The Best of Geography and Fiction
Explore the best fiction books with rich geographical settings! Discover captivating stories where location shapes the narrative, from epic journeys to immersive world-building.
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One Hundred Years of Solitude
by Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez
The rise and fall, birth and death, of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the BuendÃa family.
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The Picture of Dorian Gray
by Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde's story of a fashionable young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty is one of his most popular works. Written in Wilde's characteristically dazzling manner, full of stinging epigrams and shrewd observations, the tale of Dorian Gray's moral disintegration caused something of a scandal when it first appeared in 1890. Wilde was attacked for his decadence and corrupting influence, and a few years later the book and the aesthetic/moral dilemma it presented became issues in the trials occasioned by Wilde's homosexual liaisons, trials that resulted in his imprisonment. Of the book's value as autobiography, Wilde noted in a letter, "Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to be--in other ages, perhaps." "From the Trade Paperback edition.
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The Crying of Lot 49
by Thomas Pynchon
Oedipa Maas finds herself enmeshed in a worldwide conspiracy.
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Moby Dick, Or, The Whale
by Herman Melville
A young seaman joins the crew of the fanatical Captain Ahab in pursuit of the white whale Moby Dick.
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The Great Gatsby
by Francis Scott Fitzgerald
Tells the tragic love story of Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan.
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The Grapes of Wrath
by John Steinbeck
The saga of a family in 1939 that struggles through the Great Depression by laboring as Dust Bowl migrants.
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Bleak House
by Charles Dickens
Tragedy strikes when cunning old lawyer Tulkinghorn makes it his business to unravel the mystery that surrounds the beautiful, haughty Lady Dedlock.
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The Sacred and the Profane
by Mircea Eliade
Famed historian of religion Mircea Eliade observes that even moderns who proclaim themselves residents of a completely profane world are still unconsciously nourished by the memory of the sacred. Eliade traces manifestations of the sacred from primitive to modern times in terms of space, time, nature, and the cosmos. In doing so he shows how the total human experience of the religious man compares with that of the nonreligious. This book serves as an excellent introduction to the history of religion, but its perspective also emcompasses philosophical anthropology, phenomenology, and psychology. It will appeal to anyone seeking to discover the potential dimensions of human existence. -- P. [4] of cover.
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Earth from Above
by Yann Arthus-Bertrand
This picture-a-day book shows Earth in a revealing, eye-popping photographic view rarely ever seen. 365 photos.
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John Margolies's Miniature Golf
by John Margolies
Miniature Golf explains in words and pictures the six decades of a purely American sport, filled with wonderful mini-memorabilia, signage, and inventive hazards guaranteed to charm and delight mini-golf fans everywhere. 210 illustrations, 150 in full color.
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National Geographic on Assignment USA
by Priit Vesilind
Though well known for its portrayal of exotic places, the magazine has also featured numerous stories on the United States during the course of the century. This selection of US stories and images presents some of the best. In addition, the volume provides the "story behind the story" of the precepts and ideas that have shaped the classic journal, and an up-close portrait of the photographers and writers who have chronicled in stunning photos and sparkling prose not only the American landscape but every kind of human endeavor and accomplishment. Oversize (11x12.25"). Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
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The Americans: The National Experience
by Daniel J. Boorstin
This second volume in "The Americans" trilogy deals with the crucial period of American history from the Revolution to the Civil War. Here we meet the people who shaped, and were shaped by, the American experience—the versatile New Englanders, the Transients and the Boosters. Winner of the Francis Parkman Prize.