Fay Weldon Ordine dei libri

'Elegantly written, sharply perceptive and fantastically good fun' Daily Mail .

From a lioness of British literature, an absorbing, inventive novel of love, death and aristocracy in inter-war London Consider Vivien in November 1922. She is twenty four, and a spinster. She wears fashionably droopy clothes, but she is plain and – worse – intelligent. At nearly six foot tall, she is known unkindly by her family as 'the giantess'. Fortunately, Vivien is rich, so she can travel to London and bribe a charismatic London publisher to marry her. What he does not know is that Vivien is pregnant with another's child, and will die in childbirth in just a few months. Fay Weldon, with one eye on the present and one on the past, offers Vivien's fate to the reader, along with that of London between the wars: a city soaked in drizzle, peopled with flat-chested flappers, shell-shocked servicemen and aristocrats desperately clinging onto the past. Inventive, witty and empathetic, this is a spellbinding historical novel from one of the foremost novelists of our time.

The second novel in Fay Weldon's Love and Inheritance trilogy, following the lives and loves of an aristocratic family at the turn of the nineteenth century.

The third and final installment in Fay Weldon's Love & Inheritance trilogy sees the Dilbernes frantically preparing for a visit from the Royals The year is 1905 and King Edward VII has invited himself and his mistress to a shooting weekend with the Dilbernes. Now Isobel, the Countess, must turn a run-down mansion into a palace fit for a king. Just as well the family fortunes have been restored, but money can't solve everything--not even a kidnapping. The servants refuse to condone the King's morals; Isobel's daughter, Lady Rosina--now widowed and wealthy--insists on publishing a scandalous book, and the mis-spent pasts of Viscount Arthur and his Irish-American wife Minnie rear up to blacken the family name. When fate deals a hand in the middle of the shooting party, Isobel must consider not only her leading position in Society, but her entire future. Fay Weldon brings an aristocratic Edwardian household to fabulous, vibrant life in this gorgeously witty tale of manners and morals, commoners and countesses, from one of Britain's best loved authors.

A pitch-perfect story of life above and below stairs and an elegy to the last days of aristocracy and Empire.

Nel cuore della notte Frances sente bussare alla porta. Sono i funzionari del nuovo governo, venuti a confiscare le sue proprietà. Un tempo scrittrice di grande successo, ricca e famosa, nel 2013 Frances si ritrova povera, sola e vecchia. Confinata nella casa al numero 3 di Chalcot Crescent, per fuggire può soltanto rinchiudersi nella propria fantasia, in quell'arte dello scrivere che le ha dato tutto quello che ora vogliono toglierle. E così ci regala un affresco storico inframmezzato di cronache quotidiane sulle vicende della sua numerosa e strampalata famiglia, una narrazione che copre con agile e ironica disinvoltura cinquant'anni di eventi fondamentali come il crollo del comunismo, la morte del capitalismo e la nascita di un nuovo governo basato su una tirannia morbida e mediatizzata, senza però tralasciare i siparietti con il nipote tossico e rivoluzionario, i tanti amori di una gioventù in nome del sesso libero, l'astio di una figlia vetero femminista e le tribolazioni dell'altra figlia sposata a un pezzo grosso della politica nazionale. E quanto più a fondo Frances si immerge in questo raccontare, tanto più si fa labile il confine tra la realtà e il frutto della sua fantasia, in un continuo rincorrersi di dubbi, ipotesi e timori. Dove finiscono gli abitanti del quartiere quando il governo li "ricolloca"? E, a proposito, cosa c'è nel Polpettone Nazionale, il gustoso ed economico surrogato di carne adatto ai vegetariani col quale questa nuova e indigente Inghilterra riesce comunque a sfamare i suoi sudditi? Surreale, intricato, avvolgente e sarcastico, questo libro della Weldon ci trascina in una sorta di danza della mente, ci fa vorticare tra parole di cui l'autrice è davvero padrona, ci ammalia, ci incanta e ci delizia, lasciandoci infine con la netta sensazione di aver letto finalmente un'opera di grande originalità.

Jednoho dnes se Sapfo objeví přede dveřmi psychoanalytické ordinace, kde pracuje její matka, a rychle jí předá rukopis se slovy, že jde o její deníky. Populární anglická autorka tak začíná příběh ženy, kterou všichni odrazovali, aby se vdala za vdovce Gavina. Je pro ni moc starý, říkali jedni, jiní zase upozorňovali na možnost, že chlap si vyhlédnul jen její dům. A že prý jí jeho děti ze života udělají peklo. To je všechno možné, ale citům neporučíš.

Nackt lesen macht Laune. Für diese außergewöhnliche Sammlung erotischer Geschichten haben zwanzig bekannte britische Autorinnen alle Hüllen fallengelassen und beweisen, frau kann über Sex schreiben – und zwar humorvoll, unverkrampft und herrlich unterhaltsam. Das Ergebnis: zwanzig ganz besondere Gutenachtgeschichten für Erwachsene. Schlüpfen Sie unter die Laken – süße Träume sind garantiert! «Unverkrampft sexy.» (Glamour)

Eine Handvoll Powerfrauen verbringt Weihnachten in einem eleganten Wellness-Spa. Bei Kaviar und Champagner erzählen sie einander im Whirlpool ihre Lebensgeschichten … Unter anderem sind dabei: eine Verschwörungstheoretikerin, eine transsexuelle Richterin, eine Ex-Pfarrersfrau, die von einem Poltergeist verfolgt wird, eine Psychoanalytikerin, die ihren Ehemann vergiftet hat, eine Manikürespezialistin aus Liverpool, die von einem Scheich entführt wurde. Und Phoebe, eine Schriftstellerin in den besten Jahren. Sie ist hier, weil ihr Mann erst das Haus unbewohnbar gemacht hat (typisch Mann: er hat vergessen, den Wasserhahn der Badewanne zuzudrehen) und dann ans andere Ende der Welt zu seiner kranken Mutter eilen musste – oder hat er dort in Wirklichkeit anderes vor? Phoebe wird allmählich misstrauisch. Fürs Erste hört sie sich die Erzählungen der anderen Damen an. Und die haben es in sich: schräge Geschichten von Ehrgeiz, Eifersucht, Intrigen, Mord und Totschlag - bissig, witzig, gemein, grotesk.

Sappho was so happy when she married Gavin. She was in love and it seemed that at last everything was falling into place. But she hadn't considered his daughter, Isobel. She is a delightful, charming girl who spends her school holidays caring for the elderly and is the apple of Gavin's eye. Now cast in the role of Wicked Stepmother, Sappho tries all she can to befriend Isobel and find her place in the new family. It's not easy, but no one had promised it would be. Sappho perseveres. But she has a history, and the history works against her. When it becomes clear that, contrary to popular belief, it is Isobel who steals Gavin's love and attention, and Sappho who must fight for his affection, Sappho is at a loss. How can she win her husband back?