Publisher: Qasim Idrees
Anthem takes place in a dark, dystopian future. Collectivism and socialist economics have driven mankind to a technological standstill. The individual is not acknowledged in this society, the word "I" having been eliminated from speech altogether. Rand explores the tension between collectivism and individualism and equates the errors or triumphs of these with socialism and capitalism.
Harold Brodkey’s acclaimed novel is a mesmerizing work of literary genius, exploring the momentous events in the life of a family in twentieth-century St. Louis, and a writer still haunted by a childhood tragedy First published in 1991, The Runaway Soul took Harold Brodkey more than three decades to complete. This sprawling novel has since been eagerly embraced by readers and critics alike, earning Brodkey the epithet of an “American Proust.” Told by Wiley Silenowicz, Brodkey’s fictional alter ego, the story snakes back and forth across the unforgettable events of a life. Following the traumatic death of his mother, Wiley recalls his troubling childhood in the care of his cousins: smooth-talking S. L. Silenowicz, his beautiful, emotionally deficient wife, Lila, and their abusive daughter, Nonie, who torments Wiley to no end. In language that soars and hypnotizes, The Runaway Soul fearlessly explores youth and adulthood, love and loss, sex and death, marriage and family, tracing upon one man’s odyssey through a troubling world. More than two decades after it first appeared in print, Harold Brodkey’s magnum opus remains one of the finest literary works produced by an American novelist in the twentieth century.Show book
Aboard the English gunship Lido in the Caribbean, orders are received from the Admiral of the fleet to intercept a French ship, the Gloire, and also to hunt down a pirateer, a ship which sails under the name of The Slapping Sal, captained by mutineers under the leadership of the notorious villain, Hairy Hudson. It is not many hours before Lido finds herself engaging with both of these ships, in a breathtaking and bloody sea-battle which ends in a most unusual way.Show book
Richard Austin Freeman (1862 – 1943) was a British writer of detective stories, many featuring the investigator Dr. Thorndyke who uses a mixture of medical and forensic techniques to solve the most baffling crimes. In "The Blue Sequin" a beautiful young woman as been found alone, dead in a railway carriage, with a peculiar combination of head injuries inflicted with great force by a sharp round implement. Suspicion immediately falls on her former lover, an artist, with whom she had quarrelled earlier, and who is in posession of her locket and a stout umbrella with a pointed end. But Dr. Thordyke is not convinced of the artist's guilt and sets out to investigate....Show book
Out of print for over seventy years, Gentleman Overboard by Herbert Clyde Lewis is being rescued for today’s readers to launch Boiler House Press’s new series, Recovered Books. Halfway between Honolulu and Panama, a man slips and falls from a ship. For crucial hours, as he patiently treads water in hope of rescue, no one on board notices his absence. By the time the ship’s captain is notified, it may be too late to save him... Rediscovered in 2009 by Brad Bigelow as part of research for his popular Neglected Books website, Gentleman Overboard has since achieved the status of a cult classic and even become something of an international phenomenon, having seen translations into Spanish, Hebrew, and Dutch. The newspaper Ha’aretz has called it ‘A miniature masterpiece that emerged from oblivion’; the Spanish magazine El Cultural dubbed it ‘una perlita’: ‘a little pearl’. A masterful piece of narrative tension, and way ahead of its time, Gentleman Overboard sets the question of existence in its most basic terms. The story speaks fiercely to the contemporary moment and for all who share a sense of loneliness through having found themselves isolated by politics, disease, economics —or indeed just sheer accident and bad luck. The fate of the novel's hero even has ironic parallels with that of the author, Herbert Clyde Lewis, who died forgotten and alone in 1950, a victim of Hollywood’s black list, and who has since slipped beneath the waves of fashion and time, but now hopefully is to be recovered from the murky depths for the readership he posthumously deserves.Show book
This short story is about the stressful relationship between a son and his father. The family lives in a small house in the Russian countryside. Poverty has played a toll on how the father reacts to his childs need for money to attend college. An emotional conversation ensues.Show book
Here are some of Shakespeare's finest speeches performed by one of the greatest Shakespearean actors of this century. It ranges from the youth of Jaques' introduction to life, 'All the world's a stage!' in "As You Like It" to the aged Prospero's goodbye to Ariel and Shakespeare's own farewell to his muse in "The Tempest": 'Now my charms are all o'erthrown!' Sir John's masterful reading brings delight to the ear and joy to the heart.Show book
