The Collected Short Stories of Conrad Aiken

В книгу входят произведения поэтов США, начиная о XVII века, времени зарождения американской нации, и до настоящего времени.

In this autobiographical debut novel from one of America’s most acclaimed poets, a writer’s sentimental journey across the Atlantic becomes a crucible of heartbreak and mental anguish.

In a state of feverish anticipation, Demarest steals onto the first-class section of the ship. There, to his surprise, he discovers the woman he is traveling thousands of miles to see, only for her to dismiss him with devastating coldness. For the rest of the voyage, Demarest must wrestle with golden memories turned to dust and long-cherished fantasies that will never come to pass.

A brilliant novel of psychological insight and formal experimentation reminiscent of the stories of James Joyce, is a bold work of art from a winner of the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize.

Inspired by the infamous case of Leopold and Loeb, is a chilling glimpse into the mind of a twisted genius.

The sun is setting over Harvard, and Jasper Ammen is not impressed. A brilliant student who loathes all that the world has put before him, he gazes with contempt at the beauty of the campus, the intellectual pretensions of his fellow students, and the gaudiness of the sunset, for none of these approaches the majesty of Jasper’s mind. A reader of Nietzsche and Stirner, he is convinced of his own superiority, and has decided to prove it in the most irrefutable manner: with the perfect murder.

Ammen will choose his victim at random and commit the unsolvable crime before a host of witnesses who will see what happens but not be able to understand it. Only his closest friends will realize that he has gotten away with murder, and they won’t be able to stop him or see him punished for the ghastly deed.

An intense and disturbing portrait of rationalism taken to a dangerous extreme, ranks alongside the works of Henry James and Fyodor Dostoevsky as a masterpiece of psychological realism.

This tale of an exotic adventure undertaken in the face of tragedy includes a revealing portrait of Conrad Aiken’s friend and protégé Malcolm Lowry.

Blomberg has loved Noni for what seems like his whole life. He loves her like he loves the sunset, like he loves the air he breathes. But beautiful, strange, impulsive Noni — who has spent years in a passionless marriage to one of Boston’s most notorious swindlers — has only a few months to live; her heart is about to give out.

Before she dies, Noni begs Blom to finance a trip to Mexico, where she can obtain a quick divorce and marry the man she loves. That man is not Blom, however, but Gil — an upstanding young gentleman who is to know nothing of Noni’s condition. With his own heart aching, Blom arranges the money, and the trio heads south on a journey that will bring them face to face with the mysteries of life and death.

A painter torn between his domestic arrangements and his artistic pursuits makes a fateful choice in this brilliant and provocative novel from a winner of the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize.

Timothy Kane brought his wife and young daughter to Cape Cod in order to find the peace and quiet necessary to paint. But the mood inside their small cottage is far from tranquil — a past affair weighs on Timothy’s conscience, and the strain of running a household by herself is causing Enid to resent her husband.

To make matters worse, Timothy’s friend Jim Connor has decided to move to the Cape and bring a gaggle of their Greenwich Village acquaintances with him. A committed anarchist, Jim does more than just preach the redistribution of wealth: He accomplishes it himself by shoplifting from department stores and giving the loot to struggling poets and painters. Jim and his rabble-rousing, art-obsessed crew stir up trouble wherever they go, and Timothy’s association with the group soon becomes a major point of contention between him and Enid. She expects him to sacrifice his friendship for the sake of his family’s security — a demand that runs counter to Timothy’s nature and his sense of what it means to be an artist. With the pressure mounting, he must find a way to balance his marriage and his work, or risk devastating consequences to both.

An exquisitely crafted story about the hard truths of the creative life, has been lauded by the as a testament to “the brilliance of [Conrad Aiken’s] mind and the understanding of his heart.”

A profound examination of the mysteries of memory and perception from one of the twentieth century’s most admired literary artists.

The train races from New York to Boston. For Andrew Cather, it is much too fast. He will return home three days early, and he is both terrified and intrigued by what he may find there. He pictures himself unlocking the door to his quiet Cambridge house, padding silently through its darkened halls, and finally discovering the thing he both fears and yearns to see: his wife in the arms of another man. Cather knows that what he finds in Cambridge may destroy his life, yet finally set him free.

A masterful portrait of an average man at the edge of a shocking precipice,  is a triumph of psychological realism. One of Sigmund Freud’s favorite novels, it is a probing exploration of the secrets of consciousness.