Marcel, a young bourgeois in Paris, wants to be a writer. However, worldly temptations divert him from his vocation. Attracted by the false brilliance of the aristocracy or the fashionable summer spots, he grows as he discovers the world, love, and the existence of homosexuality. Will you achieve your goal of fixing lost time? On the Path of Swann is the first volume of Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time, a leading text of French letters and also of universal literature.

Massive pyramids tower over the Giza Plateau near Cairo, Egypt. Built in the Bronze Age, these immense stone structures were engineered with remarkable precision. How did the ancient Egyptians construct them without the use of modern tools? Why were they built? Throughout the centuries, historians and archaeologists have studied the pyramids and other Egyptian artifacts in search of possible answers to these questions. The pyramids are filled with mysterious doors and passageways what other secrets and treasures might lie inside? Find out more about the myths, science, and technology surrounding the creation and exploration of the Egyptian pyramids.

The year 2006 marks the hundredth anniversary of book publication of the final volume of the Psammead trilogy-Five Children and It (1902), The Phoenix and the Carpet (1904), and The Story of the Amulet (1906)-a remarkable series of fantasy novels for children by an equally remarkable writer, Edith Nesbit. In this trilogy, Nesbit combined fantasy and history with the domestic realism and humor of her Bastable books-The Story of the Treasure Seekers (1899), The Wouldbegoods (1901), and The New Treasure Seekers (1904)-the books that established her reputation as one of England's preeminent writers for children. By doing so, she not only earned popularity with several generations of child readers, but she also established her claim to a position in the pantheon of important writers for children. The essays collected in this volume celebrate the completion of the Psammead trilogy. Written by both established and new scholars in England, Canada, and the United States, these essays employ differing critical strategies and place Nesbit in various contexts to assess her achievement. In producing books with memorable comic moments, character-testing adventures, plausible child characters with real feelings and real limitations, and interesting and challenging thematic material, Nesbit produced in the Psammead trilogy books that children still read with enjoyment. Such fantasies truly are classics of children's literature. Teachers and students of children's literature and of British literature and culture will find this a valuable guide to critically reviewing and enjoying Nesbit's works.