Charlie and Paulie consider themselves "family" even though they are only fifth cousins. Neither of them is 100 percent legitimate but they are not heavy thieves either. They beat the system as best they can with the various inside hustles of New York City's bar and restaurant scene. Charlie, managing a Village restaurant at age thirty-five, needs one shot to realize his dream of owning his own place in rural New England. Meanwhile, he's just a jump ahead of two shylocks and into the worst...

"The Case Against Spirit Photographs" by C. Vincent Patrick and W. Whately Smith critically examines the phenomenon of spirit photography, a practice that gained popularity in the late 19th century. The authors delve into the historical context of these photographs, which purportedly captured the spirits of the deceased alongside the living. Through meticulous analysis, they reveal the techniques and deceptions employed by photographers to create these haunting images, challenging the auth...

The most lovable family ever to live outside the law gives us a wild, funny, tough-talking, big-hearted novel. Between Grandpa Jessie, son Vito, and grandson Adam, the McMullen men represent a good portion of the ethnic groups in America—Cherokee Indian, Irish, Jewish, and Italian—but there's something "unadulterated" they all share—what Grandpa Jessie calls "the criminal gene." And Jessie intends to capitalize on it with one last big scam that will keep them in clover forever. Although Vi...

In the wee hours of the morning, four men in latex masks enter the elegant Montclair Hotel in midtown Manhattan. After detaining the night staff, Frank Belmonte, one of the best jewel thieves in the business, breaks into the safe deposit boxes held by the rich old inhabitants of the hotel. "Frankie Rocks" takes roughly ten million dollars' worth of jewels from the boxes. The heist seems to be running smoothly until some unexpected guests arrive at the hotel and the burglars are forced to t...

The first detailed treatment of Switzerland in British literature and culture from Joseph Addison to John Ruskin, this book analyzes the aesthetic and political uses of what is commonly called the 'Swiss myth' in the parallel development of Romanticism and liberalism. The myth merged the country's legends going back to the Middle Ages with the Enlightenment image of a happy, free nation of alpine shepherds. Its unique combination of conservative, progressive, and radical associations enabl...

This wide-ranging new history of European Romantic Literature presents a pan-European phenomenon which transcended national borders and contributed to a new sense of European cultural identity across the continent. Conceived in the same spirit as Madame de Staël's cultural and political agenda at a time when her 'generous idea' of Europe is being challenged on all sides, the volume pays close attention to the period's circulation of people, ideas, and texts. It proposes to rethink the peri...