Editorial: Sovereign
The Owl and the Pussy-Cat went to sea; In a beautiful pea-green boat; They took some honey, and plenty of money; Wrapped up in a five-pound note. The Owl looked up to the stars above; And sang to a small guitar...
When Arkady Petrovich comes home from college, his father finds his eager, naïve son changed almost beyond recognition, for the impressionable Arkady has fallen under the powerful influence of the friend he has brought with him. A self-proclaimed nihilist, the ardent young Bazarov shocks Arkady's father by criticizing the landowning way of life and by his outspoken determination to sweep away traditional values of contemporary Russian society. Turgenev's depiction of the conflict between generations and their ideals stunned readers when Fathers and Sons was first published in 1862. But many could also sympathize with Arkady's fascination with its nihilist hero, whose story vividly captures the hopes and regrets of a changing Russia. Fathers and Sons is a brilliant work that captures the tension that existed among generations and class in the prerevolutionary era in Russia.This version of Fathers and Sons is the translation by Constance Garnett.Ver libro
Head Stories Audio presents 16 selected short stories by one of the genre’s masters, H.G. Wells. Not unexpectedly some, such as “The Crystal Egg” and “The Remarkable Case of Davidson’s Eyes” are typical of Wells’ popular science fiction and explore the possibilities of time and space. Others like “The Moth” and “The Red Room” are classics of horror. Wells could equally be humorous and show no hint of his visionary tendencies, whether recounting the good luck of an inept burglar in “The Hammerpond Park Burglary” or the bizarre auction of birds as recounted by a Taxidermist in “A deal of Ostriches”. Sit back and enjoy 16 masterful tales, expertly read by Simon Hester. With original music.Ver libro
Known mainly for his tales of adventure, this work of science fiction by Jack London is set in a post-apocalyptic future.It's 2072, sixty years after the scarlet plague has depopulated the planet. James Howard Smith is one of the few survivors of the pre-plague era left alive in the San Francisco area, and as he realizes his time grows short, he tries to impart the value of knowledge and wisdom to his grandsons. Through his narrative, we learn how the plague spread throughout the world and of the struggles of the handful of survivors it left in its wake."The Scarlet Plague" was originally published in London Magazine in 1912.Ver libro
Mowgli, the wolf-child, is famous around the world, read Kipling's original story and meet beloved characters such as Baloo the bear, Bagheera the panther and Shere Khan the tiger. Follow Mowgli as he tries to discover where he belongs. Plus, become immersed in Kipling's other jungle stories; meet Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, the heroic mongoose and Toomai, the elephant handler.Ver libro
From the author of The Raj Quartet, a coming-of-age tale about a boy and his childhood friendships with a British diplomat’s daughter and the son of a Raj. The Birds of Paradise is set in India when the British Raj still seemed a paradise, but a paradise that boy comes to recognize as already lost. As Scott weaves together themes of political and personal history, he makes us feel how the protagonist identifies with the beautiful, mysterious India of the Raj. With a keen eye for character and graceful prose, Scott captures the reverie of a youth complete with parades of elephants, garden parties, and the titular birds of paradise, who are stuffed trophies of an Indian prince, kept as decoration in a gilded cage. When the boy is sent away to England, he experiences his exile as both the personal wound of abandonment and the foreshadowing of the Partition. Winner of the Booker Prize Praise for The Birds of Paradise “A rare literary bird, a novel that in a short space recreates a man’s lifetime. Using exotic backgrounds, it manages to say something useful about growing up—a process that only children believe takes place mainly in childhood.” —Time “Scott’s vision is both precise and painterly. Like an engraver crosshatching the illusion of fullness, he selects nuances that will make his characters take on depth and poignancy.” —Jean G. Zorn, New York Times Book Review “One of the best novelists to emerge from Britain’s silver age.” —Robert Towers, Newsweek “Far more even than E. M. Forester, in whose long literary shadow he has to work, Paull Scott is successful in exploring the provinces of the human heart.” —LifeVer libro
Franz Kafka was born on 3rd July 1883 in Prague, then in Bohemia, the eldest of 6, into a middle-class Jewish family. Life for the young Kafka and his passion for literature was often made an ordeal by his over-bearing and domineering entrepreneur of a father. In 1889 Kafka was sent to the Deutsche Knabenschule, an elementary school in Prague. His father would only allow him to be educated in German-speaking schools and even went so far as to limit visits to the synagogue to four a year. In 1901 he graduated from the classics-oriented Altstädter Gymnasium. Kafka did well there and across a large range of subjects. He now enrolled at the Charles Ferdinand University, to study chemistry, but quickly switched to law for which he obtained his degree in June 1906 and then performed the mandatory year of unpaid service as clerk at the civil and criminal courts. A job at an Italian insurance company left him little time to write and after a year he took another job with the Worker's Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia where he stayed until ill health led to his resignation in 1922. Although he saw work as a means to pay the bills and to allow him time to write, he received several promotions and was noted as a good employee. By 1917 Kafka was suffering from tuberculosis, which required frequent periods of convalescence. Interspersed with this, were several intense affairs before he settled in Berlin with Dora Diamant, a 25-year-old kindergarten teacher who herself having left the ghetto now influenced Kafka's interest in the book of Jewish law, the Talmud. Kafka’s on-going health was littered with problems. Apart from TB there were several other ailments, including migraines, insomnia, boils, depression, all usually brought on by excessive stresses and strains. He attempted to counteract all of this by naturopathic treatments, a vegetarian diet and consuming large quantities of unpasteurized milk. His tuberculosis still worsened. He returned to Prague, where he died on 3rd June 1924. He was 40. His literary works are few in number but towering in influence. His masterpieces include ‘The Trial’, ‘The Metamorphosis’ as well as a number of short stories which reveal facets of humankind that truthfully could only be born from Kafka’s brain and pen. His classic short story ‘In the Penal Colony’ begins with the innocuous words “It’s a peculiar apparatus,” as the Officer explains to the Traveller, what this grisly machine will do to the prisoners who serve their time here.Ver libro
