When Matisse dies, Pablo Picasso remarked in the 1950s, Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what color really is. As a pioneer of modernism and one of the greatest figurative artists of the twentieth century, Marc Chagall achieved fame and fortune, and over the course of a long career created some of the best-known and most-loved paintings of our time. Yet behind this triumph lay struggle, heartbreak, bitterness, frustration, lost love, exile — and above all the miracle of survival. Born into near poverty in Russia in 1887, the son of a Jewish herring merchant, Chagall fled the repressive potato-colored tsarist empire in 1911 for Paris. There he worked alongside Modigliani and Leger in the tumbledown tenement called La Ruche, where one either died or came out famous. But turmoil lay ahead — war and revolution; a period as an improbable artistic commissar in the young Soviet Union; a difficult existence in Weimar Germany, occupied France, and eventually the United States. Throughout, as Jackie Wullschlager makes plain in this groundbreaking biography, he never ceased giving form on canvas to his dreams, longings, and memories. His subject, more often than not, was the shtetl life of his childhood, the wooden huts and synagogues, the goatherds, rabbis, and violinists — the whole lost world of Eastern European Jewry. Wullschlager brilliantly describes this world and evokes the characters who peopled it: Chagall's passionate, energetic mother, Feiga-Ita; his eccentric fellow painter and teacher Bakst; his clever, intense first wife, Bella; their glamorous daughter, Ida; his tough-minded final companion and wife, Vava; and the colorful, tragic array ofartist, actor, and writer friends who perished under the Stalinist regime. Wullschlager explores in detail Chagall's complex relationship with Russia and makes clear the Russian dimension he brought to Western modernism. She shows how, as Andre Breton put it, under his sole impulse, metaphor made its triumphal entry into modern painting, and helped shape the new surrealist movement. As art critic of the Financial Times, she provides a breadth of knowledge on Chagall's work, and at the same time as an experienced biographer she brings Chagall the man fully to life — ambitious, charming, suspicious, funny, contradictory, dependent, but above all obsessively determined to produce art of singular beauty and emotional depth. Drawing upon hitherto unseen archival material, including numerous letters from the family collection in Paris, and illustrated with nearly two hundred paintings, drawings, and photographs, Chagall is a landmark biography to rank with Hilary Spurling's Matisse and John Richardson's Picasso.

The mind-bending novels of Philip K. Dick transcend genre to explore the nature of consciousness and reality, placing ordinary men and women in congress with the unknowable and the awe-full. Valis, the first in Dick's final trio of novels, is a theological detective story in which God is both a missing person and the perpetrator of the ultimate crime. The schizophrenic hero, a Dick alter-ego named Horselover Fat, begins receiving revelatory visions through a burst of pink laser light. As a coterie of religious seekers forms to explore these messages, they are led to a rock musician's estate, where a two-year old Messianic figure named Sophia confirms that an ancient, mechanical intelligence orbiting the earth has been guiding their discoveries. Mixing Gnostic Christianity with Dick's own strange philosophy, Valis is as funny and surprising as it is eye-opening.

When French artist Paul Gauguin visited Tahiti in 1891 he was fascinated by the native people's language and customs, and he was inspired by the vibrant colours of this new and exciting world. This volume follows him on his discovery of the island. Through Gauguin's colourful paintings, young readers can learn about the island, the lives of its inhabitants, and its exotic tropical plants and animals.

The Arnolfini Marriage, an Egyptian mummy, a gilded clock, a Japanese puppet, Van Gogh's Irises, a Tibetan conch trumpet, an Eskimo mask, and a meso-American calendar. These are just a few of the treasures from Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa and Australasia featured in this book, an eye-opening introduction to the wonders of world art. The artefacts are organized and explored in five themes: time and space; other worlds; people's lives; fantasy and history; and the natural world. In this tour of art from prehistoric times up to the present day, Andrea Belloli explores how each reasure was made, who created and used it, and what it tells us about the culture from which it sprang.

Hailed as original and unsettling, an Animal Farm for the new century (The Wall Street Journal), this first novel lingers long after the last page has been turned. Described as a fascinating psychological thriller (The Baltimore Sun), this entrancing novel introduces Isserley, a female driver who picks up hitchhikers with big muscles. She, herself, is tiny-like a kid peering up over the steering wheel. Scarred and awkward, yet strangely erotic and threatening, she listens to her hitchhikers as they open up to her, revealing clues about who might miss them if they should disappear. At once humane and horrifying, Under the Skin takes us on a heart-thumping ride through dangerous territory-our own moral instincts and the boundaries of compassion. A grotesque and comical allegory, a surreal representation of contemporary society run amok, Under the Skin has been internationally received as the arrival of an exciting talent, rich and assured.

Well now, have you heard about how the Irish fought for Alexander the Great? Or did you know that at one time the Irish were forbidden to wear trousers? Perhaps you don't know why the Irish revere John Paul Jones or how Jack the Ripper influenced Irish 'Invincibles'. Ah then, there's many a strange tale and capricious truth hidden in the history and lore of the Green Isle that will surprise and quicken your Irish blood, whether it's a pint or only a drop! This book, with 101 curious, delightful, ironic and even outrageous tales from the Emerald Isle, is a must-have for every Irish-interest library. Illustrated throughout.

This board book set features two favorite Beatrix Potter tales, told in simplified form for prereaders and illustrated with vivid reproductions of the original artwork. In The Tale of Peter Rabbit, the naughty little bunny sneaks into Mr. McGregor's garden and is very nearly caught. The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck sees our heroine looking for a safe place to make a nest and lay her eggs-and who should she meet but a charming fox, who offers her a cozy spot in his woodshed.

Glen Runciter is dead. Or is he? Someone died in the explosion orchestrated by his business rivals, but even as his funeral is scheduled, his mourning employees are receiving bewildering messages from their boss. And the world around them is warping and regressing in ways which suggest that their own time is running out. If it hasn't already.

«Everyone who's in business, works for a business, or even just gives others the business is amazed: Scott Adams never lacks for yet another way to lampoon the corporate world. It's not that Adams is anti-business. He's more anti-bad boss than anything. But poor management practices, the effects of bad decisions, and what it all means for the average worker add up to more comedic material than even the man who created Dilbert can tame. Since Dilbert was first syndicated in 1989, Adams has built a following that would be the envy of any corporate sales and marketing team. His work not only generates howls from readers as they rush to plaster it on lunch-room refrigerators and scan it into interoffice e-mails, it has those same fans reading about «their» workplaces every Sunday in a multiple-panel, color format. And that's what this treasury, The Collected Dilbert Sundays, provides. This collection offers yet another glimpse into the zany life of Dilbert, Dogbert, Ratbert, and the rest of the crazy cube crew through the masterpiece Sunday comics. Here's even more of the great Adams's irony, sarcasm, and satire that so many have come to depend upon to cope with the corporate workplace. The Collected Dilbert Sundays humorously continues the tradition of poking fun at the world of business from which we all seek to temporarily escape.»

In this book, based on a series of talks that he gave at a Tibetan Buddhist center in Delhi during the 1990s, the Dalai Lama examines the nature of the human mind and emphasizes the need for each of us to transform ourselves if we wish to lead more fulfilling lives. In his disarmingly personal style, he discusses suffering, happiness, love, and truth, and offers practical wisdom on issues ranging from religious tolerance to the world economy. Stressing the need for compassion and non-violence, the Dalai Lama reiterates the essential goodness of the human heart and teaches us how to live and die well, reminding us constantly of the responsibility of our actions and thoughts.

«This study of Pre-Raphaelite painters and poets reveals a style-derived from the idealized view of nature in the early Italian Renaissance-steeped in mythology and literary allusion and very popular today with lovers of romantic art and poetry. 125 illustrations, 95 in full color, 5 x 7»

«In this charming sequel to the classic «Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs», Kate and Henry eagerly await Grandpa's return from a vacation that his postcard says has been one of the best and most unusual ever. Thinking about that postcard Kate drifts off to sleep that night and... «With Henry as my co-pilot...» she visits the strange land of Chewandswallow — a land characterized by massive amounts of food, immense carrots, leafy jungles of lettuce, and tuna fish sandwiches so gigantic they have to be moved by helicopter. What the people of Chewandswallow are doing with all that food is most intriguing of all. Fans of «Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs» will applaud this return trip with its underlying message of generosity and a world community.»

«The Kitchen Planner» takes the confusion out of kitchen redesign and puts the fun back in. Filled with advice and suggestions for everything from the quick touch-up to a complete makeover, this innovative guide covers it all. The uniquely designed section of tri-split pages allows for effortless mixing and matching of wall colors, cabinetry, and floors. The reusable stickers and layout grid make it simple to experiment with a variety of floor plans. And the informational charts written specifically for singles, couples, families, and people with special needs can help anyone design the perfect kitchen for their particular lifestyle. Packed with color photographs, resourceful text, and countless expert suggestions, «The Kitchen Planner» is a practical, convenient, and necessary tool for any kitchen remodeling project.»

A retelling of classic children's tales by The Brothers Grimm, including Snow White, Rumpelstiltskin, Ashputtel (Cinderella) and Little Red-cap. This interpretation by Carol Ann Duffy seeks to remove the sugariness of contemporary versions and return to the orginal, darker mould.

The ever increasing art historical attention being paid to the School of Leonardo lies at the root of this volume published almost sixty years after Suida's classic treatment of the subject. This is the first time since then that Lombard art of Leonardesque inspiration has been the object of a systematic analysis embracing a period of around half a century starting from 1490. The essays opening the volume provide an overview dealing with the environment, the organisation and the working practices of Leonardo's atelier and the problems faced by historians, whilst each artist is discussed in a critical profile that, taking into account the most recent academic research, acts a brief but up-to-date monograph.

Substance D — otherwise known as Death — is the most dangerous drug ever to find its way on to the black market. It destroys the links between the brain's two hemispheres, leading first to disorentation and then to complete and irreversible brain damage. Bob Arctor, undercover narcotics agent, is trying to find a lead to the source of supply, but to pass as an addict he must become a user, and soon, without knowing what is happening to him, he is as dependent as any of the addicts he is monitoring.

«In her latest installment of The Vampire Chronicles, Anne Rice brings readers the story of Armand — eternally young, with the face of a Botticelli angel — who first appeared in his dark glory in «Interview with the Vampire». Moving through scenes of luxury, of ambush, fire, and devil worship to 19th-century Paris and toady's New Orleans, this romantic hero is forced to choose between his twilight immortality and the salvation of his immortal soul.»

We are in Paris on the Left Bank. The time is now. David meets Pandora in a crowded café, where she recounts her vampire tale — Pandora, two thousand years old, a Child of the Millennia, the first vampire ever made by the great Marius. David persuades her to write for him the story of her life. We see Pandora from her mortal girlhood as the daughter of aristocrats in the peaceful Rome of Caesar Augustus through her perilous journey towards the vampire Marius, who will bestow on her the Dark Gift, and the tale of their two centuries together before they are tragically lost to each other.

F. E. Halliday presents in vivid detail what we know about Shakespeare's life after three centuries of discovery, and illuminates and animates the story with illustrations of Elizabethan personalities, pages from the early folios, maps, and photographs of Stratford-upon-Avon. Much of the great playwright's biography is mysterious, but Halliday (an authority on Elizabethan and Jacobean literature, and especially on Shakespeare) documents the Bard's life and work — reassuring us, incidentally, that William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon really was the author of the plays attributed to him.