澁澤龍彥「画美人」では、無数の典拠が組み合わせられているが、それは引用と反復と差異の記号論的考察を無効化してしまう過剰なコラージュであり、錯覚とその要因である認知機構の欠陥を暗示するだまし絵的テクストの領域へと踏み込んだものである。「画美人」のヒロイン翠翠は、男の諸々の妄想的欲望の結節点であるが、同時にそれが錯覚であることは、エッシャーの造形芸術に類比的な内容上の矛盾によって示唆されている。現代思想に距離を置くようになった澁澤は、そこに示されていた女性観にも両義的な立場を取るようになっており、「画美人」においては、女性を一方的な客体としてのみ見做す姿勢への批評が、主人公への哄笑として顕在化している。

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This paper is a guide to 50 books of Page Turners Reading Library published by Heinle, Cengage Learning, which area 12-level graded reading series of original stories from level 1(200 headwords) to level 12 (2600 headwords). Considering that other ordinary graded readers are divided into 6 levels, the 12 levels seem too minute to be useful. The concept of Page Turners, however, is quite successful in forcing the reader to turn pages with growing interest. Every Page Turners book is enjoyable just because it compels the reader to want to know what is going on, or what will happen next, which sometimes turns out to be not so interesting after all, though. In addition to how to read English, the reader can learn how to write fiction,especially, various techniques of arousing the reader’s curiosity and keeping his/her attention.
The books from level 1 to level 4, set in a fictional Brenton College in the Unites States, are seemingly created as a companion series to Foundations Reading Library in which Bayview High School students' daily lives and extraordinary adventures are vividly described. Since the new heroes and heroines are older than the former counterparts, the stories are much more serious and far more complicated with adult conflicts. As a result, the protagonists can no longer stay around school; naturally the books from level 5 on to the end have nothing to do with Brenton College. Now the setting limitation is gone, stories are written as freely as possible. Many of these are the products of Cambridge English Readers authors like Sue Leather, Richard MacAndrew, Margaret Johnson, and Antoinette Moses. Page Turners makes good use of the forerunner's know-how, effectively adding a Macmillan English Readers-like illustrated introduction of characters before the text. Sue Leather and Julian Thomlinson's collaborated work Heart of a Fighter and Irene Barrall's unique, heartwarming story The Long Road to Lucca are highly recommended as excellent examples of this series.

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