Drama : American

For the past fifteen years or so the name of Marilyn Monroe has been linked more to the various conspiracy theories surrounding her death and less on her movie career. It is probably true to say that more books have been written about her than any other show-business celebrity. According to The Guinness Book Of Film Facts & Feats, she is the actress with the most biographies (Charlie Chaplin is the most writtenabout actor). Yet Marilyn has been dead for nearly forty years and her best films were made almost fifty years ago. But her image is still used by advertising agencies, record companies, movie studios, television companies and radio stations to promote their products. What is it about this woman that continues to fascinate and intrigue people who, like the present author, were not even born when Marilyn died? Other women have been more beautiful. Other actresses have been more talented. Yet when we look back at the screen goddesses of the golden age of Hollywood, sure we remember Jean Harlow, Lana Turner, Rita Hayworth, Betty Grable, Joan Crawford and her great rival Bette Davis, Susan Hayward, Ann Sheridan et al, but it is Marilyn who stands head and shoulders above the rest. Ask almost any young person about the ladies mentioned above and, more often than not, you will probably be greeted with a blank stare but mention Marilyn Monroe and the recognition is instantaneous. Despite the often morbid preoccupation with her death, Marilyn Monroe remains the most potent sex symbol of the 20th century. She began life in the Los Angeles General Hospital at 9.30am on Tuesday 1 June 1926. Her father is listed as Edward Mortenson, a 29- year-old baker from California, present whereabouts unknown. (Some believe that Mortenson was not Norma Jeane’s real father and bolted when his wife became pregnant by one of her colleagues, Charles Stanley Gifford. In 1981 Mortenson died aged 83 in Riverside, California, from a heart attack.) Her Mexican-born more...

Price: $5.99

This work examines the history of US drama and how at mid-century, it turned in the direction of a poststructuralist mimicry. It explores the complexities of mimetic and realistic readings and develops connections to the writings of Derrida, De Man, Foucault, Brecht and Benjamin. more...

Price: $19.80

The Mystery of Edwin Drood is the final novel by Charles Dickens. The novel was left unfinished at the time of Dickens'' death, and readers have often speculated how it might have ended. The novel is named after Edwin Drood, one of the characters, but it mostly tells the story of his uncle, a choirmaster named John Jasper, who is in love with his pupil, Rosa Bud. Miss Bud is Drood''s fiancee, and has also caught the eye of the high-spirited and hot-tempered Neville Landless, who comes from Ceylon with his twin sister, Helena, who immediately makes an enemy of Drood. It is hinted strongly that Jasper is the murderer of Drood, who is missing at the end of the extant text, but it is not known whether Dickens had a surprise in mind. The story is set in Cloisterham, a lightly fictionalised Rochester, and feelingly evokes the atmosphere of the town as much as its streets and buildings. — Excerpted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Intuitive navigation. . Text annotation and mark-up. . more...

Price: $3.99

This is an electronic edition of the complete book complemented by author biography. ***********. Night and Day (published on 20 October 1919) is a novel by Virginia Woolf. Set in Edwardian London, Night and Day contrasts the daily lives of two friends, Katharine Hilbery and Mary Datchet. The novel examines the relationships between love, marriage, happiness, and success. Dialogue and descriptions of thought and actions are used in equal amount, unlike in Woolf''s later book, To the Lighthouse. There are four major characters (Katharine Hilbery, Mary Datchet, Ralph Denham, and William Rodney) who are continually returned to. Night and Day deals with issues concerning women''s suffrage, if love and marriage can coexist, and if marriage is necessary for happiness. Motifs throughout the book incudes the stars and sky, the River Thames, and walks; also, Woolf makes many references to the works of William Shakespeare, especially from As You Like It. — Excerpted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. . more...

Price: $3.99

The People of the Abyss (1903) is a book by Jack London about life in the East End of London in 1902. He wrote this first-hand account by living in the East End (including the Whitechapel District) for several months, sometimes staying in workhouses or sleeping on the streets. The conditions he experienced and wrote about were the same as those endured by an estimated 500,000 of the contemporary London poor. from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Intuitive navigation. . Text annotation and mark-up. . more...

Price: $3.99