A Very French Christmas

Download or read book A Very French Christmas written by Guy de Maupassant and published by New Vessel Press. This book was released on 2017-10-10 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Joyeux Noël: “[An]endearing collection of Christmas stories from ten of France’s most esteemed writers―past and present―skillfully translated.” ―Foreword Reviews This collection brings together the best French Christmas stories of all time, featuring classics by Guy de Maupassant and Alphonse Daudet, plus stories by the esteemed twentieth century authors Irène Némirovsky and Nobel Prize winner Anatole France and contemporary writers Dominique Fabre and Jean-Philippe Blondel. With a holiday spirit conveyed through sparkling Paris streets, opulent feasts, wandering orphans, kindly monks, homesick soldiers, oysters, crayfish, ham, bonbons, flickering desire, and more than a little wine, this collection encapsulates Christmas à la française—delicious, intense and unexpected.

Download or read book A Very Italian Christmas written by Giovanni Boccaccio and published by New Vessel Press. This book was released on 2018-09-04 with total page 147 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Classic and contemporary Christmas stories by great writers from Boccaccio to Strega Prize winner Anna Maria Ortese to Nobel laureate Grazia Deledda. The third in the very popular Very Christmas series, this volume brings together the best Italian Christmas stories of all time in a vibrant collection featuring classic tales and contemporary works. With writing that dates from the Renaissance to the present day, from Boccaccio to Pirandello, as well as Anna Maria Ortese, Natalia Ginzburg, and Grazia Deledda, these literary gems are filled with ancient churches, trains whistling through the countryside, steaming tureens, plates piled high with pasta, High Mass, dashed hopes, golden crucifixes, flowing wine, shimmering gifts, and plenty of style. Like everything the Italians do, this is Christmas with its very own verve and flair, the perfect literary complement to a Buon Natale italiano. Includes stories by: Luigi Pirandello ·• Camillo Boito • Matilde Serao • Anna Maria Ortese • Andrea De Carlo • Grazia Deledda • Giovanni Verga • Giovanni Boccaccio • Natalia Ginzburg

Download or read book A Very Irish Christmas written by James Joyce and published by New Vessel Press. This book was released on 2021-09-14 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The sixth volume in our popular Very Christmas series, this collection transports readers to the Emerald Isle with stories and poems sure to bring holiday cheer. This anthology is packed with beloved classics, forgotten treasures, and modern masterpieces. You’ll find wondrous works by James Joyce, W. B. Yeats, Elizabeth Bowen, Anne Enright, William Trevor, Colm Tóibín, Bernard MacLaverty and many more. See how Christmas is done in snowy Dublin and on the mean streets of Belfast, from west coast to east, and even across sea and ocean to Irish communities in London and New York City. Put a flickering candle in the window and a steaming dinner on the table, and celebrate the Irish way—Nollaig Shona Daoibh—and Merry Christmas!

Download or read book A Very German Christmas written by Wolfgang von Goethe and published by New Vessel Press. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of new and classic Christmas literature includes stories by Herman Hesse, Joseph Roth, The Brothers Grimm, and many others. This collection brings together traditional and contemporary holiday stories from Austria, Switzerland, and Germany. You'll find classic works by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Heinrich Heine, Rainer Maria Rilke, Thomas Mann and Arthur Schnitzler, as well as more recent tales by writers like Heinrich Böll, Peter Stamm and Martin Suter. It also includes the first published English translation of Joseph Roth’s story “Christmas in Cochinchina.” Enjoy Eine fröhliche Weihnachten―A Merry Christmas―made all the more festive with these literary treats redolent of candle-lit trees, St. Nikolaus, gingerbread, Gugelhopf and stollen cakes, all accompanied by plenty of schnapps.

Download or read book The Goose Fritz written by Sergei Lebedev and published by New Vessel Press. This book was released on 2019-03-19 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A man obsessively investigates the mysteries of his family’s past in this “brave and unflinching” novel by the acclaimed Russian author of Oblivion (The Financial Times). Sergei Lebedev’s first two novels, The Year of the Comet and Oblivion, established him as one of Russia’s most important contemporary novelists. Now he reaffirms that status with this third work of fiction. The Goose Fritz tells the story of a young Russian named Kirill, the sole survivor of a once numerous clan of German origin, who delves relentlessly into the unresolved past. When Krill’s ancestor, Balthasar Schwerdt, migrated to the Russian Empire in the early 1800s, he brought with him the practice of alternative medicine. He was then taken captive by an erratic nobleman who supplied entertainment to Catherine the Great in the form of dwarves, hunchbacks, and magicians. S earches archives and cemeteries across Europe, Kirill’s investigation takes us through centuries of turmoil during which none of Schwert’s descendants can escape their adoptive country’s cruel fate. Illuminating both personal and political history, “Lebedev muses in Tolstoyan fashion about [how] the actions of distant ancestors can fix the destinies of people hundreds of years later" (The Wall Street Journal).

Download or read book A Very French Affair written by Faith Mortimer and published by Topsails Charter. This book was released on with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Take two very different cultures, separated by a narrow strip of water. Can love bridge the divide? When Margaret discovers her fiancé is cheating on her, she leaves England in search of a new life and a new dream. Beautiful yet self-effacing, Margaret is determined to put romance out of her life and avoid forming personal ties. On the beautiful south coast of France, Margaret lands herself with a plum job and is happy to forget her worthless old flame. Things are looking up, until a series of events draw her into meeting handsome Frenchman Jean-Paul. Despite her reservations, Margaret begins to let down her guard with inevitable consequence. Margaret falls deeply in love, but struggles with her conscious after discovering Jean-Paul is married. Despite his declaration of a loveless marriage, should Margaret continue with her new affair? Her old life haunts and scares her…Should she choose a secure, safe life, immersed in her work, or one filled with passion and excitement with the sexy Frenchman? In her darkest hours, can she trust him with her heart?... Has she found a safe haven? Or is she poised on the brink of the abyss…

Download or read book Exposed written by Jean-Philippe Blondel and published by New Vessel Press. This book was released on 2019-06-04 with total page 165 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Art, love and longing, the French way . . . an emotionally taut portrayal of late-in-life, post-marriage drift” from the author of The 6:41 to Paris (The New York Times Book Review). A French teacher on the verge of retirement is invited to a glittering opening that showcases the artwork of his former student, who has since become a celebrated painter. This unexpected encounter leads to the older man posing for his portrait. Possibly in the nude. Such personal exposure at close range entails a strange and troubling pact between artist and sitter that prompts both to reevaluate their lives. Blondel, author of the hugely popular novel The 6:41 to Paris, evokes an intimacy of dangerous intensity in a tale marked by profound nostalgia and a reckoning with the past that allows its two characters to move ahead into the future. “A striking variation on the theme of the muse, this novel probes overlapping varieties of attraction . . . It veers toward the erotic, quickening the painter’s search for the model’s soul—‘a term that disintegrates the moment you try to define it.’”―The New Yorker “Captivating . . . The novel flies by with gentle humor, but it also poses complex questions about the meaning of art and sexuality, and offers an elegiac look at late middle age . . . Irresistible, and the story’s fundamental kindness sets it apart.”―Publishers Weekly (starred review) “A novel of tender, shy wisdom whose characters remind each other that memory lives in the body, loosened like knots by the right touch.” —Patrick Nathan, author of Image Control