Publisher: Charles River Editors
Gustave Flaubert was a prominent French writer in the 19th century. Flaubert, who wrote the classic novel Madame Bovary, was a significant contributor to literary realism. This edition of A Simple Soul includes a table of contents.
As Maxim and Lizaveta, a young married couple, drive home from church on Easter, Maxim finds the joy and beauty in everything. As the newly married couple drives home on their first Easter together, carrying a blessed Easter cake, they see a Cossack at the side of the road. They soon learn that he is sick and too weak to make it home, and he asks for some food if they have any. Maxim immediately wants to share the Easter cake with him; however, his wife refuses to allow this, ripping the cake away from her husband. She feels the cake is holy and should be cut at home properly. Maxim apologizes to the Cossack, and he and Lizaveta go home. But from this point forward, Maxim is haunted by his wife's unkindness and the unkindness shown to the sick Cossack. By the end of the story, his guilt causes a change in their relationship and their lives.Show book
This is heralded as the very first mystery novel. Collins, in his great work, created the guidelines for the genre as we know it today: a fabulous diamond stolen, everyone in the house is suspected, three mysterious Indians sworn to protect the jewel at all costs, the upstairs/downstairs tension from the servants, and a brilliant detective who is eccentrically fond of roses.Show book
"Hop-Frog or the Eight Chained Orangutans" is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1849. The title character, a person with dwarfism taken from his homeland, becomes the jester of a king particularly fond of practical jokes. Taking revenge on the king and his cabinet for the king's striking his friend and fellow dwarf Trippetta, he dresses the king and his cabinet as orangutans for a masquerade. In front of the king's guests, Hop-Frog murders them all by setting their costumes on fire before escaping with Trippetta. Critical analysis has suggested that Poe wrote the story as a form of literary revenge against a woman named Elizabeth F. Ellet and her circle.Show book
Crabbed Age ad Youth is a short story by Robert Louis Stevenson: There is a strong feeling in favour of cowardly and prudential proverbs. The sentiments of a man while he is full of ardour and hope are to be received, it is supposed, with some qualification. But when the same person has ignominiously failed and begins to eat up his words, he should be listened to like an oracle. Most of our pocket wisdom is conceived for the use of mediocre people, to discourage them from ambitious attempts, and generally console them in their mediocrity.Show book
E. Nesbit’s beautiful story of The Railway Children has faired well in many excellent and faithful adaptations on stage and screen. It is always refreshing however to return to the original book. The story has a charm and a depth which raises it, like all the best children’s literature, to something which can be appreciated by all ages. Bobbie, Phyllis and Peter, through their adventures on the railway begin to come of age as they face thrilling adventures and meet new friends. Nothing is sugar coated by Nesbit; there is real danger, there are real human conflicts to be navigated and over it all hangs the dark cloud of their missing father. Head Stories Audio presents The Railway Children narrated by Simon Hester. With original music.Show book
Not satisifed simply reliving his adventures down the river with Huck and Jim, Tom Sawyer finds himself thirsting once again for adventure and excitement. So, when Tom, Huck, and Jim find themselves unwitting passengers aboard a hot-air balloon set to circumnavigate the world, Tom takes the opportunity to bask in the excitement of unplanned world travel. Throughout their travels across the ocean, through the deserts of Africa, and even a visit to the Sphinx, Tom, Huck, and Jim experience the wider world through the colorful lenses of Mark Twain's most enduring characters. This lesser-known third novella of Twain's Tom and Huck Series is a delightful, if unusual, addition to the cannon. Told in Twain's inimitable style, Tom Sawyer Abroad picks up where The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn left off, and takes you in an entirely different direction.Show book
