Books by Patrick Coleman

The Wild Ass's Skin (Oxford World's Classics)

by Honore de Balzac, Helen Constantine, Patrick Coleman

The first new English translation for more than 35 years of Balzac's extraordinary The Wild Ass's Skin, it is also the first edition in English to include Balzac's original Preface of 1831. This novel has been freshly translated by Helen Constantine, who captures Balzac's stylistic energy and exuberance. Patrick Coleman's wide-ranging introduction considers the multiple perspectives of the novel, its conceptualization of historical change, and its satirical commentary on contemporary society. His extensive notes clarify Balzac's many allusions to the culture and society of his time. The book also includes an up-to-date bibliography and helpful map of Paris in 1830.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

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The Churchgoer: A Novel

by Patrick Coleman

A LitHub Most Anticipated Book of Summer
"The Churchgoer isn't a typical noir novel--it's a smart new twist on the genre.... Defiantly original and faithful to its literary predecessors--the novel's pacing is perfect." --Michael Schaub, Los Angeles Times
A haunting debut literary noir about a former pastor's search to find a missing woman in the toxic, contradictory underbelly of southern California.
"He was finished with church, with God, with all of it. But to find the girl, he has to go back." In Mark Haines's former life, he was an evangelical youth pastor, a role model, and a family man--until he abandoned his wife, his daughter, and his beliefs. Now he's marking time between sunny days surfing and dark nights working security at an industrial complex. His isolation is broken when Cindy, a charming twenty-two-year old drifter he sees hitchhiking on the Pacific Coast Highway, hustles him for a breakfast and a place to crash--two cynical kindred spirits. Then his co-worker is murdered in a robbery gone wrong and Cindy disappears on the same night. Haines knows he should let it go and return to his safe life of solitude. Instead, he's driven to find out where Cindy went, under stranger and stranger circumstances. Soon Mark is chasing leads, each one taking him back into a world where his old life came crashing down--into the seedier side of southern California's drug trade and ultimately into the secrets of an Evangelical megachurch where his past and his future are about to converge. What begins as an investigation becomes a haunting mystery and a psychological journey both for Mark, and for the elusive young stranger he won't let get away.
Set in the early 2000s, The Churchgoer is a gripping noir, a quiet subversion of the genre, and a powerful meditation on belief, morality, and the nature of evil in contemporary life.

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The Girl with the Golden Eyes and Other Stories (Oxford World's Classics)

by Honore de Balzac, Peter Collier, Patrick Coleman

Sexual attraction, artistic insight, and the often ironic relationship between them are the dominant themes in the three short works by Balzac collected in this volume.

In Sarrasine, an impetuous young sculptor falls in love with a diva of the Roman stage, but rapture turns to rage when he discovers the reality behind the seductiveness of the singer's voice. The ageing artist in The Unknown Masterpiece, obsessed with his creation of the perfect image of an ideal woman, tries to hide it from the jealous young student who is desperate for a glimpse of it. And in The Girl with the Golden Eyes, the hero is a dandy whose attractiveness for the mysterious Paquita has an unexpected origin. These enigmatic and disturbing forays into the margins of madness, sexuality, and creativity show Balzac spinning fantastic tales as profound as any of his longer fictions.

This volume is the only edition to bring these three great Balzac novellas together in one book, and it is the first paperback collection to include Sarrasine. Patrick Coleman's Introduction builds on the latest scholarship to help the reader appreciate the connections between notions of gender and the aesthetic explorations of nineteenth-century French romanticism and realism. The edition also includes thorough notes which explain all important cultural and political references.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

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No copies available.