Alison Lurie Livres

" Sur fond de Californie des années 60, ce chassé-croisé des couples passé au regard laser d'Alison Lurie donne un étourdissant cocktail d'intelligence et de drôlerie ".

Juillet 1935. Le décor idyllique d'une ancienne ferme dans un vallon boisé de l'Etat de New York. Dans ce lieu où elle a passé son enfance, Anna, qui dirige maintenant une école " progressiste ", a invité pour le long week-end du 4 juillet deux couples d'amis, les Hubbard et les Zimmern, dont les fillettes, enfants uniques toutes deux, sont ses élèves. De ce petit monde réuni dans un coin de campagne isolé (à l'abri de la crise qui ébranle l'Amérique) pour quelques jours de vie commune, Alison Lurie brosse une peinture pleine d'humour. Une comédie de mœurs dont les personnages nous sont présentés en une suite de tableaux allègres, et de scènes dialoguées d'une saisissante vérité ;

Pour des anglicistes américains, un congé d'études à Londres, c'est le rêve. Vinnie Miner et Fred Turner, deux professeurs de collège en Nouvelle-Angleterre, vont réaliser leur rêve anglophile, loin de la "barbarie" américaine. Le bonheur de lecture vient du fait que Alison Lurie décrit avec intelligence et humour l'ambiguïté des attitudes américaines vis-à-vis de l'Angleterre. Connivence feinte, hypocrisie, fascination réciproque ou rejet mutuel, complexe d'infériorité ou de supériorité. Tous ces sentiments conflictuels ne cessent de se croiser et font de ce livre réjouissant le plus anglais des romans américains. Alison Lurie a reçu pour ce livre le Prix Pulitzer en 1983.

Virginia Miner, a fifty-something, unmarried tenured professor, is in London to work on her new book about children’s folk rhymes. Despite carrying a U.S. passport, Vinnie feels essentially English and rather looks down on her fellow Americans. But in spite of that, she is drawn into a mortifying and oddly satisfying affair with an Oklahoman tourist who dresses more Bronco Billy than Beau Brummel. Also in London is Vinnie’s colleague Fred Turner, a handsome, flat broke, newly separated, and thoroughly miserable young man trying to focus on his own research. Instead, he is distracted by a beautiful and unpredictable English actress and the world she belongs to. Both American, both abroad, and both achingly lonely, Vinnie and Fred play out their confused alienation and dizzying romantic liaisons in Alison Lurie’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Smartly written, poignant, and witty, Foreign Affairs remains an enduring comic masterpiece. “A splendid comedy, very bright, brilliantly written in a confident and original manner. The best book by one of our finest writers.” –Elizabeth Hardwick “There is no American writer I have read with more constant pleasure and sympathy. . . . Foreign Affairs earns the same shelf as Henry James and Edith Wharton.” –John Fowles “If you manage to read only a few good novels a year, make this one of them.” – USA Today “An ingenious, touching book.” – Newsweek “A flawless jewel.” – Philadelphia Inquirer

The first shots are fired when Erica discovers that her husband is sleeping with a blond student named Wendy. Brian tries to make peace by announcing that he is breaking off the affair, and his wife promises to forgive him, but both fail to observe the terms of the truce. Erica frets and spies; Brian not only takes up with Wendy again, but makes her pregnant; and the war between the Tates is joined.

Jenny has devoted her life to her husband, the naturalist Wilkie Walker. She is as rare a creature as the endangered species he works to preserve. But this year, as winter comes on, Wilkie seems distant and depressed. In desperation Jenny persuades him to visit Key West, but the sun and tropical scenery do nothing to cheer him up.

This collection showcases a diverse array of European folktales featuring strong, resourceful heroines who defy traditional gender roles. The young protagonists are active and courageous, capable of battling giants, solving riddles, and outsmarting evil forces. These tales, often overlooked in earlier compilations, highlight the wit and bravery of women, presenting them as dynamic characters rather than passive figures. Through these stories, readers are introduced to a rich tapestry of female empowerment in folklore.

Most of the enduring works of great children's literature are subversive in one way or another, maintains the author. In this book she looks at authors who have written with dangerous directness to the young.

Faculty wife Emily Stockwell Turner is beautiful, rich, and principled. However, five years in a marriage devoid of passion is enough to propel Emmy, despite her principles, into an affair with silver-tongued Will Thomas, a self-confessed libertine. The shocking, unforeseen consequences of their affair shatter Emmy's most cherished delusions about friendship, romance, and the ties that bind.

This is another novel by the author of Foreign Affairs.

Janet Smith, a self-confessed sensitive lady writer, compares Illyria, a luxurious retreat for artists, to heaven when she first arrives. But before long she starts to see its guests as children, madmen and demons, as she makes disturbing discoveries about everyone there - including herself.

In the name of sociological research, two scientists infiltrate the ranks of the Truth Seekers--a rather ridiculous small-town cult whose credo involves sex, spiritualism, and a flying saucer messiah. Exposed to the persuasive energies of a sensuous high priestess, the men of science are forced to question seriously their superstitious belief that they can chart, understand, and control the workings of the human mind.

Jenny has devoted her life to her husband, the famous naturalist Wilkie Walker. But this year, as winter comes on, Wilkie seems distant and depressed. In desperation Jenny persuades him to visit Key West, but the sun and tropical scenery do nothing to cheer him up. As he grows even stranger, Jenny becomes involved with some intriguing local characters including Gerry, an ex-beatnik poet, and Lee, the dramatically attractive manager of a women-only guest house. Wife, secretary, confidante, housekeeper - might Jenny at last break free from her role as Wilkie's support act? WITH A NEW PREFACE FROM ALISON LURIE 'Full of sparkish - indeed Muriel Sparkish - observations and gently subversive wit... Lurie beautifully handles the ecstatic liberation of lesbian love' Independent

The first shots are fired when Erica discovers that her husband is sleeping with a blond student named Wendy. Brian tries to make peace by announcing that he is breaking off the affair, and his wife promises to forgive him, but both fail to observe the terms of the truce. Erica frets and spies; Brian not only takes up with Wendy again, but makes her pregnant; and the war between the Tates is joined.

Lurie's essays provide a humorous and candid exploration of her experiences at Radcliffe during WWII, highlighting the challenges faced by women in academia. She reflects on her initial struggles as a writer and the eventual recognition she achieved, fostering connections with notable figures like Robert Silver and Edward Gorey. Through insightful and often amusing commentary, she delves into themes such as literary deconstruction and beloved children's literature, offering readers a rich and entertaining perspective on her life's journey.

The classic book about the clothes we wear and what they say about us.Even before we speak to someone in a meeting, at a party, or on the street, our clothes often express important information (or misinformation) about our occupation, origin, personality, opinions, and tastes. And we pay close attention to how others dress as well; though we may not be able to put what we observe into words, we unconsciously register the information, so that when we meet and converse we have already spoken to one another in a universal tongue.Alison Lurie, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, is our savvy guide and interpreter on this tour through the history of fashion. She provides fascinating insights into how changing sex roles, political upheavals, and class structure have influenced costume. Whether she is describing the enormous amount of clothing worn by early Victorian women or illuminating the significance of the long robes worn by aging men throughout history to connote eminence, her analysis is playful, clever, and always on target.

In 1981 Alison Lurie published The Language of Clothes , a meditation on costume and fashion as an expression of history, social status and individual psychology. Amusing, enlightening and full of literary allusion, the book was highly praised and widely anthologized. Now Lurie has returned with a companion book, The Language of Houses , a lucid, provocative and entertaining look at how the architecture of buildings and the spaces within them both reflect and affect the people who inhabit them. Schools, churches, government buildings, museums, prisons, hospitals, restaurants, and of course, houses and apartments―all of them speak to human experience in vital and varied ways. The Language of Houses discusses historical and regional styles and the use of materials such as stone and wood and concrete, as well as contemplating the roles of stairs and mirrors, windows and doors, tiny rooms and cathedral-like expanses, illustrating its conclusions with illuminating literary references and the comments of experts in the field. Accompanied by lighthearted original drawings, The Language of Houses is an essential and highly entertaining new contribution to the literature of modern architecture.

Alan Mackenzie's bad back is ruining both his and his wife Jane's lives. After years of happy marriage, these two attractive and intelligent people have stopped making love and are starting to resent each other. However, the arrival of a new couple in town - the beautiful and egoistic writer Delia and her cynical husband Henry - heralds a period of dramatic change for the Mackenzies. Truth and Consequences is a comedy about love and its disguises, and identity and change - about the small disasters and sudden attractions that can turn even the most stable relationship upside down.

Two sociologists infiltrate a cult from which madness might be the only escape Once the nation’s most popular sociologist, Tom McMann has fallen out of style lately. Desperate for a last shot at relevance, he targets the Truth Seekers, an up-and-coming cult that seems destined for the big time. An irresistible mixture of New Age cranks and sci-fi nerds, they are ruled over by Verena, a beautiful young telepath who believes she has a hotline to another planet. The Seekers are isolated, committed, and eccentric, but most importantly, they’re hiring. Assisted by his wide-eyed young colleague, Roger Zimmern, McMann infiltrates the Truth Seekers, hoping to see how the zealots respond if questioned by someone within their midst. But when Verena’s babblings start to make a little too much sense, the researchers must choose between losing their minds and buying one-way tickets to outer space. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Alison Lurie including rare images from the author’s collection.

Polly Alter, eine frisch geschiedene Kunsthistorikerin, nimmt den Auftrag an, die Biographie der verschwundenen Malerin Lorin Jones zu schreiben, die unter mysteriösen Umständen starb. Dabei erkennt sie, wie gefährlich es sein kann, sich in das Leben anderer zu vertiefen, während man selbst in der Luft hängt.

En Gente de verdad seis personajes conviven durante dos semanas de verano en una gran casa de campo para concentrarse en su trabajo lejos de las presiones del mundo exterior. La diferencia entre lo aparente y lo real, entre los roles sociales y la propia identidad, flotará en el ambiente, aunque con cierto sentido del humor, para descubrirnos una historia de insatisfacción, de amor, de superación femenina y de vanidad.

Bei der Familie Tate war noch bis vor kurzem alles in Ordnung: die Ehe so wenig getrübt wie die Freude an den Kindern, das Heim behaglich. Mit einem Mal ist nichts mehr in Ordnung. In der Nachbarschaft entstehen scheußliche Häuser, die Kinder benehmen sich unerträglich, und Erica Tate muß entdecken, daß ihr Mann Brian sie mit einer Studentin betrügt. Sie will klug, großzügig handeln; es gelingt ihr nicht. Was belanglose Episode schien, ›eskaliert‹, das Aufbegehren der Frauen gegen die Männerherrschaft, der Protest der Campus-Jugend gegen die scheinbar Etablierten sind bereits Handlungen eines Krieges, eines Generationskrieges, eines Krieges der Geschlechter. Und dieser kleine, private Krieg entspricht dem großen, bösen Krieg im Fernen Osten, dem amerikanischen Trauma.

Eine Frau kurz vor der Heirat, die vom Geist ihrer Vorgängerin verfolgt wird, eine Ehefrau mit Diätvorsätzen, welche sich plötzlich nicht nur von süßen Versuchungen, sondern auch von dicken Leuten umstellt sieht, ein Toter, der seine Verlobte jedesmal heimsucht, wenn sie einen neuen Verehrer küssen will - Alison Luries Figuren mit ihrem vom 'normalen' Alltag gar nicht so weit entfernten Wahn.