Altri libri che potrebbero interessarti

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  The Three Musketeers

  Alexandre Dumas

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  One of the most celebrated and popular historical romances ever written, The Three Musketeers tells the story of the early adventures of the young Gascon gentleman, D'Artagnan and his three friends from the regiment of the King's Musketeers—Athos, Porthos and Aramis. 
  Under the watchful eye of their patron M. de Treville, the four defend the honour of the regiment against the guards of Cardinal Richelieu, and the honour of the queen against the machinations of the Cardinal himself as the power struggles of seventeenth century France are vividly played out in the background. 
  But their most dangerous encounter is with the Cardinal's spy, Milady, one of literature's most memorable female villains, and Alexandre Dumas employs all his fast-paced narrative skills to bring this enthralling novel to a breathtakingly gripping and dramatic conclusion.

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  The Haunted Man and the Ghost's...

  Charles Dickens

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  In this story, Dickens narrates the hair-raising experiences of a professor. As the protagonist dwells on his past sorrows and mistakes, a phantom visits him. It offers him a bizarre escape from painful recollections of yesteryear by offering to eradicate his memory. On seeing the professor turn into a man devoid of emotions, the reader realizes how empty one becomes without a

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  The Death of Ivan Ilych

  Leo Tolstoy

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  The novella ‘The Death of Ivan Ilyich’ by Leo Tolstoy was published in 1886 and is considered a masterpiece of his late period fiction. It tells the story of a high-court judge in nineteenth century Russia. He lives a simple, carefree life with his family until he is diagnosed with a terminal illness. Confined to bed, he is disgusted that his family avoids the subject of his death by pretending that he is only sick and not dying. He finds comfort only in Gerasim, the peasant boy who does not fear death. In his final days, Ivan distinguishes the artificial life – like his own – from the authentic life lived by Gerasim. Right at the end, he sees a bright light, fear leaves him, and he departs with a feeling of compassion for his family.

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  Jane Eyre

  Charlotte Brontë

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  "Charlotte Brontë's great masterpiece of English prose has lost nothing over the passing of the time since it was written. The story of a young girl who battles against all the odds to find love and become successful, in spite of all the challenges of class, poverty and society, facing her. Written during the Victorian era, its lessons are still relevant for women and girls today! This version has all the French and German passages narrated in English for the easier understanding of the modern reader."

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  New Atlantis

  Francis Bacon

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  New Atlantis is an utopian novel by Sir Francis Bacon, published in 1627. In New Atlantis Bacon portrays a vision of the future of human discovery and knowledge, expressing his aspirations and ideals for humankind. The novel depicts the creation of a utopian land where "generosity and enlightenment, dignity and splendor, piety and public spirit" are the commonly held qualities of the inhabitants of Bensalem, a city named so after the Hebrew words interpreted as the complete son.. The plan and organisation of his ideal college, Solomon's House, envisioned the modern research university in both applied and pure sciences. The book presents unlimited power for the rule of self appointed "scientific" experts - for example it is forbidden to even tell ordinary people that the Earth goes round the Sun. There are no legal principles of natural justice limiting the power of this elite of "scientific" experts in Sir Francis Bacon's version of utopia.

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  The Lifted Veil

  George Eliot

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  Mary Anne Evans was born on 22nd November 1819 at Nuneaton in Warwickshire, England, 
   
  As a child she was a committed reader and brimmed with intelligence. Her father felt that her lack of physical beauty might not bring her the best selection of suitors in marriage and therefore thought a good education, rarely afforded to women at the time, might be the best path for her. 
   
  From the age of five to nine, she boarded with her sister at Miss Latham's school in Attleborough, and then Mrs. Wallington's school in Nuneaton, until she was thirteen, and it was to be Miss Franklin's school in Coventry until she was sixteen.  
   
  In 1835 her mother died and she returned home to keep house for her father and her siblings, and with it the cessation of her formal education. 
   
  Over the next decade she nurtured her literary ambitions but doubts on religious faith brought tensions with her father who was not enamored at the free-willed liberals she was associating with. 
   
  Despite this her first major literary work was completing an English translation of Strauss's ‘The Life of Jesus’ in 1846. 
   
  Her father died in 1849 and Eliot was able to begin a new life.  After a few months in Geneva she moved to London to work at the Westminster Review where she published many articles and essays.  In 1851 Mary Anne or Marian, as she liked to be called, met George Henry Lewes, and in 1854 they moved in together; a somewhat scandalous situation as he was already married.    
   
  Her view on literature had taken some time to coalesce but with the publication of parts of ‘Scenes From A Clerical Life’ in 1858 she knew she wanted to be a novelist.   
   
  Under the pseudonym of George Eliot that we know so well ‘Adam Bede’ was published in 1859 followed by her other great novels; ‘Mill on the Floss’, ‘Silas Marner’ and ‘Middlemarch’.         
   
  Her talents also extended to both small canons of poetry and short stories. 
   
  ‘The Lifted Veil’ is a both a beautiful story and typical of Eliot’s formidable powers of writing. 
   
  George Eliot died on 22nd December 1880 at Chelsea in London. She was 61.  She is buried at Highgate Cemetery.

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