences and challenges, Thich Nhat Hanh shows how traditional Buddhist teachings on attachment, deep listening, and loving speech can help energize and restore our relationships. Written in a clear and accessible style, and filled with personal stories, simple practices and exercises,Fidelity is for couples at all stage of relationships. It the guide book for anyone looking to create long-lasting and healthy intimacy.

In The Amorous Imagination, D. Andrew Yost builds upon Jean-Luc Marion's phenomenology of love to argue that through the interpretive activities of the imagination the Beloved appears to the lover as this Other, not the Other. Weaving together insights from Romantic thought and contemporary French philosophy, Yost describes the distinctive role the imagination plays in individuating another person so that they appear radically unique, special, and unsubstitutable. This radical uniqueness—or haecceitas—emerges out of the lovers' engagement in an "endless hermeneutic," an ongoing process of creative and responsive meaning-making that grounds the lovers' lives in each other and opens them up to new possibilities. All of this, Yost argues, is made possible by the amorous imagination. Drawing from the deep well of love poetry, mythology, philosophy, and literature The Amorous Imagination comes to the provocative conclusion that without the productive power of the imagination love itself could not emerge.

This remarkable, innovative book explores the significance in Shakespeare's plays of oaths, vows, contracts, pledges, and the other utterances and acts by which characters commit themselves to the truth of things past, present, and to come. In early modern England, such binding language was everywhere. Oaths of office, marriage vows, legal bonds, and casual, everyday profanity gave shape and texture to life. The proper use of such language, and the extent of its power to bind, was argued over by lawyers, religious writers, and satirists, and these debates inform literature and drama. Shakespeare's Binding Language gives a freshly researched account of these contexts, but it is focused on Shakespeare's plays. What motives should we look for when characters asseverate or promise? How far is binding language self-persuasive or deceptive? When is it allowable to break a vow? How do oaths and promises structure an audience's expectations? Across the sweep of Shakespeare's career, from the early histories to the late romances, this book opens new perspectives on key dramatic moments and illuminates language and action. Each chapter gives an account of a play or group of plays, yet the study builds to a sustained investigation of some of the most important systems, institutions, and controversies in early modern England, and of the wiring of Shakespearean dramaturgy. Scholarly but accessible, and offering startling insights, this is a major contribution to Shakespeare studies by one of the leading figures in the field.