Publisher: Muhammad
British author Arnold Bennett's most acclaimed and enduring works are a series of novels set around the Potteries district of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, his native region. This volume of short stories delves further into the lives of the residents of the fictional "Five Towns" that Bennett explores in novels like Anna of the Five Towns and Clayhanger.
Following the death of her father, Isabel Archer leaves the comforts of Albany, New York to stay with her aunt Lydia Touchett at her London estate. There she meets Lydia's rich husband, David, her cousin Ralph, and the Touchetts's proud neighbor, Lord Warburton. Soon, too, come marriage proposals from Lord Warburton and Caspar Goodwood, the son of a wealthy mill owner. Although Isabel declines both offers, she eventually gives her hand to Gilbert Osmond, an American ex-pat in Florence.Show book
Margaret Oliphant (1828 – 1897]) was a Scottish novelist who wrote as Mrs. Oliphant. She is best known for her fictional works, historical novels and supernatural tales. "The Library Window" is a ghost story. A young girl, visiting her aunt in Scotland, finds herself increasingly intrigued by a mysterious window in the house opposite her own favourite window, where she sits to read. There seems to be a local mystery about the window, including a dispute about whether there is even a window there at all. Increasingly this doubt seems odd to the girl as the days go by, as she can see into the room opposite and make out furniture and objects there. Then one day she sees someone in that room...Show book
The Discovery of the Future is a 1902 philosophical lecture by H. G. Wells that argues for the knowability of the future. It was originally delivered to the Royal Institution on January 24, 1902. Wells begins by distinguishing between "two divergent types of mind," one that judges and attaches importance principally to what has happened in the past and one that judges and attaches importance principally to what will happen in the future. To the former he attributes the adjectives "legal or submissive," "passive," and "oriental," and to the latter the adjectives "legislative, creative, organizing, or masterful," and "active," calling it "a more modern and much less abundant type of mind."... Confessing himself to be among "those who believe entirely in the forces behind the individual" rather than in individuals themselves as determining causes, Wells argues that there is "no reason why we should not aspire to, and discover and use, safe and servicable, generalizations upon countless issues in the human destiny." Wells devotes the last part of his text to speculations about "the question what is to come after man," considering it "the most persistently fascinating and the most insoluble question in the whole world." He concludes with a statement of personal faith "in the coherency and purpose in the world and in the greatness of human destiny.Show book
Twelve Years a Slave is the memoir of a freeborn African American from New York who is kidnapped and sold into slavery. After being held for twelve years on a Louisiana plantation, he is eventually freed and reunited with his family.Show book
"The Mode in Monuments: Stray Thoughts in Highgate Cemetery" by H. G. Wells is a short essay. H. G. Wells once different, humorous social satire and ironic.On a sharp, sunlight morning, when the white clouds are drifting swiftly across the luminous blue sky, there is no finer walk about London than the Highgate ridge.Show book
From America’s favorite storyteller: A rich selection of twenty-five tales by the author of “The Gift of the Magi.” Writing under the pseudonym O. Henry, William Sydney Porter was an incredibly prolific and popular master of the short story in the early twentieth century. His stories are known for being witty, playful, full of plot twists, and marked by surprise endings. The author had a special fondness for New York City and a deep interest and appreciation for the ordinary folk who populate his timeless tales. First published in 1911, his eleventh collection features such classics as “The Duplicity of the Hargraves,” about a destitute Confederate major and his spinster daughter in Washington, DC, and their encounter with a vaudeville actor; as well as “Makes the Whole World Kin,” about a thief and a sick old man who form a surprising bond. Once entered, O. Henry’s world becomes an unforgettable destination, and over a century later, readers continue to return—again and again. Sixes and Sevens includes “The Duplicity of Hargraves,” “Makes the Whole World Kin,” “The Last of the Troubadours,” “Witches’ Loaves,” “The Adventures of Shamrock Jolnes,” “A Ghost of a Chance,” “New York by Camp Fire Light,” “Ulysses and the Dogman,” and more. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.Show book
