Publisher: Mike Thomas
Finally The New Revised Edition is Available! The Metamorphosis (German: Die Verwandlung) is a novella by Franz Kafka, first published in 1915. The story begins with a traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, waking to find himself transformed into a "monstrous vermin".
Poezest contains works of legendary author Edgar Allan Poe reworked and reimagined by Mike Bennett, who has intertwined elements of Edgar Allan Poe's character with well-known works such as 'The Black Cat', 'The Raven', 'The Tell-Tale Heart', 'The Premature Burial' and many more. Written in verse and prose, this body of work captures the spirit of Poe whilst retaining an originality that is as comedic as it is macabre, replete with murder, mystery and Machiavellian intrigue. The music underscore has been provided by Guy Cavill, capturing the mood of the creepy tale that helps to take the listener on a journey that has more twists and turns than Brands Hatch.Show book
"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. He was laying on his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his domelike brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes."With this startling, bizarre, yet surprisingly funny first opening, Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetle-like insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man.A harrowing — though absurdly comic — meditation on human feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and isolation, The Metamorphosis has taken its place as one of the most widely read and influential works of twentieth-century fiction. As W.H. Auden wrote, "Kafka is important to us because his predicament is the predicament of modern man."Show book
Mary Gleed Tuttiett was born and brought up in Newport on the Isle of Wight on 11th December 1846. She was largely self-educated but of determined character to achieve something with her life. As a young woman she travelled in England and Switzerland working as a governess despite bouts of ill-health. During her writing career her health deteriorated, mainly due to asthma and rheumatism, to such an extent that she was unable to leave her bed for more than a few hours a day. Mary began her literary career by contributing essays, poems, articles, and short stories to various periodicals of the times. In common with several other women of the time she wrote under a male pseudonym, that of Maxwell Gray, and which in literary terms at least, has removed any trace of her life as Mary. Her first novel, ‘The Broken Tryst’, arrived in 1879 to little attention or sales. Mary’s first critical and popular success did not arrive until 1886 with the novel ‘The Silence of Dean Maitland’, an unorthodox ecclesiastical story which was to be later adapted for the stage and screen. With this recognition came a far more prolific output with several of her other works set in a fictionalised Isle of Wight. As well as novels there were collections of short stories and several poetry anthologies. Mary was strongly supportive of women’s rights and the suffragist cause and was one of several writers who petitioned in support of the Women’s Suffrage Bill in 1910, and she wove these and other social themes into several of her novels. After her father's death in 1895, she moved to London and remained there until her own death on 23rd September 1923, aged 76. Her short story ‘An Unexpected Fare’ is a classic fish out-of-water story. A rich, entitled young man has designs on a young woman of a class below his. Wanting to find out more about her he takes on the job of a cabbie, common accent and all, as a way to discover more.Show book
Perceval Gibbon (1879-1926) was an author and journalist, working on the Rand Daily Mail in South Africa and several other publications. He is best remembered for his masterly short stories which were often characterized by an ironic twist at the end.The Murderer is just such a tale. It tells the story of Conroy, a young English sailor who is bullied and beaten by the brutal mate of the German merchant ship Villingen. Conroy is goaded on by the other members of the crew and ends up publically blurting out a vow of revenge on the mate.He himself would have quickly forgotton the incident, but his fellow sailors are quick to encourage him to see the thing through. One supplies him with a weapon, others remind him repeatedly of his purpose. But when he is on watch as look-out one night, the mate is accidentally swept off the forecastle head by a wave onto the main deck below, hitting his head hard and killing him instantly, everyone in the crew assumes that Conroy has murdered him.Conroy finds himself in a very uncomfortable position indeed... but then he realizes how to deal with the situation.Show book
Victor-Marie Hugo (26 February 1802 - 22 May 1885) was a French poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, and dramatist of the Romantic movement. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote abundantly in an exceptional variety of genres: lyrics, satires, epics, philosophical poems, epigrams, novels, history, critical essays, political speeches, funeral orations, diaries, and letters public and private, as well as dramas in verse and prose.BOOK 6: LITTLE GAVROCHE: Since 1823, when the tavern of Montfermeil was on the way to shipwreck and was being gradually engulfed, not in the abyss of a bankruptcy, but in the cesspool of petty debts, the Thénardier pair had had two other children; both males. That made five; two girls and three boys.Show book
Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere. In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author? The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme. Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature. Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made. If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something. War has ruined Nations and peoples. Revolution has followed in some. In the aftermath society slowly picks itself up, unaware that collapse is already beginning to ferment in its economic bastions. The authors of this decade are purposeful with their prose, describing and detailing with stories the brazen nature of this decade. 1 - The Top 10 - The 1920's - The Men - An Introduction 2 - The Rocking Horse Winner by D H Lawrence 3 - Bernice Bobs Her Hair by F Scott Fitzgerald 4 - The Color Out of Space by H P Lovecraft 5 - A Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka 6 - The Burial of the Rats by Bram Stoker 7 - Brothers by Sherwood Anderson 8 - Rats by M R James 9 - The Great Slave by Zane Grey 10 - The Loathly Opposite by John Buchan 11 - The Most Dangerous Game by Richard ConnellShow book
