I always wanted to write a book where I call the general populace a bunch of limp dicks and desiccated pussies; however, my editor refused to publish anything so honest. Luckily, I am the master of work-arounds. So, in the guise of modeling hard-dickitude and wet-pussiness, I managed to trick my editor into publishing this memoir by concealing my recriminations inside stories. Follow me as I take Kerouac's On the Road beneath a table. Oddly enough, there were nearly as many drug dealers, sexpots, and weirdoes in an "empty" room at a reception hall as there were if you had hitchhiked across America in the late 1940s. While hiding from both management and low-lifes alike, I secreted myself behind the white shroud of a skirted table. Beneath this table, I found friendship, love and a workable philosophy on how to live life. Lying prone beneath a rectangular skirted table, I learned, ironically enough, how to think outside the box. Also, I've never actually had an editor.

"Forty Modern Fables" by George Ade presents readers with a collection of contemporary fables that offer witty and insightful commentary on human behavior and society. The stories, written in a satirical and humorous style, provide modern twists on traditional fables, using animals and characters to convey moral lessons and social observations. George Ade's fables delve into a range of themes, such as ambition, greed, vanity, and the follies of human nature. Through clever storytelling and relatable scenarios, the author offers readers a lighthearted yet thought-provoking exploration of the complexities of life in the modern world. In each fable, Ade presents characters and situations that mirror real-life scenarios, often exposing the absurdities and contradictions of contemporary society. The stories encourage readers to reflect on their own actions and choices, while simultaneously entertaining them with clever wordplay and humor. "Forty Modern Fables" serves as a creative and engaging platform for readers to consider timeless moral lessons in the context of modern life. George Ade's collection invites readers to laugh, ponder, and gain insights into human behavior through the lens of these satirical and imaginative tales.

The ancient form of the animal fable, in which the characteristics of humans and animals are playfully and educationally intertwined, took on a wholly new meaning after Darwin's theory of evolution changed forever the relationship between humans and animals. In this original study, Chris Danta provides an important and original account of how the fable was adopted and re-adapted by nineteenth- and twentieth-century authors to challenge traditional views of species hierarchy. The rise of the biological sciences in the second half of the nineteenth century provided literary writers such as Robert Louis Stevenson, H. G. Wells, Franz Kafka, Angela Carter and J. M. Coetzee with new material for the fable. By interrogating the form of the fable, and through it the idea of human exceptionalism, writers asked new questions about the place of the human in relation to its biological milieu.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A stunning “portrait of the enduring grace of friendship” (NPR) about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. A masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century. NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE A Little Life follows four college classmates—broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition—as they move to New York in search of fame and fortune. While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepen over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma. A hymn to brotherly bonds and a masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century, Hanya Yanagihara’s stunning novel is about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. Look for Hanya Yanagihara’s latest bestselling novel, To Paradise.

Academy Award-winning actress, director, producer, and activist Natalie Portman retells three classic fables and imbues them with wit and wisdom in this New York Times bestselling book. From realizing that there is no “right” way to live to respecting our planet and learning what really makes someone a winner, the messages at the heart of Natalie Portman’s Fables are modern takes on timeless life lessons. Told with a playful, kid-friendly voice and perfectly paired with Janna Mattia’s charming artwork, Portman’s insightful retellings of The Tortoise and the Hare, The Three Little Pigs, and Country Mouse and City Mouse are ideal for reading aloud and are sure to become beloved additions to family libraries. An instant New York Times bestseller!

This ebook collection has been designed and formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. Novels: Under the Greenwood Tree Far from the Madding Crowd The Return of the Native The Mayor of Casterbridge The Woodlanders Tess of the d'Urbervilles Jude the Obscure A Pair of Blue Eyes The Trumpet-Major Two on a Tower The Romantic Adventures of a Milkmaid The Well-Beloved Desperate Remedies The Hand of Ethelberta A Laodicean Short Stories: Wessex Tales An Imaginative Woman The Three Strangers The Withered Arm Fellow-Townsmen Interlopers at the Knap The Distracted Preacher Life's Little Ironies The Son's Veto For Conscience' Sake A Tragedy of Two Ambitions On the Western Circuit To Please His Wife The Melancholy Hussar of the German Legion A Tradition of Eighteen Hundred and Four The Fiddler of the Reels A Few Crusted Characters Tony Kytes, the Arch-deceiver The History of the Hardcomes The Superstitious Man's Story Andrey Satchel and the Parson and Clerk Old Andrey's Experience as a Musician Absent-Mindedness in a Parish Choir The Winters and the Palmleys Incident in Mr. Crookhill's Life Netty Sargent's Copyhold A Group of Noble Dames The First Countess of Wessex Barbara of the House of Grebe The Marchioness of Stonehenge Lady Mottisfont The Lady Icenway Squire Petrick's Lady The Lady Penelope The Duchess of Hamptonshire The Honourable Laura A Changed Man and Other Tales Other Stories Drama: The Dynasts Poetry Collections: Wessex Poems and Other Verses Poems of the Past and the Present Time's Laughingstocks and Other Verses Satires of Circumstance Moments of Vision Late Lyrics and Earlier Other Works: The Dorsetshire Labourer The Rev. William Barnes, B.D. The Science of Fiction The Profitable Reading of Fiction ... Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism.

This carefully crafted ebook: "H. G. WELLS Ultimate Collection: 120+ Science Fiction Classics, Novels & Stories; Including Scientific, Political and Historical Works” is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. H. G. Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific English writer of fiction works, history and politics. Wells is called a father of science fiction. Table of Contents: A Modern Utopia Ann Veronica Bealby In the Days of the Comet The Chronic Argonauts The First Men in the Moon The Invisible Man The Island of Dr Moreau The New Machiavelli The Passionate Friends The Prophetic Trilogy The Research Magnificent The Sea Lady The Secret Places of the Heart The Soul of a Bishop The Time Machine The Undying Fire The War in the Air The War of the Worlds The World Set Free Tono-bungay When the Sleeper Wakes Collections of Short Stories Short Stories: A Catastrophe A Deal in Ostriches A Dream of Armageddon A Slip Under the Microscope A Story of the Days to Come A Story of the Stone Age A Tale of the Twentieth Century A Talk with Gryllotalpa How Gabriel Became Thompson How Pingwill Was Routed In the Abyss Le Mari Terrible Miss Winchelsea's Heart Mr. Brisher's Treasure Mr. Ledbetter's Vacation Mr. Marshall's Doppelganger Mr. Skelmersdale in Fairyland My First Aeroplane Our Little Neighbour Perfect Gentleman on Wheels Pollock and the Porroh Man The Empire of the Ants The Flying Man The Grisly Folk The Inexperienced Ghost The Land Ironclads The Lord of the Dynamos The Loyalty of Esau Common The Magic Shop The Man Who Could Work Miracles The Man with a Nose The Moth The New Accelerator The New Faust The Obliterated Man The Pearl of Love The Presence by the Fire The Purple Pileus The Rajah's Treasure The Reconciliation The Red Room The Sea Raiders The Star The Stolen Body The Story of the Last Trump The Story of the Stone Age The Temptation of Harringay The Thing in No. 7 The Thumbmark The Treasure in the Forest The Wild Asses of the Devil ...

This ebook collection has been designed and formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. Wessex Novels and Tales of Thomas Hardy are set in the south and southwest of England, in the area Hardy named "Wessex" after the medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom that existed in this part of that country prior to the unification of England by Æthelstan. These tales depict strong characters struggling against their passions and social circumstances. Wessex Novels: Under the Greenwood Tree Far from the Madding Crowd The Return of the Native The Mayor of Casterbridge The Woodlanders Tess of the d'Urbervilles Jude the Obscure A Pair of Blue Eyes The Trumpet-Major Two on a Tower The Romantic Adventures of a Milkmaid The Well-Beloved Wessex Tales: An Imaginative Woman The Three Strangers The Withered Arm Fellow-Townsmen Interlopers at the Knap The Distracted Preacher Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, especially William Wordsworth. He was highly critical of much in Victorian society, especially on the declining status of rural people in Britain, such as those from his native South West England. His most famous novels include Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Far from the Madding Crowd and Jude the Obscure.