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The Last Act
"The Last Act" is a 1966 short story by Roald Dahl, described by its author as an attempt to write about "murder by fucking." It was first published in the January 1966 issue of ''Playboy'', having been rejected by ''The New Yorker'' because of its disturbing content. It was later included in the collection '' Switch Bitch'', published in 1974 by Michael Joseph Ltd. Synopsis Middle-aged New York widow Anna Cooper has been contemplating suicide after losing her beloved husband Ed in a car accident, but begins to feel life may be worth living again after helping out in a friend's adoption agency. While visiting Dallas, Texas alone on agency business, Anna starts to feel uneasy and vulnerable. She remembers that an old flame, Dr. Conrad Kreuger, lives in Dallas, and telephones him from her hotel. Anna and Conrad had been high school sweethearts, but Anna had left Conrad to marry Ed, and Conrad had married another woman soon afterwards. Conrad seems pleased to hear from Anna, and sug ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Short Story
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest types of literature and has existed in the form of legends, mythic tales, folk tales, fairy tales, tall tales, fables and anecdotes in various ancient communities around the world. The modern short story developed in the early 19th century. Definition The short story is a crafted form in its own right. Short stories make use of plot, resonance, and other dynamic components as in a novel, but typically to a lesser degree. While the short story is largely distinct from the novel or novella/short novel, authors generally draw from a common pool of literary techniques. The short story is sometimes referred to as a genre. Determining what exactly defines a short story has been recurrently problematic. A classic definition of a short story ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British novelist, short-story writer, poet, screenwriter, and wartime fighter ace of Norwegian descent. His books have sold more than 250 million copies worldwide. Dahl has been called "one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century". Dahl was born in Wales to affluent Norwegian immigrant parents, and spent most of his life in England. He served in the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. He became a fighter pilot and, subsequently, an intelligence officer, rising to the rank of acting wing commander. He rose to prominence as a writer in the 1940s with works for children and for adults, and he became one of the world's best-selling authors. His awards for contribution to literature include the 1983 World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement and the British Book Awards' Children's Author of the Year in 1990. Dahl and his work have been criticised for racial stereotypes, misogyny a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Playboy
''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. Known for its centerfolds of nude and semi-nude models (Playmates), ''Playboy'' played an important role in the sexual revolution and remains one of the world's best-known brands, having grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc. (PEI), with a presence in nearly every medium. In addition to the flagship magazine in the United States, special nation-specific versions of ''Playboy'' are published worldwide, including those by licensees, such as Dirk Steenekamp's DHS Media Group. The magazine has a long history of publishing short stories by novelists such as Arthur C. Clarke, Ian Fleming, Vladimir Nabokov, Saul Bellow, Chuck Palahniuk, P. G. Wodehouse, Roald Dahl, Haruki Murakami, and Margaret Atwood. With a regular display of full-page c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues covering two-week spans. Although its reviews and events listings often focus on the Culture of New York City, cultural life of New York City, ''The New Yorker'' has a wide audience outside New York and is read internationally. It is well known for its illustrated and often topical covers, its commentaries on popular culture and eccentric American culture, its attention to modern fiction by the inclusion of Short story, short stories and literary reviews, its rigorous Fact-checking, fact checking and copy editing, its journalism on politics and social issues, and its single-panel cartoons sprinkled throughout each issue. Overview and history ''The New Yorker'' was founded by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a ''The New York Times, N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Switch Bitch
''Switch Bitch'' (1974) is a book of adult short stories by British writer Roald Dahl. Four stories, originally published in ''Playboy'' between 1965 and 1974, are collected. They are linked by themes of rape by deception: in each one some major act of cunning, cruelty, or hedonism underpins the sexuality. The book is notable for its introduction of the Uncle Oswald character, a wealthy hobbyist and gadabout who stars in both the first and last stories. (Although the first story seemingly presages his imminent decline and death.) He later appeared in Dahl's comic novel for adults, ''My Uncle Oswald''. Oswald is a male fantasy figure described as "the greatest fornicator of all time", his adventures recounted by a nephew who inherits his diaries and decides to edit them for publication. Despite the stories in ''Switch Bitch'' being dark and cynical in tone, the Oswald tales are also humorous and satirical, resembling crude comic anecdotes. Contents and introductions " The Visit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and County seat, seat of Dallas County, Texas, Dallas County with portions extending into Collin County, Texas, Collin, Denton County, Texas, Denton, Kaufman County, Texas, Kaufman and Rockwall County, Texas, Rockwall counties. With a 2020 United States census, 2020 census population of 1,304,379, it is the List of United States cities by population, ninth most-populous city in the U.S. and the List of cities in Texas by population, third-largest in Texas after Houston and San Antonio. Located in the North Texas region, the city of Dallas is the main core of the largest metropolitan area in the Southern United States and the largest inland metropolitan area in the U.S. that lacks any navigable link ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by both List of U.S. states and territories by area, area (after Alaska) and List of U.S. states and territories by population, population (after California). Texas shares borders with the states of Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the west, and the Mexico, Mexican States of Mexico, states of Chihuahua (state), Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south and southwest; and has a coastline with the Gulf of Mexico to the southeast. Houston is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in Texas and the List of United States cities by population, fourth-largest in the U.S., while San Antonio is the second most pop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gynecologist
Gynaecology or gynecology (see spelling differences) is the area of medicine that involves the treatment of women's diseases, especially those of the reproductive organs. It is often paired with the field of obstetrics, forming the combined area of obstetrics and gynecology (OB-GYN). The term comes from Greek and means "the science of women". Its counterpart is andrology, which deals with medical issues specific to the male reproductive system. Etymology The word "gynaecology" comes from the oblique stem (γυναικ-) of the Greek word γυνή (''gyne)'' semantically attached to "woman", and ''-logia'', with the semantic attachment "study". The word gynaecology in Kurdish means "jinekolojî", separated word as "jin-ekolojî", so the Kurdish "jin" called like "gyn" and means in Kurdish "woman". History Antiquity The Kahun Gynaecological Papyrus, dated to about 1800 BC, deals with gynaecological diseases, fertility, pregnancy, contraception, etc. The text is divided into thir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martini (cocktail)
The martini is a cocktail made with gin and vermouth, and garnished with an olive or a lemon twist. Over the years, the martini has become one of the best-known mixed alcoholic beverages. A popular variation, the vodka martini, uses vodka instead of gin for the cocktail's base spirit. Preparation By 1922 the martini reached its most recognizable form in which London dry gin and dry vermouth are combined at a ratio of 2:1, stirred in a mixing glass with ice cubes, with the optional addition of orange or aromatic bitters, then strained into a chilled cocktail glass. Over time the generally expected garnish became the drinker's choice of a green olive or a twist of lemon peel. A dry martini is made with little to no vermouth. Ordering a martini "extra dry" will result in even less or no vermouth added. By the Roaring Twenties, it became a common drink order. Over the course of the 20th century, the amount of vermouth steadily dropped. During the 1930s the ratio was 3:1 (gin to v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Menopausal
Menopause, also known as the climacteric, is the time in women's lives when Menstruation, menstrual periods stop permanently, and they are no longer fertility, able to bear children. Menopause usually occurs between the age of 47 and 54. Medical professionals often define menopause as having occurred when a woman has not had any menstrual bleeding for a year. It may also be defined by a decrease in hormone production by the Ovary, ovaries. In those who have had Hysterectomy, surgery to remove their uterus but still have functioning ovaries, menopause is not considered to have yet occurred. Following the removal of the uterus, symptoms typically occur earlier. In the years before menopause, a woman's periods typically become irregular, which means that periods may be longer or shorter in duration or be lighter or heavier in the amount of flow. During this time, women often experience hot flashes; these typically last from 30 seconds to ten minutes and may be associated with shi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jeremy Treglown
The biographer, cultural historian and critic Jeremy Treglown (born 24 May 1946) is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Warwick. He was editor of ''The Times Literary Supplement'' through the 1980s and Chair of the Arvon Foundation, 2017-22. Biography Educated at Bristol Grammar School and St Peter's College, Oxford, St Peter's and Hertford College, Oxford, Hertford Colleges, University of Oxford, Oxford, Treglown was a lecturer in English Literature at Lincoln College, Oxford, Lincoln College, Oxford 1973–76 and University College London 1976–79. In the 1970s he wrote regularly for the ''New Statesman'' on fiction and for ''The Times'' and ''Plays and Players'' on theatre, and he has published since in many newspapers and magazines including ''The New Yorker'' and ''Granta''. He joined ''The Times Literary Supplement'' in 1979 as arts editor, becoming editor from 1981 to 1990. After a semester as Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton, Treglown spent twenty yea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Lang (publisher)
Peter Lang is an academic publisher specializing in the humanities and social sciences. It has its headquarters in Pieterlen and Bern, Switzerland, with offices in Brussels, Frankfurt am Main, New York City, Dublin, Oxford, Vienna, and Warsaw. Peter Lang publishes over 1,800 academic titles annually, both in print and digital formats, with a backlist of over 55,000 books. It has its complete online journals collection available on Ingentaconnect, and distributes its digital textbooks globally through Kortext. Areas of publication The company specializes in the following twelve subject areas: History The company was founded in Frankfurt am Main in 1970 by Swiss editor Peter Lang. Since 1982 it has an American subsidiary, Peter Lang Publishing USA, specializing in textbooks for classroom use in education, media and communication, and Black studies, as well as monographs in the humanities and social sciences. Academic journals Peter Lang publishers 23 academic journals An ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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