D'autres livres qui pourraient vous intéresser

• 

  The Legend of Saint Julian the...

  Gustave Flaubert

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Gustave Flaubert was born on 12th December 1821 in Rouen, in Normandy, France.  
   
  A gifted child he began writing as early as eight. 
   
  He was educated at the Lycée Pierre-Corneille in Rouen until 1840 and thence to Paris to study law, a city he disliked. He studied little, made few friends and preferred to spend his time writing. His first finished work was ‘November’, a novella, completed in 1842. By 1846 after an attack of epilepsy, he left Paris and abandoned his law studies. 
   
  That same year he began a relationship with the poet Louise Colet which lasted eight years.  His politics developed in these years of revolutions throughout Europe as stridently against despotism, and as one who celebrated protest against the elite and the establishment. 
   
  In September 1849, Flaubert completed ‘The Temptation of Saint Anthony’. After 4 days reading it aloud to two friends, they advised him to destroy it and to focus his writing on day-to-day life rather than the fantastic. 
   
  A long journey to the Middle East brought encounters with both female and male prostitutes and a case of syphilis caught in Beirut.  On his return he began ‘Madame Bovary’ a work he would take 5 years to complete. When it was serialized in the Revue de Paris in 1856 the government brought an immorality action against both publisher and author, but both were acquitted. This was the birth of French Realism and Flaubert, fastidious with every word, was becoming regarded as a literary genius. He wrote in sullen solitude, sometimes spending a week on a single page, avoiding the inexact, the abstract and the vague.   
   
  He visited Carthage in 1858 to conduct research for ‘Salammbô’, which took 4 years to complete.  ‘Sentimental Education’ took a further 7 and published only in 1869.  The next few years were difficult.  Prussian soldiers occupied his house during the War and his mother died pushing him into financial difficulty and this, together with failing health, especially venereal diseases, shortened his life. 
   
  He toiled on his unfinished ‘Bouvard et Pécuchet’ but did complete ‘Three Tales’ in 1877 from which ‘The Legend of Saint Julian the Hospitaller’ is taken.  
   
  Gustave Flaubert died at Croisset from a cerebral hemorrhage on 8th May 1880. He was 58.

  Voir livre

• 

  Double Traitor - Booktrack Edition

  E. Phillips Oppenheim

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Listen to Double Traitor with a movie-style soundtrack and amplify your audiobook experience. 
  The setting is the years prior to the outbreak of World War I. It is a time when Germany is outwardly preparing for war but Britain continues to believe it is invincible and that no one would challenge her. A vast German spy network flourishes in England, often in plain view. The main character is Francis Norgate, an aspiring British diplomat who falls in disfavor with his superiors for defending a woman while stationed in Berlin. The resulting scandal causes Norgate to be recalled. On the way home, he meets a German gentleman, Selingman, who claims to be a crockery salesman. But, Selingman is not what he appears to be. Disillusioned by the English government, Norgate allows himself to be recruited by Selingman.

  Voir livre

• 

  The Picture of Dorian Gray

  Oscar Wilde

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The story revolves around a portrait of Dorian Gray by Basil Hallward, an artist impressed and infatuated by Dorian's beauty. Through Basil, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, and he soon is enthralled by the aristocrat's hedonistic worldview: that beauty and sensual fulfilment are the only things worth pursuing in life. Newly understanding that his beauty will fade, Dorian expresses the desire to sell his soul, to ensure that the picture, rather than he, will age and fade. The wish is granted, and Dorian pursues a libertine life of varied amoral experiences while staying young and beautiful; all the while, his portrait ages and records every one of Dorian's sins.

  Voir livre

• 

  The Shah's English Gardener

  Elizabeth Gaskell

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The facts of the following narration were communicated to me by Mr. Burton, the head gardener at Teddesley Park, in Staffordshire. I had previously been told that he had been for a year or two in the service of the Shah of Persia; and this induced me to question him concerning the motives which took him so far from England, and the kind of life which he led at Teheran. I was so much interested in the details he gave me, that I made notes at the time, which have enabled me to draw up the following account

  Voir livre

• 

  A New England Nun

  Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  "Embark on a journey through 19th-century New England with 'A New England Nun' by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman. This annotated edition unveils the nuanced layers of societal expectations and women's autonomy. Explore the symbolism of wild grapes, the metaphorical imagery of an uncloistered nun, and Joe Daggett's poignant honesty. Perfect for literary enthusiasts, this edition provides a rich understanding of historical and feminist themes, making 'A New England Nun' a captivating exploration of tradition, relationships, and personal desires."

  Voir livre

• 

  Cardenio - Shakespeare's 'lost...

  William Shakespeare

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Set in the heat and dust of Andalusia in seventeenth-century Spain, Cardenio is the story of a friendship betrayed, with all the elements of a thriller: disguise, dishonour and deceit.
  A woman is seduced, a bride is forced to the altar, and a man runs mad among the mountains of the Sierra Morena.
  The history of the play is every bit as thrilling, and this text is the result of a masterful act of literary archaeology by the Royal Shakespeare Company's Chief Associate Director Gregory Doran, to re-imagine a previously lost play by Shakespeare.
  Based on an episode in Cervantes' Don Quixote, the play known as Cardenio by Shakespeare and John Fletcher was performed at court in 1612. A copy of their collaboration has never been found; however, it is claimed that Double Falshood by Lewis Theobald is an eighteenth-century adaptation of it.
  Since Theobald's play misses out some crucial scenes in the plot, Doran has turned to the Cervantes original to supply the missing episodes, using the original English translation by Thomas Shelton (1612) that Fletcher and Shakespeare must themselves have read.
  Cardenio re-opened the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company's fiftieth birthday season in 2011.
  'an extraordinary and theatrically powerful piece... the play works beautifully' - Guardian

  Voir livre