How many of these top 90s movie classics have you watched?
Sup?! If you are loving the 90s vintage trend, then you will fall in love with these books that inspired your favorite movies of the 1990s. From dreamy Leonardo DiCaprio in Romeo + Juliet to everyone's favorite FBI agent Jodie Foster in The Silence of the Lambs, the cinema of the nineties is as classic as rolling up one pant leg or sporting a chunky pair of black combat books. If you want to send these books to your pager or schedule an awesome 90s movie or reading marathon, save the full list.
1990 Movies
Misery with James Caan and Kathy Bates based on Misery by Stephen King.
The #1 New York Times bestseller about a famous novelist held hostage in a remote location by his "number one fan." One of "Stephen King's best...genuinely scary" (USA TODAY). Paul Sheldon is a bestselling novelist who has finally met his number-one fan. Her name is Annie Wilkes, and she is more than a rabid reader--she is Paul's nurse, tending his shattered body after an automobile accident. But she is also furious that the author has killed off her favorite character in his latest book. Annie becomes his captor, keeping him prisoner in her isolated house. Annie wants Paul to write a book that brings Misery back to life--just for her. She has a lot of ways to spur him on. One is a needle. Another is an axe. And if they don't work, she can get really nasty. "Terrifying" (San Francisco Chronicle), "dazzlingly well-written" (The Indianapolis Star), and "truly gripping" (Publishers Weekly), Misery is "classic Stephen King...full of twists and turns and mounting suspense" (The Boston Globe).
Wild at Heart with Nicolas Cage, Laura Dern, and Willem Dafoe. Based on the book Wild Life of Sailor and Lula by Barry Gifford.
This volume comprises six interlocking novels which chart the wild lives of star-crossed lovers Sailor Ripley and Lula Pace Fortune. The bizarre and varied characters of the stories inhabit a surreal world where paradoxes abound.
Goodfellas with Robert di Niro, Ray Liotta, and Joe Pesci. Based on the book Wise Guy by Nicholas Pileggi - Martin Scorsese
Nicholas Pileggi's vivid, unvarnished, journalistic chronicle of the life of Henry Hill--the working-class Brooklyn kid who knew from age twelve that "to be a wiseguy was to own the world," who grew up to live the highs and lows of the mafia gangster's
1991 Movies
Terminator 2: Judgment Day with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, and Edward Furlong. Based on the book Terminator 2: Judgment Day by Randall Frakes, James Cameron, and William Wisher
A second Terminator returns to the past to murder John Connor--destined to lead the human Resistance against the machines--while he is still a boy, but meets a formidable enemy in Connor's protector
My Own Private Idaho with River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves. Based on the book City of Night by John Rechy
"[Rechy's] tone rings absolutely true, is absolutely his own. . . . He tells the truth, and tells it with such passion that we are forced to share in the life he conveys. . . . This is a most humbling and liberating achievement."--James Baldwin
When John Rechy's explosive first novel appeared in 1963, it marked a radical departure in fiction, and gave voice to a subculture that had never before been revealed with such acuity. It earned comparisons to Genet and Kerouac, even as Rechy was personally attacked by scandalized reviewers. Nevertheless, the book became an international bestseller, and fifty years later, it has become a classic. Bold and inventive in style, Rechy is unflinching in his portrayal of one hustling "youngman" and his search for self-knowledge within the neon-lit world of hustlers, drag queens, and the denizens of their world, as he moves from El Paso to Times Square, from Pershing Square to the French Quarter. Now including never-seen original marked galley pages and an interview with the author, Rechy's portrait of the edges of America has lost none of its power to move and exhilarate.
The Silence of the Lambs with Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins. Based on the book Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris
An ingenious, masterfully written novel, Thomas Harris's The Silence of the Lambs is a classic of suspense and storytelling and the basis for the Oscar award-winning horror film starring Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling and Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Hannibal Lecter.
A serial murderer known only by a grotesquely apt nickname--Buffalo Bill--is stalking particular women. He has a purpose, but no one can fathom it, for the bodies are discovered in different states. Clarice Starling, a young trainee at the F.B.I. Academy, is surprised to be summoned by Jack Crawford, Chief of the Bureau's Behavioral Science section. Her assignment: to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist and grisly killer now kept under close watch in the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Lecter's insight into the minds of murderers could help track and capture Buffalo Bill.
Smart and attractive, Starling is shaken to find herself in a strange, intense relationship with the acutely perceptive Lecter. His cryptic clues--about Buffalo Bill and about her--launch Clarice on a search that every reader will find startling, harrowing, and totally compelling.
Raise the Red Lantern with Gong Li, Jingwu Ma, and Saifei He. Based on the book Raise the Red Lantern: Three Novellas (Perennial) by Su Tong
The brutal realities of the dark places Su Tong depicts in this collection of novellas set in 1930s provincial China -- worlds of prostitution, poverty, and drug addiction -- belie his prose of stunning and simplebeauty. The title novella, "Raise the Red Lantern," which became a critically acclaimed film, tells the story of Lotus, a young woman whose father's suicide forces her to become the concubine of a wealthy merchant. Crushed by loneliness, despair, and cruel treatment, Lotus finds her descent into insanity both a weapon and a refuge.
"Nineteen Thirty-Four Escapes" is an account of a family's struggles during one momentous year; plagued by disease, death, and the shady promise of life in a larger town, the family slowly disintegrates.
Finally, "Opium Family" details the last years of a landowning clan whose demise is brought about by corruption, lust, and treachery -- fruits of the insidious crop they harvest.
La Belle Noiseuse (The Beautiful Troublemaker) with Michel Piccoli, Jane Birkin, and Emmanuelle Béart. Based on the book Le Chef-d' oeuvre Inconnu by Honore De Balsac
Le Chef-d'oeuvre inconnu présente toutes les caractéristiques du récit de peintre classique. Tout d'abord, il met en scène des personnages de peintres. Nicolas Poussin et François Porbus sont des artistes ayant réellement existé. Le premier est considéré comme le maître incontesté de la peinture française au XVIIème siècle. Balzac choisit une période de sa vie sur laquelle nous n'avons que peu d'éléments afin de conserver sa liberté de conteur. François Porbus (1570-1622) est un peintre flamand de renom qui a un temps été attaché à la Cour de France. Frenhofer, le génie de la peinture, est, quant à lui, un personnage imaginaire.
1992 Movies
Deep Cover with Laurence Fishburne and Jeff Goldblum. Based on the book Deep Cover: The Inside Story of How DEA Infighting, Incompetence, and Subterfuge Lost Us the Biggest Battle of the Drug War by Michael Levine
Malcolm X with Denzel Washington and Angela Bassett. Based on the book Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
Through a life of passion and struggle, Malcolm X became one of the most influential figures of the 20th Century. In this riveting account, he tells of his journey from a prison cell to Mecca, describing his transition from hoodlum to Muslim minister. Here, the man who called himself "the angriest Black man in America" relates how his conversion to true Islam helped him confront his rage and recognize the brotherhood of all mankind.
An established classic of modern America, "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" was hailed by the New York Times as "Extraordinary. A brilliant, painful, important book." Still extraordinary, still important, this electrifying story has transformed Malcom X's life into his legacy. The strength of his words, the power of his ideas continue to resonate more than a generation after they first appeared.
1993 Movies
Jurassic Park with Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum. Based on the book Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - From the author of Timeline, Sphere, and Congo, this is the classic thriller of science run amok that took the world by storm.
Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read
"[Michael] Crichton's dinosaurs are genuinely frightening."--Chicago Sun-Times
An astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaur DNA has been discovered. Now humankind's most thrilling fantasies have come true. Creatures extinct for eons roam Jurassic Park with their awesome presence and profound mystery, and all the world can visit them--for a price.
Until something goes wrong. . . .
In Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton taps all his mesmerizing talent and scientific brilliance to create his most electrifying technothriller.
The Age of Innocence with Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Winona Ryder. Based on the book The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
The intelligent and charming Newland Archer - a member of one of New York's most prominent families - is living the life that has always been expected of him: he is a successful lawyer engaged to the beautiful and well-connected May Welland. However, with the arrival of May's cousin, the free-spirited and unconventional Countess Ellen Olenska, doubts begin to grow in Newland's mind. As the bond between them grows, Newland comes increasingly to question all that had once seemed so simple.
An extraordinarily well-observed dissection of New York's high society in the 1870s - the world Edith Wharton grew up in - The Age of Innocence shines a critical light on the social mores and values of the old order.
The Remains of the Day with Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson. Based on the book The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
BOOKER PRIZE WINNER - From the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, here is "an intricate and dazzling novel" (The New York Times) about the perfect butler and his fading, insular world in post-World War II England.
This is Kazuo Ishiguro's profoundly compelling portrait of a butler named Stevens. Stevens, at the end of three decades of service at Darlington Hall, spending a day on a country drive, embarks as well on a journey through the past in an effort to reassure himself that he has served humanity by serving the "great gentleman," Lord Darlington. But lurking in his memory are doubts about the true nature of Lord Darlington's "greatness," and much graver doubts about the nature of his own life.
Schindler's List with Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, and Ben Kingsley. Based on the book Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally
During the Holocaust at the German concentration camp near Plaszow, thousands of Jews lost their lives at the hands of the Nazis. More than a thousand others would have been counted among the dead if not for a womanizing, heavydrinking, German-Catholic industrialist and Nazi Party member named Oskar Schindler.
One of the most remarkable narratives of the Holocaust, "Schindler's List" masterfully recreates the daring exploits of Schindler, who used his enormous fortune to build a factory near the concentration camp and saved the lives of over 1,300 Jews. An absorbing, suspenseful and moving account of Oskar Schindler's legacy of life, this is an unforgettable audio program.
1994 Movies
Sátántangó with Mihály Vig, Putyi Horváth, and László feLugossy. Based on the book Satantango by László Krasznahorkai - George Szirtes
Satantango, the novel that inspired Béla Tarr's classic film, is proof that the devil has all the good times. Set in an isolated hamlet, the novel unfolds over the course of a few rain-soaked days. Only a dozen inhabitants remain in the bleak village, rank with the stench of failed schemes, betrayals, failure, infidelity, sudden hopes, and aborted dreams. "Their world," in the words of the renowned translator George Szirtes is "rough and ready, lost somewhere between the cosmic and tragic, in one small insignificant corner of the cosmos. Theirs is the dance of death." Into this world comes, it seems, a messiah...
Forrest Gump with Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, and Gary Sinise. Based on the book Forrest Gump by Winston Groom
The modern classic that inspired the beloved movie starring Tom Hanks.
Six foot six, 242 pounds, and possessed of a scant IQ of 70, Forrest Gump is the lovable, surprisingly savvy hero of this classic comic tale. His early life may seem inauspicious, but when the University of Alabama's football team drafts Forrest and makes him a star, it sets him on an unbelievable path that will transform him from Vietnam hero to world-class Ping-Pong player, from wrestler to entrepreneur. With a voice all his own, Forrest is telling all in a madcap romp through three decades of American history.
1995 Movies
La Cérémonie with Isabelle Huppert, Sandrine Bonnaire, and Jacqueline Bisset. Based on the book Judgement in Stone by Ruth Rendell
What on earth could have provoked a modern day St. Valentine's Day massacre?
On Valentine's Day, four members of the Coverdale family--George, Jacqueline, Melinda and Giles--were murdered in the space of 15 minutes. Their housekeeper, Eunice Parchman, shot them, one by one, in the blue light of a televised performance of Don Giovanni. When Detective Chief Superintendent William Vetch arrests Miss Parchman two weeks later, he discovers a second tragedy: the key to the Valentine's Day massacre hidden within a private humiliation Eunice Parchman has guarded all her life. A brilliant rendering of character, motive, and the heady discovery of truth, A Judgement in Stone is among Ruth Rendell's finest psychological thrillers.
Clueless with Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash, and Brittany Murphy. Based on the book Emma by Jane Austen
From what acclaimed novelist Jane Austen wrongly suspected was the least-liked of her protagonists comes a character unlike any other. Emma is the story of a fiercely independent young woman who defines the boundaries of what a conventional lady was supposed to resemble in 19th century Britain.
Emma Woodhouse is a bit of an anomaly in her sleepy town of Highbury. Curious, intelligent, and spoiled rotten, Emma is a young lady whose nose is always in other people's business. With nothing but time on her hands, Emma delights in the chaos of her good intentions gone awry. With an inclination towards matchmaking, she decides this skill is one that must be perfected, even at the expense others. Quickly becoming the self-professed village matchmaker, it isn't until Emma's own heart is on the line that she realizes she's gone perhaps a bit too far.
1996 Movies
Romeo + Juliet with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Daines. Based on the book Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet (1597) is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. Inspired by an Italian tale adapted for an English audience in 1562 by Arthur Brooke and in 1567 by William Painter, Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet sometime between 1591 and 1595. Alongside Hamlet, it is one of Shakespeare's most performed plays and has served as source material for countless film and television adaptations. "Two households, both alike in dignity, / In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, / From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, / Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean." For his wit and wordplay alone, William Shakespeare is often considered the greatest writer to ever work in the English language. Where he truly triumphs, however, is in his ability to portray complex human emotions, how these emotions contribute to relationships, and how these relationships interact with politics, culture, and religion. In Romeo and Juliet, a "pair of star-cross'd lovers" risk their lives for one another. Because Romeo is a Montague, he cannot love Juliet, a Capulet, the sworn enemies of his family and their major rival in the city of Verona. As is often the case, their hearts refuse the limits of history, leading them to their tragic, unforgettable end.
Crash with James Spader and Holly Hunter. Based on the book Crash by J G Ballard - Zadie Smith
The Definitive Cult, Postmodern Novel--a Shocking Blend of Violence, Transgression, and Eroticism
Reissued with a New Introduction from Zadie Smith
When J. G. Ballard, our narrator, smashes his car into another and watches a man die in front of him, he finds himself drawn with increasing intensity to the mangled impacts of car crashes. Robert Vaughan, a former TV scientist turned nightmare angel of the expressway, has gathered around him a collection of alienated crash victims and experiments with a series of autoerotic atrocities, each more sinister than the last. But Vaughan craves the ultimate crash--a head-on collision of blood, semen, engine coolant, and iconic celebrity.
First published in 1973, Crash remains one of the most shocking novels of the twentieth century and was made into an equally controversial film by David Cronenberg.
1997 Movies
Perfect Blue with Junko Iwao (voice), Rica Matsumoto(voice), and Shinpachi Tsuji (voice). Based on the book Perfect Blue: Complete Metamorphosis (Light Novel) by Yoshikazu Takeuchi
THE ORIGINAL NOVEL THAT INSPIRED THE CULT CLASSIC FILM BY SATOSHI KON Kirigoe Mima is in the third year of her career as a pure and innocent pop idol. Feeling like something big needs to change, she plans to give her image a major update. When the new Mima is revealed-complete with a sexy outfit and a risqué photo book-one of her most obsessive fans refuses to accept her transformation. To restore Mima to the innocent girl of her debut, he puts a terrifying plan to action that throws her life into chaos and mortal peril.
Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion with Megumi Ogata (voice), Megumi Hayashibara (voice), and Yûko Miyamura(voice). Based on the book Neon Genesis Evangelion 3-In-1 Edition, Vol. 1: Includes Vols. 1, 2 & 3 (Original) by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
The manga adaptation of the landmark animated series that changed the mecha genre. Each volume contains three of the original graphic novels and includes pages of stunning, full-color art.
Once Shinji didn't care about anything; then he found people to fight for--only to learn that he couldn't protect them or keep those he let into his heart from going away. As mankind tilts on the brink of the apocalyptic Third Impact, human feelings are fault lines leading to destruction and just maybe, redemption and rebirth.
Lost Highway with Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette, and John Roselius. Based on the book Night People by Barry Gifford
The author of Wild at Heart and The Wild Life of Sailor and Lula writes of what Tennessee Williams called "something wild in the country/that only the night people know." He draws his characters from the shadows of the Deep South, where they confront the chaotic horror of the United States at the end of the twentieth century.
Starship Troopers with Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, and Dina Meyer. Based on the book Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
In Robert A. Heinlein's controversial Hugo Award-winning bestseller, a recruit of the future goes through the toughest boot camp in the Universe--and into battle against mankind's most alarming enemy...
Johnnie Rico never really intended to join up--and definitely not the infantry. But now that he's in the thick of it, trying to get through combat training harder than anything he could have imagined, he knows everyone in his unit is one bad move away from buying the farm in the interstellar war the Terran Federation is waging against the Arachnids.
Because everyone in the Mobile Infantry fights. And if the training doesn't kill you, the Bugs are more than ready to finish the job...
"A classic...If you want a great military adventure, this one is for you."--All SciFi
Jackie Brown with Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson, and Robert Forster. Based on the book Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard
"Powerful...clever...astonishing...a delicious read."
--Detroit Free Press
Rum Punch is classic Elmore Leonard--the electrifying thriller that served as the basis for the acclaimed film Jackie Brown by director Quentin Tarantino, starring Pam Grier, Robert DeNiro, and Samuel L. Jackson. Leonard's story of a not-altogether-blameless flight attendant on the run from her vicious gun-running sometime employer who sees her as a troublesome loose end, Rum Punch is "the King Daddy of crime writers" (Seattle Times) at his sharpest and most ingeniously entertaining. In fact, People magazine calls it, "Leonard's best work. He brilliantly reaffirms his right to the title of America's finest crime fiction writer." Enjoy this sensational noir winner from the creator of the character of U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, lately of TV's hit series Justified, and see why the great Elmore Leonard stands tall in the company of America's most legendary crime fiction masters: John D. MacDonald, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, et al.
Princess Mononoke with Yôji Matsuda (voice), Yuriko Ishida (voice), and Yûko Tanaka (voice). Based on the book Princess Mononoke: The First Story: The First Story by Hayao Miyazaki
An oversized, lavishly illustrated storybook featuring original watercolor art by legendary filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki!
This is the original Princess Mononoke story, created by Hayao Miyazaki in 1980 while he was first conceptualizing the landmark animated film that would be released to universal acclaim seventeen years later. As an initial version of the tale, it offers a new and different perspective from the final version presented in the film. After a long, exhausting war, a samurai lost in a forest encounters a giant wildcat--a mononoke. The beast saves his life, but at the price of his daughter's hand in marriage...
1998 Movies
The Last Days of Disco with Chloë Sevigny, Kate Beckinsale, and Chris Eigeman. Based on the book The Last Days of Disco, with Cocktails at Petrossian Afterward by Whit Stillman
During the last months of the disco era, in the very early 1980s, a popular dance club becomes the center of nightlife for a group of young people new to Manhattan -- "boyfriendless social failure" Alice; her treacherous friend from Hampshire College, Charlotte; their roommate, Holly; and the five Harvard guys the women meet in the city: Jimmy, the "Dancing Ad Man", who hangs on to his job by getting clients into the club; handsome corporate lawyer and part-time environmentalist Tom; Des, the club's allegedly bisexual underboss, who seems to specialize in women; Dan, an editorial assistant nostalgic for the intellectual ferment of the 1950s; and Josh, a neophyte prosecutor and disco enthusiast who suspects that the club is not being run according to conventionally accepted accounting principles.
The Last Days of Disco is an affectionate, ironic portrait of an era -- and a subgroup of not-quite innocents -- from a movie-maker as witty on paper as he is in film.
The Celebration (Festen) with Ulrich Thomsen, Henning Moritzen, and Thomas Bo Larsen. Based on the book Festen by David Eldridge
Helge, the patriarch of a chain of restaurants, is celebrating his sixtieth birthday and everyone is coming home from the party including Helge's sons, Christian, Michael and his daughter Helene. Missing from the roster of invitees is Christian's twin sister, Linda, who recently committed suicide. The reason for her action and the repercussions from it, form the basis of the shocking and painful events that transpire during a twenty-four hour period. In the midst of dinner, Christian makes a startling accusation and, even as the disbelieving guests are choosing sides, the play slowly unwraps the truth.
David Eldridge powerful new play is adapted from Thomas Vinterborg's screenplay of the very successful film, Dogme.
Flowers of Shanghai with Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, Michiko Hada, and Michelle Reis. Based on the book Sing-Song Girls of Shanghai by Bangqing Han - Eileen Chang - Eva Hung
Considered one of the great works of Chinese fiction, The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai is a story of desire and virtue set in the pleasure quarters of nineteenth-century Shanghai. Han Bangqing, himself a frequent habitué of the city's notorious brothels, reveals a world populated by lonely souls who seek consolation amid the pleasures and decadence of Shanghai's demimonde. From beautiful sirens to lower-class prostitutes, from well-respected patrons to repugnant criminals, The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai brings the romantic games of the sing-song girls to vivid life, as well as the tragic consequences faced by those who unexpectedly fall in love with their customers. Han Bangqing also tells his story from a male point of view, revealing the danger of becoming trapped between desire and propriety. First translated in draft by the legendary Chinese writer Eileen Chang, and later revised by Eva Hung, The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai combines psychological realism with modernist sensibilities and is a pioneering work of Chinese fiction.
Shakespeare in Love with Gwyneth Paltrow, Joseph Fiennes, and Geoffrey Rush. Based on the play Shakespeare in Love by Lee Hall - Marc Norman - Tom Stoppard
Young Will Shakespeare has writer's block... the deadline for his new play is fast approaching but he's in desperate need of inspiration. That is, until he finds his muse - Viola. This beautiful young woman is Will's greatest admirer and will stop at nothing (including breaking the law) to appear in his next play.
Against a bustling background of mistaken identity, ruthless scheming and backstage theatrics, Will's love for Viola quickly blossoms and inspiration ignites.
Out of Sight with George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez. Based on the book Out of Sight by Elmore Leonard
From the author of "Get Shorty" (now a major motion picture) and the man unanimously considered the greatest living crime writer comes a sizzling new novel about the lowlifes America can't get enough of.
"Out of Sight" opens with a bang: a prison break in South Florida that brings together federal marshal Karen Sisco, a knockout in her Chanel suit, and legendary bank robber, Jack Foley, Mr. Cool. Their relationship is at the heart of the plot, the fed tracking the fugitive, but with unexpected overtones: the fascination that each feels about the other. The trail leads to the heist of the year in Detroit, where Foley, the old pro bank robber, and Karen, who's known to cut corners, come up against today's most vicious kind of criminal, home invaders.
The Thin Red Line with Jim Caviezel, Sean Penn, and Nick Nolte. Based on the book The Thin Red Line by James Jones
They are the men of C-for-Charlie company--"Mad" 1st Sgt. Eddie Welsh, Pvt. 1st Class Don Doll, Pvt. John Bell, Capt. James Stein, Cpl. Fife, and dozens more just like them--infantrymen who are about to land, grim and white-faced, on an atoll in the Pacific called Guadalcanal. This is their story, a shatteringly realistic walk into hell and back.
In the days ahead, some will earn medals, others will do anything they can dream up to get evacuated before they land in a muddy grave. But they will all discover the thin red line that divides the sane from the mad--and the living from the dead--in this unforgettable portrait that captures for all time the total experience of men at war.
1999 Movies
Compensation with John Earl Jelks, Michelle A. Banks, and Nirvana Cobb. Based on the poetry Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar: An African American Poet, Novelist and Playwright in the Late 19th Century by Paul Laurence Dunbar
This collection contains the complete poetic works of Paul Laurence Dunbar, who was among the first African Americans to gain wide renown for literature in the United States. A poet of unquestionable skill and ability, Paul Laurence Dunbar was the son of two former slaves. His father, who managed to escape slavery, was an early enlistee who fight for the Union army in the American Civil War - a fact which profoundly influenced his son's outlook upon the U.S. military and life as a citizen of the USA. The poetry of Dunbar shows his flair for observation and superb knack for smooth-flowing yet profound words. Noticing immediately how he could swiftly create and sell poems to popular magazines, the young Dunbar turned down offers for educational support and instead devoted his time and effort to writing. Uniquely, Dunbar would write poets in regional dialects, incorporating slang of both white and black Americans.
Earth with Aamir Khan, Nandita Das, and Rahul Khanna. Based on the book Cracking India by Bapsi Sidhwa
The 1947 Partition of India is the backdrop for this powerful novel, narrated by a precocious child who describes the brutal transition with chilling veracity.
Young Lenny Sethi is kept out of school because she suffers from polio. She spends her days with Ayah, her beautiful nanny, visiting with the large group of admirers that Ayah draws. It is in the company of these working-class characters that Lenny learns about religious differences, religious intolerance, and the blossoming genocidal strife on the eve of Partition.
As she matures, Lenny begins to identify the differences between the Hindus, Moslems, and Sikhs engaging in political arguments all around her. Lenny enjoys a happy, privileged life in Lahore, but the kidnapping of her beloved Ayah signals a dramatic change. Soon Lenny's world erupts in religious, ethnic, and racial violence.
By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, this domestic drama serves as a microcosm for a profound political upheaval.
The Virgin Suicides with Kirsten Dunst, Josh Hartnett, and James Woods. Based on the book Virgin Suicides (Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Edition) by Jeffrey Eugenides
The national bestseller from Jeffrey Eugenides, the Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author of Middlesex and The Marriage Plot
Adapted into a critically acclaimed film by Sofia Coppola, The Virgin Suicides is a modern classic, a lyrical and timeless tale of sex and suicide that transforms and mythologizes suburban middle-American life.
First published in 1993, The Virgin Suicides announced the arrival of a major new American novelist. In a quiet suburb of Detroit, the five Lisbon sisters--beautiful, eccentric, and obsessively watched by the neighborhood boys--commit suicide one by one over the course of a single year. As the boys observe them from afar, transfixed, they piece together the mystery of the family's fatal melancholy, in this hypnotic and unforgettable novel of adolescent love, disquiet, and death.
Jeffrey Eugenides evokes the emotions of youth with haunting sensitivity and dark humor and creates a coming-of-age story unlike any of our time.
The Iron Giant with Eli Marienthal (Voice), Harry Connick Jr. (Voice), and Jennifer Aniston (Voice). Based on the book The Iron Giant by Ted Hughes
An iron giant saves the world in this contemporary classic.
A mysterious creature stalks the land, eating barbed wire and devouring tractors and plows. The farmers are mystified--and terrified. And then they glimpse him in the night: the Iron Giant, taller than a house, with glowing headlight eyes and an insatiable taste for metal. The hungry giant must be stopped at any cost.
Only a young boy named Hogarth is brave enough to lead the Iron Giant to a safe home. And only Hogarth knows where to turn when a space-bat as big as Australia, hungry for every living thing on Earth, darkens the sky.
First published in 1968, Ted Hughes's classic tale is a powerful tribute to peace on earth--and in all the universe. Of it Madeleine L'Engle wrote, How grateful we should be for Ted Hughes's brilliant The Iron Giant. It speaks to all ages, and we need its message even more now. Philip Pullman called it so gripping that when you begin to read it aloud, everyone stops to listen, young children and old people alike. Whether you think of it as a science fiction fantasy or a modern fairy tale or a tall-tale parable for today, you will never forget it.
Fight Club with Brad Pitt and Edward Norton. Based on the book Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
Chuck Palahniuk showed himself to be his generation's most visionary satirist in this, his first book. Fight Club's estranged narrator leaves his lackluster job when he comes under the thrall of Tyler Durden, an enigmatic young man who holds secret after-hours boxing matches in the basements of bars. There, two men fight "as long as they have to." This is a gloriously original work that exposes the darkness at the core of our modern world.
Beau Travail with Denis Lavant, Michel Suborn, and Grégoire Colin. Based on the book Billy Budd, Sailor (Enriched Classic) by Herman Melville
Billy Budd, Sailor has been called the best short novel ever written. In his brilliantly condensed prose, Herman Melville fashions a legal parable in which reason and intellect prove incapable of preserving innocence in the face of evil. For all those who feel themselves threatened by a hostile and inflexible environment, there is special significance in this haunting story of a handsome sailor who becomes a victim of man's intransigence.
Eyes Wide Shut with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Based on the book Traumnovelle by Arthur Schnitzler
Arthur Schnitzler: Traumnovelle Die vordergründig glückliche Ehe von Albertine und Fridolin verbirgt die ungestillten erotischen Begierden der beiden Partner, die sich in nächtlichen Eskapaden entladen. Schnitzlers Ergriffenheit von der Triebnatur des Menschen begleitet ihn seit seiner frühen Bekanntschaft mit Sigmund Freud, dessen Lehre er in seinem Werk literarisch spiegelt. Die Traumnovelle wurde 1999 unter dem Titel Eyes Wide Shut von Stanley Kubrick verfilmt. Erstdruck: Die Dame, LIII. Jahrgang, 6.-12. Heft, Berlin, 1925-26. Vollständige Neuausgabe mit einer Biographie des Autors. Herausgegeben von Karl-Maria Guth. Berlin 2016. Textgrundlage ist die Ausgabe: Arthur Schnitzler: Gesammelte Werke. Die erzählenden Schriften, 2 Bände, Frankfurt a.M.: S. Fischer Verlag, 1961. Die Paginierung obiger Ausgabe wird in dieser Neuausgabe als Marginalie zeilengenau mitgeführt. Umschlaggestaltung von Thomas Schultz-Overhage unter Verwendung des Bildes: Egon Schiele, Die Umarmung, 1917. Gesetzt aus der Minion Pro, 11 pt. Über den Autor: 1862 in eine begüterte, jüdische Arztfamilie in Wien hineingeboren studiert Arthur Schnitzler selbst Medizin und betreibt nach kurzen Krankenhausjahren eine Privatpraxis, die er mit zunehmender literarischer Tätigkeit immer weiter reduziert. Er lernt Sigmund Freud kennen und begeistert sich für dessen Studien zum Un- und Unterbewußten. Gemeinsam mit Hugo von Hofmannsthal gilt er als Kern der Wiener Moderne und ist einer der bedeutendsten Kritiker seiner Zeit. Mit der Novelle Leutnant Gustl führt er den inneren Monolog, die seinen Figuren assoziative Reaktionen auf ihre Umwelt ermöglichen, in die deutsche Literatur ein. Seine Montagetechnik verwebt Klischees und vermeintlich individuelle Reaktionen zu einem überindividuellen Typus. Egoistische Flucht vor Verantwortung und Bindungsängste sind zentrale Themen seines umfangreichen Werkes. Nachdem ihm 1921 nach einem Skandal um seinen Reigen die Aufführungsgenehmigung entzogen wird
The Talented Mr. Ripley with Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Jude Law. Based on the book The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
It's here, in the first volume of Patricia Highsmith's five-book Ripley series, that we are introduced to the suave Tom Ripley, a young striver seeking to leave behind his past as an orphan bullied for being a "sissy." Newly arrived in the heady world of Manhattan, Ripley meets a wealthy industrialist who hires him to bring his playboy son, Dickie Greenleaf, back from gallivanting in Italy. Soon Ripley's fascination with Dickie's debonair lifestyle turns obsessive as he finds himself enraged by Dickie's ambivalent affections for Marge, a charming American dilettante, and Ripley begins a deadly game. "Sinister and strangely alluring" (Mark Harris, Entertainment Weekly) The Talented Mr. Ripley serves as an unforgettable introduction to this smooth confident man, whose talent for self-invention is as unnerving--and unnervingly revealing of the American psyche--as ever.