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Horace McCoy

    April 14, 1897 – December 15, 1955

    Horace Stanley McCoy documented the hardships Americans faced during the Depression and post-war periods in his gritty, hardboiled novels. Though underappreciated in his own time, McCoy is now recognized as a peer of Dashiell Hammett and James Cain. His work explored the darker aspects of the American dream and the psychological toll of extreme pressure. McCoy's distinctive style is known for its concision and potent imagery.

    Horace McCoy
    Horace: Odes IV and Carmen Saeculare
    Kiss tomorrow goodbye
    They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
    The Complete Odes and Epodes
    I Should Have Stayed Home
    Horace
    • 2015

      Horace saw the death of the Republic and the beginning of the Roman Empire, and was personally acquainted with the emperor Augustus and the poet Virgil. This anthology of superb English translations will show how Horace has permeated English literature for five centuries.

      Horace
    • 2012

      Satires

      • 198 pages
      • 7 hours of reading

      The Satires of Horace offer a hodgepodge of genres and styles: philosophy and bawdry; fantastic tales and novelistic vignettes; portraits of the poet, his contemporaries, and his predecessors; jibes, dialogue, travelogue, rants, and recipes; and poetic effects in a variety of modes. For all their apparent lightheartedness, however, the poems both illuminate and bear the marks of a momentous event in world history, one in which Horace himself played an active role--the death of the Roman Republic and the birth of the Principate. John Svarlien's lively blank-verse translation reflects the wide range of styles and tones deployed throughout Horace's eighteen sermons or conversations, deftly reproducing their distinctive humor while tracking the poet's changing mannerisms and moods. David Mankin's Introduction offers a brief account of the political upheavals in which Horace participated as well as the social setting in which his Satires were produced, and points up hallmarks of the poet's distinctive brand of satire. His detailed commentary offers a behind-the-scenes look at Roman society and an often between-the-lines examination of a key work of one of Rome's sharpest observers.

      Satires
    • 2011

      I Should Have Stayed Home

      • 132 pages
      • 5 hours of reading

      Set against the backdrop of Hollywood, the narrative explores the intertwining themes of temptation and desire, presenting a hard-boiled perspective on the darker side of fame. With a perverse twist, the story delves into the complexities of ambition and the moral dilemmas faced by its characters, revealing the seductive yet dangerous allure of the entertainment industry.

      I Should Have Stayed Home
    • 2011
    • 2009
    • 1999

      Kniha vypráví příběh o složitém úniku z vězení, při němž byl zabit vězeň, pro kterého byl útěk zorganizován, a na svobodu se dostává jeho náhodně vybraný společník Ralph Cotter. Tento odvážný kousek Cottera zavede do prostředí plného zločinu, machinací a vyděračství, kde ho pohrdání zákonem, řádem a lidským životem zavádí na cestu nekonečného zla. Román posloužil jako předloha pro kultovní film s Jamesem Cagneym v hlavní roli.

      Dej zítřku sbohem
    • 1996

      Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye is a kind of success story. A Phi Beta Kappa scholar succeds in turning himself into a vicious and completely immoral criminal - a man whose contempt for law, order, and human life drives him relentlessly into a career of unrelieved evil. He escapes from a chain gang to join a pack of gangsters and a millionaire's daughter falls in love with him, but eventually his past overtakes him. Kiss Tomorrrow Goodbye is McCoy's most ambitious work and the basis for one of the great gangster movies, starring James Cagney.

      Kiss tomorrow goodbye