Odalisque

Author: Fiona McIntosh
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0060899115
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 503

Book Description
Once a captive of merciless desert slave traders, Lazar fought his way to freedom—and to an exalted role as Spur of Percheron, guardian of his adopted city, and confidant and protector of the Zar, Joreb. But now the Zar is dead and his fifteen-year-old heir, Boaz, must assume the mantle of leadership—guided by trusted advisor Lazar, the "mad" dwarf jester Pez . . . and Boaz's cruel, ambitious mother, who truly holds the reins of power. In the midst of roiling court intrigue, a young girl arrives to fill a space in Boaz's harem—and inflames unexpectedly strong feelings in both Boaz and Lazar. But the odalisque, Ana, will not be satisfied by the closeted, stifling world of the harem. And, unbeknownst to all, the gods themselves are rising up in cyclical battle—as the struggle begins within and beyond the palace walls for the imperiled soul of Percheron.

Odalisque in Pieces

Author: Carmen GimŽnez Smith
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
ISBN: 9780816527885
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 84

Book Description
In her debut poetry collection, Carmen GimŽnez Smith illuminates Latina identity in the prismatic light of postcolonial history, feminism, myth, and the fragmentation of modernity. From these disparate elements she fashions a female personaÑÒclairvoyant with great shoesÓÑwho is both bracingly modern and movingly vulnerable. Through her poems we traverse the landscape of a womanÕs life (girl, mother, lover), navigating a terrain tinted with mythology and relic yet still fresh and uncharted. The poems revolve around issues of identityÑand the ways in which identity is both inherited and constructed/reconstructed. Or, as one poem puts it, ÒThe planet floating backwards / whirling some of us older than the stars, some of us nascent and bare.Ó Although she employs techniques of avant-garde poetry, GimŽnez Smith shades and deepens the New World landscape into a territory of rare lyric intensity and energy. Humorous, sly, sexy, sophisticated, these poems are animated by passion and hard-won knowledge. In these poems we encounter such strange beauties as a girl assembling and disassembling, a moth trapped in a glass of water, new-age fairy godmothers, and a lark who sings for the milkman. Yet we are also made aware of how these beauties reflect the speakerÕs troublesÑher effort to employ, in the words of one of her most memorable poems, ÒOnly the invisible post where she writes the encounters / with airÕs lusters. Only the imagined hour / with which sheÕs made a fragile craft.Ó Vivid and charged with an inner light, these are poems that linger and expand in the mind and memory.

Muse, Odalisque, Handmaiden

Author: Rose Simpson
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 1913689115
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 233

Book Description
A memoir by a member of the Incredible String Band that charts a journey from hippie utopia to post-Woodstock implosion. Between 1967 and 1971 Rose Simpson lived with the Incredible String Band (Mike Heron, Robin Williamson and Licorice McKechnie), morphing from English student to West Coast hippie and, finally, bassist in leathers. The band's image adorned psychedelic posters and its music was the theme song for an alternative lifestyle. Rose and partner Mike Heron believed in, and lived, a naive vision of utopia in Scotland. But they were also a band on tour, enjoying the thrills of that life. They were at the center of "Swinging London" and at the Chelsea Hotel with Andy Warhol's superstars. They shared stages with rock idols and played at Woodstock in 1969. Rose and fellow ISB member Licorice were hippie pin-ups, while Heron and Robin Williamson the seers and prophets of a new world.

Quicksilver

Author: Neal Stephenson
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061792772
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 480

Book Description
Quicksilver is the story of Daniel Waterhouse, fearless thinker and conflicted Puritan, pursuing knowledge in the company of the greatest minds of Baroque-era Europe, in a chaotic world where reason wars with the bloody ambitions of the mighty, and where catastrophe, natural or otherwise, can alter the political landscape overnight. It is a chronicle of the breathtaking exploits of "Half-Cocked Jack" Shaftoe -- London street urchin turned swashbuckling adventurer and legendary King of the Vagabonds -- risking life and limb for fortune and love while slowly maddening from the pox. And it is the tale of Eliza, rescued by Jack from a Turkish harem to become spy, confidante, and pawn of royals in order to reinvent Europe through the newborn power of finance. A gloriously rich, entertaining, and endlessly inventive novel that brings a remarkable age and its momentous events to vivid life, Quicksilver is an extraordinary achievement from one of the most original and important literary talents of our time. And it's just the beginning ...

Odalisque

Author: Annabel Joseph
Publisher: Scarlet Rose Press
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Book Description
Kai Chandler has it all. A thriving tech business, movie star friends, and a mansion in the Malibu hills. But he’s lonely, nursing a broken heart and reeling from a shocking breach of trust. Then a friend tells him about a secret chateau outside Paris where they train women in the erotic traditions of the Code d’Odalisque. For a million a year, Kai can acquire a sexual servant to use at will, a woman thoroughly trained in the pleasuring of men. Kai makes the trip and meets Constance, a shy and strangely quiet odalisque. By the time he learns that Constance is deaf, he’s already too drawn to her sensual mystery to consider anyone else. He decides to acquire the beautiful woman and bring her to his home. Constance and Kai delight in their voyage of erotic exploration as he plays undisputed Master to her slave. But soon they find themselves forming an increasingly emotional connection, with the end of Constance’s term of service looming over their heads. Jealousy, fear, regret and longing threaten to tear the lovers apart, and they must choose between the safety of the Code and the risk of true love and trust.

Odalisques and Arabesques

Author: Ken Jacobson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Photography
Languages : en
Pages : 378

Book Description
Ken Jacobson shows that the history of Orientalist photography begins weeks after the invention of photography itself. Jacobson is not an academic, but has conducted a great deal of scholarly research on the often obscure careers of photographers and the intertwined histories of the Levantine studios. He demonstrates that many of the past criticisms of Orientalist photography are based on ignorance either of chronology or technology.

Hurrem

Author: Demet Altinyeleklioglu
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781947228719
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 462

Book Description
Hürrem is the third part in a saga that became the inspiration for the creators of the 'Magnificent Century' television series. The story, full of love, power, and intrigues, follows the lives of the Sultan's court, where behind every man, even the most powerful one, stands a woman who knows how to steer him. Set at the beginning of 16th century, Aleksandra, the small daughter of Russian clergyman, is kidnapped during a barbaric attack on the village. In a remarkable twist of trust, the young girl's kidnapper becomes her savior, and they quickly establish a father-daughter bond. However, life at the Tatar giant's side isn't a good solution for a growing beauty. Soon, Aleksandra finds herself at the Crimean Khan's palace, and immediately wins Sultana Güldane's heart. The old woman predicts a great future for the Russian girl and eventually sets her out on a journey to meet her destiny. Aleksandra, sent as a gift from the Crimean Khan to the Ottoman Empire's Khan, Sultan Sulieman, ends up in the powerful ruler's harem. There, the Russian odalisque takes on the name Ruslana, and waits weeks to meet the Sultan. Her dream is not only to win Sulieman's heart but also for power and to rule. Suleiman eventually becomes infatuated with the red-headed odalisque, and renames her Hürrem - and so begins the story of a woman who refused to be stopped in her desire for power, and to be remembered forever.

Odalisque

Author: Fleur Reynolds
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 253

Book Description

Goddess

Author: Fiona McIntosh
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0060899131
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 599

Book Description
While enemy ships threaten Percheron's harbor, heroic Lazar lies afflicted with the drezden illness and cannot rise. And Zaradine Ana has been taken prisoner by the mysterious Arafanz and his warriors, and is believed to be with child—carrying the heir to the throne, the unborn son of Zar Boaz. Torn by an inner conflict raging between heart and head, Zar Boaz can think only of Ana, even as his land sits poised on the brink of devastating war. Launching a daring, desperate plan, he calls for his country's strongest to make one more foray into the desert . . . even as the Goddess reaches the crest of her ascent, throwing mortal and divine alike into chaotic battle for the soul of Percheron.

Western Representations of the Muslim Woman

Author: Mohja Kahf
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 0292779763
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 228

Book Description
Veiled, secluded, submissive, oppressed—the "odalisque" image has held sway over Western representations of Muslim women since the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century. Yet during medieval and Renaissance times, European writers portrayed Muslim women in exactly the opposite way, as forceful queens of wanton and intimidating sexuality. In this illuminating study, Mohja Kahf traces the process through which the "termagant" became an "odalisque" in Western representations of Muslim women. Drawing examples from medieval chanson de geste and romance, Renaissance drama, Enlightenment prose, and Romantic poetry, she links the changing images of Muslim women to changes in European relations with the Islamic world, as well as to changing gender dynamics within Western societies.