Great Stories by Kafka and Rilke
At the turn of the twentieth century, the city of Prague hosted a cosmopolitan culture whose literary scene abounded in experimental writers. Two of the city's natives are featured in this dual-language volume: Franz Kafka, whose fiction is synonymous with the anguish of modern life; and the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, whose stories unfold in the same transcendent lyricism as his verse.Twelve of Kafka's stories from the compilation Ein Landarzt (A Country Doctor) appear here, along with two tales from Ein Hungerk羹nstler (A Hunger Artist). Rilke's stories include "Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke" (The Ballad of Love and Death of Cornet Christoph Rilke), "Die Turnstunde" (The Gym Class), and Geschichten vom lieben Gott (Stories About the Good Lord). Stanley Appelbaum has provided an introduction and informative notes to these stories, along with excellent new English translations on the pages facing the original German.
Body and Soul: Notebooks of an Apprentice Boxer
When French sociologist Lo簿c Wacquant signed up at a boxing gym in a black neighborhood of Chicago's South Side, he had never contemplated getting close to a ring, let alone climbing into it. Yet for three years he immersed himself among local fighters, amateur and professional. He learned the Sweet science of bruising, participating in all phases of the pugilist's strenuous preparation, from shadow-boxing drills to sparring to fighting in the Golden Gloves tournament. In this experimental ethnography of incandescent intensity, the scholar-turned-boxer fleshes out Pierre Bourdieu's signal concept of habitus, deepening our theoretical grasp of human practice. And he supplies a model for a "carnal sociology" capable of capturing "the taste and ache of action." Body & Soul marries the analytic rigor of the sociologist with the stylistic grace of the novelist to offer a compelling portrait of a bodily craft and of life and labor in the black American ghetto at century's end.
The Berlitz Self-Teacher -- German
You acquired English naturally. Not through the memorization of long lists of vocabulary, not through the tedious chore of learning bare-bones grammar--but through actually speaking it. This fact of nature is at the heart of Berlitz method for learning a new language, a method that has helped thousands enter an exciting multilingual world. Only the Berlitz Self-Teachers guarantee all these special features: - A unique series of specially designed oral exercises - Simple, practical pronunciations-at-a-glance - Exercises to make you think in your new language - Tested techniques based on a century of teaching experience With the Berlitz Self-Teachers as your guide you'll soon find that you can understand, speak, and even think your own thoughts in another language.
German How to Speak and Write It
This is probably the most delightful, useful, and comprehensive elementary book available for learning spoken and written German, with or without a teacher. Working on the principles that a person learns more quickly by example than by rule, the author has put together a book that abounds in immediately usable German sentences and phrases on a wide variety of subjects.The student will find pleasure in the amusing sketches and drawings used to imbed new vocabulary firmly in the student's mind, in the many excellent photographs of cities and landmarks in German-speaking countries, and in the glimpses of German culture and custom subtly interwoven into the conventional material.The book, though eminently useful for self-study, is especially amenable to classroom use or study with a private tutor. The variety of teaching aids that this book places at the teacher's disposal is remarkable. The lessons contain dialogues, grammar and idiom studies (replete with examples), and extensive practice exercises. In addition there are 28 full-page and double-page sketches of specific scenes (a harbor, a zoo, a theatre, etc.) with pertinent items numbered and identified in German and English; sketches and photographs, which the student is asked to describe in German; German proverbs, jokes, and more.The dialogues and reading material encompass an exceptionally wide range of real-life situations, and are extended to include most of the basic vocabulary one would need in each situation. The analysis of German pronunciation is very comprehensive (and the simple phonetic system used in the early stages is readable by sight). The practice exercises are carefully designed to allow the student to use what he learned. The closing sections contain a summary of grammar, a guide to letter writing (with sample German letters), and a valuable study guide to German literature by Dr. Richard Friedenthal.The book differs from others of its type in that it gives more attention to the elementary stages of learning, and the rate of progress is less rapid than usual. This means that any intelligent person, even if he is an absolute beginner, can with sufficient application arrive at the end of the course confident of having acquired a solid foundation for further study.
Essential German Grammar
This is the first German grammar which has been specifically designed for the adult with limited learning time who wishes to be able to express himself with reasonable accuracy, yet does not wish to be burdened with archaic, highly literary, or seldom used forms. It covers the most important points of German grammar in the clearest possible manner, stressing regularities rather than irregularities and concentrating upon the constructions and expression-modes that you would be most likely to use. It has been created for readers who prefer the phrase-approach, and all grammatical points are illustrated with phrases and sentences that you can use immediately. Hints are included throughout the book on replacing difficult constructions with easier ones.The basic presentation technique has been able to evoke the strong similarities between English and German, rather than the differences. As a result it is easier for you to understand and imitate German speech patterns. Among other unusual features of this grammar are: a means of avoiding most of the intricacies of noun declension; a logical, easily followed presentation of verbs compounded with separable or inseparable prefixes; a statement on word order that enables you to see English parallels; and an immediately useful presentation of basic German grammar.This grammar does not assume knowledge of grammatical terms (a supplement explains English grammatical terms) or of German grammar.
