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

Ce livre est l'un des plus célèbres roman d'Alison Lurie. Publié en 1975, il satirise toute l'Amérique des années 60 et 70, pendant la guerre du Vietnam.

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.