Publisher: Charles Boardman Hawes
Philip Marsham was bred to the sea as far back as the days when he was cutting his milk teeth, and he never thought he should leave it; but leave it he did, once and again, as I shall tell you.
An eerie and evocative ghost story by one of English literature's greatest writers. On looking out of his window, the narrator sees two men going down Piccadilly. The second man looks strangely unwell and waxen. When he is later called to jury service, the accused turns out to be the first man he had seen in Piccadilly...and the second his murder victim. Stranger still, the ghost of the murdered man is actively participating in the trial to ensure his murderer is brought to justice.Show book
The Old Curiosity Shop is one of two novels (the other being Barnaby Rudge) which Charles Dickens published along with short stories in his weekly serial Master Humphrey's Clock, from 1840 to 1841. It was so popular that New York readers stormed the wharf when the ship bearing the final instalment arrived in 1841. The Old Curiosity Shop was printed in book form in 1841. The plot follows the life of Nell Trent and her grandfather, both residents of The Old Curiosity Shop in London. Queen Victoria read the novel in 1841 and found it very interesting and cleverly written.Show book
Ayn Rand's classic bestseller, Anthem, is the unforgettable tale of a nightmarish totalitarian future—and the ultimate triumph of the individual spirit. First published in 1938, and often compared with Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World, this beautifully written story has introduced millions to Rand's provocative worldview.Rand's protagonist, Equality 7-2521, describes a surreal world of faceless, nameless drones who "exist through, by and for our brothers who are the State. Amen." Alone, this daring young man defies the will of the ruling councils and discovers the forbidden freedoms that prevailed during the Unmentionable Times. In other words, he finds and celebrates the power of the self. In doing so, he becomes the prototypical Rand hero—a bold risk-taker who shuns conformity and unabashedly embraces egoism.This exciting dramatization features an electrifying performance by veteran actor and former BBC Drama Repertory Company member Paul Meier. It is certain to be the definitive recording of Anthem—and a milestone in audio interpretation of literary classics.Show book
A World War I soldier is torn between his duty, his country, and his conscience in this work of “classic war fiction” (Books Monthly). When the First World War broke out, Apostol Bologa left his home in Romania and joined the Austro-Hungarian army with grand visions of battle, glory, and honor. Instead, the young officer finds himself serving on a near-perfunctory tribunal that sentences deserters and other reprobates to hanging in a small dark forest just behind the Eastern Front. At first Bologa performs his duties with staunch military bearing, but the weight of the dead slowly begins to toll on his mind and spirit. For as his fellow soldiers are being cut down by the thousands on the battlefields, his only contribution to the effort is killing men one by one for reasons that grow ever more foreign and dubious—until he finds himself lost in the very forest of the dead he helped grow . . . with little hope for his own salvation.Show book
Little Wars is a set of rules for playing with toy soldiers, written by English novelist H. G. Wells in 1913. The book, which had a full title of Little Wars: a game for boys from twelve years of age to one hundred and fifty and for that more intelligent sort of girl who likes boys' games and books, provided simple rules for miniature wargaming. Although first printed in 1913.Show book
The Mouse, the Bird, and the Sausage live happily together. The Bird brings home wood from the forest; the Mouse delivers water, makes the cooking fire, lays the table; and the Sausage cooks. One day, the Bird has a chat with some other birds. They make fun of the Bird, saying that it was doing all the work and that he was like a slave. The next day, the Bird suggests that they switch roles and refuses to go to the forest.Show book
