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These are notes on the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1937, in which Orwell took part. The notes consist, as it were, of two parts: the story of an eyewitness participant and an analytical analysis. The author shows the war in an unusual perspective. There is no heroism in it, no clear goal and ideological orientation. Orwell describes in detail the natural benevolence of the Spaniards, their tolerance for dissent, generosity and, at the same time, practicality, monstrous lack of ...

„Stracone złudzenia” to powieść Honoriusza Balzaca z cyklu „Komedia ludzka”. Opowiada ona o losach dwóch bohaterów: młodego, prowincjonalnego poety Lucjana Chardona de Rubempré, który wyjeżdża do Paryża, aby zrobić tam karierę dziennikarską, oraz Dawida Secharda, prowadzącego drukarnię. Obaj żyją w świecie ideałów, ale ich wielkie marzenia zostają skonfrontowane z bezwzględnym i obłudnym światem mieszczańskim.

This story is about a girl whose family has lost everything. Despite his young age, Agnes makes an important decision for himself and his family to go to work as a governess. Those close, at first discouraging a young girl, but understanding her resolve, do not resist her impulse. The work of a governess is not an easy job, Agnes Gray on her way gets acquainted with the life, traditions and way of life of different families. Her students are not always obedient and diligent, ...

The tragic story of a young burgher, who could not find an answer to his feelings and rejected by society, was instantly translated into other languages and gave rise to a series of sequels and imitations – the so-called Verterian. Over time, „Werther, the rebellious martyr” became one of the „eternal images” of world literature and introduced the sociopsychological phenomenon of „verterism” into European culture, associated with the melancholic mentality and the problem of s...

This volume includes two novels, „The Shadow of a Great Man” and „The Tragedy with Corosco,” as well as historical stories. The Romans, who conquered Britain several hundred years ago, received orders to return to their homeland, besieged by barbarian troops. And at that moment a British deputation came to the Roman governor to ask for self-government.

The book contains several topics: the relationship between a man and a woman before marriage, the betrayal of loved ones and their forgiveness, fathers and children. As the life stories of two women are almost the same, as Ivan tried to prevent the same end for Natasha. The breaking lives of good people because of unclean ones on hand.

In the book „The Double” Dostoevsky appears before the reader as a writer with an inimitable sense of humor. The author shows an extraordinary skill in describing comic episodes from life and makes the reader cheerfully laugh at the shortcomings of his characters and the comic nature of the situations. Before the reader St. Petersburg streets of the XIX century come to life, he will get acquainted with the mores of the inhabitants of St. Petersburg.

The protagonist in the novel is a young man of 19, Arkady Dolgoruky, the illegitimate son of the landowner Versilov and the peasant woman Sophia. From childhood, he almost did not see his parents. He was sent to a special institution for rich children, where he was always humiliated and called, a footman. And after graduating from school he receives a letter from his father, in which he calls Arkady to St. Petersburg, where the main events of the novel take place with him....

This is a story of less than 100 pages, but in it Conrad demonstrates how many great writers do it, the simple and elegant power of short work. Here, a writer can briefly convey a compelling message in an economic way. The situation is in the southern seas, and we see that our narrator takes his first command near the Gulf of Thailand. A strange young captain finds refuge and harbors another man, and they make a strange friendship.

This is both mystery and romance; the latter creates one of the recurring difficulties in Conrad: it preserves the Victorian histrionic element, which sometimes may seem a little attractive. But overall, it is well read and much less burdensome than some of his novels. The Rover was Conrad’s last book and probably one of his most accessible stories.

This is both mystery and romance; the latter creates one of the recurring difficulties in Conrad: it preserves the Victorian histrionic element, which sometimes may seem a little attractive. But overall, it is well read and much less burdensome than some of his novels.

Since this is not a very famous story, and most of the pleasure that it provides depends on the surprise that the highlight in the story will present to the reader. Winston Bunter, who registered as First Mate on Sapphire, a ship bound for Calcutta. His commander, Captain Jones, is described as an extremely unpleasant person, incredulous and capricious, who believes that sailors over forty are no longer suitable, and he always talks about ghosts and ways to contact them. Desp...

Prince Roman is a Pole who relinquishes his comfortable position in the aristocracy to fight as an unknown soldier, resisting Russian oppression. In captivity, he has every opportunity to avoid punishment, but he declares his unconditional commitment to the liberation of Poland. As a result, he suffers a quarter century in the imperial equivalent of the Gulag – Siberian mines in the ninth century, before returning to live in modest conditions in what should have been his own ...

This book is a collection of some of Konrad’s reviews and writings. The collection is divided into two parts, primarily the sections „Letters”, its reviews. The second section is called Life, but this is only true in a limited sense. It contains Conrad’s views on some of the pressing political issues of the day. They range from the Russo-Japanese War and the question of the independence of Poland to the death of the Titanic.

This is an exciting saga located in the Indian Ocean basin, against the stormy backdrop of barely suppressed military operations between the Dutch and British merchant fleets, told by one of Conrad’s classic passages. After all, Freya’s unique perspective on the sharply etched nature is one of Conrad’s most piercing studies of how power hunger can lead people to greatness – or its opposite.

The tale begins, like many books about Konrad, with a group of travelers gathered together and exchanging maritime stories. Falk is subtle and minimalistic, and perhaps only the writer of the great Conrad can still do this; a calm, introspective story, which, however, is worth reading. This is a charming romantic tale in which Conrad’s usual gloomy, psychological fabrications, but evocative, but truly pedestrian story of a Marine... with a dark, primitive twist.

Doctor Kildare approached just in time to hear Meg say to the officer, „"I heard a shot outside my apartment, then a crash. When I ran out, this man was lying on the landing... „” „"Whiskey Sour"” (1938) is a Doctor Kildare story that continues the depiction of a „"gangster"” atmosphere surrounding the young doctor as he cared for East Side streets toughs and local political bosses while defying his hospital superiors. Max Brand (1892-1944) is the best-known pen name of widel...

You don’t get a much more evocative opening than that for a Western novella called „Werewolf”, and the story lives up to both its title and that opening in ways you won’t expect from Max Brand who did write some fantastic fiction. On that bitter night Chris Royal walks into Yates Saloon to escape the storm where Cliff Main, gun happy brother of killer Harry Main, is looking for trouble over a girl both like. Words are exchanged, and there is the smell of cordite in the air. C...

Les Burchard owned the local gambling palace, half the town, and most of the surrounding territory, and Walt Devon’s thousand-acre ranch would make him king of the land. The trouble was, Devon didn’t want to sell. In a ruthless bid to claim the spread, Burchard tried everything from poker to murder. But Walt Devon was a betting man by nature, even when the stakes were his life. The way Devon figured, the odds were stacked against him. So he could either die alone... or takes ...

If you like classic animal stories you will like this one for sure. Tucker Crosden bred his dogs to be champions. Yet even by frontiersman’s brutal standards, bull terrier White Wolf was special. Tucker had great plans for the dog until it gave in to the blood-hungry laws of nature. He never thought that his prize animal would run at the head of a wolf pack one day and to be a leader among wolves in the San Jacinto Mountains or that a trick of fate would throw them together i...

Staying alive is worth a thousand dollars a day to Oliver Wilton. That’s what he’s paying Lew Sherry and Pete Long as hired guns to keep him healthy. And after riding the range, the money looks more than just a little inviting. But before Sherry and Long can pocket their first wages, Wilton is murdered. And town men were never so sad to see their boss take a bullet in the brain as Sherry and Long. Soon the pair are riding a vengeance trail – out to catch the low-down killer w...

An exciting saga of danger, adventure, and romance on the Western frontier. Bill Lancaster was a dangerous man that no one dared mess with. He was fast with a gun, deadly with his fists, and a bully who never let you forget who was tougher. Young Dan Cadigan however refused to be pushed. Mistaken for a quiet weakling, no one expected him to stand up to Bill Lancaster. Fighting him with his fists he made Lancaster realize that someone was tougher than he was. Desperate he used...

He was smiling continually, with such an air of removal above the concerns of ordinary mortals, with such an upward lifting of the head, that his fellows in the boat had called him, from the first day of labor and thirst, „The Saint.” This novelette filled with excitement, suspense, good guys and bad, and plot twists aplenty! Brand is a masterful story teller, slowly revealing his main characters’ unique idiosyncrasies, strengths and weaknesses that make them both human and a...

Accused, tried, and convicted of robbery and murder that he did not commit, Jim Seton rotted in jail for five long years. Although the townspeople said he was lucky not to hang, that wasn’t how Jim saw it. He didn’t take kindly to being railroaded. Now he was free and ready. He was an innocent man who’d been sent to hell, and he was ready, willing, and able to return the favor. „The Return of the Rancher „ is a classical western excitement at its very best by a master of the ...

Young Larry Lynmouth had been the most fabulous outlaw of them all. Now he was determined to go straight. But going straight wasn’t that easy-not with ugly leeches like Jay Cress around, who couldn’t believe any man was fool enough to be honest. Renowned Western writer Max Brand does it again in the eminently enjoyable novel „The Outlaw”. Packed with enough action, twists and turns to please even the most die-hard fans of the genre, the novel also addresses a wide range of im...

A good classic western by Max Brand (Frederick Faust) about the famous outlaw King Bird. The King Bird, a young, reckless and mystery bandit, whose definition of happiness is freedom, the best horse, a wonderful girl, faces difficult choices when he attempts to save an old friend’s runaway daughter from a dangerous gang of robbers. „The King Bird Rides” is a fast moving, exciting, plenty of gun play and adventure. Max Brand’s action-filled stories of adventure and heroism in ...

One of the most prolific writers of all time, he wrote more than 500 novels and nearly 15 million words under the pen name of Max Brand and seventeen others. Alongside Zane Grey, the western section of any bookstore is usually packed with Max Brand titles. „The Jackson Trail” is another outstanding western that demands your attention. In it, Jesse Jackson is riding where the law feared to go... Packed with enough action and interesting twists to please even the most die-hard ...

Superstar pulpsmith Max Brand was best known for his Westerns, but his historical adventures rank among the best stories he ever wrote. He wrote somewhere around 12 or 13 historical swashbucklers not including the seven Tizzo stories. The complete tales of Tizzo the Firebrand contains the 7 stories. „The Great Betrayal” is one of it. The series is set in early 16th Century Italy. Luigi Falcone had taken in red haired street urchin Tizzo outside of the city of Perugia. Raised ...

His name was Jim Silver, but they called him Silvertip. Jim Silver, the man with tufts of silver hair over each temple, the man who sometimes looked like a horned devil in the moonlight, hungered for action as most men hunger for food. And he found plenty when bank robber Jim Lovell sought his protection – because, unknown to Silvertip, Lovell was packing a half-million dollars in stolen cash along with his Winchester. And the men he’d double-crossed had shot their way out of...

„The Face and the Doctor” is another short story by Frederick Schiller Faust (1892-1944) who was an American author known primarily for his thoughtful and literary westerns under the pen name Max Brand. This story filled with excitement, suspense, good guys and bad, and plot twists aplenty! Orphaned at an early age, Faust studied at the University of California, Berkeley. He became one of the most prolific writers of our time but abandoned writing at age fifty-one to become a...

Something natural or supernatural enters the soul of Andrew Creel, a commonplace and disaffected young man, and drives him into a swift game where death is a probability on the one side and love only a possibility on the other. Creel plays it to the end: an end unlike the end that seemed so sure when dusk fell on the garden of that charming mansion with its sinister residents who have taken up residence in the title’s Windon Manor after a bank failure wiped out their fortunes...

One of the greatest western authors of all time, superstar pulpsmith Max Brand, the pen name of Frederick Faust, was an incredibly proficient author who wrote many books, stories, and even poetry. Also, he wrote somewhere around 12 or 13 historical swashbucklers not including the seven Tizzo stories. Faust spent time in Italy every year and soaked up the atmosphere and history. The Tizzo stories came out of his Italian sojourn. The complete tales of Tizzo contains the followi...

One of the greatest western authors of all time, superstar pulpsmith Max Brand, the pen name of Frederick Faust, was an incredibly proficient author who wrote many books, stories, and even poetry. His Westerns were always different, with complex plots and characters, and uncertain endings... But his historical adventures rank among the best stories he ever wrote. These seven stories of 16th Century Italian Renaissance swashbuckling swordsman Tizzo are tightly-plotted, action-...

A collection of three short exciting stories by Max Brand aka Federick Faust. Brand has been labeled „one of the top three Western novelists of all time” so western fans will be in for a treat. It includes „The Flaming Rider”, „Outlaw Buster” and „Sun and Sand”. Three western stories about men who appear to be lacking the intelligence and skills to survive on the frontier but are able to achieve success where others had failed. „Sun and Sand” is the story of a youth known onl...

Max Brand (Frederick Schiller Faust) is one of the greatest early Western writers who has been labeled „one of the top three Western novelists of all time” and „Speedy’s Bargain” is one of 9 „Speedy” stories that have seen print in various collections. „Speedy’s Bargain” features „Speedy,” Brand’s atypical western man of action who carries no gun and relies on his wits and psychological insights to stop crooks in their tracks. In it, an outlaw holds a family at gunpoint, thre...

They called him Speedy because he could outsmart bankers, outfox barkeeps, and outwit bounty hunters faster than any man alive. He arrived on an iron horse. The day he rode into Durfee, he was more than ready to use his skills to make a killing. To Speedy, Durfee didn’t look any different from a hundred other towns he’d seen before. There were fat bankers waiting for his smooth talk, and lovely young ladies ready to swoon over his smile and his guitar playing. But this time t...

Another Sleeper story, featuring Sleeper, a gunslinger turned horse-thief, from the collection „More Tales of the Wild West”. Six action-packed stories of the Old West, filled with unforgettable characters, includes „A Lucky Dog,” in which man’s best friend helps a would-be killer and thief find salvation, along with „A First Blooding,” „Inverness,” (aka „Sleeper Turns Horse-Thief”) and „Death in Alkali Flat.” In this story Sleeper is hired to break a horse and turns horse-th...

Renowned Western writer Max Brand does it again in the eminently enjoyable novel „Six Golden Angels”. Max Brand’s action-filled stories of adventure and heroism in the American West continue to entertain readers throughout the world. Brand penned over 200 full-length Westerns in his career, including „Destry Rides Again” and „Montana Rides Again”. But in this work, we see Brand in a new role. A familiar situation in the story of the murder of a millionaire which is dismissed ...

Another great tale by Frederick Schiller Faust who was an American author known primarily for his thoughtful and literary westerns under the pen name Max Brand! The Kid was a lawman’s worst nightmare. A fearsome gun-for-hire, he was a legend written in blood and carved in the tombstones of the men he killed. But this time he was facing an old enemy from his twisted past – a man who had survived his bullet and lived for vengeance. This story filled with excitement, suspense, g...

The name Max Brand is synonymous with great adventure and quality. Good men gone bad fill the pages of this Western trio, with stories of outlaws, horse thieves and a rowdy ranch hand who turns to stage robbery. This book contains three short novelettes: „The Nighthawk Trail”, „Vamp’s Bandit” and the title story, „Rifle Pass”. In „Rifle Pass”, ageing Sheriff Thomas Weller has one major problem: his son Dick Weller. Dick cannot seem to apply himself to anything. In a desperate...

This collection includes three short novels from „one of the top three Western novelists of all time” Max Brand (Frederick Faust). The stories here are character studies of outlaws, the lives they lead and the lies and myths that spring up about them. The title novel, „Peter Blue”, is an excellent character study. Blue, wounded in a gunfight, has lost the use of his gun hand and is desperately trying to learn to shoot with his left hand before his enemies realize how vulnerab...

No matter what name Frederick Schiller Faust was writing under, it’s sure to be a tightly written action packed book and „Outlaw’s Code” is no exception. Lawrence Grey is called El Diablo – the devil – though he’s fair-haired and has a boyish grin. But no jail can hold him, and some swear that he is the fastest gun alive. Yet everyone has Grey pegged as a goner when he agrees to ride to Mexico to track down Johnny Ray, a man who has been missing for fifteen years. There’s a r...

This great book by Max Brand tells the story of honest, hard working Phil Slader, the son of a notorious murdering outlaw, who had sworn not to follow the footsteps of his father, a feared and hated gunman. Phil was adopted by the man who put a bullet in his father’s heart. Watched and expected every day to explode into the lawless ways of his father, young Phil patiently waits to come of age to leave the servitude of his father’s killer and find the truth of his death. Could...

After ten years of wandering, during which he has lived the life of a gambler and learned the ways of devious men, Tom Keene returns home, only to find his father alone and dying. Old John Keene’s sole legacy to his son is a Bible, so with his father’s passing, Tom renounces his selfish, worthless past and sets out to preach to others that the greatest happiness is born of trust in one another. But Tom Keene’s good intentions are about to cost him more than he knows... Tom is...

Max Brand is generally regarded as the author of superior westerns like his „Destry Rides Again”, but Brand also wrote the „Dr. Kildare” series and numerous detective stories as well. Never before published in book form, this 1937 police procedural by veteran Brand introduces New York police detectives Campbell and O’Rourke. The pair investigate the apparent suicide of a philanthropist David Barry who was about to be accused of bribery and corruption prior to his death. Angus...

First published in 1932, „Lucky Larribee” is another great read by Max Brand. Alfred Larribee likes drinking, not working. He likes gambling, too. Maybe that’s what drives him to risk his easy-going life for Sky Blue, the horse of a lifetime. When he first goes after this wild and magnificent animal, he knows about the back shooters. But no one tells him about the Indians... they play for keeps. How safe is this bet? Neatly plotted and briskly told, it illustrates Brand’s rem...

„Larramee’s Ranch” is another great and entertaining Max Brand novel! This is quite a change of pace for Max Brand. His hero Tom Holden is a bookish young man with a bad leg, no money, and no experience with firearms. When he sets out to make his fortune, he has no real prospects but through a series of bluffs he outwits a killer, faces down a town bully, makes a considerable bundle of money for himself. Then he announces he will marry Alexa Larrame, the beautiful blue-eyed d...

One of many recommended westerns by this prolific author. Frederick Schiller Faust (May 29, 1892 – May 12, 1944) was an American author known primarily for his thoughtful and literary westerns under the pen name Max Brand. In this short story told in the first person, Leon Porfilo, an outlaw of poor beginnings and lowly ancestry, goes up against Jeffrey Dinsmore, a gentleman outlaw born of the privileged class, in an attempt to clear his name and gain a pardon. In „His Fight ...

„Bad News for Bad Men” is an excellent classic story by the incomparable Max Brand (Frederick Faust). Great read with Max’s leading off to unexpected places with characters you come to know personally. Max leads the reader to characters bigger than life, they come to life as people we wish we knew personally. People who deal with life by taking an active part instead of just observing as it passes by. Brand along with Zane Grey and Louis L’Amour form the holy trinity of weste...

If you enjoy a fast moving western dealing with vengeance and well-deserved payback, you’ll like „Happy Jack” (1936) by Max Brand. One bullet was all it took to change Jack Anderson from a carefree boy into a hunted man. The plot is well constructed with well drawn subsidiary characters and provides a number of interesting twists and turns. The journey is the entertaining part. Highly recommended, especially for those who love the Old Western genre. No pulp writer was more pr...

Lucky Bill has the reputation of a natural battler, but he is not a cold-blooded killer. Then Bill finds himself on the wrong side of the law when he is accused of a crime he did not commit, and plenty of greenhorns and gringos set their sights on collecting the price on his head. He’s wanted by every tin star in the West and by every greedy gunslinger out for the price they can get for his no-good corpse. But Bill refuses to turn tail and run. Renowned Old West gunslinger Bi...

A power more than human, a will to absolute evil – such was he. All who had tried to save her from him perished... Must her true love also die? Max Brand, the pen name of Frederick Faust, was an incredibly proficient author who wrote many books, stories, and even poetry. Brand is generally regarded as the author of superior Westerns like his „Destry Rides Again”, but Brand also wrote the „Dr. Kildare” series, numerous detective stories and fantastic novels as well. His Wester...

After 8 years in prison for murder, Jimmy Geary returns to his town Yellow Creek, and his past, and an ambush. Jimmy was very happy to see town again. But there are three men who aren’t happy to see Jimmy Geary return, and they conspire to make his stay this time very short... Neatly plotted and briskly told, it illustrates Max Brand’s remarkable gift for storytelling. One of the greatest western authors of all time, Frederick Faust wrote under sixteen different pseudonyms, i...

Another great Western by Max Brand aka Frederick Faust, Clung is one his most memorable and intriguing characters. As a Western author, Brand did not shrink from controversial topics such as race relations in the Old West. There is a mystery about the birth of Clung, who is raised by an old Chinese man in a small Arizona town, but none about his skill with weapons. At first he shoots in self-defense, then recklessly to avenge an insult. With a price on his head, he begins a l...

One of Max Brand’s worth reading as an alternative to his western stories. Michael Clovelly might not have been the greatest swordsman ever to come to London town during the reign of the Merry Monarch, Charles the Second, but if a better man ever wielded a blade, he had not yet stepped forth to claim the distinction. Seeking gold with which to elevate his beggarly fortunes, Clovelly chances to encounter a bully, and his fierce sword work brings him to the attention of Lord Te...

In „Calling Dr. Kildare”, Dr. Kildare has left his family home to work in a metropolitan hospital with the brilliant Dr. Gillespie who is slowly dying. Kildare has been chosen to work under the irascible Doctor and receive his vast knowledge. On his first case, young Dr. Kildare defies his chief-of -staff, and faces danger and scandal... It is the second in the „Dr. Kildare” series, written by Max Brand, which was the pen name of prolific author Frederick Faust. He is best kn...

It is historical fiction set during the Revolutionary War in northern New England. The protagonist has been a spy in New York for a long time and then uses his intimate knowledge of Native American Indians to aid the war effort during the latter part of the war.

A former American football star, Boyd Emerson has failed in several businesses. He did all this in order to get the hand of his rich lover, but failure seems to haunt him at every turn. Now he is trying his hand at salmon fishing in Alaska.

This is a story of political intrigue in which brave US government agents team up with a squad of young ladies with psychic powers to fight the Bolsheviks. This conspiracy was set up to overthrow the Western world.

Young and ambitious Thea Kronborg leaves Moonstone, a fictional city in Colorado, for Chicago to pursue her dream of becoming a pianist. The music teacher hears her voice and realizes that the girl has a gift for singing. He encourages her to continue studying vocals instead of piano.

This is a gothic classic. Very atmospheric. This amazing and attractive story, written in the highest times of our Faustian civilization, the majestic poetics of romanticism, and today, in these godforsaken times of fate and despair, shines with mysterious darkness.

The protagonist is Roy Glenister, a young and ambitious man who has been exploring for three years with his partner, an elderly man named Dextri. Their Midas mine is one of the richest in the area. Returning by boat from Seattle, where they spent the winter, they learn that their lawsuit is being contested in court, and until the lawsuit is settled, Midas is under the control of lawyer Alec McNamara.

It is a good gothic thriller. Sir Giles Mompesson is a gloomy and all-powerful villain who sows destruction and suffering with the help of the Star Chamber court, it seems, just like that.

Kanpur has a marble angel, which is located in a very quiet garden and fenced off even from trees and flowers by a wall. The angel looks down, miserable sorrow stands next to her, that no one wants to touch her with words. People just come, look and silently leave. Sonni Sahib’s father believed that everything he could learn during his lifetime about the fate of his wife and young son was written there.

With the exception of Westgard, all other employees began migrating to the monthly conference, returning one by one from the mysterious financial jungle, popularly known as „Downtown”. This is a fascinating story that will keep you in suspense until the very end.

This story is about love, about love for many people. The main character was thirty-three years old, it was pleasant to look at him, he was very developed. Mr. Keynes is a detective with an uncanny knack for solving strange disappearances.

A collection of poignant stories about art and artists, about those who love them and those who don’t. Every story in this book is about artists and disappointment. Three stories are Western, two of them set in Kansas and Wyoming, and the third is about a woman from Nebraska traveling through Boston.

Young Pierce Phillips, green, naive, opinionated and with little money, ends up in Daya, Alaska. Soon he is separated from the money by eloquent players. Now penniless, hungry and unable to reach the Klondike, he is forced to take a job delivering supplies to other would-be prospectors across the perilous Chilkoot Pass.

This is one of Chambers’ most popular novels. It has been translated into several other languages around the world. The story begins with who Selwyn is. Lots of questions, lots of mysteries. But that just makes it more interesting to read.

This story is about the Crown Prince. Most of the world is against him and what he stands for. He expresses surprise at the position of the United States. This attitude is the natural result of various causes, among which are the following: Distrust of any aggressor on the part of a peace-minded nation.

A classic historical novel set in and around Windsor Castle during the time of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. Historical events are sharply aggravated by the appearance of the forest demon Hern the Hunter.

The stories in this collection mostly take place in New York and Boston, and are all about artists–writers, musicians, sculptors–and their relationship to society. There are stories of brilliance, inspiration and expectations. All of them are wonderful.