The author presents a penetrating analysis of the collapse of Western culture during the last half of the twentieth century

A sinister film director and tycoon sets up the theme park to end all theme parks, with incredible attractions that stretch the boundaries of reality to the limit. But when his new, very young teenage bride brings her family to visit, they soon discover the truth that lurks behind the scenes.

The classic fairy tale of Blue Beard illustrated by Walter Crane. Crane's work in children's books in cooperation with the publisher Edmund Evans earned him worldwide fame in the latter 19th century.

Bluebeard's curse : repetition and improvisational energy in the Bluebeard tale / Maria Tatar -- Bluebeard, hero of modernity : tales at the fin de siècle / Mererid Puw Davies -- Béla Bartók's Duke Bluebeard's castle : a musicological perspective / David Cooper -- A tale of an eye : revealing the Jew in Duke Bluebeard's castle / Victoria Anderson -- Hidden debates under a Baroque surface : Barbe-bleue by Georges Méliès (1901) / Michael Hiltbrunner.

A study of the ever-evolving fairy tale about the murderous aristocrat and his endangered wife

“Ranks with Vonnegut’s best and goes one step beyond . . . joyous, soaring fiction.”—The Atlanta Journal and Constitution Broad humor and bitter irony collide in this fictional autobiography of Rabo Karabekian, who, at age seventy-one, wants to be left alone on his Long Island estate with the secret he has locked inside his potato barn. But then a voluptuous young widow badgers Rabo into telling his life story—and Vonnegut in turn tells us the plain, heart-hammering truth about man’s careless fancy to create or destroy what he loves. Praise for Bluebeard “Vonnegut is at his edifying best.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer “The quicksilver mind of Vonnegut is at it again. . . . He displays all his talents—satire, irony, ridicule, slapstick, and even a shaggy dog story of epic proportions.”—The Cincinnati Post “[Kurt Vonnegut is] a voice you can trust to keep poking holes in the social fabric.”—San Francisco Chronicle “It has the qualities of classic Bosch and Slaughterhouse Vonnegut. . . . Bluebeard is uncommonly feisty.”—USA Today “Is Bluebeard good? Yes! . . . This is vintage Vonnegut—good wine from his best grapes.”—The Detroit News “A joyride . . . Vonnegut is more fascinated and puzzled than angered by the human stupidities and contradictions he discerns so keenly. So hop in his rumble seat. As you whiz along, what you observe may provide some new perspectives.”—Kansas City Star