Books published by publisher W. W. Norton

The first rule about fight club is you don't talk about fight club.In his debut novel, Chuck Palahniuk showed himself to be his generation's most visionary satirist. 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 boxing matches in the basement of bars. There two men fight "as long as they have to." A gloriously original work that exposes what is at the core of our modern world.

Chuck Palahniuk's startling and outrageous debut novel, basis of the hit movie starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton.THE FIRST RULE about fight club is you don't talk about fight club.Every weekend, in the basements and parking lots of bars across the country, young men with whitecollar jobs and failed lives take off their shoes and shirts and fight each other barehanded just as long as they have to. Then they go back to those jobs with blackened eyes and loosened teeth and the sense that they can handle anything. Fight club is the invention of Tyler Durden, projectionist, waiter, and dark, anarchic genius, and it's only the beginning of his plans for violent revenge on an empty consumer-culture world.

The bestselling, "excellent…poignant―and scientifically lucid―portrait" (New York Times Book Review) of the remarkable Marie Curie.Through family interviews, diaries, letters, and workbooks that had been sealed for over sixty years, Barbara Goldsmith reveals the Marie Curie behind the myth―an all-too-human woman struggling to balance a spectacular scientific career, a demanding family, the prejudice of society, and her own passionate nature. Obsessive Genius is a dazzling portrait of Curie, her amazing scientific success, and the price she paid for fame. 15 photographs

A fresh look at Darwin's most radical idea, and the mysteriously slow process by which he revealed it.Evolution, during the early nineteenth century, was an idea in the air. Other thinkers had suggested it, but no one had proposed a cogent explanation for how evolution occurs. Then, in September 1838, a young Englishman named Charles Darwin hit upon the idea that "natural selection" among competing individuals would lead to wondrous adaptations and species diversity. Twenty-one years passed between that epiphany and publication of On the Origin of Species. The human drama and scientific basis of Darwin's twenty-one-year delay constitute a fascinating, tangled tale that elucidates the character of a cautious naturalist who initiated an intellectual revolution.The Reluctant Mr. Darwin is a book for everyone who has ever wondered about who this man was and what he said. Drawing from Darwin's secret "transmutation" notebooks and his personal letters, David Quammen has sketched a vivid life portrait of the man whose work never ceases to be controversial.

Winner of the 1998 Rhone-Poulenc Science Book Prize. Purchased in Europe and was published in the UK. The book answers the most obvious,mthe most important question about human history - why history unfolded so differently on the different continents. NATURE called it "One of the most important readable works on the human past." Great book for anyone interested in popular science.

THE DAWN'S EARLY LIGHT by Walter Lord, W.W. Norton, 1972, First Edition, First Printing. This is a Collectible, Hardcover Book and Dust Jacket. The book is light blue cloth with gold and navy blue lettering. The Top Edge is Blue. The dust jacket has been placed in an archival, clear, Mylar jacket for further protection and preservation. A Very Nice Copy! Summer 1814. Torn by internal conflict, plagued by an empty treasury, embittered by the human cost of war that couldn't be won, the United States seemed on the point of collapse. With the British blockade strangling her trade, the economy of the young nation was in ruins, and now Washington itself lay at the mercy of an invading English Army! EXCEPTIONAL!

Comprehensive and visually rich, this new Norton Anthology, in a beautiful slipcased gift edition, traces the remarkable innovation and enduring pleasures of children's literature.The Norton Anthology of Children's Literature celebrates the richness and variety of over 350 years of literary works for children. This groundbreaking anthology includes 170 authors and illustrators of alphabets and animal fables, fairy tales and fantasy, picture books and nursery verse, among many other genres. Here readers will find beloved works by Charles Perrault, Lewis Carroll, J. M. Barrie, L. M. Montgomery, and Dr. Seuss along with historical classics―The New-England Primer and Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses―and major voices from the multicultural and global contemporary scene. Over 40 longer complete works and over 400 illustrations, including 60 in color, enhance this comprehensive and visually rich anthology. With introductions that offer fresh insights into the cultural contexts of children's literature and childhood itself over four centuries, author headnotes, annotations, bibliographies, and a timeline, The Norton Anthology of Children's Literature illuminates a literary tradition whose power to instruct and delight is both centuries old and startlingly new. 60 color and 375 black-and-white illustrations

It's 1948, and Easy Rawlins is on the trail of a missing woman in South Central L.A.Devil in a Blue Dress honors the tradition of the classic American detective novel by bestowing on it a vivid social canvas and the freshest new voice in crime writing in years, mixing the hard-boiled poetry of Raymond Chandler with the racial realism of Richard Wright to explosive effect.

The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales is a work that celebrates the best-loved tales of childhood and presents them through the vision of Maria Tatar, a leading authority in the field of folklore and children's literature. Gathering together 25 of our most cherished fairy tales, including enduring classics like "Beauty and the Beast," and "Jack and the Beanstalk," Tatar guides readers through the stories, exploring their historical origins, their cultural complexities, and their psychological effects. Offering new translations of non-English stories by Hans Christian Andersen, Brothers Grimm, or Charles Perrault, Tatar captures the rhythms of oral storytelling and, with over 300 paintings and drawings by illustrators such as Gustave Doré, George Cruikshank, and Maxfield Parrish, she expands our literary and visual sensibilities. Disseminated across a wide variety of historical and contemporary media ranging from opera and drama to cinema and advertising, they constitute a vital part of our storytelling capital. What has kept them alive over the centuries is exactly what keeps life pulsing with vitality and variety: anxieties, fears, desires, romance, passion, and love. Fairy tales tell us about the quest for romance and riches, for power and privilege, and, most importantly, they show us a way out of the woods back to the safety and security of home. Challenging the notion that fairy tales should be read for their moral values, Tatar demonstrates throughout how fairy tales can be seen as models for navigating reality, helping children to develop the wit and courage needed to survive in a world ruled by adults. This volume seeks to reclaim this powerful cultural legacy, presenting the stories that we all think we know while at the same time providing the historical contexts that unlock the mysteries of the tales. The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales is a volume that will rank as a work to be treasured by students, parents, and children.

High adventure and grand history from a master of the craft in a beautifully illustrated volume.With characteristic flair, Felipe Fernández-Armesto gives us an entertaining and insightful history of world exploration. Presenting the subject for the first time on a truly global scale, Fernández-Armesto tracks the pathfinders who, over the last five millennia, lay down the routes of contact that have drawn together the farthest reaches of the world. From the maritime expeditions connecting Queen Hatshepsut's Egypt to the exotic land of Punt in the second millennium BCE, through the merchants and missionaries of the ancient Silk Roads and the great Iberian explorers of the fifteenth century, to the nineteenth-century explorations of the polar regions, interior Africa, North America, and the South Pacific, Fernández-Armesto spins a grand narrative full of character and story. Deftly embedding these explorations in the cultures, politics, and technologies of their times, he creates a history with unusual depth and breadth. Here is an intellectual adventure as rewarding as it is thrilling. 16 pages of color; 48 maps; 44 illustrations.

A shattering and blackly funny debut in the tradition of Roddy Doyle, No Bones follows a young woman growing up in a Belfast beset by the Troubles. This is a book about feelings, family, sex, and Ireland? but don't tell Amelia that. She's the one growing up in the mad family, in the mad society, who doesn't want to know what's going on. But things are going on: eight-year-olds collecting very peculiar treasure; babies who might be, or might not be, bombs; schoolgirls bringing guns into schoolyards; and, of course, lots of food and bad, bad sex. If Amelia is to live she needs to change. Can she, though, in a place where people don't know how to look after themselves, and so wouldn't know how to look after one another?