Steven Millhauser

Con una visión muy particular del mundo y una prosa llena de matices, Steven Millhauser presenta esta extraordinaria colección de relatos. Ya reflejen enigmáticas desapariciones, inventos precursores que nunca llegaron a ver la luz, los veranos, hastiados y eternos, de la adolescencia, o artefactos insolitos que desafian la mente y los sentidos, sus historias tienen algo en comun: la inquietante certeza de que, al contrario de lo que nos parece, es dificil definir las fronteras de la realidad. Un universo perturbador y sensual envuelve al lector, y una estructura exquisita plantea sucesivos juegos de opuestos que se potencian, en enfrentamientos que no siempre resuelven las reglas que nos damos en la vida cotidiana. Asi, temas como el tiempo, el miedo o la presencia del otro adquieren en Risas Peligrosas una formulacion nueva ysorprendente. Reflexivos, misteriosos, crueles, humoristicos, brillantes, imaginativos, intensos..., multiples facetas, en fin, de unos cuentos nada triviales.

From the Pulitzer Prize winning author hailed by The New Yorker as "a virtuoso of waking dreams" comes a dazzling new collection of darkly comic stories united by their obsession with obsession. In Dangerous Laughter, Steven Millhauser transports us to unknown universes that uncannily resemble our own. Como autor ganador del Premio Pulitzer alabado por 'The New Yorker' como ' un virtuoso en hacernos despertar de los sueños' nos llega una apasionante nueva recopilacion de historias de oscuro humor unidas por su obsesion con la obsesion. En "Dangerous Laughter", Steven Millhauser nos transporta a universos desconocidos que se parecen asombrosamente al nuesto.

A magnificent collection from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author: stories from across three decades that showcase his indomitable imagination.Steven Millhausers fiction has consistently, and to dazzling effect, dissolved the boundaries between reality and fantasy, waking life and dreams, the past and the future, darkness and light, love and lust. The stories gathered here unfurl in settings as disparate as nineteenth-century Vienna, a contemporary Connecticut town, the corridors of a monstrous museum, and Thomas Edisons laboratory, and they are inhabited by a wide-ranging cast of characters, including a knife thrower and teenage boys, ghosts and a cartoon cat and mouse. But all of the stories are united in their unfailing power to surprise and enchant. From the earliest to the stunning, previously unpublished novella-length title story-in which a man who is dead, but not quite gone, reaches out to two lonely women-Millhauser "makes our world turn amazing" (The New York Times Book Review).With this collection, Steven Millhauser carves out ever more deeply his wondrous place in the American literary canon.Praise for Steven Millhausers Dangerous Laughter"There is a ferocious restlessness in [these] stories, a mingling of desire and dread...mesmerizing" - Cathleen Medwick, O, The Oprah Magazine "Tales fuelled by curiosity and wonder, from a master...dazzling" - Jeff Turrentine, Washington Post Book World"Beautiful and profound...Millhausers work is among the most thought-provoking Ive ever encountered" - David L. Ulin, Los Angeles Times Book Review "Millhauser is a marvel...Dangerous Laughter shimmers with eccentric research, sinuous explorations of the mysteries of artistic creation, and his preternatural sensitivity to the inner lives of children and adolescents...an experience that leaves [us] dazzles, enchanted" - Daniel Dyer, Cleveland Plain Dealer "Absorbing, impeccably imagined...the best [stories] linger strangely, like ghostly taps on your shoulder" - Gregory Kirschling, Entertainment Weekly"Prose wizardry...of such melodic wit and finesse that its more akin to musicmaking than story telling" - Michael Upchurch, Seattle Times "Millhausers lifelong loves-of cartoons, magic, board games, mechanical marvels of the 19th century and the quiet moments of daily life-shine through, and his taste for language and grasp of storytelling are flawless. Truly amazing stories." - Stewart ONan

Fines del siglo XIX: la época que dio luz al tren y la fotografía concluye para dejar paso a la del cinematógrafo. Sin embargo, en una avenida bulliciosa de Berlín cientos de paseantes se agolpan contra las vidrieras de un emporio comercial, atonitos ante unos muñecos animados capaces de expresar emociones con todos los rasgos de la cara. El creador de esas maravillas es un joven provinciano que aprendio los secretos de la mecanica en la relojeria de su padre. Su fantastico don para fabricar automatas de vivacidad sobrenatural y un erotismo melancolico le ganara un lugar, primero, en los escaparates de la moda, y luego en la vida nocturna berlinesa. Pero ese talento que hechiza a algunos adeptos no podra con la tosca sensualidad de las nuevas masas urbanas.A August Eschenburg no le importa soñar sueños errados. A Steven Millhauser, tampoco. Y la literatura, y la inquieta prosa del mundo, lo agradecen y se alumbran, por un instante, como vidrieras.Maria Negroni

Three novellas, all about love in some form: REVENGE, which takes place as a woman is showing a stranger around her house; AN ADVENTURE OF DON JUAN, in which the Don attempts a seduction in an English country house; and THE KING IN THE TREE, based on the story of Tristan and Yseult. A New York Times Notable Book for 2003.

En Nueva York a finales del siglo XIX los grandes escaparates se multiplican despertando la imaginación de los transeúntes, la publicidad comienza a sofisticarse y parece que la iluminación eléctrica y el telefono terminaran por imponerse. En un escenario asi, parece que cualquier sueño puede hacerse realidad. Y Martin Dressler esta dispuesto a soñar. Su meteorica carrera empieza en la tabaqueria de su padre; trabajara despues como botones y recepcionista antes de decidirse, a los veintidos años, a poner en marcha su primera empresa: una cadena de restaurantes, a la que luego seguira otra de hoteles. El exito de sus negocios no minara su ambicion, al reves, sus proyectos se iran haciendo mas y mas visionarios y su implicacion en ellos sera cada vez mayor. Sin embargo, el exito va aislando progresivamente a Martin de su familia y de cuanto le rodea. Su trayectoria refleja muchos de los cambios que se produjeron en la ciudad de Nueva York a comienzos del siglo XX, que, en gran medida, fueron impulsados por soñadores como el.Publicada en 1996 y premiada al año siguiente con el Premio Pulitzer de ficcion, Martin Dressler. Historia de un soñador americano es, seguramente, la mejor novela de Steven Millhauser, uno de los mas prestigiosos escritores norteamericanos contemporaneos.Este asombroso libro es una fabula y una quimera sobre los origenes de nuestro siglo. Martin Dressler explora de manera maravillosa el Sueño Americano en todas sus manifestaciones: como proposito, vision, intencion, pesadilla, alucinacion, desilusion, muerte.The New York TimesLa novela de Millhauser examina la imaginacion americana en terminos de cosmologia Una fabula sobre el Manhattan victoriano tejida con la habilidad de un experto.The New YorkerEn su encantadora novela, Millhauser utiliza hechos historicos el Nueva York de finales del XIX- como puerta de entrada para un mundo tan fantastico y rico como cualquiera de los que habia creado. Hay algo magico en este retrato de la sombra de un hombre y una ciudad poseidas por un sueño febril.San Francisco Chronicle

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST The author of Voices in the Night reveals the mesmerizing journey of an American dreamer as he walks a haunted line between fantasy and reality, madness and ambition, art and industry.This wonderful, wonder-full book is a fable and phantasmagoria of the sources of our century. The New York Times Book ReviewYoung Martin Dressler begins his career as an industrious helper in his fathers cigar store. In the course of his restless young manhood, he makes a swift and eventful rise to the top, accompanied by two sisters--one a dreamlike shadow, the other a worldly business partner. As the eponymous Martins vision becomes bolder and bolder, a sense of doom builds piece-by-hypnotic piece until this mesmerizing journey reaches its bitter-sweet conclusion.

PEN/FAULKNER AWARD FINALIST From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Martin Dressler: the essential stories across three decades that showcase his indomitable imagination. "A book of astonishingly beautiful and moving stories by one of Americas finest and most original writers. Charles Simic, The New York Review of BooksSteven Millhausers fiction has consistently, and to dazzling effect, dissolved the boundaries between reality and fantasy, waking life and dreams, the past and the future, darkness and light, love and lust. The stories gathered here unfurl in settings as disparate as nineteenth-century Vienna, a contemporary Connecticut town, the corridors of a monstrous museum, and Thomas Edisons laboratory, and they are inhabited by a wide-ranging cast of characters, including a knife thrower and teenage boys, ghosts and a cartoon cat and mouse. But all of the stories are united in their unfailing power to surprise and enchant. From the earliest to the stunning, previously unpublished novella-length title storyin which a man who is dead, but not quite gone, reaches out to two lonely womenMillhauser in this magnificent collection carves out ever more deeply his wondrous place in the American literary canon.

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Martin Dressler comes a stunningly original book set in a Connecticut town over one incredible summer night. "[A] master of a prose that doesnt merely aspire to the condition of music but actually achieves it." The Washington Post Book World The delicious cast of characters includes a band of teenage girls who break into homes and simply leave notes reading "We Are Your Daughters," a young woman who meets a phantom lover on the tree swing in her back yard, a beautiful mannequin who steps down from her department store window, and all the dolls "no longer believed in," left abandoned in the attic, who magically come to life.With each new book, Steven Millhauser radically stretches not only the limits of fiction but also of his seemingly limitless abilities. Enchanted Night is a remarkable piece of fiction, a compact tale of loneliness and desire that is as hypnotic and rich as the language Millhauser uses to weave it.

A parody of a literary biography starring a 10-year-old novelist who is mysteriously dead at 11from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Martin Dressler.As a memorial, Edwin Mullhouses best friend, Jeffrey Cartwright, decides that the life of this great American writer must be told. He follows Edwins development from his preverbal first noises through his love for comic books to the fulfillment of his literary genius in the remarkable novel, Cartoons.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Martin Dressler delivers an inventive collection of three novellas that are a magical companion to his acclaimed longer fictions. "Millhauser makes our world turn amazing!" The New York Times Book ReviewCartoons that draw their creator into another world; demonic paintings that exert a sinister influence on our own. Fairy tales that express the secret losses and anxieties of their tellers. These are the elements that Steven Millhauser employs to such marvelousand often disquietingeffect in Little Kingdoms. In "The Little Kingdom of J. Franklin Payne," a gentle eccentric constructs an elaborate alternate universe that is all the more appealing for being transparently unreal. "The Princess, the Dwarf, and the Dungeon" is at once a gothic tale of nightmarish jealousy and a meditation on the human need for exaltation and horror. And "Catalogue of the Exhibition" introduces us to the oeuvre of Edmund Moorash, a Romantic painter who might have been imagined by Nabokov or Poe. Exuberantly inventive, as mysterious as dreams, these novellas will delight, mesmerize, and transport anyone who reads them.

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Martin Dressler: sixteen new storiesspellbinding, masterly, sublime (The New York Times Book Review)that delve into the secret lives and desires of ordinary people, alongside retellings of myths and legends that highlight the aspirations of the human spirit.Beloved for the lens of the strange he places on small town life, Steven Millhauser further reveals in Voices in the Night the darkest parts of our inner selves to brilliant and dazzling effect. Here are stories of wondrously imaginative hyperrealism, stories that pose unforgettably unsettling what-ifs, or that find barely perceivable evils within the safe boundaries of our towns, homes, and even within our bodies.Here, too, are stories culled from religion and fables: Samuel, who hears the voice of God calling him in the night; a young, pre-enlightenment Buddha, who searches for his purpose in life; Rapunzel and her Prince, who struggle to fit the real world to their dream.Heightened by magic, the divine, and the uncanny, shot through with sly and winning humor, Voices in the Night seamlessly combines the whimsy and surprise of the familiar with intoxicating fantasies that take us beyond our daily lives, all done with the hallmark sleight of hand and astonishing virtuosity of one of our greatest contemporary storytellers.