The Bedside Bathtub Armchair Companion To Mark Twain

Author : Pam McAllister
Publisher : Bloomsbury Academic
Page : 240 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2008-03-21
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 0826418139

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The Bedside, Bathtub & Armchair Companion to Mark Twain by Pam McAllister Pdf

This entertaining survey of Twainiana is a tribute to the world's first global celebrity and most quotable American. Chock full of illustrations, the lively text follows Sam Clemens from his early days as a "printer's devil" to his Mark Twain days as a "devil's advocate." Provided here are summaries of Twain's works, long and short; a filmography; a crossword puzzle based on Twain's colorful quips; a map of Huck and Jim's trip down the Mississippi River; and short takes on long controversies. Pam McAllister (who has co-authored books in the Companion series on Shakespeare, Agatha Christie, and Sherlock Holmes), answers such questions as: ? Why did Twain stop going to school when he was only twelve?? What national catastrophe ended his stint as a riverboat pilot?? What public humiliation inspired him to move his family to Europe for ten years?? What book did he think was his best? (Hint: the main character is a girl!)? Where is there a toilet seat with the sign mark twain sat here? YOU KNOW that Mark Twain's real name was Sam Clemens, BUT DID YOU KNOW that he...~ is believed to be the first author to submit a typewritten manuscript?~ had red hair, a funny talk, and an odd (Chaplainesque) waddle-walk?~ started smoking at age 7 and often smoked 40 cigars a day?~ was born (two months premature) under Halley's comet and died at the comet's next return? YOU KNOW all about Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, BUT DID YOU KNOW that Twain ....~ died in 1910, but had a newly-published bestseller in 1962?~ wrote science fiction stories, (including several gender-benders) as well as an antiwar book, several animal-rights stories, and a number of anti-imperialist rants?~ once sardonically suggested that the U.S. change its flag from the stars and stripes to the skull and crossbones?~ wrote about television and long-distance telephoning before these were invented?~ was initially best known for his travel books?

Author : Mark Dawidziak
Publisher : Prospect Park Books
Page : 210 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2015-05-18
Category : Reference
ISBN : 9781938849466

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Mark Twain's Guide to Diet, Exercise, Beauty, Fashion, Investment, Romance, Health and Happiness by Mark Dawidziak Pdf

“Here is the master in all of his certainty, humor, and undertow”—this book“wonderfully underscores how contemporary Mark Twain is and always will be” (Ken Burns). Curated by a noted Mark Twain scholar who mined many of his lesser-known texts, speeches, and notebooks, this collection presents the best of the curmudgeonly author’s thoughts on many of life’s endeavors and distractions—from diet and exercise to medicine, smoking, drinking, romance, parenting, old age, fashion, finances, politics, and stress management. Always entertaining and unapologetically honest, Twain’s sage advice for the ages will leave you laughing—and might even inspire you to rethink that plan to give up gluten and join a CrossFit class. On politics: “Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.” On happiness: “There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist, except an old optimist.” On parenthood: “Familiarity breeds contempt—and children.” On exercise: “I have seen slower people than I am . . . and even quieter, and more listless, and lazier people than I am. But they were dead.” On stress management: “Let us swear while we may, for in Heaven it will not be allowed.”

Author : Mark Dawidziak
Publisher : Macmillan
Page : 353 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2017-02-28
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9781250082381

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Everything I Need to Know I Learned in the Twilight Zone by Mark Dawidziak Pdf

Can you live your life by what The Twilight Zone has to teach you? Yes, and maybe you should. The proof is in this lighthearted collection of life lessons, ground rules, inspirational thoughts, and stirring reminders found in Rod Serling’s timeless fantasy series. Written by veteran TV critic, Mark Dawidziak, this unauthorized tribute is a celebration of the classic anthology show, but also, on another level, a kind of fifth-dimension self-help book, with each lesson supported by the morality tales told by Serling and his writers. The notion that “it’s never too late to reinvent yourself” soars through “The Last Flight,’’ in which a World War I flier who goes forward in time and gets the chance to trade cowardice for heroism. A visit from an angel blares out the wisdom of “follow your passion” in “A Passage for Trumpet.” The meaning of “divided we fall” is driven home with dramatic results when neighbors suspect neighbors of being invading aliens in “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street.” The old maxim about never judging a book by its cover is given a tasty twist when an alien tome is translated in “To Serve Man.”

Author : Mark Dawidziak
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 289 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2019-08-09
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9781493040995

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The Shawshank Redemption Revealed by Mark Dawidziak Pdf

A 25th anniversary history and celebration of The Shawshank Redemption, one of the most cherished American films of the late twentieth century and one of the finest movies made from a Stephen King story. The movie not only boasts a great story, it has a great backstory, starting with the dollar deal that eventually led King and co-stars Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman to put their trust in a largely untested director making his first feature film. Although the film received mostly positive reviews on its release in September 1994, the box office was disappointing and it failed to win many awards. But as Andy tells Red in the film, “no good thing ever dies.” The movie found new life, reaching an ever-growing audience on cable and home video (through word of mouth, it became one of the top-rented movies of 1995). Each year, The Shawshank Redemption rises in polls asking film fans to name their favorite movies. It has become nothing less than this generation’s The Grapes of Wrath, an inspiring story about keeping hope alive in bleak times and under the most horrendous conditions.

Author : Brian Murray
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 184 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 2009-07-01
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781441154255

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The Bedside, Bathtub & Armchair Companion to Dickens by Brian Murray Pdf

The Bedside Dickens provides a lively look at this great novelist's life and career. It sheds light on his role as a polemicist and journalist and explores the way his work was long informed by his Christian faith. It also reveals his most persistent literary themes and provides a vivid sense of how, among his contemporaries, Dickens' vast success-and his "radical" politics-provoked both admiration and scorn. Dickens, this study reminds us, saw life as a battle, but as both a novelist and journalist he sought to provide a more hopeful worldview. He repeatedly satirized vice and folly, even as he urged his readers and the leaders of his day to be less selfish and narrow and to "do good always." Chapters and topics include: Dickens and Animals; Christmas Stories; The Magnetizer; Dickens vs. Thackeray; A Christian Writer; Dickens Down Under; What Dickens Read; Dickens and Spontaneous Combustion; Dickens and Journalism; Dickens on the Couch.

Author : Mark Dawidziak
Publisher : St. Martin's Press
Page : 199 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2023-02-14
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781250792501

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A Mystery of Mysteries by Mark Dawidziak Pdf

A Mystery of Mysteries is a brilliant biography of Edgar Allan Poe that examines the renowned author’s life through the prism of his mysterious death and its many possible causes. It is a moment shrouded in horror and mystery. Edgar Allan Poe died on October 7, 1849, at just forty, in a painful, utterly bizarre manner that would not have been out of place in one of his own tales of terror. What was the cause of his untimely death, and what happened to him during the three missing days before he was found, delirious and “in great distress” on the streets of Baltimore, wearing ill-fitting clothes that were not his own? Mystery and horror. Poe, who remains one of the most iconic of American writers, died under haunting circumstances that reflect the two literary genres he took to new heights. Over the years, there has been a staggering amount of speculation about the cause of death, from rabies and syphilis to suicide, alcoholism, and even murder. But many of these theories are formed on the basis of the caricature we have come to associate with Poe: the gloomy-eyed grandfather of Goth, hunched over a writing desk with a raven perched on one shoulder, drunkenly scribbling his chilling masterpieces. By debunking the myths of how he lived, we come closer to understanding the real Poe—and uncovering the truth behind his mysterious death, as a new theory emerges that could prove the cause of Poe’s death was haunting him all his life. In a compelling dual-timeline narrative alternating between Poe’s increasingly desperate last months and his brief but impactful life, Mark Dawidziak sheds new light on the enigmatic master of macabre.

Author : Mark Dawidziak
Publisher : Continuum
Page : 206 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 2008-06-15
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : UOM:39015076193955

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The Bedside, Bathtub & Armchair Companion to Dracula by Mark Dawidziak Pdf

Looking at all aspects of the Dracula phenomenon, this book includes entries on the psychological and sociological implications of Stoker's book and the stage plays, movies, television versions, actors, and, of course, the historical Dracula, Vlad the Impaler.

Author : Dick Riley,Pam McAllister,Bruce Cassiday
Publisher : A&C Black
Page : 390 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 2001-09-01
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 0826413757

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The Bedside, Bathtub & Armchair Companion to Agatha Christie by Dick Riley,Pam McAllister,Bruce Cassiday Pdf

Over 400,000 copies sold! If you are a mystery buff, an Agatha Christie fan, an occasional Christie reader or an acquaintance of any of the above, this book is for you and all your fortunate friends The Bedside, Bathtub & Armchair Companion to Agatha Christie, on the 25th anniversary of Agatha Christie's death, continues as a grand salute to the queen of mysteries. It is filled with wonderful and surprising things about her books, her characters, the movies and plays based on them, and Dame Agatha herself. Original contributions by some sixty writers celebrate the Christie touch. Take your pick among thse intriguing features and speculations: -Surviving an English country weekend - if you had the advice of Hercule Poirot - A guide to the Christie poisions, as well as the cruder methods of genteel mayhem - The "other" Agatha Christie who wrote romantic novels - A murder victim's (!) first-person account of a Christie Mystery Weekend - The Hercule Poirot Double-Crostic and other puzzles That's a taste. There's much more - and witty plot summaries of all Christie's novels, plays, and many of her short stories. (But no endings, of course!) This treasury is more than entertainment - it is also a personal reference work for Christie fans. And there are scores of movie posters, film stills, illustrations and a Christie mystery map, too.

Author : Dick Riley,Pam McAllister
Publisher : Continuum
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2001-06-01
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 0826412505

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The Bedside, Bathtub & Armchair Companion to Shakespeare by Dick Riley,Pam McAllister Pdf

In the same winning formula as The New Bedside, Bathtub & Armchair Companion to Agatha Christie (more than 300,000 copies sold) and The Bedside, Bathtub & Armchair Companion to Sherlock Holmes (1999), this all-new companion to Shakespeare will present The Bard in a new and exciting way in a new century. For students, scholars, theater lovers, and scholars - nearly everyone! - this book wraps some 400 years of Bardology into a lively and often unexpected package.In their witty and inimitable way, Dick Riley and Pam McAllister examine the whole dramatic canon, play by play, including dramas of disputed authorship. (The long poems and sonnets are also covered.) Included are inside stories on theater and film productions, "alternate" interpretations of the plays, Shakespeare's status around the world, the clubs and societies, the mysterious life - and even the question that has plagued critics almost from the day he put down his quill: whether Shakespeare even wrote the works attributed to him.

Author : Douglas L. Howard,David Bianculli
Publisher : Syracuse University Press
Page : 545 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2018-11-13
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9780815654476

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Television Finales by Douglas L. Howard,David Bianculli Pdf

Today more than ever, series finales have become cultural touchstones that feed watercooler fodder and Twitter storms among a committed community of viewers. While the final episodes of The Fugitive and M*A*S*H continue to rank among the highest rated broadcasts, more recent shows draw legions of binge-watching fans. Given the importance of finales to viewers and critics alike, Howard and Bianculli along with the other contributors explore these endings and what they mean to the audience, both in terms of their sense of narrative and as episodes that epitomize an entire show. Bringing together a veritable "who’s who" of television scholars, journalists, and media experts, including Robert Thompson, Martha Nochimson, Gary Edgerton, David Hinckley, Kim Akass, and Joanne Morreale, the book offers commentary on some of the most compelling and often controversial final episodes in television history. Each chapter is devoted to a separate finale, providing readers with a comprehensive survey of these watershed moments. Gathering a unique international lineup of journalists and media scholars, the book also offers readers an intriguing variety of critical voices and perspectives.

Author : Carol J. Adams,Douglas Buchanan,Kelly Gesch
Publisher : Burns & Oates
Page : 212 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2007-05
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : UOM:39015070713378

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The Bedside, Bathtub & Armchair Companion to Frankenstein by Carol J. Adams,Douglas Buchanan,Kelly Gesch Pdf

A bolt-necked monster opens his eyes, lifts himself from his laboratory table, then lurches and stumbles toward his creator. Do we know this image because we are movie-watchers? When we imagine Frankenstein's monster, do we draw upon Mary Shelley's description? Or Boris Karloff's iconic look from the 1931 film by James Whale? Whether as cliche or icon, the monster clearly not only escaped from Victor Frankenstein's laboratory, but also from the pages of Shelley's book to roam unimpeded through our cultural psyche. New in the acclaimed Bedside, Bathtub & Armchair series, this guide provides the interested and curious, the serious and the ghoulish, with a new and unimaginable understanding of the Frankenstein legend. Written by an acclaimed social critic, The Bedside, Bathtub & Armchair Companion to Frankenstein takes us from Mary Shelley's creation to the latest film adaptations and comic-book re-creations. The book includes 200 images, many seldom seen, along with maps, puzzles, and brain-teashers--whether your brain was misplaced in a scientist's lab or not!

Author : Dick Riley,Pam McAllister
Publisher : Burns & Oates
Page : 232 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 1999
Category : Detective and mystery stories, English
ISBN : 0826411401

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The Bedside, Bathtub & Armchair Companion to Sherlock Holmes by Dick Riley,Pam McAllister Pdf

Providing an overview of all aspects of the life and times of the world-famous detective, Riley and McAllister offer interesting and entertaining information about the fictional sleuth. Along with the trivia and information, the authors insert historical background on Victorian England, a short biography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and brief synopses of the Holmes stories. Additional chapters cover explanations of rank in the British nobility, drugs used in the era, and the wars mentioned in the stories. Several chapters make forays into understanding the psychology of Holmes, his personality, and his pleasures. One entire chapter reviews the various clubs dedicated to him. A crossword puzzle, a Sherlock Holmes Mystery Map of London, and around 200 black-and-white illustrations, including some from the stories and some of Victorian London, add to the fun.

Author : Forrest Glen Robinson
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 320 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 1995
Category : American fiction
ISBN : OCLC:1038424942

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The Cambridge Companion to Mark Twain by Forrest Glen Robinson Pdf

Author : Brian Murray
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 360 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2009-07-01
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9780826418821

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The Bedside, Bathtub & Armchair Companion to Dickens by Brian Murray Pdf

Literature.

Author : Mark Dawidziak
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 2015-03-25
Category : Authors, American
ISBN : 1508767513

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Mark Twain in Ohio by Mark Dawidziak Pdf

Outlines Mark Twain's many visits to Ohio for lectures, readings, and personal business.