Infernal Desires

Book Summary :

Desiderio, an employee of the city under a bizarre reality attack from Doctor Hoffman's mysterious machines, has fallen in love with Albertina, the Doctor's daughter. But Albertina, a beautiful woman made of glass, seems only to appear to him in his dreams. Meeting on his adventures a host of cannibals, centaurs and acrobats, Desiderio must battle against unreality and the warping of time and space to be with her, as the Doctor reduces Desiderio's city to a chaotic state of emergency - one ridden with madness, crime and sexual excess. A satirical tale of magic and sex, The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman is a dazzling quest for truth, love and identity.

Book Summary :

They say there’s no rest for the wicked, and New Orleans never knew how true that was until I came to town. Nobody told me that when I entered the transition, the very gifts of my demonic lineage would be used against me. Nobody warned me that the flames of Hell would burn from within. Or that I’d be driven to lust and madness, my chaotic magic becoming more wild and unruly than ever before. The only way to save myself—and the world—was to give the beast what she wanted: control. As if transitioning wasn’t enough, my presence was now known, and my enemies were mounting. While the beast was intent on claiming our Four Horsemen, there were things to be done. People to find. Demons to kill. And when they make a deal with the devil—let’s just say that neither world will ever be the same again. Long live the Queen. If I can survive becoming immortal, that is.

Book Summary :

Drawing on many aspects of contemporary feminist theory, this lively collection of essays assesses Angela Carter's polemical fictions of desire. Carter, renowned for her irreverent wit, was one of the most gifted, subversive, and stylish British writers to emerge in the 1960s.

Book Summary :

In The Thousand and One Nights and Twentieth-Century Fiction, Richard van Leeuwen challenges conventional perceptions of the development of 20th-century prose by arguing that Thousand and One Nights, as an intertextual model, has been a crucial influence on authors who have contributed to shaping the main literary currents in 20th-century world literature, inspiring new forms and concepts of literature and texts.

Book Summary :

The Encylopedia of the Gothic features a series of newly-commissioned essays from experts in Gothic studies that cover all aspects of the Gothic as it is currently taught and researched, along with the development of the genre and its impact on contemporary culture. Comprises over 200 newly commissioned entries written by a stellar cast of over 130 experts in the field Arranged in A-Z format across two fully cross-referenced volumes Represents the definitive reference guide to all aspects of the Gothic Provides comprehensive coverage of relevant authors, national traditions, critical developments, and notable texts that define, shape, and inform the genre Extends beyond a purely literary analysis to explore Gothic elements of film, music, drama, art, and architecture. Explores the development of the genre and its impact on contemporary culture

Book Summary :

Contributing to the conversation regarding Angela Carter's problematic relationship with what she viewed as the interrelated traditions of surrealism and psychoanalysis, Scott Dimovitz explores the intricate connections between Carter's private life and her public writing. He begins with Carter's assertion that it was through her "exual and emotional life" that she was radicalized, drawing extensively on the British Library's recently archived collection of Carter's private papers, journals, and letters to show how that radicalization happened and what it meant both for her worldview and for her writings. Through close textual analysis and a detailed study of her papers, Dimovitz analyzes the ways in which this second-wave feminist's explorations of sexuality merged with her investigations into surrealism and psychoanalysis, an engagement that ultimately led to the explosively surreal allegories of Carter's later, more complex, and more accomplished work. His study not only offers a new way to view Carter's oeuvre, but also makes the case for the importance of Angela Carter's vision in understanding the transformations in feminist thinking from the postwar to the postfeminist generation.

Book Summary :

In 1972, Angela Carter translated Xavière Gauthier’s ground-breaking feminist critique of the surrealist movement, Surréalisme et sexualité (1971). Although the translation was never published, the project at once confirmed and consolidated Carter’s previous interest in surrealism, representation, gender and desire and aided her formulation of a new surrealist-feminist aesthetic. Carter’s sustained engagement with surrealist aesthetics and politics as well as surrealist scholarship aptly demonstrates what is at stake for feminism at the intersection of avant-garde aesthetics and the representation of women and female desire. Drawing on previously unexplored archival material, such as typescripts, journals, and letters, Anna Watz’s study is the first to trace the full extent to which Carter’s writing was influenced by the surrealist movement and its critical heritage. Watz’s book is an important contribution to scholarship on Angela Carter as well as to contemporary feminist debates on surrealism, and will appeal to scholars across the fields of contemporary British fiction, feminism, and literary and visual surrealism.

Book Summary :

Based on the award-winning The Elder Scrolls, The Infernal City is the first of two exhilarating novels following events that continue the story from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, named 2006 Game of the Year. Four decades after the Oblivion Crisis, Tamriel is threatened anew by an ancient and all-consuming evil. It is Umbriel, a floating city that casts a terrifying shadow—for wherever it falls, people die and rise again. And it is in Umbriel’s shadow that a great adventure begins, and a group of unlikely heroes meet. A legendary prince with a secret. A spy on the trail of a vast conspiracy. A mage obsessed with his desire for revenge. And Annaig, a young girl in whose hands the fate of Tamriel may rest . . . .