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February 25, 2010
Dashiell
Hammett
The
Maltese Falcon. Vintage, c1929, 1992.
T54455. 217p./Audio Partners, c1994, 2003. T22200. 7 hrs.
This novel "called the best American
detective novel by some critics, opens with Spade accepting a case from
Brigid O'Shaughnessy, a statuesque redhead masquerading as a Miss Wonderly.
Almost immediately, his partner, Miles Archer is killed. Spade hated him and
has been having an affair with his wife, but feels duty-bound to find his
killer. He becomes involved with an odd assortment of characters, each
searching for a statue of a black bird, about a foot high, said to be worth
of a fortune." Encyclopedia of Mystery & Detection.
Edith
WhartonThe Age of Innocence. Scribner's, c1920, 1986. T33077. 366p.
Winner of the 1921 Pulitzer Prize, The Age of Innocence is Edith Wharton’s masterful portrait of desire and betrayal during the sumptuous Golden Age of Old New York, a time when society people “dreaded scandal more than disease.”
This is Newland Archer’s world as he prepares to marry the beautiful but conventional May Welland. But when the mysterious Countess Ellen Olenska returns to New York after a disastrous marriage, Archer falls deeply in love with her. Torn between duty and passion, Archer struggles to make a decision that will either courageously define his life—or mercilessly destroy it. Maureen Howard is a critic, teacher, and writer of fiction. Her seven novels include Bridgeport Bus, Natural History, and A Lover’s Almanac. Her memoir, Facts of Life, won the National Book Critics’ Circle Award. She has taught at Yale and Columbia University.
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