Publisher: Booklassic
Three months after the events in Africa Lee Bentley and Ellen Estabrook are back in New York--and so is Professor Barter, who is not dead, but is very much alive and equipped with heat and disintegrator rays, a far viewer, and brain implants that permit long-distance hypnotic control.
Franz Kafka was born on 3rd July 1883 in Prague, then in Bohemia, the eldest of 6, into a middle-class Jewish family. Life for the young Kafka and his passion for literature was often made an ordeal by his over-bearing and domineering entrepreneur of a father. In 1889 Kafka was sent to the Deutsche Knabenschule, an elementary school in Prague. His father would only allow him to be educated in German-speaking schools and even went so far as to limit visits to the synagogue to four a year. In 1901 he graduated from the classics-oriented Altstädter Gymnasium. Kafka did well there and across a large range of subjects. He now enrolled at the Charles Ferdinand University, to study chemistry, but quickly switched to law for which he obtained his degree in June 1906 and then performed the mandatory year of unpaid service as clerk at the civil and criminal courts. A job at an Italian insurance company left him little time to write and after a year he took another job with the Worker's Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia where he stayed until ill health led to his resignation in 1922. Although he saw work as a means to pay the bills and to allow him time to write, he received several promotions and was noted as a good employee. By 1917 Kafka was suffering from tuberculosis, which required frequent periods of convalescence. Interspersed with this, were several intense affairs before he settled in Berlin with Dora Diamant, a 25-year-old kindergarten teacher who herself having left the ghetto now influenced Kafka's interest in the book of Jewish law, the Talmud. Kafka’s on-going health was littered with problems. Apart from TB there were several other ailments, including migraines, insomnia, boils, depression, all usually brought on by excessive stresses and strains. He attempted to counteract all of this by naturopathic treatments, a vegetarian diet and consuming large quantities of unpasteurized milk. His tuberculosis still worsened. He returned to Prague, where he died on 3rd June 1924. He was 40. His literary works are few in number but towering in influence. His masterpieces include ‘The Trial’, ‘The Metamorphosis’ as well as a number of short stories which reveal facets of humankind that truthfully could only be born from Kafka’s brain and pen. 01 - Franz Kafka - A Short Story Collection - An Introduction 02 - In the Penal Colony by Franz Kafka 03 - Before the Law by Franz Kafka 04 - A Country Doctor by Franz Kafka 05 - A Hunger Artist by Franz KafkaShow book
Japan's internationally celebrated master storyteller returns with five stories of women on their way to healing that vividly portrays the blissful moments and the sorrows that surround us in everyday lifeFirst published in Japan in 2003, Dead-End Memories collects the stories of five women who, following sudden and painful events, quietly discover their ways back to recovery. Among the women we meet in Dead-End Memories is one betrayed by her fiancé who finds a perfect refuge in an apartment above her uncle's bar while seeking the real meaning of happiness. In "House of Ghosts," the daughter of a yoshoku restaurant owner encounters the ghosts of a sweet elderly couple who haven't yet realized that they've been dead for years. In "Tomo-chan's Happiness," an office worker who is a victim of sexual assault finally catches sight of the hope of romance. Yoshimoto's gentle, effortless prose reminds us that one true miracle can be as simple as having someone to share a meal with, and that happiness is always within us if only we take a moment to pause and reflect. Discover this collection of what Yoshimoto herself calls the "most precious work of my writing career."Show book
When we read or listen, words can have a transforming effect. Our mood can alter in the space of a few sentences from joy to sadness. And not just our mood. These words can affect us physically, they can engage our emotions and even in their sadness bring a lump to our throat and tears to our eyes. Sometimes the relief can be palpable. Our authors, from Anton Chekhov, Stephen Crane, Willa Cather, Katherine Mansfield and a wealth of others are well aware of what their talents will evoke. Genius has many names. 1 - Short Stories To Make You Cry - An Introduction 2 - Vanka by Anton Chekhov 3 - A Dark Brown Dog by Stephen Crane 4 - Suicides by Guy de Maupassant 5 - The Life of Ma Parker by Katherine Mansfield 6 - The District Doctor by Ivan Turgenev 7 - Paul's Case by Willa Cather 8 - Hands by Sherwood Anderson 9 - Silence by Leonid Andreyev 10 - The Stones of the Village by Alice Dunbar Nelson 11 - Hide And Seek or Pliatki by Fyodor SologubShow book
A New York Times Notable Book and “thoroughly gripping” historical mystery: On a ship packed with Irish immigrants, one passenger is a killer (People). In the bitter winter of 1847, leaving an Ireland torn by famine and injustice, the Star of the Sea sets sail for New York. On board are hundreds of refugees, some of them optimistic, many more of them desperate. Among them are a maid with a devastating secret, the bankrupt Lord Merridith accompanied by his wife and children—and a killer stalking the decks, hungry for the vengeance that will bring absolution. This journey will see many lives end, while others begin anew. Passionate loves are tenderly recalled, shirked responsibilities regretted too late, and profound relationships shockingly revealed. In this spellbinding tale of tragedy and mercy, love and healing, the farther the ship sails toward the Promised Land, the more her passengers seem moored to a past that will never let them go. “O’Connor’s luscious book brews the suspense of a thriller with the scope and passion of a Victorian novel—seasoned in authentic historical detail and served up in language that is equal parts lyrical and gritty.” —Booklist “Engrossing . . . will hold historical fiction fans rapt.” —Publishers WeeklyShow book
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. Across the American continent African Americans have never achieved equal status. Civil war, societal upheavals white ignorance have still left many at the bottom of the heap. For them the American dream is just that, a long way from real life. Yet these authors are unafraid to spell out their lives for future generations, it is a powerful legacy. Hope endures. 01 - The Top 10 - The African American Short Story - An Introduction 2 - The Scapegoat by Paul Laurence Dunbar 3 - The Grist in the Mill by Wallace Thurman 4 - The Stones of the Village by Alice Dunbar Nelson 5 - The Quadroons by Lydia Maria Child 6 - Two Offers by Frances W Harper 7 - The Wife of His Youth by Charles W Chesnutt 8 - The City of Refuge by Rudolph Fisher 9 - Talma by Pauline E Hopkins 10 - The Hoodoo by Martha Gruening 11 - The Black Vampyre by Uriah Derick D'ArcyShow book
Ernest Bramah was born on 20th March 1868. He was an intensely private man and very little about his life was ever released. Bramah dropped out of Manchester Grammar school at sixteen, in almost all his subjects he was close to the bottom of his class, and took a job at a farm. His father then invested substantial sums in setting him up with his own farm but Bramah’s long term interests were elsewhere. In his spare time he would write vignettes on local subjects and send them to The Birmingham News for publication. In a now rather dramatic change of career he obtained the position of secretary to Jerome K Jerome and then to editing one of Jerome’s magazines. Thereafter Bramah edited journals for a publishing firm that only ceased with its bankruptcy. He obtained success in his own right with the creation of the storyteller Kai Lung with humourous tales set in China, usually laced with fantasy elements. There seems to have been a certain vogue for stories with an oriental element at this time which Bramah was happy to take advantage of. His career blossomed across many genres; in humour, science-fiction, and supernatural he was ranked with the very best of the day. Even Orwell cited his work as an influence and as a predictor for the rise of Fascism and his own novel, 1984. At a time when the English Channel had yet to be crossed by an aeroplane, Bramah foresaw aerial express trains traveling at 10,000 feet, a nationwide wireless-telegraphy network, fax machines and cypher writing typewriters similar to the German Enigma machine. In 1914, Bramah created the blind detective Max Carrados. Despite the obvious obstacle to his deductive powers he was a literary and commercial success. Ernest Bramah died in Weston-Super-Mare on 27th June 1942 at the age of 74.Show book
