Altri libri che potrebbero interessarti

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  Heart of Darkness

  Joseph Conrad

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  Heart of Darkness is Joseph Conrad's haunting and profoundly influential novella, a powerful exploration of imperialism, moral ambiguity, and the darkness that lies within the human soul. Framed as a seafaring tale yet unfolding as a psychological journey, the novel remains one of the most enduring works of modern literature.
  
  The story follows Charles Marlow, a seasoned sailor who recounts his voyage up the Congo River while working for a Belgian trading company. Tasked with transporting supplies and eventually meeting the enigmatic agent Kurtz, Marlow travels deeper into the African interior, where the trappings of European "civilization" gradually dissolve. As the jungle closes in, so too does a sense of unease, revealing the brutal realities of colonial exploitation and unchecked power.
  
  Kurtz, once celebrated as a man of exceptional promise and ideals, becomes the embodiment of moral collapse. His descent into tyranny and madness exposes the hypocrisy of imperial ambitions and challenges the belief that progress and enlightenment accompany empire. Through Marlow's reflections, Conrad interrogates the fragile boundaries between civilization and savagery, reason and obsession.
  
  Written in Conrad's dense, evocative prose, Heart of Darkness is as much an inward journey as a physical one. The novella confronts readers with unsettling questions about human nature, greed, and responsibility, suggesting that the true "darkness" resides not in distant lands but within the hearts of men themselves.
  
  Provocative, unsettling, and timeless, Heart of Darkness continues to inspire debate and interpretation, influencing countless writers, filmmakers, and thinkers. It is an essential work for readers seeking a profound meditation on power, conscience, and the complexities of the modern world.

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  A Little Holiday - From their...

  Oswald Sickert

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  The bookshelves of British literature are incredible collections that have gathered together centuries of very talented authors.  From these Isles their fame spread and whilst among their number many are now forgotten or neglected their talents endure.  Among them is Oswald Sickert.

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  The Yellow Wallpaper - From...

  Charlotte Perkins Gilman

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  Charlotte Perkins Gilman was born on 3rd July 1860 in Hartford, Connecticut, to an unaffectionate mother and a father who abandoned her and her older brother to a life of poverty. 
  Inevitably her schooling was limited and by 15 she had attended seven different schools but received only four years education.  However Charlotte was resourceful and did spend time with her father’s aunts – the suffragist Isabella Beecher Hooker and the ‘Uncle Tom Cabin’s’ author, Harriet Beecher Stowe as well as many hours at the public library studying ancient civilisations. 
  In 1878, she enrolled in classes at the Rhode Island School of Design where she met Martha Luther and they developed a close relationship until Luther married in 1881. Charlotte was devastated and detested romance and love until she met and married the artist Charles Walter Stetson.  
  Their only child, Katharine Beecher Stetson, was born in 1885 but left Charlotte with post-natal depression, then often dismissed as a case of hysteria or nerves.  Unsuited to domestic life she ruptured her life and moved to California with Katherine.  She divorced in 1894 and then sent Katharine east to live with her father and his second wife confirming that his paternal rights be acknowledged and that Katherine establish a relationship with her father. 
  After her mother died in 1893, Charlotte moved back east and became involved with her first cousin, Wall Street attorney, Houghton Gilman who she married in 1900. After his death she moved back to California, where Katherine now lived.   
  Her most popular story is ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ which touched on her own post-partum depression and underlined the need for women to be responsible for their mental and physical well-being, as the narrator is ordered by her husband/doctor to take compete rest in her room where she is isolated and becomes obsessed with the revolting yellow wallpaper.   
  She wrote other notable short stories the best of which we also include.   
  Charlotte lectured widely for social reform, wrote important non-fiction works that questioned our patriarchal system and left a legacy as a leading and positive spokesperson for feminism.  
  She was diagnosed with incurable breast cancer in 1932 and, as she wrote in her suicide note and autobiography, she ‘chose chloroform over cancer’    
  Charlotte Perkins Gilman took her own life on 17th August 1935, aged 75, in Pasadena, California.

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  Winifred Holtby - A Short Story...

  Winifred Holtby

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  Winifred Holtby was born on 23rd June 1898 to a prosperous farming family in the village of Rudston in Yorkshire.  
   
  A governess provided her early education before she went to Queen Margaret's School in Scarborough.  After passing the entrance exam for Somerville College, Oxford in 1917, she decided to join the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps in early 1918.  However, soon after her arrival in France, the War ended. 
   
  She returned to study at Oxford and met fellow student Vera Brittain.  After graduating from Oxford, in 1921, Winifred and Vera moved to London, hoping to establish themselves as authors. 
   
  Her early novels met with only moderate success but as a journalist she was both prolific and increasingly well-known.  Her articles graced more than 20 newspapers and magazines, including the Manchester Guardian newspaper.   
   
  Winifred was a committed feminist, socialist and pacifist.  She gave many lectures for the League of Nations Union.  She was also active in the Independent Labour Party and was a campaigner for the unionisation of black workers in South Africa. 
   
  In 1931 the symptoms of high blood pressure, recurrent headaches and bouts of lassitude brought forth a diagnosis of Bright's disease.  She was given two years to live and now put all her efforts into what was to become her crowning achievement: South Riding.  Released posthumously it received lavish praise and enormous sales.  Her canon of works tackle difficult subjects head on, many in unusual ways, brimming with verve and usually strong female protagonists. 
   
  Winifred Holtby died on 29th September 1935 in London.  She was 37. 
   
  1 - Winifred Holtby - A Short Story Collection - An Introduction 
  2 - The Voice of God by Winifred Holtby 
  3 - Truth is Not Sober by Winifred Holtby 
  4 - The Casualty List by Winifred Holtby 
  5 - The Man Who Hated God by Winifred Holtby 
  6 - Why Herbert Killed His Mother by Winifred Holtby

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  Little Women (Part 2)

  Louisa May Alcott

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  Little Women (Part 2): Three years later, Meg and John marry and learn how to live together. When they have twins, Meg is a devoted mother but John begins to feel neglected and left out. Meg seeks advice from Marmee, who helps her find balance in her married life by making more time for wifely duties and encouraging John to become more involved with child rearing. - Laurie graduates from college, having put in the effort to do well in his last year with Jo's prompting. Amy is chosen over Jo to go on a European tour with her aunt. Beth's health is weak due to complications from scarlet fever and her spirits are down. While trying to uncover the reason for Beth's sadness, Jo realizes that Laurie has fallen in love. At first she believes it's with Beth, but soon senses it's with herself. Jo confides in Marmee, telling her that she loves Laurie like a brother and that she could not love him in a romantic way.
  Little Women is a coming-of-age novel written by American novelist Louisa May Alcott, originally published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869. The story follows the lives of the four March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy—and details their passage from childhood to womanhood. Loosely based on the lives of the author and her three sisters, it is classified as an autobiographical or semi-autobiographical novel.

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  The Fall of the House of Usher

  Edgar Allan Poe

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  A haunting gothic tale about a man who visits his childhood friend Roderick Usher at the decaying Usher mansion, where sickness, fear, and strange events build into a terrifying collapse. Edgar Allan Poe’s story is known for its eerie atmosphere, psychological dread, and themes of madness, death, and family doom.

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