Bücher veröffentlicht von W. W. Norton & Company

'What is it to love another person?' This is to raise one of the deepest, and most puzzling, questions we can put to ourselves. Love is a central theme in the autobiography we each write as we try to understand our lives; but we may feel that we become only more confused the more we reflect upon it. Love is closely connected with our vision of happiness; yet there is no one we are more likely to hurt, or be hurt by, than the person we love. If love is something we all want, why is it so hard to find and harder to keep? Love is one of humanity's most persistent and most esteemed ideals, but it is hard to say exactly what this ideal is and how-if at all-it relates to real life.

For over a hundred years the artistic reputation of Frédéric Chopin has suffered not only from the sentimental and romantic legends which surround his name but also from the distortions and misinterpretations of his works by performers. In this book, Alan Walker and ten leading composers, performers, and scholars offer detailed analyses of the works and present an honest historical portrait of their composer. The result is a comprehensive book giving a fresh view of Chopin as man and artist.

Thomas Eakins painted two worlds in nineteenth-century America: one sure of its values-statesmen, scientists, and philosophers-and one that offered an uncertain vision of the changing times. From the shadow of his mother's depression to his fraught identity as a married man with homosexual inclinations, to his failure to sell his work in his day, Eakins was a man marked equally by passion and melancholy.In this enlightening examination of Eakins's defining artistic moments and key relationships-with wife Susan MacDowell, with subject and friend Walt Whitman, and with several leading scientists of his time-William S. McFeely sheds light on the motivations and desires of a founder of American realism.

A century ago, while feminism began to alter our perception of the roles of women, a very different movement transformed the American ideal of manhood. Its defining terms were most clearly set forth at Harvard University in the decades following the Civil War. During those years, more than ever before in our culture, men became conscious of themselves as men. Kim Townsend introduces us to the men at Harvard who were the most influential supporters and vocal critics of the new ideal of manhood. At the center was Harvard psychologist and philosopher William James, whose own personal perspective was very much a man's perspective, a masculine or manly one. His career and writing mirrored the ways Harvard responded to the pressures of the era. Manhood at Harvard has a rich and varied cast of characters - indeed, some of the most influential thinkers of the time. There is Charles William Eliot, the university president who transformed a somewhat provincial college that seemed almost an extension of a New England prep school into a world-class university that was taking its first steps towards America's ethnic diversity. W. E. B. Dubois pointed out the racial and gender assumptions implicit in Harvard's ideal, while George Santayana, another Harvard outsider, recognized James's "masculine directness" but turned away from his philosophy. Townsend's fascinating study penetrates a distinctive culture, the legacy of which has reverberated powerfully - and provocatively - in education, politics, and society throughout the twentieth century.

Eye-opening essays by esteemed writers about the rich and complicated lives of American stepfamilies: with the U.S. divorce rate hovering around 50 percent, most people recognize remarriage as a now-familiar occurrence. And remarriage often means stepfathers, -mothers, -brothers, and -sisters, and the formation of a new type of blended family. Jacquelyn Mitchard, Barbara Kingsolver, Roxana Robinson, Susan Cheever, and others share experiences of being stepdaughters, stepmothers, or ex-wives. Andrew Solomon writes about his relationship with his stepmother. Kate Christensen celebrates the stepfather who brought guidance to her life. There are essays from writers in the same family, each with a different take on his or her postnuclear situation: Phyllis Rose discusses her second husband's qualities as a stepfather, while her son, Ted Rose, writes about his tumultuous relationship with his stepbrother from his own father's remarriage. These poignant, heartfelt, sometimes biting tales remind us of the outdated myth of the perfect nuclear family while shedding light on what it means to forge relationships with stepfamily members.

In 1931, abandoned after their mother's suicide, the young Junan and her sister, Yinan, make a pact never to leave each other. The two girls are inseparable until Junan enters into an arranged marriage and finds herself falling in love with her soldier husband. When the Japanese invade China, Junan and her husband are separated. Unable to follow him to the wartime capital, Junan makes the fateful decision to send her sister after him. Inheritance traces the echo of betrayal through generations and explores the elusive nature of trust. Reading group guide included."

In Seduction Theory, Thomas Beller writes of lonely friends and groping lovers, of awkward dates and dreamy yearnings of young adults caught in the lights of modern Manhattan. These ten stories capture those moments that change our lives and those that slip past us forever.

Unbelievably, there has never been a comprehensive training-and-care guide written for the adopted or "pre-owned" dog. Manuals abound for the puppy, even for the adult or mature dog, but Adopting a Dog has established itself as the standard work for this exploding population. John Ross and Barbara McKinney provide invaluable advice for every kind of adoptable dog: the older puppy, the overactive or unhousebroken adult dog, the shelter pooch, or even the mature canine in need of one last, loving home.As previous dog owners know, great intentions are not enough to make your new pet a well-loved, well-behaved part of your family. Your enthusiasm after rescuing a homeless dog can quickly turn sour when problems appear. After all, it's not unusual for adopted dogs to bring all sorts of behavioral baggage with them. In fact, their behavioral problems may have been the reason they were given up in the first place.Here, in one comprehensive volume, you will find an abundance of commonsense, canine advice-everything to make your dog adoption an unqualified success. Adopting a Dog covers common problems and provides realistic, effective solutions to:determining which dog is right for which homefinding reputable breed associations, rescue organizations, and sheltershelping your dog get along with kids and older adults, as well as with other petsretraining approaches for curing obsessive barking, separation anxiety, housebreaking problems, and fear bitingovercoming the scars of previous abuse.At the heart of Adopting a Dog is a pet-focused training program. In an easy-to-use, step-by-step style, Ross and McKinney show you how to overcome training challenges that are common to so many adopted dogs. You can teach your dog to behave, whether he is unruly on the leash, jumps all over guests, steals dessert, grabs the kids' toys, or struggles during a much-needed bath. Adopting a Dog is sure to be a standard reference work for any dog owner's home. Originally published in hardcover under the title The Adoptable Dog.

It's 1967, and while the world is turning topsy-turvy, the twosome seeks refuge within the walls of Sigma Zeta Chi. But Peachy's bid to pledge doesn't come easy; in fact, he finagles his way into the frat house, along with the first non-white to ever pledge a college fraternity in Oklahoma, a full-blood Kickapoo Indian named Larry Twohatchets. And when the pledge class seems it couldn't take on one more misfit, along comes Smokey Ray Divine, a golfing hippie that lives on the razor's edge. Amy, Audora, and Cassie are the three muskarettes who steer the boys through college life, helping to protect them from the Vietnam tentacles that keep trying to reach through the windows of the fraternity house and pull the members into the jungle. But as the fraternity men cope by building their walls thicker and thicker, they discover that the enemy comes from within. Over the course of their four college years, faith is born through the death of their dreams. The Age of Aquarius meets The Age of Apollo in this flirtation with a mystical college life on University Boulevard.

This unique and rich anthology of Yiddish stories ranges from the beginning of Yiddish literature through I.B. Singer.

Shaking the Tree offers a panorama of both fiction and memoir, revealing perspectives as diverse as they are dynamic: asha bandele recounts how she fell in love with a prisoner charged with murder; Rebecca Walker explores a childhood split between disparate racial and cultural landscapes; ZZ Packer remembers her near-abduction from summer camp at a time when local black children were being found murdered; Danzy Senna and Carolyn Ferrell tell tales about being young and biracial in a society that sees only in black and white. This anthology is as urgent as it is historical--these voices are the future of American literature.

Finally restored to its original state, this is the most authoritative paperback version of Helen Keller's classic now available.

Focusing on three literary masterpieces-Charles Dickens's Bleak House (1853), Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary (1857), and Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks (1901)-Peter Gay, a leading cultural historian, demonstrates that there is more than one way to read a novel.Typically, readers believe that fiction, especially the Realist novels that dominated Western culture for most of the nineteenth century and beyond, is based on historical truth and that great novels possess a documentary value. That trust, Gay brilliantly shows, is misplaced; novels take their own path to reality. Using Dickens, Flaubert, and Mann as his examples, Gay explores their world, their craftsmanship, and their minds. In the process, he discovers that all three share one overriding quality: a resentment and rage against the society that sustains the novel itself. Using their stylish writing as a form of revenge, they deal out savage reprisals, which have become part of our Western literary canon. A New York Times Notable Book and a Best Book of 2002.