Often likened to Kafka's The Castle, The Tartar Steppe is both a scathing critique of military life and a meditation on the human thirst for glory. It tells of young Giovanni Drogo, who is posted to a distant fort overlooking the vast Tartar steppe. Although not intending to stay, Giovanni suddenly finds that years have passed, as, almost without his noticing, he has come to share the others' wait for a foreign invasion that never happens. Over time the fort is downgraded and Giovanni's ambitions fade--until the day the enemy begins massing on the desolate steppe...

Mary Shelley’s classic Frankenstein continues to be relevant in today’s modern frenzy of scientific advances. The story of the too-curious Victor Frankenstein and his monster, driven to savageness by his unnatural birth and lack of connection with human society, might be a horror story, but it is also a commentary on human hubris, unthinking pursuit of knowledge, and the consequences of these flaws. Higher Read's Read It. Know It. edition of Frankenstein provides you with an understanding of all of the layers of this book. The original text included in this edition allows you to read the book as Mary Shelley wrote it, and our original content helps you understand the novel more thoroughly. Character and narrative summaries provide you with an at-a-glance reminder of what the original book holds, while our "Read It and Know It" sections explore literary themes in the book. Like Dr. Frankenstein, you can expand your knowledge and satisfy your curiosity. Just try not to build a murderous monstrosity while you do it. So whether you want to read the whole book, just want a reminder of the story, or are interested in exploring the important themes in Frankenstein, Higher Read's Read It. Know It. edition provides an all-in-one book that's right for you.

This celebration of the poet's passionate love for his immortal Beatrice weaves together rapturous sonnets and canzoni with prose commentaries and an autobiographical narrative. A predecessor to The Divine Comedy, La Vita Nuova (The New Life) also serves as an ever-relevant treatise on the art and technique of poetry.

Accomplished in his career but unaccomplished in love, a middle-aged architect is torn apart by his obsession with an enigmatic young woman in this delicately told story of desire and abjection by a titan of Italian literature. Antonio Dorigo is a successful architect in Milan, nearing fifty, who has always been afraid of women. A regular at an upscale brothel for years, he mourns the lack of close female companionship in his life. One afternoon, the madam at the brothel introduces Tonio to “a new girl,” Laide. Tonio sees nothing especially remarkable about her, though it intrigues him that she dances at La Scala and also at a strip club, and yet in a very short time he becomes completely obsessed with her. Laide leads Antonio on, confounds him, uses and humiliates him, treats him tenderly from time to time, lies to him, makes no apologies to him, and he loves her ever more. This helpless and hopeless love, he feels, is what he is, even as it prevents him from ever seeing Laide for who she is. Because Who is she? is the question at the heart of Buzzati’s clear-eyed and darkly comic tale of infatuation. Is A Love Affair a love story or is it a story of anything but love? Buzzati’s novel, with its psychological subtleties, vivid cityscapes, unsettling comedy, and compassion, keeps the reader guessing till the end.

Dino A. Brugioni, author of the best-selling account of the Cuban Missile crisis, Eyeball to Eyeball, draws on his long CIA career as one of the world's premier experts on aerial reconnaissance to provide the inside story of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's efforts to use spy planes and satellites to gather intelligence. He reveals Eisenhower to be a hands-on president who, contrary to popular belief, took an active role in assuring that the latest technology was used to gather aerial intelligence. This previously untold story of the secret Cold War program makes full use of the author's firsthand knowledge of the program and of information he gained from interviews with important participants. As a founder and senior officer of the CIA's National Photographic Interpretation Center, Brugioni was a key player in keeping Eisenhower informed of developments, and he sheds new light on the president's contributions toward building an effective and technologically advanced intelligence organization. The book provides details of the president's backing of the U-2's development and its use to dispel the bomber gap and to provide data on Soviet missile and nuclear efforts and to deal with crises in the Suez, Lebanon, Chinese Off Shore Islands, Tibet, Indonesia, East Germany, and elsewhere. Brugioni offers new information about Eisenhower's order of U-2 flights over Malta, Cyprus, Toulon, and Israel and subsequent warnings to the British, French, and Israelis that the U.S. would not support an invasion of Egypt. He notes that the president also backed the development of the CORONA photographic satellite, which eventually proved the missile gap with the Soviet Union didn't exist, and a variety of other satellite systems that detected and monitored problems around the world. The unsung reconnaissance roles played by Jimmy Doolittle and Edwin Land are also highlighted in this revealing study of Cold War espionage.

Make the right architectural decisions up front - and improve the quality and reliability of your .NET applications. Led by two enterprise programming experts, you'll learn how to apply the patterns and techniques that help control project complexity - and make systems easier to build, support, and upgrade - right from the start.

The Dissection of Vertebrates covers several vertebrates commonly used in providing a transitional sequence in morphology. With illustrations on seven vertebrates – lamprey, shark, perch, mudpuppy, frog, cat, pigeon – this is the first book of its kind to include high-quality, digitally rendered illustrations. This book received the Award of Excellence in an Illustrated Medical Book from the Association of Medical Illustrators. It is organized by individual organism to facilitate classroom presentation. This illustrated, full-color primary dissection manual is ideal for use by students or practitioners working with vertebrate anatomy. This book is also recommended for researchers in vertebrate and functional morphology and comparative anatomy. The result of this exceptional work offers the most comprehensive treatment than has ever before been available. - Received the Award of Excellence in an Illustrated Medical Book from the Association of Medical Illustrators - Expertly rendered award-winning illustrations accompany the detailed, clear dissection direction - Organized by individual organism to facilitate classroom presentation - Offers coverage of a wide range of vertebrates - Full-color, strong pedagogical aids in a convenient lay-flat presentation