Joseph Conrad

A quiet English shopkeeper, who's actually a spy for the Russian embassy, faces an unexpected test of allegiance when he's ordered to plant a bomb that will wreak havoc on the British public.

After a wide-ranging life of piracy and adventure, Peyrol comes ashore in the port of Toulon during the bloody aftermath of the French Revolution to deliver a message to the Port Commander. Wanted by authorities in nearly every port in the European world, Peyrol barely escapes arrest and flees to an isolated spot near the coast. While searching for a way to return to the open sea, he rescues a deranged girl, Arlette from a mob of revolutionary "blood-drinkers."...

A woman is invited to see an artist's studio; a train passenger vanishes during a woman's nap; a couple spend their inheritance on a cruise; a man leads a secret life as a terrorist; a novelist and a secret agent hunt a murderer; a man on vacation in England becomes a murder suspect; a detective pursues a gang of thieves; a couple on vacation learn a dangerous secret; a secretive man moves into a boarding house.

"The subject of this book is the gradual social transformation of deviance designations in American society from "badness" to "sickness." This has been the most profound change in the definition of deviance in the past two centuries. By examining the medicalization (and demedicalization) of deviance in American society, we may also investigate the general sociohistorical process of defining deviance. Thus this book has a dual focus: it is a historical...