Destroying Laura

Maria Shriver, Kim Kardashian, Stevie Wonder, Britney Spears . . . Who do they have in common? Top LA divorce lawyer Laura Wasser. If anyone ever had a platform to write a how to divorce book for today's generation, it's Laura Wasser. She has been practicing in her field for nearly twenty years, represented many of the country's top celebrities and has been celebrated for her unique style, her empathy and her expertise. Wasser's personal and professional life have been profiled by publications like the Los Angeles Times, Vogue and Interview. Most important, her approach and advice is different from almost any other and she articulates it in a simple manner. Laura Wasser addresses an entire generation who want—and need—to handle their breakups differently. It's no secret that the divorce rate in America is more than half the marriage rate. Yet the means for dissolving a relationship often seem hopelessly mired in an outdated perception of how it's supposed to be done. Wasser acknowledges that this generation's realities have evolved greatly since the previous generation's in almost every way, and that they want to get divorced cheaply and efficiently and maintain control of the process themselves. The daughter and partner of a prominent Los Angeles Family Law attorney, she has a deep history in the field, and she knows the available roads to uncontested resolution like nobody else. At times psychologist, at times strategist, and distinctly of this generation, Laura and her book will offer readers safer passage through what can be a devastating time, emotionally and financially.

Shortly before Vladimir Nabokov died in 1977, he left instructions that the draft for his last novel, The Original of Laura, be destroyed. But in 2008 Dmitri Nabokov, the writer's only child and sole surviving heir, contravened his father's wishes. Formed from novelistic fragments that had been hidden from the public eye for three decades, The Original of Laura is a construction based on the conjecture of the Nabokov estate, publishers, and scholars. Shades of Laura returns to the "scene of the crime," elucidating the process of publishing Nabokov's unfinished novel from its conception - the reproduction of 138 handwritten index cards - to the simultaneous publication of translations of the final text in several languages. The essays in this collection investigate the event of publication and reconstitute the book's critical reception, reproducing a selection of some of the most salient reviews. Critics condemned Dmitri's choice, but as contributors to this volume attest, there are many more "shades" and "nuances" to his decision. The book also endeavours to allow readers to understand and evaluate an incomplete novel; contributors analyze its plot, structure, imagery, and motifs. Published after prolonged public debate, Vladimir Nabokov's The Original of Laura was dubbed "the most eagerly awaited literary novel of this fledgling century." Covering the publication from a broad spectrum of perspectives, this collection reassesses the Nabokov canon and the roots of his literary prestige. Contributors include Paul Ardoin (Florida State University), Gennady Barabtarlo (University of Missouri), Brian Boyd (University of Auckland), Marijeta Bozovic (Colgate University), Maurice Couturier (University of Nice), Lara Delage-Toriel (Strasbourg University), Galya Diment (University of Washington), Leland de la Durantaye (Claremont McKenna College), Michael Juliar (Private collector), Eric Naiman (University of California, Berkeley), Ellen Pifer (University of Delaware), Anna Raffetto (Adelphi Publishing House, Milan), Michael Rodgers (University of Strathclyde), Rien Verhoef (Leiden University), Olga Voronina (Bard College), Tadashi Wakashima (Kyoto University), Michael Wood (Princeton University), and Barbara Wyllie (Slavonic and East European Review).

Trials of Laura Fair: Sex, Murder, and Insanity in the Victorian West

These essays apply influential, pathbreaking psychological studies about women's lives to literature. In their analyses of fictional portraits, contributors both challenge and confirm psychological theories about female identity, about 'connection/separation' as developmental catalysts, and about the impact of gender on 'voice, ' moral decision-making, and epistemology in relation to classical and contemporary literary texts, written by both women and men

With the publication of his ambitious new work Victorian Poets and the Politics of Culture, Antony H. Harrison continues his exploration of poetry as a significant force in the construction of English culture from 1837-1900. In chapters focusing on Victorian medievalist discourse, Alfred Tennyson, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Matthew Arnold, and Christina Rossetti, Harrison examines a range of Victorian poems in order to show the cultural work they accomplish. He illuminates, for example, such culturally prominent Victorian mythologies as the exaltation of motherhood, the Romanic appropriation of transcendent art, and the idealization of the gypsy as a culturally alien, exotic Other. His investigation of the ways in which the authors intervene in the discourses that articulate such mythologies and thereby accrue cultural power--along with his analysis of what constitutes "cultural power"--are original contributions to the field of Victorian studies. "The power of Victorian poetry by midcentury was enhanced by the institutionalization of particular channels through which it circulated," Harrison writes. "poetry was 'consumed' in more varied forms than was other literature." Victorian Poets and the Politics of Culture has implications for both cultural studies and the study of literature outside the Victorian period.

of Laura’s Quest Almost a decade after Christina Andrews’s death, her daughter, Laura, still grieved. She sensed that something was missing in her life, in spite of her successful law practice, a wonderful husband, and two precious daughters. Then came an unexpected call from her mother’s uncle, an invitation to visit him in New Jersey. Would a trip to her ancestral home be an opportunity to discover the answers she was seeking? Against the backdrop of South Jersey’s villages, farms, and pine barrens, this is the story of a quest that would unlock the doors to family secrets and change Laura’s life.

Susan Suleiman sets forth in this work an exchange with contemporary writers and artists.

When Lauras wealthy landowner father decides to transition her family from country to city life, she is filled with hopes and expectations. But the minute she arrives in the city, Laura feels like a caged bird. Dismayed about the noise and how close the houses are to each other, she wants nothing more than to return to the country. As school begins, Laura has no idea how challenging her journey is about to become. Hector is born a beautiful little boy who at age two begins developing the signs of a debilitating disease that robs him of a normal physical appearance. With all the mirrors removed from his house, Hector never realizes he is differentuntil his mother takes him to church with her one day. When Hector begins attending school, he crosses paths with Laura, who initially shuns his attempts to talk to her. After he pledges revenge, both Hector and Laura must decide whether to allow their circumstances to rule over them or rise above their challenges to become overcomers. The Tears of the Caterpillars shares the stories of two children and their families as they meet and influence each other in their journeys to realize their destinies.