Publisher: Qasim Idrees
The book details Twain's journey with his friend Harris through central and southern Europe. While the stated goal of the journey is to walk most of the way, the men find themselves using other forms of transport as they traverse the continent.
The Top Ten - Saki - An Introduction The name H H Munro is obscured beneath the literary mantle of his nom de plume; Saki. A writer of his times, the stories perfectly portray society’s whims and tastes in a delicate yet at times, barbed humour. A divine wit who conjured words into quite extraordinary works. Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere. In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author? The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme. Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature. Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made. If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something. 1 - The Top Ten - Saki - An Introduction 2 - The Lumber Room by Saki 3 - Tobermory by Saki 4 - The Open Window by Saki 5 - The Reticence of Lady Anne by Saki 6 - The Hounds of Fate by Saki 7 - Mrs Packletide's Tiger by Saki 8 - The Unrest Cure by Saki 9 - The Music on the Hill by Saki 10 - Sredni Vashtar by Saki 11 - The Interlopers by SakiShow book
The Island of Doctor Moreau is an 1896 science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells. The text of the novel is the narration of Edward Prendick, a shipwrecked man rescued by a passing boat who is left on the island home of Doctor Moreau, a mad scientist who creates human-like hybrid beings from animals via vivisection. The novel deals with a number of philosophical themes, including pain and cruelty, moral responsibility, human identity, and human interference with nature. Wells described it as "an exercise in youthful blasphemy." The Island of Doctor Moreau is a classic of early science fiction and remains one of Wells' best-known books. The novel is the earliest depiction of the science fiction motif "uplift" in which a more advanced race intervenes in the evolution of an animal species to bring the latter to a higher level of intelligence. Famous works of the author Herbert Wells: "The Time Machine", "The War of the Worlds", "The War in the Air", "The Island of Dr. Moreau", "The Complete Science Fiction Treasury of H.G. Wells", "The Invisible Man", "When the Sleeper Wakes", "The First Men in the Moon", "The Food of the Gods", "The Magic Shop".Show book
The Iliad is one of the two great epics of Homer, and is typically described as one of the greatest war stories of all time, but to say the Iliad is a war story does not begin to describe the emotional sweep of its action and characters: Achilles, Helen, Hector, and other heroes of Greek myth and history in the tenth and final year of the Greek siege of Troy.Show book
An Experiment in Luxury is the book end of all this as a young man visits his rich friend and his millionaire family. It is a conventional scene in which the young man's friend, son of the household, encourages him to speak only conventionally to his mother or he will get on her bad side. We see her preoccupied with her worries and the husband/millionaire taking his mind off of it all by playing with a kitten. They have their dinners, along with arguments between the friend and his sisters, providing some entertainment at the table, and the story grinds to an end. This is best listened to along with its book end, An Experiment in Luxury, to get the full force of it all.Show book
The narrator, an elderly, unnamed Manhattan lawyer, already employs two scriveners to copy legal documents by hand. An increase in business leads him to hire a third: the forlorn-looking Bartleby. At first, Bartleby produces a large volume of high-quality work. But one day, when asked to proofread, Bartleby answers with what soon becomes his perpetual response to every request: "I would prefer not to." From that point Bartleby performs fewer and fewer tasks and eventually none. The narrator makes several futile attempts to reason with him and to learn something about him, and one Sunday morning he discovers that Bartleby has started living in the office. The lawyer cannot bring himself to remove Bartleby from his premises, and moves his office instead, but the new proprietor removes Bartleby to prison, where he perishes…Show book
“Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.” Mary Shelley ) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus in 1818, which is considered an early example of science fiction. She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet, and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley. Her father was the political philosopher William Godwin and her mother the philosopher and feminist activist Mary Wollstonecraft.Shelley's mother died less than a month after giving birth to her. She was raised by her father, who provided her with a rich if informal education, encouraging her to adhere to his own anarchist political theories. When she was four, her father married a neighbor, Mary Jane Clairmont, with whom Shelley came to have a troubled relationship.In 1814, Shelley began a romance with one of her father's political followers, Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was already married. Together with her stepsister, Claire Clairmont, she and Percy left for France and traveled through Europe. Upon their return to England, Shelley was pregnant with Percy's child. Over the next two years, she and Percy faced ostracism, constant debt, and the death of their prematurely born daughter. They married in late 1816, after the suicide of Percy Shelley's first wife, Harriet.In 1816, the couple and her stepsister famously spent a summer with Lord Byron and John William Polidori near Geneva, Switzerland, where Shelley conceived the idea for her novel Frankenstein. The Shelleys left Britain in 1818 for Italy, where their second and third children died before Shelley gave birth to her last and only surviving child, Percy Florence Shelley. In 1822, her husband drowned when his sailing boat sank during a storm near Viareggio. A year later, Shelley returned to England and from then on devoted herself to the upbringing of her son and a career as a professional author.Show book
