Over two thousand years ago, the sacred Ark of the Covenant mysteriously disappeared without a trace- prophesized to return to the people and be opened at some undisclosed date; symbolizing that the coming of the messiah is near. That time has now passed. Is the prophecy about to be fulfilled? If so, why is the Ark still missing? What will happen if the Ark is found and opened? More importantly, who among us in the modern day world, has God chosen to open it? Consider if you will, what you would do if Jesus, flanked by twelve great masters, mysteriously appeared before you, relaying that you were responsible for guarding and mastering the keys to the Ark of the Covenant? Armed with the knowledge that humanitys fate depended on their awareness that the prophecy was about to be fulfilled, would you have the courage to tell them why you were here? What if no one believed you? Every few hundred years or so, a messiah, messenger, or sage is sent to walk among the masses; assigned to fulfill a sacred mission that will alter the course of humanity forever. This time, a team was sent in to open the most sought after historical biblical artifact the world has ever known- the Ark of the Covenant! The Master Key Keepers and the Doppelganger is a compelling true story of one familys journey as they experience magic and miracles beyond their wildest imaginations! Find out how their mission will affect your future in this amazing book filled with page turning adventures! The time is much closer than you may think!

Satan, Judas, a Soviet writer, and a talking black cat named Behemoth populate this satire, “a classic of twentieth-century fiction” (The New York Times). In 1930s Moscow, Satan decides to pay the good people of the Soviet Union a visit. In old Jerusalem, the fateful meeting of Pilate and Yeshua and the murder of Judas in the garden of Gethsemane unfold. At the intersection of fantasy and realism, satire and unflinching emotional truths, Mikhail Bulgakov’s classic The Master and Margarita eloquently lampoons every aspect of Soviet life under Stalin’s regime, from politics to art to religion, while interrogating the complexities between good and evil, innocence and guilt, and freedom and oppression. Spanning from Moscow to Biblical Jerusalem, a vibrant cast of characters—a “magician” who is actually the devil in disguise, a giant cat, a witch, a fanged assassin—sow mayhem and madness wherever they go, mocking artists, intellectuals, and politicians alike. In and out of the fray weaves a man known only as the Master, a writer demoralized by government censorship, and his mysterious lover, Margarita. Burned in 1928 by the author and restarted in 1930, The Master and Margarita was Bulgakov’s last completed creative work before his death. It remained unpublished until 1966—and went on to become one of the most well-regarded works of Russian literature of the twentieth century, adapted or referenced in film, television, radio, comic strips, theater productions, music, and opera.

"In The Age of Magic, Anything is Possible." What would the Age of Magic be without the Arabian Nights? Aladdin and his magic lamp; Ali Baba and the 40 thieves; genies and djinns and ifrits, oh my! Flying carpets, desert palm trees, and harems filled with voluptuous women. That Moorish architecture, and oh the clothes: turbans, fezzes, and curled pointy shoes. Belly dancers, and the Dance of the Seven Veils. The bazaar and the café. The magical city of Baghdad, with its spires, keyhole arches, and minarets glittering more brightly than the Emerald City of Oz. And then there's vampire Sharon Mordecai, a prominent character in every Halos & Horns novel since the first book but noticeably absent in the previous installment, the ninth book in the series. Where was Sharon? All we were told was that she was on a case with her spectral private investigator partner Kara Islington. Readers got a clue at the very end of the previous book when Ursula Fenris, teenage daughter of Sharon's BFF Pandora, was polishing an oil lamp she had been given by the mysterious proprietor of an even more mysterious curio shop. Kara's ghostly form wafted from the lamp's spout with the dire message that she and Sharon had been captured by a djinn. But how on Earth did they end up in such a predicament?

All three novels in The Age of Magic story arc - Alterverse; Warriors & Wizards; and Return of the Djinn are collected in one huge omnibus edition. A perfect companion to the Halos & Horns Omnibus and the Fangs & Fur Omnibus, this volume is 7x10 like its predecessors and features brand new cover artwork and an interview with the author. Clocking in at 586 pages, The Age of Magic Omnibus contains the complete third story arc in the Halo & Horns fantasy saga.

Ever since its literary coinage in Jean Paul's novel, Siebenkäs (1796), the concept of Doppelgänger has had significant influence upon representations of the self in German literature. This study charts the development of the double from its origins in the Romantic period, through its more marginal - but nonetheless significant - manifestations in the post-Romantic culture, to its revival at the fin-de-siècle and transfer to the silent screen. The book features an introduction to the practice and theory underlying the use of the Doppelgänger, with particular reference to psychoanalysis, followed by chapters on Jean Paul, Hoffmann, Kleist, poetic realism (Droste-Hülshoff, Keller, Storm) and modernism (Kafka, Rilke, Hoffmannsthal, Schnitzler, Meyrink, Werfal). This study shows that the often underestimated figure of the double may provide a key to the epistomological, aesthetic and psychosexual structures of the texts it visits and revisits, with a particular focus on its effects in the fields of vision and language.

In this rousingly good ghost story, Setterfield's debut novel rejuvenates the genre with a closely plotted, clever foray into a world of secrets, confused identities, lies, and half-truths.

Once upon a time all literature was fantasy, set in a mythical past when magic existed, animals talked, and the gods took an active hand in earthly affairs. As the mythical past was displaced in Western estimation by the historical past and novelists became increasingly preoccupied with the present, fantasy was temporarily marginalized until the late 20th century, when it enjoyed a spectacular resurgence in every stratum of the literary marketplace. Stableford provides an invaluable guide to this sequence of events and to the current state of the field. The chronology tracks the evolution of fantasy from the origins of literature to the 21st century. The introduction explains the nature of the impulses creating and shaping fantasy literature, the problems of its definition and the reasons for its changing historical fortunes. The dictionary includes cross-referenced entries on more than 700 authors, ranging across the entire historical spectrum, while more than 200 other entries describe the fantasy subgenres, key images in fantasy literature, technical terms used in fantasy criticism, and the intimately convoluted relationship between literary fantasies, scholarly fantasies, and lifestyle fantasies. The book concludes with an extensive bibliography that ranges from general textbooks and specialized accounts of the history and scholarship of fantasy literature, through bibliographies and accounts of the fantasy literature of different nations, to individual author studies and useful websites.

Thirty-five years in the making, and destined to be the last word in fanta-film references! This incredible 1,017-page resource provides vital credits on over 9,000 films (1896-1999) of horror, fantasy, mystery, science fiction, heavy melodrama, and film noir. Comprehensive cast lists include: directors, writers, cinematographers, and composers. Also includes plot synopses, critiques, re-title/translation information, running times, photographs, and several cross-referenced indexes (by artist, year, song, etc.). Paperback.

Preliminary Material -- Introduction -- Defining Gothic-postmodernism -- On Gothic Terror -- Generic Investigations: What is 'Gothic'? -- Postmodernism -- The Gothic and Postmodernism - At the Interface -- Gothic Literary Transformations: The Fin de Siecle and Modernism -- Introduction to Part II -- The Gothic-postmodernist Novel: Three Models -- Gothic Metafiction: The Satanic Verses -- Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita -- Textual Terrors of the Self: Haunting and Hyperreality in Lunar Park -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index.

Age and aging are pressing social-political issues. Yet, philosophers still have not paid sufficient attention to one of the major explorations of this topic, Simone de Beauvoir’s seminal work The Coming of Age (1970). For much too long, it has been overshadowed by her other groundbreaking work, The Second Sex (1949). Now, for the first time, this volume focuses on Beauvoir's essay on old age and critically explores its significance from a phenomenological and feminist perspective. International Beauvoir scholars and renowned feminist phenomenologists from Europe and North America offer a unique look at one of the 20th century’s most outstanding existential-philosophical studies on age and aging. Thematically, the articles and short comments collected in this volume cover three main issues which are crucial with respect to an investigation of Beauvoir's study on age: gender, ethics, and time. The volume essentially contributes to Beauvoir studies, aging studies, cultural and gender studies, feminist theory, phenomenology, and existential philosophy.