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19049 кн.
Around two hundred years ago the famous writer Lord Byron rented the mansion known as the Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva. Accompanying Byron, among others, was the 23-year-old poet Percy Shelley, his mistress, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, and Byron's physician John William Polidori. The summer would be forever known as the 'Lost Summer of 1816'. For three days they were shut up in the Villa due to cold and stormy weather, which would serve as the backdrop to the telling and writing...
| Автор | Lord Byron |
Set amidst the real world events which occurred following the Jacobite rising of 1745, Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novel “Kidnapped” is the story of David Balfour, who travels to meet his uncle and collect his inheritance following the death of his father. Betrayed by his Uncle, David finds himself kidnapped by Captain Hoseason of the brig “Covenant”, who plans to sell him into slavery in the Carolina Colonies of America. However the ship is blown of course and driven back towards Scotland...
| Автор | Роберт Стивенсон |
First published in 1842, “Dead Souls” is the story of Chichikov, a young middle-class gentleman who comes to a small town in Russia with a dubious plan to improve his wealth and position in life. He begins by spending beyond his means on the premise that he can impress the local officials and gain standing and connections in the community. At the heart of his plan is the idea of acquiring “dead souls” or more explicitly serfs of landowners who have died since the last census. Since the taxes of...
| Автор | Николай Гоголь |
First published in 1862, Ivan Turgenev’s “Fathers and Sons” is widely considered to be the author’s greatest literary achievement. It is a novel about the clash of ideologies of two generations. The older generation, the fathers, represents an upper class whose power and influence is fading and giving way to the younger generation, the sons, who represent an increasing objection to the status quo. This conflict is embodied in the characters of Arkady Nikolaevich Kirsanov and Yevgeny Vasilevich...
| Автор | Ivan Turgenev |
Thomas Hardy’s final novel “Jude the Obscure” began as a serial publication on December 1894 before being published in book form the following year. It is the story of its titular character Jude Fawley, a young lower-class man with dreams of being a scholar, and his relationships with his wife, Arabella, and his free-spirited cousin, Sue Bridehead. The novel follows the life of Jude from his youth living in a village in southern England where he works in a bakery and studies Classical Greek and...
| Автор | Thomas Hardy |
Jack London’s 1904 novel “The Sea Wolf” is the story of Humphrey van Weyden, an effete gentleman who finds himself shipwrecked when the San Francisco ferry his is aboard collides with another ship in the fog. Adrift in the bay, Humphrey is rescued by Wolf Larsen, the brutish captain of a seal-hunting schooner, the “Ghost”. However his relief in being saved is short-lived, for he is soon put to work, essentially enslaved as a cabin boy forced to do menial work aboard the “Ghost” by Larsen....
| Автор | Jack London |
The following text has been drawn from Sir Richard Burton's exhaustive translation of «The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night», more commonly known as «The Arabian Nights». The story of «The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor» tells the tale of Sinbad who ventures out to sea, at first to acquire wealth, but afterwards in search of adventure. During these voyages he encounters many obstacles including giant animals, monsters, and savage cannibals, yet always seems to escape with an even...
| Автор | Robert Burton |
One of the most important, though controversial, French novelists of the late nineteenth century, and founder of the Realist movement, was Émile Zola (1840-1902). He was the most important example of the literary genre of naturalism, and an integral part of developing theatrical naturalism. «The Kill» is the second book in Zola's «Les Rougon-Macquart», a twenty-volume series about a fictional family during the Second French Empire. The Kill, a second translation of «La Curée», undertaken by...
| Автор | Emile Zola |
"Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens" and «Peter and Wendy» combines the two main works from which we find J. M. Barrie’s most popular character, Peter Pan. In Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens we are first introduced to 'the boy who wouldn't grow up'. Following the success of this work Barrie wrote a stage play entitled «Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up». It is upon that work which «Peter and Wendy», essentially a novelization of the play, is based. Readers both...
| Автор | James Matthew Barrie |
The peace and tranquillity of Hallary, a magical and an Isolated Kingdom in the far corner of the Earth, was under attack. Men, women, children and livestock disappeared without a trace. Rumours spread that their neighbouring Kingdom was seized by a very powerful enemy that was unheard of. Hallary is the next target. Cabael, a wondering wizard arrived at Hallary just in time, he confirmed the enormity of this threat. The King of Hallary was at his wits ends. However, the wizard assured that...
| Автор | P. S. B. Conny |
This early work by Radclyffe Hall was originally published in 1926 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. 'Miss Ogilvy Finds Herself' is a novel about a woman who struggles to find her identity after the conclusion of the First World War. Marguerite Radclyffe Hall was born on 12th August 1880, in Bournemouth, England. Hall's first novel The Unlit Lamp (1924) was a lengthy and grim tale that proved hard to sell. It was only published following the...
| Автор | Radclyffe Hall |
There are more than 400 KTV Clubs in Singapore where thousands of beautiful young singers are brought in to sing. The singers earn a lot of money from flowers that are hung for them as tips. These flowers are actually sashes with monetary values printed prominently on them. The record amount of flower money collected in one performance that the author has seen is $380,000. <br><br> These lounges are rife with stories of sex and intrigue, some of which are presented here. If you...
| Автор | Bernard Tsai |
*Winner of Chill With a Book Book of the Year 2019 Award as Dreaming About Daran* For Clare O’Connell, home is where the heart aches… [/i]Since the age of sixteen, Clare O'Connell has lived her life by four strict rules:1. Don't talk about Ireland2. Don't think about Ireland3. Don't go to Ireland4. Don't let anyone inAnd so far, it's worked well. She's got a great career, amazing friends, and she's really happy. The future is all that counts,...
| Автор | Jessica Redland |