Publisher: 101 Seleções
There are people who are afraid of dying. But there's a man who isn't afraid to die, as long as there's someone around to know he's dead. Read on and find out how this man died.
In these four stories, written between 1900 and 1902, Joseph Conrad bid gradual farewell to his adventurous life at sea and began to confront the more daunting complexities of life on land in the twentieth century. In 'Typhoon' Conrad reveals, in the steadfast courage of an undemonstrative captain and the imaginative readiness of his young first mate, the differences between instinct and intelligence in a partnership vital to human survival. 'Falk', the companion sea-story, contrasts, as Conrad once put it, 'common sentimentalism with the frank standpoint of a more or less primitive man', a man with a conscience, however, about the girl he desires. In one of the 'land-stories' Conrad explores the utter isolation of an East European emigrant in England; in the other, the plight of a woman ironically trapped by the unwitting alliance of two retired widowers - each blind in his own way.Show book
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky was born in Moscow on 11th November, 1821 to distinguished multi-ethnic parents from a Lithuanian background. His childhood years were at the family home in hospital grounds which also contained an orphanage, an insane asylum and a cemetery for criminals. The young Fyodor often disobeyed his father by talking to the ill in the hospital gardens. His health was compromised at age 9 when he experienced his first epileptic fit. By the time he was a teenager both parents had died and he was now enrolled in a military academy where he graduated and eventually became a Lieutenant in 1842. He left military service the next year. In 1846 he published his first novel ‘Poor Cow’ to great literary acclaim. His next was unable to emulate that success but his short stories helped provide an income. Life as an author was definitely difficult. As he began his next work he was arrested and incarcerated for treason and participation in the political and literary Petrashevsky Circle. Although the case was weak and unjustified he was sentenced to 4 years of hard labour followed by 5 years of military service in a Siberian regiment. Despite the undoubted hardships and setbacks in his life, and whether they helped or hindered his writing, his talents produced many exceptional works of literature including ‘Crime and Punishment’, ‘The Idiot’ and ‘The Brothers Karamazov’. Dostoevsky’s ability to get under the skin of his characters and show the inner workings of their mind was hugely influential and ahead of its time. Interwoven with this was the influence of the broader social, spiritual and political forces at work in a person's psyche. Fyodor Dostoevsky struggled financially and remained in poor health for much of his adult life. He died from a lung haemorrhage on 9th February, 1881.Show book
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
Winner of the 2023 Soft Skull-Kimbilio Publishing Prize, a collection of short stories that elaborate the realities of a diasporic existence, split identities, and the beautiful potency of meaningful connections Primarily told from the perspective of women and children in the Northeast who are tethered to fathers and families in Puerto Rico, these stories explore the confusion of being one person in two places—of having a mother who wants your father and his language to stay on his island but sends you there because you need to know your family. Loudly and joyfully filled with Cousins, Aunts, Grandparents, and budding romances, these stories are saturated in summer nostalgia, and place listeners at the center of the table to enjoy family traditions and holidays: the resplendent and universal language of survival for displaced or broken families. Refusing to shy away from dysfunction, loss, obligation, or interrogating Black and Latinx heritages, Gautier's stories feature New York neighborhoods made of island nations living with seasonal and perpetual displacement. Like Justin Torres's We the Animals or Quiara Alegria Hudes's My Broken Language, it's the characters-in-becoming—flanked by family and rich with detail—that animate each story with special frequencies, especially for listeners grappling with split-identities themselves.Show book
Bussel is back with yet another volume of tempting, tantalizing tales! Give in to temptation . . . Want to know the key to unlocking your most forbidden desires? Just ask the curious and courageous characters of Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 9! Whether they're pursuing a fetish, showing off, or watching a sexy striptease, these leading ladies learn that sometimes simply saying yes is all they need to indulge in their wildest fantasies. In these nineteen brand new erotic stories edited by the award-winning Rachel Kramer Bussel, women travel to all corners of the earth—and sometimes beyond—to find the pleasure they seek. Whether it be in their own home, a library, a bar, the office, kink clubs, or even outer space, they offer themselves up for seduction and indulge every wild desire. Join them as they bed men and women and discover how hot it can be to rub up against the edges of their personal boundaries. With stories by popular authors including Ruby Barrett, Jane Boon, Nicole Falls, and Karmen Lee, plus newcomers to erotic storytelling, the tales in Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 9 are too tempting to turn away from. Contains mature themes.Show book
