Publisher: Brothers Grimm
Grimm's Fairy Tales are the most famous and enchanting collection of fairy tales ever written down and published. For the past two centuries, these delightful stories, gathered together by brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, have entertained and frightened children and adults alike.
"The Nose" is the second best known story of Gogol, after "The Overcoat." A military major discovers his nose is missing and works to recover it. He finds the nose but it pretends to have a life of its own, as a fellow human. It in fact has a higher rank than the Major himself. The Major is perplexed, goes back to his apartment, and has the nose returned to him. With great joy he recovers his nose, only to find it won't reattach to his face. After much going on, he finds the nose reattached to his face. The fun of the story are the goings on, which have made this a favorite of all readers of Russian literature.Show book
Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole, CBE was born in Auckland, New Zealand, on March 13th, 1884. His father was an Anglican clergyman which involved postings abroad. Walpole’s early educated was by a Governess until, in 1893, his parents decided he needed a better education and the young boy was sent to England. He first attended a preparatory school in Truro followed by Sir William Borlase's Grammar School in Marlow in 1895, where he was bullied, frightened and miserable. The following year, 1897, the Walpole’s returned to England and Walpole became a day boy at Durham School. His refuge was the local library and its books. From 1903 to 1906 Walpole studied history at Emmanuel College, Cambridge and there, in 1905, had his first work published, the critical essay "Two Meredithian Heroes". Walpole was also attempting to cope with and come to terms with his homosexual feelings and to find “that perfect friend”. After a short spell tutoring in Germany and then teaching French at Epsom in 1908 he immersed himself in the literary world. In London, he became a book reviewer for The Standard and wrote fiction in his spare time. In 1909, he published his first novel, ‘The Wooden Horse’ followed, in 1911, by ‘Mr. Perrin and M.r Traill’. In early 1914 Henry James, in an article for The Times Literary Supplement, ranked Walpole among the finest of the younger British novelists. As war approached, Walpole’s poor eyesight disqualified him from service and so he worked, based in Moscow, reporting for The Saturday Review and The Daily Mail. Although he visited the front in Poland, his dispatches failed to stop comments that he was not ‘doing his bit’ for the war effort. Walpole was ready with a counter; an appointment as a Russian officer, in the Sanitary. He explained they were “part of the Red Cross that does the rough work at the front, carrying men out of the trenches, helping at the base hospitals in every sort of way, doing every kind of rough job”. During a skirmish in June 1915 Walpole rescued a wounded soldier; his Russian comrades refused to help and this meant Walpole had to carry one end of a stretcher, dragging the man to safety. He was awarded the Cross of Saint George. For his wartime work, he was later awarded the CBE in 1918. After hostilities ended Walpole continued to write and publish and began a career on the highly lucrative lecture tour in the United States. In 1924 Walpole met Harold Cheevers, who soon became his constant companion and remained for the rest of his life; “that perfect friend”. Hollywoods MGM studios, invited him in 1934 to write the script for a film of David Copperfield. Walpole also had a small acting role in the film. In 1937 Walpole was offered a knighthood and accepted although Kipling, Hardy, Galsworthy had all refused. “I'm not of their class... Besides I shall like being a knight," he said. His health was plagued by diabetes, made worse by the frenetic pace of his life. Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole, CBE, died of a heart attack at his home at Brackenburn, on June 1st, 1941. He was 57.Show book
William Tell Told Again (1904) is a retelling of the William Tell legend in prose and verse. The main prose was written by P. G. Wodehouse, while the verses were written by John W. Houghton. Excerpt from the book: Once upon a time, more years ago than anybody can remember, before the first hotel had been built or the first Englishman had taken a photograph of Mont Blanc and brought it home to be pasted in an album and shown after tea to his envious friends, Switzerland belonged to the Emperor of Austria, to do what he liked with…"Show book
Shakespeare's play adapted by renowned children's author E. Nesbit into an enjoyable and easily accessible short story perfect for students and children.Show book
First published in The Saturday Evening Post, The Ransom of Red Chief is a humorous short story written in 1910 by O. Henry. A pair of con men kidnap and attempt to ransom a prominent Alabama citizen’s son. Immediately they find themselves at the mercy of a particularly spoiled and clever boy who begins driving them mad. The ironic ending remains the story’s most enduring feature.Show book
Before he was 21 George Gissing conceived the ambition of writing a long series of novels, somewhat in the manner of Balzac, whom he admired. The first of these, Workers in the Dawn, appeared in 1880, to be followed by 21 others. Between 1886 and 1895 he published one or more novels every year. He also wrote Charles Dickens: A Critical Study (1898), a perceptive piece of literary criticism.Gissing's work has a good deal of documentary interest for its detailed and accurate accounts of lower-middle-class London life. On the social position and psychology of women, he is particularly acute: The Odd Women is a powerful study of female frustration. He did not lack human sympathies, but his obvious contempt for so many of his characters reflects an artistic limitation. Gissing was deeply critical, in an almost wholly negative way, of contemporary society. Of his novels, New Grub Street, considered by some critics to be his only great book, is unique in its merciless analysis of the compromises required by the literary life.Gissing's 1893 novel takes on the 19th century "Woman Question" by looking at themes of feminism, marriage, and love. The novel raises these issues through the lives of several contrasting women: Mary Barfoot, a feminist philanthropist who helps train women for careers; her close friend Rhoda Nunn, who believes marriage is a disastrous choice for women; and Monica Madden, who starts out as one of their protegees but chooses to marry a seemingly kind older man. As Monica experiences the challenges of married life, Rhoda finds herself drawn to Mary's cousin, the charming but apparently profligate EverardShow book
