The Comforters

Spark’s mind-bogglingly stunning 1957 debut With easy, sunny eeriness, Spark lights up the darkest things: blackmail, a drowning, nervous breakdowns, a ring of smugglers, a loathsome busybody, a diabolic bookseller, human evil.

'The greatest Scottish novelist of modern times.' Ian Rankin In this first novel by Muriel Spark - author of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - the only things that aren't ambiguous are Spark's matchless originality and glittering wit. With an introduction by Ali Smith. Caroline Rose is plagued by the tapping of typewriter keys and the strange, detached narration of her every thought and action. She has an unusual problem - she realises she is in a novel. Her fellow characters are also possibly deluded: Laurence, her former lover, finds diamonds in a loaf of bread - could his elderly grandmother really be a smuggler? And Baron Stock, her bookseller friend, believes he is on the trail of England's leading Satanist. 'A master of malice and mayhem.' Michiko Kakutani, New York Times 'Brilliantly original and fascinating.' Evelyn Waugh 'A light, clever, mirthful tour de force ... It disrupts and charms its readers with its combination of wit, precision, intelligence and hilarity. As vibrant as ever, more than fifty years after its first appearance.' Ali Smith

Focusing on patchwork style, this handy how-to presents 42 fun quilting projects for every occasion, from baby blankets, artistic quilts, and comforter shawls to foot warmers, throws, and bedspreads. Through step-by-step instructions, clear diagrams, and vivid photographs, the guide shows both beginners and experienced quilters how to create traditional designs with a modern twist. Starting off with a super easy project, each of the chapters--including Simple Comforts, Rolls & Squares, and Uncommon Quilts--caters to busy quilters looking to create quality pieces in minimal time. Mindful of both time and available resources, the instructional largely utilizes today's popular fabric cuts: 1.5-inch rolls, 2.5-inch rolls, 5-inch charms, and 10-inch squares. With several intermediate- and advanced-level designs, some of which feature both standard and 3-D appliqué, this lively tutorial is ideal for crafters seeking contemporary takes on classic quilts.

A slender satirical gem from the “master of malice and mayhem” (The New York Times) The Ballad of Peckham Rye is a wickedly farcical tale of an English factory town turned upside-down by a Scot who may or may not be in league with the Devil. Dougal Douglas is hired to do “human research” into the lives of the workers, Douglas stirs up mutiny and murder.

Where does art start or reality end? Happily loitering about London, c. 1949, with the intent of gathering material for her writing, Fleur Talbot finds a job “on the grubby edge of the literary world” at the very peculiar Autobiographical Association. Mad egomaniacs writing their memoirs in advance — or poor fools ensnared by a blackmailer? When the association’s pompous director steals Fleur’s manuscript, fiction begins to appropriate life.

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatever I have said unto you." John 14:26. Good old Simeon called Jesus the Consolation of Israel. And so He was. Before His actual appearance His name was the Day-Star, cheering the darkness and prophet of the rising sun. To Him they looked with the same hope which cheers the nightly watcher, when from the lonely castle top he sees the fairest of the stars and hails her as the usher of the morn. When He was on earth, He must have been the consolation of all those who were privileged to be His companions. We can imagine how readily the disciples would run to Christ to tell Him of their griefs and how sweetly with that matchless intonation of His voice, He would speak to them and bid their fears be gone. Like children, they would consider Him as their Father and to Him every need, every groan, every sorrow, every agony, would at once be carried and He, like a wise physician, had a balm for every wound He had mingled a cordial for their every care! And readily did He dispense some mighty remedy to allay all the fever of their troubles. Oh, it must have been sweet to have lived with Christ! Surely sorrows, then, were but joys in masks because they gave an opportunity to go to Jesus to have them removed! Oh, would to God some of us may say that we could have lain our weary heads upon the bosom of Jesus! And that our birth had been in that happy era when we might have heard His kind voice and seen His kind look when He said, "Let th e weary ones come unto Me."

Coffee, comforters, king-sized beds, gel toothpaste, razors, underwear, the morning shower-all activities and objects we have tended to pay no attention to-until the publication of this book. In a series of short vignettes endearingly illustrated by the author, Arthur Asa Berger gives Americans a profound way to understand their morning rituals. Have you ever considered, for instance, that the digital clock, by producing free-floating liquid numerals disconnecting us from both time past and time future, could be interpreted as a metaphor for the alienation many people feel in contemporary society? Or consider our nightclothes: The pajama is the most immediate witness to our sexual activities; thus, we cover our pajamas with a bathrobe to guard against the anxiety of being revealed to other family members. The pajama is intricately connected to human shame. Bloom's Morning, with thirty-six short chapters bracketed by brief essays on the nature of semiotic analysis, is a perfect book for the inquisitive mind. It is chock-full of valuable and quirky nuggets from this most interesting of social commentators-items that, taken together, give us a new vision through which to understand ourselves.

This volume focuses on a feature of executions that was unique to Renaissance Italy: the presence in prisons and on scaffolds of laymen, gathered in confraternities called "conforterie," who worked with prisoners to prepare them spiritually and psychologically for execution. The book includes both primary sources and a series of essays that expand on the theatrical, artistic, theological, musical, and historical contexts of comforting.