Original price was: 4,00 €.2,80 €Current price is: 2,80 €.
by Andrew Miller
1 in stock
“What does the world need most–a good, ordinary man, or one who is outstanding, albeit with a heart of ice?” This is the question at the heart of Andrew Miller’s first novel, Ingenious Pain, a book set during the 18th-century Age of Enlightenment. The outstanding man in question is James Dyer, an English freak of nature who, since birth, has been impervious to physical pain. Not only does he feel no pain, but he recovers from all injuries in record time. By turns a shill for a quack pain-reliever at county fairs, an object of study by a wealthy collector of human oddities, and, eventually, a surgeon, James Dyer–and through him the reader–gains exposure to a panoply of 18th-century philosophical thought, medical practice, historic events, and larger-than-life rogues and heroes, both fictional and real.As a surgeon, James Dyer excels, and his inability to feel–whether physical pain himself or empathy for others–seems only to enhance his skill with a knife. James slices and dices and cures without a scintilla of compassion while his reputation grows, until at last he arrives in Russia and the mystery of his unusual quality is resolved.
Miller navigates his complicated story and exotic locales with unswerving confidence, bolstered, no doubt, by thorough research. James Dyer is not a character who invites love, but his adventures make for intelligent, deeply pleasurable reading.
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by Anita Shreve
A meditation on the erotic life of women, an exploration of class prejudices, and most of all a portrayal of the thoughts and actions of an unforgettable young woman.
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In its adventurous happenings, its abductions, duels, and sexual intrigues, A Hero of Our Time looks backward to the tales of Sir Walter Scott and Lord Byron, so beloved by Russian society in the 1820s and ’30s.
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As Nobel Prize winner Steinbeck chronicles their deeds—their multiple lovers, their wonderful brawls, their Rabelaisian wine-drinking—he spins a tale as compelling and ultimately as touched by sorrow as the famous legends of the Round Table, which inspired him.
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In her stories of seemingly ordinary people living extraordinary lives, Miranda July reveals how a single moment can change everything. Whether writing about a middle-aged woman’s obsession with Prince William, or an aging factory worker who has never been in love, the result is startling, sexy and tender by turns.
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