A New York Times bestseller by Mark Helprin, author of Winter's Tale, which is now a major motion picture starring Colin Farrell, Jessica Brown Findlay, Russell Crowe, William Hurt, and Jennifer Connelly “Freddy and Fredericka is a vast, sprawling book of Homeric proportions and design in which Helprin exploits to the fullest his powers of invention as well as a lesser known talent for comedy.” —Bookreporter.com Mark Helprin’s legions of devoted readers cherish his timeless novels and short stories, which are uplifting in their conviction of the goodness and resilience of the human spirit. Freddy and Fredericka—a brilliantly refashioned fairy tale and a magnificently funny farce—only seems like a radical departure of form, for behind the laughter, Helprin speaks of leaps of faith and second chances, courage and the primacy of love. Helprin’s latest work, an extraordinarily funny allegory about a most peculiar British royal family, is immensely mocking of contemporary monarchy and yet deeply sympathetic to the individuals caught in its lonely absurdities.

This book studies several of Mark Helprin’s novels in terms of their relation to Dante’s Divine Comedy. The authors demonstrate that A Soldier of the Great War, In Sunlight and in Shadow, and Winter’s Tale substantially correspond to, respectively, Dante’s Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The author himself has acknowledged his debt to Dante and references to the Comedy appear throughout his works. It is not that Helprin’s novels track their Dantean antecedents slavishly, or even follow the structure of the Canticles explicitly. Rather, the central arguments of Dante’s three works are taken up by Helprin in his novels. In adopting Dante’s essentially Platonic doctrine of mediation, Helprin’s characters are fully instantiated human beings who also mediate and reveal the divine. In his engagement with Dante, Helprin affirms the core philosophical, theological and psychological arguments of the Comedy, and then modifies those arguments in a distinctly modern way. Specifically, Helprin focuses on human freedom as the necessary precondition for justice to exist, both for individuals and for societies. In the final chapter of the book, the authors turn to Helprin’s Freddy and Fredericka. In this novel, Helprin both assumes Dante’s argument, and then radically alters it, by pointing to the possibility of a just regime on earth, rather than one that exists merely in heaven. While accepting much of Dante’s metaphysical argument, Helprin shows the virtues of liberal democracy as that form of political regime that is most able to unite human eros with eternal principles. In the end, Helprin’s novels are remarkable for the way in which they advocate for ancient virtues, while insisting upon the distinctly modern liberal account of human freedom as the necessary foundation for human flourishing.

An old man recounts the raucous adventure of his life through war, obsession and the 20th century in this “rapturous and melancholy new novel” (The New York Times). An old American who lives in Brazil is writing his memoirs. Call him Oscar Progresso—or whatever else you like. He sits in a mountain garden in Niterói, overlooking the ocean. As he reminisces and writes, placing the pages carefully in his antproof case, an epic adventure unfolds. We learn that he was a World War II ace who was shot down twice, an investment banker who met with popes and presidents, and a man who was never not in love. But that doesn’t begin to cover our narrator’s immense and fascinating journey through the 20th century. He was also the thief of the century, a murderer, and a protector of the innocent. All his life he waged a valiant, losing, one-man battle against the world’s most insidious enslaver: coffee. The acclaimed author of Winter’s Tale and A soldier of the Great War, Mark Helprin now offers “a tour de force that combines adventure, romance and an overview of the 20th century into a bittersweet narrative” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

An epic love story set in post-war New York, by the best-selling author of Winter's Tale. In the summer of 1946, New York City pulses with energy. Harry Copeland, a World War II veteran, has returned home to run the family business. Yet his life is upended by a single encounter with the young singer and heiress Catherine Thomas Hale, as each falls for the other in an instant. They pursue one another in a romance played out in Broadway theaters, Long Island mansions, the offices of financiers, and the haunts of gangsters. Catherine’s choice of Harry over her longtime fiancé endangers Harry’s livelihood and threatens his life. In the end, Harry must summon the strength of his wartime experience to fight for Catherine, and risk everything. “In its storytelling heft, its moral rectitude, the solemn magnificence of its writing and the splendor of its hymns to New York City, [In Sunlight and in Shadow] is a spiritual pendant to Winter’s Tale and every bit as extraordinary...Even the most stubbornly resistant readers will soon be disarmed by the nobility of the novel’s sentiments and seduced by the pure music of its prose.”—Wall Street Journal

These beloved classics, originally published between 1927 and 1958, the 26 classic books about Freddy the Pig are now going on to delight a sixth generation of children. Freddy the Pig, the “Renaissance Pig” (The New York Times Book Review) of Bean Farm, is back to thrill his fans of all ages in these all-American children’s classics. In this terrific adventure, Mrs. Peppercorn reports trouble afoot in Centerboro. Luckily, Freddy and his Bean Home friends have the help of their very own dragon to catch the culprits. This is vintage Freddy and the whole ensemble cast at their charming best.

Praise for the print edition:" ... no other reference work on American fiction brings together such an array of authors and texts as this.