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Taming A Sea-Horse
''Taming a Sea-Horse'' is the 13th Spenser novel by Robert B. Parker. The title is from the Robert Browning poem "My Last Duchess." The book's epigraph is of the poem's closing lines: "Nay, we'll go / Together down, sir: / Notice Neptune, though, /Taming a sea-horse thought a rarity, / Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!" The story follows Boston based PI Spenser as he searches for April Kyle, the prostitute he met in events described in the earlier novel ''Ceremony A ceremony (, ) is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion. The word may be of Etruscan origin, via the Latin '' caerimonia''. Church and civil (secular) ...''. Kyle's story continues in '' Hundred-Dollar Baby''. Recurring characters *Spenser *Hawk *Patricia Utley *Dr. Susan Silverman, Ph.D *April Kyle *Frank Belson *Tony Marcus External links Parker's page on the book 1986 American novels Spenser (novel se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert B
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honour, praise, renown" and ''berht'' "bright, light, shining"). It is the second most frequently used given name of ancient Germanic origin. It is also in use as a surname. Another commonly used form of the name is Rupert. After becoming widely used in Continental Europe it entered England in its Old French form ''Robert'', where an Old English cognate form (''Hrēodbēorht'', ''Hrodberht'', ''Hrēodbēorð'', ''Hrœdbœrð'', ''Hrœdberð'', ''Hrōðberχtŕ'') had existed before the Norman Conquest. The feminine version is Roberta. The Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish form is Roberto. Robert is also a common name in many Germanic languages, including English, German, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Scots, Danish, and Icelandic. It can be use ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, nine Minor Outlying Islands, and 326 Indian reservations. The United States is also in free association with three Pacific Island sovereign states: the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. It is the world's third-largest country by both land and total area. It shares land borders with Canada to its north and with Mexico to its south and has maritime borders with the Bahamas, Cuba, Russia, and other nations. With a population of over 333 million, it is the most populous country in the Americas and the third most populous in the world. The national capital of the United States is Washington, D.C. and its most populous city and principal financial center is New York City. Paleo-Americ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the island of Great Britain. Existing on a dialect continuum with Scots, and then closest related to the Low Saxon and Frisian languages, English is genealogically West Germanic. However, its vocabulary is also distinctively influenced by dialects of France (about 29% of Modern English words) and Latin (also about 29%), plus some grammar and a small amount of core vocabulary influenced by Old Norse (a North Germanic language). Speakers of English are called Anglophones. The earliest forms of English, collectively known as Old English, evolved from a group of West Germanic (Ingvaeonic) dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the 5th century and further mutated by Norse-speaking Viking settlers starting in the 8th and 9th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spenser (fictional Detective)
Spenser is a fictional private investigator created by the American mystery writer Robert B. Parker. He acts as the protagonist of a series of detective fiction, detective novels written by Parker and later continued by Ace Atkins. His first appearance was in the 1973 novel ''The Godwulf Manuscript''. He is also featured in the 1980s television series ''Spenser: For Hire'' and Spenser (TV films), a related series of TV movies based on the novels. In March 2020 he was featured in the Netflix thriller film ''Spenser Confidential''. Spenser is only referred to by his surname in the novels, but the television series has him introduce himself as "David Spenser" to a cop sitting at the diner in the fifteenth episode of season 2. Also, Spenser is addressed as "Jim" at the end of Chapter 9 of "The Godwulf Manuscript". Fictional biography Spenser was born and grew up in Laramie, Wyoming and is a Boston private eye in the mold of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe, a smart-mouthed tough gu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Detective Fiction
Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as speculative fiction and other genre fiction in the mid-nineteenth century and has remained extremely popular, particularly in novels. Some of the most famous heroes of detective fiction include C. Auguste Dupin, Sherlock Holmes, and Hercule Poirot. Juvenile stories featuring The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and The Boxcar Children have also remained in print for several decades. History Ancient Some scholars, such as R. H. Pfeiffer, have suggested that certain ancient and religious texts bear similarities to what would later be called detective fiction. In the Old Testament story of Susanna and the Elders (the Protestant Bible locates this story within the apocrypha), the account told by two witnesses broke down when Daniel cross-examines th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Delacorte Press
Dell Publishing Company, Inc. is an American publisher of books, magazines and comic books, that was founded in 1921 by George T. Delacorte Jr. with $10,000 (approx. $145,000 in 2021), two employees and one magazine title, ''I Confess'', and soon began turning out dozens of pulp magazines, which included penny-a-word detective stories, articles about films, and romance books (or "smoochies" as they were known in the slang of the day). During the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, Dell was one of the largest publishers of magazines, including pulp magazines. Their line of humor magazines included '' 1000 Jokes'', launched in 1938. From 1929 to 1974, they published comics under the Dell Comics line, the bulk of which (1938–68) was done in partnership with Western Publishing. In 1943, Dell entered into paperback book publishing with Dell Paperbacks. They also used the book imprints of Dial Press, Delacorte Books, Delacorte Press, Yearling Books, and Laurel Leaf Library. Dell was acqui ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1986 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1986. Events * April 29 – A major fire at Los Angeles Public Library caused by arson destroys 400,000 volumes. * July 21 – Michael Grade, Controller of BBC1, axes plans to televise Ian Curteis's '' The Falklands Play''. * September 29 – Bloomsbury Publishing is set up in London by Nigel Newton. * October 9 – '' The Phantom of the Opera'', having been the longest running Broadway show ever, opens at Her Majesty's Theatre in London. * December 19 – The Soviet dissident author Andrei Sakharov is allowed to return to Moscow after six years' internal exile. New books Fiction *Kingsley Amis – ''The Old Devils'' *V. C. Andrews – ''Garden of Shadows'' * Piers Anthony – ''Ghost'' * Jeffrey Archer – ''A Matter of Honour'' *James Axler – '' Pilgrimage to Hell'' and '' Red Holocaust'' * Iain Banks – '' The Bridge'' *Thomas Bernhard – ''Extinction'' (''Auslöschung'') *Azouz Begag – ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Catskill Eagle
''A Catskill Eagle'' is the 12th Spenser novel by Robert B. Parker, first published in 1985. The title comes from a quote from Herman Melville. Plot Spenser is a private investigator in Boston. He had previously served as an infantryman in the 1st Infantry Division during the Korean War and was a State trooper, which have given him the physical skills, analytical mind and moral fortitude for his profession. At the start of the book, he is separated from his erstwhile lover Sarah Silverman, who has relocated to the West Coast in an effort to "find herself." Spenser receives a letter from Susan, explaining that his friend and associate, the gun for hire and fellow military veteranRobert B. Parker, ''A Catskill Eagle'', Dell Books, 1986, page 210: "Did a little Foreign Legion". Hawk, is in jail and she needs help. It soon transpires that she has begun a relationship with wealthy heir, Russell Costigan, whose father is a powerful figure in their hometown. Hawk was jailed following ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pale Kings And Princes
''Pale Kings and Princes'' is a Spenser novel by Robert B. Parker. The title is taken from John Keats's poem '' La Belle Dame sans Merci: A Ballad''. Following the murder of a reporter, Spenser is hired by a newspaper to investigate drug smuggling around the area of Wheaton, Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En .... There he encounters many troubles, including the death of a policeman and his son. Spenser, with the help of his friend, Hawk, eventually secures the downfall of the local cartel. An adaptation of the novel was released as a made-for-TV movie in 1994. References External links Parker's page on the book 1987 American novels Spenser (novel series) Novels set in Massachusetts American novels adapted into films {{1980s-mystery-novel- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Browning
Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian poets. He was noted for irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentary, historical settings and challenging vocabulary and syntax. His early long poems ''Pauline'' (1833) and ''Paracelsus'' (1835) were acclaimed, but his reputation dwindled for a time – his 1840 poem ''Sordello'' was seen as wilfully obscure – and took over a decade to recover, by which time he had moved from Shelleyan forms to a more personal style. In 1846 he married fellow poet Elizabeth Barrett and moved to Italy. By her death in 1861 he had published the collection ''Men and Women'' (1855). His ''Dramatis Personae'' (1864) and book-length epic poem ''The Ring and the Book'' (1868–1869) made him a leading poet. By his death in 1889 he was seen as a sage and philosopher-poet who had fed into Victorian social and political discourse. Societies for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
My Last Duchess
"My Last Duchess" is a poem by Robert Browning, frequently anthologised as an example of the dramatic monologue. It first appeared in 1842 in Browning's ''Dramatic Lyrics''. The poem is composed in 28 rhyming couplets of iambic pentameter. In the first edition of ''Dramatic Lyrics'', the poem was merely titled "Italy". Historical background The poem is preceded by the epigraph "''Ferrara:''", indicating that the speaker is Alfonso II d'Este, the fifth Duke of Ferrara (1533–1598), who, in 1558 (at the age of 24), had married Lucrezia di Cosimo de' Medici, the 13-year-old daughter of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Eleonora di Toledo. Lucrezia was well-educated, and the Medicis could be considered "nouveau riche" in comparison to the venerable and distinguished Este family (Alfonso II d'Este's remark regarding his gift of a "nine-hundred-years-old name" clearly indicates that he considered his bride beneath him socially). She came with a sizeable dowry. He t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ceremony (Robert B
A ceremony (, ) is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion. The word may be of Etruscan origin, via the Latin '' caerimonia''. Church and civil (secular) ceremonies According to Dally Messenger and Alain de Botton, in most Western countries the values and ideals articulated in both church and civil ceremonies are generally similar. The difference is in what Messenger calls the "supernatural infrastructure" or de Botton the "implausible supernatural element".Messenger, Dally; ''Murphy's Law and the Pursuit of Happiness: a History of the Civil Celebrant Movement'', Spectrum Publications, Melbourne (Australia), 2012 Most churches and religions claim some extra advantage conferred by the deity e.g. Roman Catholics believe that through the words of consecration in the mass ceremony, God himself becomes actually present on the altar. Both church and civil ceremonies share the powerful psycho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
