This book studies the various narrative shades of love in twentieth-century Latin American fiction. It examines writings by Isabel Allende, Roberto Arlt, García Márquez, and Mario Vargas Llosa. The author provides a close textual reading of each novel and discusses how humans make sense of their lives through love. He shifts the focus of these writings from political violence and historical disillusionment to the illusion of love. An important contribution to Latin American literary criticism, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of literature, history, Latin American literature, philosophy, ethics, aesthetics, comparative literature, and sociology.

The user-friendly, interfaith guide to making and using labyrinths—for meditation, prayer and celebration—updated, revised and expanded! A labyrinth is a circuitous path that people have used as a form of prayer and meditation for thousands of years—a path that is being rediscovered as a spiritual tool in our own day. There are now thousands of labyrinths in North America, made of stone, cement, sunflowers, grass or canvas; indoors and outdoors; in Christian, Pagan and even nonreligious settings; and adaptable for use by people of all spiritual backgrounds. This guide explains how the labyrinth is a symbol that transcends traditions, and how walking its path brings us together. Here is your entry to the fascinating history and philosophy of the labyrinth walk, with directions for making a labyrinth of your own or finding one in your area, and guidance on ways to use labyrinths creatively for: Prayer • Stress reduction • Meditation • Commemorating personal or family milestones • Faith rituals • Celebrations of all kinds Labyrinths—a twenty-first century method of approaching the sacred—are a spiritual practice more ancient than Stonehenge or the ruins of Troy. This practical and inspiring guide will help you to explore them.

Too hot to handle? Lefteris Markakis despised English girls, and now Courtney had stepped into his vendetta by intending to entertain tourists at the Villa Athina which just happened to be owned by Lefteris's arch rival, but was sited on Lefteris's land! Courtney didn't want to leave, but then Lefteris came up with a surprising offer. Could she handle being housekeeper to this arrogant, infuriating but undeniably attractive man? She wasn't sure . Jessica Hart has a wonderful talent of "building a stunning love story you won't want to see end." Romantic Times

Ancient and medieval labyrinths embody paradox, according to Penelope Reed Doob. Their structure allows a double perspective—the baffling, fragmented prospect confronting the maze-treader within, and the comprehensive vision available to those without. Mazes simultaneously assert order and chaos, artistry and confusion, articulated clarity and bewildering complexity, perfected pattern and hesitant process. In this handsomely illustrated book, Doob reconstructs from a variety of literary and visual sources the idea of the labyrinth from the classical period through the Middle Ages. Doob first examines several complementary traditions of the maze topos, showing how ancient historical and geographical writings generate metaphors in which the labyrinth signifies admirable complexity, while poetic texts tend to suggest that the labyrinth is a sign of moral duplicity. She then describes two common models of the labyrinth and explores their formal implications: the unicursal model, with no false turnings, found almost universally in the visual arts; and the multicursal model, with blind alleys and dead ends, characteristic of literary texts. This paradigmatic clash between the labyrinths of art and of literature becomes a key to the metaphorical potential of the maze, as Doob's examination of a vast array of materials from the classical period through the Middle Ages suggests. She concludes with linked readings of four "labyrinths of words": Virgil's Aeneid, Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy, Dante's Divine Comedy, and Chaucer's House of Fame, each of which plays with and transforms received ideas of the labyrinth as well as reflecting and responding to aspects of the texts that influenced it. Doob not only provides fresh theoretical and historical perspectives on the labyrinth tradition, but also portrays a complex medieval aesthetic that helps us to approach structurally elaborate early works. Readers in such fields as Classical literature, Medieval Studies, Renaissance Studies, comparative literature, literary theory, art history, and intellectual history will welcome this wide-ranging and illuminating book.

An exploration of mazes and labyrinths with guidance for their use in meditation.

Providing a historical and modern context for the unique spiritual discipline of walking a labyrinth, Travis Scholl weaves his own journey with a prayerful study of the Gospel of Mark, guiding readers to powerful encounters with God, even in the midst of quiet solitude, repetition and stillness. These 40 reflections are ideal for daily reading—during Lent or any time of the year.

First pub. 1950. Tale of the conquered of Mexico in 1521 and its aftermath.