Be careful what you fantasise. Your dreams may just come true… What is real? What is imaginary? This is the line Jessica Seaques walks, ever since she won a commission to write erotica for the indulgence of an anonymous patron. Her stories are inspired by the strange working environment the patron provides – a bizarre, mirror-walled office where Jess liaises with his beautiful yet cruel ‘agent’ and the awkward, long-suffering receptionist. All the while, the mirrors watch as the writer gets drawn… deeper and deeper… into this eccentric world of erotic fantasy. What is real? What is imaginary? What’s the difference? Who’s the man behind the mirror and the mystery? Through the looking glass, Jess will go… into the dark depths. Do you dare to follow? MIRROR SECRET MIRROR is dangerous, decadent, BDSM erotica. This book is a corrupting force, an evil seduction, a delicious poison… a trap! It’s the story of a young woman being lured, baited, manipulated… hunted, captured, enslaved. The villain is dark-eyed, devilish and dominant. The villainess is sleek, sadistic and sexy. The predators work together to ensnare their prey. This story is offensive, dishonest and depraved. It twists romance, perverts love and mocks morality. Consider yourself warned!

A New York Times NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR An NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR A Publishers Weekly BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR A globetrotting, time-bending, wildly entertaining masterpiece hailed by the New York Times Book Review as "Audaciously well written … the book I was raving about to my friends before I'd even finished it." Set in three different eras, and in three different locations—all, coincidentally, named Venice—this “startling, beautiful gem of a book” (NPR) calls to mind David Mitchell and Umberto Eco in its mix of entertainment and literary bravado. The core story is set in sixteenth-century Venice, where, on the island of Murano, the famed makers of Venetian glass were perfecting one of the old world's most wondrous inventions: the mirror. An object of glittering yet fearful fascination—was it reflecting simple reality, or something more spiritually revealing?—the Venetian mirrors were state-of-the-art technology, subject to industrial espionage by desirous sultans and royals world-wide. Thus, for the skilled craftsmen that made them, any attempt to leave the island—to steal the technology—was a crime punishable by death. One man, however—a world-weary war hero with nothing to lose—has a scheme he thinks will allow him to outwit the city's terrifying enforcers of the edict, the ominous Council of Ten . . . Meanwhile, in two other Venices—Venice Beach, California, circa 1958, and the Venice casino in Las Vegas, circa today—two other schemers launch similarly dangerous plans to get away with a secret . . . All three stories weave together into a spell-binding tour de force that is impossible to put down—an old-fashioned, stay-up-all-night novel that, in the end, returns the reader to a stunning conclusion in the original Venice . . . and the bedazzled sense of having read a truly original and thrilling work of art.

Tocqueville opens the Recollections, his deeply ambivalent memoir of the failed 1848 Revolution in France, with an explicit denial of any literary intent or rhetorical appeal. Forced by illness into an unaccustomed state of leisure, Tocqueville claims to record his experiences solely for his own amusement, holding up a "secret mirror" through which he will be able to contemplate the past truthfully. In this innovative study, L. E. Shiner examines the Recollections as a test case of the relation between form and content in historical writing. Drawing on current literary theory and semiotics, Shiner offers a close reading which at once confirms the inevitably literary character of historical writing and demonstrates how rhetorical analysis of Tocqueville's writings deepens our understanding of his political thought. Using the methods of reader-response and rhetorical criticisms, among others, Shiner first analyzes the component genres and narrative structures of the Recollections, the recurring pictorial and thematic codes, and the various voices Tocqueville employs. He then confronts the issue of the truth of Tocqueville's treatment of 1848, in part by comparing it with other key texts on these same events—Marx's The Class Struggles in France and Flaubert's Sentimental Education. Finally, Shiner pursues questions of authorial style, tracing the use of some of the rhetorical devices discussed in the Recollections through Tocqueville's Democracy in America, The Old Regime and the French Revolution, and "A Fortnight in the Wilderness."

My Secret Mirror: Hiding Madness from a Perception of Life deals with abstract thoughts, cognitive emotions, and the philosophical idealisms to wonder while functioning in an unforgiving society. Sometimes the side effects of intelligence create an obscure brilliance that allows you to some things clearly, but you will never be free. Benjamin MacArthur’s poetry offers an alternative—and powerful—look at life and death and perhaps open your mind to explore possibilities. My Secret Mirror is a collection of poetry evocative of a lifetime of personal turmoil that was kept secret. The dark moods and linguistic twists capture four key themes: • Religion • Life after death • Love and war • Mental health Spanning thirty years, this is cathartic poetry. Moving between a lyrical and a stream-of-consciousness style, Benjamin MacArthur lays bare his thoughts and encourages you to come on the journey. Encapsulating the dark poetry of Geezer Butler, J.D Morrison, Poe and Milton. People may find the twists and nonstandard thoughts to be fascinating, People who explore their mental psyche may particularly find themselves reflected in these pages. Poetry is, after all, a therapeutic escape.

"The Mirror's Revenge" takes place in Shimla, where a couple on their honeymoon uncovers a mysterious mirror in their hotel room. Ignoring the warnings, the curious bride is transported to a strange, ancient world, and her husband must perform a tantric ritual to bring her back, revealing unsettling truths about their future. In Varanasi, "Shattered Lives" tells the story of young artist Ananya, who discovers a mirror showing different versions of her future. Guided and sometimes misled by these visions, Ananya must confront her deepest fears and desires, learning valuable lessons about choices and consequences. Finally, "Haunted Reflections" brings us to Rishikesh, where an old mirror in a deserted mansion reveals the dark history of its former occupants. A group of friends exploring the mansion are drawn into the mirror's sinister past, uncovering the truth and breaking the mirror's curse to escape its haunting grip.

Working to establish her image through a series of carefully censored portraits, the young queen Elizabeth I finds her efforts thwarted by a pyromaniac who would destroy both her life and the kingdom.