Publisher: Charles River Editors
George Bernard Shaw was a prolific Irish playwright who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1925. Shaw’s famous plays include Man and Superman and Pygmalion which was adapted into the classic musical My Fair Lady. This edition of An Unsocial Socialist includes a table of contents.
"Boots" by Anton Chekhov tells the story of Murkin, a piano-tuner who, due to a mistake by the hotel attendant Semyon, is left without his boots. Semyon admits to having accidentally taken the boots to the neighboring actress's room, but upon retrieving them, Murkin discovers they are not his. They belong to Pavel Alexandritch, an actor who only stays at the hotel on Tuesdays and who is now unreachable. Murkin is desperate to find his own boots as he has an appointment with a client, Madame la Générale Shevelitsyn. Semyon suggests that Murkin wears the boots that are left, even though they are two left boots and full of holes. Murkin is hesitant, but in the end, he puts them on and goes to Madame la Générale Shevelitsyn's house. He is ridiculed by the servants, and his client cannot contain her laughter. The story shows the hardships faced by the poor, and the difficulties people go through to make ends meet. Read in English, unabridged.Show book
The words "dream interpretation" were and still are indeed fraught with unpleasant, unscientific associations. They remind one of all sorts of childish, superstitious notions, which make up the thread and woof of dream books, read by none but the ignorant and the primitive. Besides those who sneer at dream study, because they have never looked into the subject, there are those who do not dare to face the facts revealed by dream study. Dreams tell us many an unpleasant biological truth about ourselves and only very free minds can thrive on such a diet. Self-deception is a plant which withers fast in the pellucid atmosphere of dream investigation. Freud's theories are anything but theoretical. He was moved by the fact that there always seemed to be a close connection between his patients' dreams and their mental abnormalities, to collect thousands of dreams and to compare them with the case histories in his possession.Show book
A Study in Scarlet is an 1887 detective novel by Scottish author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The story marks the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, who would become the most famous detective duo in popular fiction. The book's title derives from a speech given by Holmes, a consulting detective, to his friend and chronicler Watson on the nature of his work, in which he describes the story's murder investigation as his "study in scarlet": "There's the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it.Show book
The year in 1801. In this section, all the principal characters are introduced. Mr Lockwood, the new tenant of Thrushcross Grange, arrives at Wuthering Height to meet his landlord, Heathcliff. The next day, he encounters Hareton, the orphaned son of Hindley Earnshaw, and Heathcliff's daughter-in-law, Cathy Linton. During the night, Lockwood is disturbed by the vexed ghost of Cathy's mother, Catherine - the story's heroine- at the window. Lockwood's cries of terror alert Heathcliff and the section ends with a distraught Heathcliff begging his beloved Catherine to return to him.Show book
The Scarlet Letter — published first in 1850, was in its time considered as an innovative and at the same time scandalous novel, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. This novel was strongly disapproved by the fellow countrymen of the author and banned by the Russian tsars.Now The Scarlet Letter is included in the school curriculum. The Scarlet Letter tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an affair and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. For the Puritan Boston in the 17th century New England, this is a terrible violation of morality. Hester is therefore paraded through the town, holding her baby and wearing the red letter “A” that marks an adulteress. But she continues to fight for what and whom she loves.The Scarlet Letter is the first novel of Nathaniel Hawthorne and the first work, in which the Old World has opened towards a new American literature. The novel was made into a film seven times in the United States, as well as in Spain, France and South Korea.Show book
Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian writer and philosopher who primarily wrote novels and short stories. He was a master of realistic fiction and is widely considered one of the world's greatest novelists.Tolstoy's literal interpretation of the teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him in later life to become a fervent Christian anarchist and anarcho-pacifist. His ideas on nonviolent resistance are represented in his short story "A Candle", which tells the story of a group of peasants suffering under a tyrannical overseer. His beatings are so severe as to be sometimes fatal and when he orders the serfs to plough the fields on Easter Sunday, a discussion begins as to whether they should assassinate the brutal steward. The peasants are divided on the subject. One group, led by Vasili are determined to murder the bully. Another group, swayed by Piotr, believe it is best to bear their sufferings rather than to risk their souls.But neither group can possibly foresee the strange and terrible events which occur when Easter Sunday arrives.Show book
