Picnic at Hanging Rock

Download Picnic at Hanging Rock PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0143132059
Total Pages : 226 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (431 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Picnic at Hanging Rock by : Joan Lindsay

Download or read book Picnic at Hanging Rock written by Joan Lindsay and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2017-10-03 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Now a six-part TV series starring Natalie Dormer, from Amazon Prime* A 50th-anniversary edition of the landmark novel about three “gone girls” that inspired the acclaimed 1975 film, featuring a foreword by Maile Meloy, author of Do Not Become Alarmed It was a cloudless summer day in the year 1900. Everyone at Appleyard College for Young Ladies agreed it was just right for a picnic at Hanging Rock. After lunch, a group of three girls climbed into the blaze of the afternoon sun, pressing on through the scrub into the shadows of the secluded volcanic outcropping. Farther, higher, until at last they disappeared. They never returned. . . . Mysterious and subtly erotic, Picnic at Hanging Rock inspired the iconic 1975 film of the same name by Peter Weir. A beguiling landmark of Australian literature, it stands with Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, and Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Virgin Suicides as a masterpiece of intrigue.

The Secret of Hanging Rock

Download The Secret of Hanging Rock PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : ETT Imprint
ISBN 13 : 1922473529
Total Pages : 44 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (224 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Secret of Hanging Rock by : Joan Lindsay

Download or read book The Secret of Hanging Rock written by Joan Lindsay and published by ETT Imprint. This book was released on 2021-10-01 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Joan Lindsay's classic novel Picnic at Hanging Rock is a subtle blend of mysterious and sinister events set in a period of Australian social life drawn with loving nostalgia. The final chapter of the novel was removed at the request of her publishers, creating a mystery to which thousands have begged to know the solution. The missing chapter reveals what did happen to the schoolgirls who vanished from the Rock after a St Valentine's Day picnic in 1900, and holds commentaries by John Taylor, Yvonne Rousseau and Mudrooroo.

Picnic at Hanging Rock

Download Picnic at Hanging Rock PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : NHB Modern Plays
ISBN 13 : 9781848426214
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (262 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Picnic at Hanging Rock by : Joan Lindsay

Download or read book Picnic at Hanging Rock written by Joan Lindsay and published by NHB Modern Plays. This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'I know you're there... Miranda? Miranda!' On a summer's day in 1900, three Australian schoolgirls on a picnic expedition to the remote Hanging Rock abscond from their group. They are last seen heading towards the beckoning Rock... In Tom Wright's chilling adaptation of Joan Lindsay's classic novel, five performers struggle to solve the mystery of the missing girls and their teacher. Euphoria and terror reverberate throughout the community, as the potential for history to repeat itself becomes nightmarishly real. This adaptation of Picnic at Hanging Rock was first co-produced by Malthouse Theatre and Black Swan State Theatre Company, Perth, and first performed at Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne, in 2016. The play received its European premiere at the Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh, in 2017.

That Deadman Dance

Download That Deadman Dance PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 1608197417
Total Pages : 335 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (81 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis That Deadman Dance by : Kim Scott

Download or read book That Deadman Dance written by Kim Scott and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2012-03-07 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Set in Western Australia in the first decades of the nineteenth century, That Deadman Dance is a vast, gorgeous novel about the first contact between the Aboriginal Noongar people and the new European settlers. Bobby Wabalanginy is a young Noongar man, smart, resourceful, and eager to please. He befriends the European arrivals, joining them as they hunt whales, till the land, and establish their new colony. He is welcomed into a prosperous white family, and eventually finds himself falling in love with the daughter, Christine. But slowly-by design and by hazard-things begin to change. Not everyone is happy with how the colony is progressing. Livestock mysteriously start to disappear, crops are destroyed, there are "accidents" and injuries on both sides. As the Europeans impose ever-stricter rules and regulations in order to keep the peace, Bobby's Elders decide they must respond in kind, and Bobby is forced to take sides, inexorably drawn into a series of events that will forever change the future of his country. That Deadman Dance is inevitably tragic, as most stories of European and native contact are. But through Bobby's life, Kim Scott exuberantly explores a moment in time when things could have been different, when black and white lived together in amazement rather than fear of the other, and when the world seemed suddenly twice as large and twice as promising. At once celebratory and heartbreaking, this novel is a unique and important contribution to the literature of native experience.

The Centaur

Download The Centaur PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 067964587X
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (796 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Centaur by : John Updike

Download or read book The Centaur written by John Updike and published by Random House. This book was released on 2012-06-05 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD AND THE PRIX DU MEILLEUR LIVRE ÉTRANGER The Centaur is a modern retelling of the legend of Chiron, the noblest and wisest of the centaurs, who, painfully wounded yet unable to die, gave up his immortality on behalf of Prometheus. In the retelling, Olympus becomes small-town Olinger High School; Chiron is George Caldwell, a science teacher there; and Prometheus is Caldwell’s fifteen-year-old son, Peter. Brilliantly conflating the author’s remembered past with tales from Greek mythology, John Updike translates Chiron’s agonized search for relief into the incidents and accidents of three winter days spent in rural Pennsylvania in 1947. The result, said the judges of the National Book Award, is “a courageous and brilliant account of a conflict in gifts between an inarticulate American father and his highly articulate son.”

The Football Girl

Download The Football Girl PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Delacorte Press
ISBN 13 : 0375987142
Total Pages : 210 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (759 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Football Girl by : Thatcher Heldring

Download or read book The Football Girl written by Thatcher Heldring and published by Delacorte Press. This book was released on 2017-04-04 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For every athlete or sports fanatic who knows she's just as good as the guys. This is for fans of The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen, Grace, Gold, and Glory by Gabrielle Douglass and Breakaway: Beyond the Goal by Alex Morgan. The summer before Caleb and Tessa enter high school, friendship has blossomed into a relationship . . . and their playful sports days are coming to an end. Caleb is getting ready to try out for the football team, and Tessa is training for cross-country. But all their structured plans derail in the final flag game when they lose. Tessa doesn’t want to end her career as a loser. She really enjoys playing, and if she’s being honest, she likes it even more than running cross-country. So what if she decided to play football instead? What would happen between her and Caleb? Or between her two best friends, who are counting on her to try out for cross-country with them? And will her parents be upset that she’s decided to take her hobby to the next level? This summer Caleb and Tessa figure out just what it means to be a boyfriend, girlfriend, teammate, best friend, and someone worth cheering for. “A great next choice for readers who have enjoyed Catherine Gilbert Murdock’s Dairy Queen and Miranda Kenneally’s Catching Jordan.”—SLJ “Fast-paced football action, realistic family drama, and sweet romance…[will have] readers looking for girl-powered sports stories…find[ing] plenty to like.”—Booklist “Tessa's ferocious competitiveness is appealing.”—Kirkus Reviews “[The Football Girl] serve[s] to illuminate the appropriately complicated emotions both of a young romance and of pursuing a dream. Heldring writes with insight and restraint.”—The Horn Book

Love, Lucas

Download Love, Lucas PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1634500032
Total Pages : 223 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (345 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Love, Lucas by : Chantele Sedgwick

Download or read book Love, Lucas written by Chantele Sedgwick and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-05-05 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A 2015 Whitney Award Nominee! A powerful story of loss, second chances, and first love, reminiscent of Sarah Dessen and John Green. When Oakley Nelson loses her older brother, Lucas, to cancer, she thinks she’ll never recover. Between her parents’ arguing and the battle she’s fighting with depression, she feels nothing inside but a hollow emptiness. When Mom suggests they spend a few months in California with Aunt Jo, Oakley isn’t sure a change of scenery will alter anything, but she’s willing to give it a try. In California, Oakley discovers a sort of safety and freedom in Aunt Jo’s beach house. Once they’re settled, Mom hands her a notebook full of letters addressed to her—from Lucas. As Oakley reads one each day, she realizes how much he loved her, and each letter challenges her to be better and to continue to enjoy her life. He wants her to move on. If only it were that easy. But then a surfer named Carson comes into her life, and Oakley is blindsided. He makes her feel again. As she lets him in, she is surprised by how much she cares for him, and that’s when things get complicated. How can she fall in love and be happy when Lucas never got the chance to do those very same things? With her brother’s dying words as guidance, Oakley knows she must learn to listen and trust again. But will she have to leave the past behind to find happiness in the future? Sky Pony Press, with our Good Books, Racehorse and Arcade imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of books for young readers—picture books for small children, chapter books, books for middle grade readers, and novels for young adults. Our list includes bestsellers for children who love to play Minecraft; stories told with LEGO bricks; books that teach lessons about tolerance, patience, and the environment, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Randalls Round

Download Randalls Round PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : The Oleander Press
ISBN 13 : 0900891955
Total Pages : 178 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (8 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Randalls Round by : Eleanor Scott

Download or read book Randalls Round written by Eleanor Scott and published by The Oleander Press. This book was released on 2013-03 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: BORN OF NIGHTMARES... Presented within are nine examples of the finest horror and supernatural literature ever written. Inspired by a series of dreams and nightmares, Helen Leys, writing under the pseudonym Eleanor Scott, crafted these stories of suspense and terror, atmosphere and dread, in 1929 - and never again wrote in this genre; Randalls Round has not been available in the UK since that year. Chilling tales of suspense, antiquity and sacrifice; spine-tingling stories of possession, ancestry, and evil. This collection of deliciously crafted, ghoulish tales are some of the most sought-after by aficionados of the genre and include the superlative 'Celui-la', 'At Simmel Acres Farm' and 'The Twelve Apostles'. Over 80 years have passed since their original publication and the passage of time has left their thrall undiminished; these historic, macabre tales unsettle the modern reader just as effectively as their predecessors. ""An excellent Collection and one that is very welcome back into print."" - Black Static "5 Stars - "Delightful English ghost stories"" "5 Stars - "undeservedly obscure"" "4 Stars - "A good, solid collection of tales for the ghost story connoisseur."" "4 Stars - "A tentacle, both slimy and hairy"" OTHER RARE, CLASSIC HORROR LITERATURE FROM OLEANDER TEDIOUS BRIEF TALES OF GRANTA AND GRAMARYE by Ingulphus (Cut & Paste 9780906672860 to search) THE HOLE OF THE PIT by Adrian Ross (Cut & Paste 978-0900891861 to search) STONEGROUND GHOST TALES by EG Swain (Cut & Paste 9780906672433 to search)

The Girl Who Wrote in Silk

Download The Girl Who Wrote in Silk PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Sourcebooks, Inc.
ISBN 13 : 1492608343
Total Pages : 398 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (926 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Girl Who Wrote in Silk by : Kelli Estes

Download or read book The Girl Who Wrote in Silk written by Kelli Estes and published by Sourcebooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2015-07-07 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A USA TODAY BESTSELLER! "A powerful debut that proves the threads that interweave our lives can withstand time and any tide, and bind our hearts forever."—Susanna Kearsley, New York Times bestselling author of Belleweather and The Vanished Days A historical novel inspired by true events, Kelli Estes's brilliant and atmospheric debut is a poignant tale of two women determined to do the right thing, highlighting the power of our own stories. The smallest items can hold centuries of secrets... While exploring her aunt's island estate, Inara Erickson is captivated by an elaborately stitched piece of fabric hidden in the house. The truth behind the silk sleeve dated back to 1886, when Mei Lien, the lone survivor of a cruel purge of the Chinese in Seattle found refuge on Orcas Island and shared her tragic experience by embroidering it. As Inara peels back layer upon layer of the centuries of secrets the sleeve holds, her life becomes interwoven with that of Mei Lein. Through the stories Mei Lein tells in silk, Inara uncovers a tragic truth that will shake her family to its core—and force her to make an impossible choice. Should she bring shame to her family and risk everything by telling the truth, or tell no one and dishonor Mei Lien's memory? A touching and tender book for fans of Marie Benedict, Susanna Kearsley, and Duncan Jepson, The Girl Who Wrote in Silk is a dual-time period novel that explores how a delicate piece of silk interweaves the past and the present, reminding us that today's actions have far reaching implications. Praise for The Girl Who Wrote in Silk: "A beautiful, elegiac novel, as finely and delicately woven as the title suggests. Kelli Estes spins a spellbinding tale that illuminates the past in all its brutality and beauty, and the humanity that binds us all together." —Susan Wiggs, New York Times bestselling author of The Beekeeper's Ball "A touching and tender story about discovering the past to bring peace to the present." —Duncan Jepson, author of All the Flowers in Shanghai "Vibrant and tragic, The Girl Who Wrote in Silk explores a horrific, little-known era in our nation's history. Estes sensitively alternates between Mei Lien, a young Chinese-American girl who lived in the late 1800s, and Inara, a modern recent college grad who sets Mei Lien's story free." —Margaret Dilloway, author of How to Be an American Housewife and Sisters of Heart and Snow

A God in Ruins

Download A God in Ruins PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Little, Brown
ISBN 13 : 031634155X
Total Pages : 503 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (163 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis A God in Ruins by : Kate Atkinson

Download or read book A God in Ruins written by Kate Atkinson and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2015-05-05 with total page 503 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This stunning companion to Kate Atkinson's #1 bestseller Life After Life, "one of the best novels I've read this century" (Gillian Flynn), follows Ursula's brother Teddy as he navigates an unknown future after a perilous war. "He had been reconciled to death during the war and then suddenly the war was over and there was a next day and a next day. Part of him never adjusted to having a future." Kate Atkinson's dazzling Life After Life explored the possibility of infinite chances and the power of choices, following Ursula Todd as she lived through the turbulent events of the last century over and over again. A God in Ruins tells the dramatic story of the 20th Century through Ursula's beloved younger brother Teddy -- would-be poet, heroic pilot, husband, father, and grandfather -- as he navigates the perils and progress of a rapidly changing world. After all that Teddy endures in battle, his greatest challenge is living in a future he never expected to have. An ingenious and moving exploration of one ordinary man's path through extraordinary times, A God in Ruins proves once again that Kate Atkinson is one of the finest novelists of our age.

Get Dirty

Download Get Dirty PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : HarperCollins
ISBN 13 : 006226088X
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (622 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Get Dirty by : Gretchen McNeil

Download or read book Get Dirty written by Gretchen McNeil and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2015-06-16 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now streaming on Netflix and BBC iPlayer! The Breakfast Club meets Pretty Little Liars in Gretchen McNeil's sharp and thrilling sequel to Get Even. Perfect for fans of E. Lockhart, Karen M. McManus, and Maureen Johnson. The members of Don't Get Mad aren't just mad anymore . . . they're afraid. And with Margot in a coma and Bree under house arrest, it's up to Olivia and Kitty to try to catch their deadly tormentor. But just as the girls are about to go on the offensive, Ed the Head reveals a shocking secret that turns all their theories upside down. The killer could be anyone, and this time he—or she—is out for more than just revenge. The girls desperately try to discover the killer's identity as their own lives are falling apart: Donté is pulling away from Kitty and seems to be hiding a secret of his own, Bree is sequestered under the watchful eye of her mom’s bodyguard, and Olivia's mother is on an emotional downward spiral. The killer is closing in, the threats are becoming more personal, and when the police refuse to listen, the girls have no choice but to confront their anonymous “friend” . . . or die trying.

Reservoir 13

Download Reservoir 13 PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Catapult
ISBN 13 : 1936787717
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (367 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Reservoir 13 by : Jon Mcgregor

Download or read book Reservoir 13 written by Jon Mcgregor and published by Catapult. This book was released on 2017-10-03 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evoking the spirit of Jeffrey Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides, Zadie Smith's NW, and Hisham Matar's Anatomy of a Disappearance, this novel sweeps the reader up quickly into its understated and emotionally moving story of a whole English village haunted by one family’s loss. Midwinter in an English village. A teenage girl has gone missing. Everyone is called upon to join the search. The villagers fan out across the moors as the police set up roadblocks and a crowd of news reporters descends on what is usually a place of peace. Meanwhile, there is work that must still be done: cows milked, fences repaired, stone cut, pints poured, beds made, sermons written, a pantomime rehearsed. As the seasons unfold and the search for the missing girl goes on, there are those who leave the village and those who are pulled back; those who come together and those who break apart. There are births and deaths; secrets kept and exposed; livelihoods made and lost; small kindnesses and unanticipated betrayals. An extraordinary novel of cumulative power and grace, Reservoir 13 explores the rhythms of the natural world and the repeated human gift for violence, unfolding over thirteen years as the aftershocks of a tragedy refuse to subside. Winner of the Costa Novel Award, Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2017, and a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice

This Side of Paradise

Download This Side of Paradise PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : The Floating Press
ISBN 13 : 1775414833
Total Pages : 503 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (754 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis This Side of Paradise by : F. Scott Fitzgerald

Download or read book This Side of Paradise written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and published by The Floating Press. This book was released on 2009-04-01 with total page 503 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Side of Paradise is a novel about post-World War I youth and their morality. Amory Blaine is a young Princeton University student with an attractive face and an interest in literature. His greed and desire for social status warp the theme of love weaving through the story.

The Bookshop

Download The Bookshop PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : HarperCollins publishers
ISBN 13 : 9780008263027
Total Pages : 176 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (63 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Bookshop by : Penelope Fitzgerald

Download or read book The Bookshop written by Penelope Fitzgerald and published by HarperCollins publishers. This book was released on 2018 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shortlisted for the Booker Prize. In a small East Anglian town, Florence Green decides, against polite but ruthless local opposition, to open a bookshop.

1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up

Download 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781844036714
Total Pages : 960 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (367 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up by : Julia Eccleshare

Download or read book 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up written by Julia Eccleshare and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 960 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up is the perfect introduction to the very best books of childhood: those books that have a special place in the heart of every reader. It introduces a wonderfully rich world of literature to parents and their children, offering both new titles and much-loved classics that many generations have read and enjoyed. From wordless picture books and books introducing the first words and sounds of the alphabet through to hard-hitting and edgy teenage fiction, the titles featured in this book reflect the wealth of reading opportunities for children.Browsing the titles in 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up will take you on a journey of discovery into fantasy, adventure, history, contermporary life, and much more. These books will enable you to travel to some of the most famous imaginary worlds such as Narnia, Middle Earth, and Hogwart's School. And the route taken may be pretty strange, too. You may fall down a rabbit hole, as Alice does on her way to Wonderland, or go through the back of a wardrobe to reach the snowy wastes of Narnia.

Permanent Record

Download Permanent Record PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Metropolitan Books
ISBN 13 : 1250237246
Total Pages : 298 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (52 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Permanent Record by : Edward Snowden

Download or read book Permanent Record written by Edward Snowden and published by Metropolitan Books. This book was released on 2019-09-17 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Edward Snowden, the man who risked everything to expose the US government’s system of mass surveillance, reveals for the first time the story of his life, including how he helped to build that system and what motivated him to try to bring it down. In 2013, twenty-nine-year-old Edward Snowden shocked the world when he broke with the American intelligence establishment and revealed that the United States government was secretly pursuing the means to collect every single phone call, text message, and email. The result would be an unprecedented system of mass surveillance with the ability to pry into the private lives of every person on earth. Six years later, Snowden reveals for the very first time how he helped to build this system and why he was moved to expose it. Spanning the bucolic Beltway suburbs of his childhood and the clandestine CIA and NSA postings of his adulthood, Permanent Record is the extraordinary account of a bright young man who grew up online—a man who became a spy, a whistleblower, and, in exile, the Internet’s conscience. Written with wit, grace, passion, and an unflinching candor, Permanent Record is a crucial memoir of our digital age and destined to be a classic.

Marvelous Melba

Download Marvelous Melba PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Ivan R. Dee
ISBN 13 : 1615780068
Total Pages : 409 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (157 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Marvelous Melba by : Ann Blainey

Download or read book Marvelous Melba written by Ann Blainey and published by Ivan R. Dee. This book was released on 2009-03-16 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nobody sings like Melba, and nobody ever will, proclaimed the impresario Oscar Hammerstein in 1908. Like many others of his time, he considered her the world's greatest singer. The wild acclaim showered on her by American fans led to the coining of the word Melbamania. Year after year she toured America on the Melba train, bringing opera and concerts to out-of-the-way cities and towns; thanks to the new gramophone, she could also be heard in the remotest locales. Ann Blainey's beguiling life of Nellie Melba tells the story of a woman who-in an era when no woman was prime minister, chief justice, head of a church or financial firm, or a universal film star-became perhaps the most famous woman in the world. Ms. Blainey's Marvelous Melba punctures many of the myths surrounding Melba's life and career, and offers a new portrait of the great diva.