Work. A Story of Experience

A story about a nineteenth-century woman’s search for a meaningful life through work outside the family sphere, Work is at once Alcott’s exploration of her personal challenges and a social critique of America.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

A timely and vivid look at Scotland’s long and difficult road to nationhood, re-exploring some cherished myths and unearthing a wealth of fascinating new detail.This edition contains a limited number of illustrations.Magnus Magnusson’s starting point is Sir Walter Scott’s classic version of Scotland’s history, ‘Tales of a Grandfather’ (1827-29), which has moulded the views of generations of Scottish schoolchildren. Like Scott, Magnus Magnusson is a master story teller. In investigating the many questions raised by the nation’s turbulent and often poignant past, he gives full weight to the living treasure of local legends and tradition which he believes has as much resonance as academic analysis.Where did the ‘Scots’ come from? What is the truth about such historical figures as Macbeth, William Wallace and Robert Bruce? What was the significance of the tragic reign of Mary Queen of Scots? What was the impact of Bonnie Prince Charlie and his brutal defeat at Culloden?Incorporating the findings of many leading modern historians, ‘Scotland: The Story of a Nation’ casts the nation’s history in a fascinating new light. It is essential reading for anyone with an interest in Scotland at this pivotal moment in its history.

On December 31, when only some hours were left to the New Year the police patrols who were on night shift took anybody whom they doubted to the police department. The people who were caught by the police belonged to different age, sex and groups. A woman who had been forgotten by her relatives... A wan who got the wound of love.. Another man who couldn't find his place in life... A young guy who was the victim of false love. A young girl who was deceived for her naivety. Though they belong to different age, to different groups of the society, there is one thing that unites them: GRIEF... All of them are chased by the society, but none of them broke the law. Different from the others they are sure that a new truth is the child of the old lie. And they made up mind to gather all sorrowful people around them. Let them share their grief which they can't bear when they are lonely.

On December 31, when only some hours were left to the New Year the police patrols who were on night shift took anybody whom they doubted to the police department. The people who were caught by the police belonged to different age, sex and groups. A woman who had been forgotten by her relatives... A wan who got the wound of love.. Another man who couldn't find his place in life... A young guy who was the victim of false love. A young girl who was deceived for her naivety. Though they belong to different age, to different groups of the society, there is one thing that unites them: GRIEF... All of them are chased by the society, but none of them broke the law. Different from the others they are sure that a new truth is the child of the old lie. And they made up mind to gather all sorrowful people around them. Let them share their grief which they can't bear when they are lonely.

Not only is it the best song I ever wrote, it's the best song anybody ever wrote. Irving Berlin, 1942A biography of the single most important record in the history of popular musicA vividly written narrative about the world's best-loved popular song, White Christmas provides both the story behind the making of Irving Berlin's most memorable tune and a rich cultural history of the America that embraced it.When Irving Berlin first conceived the song «White Christmas», he envisioned it as «a throwaway» – a satirical novelty number for a vaudeville-style stage review. By the time Bing Crosby introduced the song to the world in the winter of 1942, it was a yuletide ballad that would become the world's all-time top-selling and most frequently recorded song. Berlin, the Russian-Jewish immigrant who became America's greatest pop troubadour, had written his magnum opus – what one commentator has called a «holiday Moby-Dick» – a timeless song that resonates with some of the deepest strains in American culture: yearning for an idealised New England past, belief in the magic of the «merry and bright» Christmas season, longing for the sanctuaries of home and hearth. Today the song endures not just as an icon of the national Christmas celebration but as the artistic and commercial peak of the golden age of popular song arising from the Jewish-American assimilation, and a symbol of the values and strivings of the World War II generation.‘White Christmas’ is both a period page-turner, tracing the story of the song's making amid the vibrant world of mid-century Broadway and Hollywood, and a chronicle of the song's legacy through today, when Berlin's masterpiece endures as a secular hymn.

This Sunday Times Bestseller is the memoir of Britain’s best loved food writer, Nigel Slater.TOAST is Nigel Slater’s truly extraordinary story of a childhood remembered through food. Whether relating his mother’s ritual burning of the toast, his father’s dreaded Boxing Day stew or such culinary highlights of the day as Arctic Roll and Grilled Grapefruit (then considered something of a status symbol in Wolverhampton) this remarkable memoir vividly recreates daily life in sixties surburban England.His mother was a chops-and-peas sort of cook, exasperated by the highs and lows of a temperamental AGA, a finicky little son and the asthma that was to prove fatal. His father was a honey-and-crumpets man who could occasionally go off ‘crack’ like a gun. When Nigel’s widowed father takes on a housekeeper with social aspirations and a talent in the kitchen, the following years become a heartbreaking cooking contest for his father’s affections. But as he slowly loses the battle, Nigel finds a new outlet for his culinary talents, and we witness the birth of what was to become a lifelong passion for food.Nigel’s likes and dislikes, aversions and sweet-toothed weaknesses form a fascinating and amusing backdrop to this incredibly moving and deliciously evocative memoir of childhood, adolescence and sexual awakening.

On 7 July 2005, Julie Nicholson's life was changed forever. Her daughter, Jenny, was killed on her way to work in the London bombings, shaking Julie's beliefs. With heartbreaking honesty and integrity, Julie tells her story of love, tragedy and heartache for the first time.Jenny Nicholson was travelling to work when a bomb exploded at Edgware Road Tube station. Her mother, Reverend Julie Nicholson, was on holiday in Anglesey at the time and watched the situation unfold on the television before travelling to London to search for her missing daughter. After five terrible days, her daughter's death was confirmed. Struggling to comprehend the tragedy, Julie's sorrow and longing for her beloved daughter turned to rage and anger at the senseless death.In what will doubtless be considered a landmark grief memoir, Julie Nicholson takes us painstakingly through each moment from when Jenny fails to answer her mobile, to anointing her body.Devastatingly honest and courageous, Julie tells of her love and loss as only a mother can.

“My husband died, my life collapsed.”On a February morning, Joyce Carol Oates drove her ailing husband, Raymond Smith, to the Princeton Medical Center where he was diagnosed with pneumonia. In less than a week, Ray was dead and Joyce was faced – totally unprepared – with the reality of widowhood.In this beautiful and heart-breaking account, Joyce takes us through what it is to become a widow: the derangement of denial, the anguish of loss, the disorientation of the survivor and the solace of friendship. Acutely perceptive and intensely moving, A Widow’s Story is at once a truly personal account and an extraordinary and universal story of life and death, love and grief.

For anyone who has ever dreamed of finding true love only to discover that happy endings are just the beginning comes this brilliantly comic novel about marriage, ex-girlfriends, ‘performance anxiety’, and what it takes to make happily ever last beyond the honeymoon.William Walker has just married Isabel, the girl of his dreams. The happy couple live in a small flat in north London while William labours away at his magazine job, revelling in his recent promotion from a column for which he was required to taste different brands of cat food to more dignified reportage. So far, so perfect.But William has a Bridget Jones-ish knack for messing up the happiest of situations – he can’t help shouting at the obnoxiously precocious work experience girl and has an embarrassing tendency to forget names of women he has previously tried to sleep with. It doesn’t help that Isabel’s creepy best friend Alex is very obviously in love with her. Nor that Saskia, a vixen-ish old flame of William’s, has just moved in downstairs. As Alex slithers his way into Isabel’s heart, Saskia seems intent on resuming relations with William – or at least giving Isabel that impression.Increasingly beset, increasingly unlucky and increasingly hilarious, William battles his way through a series of comic disasters that threaten to destroy his relationship and reduce him to a state of sad bachelorhood – a fate, he soon realises, worse than death.

The story of the greatest British sit-com and its enduring appeal.When we laugh at Dad's Army we laugh at ourselves, and nearly fifty years after it was first broadcast, millions of us are still laughing – whenever and wherever it is repeated. With contributions from the people who planned, produced and performed the programme, and material drawn from the BBC archives, acclaimed author Graham McCann has written the definitive story of a very British comedy.This edition does not include any illustrations.