House of Wits PDF Download

Author: Paul Fisher
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0805074902
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 711

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Book Description
A portrait of the eccentric and brilliant James family, which produced three famous children--novelist Henry, philosopher William, and feminist Alice--examines the experiences, relationships, ideas, conflicts, and lifestyle that shaped members of the family.

Author: Paul Fisher
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0805090207
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 711

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Book Description
A portrait of the eccentric and brilliant James family, which produced three famous children--novelist Henry, philosopher William, and feminist Alice--examines the experiences, relationships, ideas, conflicts, and lifestyle that shaped members of the family.

Author: Paul Fisher
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 146685507X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 904

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Book Description
An American odyssey that reveals the fascinating complexities of one of history's most brilliant, eccentric, and daring families The James family, one of America's most memorable dynasties, gave the world three famous children: a novelist of genius (Henry), an influential philosopher (William), and an invalid (Alice) who became a feminist icon, despite her sheltered life and struggles with mental illness. Although much has been written on them, many truths about the Jameses have long been camouflaged. The conflicts that defined one of American's greatest families— homosexuality, depression, alcoholism, female oppression—can only now be thoroughly investigated and discussed with candor and understanding. Paul Fisher's grand family saga, House of Wits, rediscovers a family traumatized by the restrictive standards of their times but reaching out for new ideas and ways to live. He follows the five James offspring ("hotel children," Henry called them) and their parents through their privileged travels across the Atlantic; interludes in Newport and Cambridge; the younger boys' engagement in the Civil War; and William and Henry's later adventures in London, Paris, and Italy. He captures the splendor of their era and all the members of the clan—beginning with their mercurial father, who nurtured, inspired, and damaged them, setting the stage for lives of colorful passions, intense rivalries, and extraordinary achievements. House of Wits is a revealing cultural history that revises and completes our understanding of its remarkable protagonists and the changing world where they came of age.

Author: Benjamin Errett
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0698153863
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
Got wit? We’ve all been in that situation where we need to say something clever, but innocuous; smart enough to show some intelligence, without showing off; something funny, but not a joke. What we need in that moment is wit—that sparkling combination of charm, humor, confidence, and most of all, the right words at the right time. Elements of Wit is an engaging book that brings together the greatest wits of our time, and previous ones from Oscar Wilde to Nora Ephron, Winston Churchill to Christopher Hitchens, Mae West to Louis CK, and many in between. With chapters covering the essential ingredients of wit, this primer sheds light on how anyone—introverts, extroverts, wallflowers, and bon vivants—can find the right zinger, quip, parry, or retort…or at least be a little bit more interesting.

Author: Harold B. Segel
Publisher: Purdue University Press
ISBN: 9781557530332
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description
Segel's extensive introduction provides a wealth of information concerning the social, political, and cultural background of turn-of-the-century Vienna. The eight artists assembled here are concerned with their world, Austria and particularly Vienna. They exchange ideas, argue, gossip, tell stories, read each other's works and even write in the coffeehouse.

Author: Karen Joy Fowler
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101213892
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 227

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Book Description
This “delightful and eccentric new tale”(The Boston Globe) from the bestselling author of The Jane Austen Book Club subverts the whodunit and gives us a thoroughly modern meta-mystery with wit, warmth, and heart. At loose ends and weary from her recent losses—the deaths of an inventive if at times irritating father and her beloved brother—Rima Lansill comes to Wit's End, the home of her legendary godmother, bestselling mystery writer Addison Early, to regroup...and in search of answers. For starters, why did Addison name one of her characters—a murderer—after Rima's father? But Addison is secretive and feisty, so consumed with protecting her famous fictional detective, Maxwell Lane, from the vagaries of the Internet rumor that she has writer's block. As one woman searches for truth, the other struggles to control the reality of her fiction. Rima soon becomes enmeshed in Addison's household of eccentrics: a formerly alcoholic cook and her irksome son, two quirky dog-walkers, a mysterious stalker, the tiny characters that populate Addison's dollhouse crime-scene replicas, and even Maxwell Lane himself. But, wrapped up in a mystery that may or may not be of her own creation, Rima discovers to her surprise that the ultimate solution to this puzzle is the new family she has found at the house called Wit's End. Here, Karen Joy Fowler delivers top-notch storytelling—creating characters both oddball and endearing in a voice that is utterly and memorably her own—in this clever, playful novel about finally allowing oneself to grow up-with a dash of mystery thrown in.

Author: James Geary
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 039325495X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
Entertaining, illuminating, and entirely unique, Wit’s End “convey[s] the power of wit to refresh the mind” (Henry Hitchings, Wall Street Journal). In “this inventive and playful book” (Tom Beer, Newsday), James Geary explores every facet of wittiness, from its role in innovation to why puns are the highest form of wit. Adopting a different style for each chapter—from dramatic dialogue to sermon, heroic couplets to a barroom monologue—Geary embodies wit in all its forms. Wit’s End agilely balances psychology, folktale, visual art, and literary history with lighthearted humor and acute insight, demonstrating that wit and wisdom are really the same thing.

Author: Richard Osman
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1473531977
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
Do you know how many post boxes there are in the UK? Could you guess how many times the word 'goat' appear in the King James Version of the bible? Fancy playing a game of charades where all of the books, films and plays are entirely made up? Now, look around the room. Is anyone there the kind of person who’ll say ‘I just don’t understand this’, when faced with something that’s not just perfectly easy to understand, but is ... well, fun? Ask them to leave. Have they gone? Good. Now welcome inside the House of Games ... Featuring questions based on some of the most loved rounds from the hit BBC2 show, including Roonerspisims, Venn Will I Be Famous?, Dim Sums and Answer Smash, Richard Osman’s House of Games Quiz Book is the ultimate test of wit, wisdom and imagination. Curated by Richard Osman and Alan Connor and featuring over 50 new and exclusive games to try out, this is your chance to step inside the House of Games and pitch your trivia skills against your family and friends. Quirky, unique and exactly the right amount of silly, House of Games contains hours of guaranteed fun!

Author: Robert Dole
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0767906675
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
Bob Dole's political career may not have taken him to the White House, but he did pick up some great stories along the way. In this delightful collection, the longtime United States senator shares his favorite anecdotes, witticisms, and reminiscences. From the campaign trail to the Oval Office, from smoke-filled rooms to the chambers of the Capitol, Bob Dole surveys a century of political wit. There are bon mots from Calvin Coolidge, Winston Churchill, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, and a host of other political figures. Bob Dole introduces each section with mirthful moments from his own experience, displaying the gift for wry humor that has made him a favorite guest on late-night talk shows. A jovial--and completely bipartisan--compendium, Great Political Wit is a connoisseur's selection of political repartee at its best.

Author: Erma Bombeck
Publisher: Fawcett
ISBN: 030777824X
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
"America's irrepressible doyenne of domestic satire." THE BOSTON GLOBE Madcap, bittersweet humor in classic Erma Bombeck-style. You'll laugh until it hurts and love it! "Any mother with half a skull knows that when Daddy's little boy becomes Mommy's little boy, the kid is so wet, he's treading water. What do you mean you're a participle in the school play and you need a costume? Those rotten kids. If only they'd let me wake up in my own way. Why do they have to line up along my bed and stare at me like Moby Dick just washed up onto a beach somewhere?"