Publisher: Project Gutenberg
The plot concerns the turbulent history of the fallen aristocrats of the house of Mazzini, on the northern shore of Sicily, as related by a tourist who becomes intrigued by the stories of a monk he meets in the ruins of their doomed castle.
Washington Irving was born on 3rd April, 1783, the youngest of 11, in New York. Irving found his real interests away from school in literature and the theatre. An outbreak of yellow fever at 15 moved him away from Manhattan and into the surrounding countryside providing valuable settings for later works such as ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’. By 19 Irving was writing regularly to the New York Morning Chronicle, commenting on the theatrical and social scenes. When his health began to fail, he was sent on the Grand Tour of Europe. Bizarrely he ignored most of the great sights on offer to concentrate on developing his social and conversational powers. His health, though, did improve. In 1806, back in New York to study law, he scraped a pass at the bar and then founded with several others the literary magazine Salmagundi. Irving nicknamed the city ‘Gotham City’, a name still in use today. Moderately successful, the magazine spread Irving’s reputation beyond New York. In 1809 while mourning the death of his teenage fiancée Irving finished his first significant book, ‘A History of New-York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynsasty, by Diedrich Knickerbocker’. It satirised local history, local historians and politics. It received great critical acclaim. Unfortunately his family’s established trading company was now facing great upheavals and Irving was dispatched to England to try to sort it out. After two years he could see no way out but bankruptcy. This left him in England with no real employment prospects, and so he returned to writing. He sent some short stories back to New York to be published as ‘The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent’. The first part included ‘Rip Van Winkle’ and was extremely successful. The sixth part contained ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’. Beset by literary piracy, with no copyright law at the time, he set about publishing legitimate copies in England to outwit the bootleggers. From now on Irving published concurrently in America and England in order to render piracy obsolete. In August 1824, he published ‘Tales of a Traveller’, which included the famed ‘The Devil and Tom Walker’. In 1826, the American Minister to Spain, invited him to Madrid where he could examine the many historical documents that he had access to. Irving reveled in both the size of the libraries he was granted access to and their rich quality. Historical works flowed from his pen further enhancing his reputation and fortune. Following the completion of ‘Tales of the Alhambra’ in 1832, Irving returned to America after 17 years abroad. He was now a figurehead of American literature and dispensed advice to Edgar Allan Poe amongst others. Irving also became an advocate for American copyright legislation. A later appointment as Minister to Spain in 1842 left him disheartened at the antics of the various political factions he encountered. It also afforded him no time to write as he had hoped. On his return home he began an ‘Author’s Revised Edition’ of his works agreeing an unprecedented deal for 12 per cent of the retail profits. Washington Irving died of a heart attack at his ‘Sunnyside’ home on the 28th November 1859 at the age of 76, a few months after completing his five volume George Washington biography, in whose honour he had been named. 01 - Washington Irving - A Short Story Collection - An Introduction 02 - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving 03 - The Devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving 04 - The Art of Book-Making by Washington Irving 05 - The Conquest of the Earth by the Moon by Washington Irving 06 - John Bull by Washington IrvingShow book
"The Snow Queen" (Danish: Snedronningen) is an original fairy tale written by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. The tale was first published 21 December 1844 in New Fairy Tales. First Volume. Second Collection. 1845. (Danish: Nye Eventyr. Første Bind. Anden Samling. 1845.) The story centres on the struggle between good and evil as experienced by Gerda and her friend, Kai. The story is one of Andersen's longest and most highly acclaimed stories. It is regularly included in selected tales and collections of his work and is frequently reprinted in illustrated storybook editions for children.Show book
Lucy Maud Montgomery (November 30, 1874 - April 24, 1942), published as L. M. Montgomery, was a Canadian author best known for a series of novels beginning in 1908 with Anne of Green Gables. The book was an immediate success. The title character, orphan Anne Shirley, made Montgomery famous in her lifetime and gave her an international following.Margaret's Patient: Margaret paused a moment at the gate and looked back at the quaint old house under its snowy firs with a thrill of proprietary affection. It was her home; for the first time in her life she had a real home, and the long, weary years of poorly paid drudgery were all behind her.Show book
Acclaimed as one of Conrad's finest literary achievements, this gripping novel deftly depicts the political turmoil of nineteenth-century Russia and follows the dramatic developments in the life of a student, Razumov, as he prepares for a career in the czarist bureaucracy. In a plot that twists and turns, Razumov unwittingly becomes embroiled in a revolutionary conspiracy when he gives refuge to a fellow student who assassinated a public official. Increasingly enmeshed in the radical's political intrigue, he betrays the anarchist who had placed blind faith in him. The authorities then dispatch Razumov on a mission to spy on the revolutionary's sister and mother. A fascinating character study, Under Western Eyes hauntingly reveals Razumov's preoccupation with questions of decency and accountability when confronted by the equally powerful truths and values of human integrity and moral strengthShow book
Many years ago the Monrovian Government sent one Bosambo, a native of the Kroo coast and consequently a thief, to penal servitude for the term of his natural life. Bosambo, who had other views on the matter, was given an axe and a saw in the penal settlement - which was a patch of wild forest in the back country - and told to cut down and trim certain mahogany-trees in company with other unfortunate men similarly circumstanced.Show book
Victor-Marie Hugo (26 February 1802 - 22 May 1885) was a French poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, and dramatist of the Romantic movement. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote abundantly in an exceptional variety of genres: lyrics, satires, epics, philosophical poems, epigrams, novels, history, critical essays, political speeches, funeral orations, diaries, and letters public and private, as well as dramas in verse and prose.BOOK 1: A FEW PAGES OF HISTORY: 1831 and 1832, the two years which are immediately connected with the Revolution of July, form one of the most peculiar and striking moments of history. These two years rise like two mountains midway between those which precede and those which follow them.Show book
