penguing group (4 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. A beautiful book, limited only by the fact that the front (or rear) book jacket,is lumpy from having been wet. A collections of poems, bon mots, and wry observations. Beautiful art work, taken from vintage illustrations from advertisements, greeting cards, postcards and magazines.

Trade Paperback. Condition: Very Good. W. Eugene Smith/Magnum (Cover Photo) (illustrator). 199 pp. Solidly bound copy with moderate external wear, crisp pages and clean text. Slightly creased spine and front cover.

small, grey, black & full color illustrated hardcover 8vo. (octavo). dustwrapper in protective plastic book jacket cover. very fine cond. mint cond. looks new. like new. as new. binding square & tight. covers clean. edges clean. contents free of markings. dustwrapper in fine cond. not worn or torn or price clipped. nice clean copy. no library markings, store stamps, stickers, bookplates, no names, inking, underlining, remainder markings etc~. first edition. first printing (#1 in # line). deckled foredge. xv+190p. sources. bibliography. biography. american history. religion. mormonism. ~ Robert Remini' s work on the Jacksonian epoch has won him acclaim as well as the National Book Award. In Joseph Smith, he employs his keen insight and rich storytelling gifts to explore one of the period's major figures. The most important reformer and innovator in American religious history, Joseph Smith has remained a fascinating enigma to many both inside and outside the Mormon Church, which he founded. Born in 1805, Smith grew up during the Second Great Awakening, when secular tumult had spawned radical religious fervor and countless new sects. His contemplative nature and soaring imagination~the first of his many visions occurred at the age of fourteen~were nurtured in the close, loving family created by his deeply devout parents. His need to lead and be recognized was met by his mission as God's vehicle for a new faith and by the multitudes who, mesmerized by his charm and charismatic preaching, flocked to the Mormon Church. Remini brings Smith into unprecedented focus and contextualizes his enduring contributions to American life and culture within the distinctive characteristics of an extraordinary age.

tan & black 1/2 cloth hardbound 8vo. 8º (octavo). dustwrapper in protective plastic book jacket cover. fine cond. looks new. like new. binding square & tight. covers clean. edges clean. one page corner turndown, otherwise contents free of markings. dustwrapper in fine cond. not worn or torn or price clipped. nice clean copy. no library markings or store stamps, no stickers or bookplates, no names, no inking , no underlining, no remainder markings etc ~. first american edition so stated. first printing ( # 1 in # line). endpaper maps. x+435p. 16 pages of glossy b&w photos & illustrations. note on sources.bibliography. index. world history. politics. french history. communism. franco~prussian war. history of paris. ~ PARIS in 1869 was known to the world as "the new Babylon," an amalgam of greed and what can only be called glitz. Based on hundreds of contemporary sources, Rupert Christiansen's Paris Babylon is a living, breathing evocation of seven explosive years in the life of that city. Readers will be thankfully aware from the moment they begin the prologue~an enthusiastic guide to Paris written for English and American tourists in 1869~ that this is a far cry from dusty academic history. As Christiansen illustrates with marvelous immediacy, the carnival facade of the Second Empire, presided over by the aging libertine Louis Napoleon and his unpopular fashion plate of a wife, the Empress Eugenie, masked an empty soul. The Empire may have been destined to collapse under the weight of its own corruption, but in the meantime there was fun to be had and money to be made. A genius of self~promotion, Louis Napoleon managed to sustain his reign of "quiet tyranny" more by propaganda than by active repression. Christiansen begins his account of the tottering Empire with a wonderfully gossipy description of Louis Napoleon's massive (and hugely boring) hunting parties at Cornpiegne. From there he moves on to Paris, chronicling everything from its fervor for shopping, its gourmandise, and its anxieties about sex to its legendary artists, who included Baudelaire, Monet, Degas, Offenbach, and Zola. But this dazzling city, rebuilt by the brilliant and ruthless social engineer Baron Haussmann to showcase the splendors of the Second Empire~its grands magasins, grands boulevards, and grandes horizontales (as the famous courtesans of the day were called)~ was soon to be wracked by the Franco~Prussian War, the five~month Siege of Paris and the bloody civil war that followed it, and the subsequent emergence of the Commune. Christiansen depicts these large events as unforgettably as the small ones, never losing sight of the contexts and motivations that give the story meaning. The reader will come away from Paris Babylon with a vivid portrait of the "noisy multifariousness and confusion" that was~and is~Paris.