This eBook has been formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. The Trilogy of Desire is the saga of rise and fall of Frank Algernon Cowperwood through an unscrupulous, self-centered quest for power and wealth. "The Financier" – In Philadelphia, Frank Cowperwood, whose father is a banker, makes his first money passing by an auction sale, he successfully bids for seven cases of Castile soap, which he sells to a grocer the same day with a profit of over 70 percent. Frank marries an affluent widow, in spite of his young age, and starts moving up the financial ladder, misusing municipal funds with the aid of the City Treasurer. In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire redounds to a stock market crash, prompting him to be bankrupt and exposed. "The Titan" – Sometime after being released from prison, Frank invests in stocks subsequent to the Panic of 1873, and becomes a millionaire again. He decides to move out of Philadelphia and start a new life in the West. He moves to Chicago with his mistress Aileen and his attorney is finally able to persuade his first wife to agree to a divorce. Frank decides to take over the street-railway system. He bankrupts several opponents with the help of political allies. Meanwhile, Chicago society finds out about his past in Philadelphia and they turn on him. After being unfaithful many times Aileen eventually loses faith in him and Frank meets young Berenice Fleming. "The Stoic" is the conclusion of the Trilogy of Desire. Cowperwood, still married to his estranged wife Aileen, lives with Berenice. He decides to move to London, England, where he intends to take over and develop the underground railway system. Berenice becomes close to Earl Stane, while Frank has an affair with Lorna Maris, a relative of his. Meanwhile, he tries to fix Aileen up with Tollifer, but she becomes enraged when she finds out it was a ruse.

A new generation continues the saga of Steve and Ginny.

To desire something is a condition familiar to everyone. It is uncontroversial that desiring has something to do with motivation, something to do with pleasure, and something to do with reward. Call these "the three faces of desire." The standard philosophical theory at present holds that the motivational face of desire presents its unique essence--to desire a state of affairs is to be disposed to act so as to bring it about. A familiar but less standard account holds the hedonic face of desire to reveal to true nature of desire. In this view, to desire something is to tend to pleasure if it seems that the desired state of affairs has been achieved, or displeasure if it seems otherwise, thus tying desire to feelings instead of actions. In Three Faces of Desire, Schroeder goes beyond actions and feelings to advance a novel and controversial theory of desire that puts the focus on desire's neglected face, reward. Informed by contemporary science as much as by the philosophical tradition, Three Faces of Desire discusses recent scientific discoveries that tell us much about the way that actions and feelings are produced in the brain. In particular, recent experiments reveal that a distinctive system is responsible for promoting action, on the one hand, and causing feelings of pleasure and displeasure, on the other. This system, the brain's reward system, is the causal origin of both action and feeling, and is the key to understanding the nature of desire.

"There is nothing more alienating than having your pleasures disputed by someone with a theory," writes Lauren Berlant. Yet the ways in which we live sexuality and intimacy have been profoundly shaped by theories - especially psychoanalytic ones, which have helped to place sexuality and desire at the center of the modern story about what a person is and how her history should be read. At the same time, other modes of explanation have been offered by popular and mass culture. In these domains, sexual desire is not deemed the core story of life; it is mixed up with romance, a particular version of the story of love. In this small theoretical novella-cum-dictionary entry, Lauren Berlant engages love and desire in separate entries. In the first entry, Desire mainly describes the feeling one person has for something else: it is organized by psychoanalytic accounts of attachment, and tells briefly the history of their importance in critical theory and practice. The second entry, on Love, begins with an excursion into fantasy, moving away from the parent-child structure so central to psychoanalysis and looking instead at the centrality of context, environment, and history. The entry on Love describes some workings of romance across personal life and commodity culture, the place where subjects start to think about fantasy on behalf of their actual lives. Whether viewed psychoanalytically, institutionally, or ideologically, love is deemed always an outcome of fantasy. Without fantasy, there would be no love. Desire/Love takes us on a tour of all of the things that sentence might mean.

³There was little danger of encountering the Bennet sisters ever again.² Jane Austen's classic novel Pride and Prejudice is beloved by millions, but little is revealed in the book about the mysterious and handsome hero, Mr. Darcy. And so the question has long remained: Who is Fitzwilliam Darcy? Pamela Aidan's trilogy finally answers that long-standing question, creating a rich parallel story that follows Darcy as he meets and falls in love with Elizabeth Bennet. Duty and Desire, the second book in the trilogy, covers the "silent time" of Austen's novel, revealing Darcy's private struggle to overcome his attraction to Elizabeth while fulfilling his roles as landlord, master, brother, and friend. When Darcy pays a visit to an old classmate in Oxford in an attempt to shake Elizabeth from his mind, he is set upon by husband-hunting society ladies and ne'er-do-well friends from his university days, all with designs on him -- some for good and some for ill. He and his sartorial genius of a valet, Fletcher, must match wits with them all, but especially with the curious Lady Sylvanie. Irresistibly authentic and entertaining, Duty and Desire remains true to the spirit and events of Pride and Prejudice while incorporating fascinating new characters, and is sure to dazzle Austen fans and newcomers alike.

On her eighteenth birthday, Sasha Pierce's perfect life tragically comes crashing down. Now, working at a Strip Club in New York City, her only focus is surviving from one day to the next - at least until a handsome stranger makes her an offer that she can't refuse. Everything about Jaxon Edwards draws her in. His charm, his mystery, and especially his simple request; to accompany him to his sister's wedding as his fake fiance and to live with him for six months in exchange for more money than Sasha could ever imagine. But, to top it all off, he also offers her a glimpse into a dark, secret lifestyle unlike anything she's ever experienced.

The Titan is a novel by Theodore Dreiser and the sequel to The Financier. Frank Cowperwood has moved to Chicago with new wife Aileen. His plan is to take over the street-railway system in the process bankrupting opponents with political allies. The Titan follows Cowperwood through the trials of realizing his dream, marital upheavals and social banishment. Theodore Dreiser was an American novelist and journalist who the naturalist school and is known for portraying characters whose value lies not in their moral code, but in their persistence against all obstacles, and literary situations that more closely resemble studies of nature than tales of choice and agency.

The second volume of the highly acclaimed Cairo Trilogy from the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Filled with compelling drama, earthy humor, and remarkable insight, Palace Of Desire is the unforgettable story of the violent clash between ideals and realities, dreams and desires.

Set in 19th century Philadelphia and based on the life of flamboyant financier C.T. Yerkes, Dreiser's portrayal of the unscrupulous magnate Frank Cowperwood embodies the idea that behind every great fortune there is a crime. In Philly the protagonist is eventually imprisoned for embezzlement of public funds. He later leaves prison, departs for Chicago, makes another fortune, and becomes involved in still further shaddy practices. You don't read Dreiser for literary finesse, but his great intensity and keen journalistic eye give this portrait a powerful reality. The author wrote two subsequent novels based on the life of Yerkes: "The Titan" and "The Stoic." --Amazon.com.

Book hunter buys 500 year-old homoerotic manuscript. The only problem is, the vampire who wrote it wants it back