Other books that might interest you

• 

  The Scarlet Letter - The...

  Nathaniel Hawthorne

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  This inspired audiobook tells the story of Hester Prynne, a young woman who conceives a child while her husband is missing at sea. The Puritan Elders of the New England settlement of Boston, where she lives, condemn her to wear a scarlet letter A to signify her adultery. She refuses to name her lover, and he too keeps his silence, but with a terrible cost. The tale is prefaced with an account of the Salem Custom-house where Nathaniel Hawthorne was working when he began writing The Scarlet Letter.  
   
  Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associated with that town.

  Show book

• 

  History of Tom Jones a Foundling...

  Henry Fielding

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  A foundling of mysterious parentage brought up by Mr. Allworthy on his country estate, Tom Jones is deeply in love with the seemingly unattainable Sophia Western, the beautiful daughter of the neighboring squire though he sometimes succumbs to the charms of the local girls. When Tom is banished to make his own fortune and Sophia follows him to London to escape an arranged marriage, the adventure begins. A vivid Hogarthian panorama of eighteenth-century life, spiced with danger and intrigue, bawdy exuberance and good-natured authorial interjections, Tom Jones is one of the greatest and most ambitious comic novels in English literature.
  BOOK 1: An author ought to consider himself, not as a gentleman who gives a private or eleemosynary treat, but rather as one who keeps a public ordinary, at which all persons are welcome for their money. In the former case, it is well known that the entertainer provides what fare he pleases; and though this should be very indifferent, and utterly disagreeable to the taste of his company, they must not find any fault; nay, on the contrary, good breeding forces them outwardly to approve and to commend whatever is set before them.

  Show book

• 

  The Christening

  D H Lawrence

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  'The Christening' was written by D H Lawrence in 1911. Lawrence is at his best in this story, taken from the scenes of his childhood and based on characters he knew intimately. The theme of the unmarried mother, and the frictions the situation caused in the family and in the local community were further explored in his play ‘The Daughter-in-Law’. In this story, the emphasis moves around each member of the family and the visiting clergyman as the tensions in family life are released.

  Show book

• 

  Not Good Enough - A Simon Iff...

  Aleister Crowley

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Edward Alexander Crowley was born on 12th October 1875 to wealthy parents in Royal Leamington Spa in Warwickshire. 
   
  He was educated at Malvern College, Tonbridge School, Eastbourne College and finally Trinity College, Cambridge where he focused on his passions of mountaineering and poetry and published several volumes. 
   
  Life for Crowley was to abandon his parents’ Christian faith and instead to inject himself into Western esotericism.  In 1898, he joined the esoteric Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and was trained in ceremonial magic before studying both Hindu and Buddhist practices in India. 
   
  On his Egyptian honeymoon in 1904 he claimed contact with an entity―Aiwass―who gave him the sacred Book of the Law which served as the basis for the Thelema religion where he identified as its prophet.  During the Great War, which he spent in the United States, he claimed to be working for British Intelligence but by the 1920s he had decamped to pursue a libertine lifestyle in Sicily, and in the ensuing scandals was evicted by the Italian Government. 
   
  He divided the following two decades between France, Germany, and England, and the continuing promotion of Thelema. 
   
  During his life he gained widespread notoriety for his drug use, his bisexuality, and his alarming views on society.  In short, polite society frowned on his ways, his thoughts and his influence but to many others his stance had much of value.  Even after death he was a darling for the 60’s counterculture but his influence has since waned.   
   
  His literary works were both prolific and covered many topics.  In the early part of his career he published many poetry books, even plays, before his darker and more forceful works came to dominate his output. 
   
  Aleister Crowley died on 1st December 1947 at Hastings in England. He was 72.

  Show book

• 

  The Diary of a Nobody

  George Grossmith, Weedon Grossmith

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  This “jewel at the heart of English comic literature” chronicles the daily fortunes and misfortunes of a middle-age, middle-class clerk (William Trevor, The Mail on Sunday).   Since its original publication in 1892, The Diary of a Nobody has become a much-loved classic. It is a fictional man’s dissection of the everyday drama of his life as an office worker in a London firm. With dry wit, the authors step into the character of Charles Pooter as he navigates work life with not-so-respectful young coworkers and family life with his charming wife, Carrie, and impetuous son, Lupin. From home repairs gone wrong (painting the tub red), to the comings and goings of his friends Cummings and Gowings, Pooter painstakingly shares intimate details of his existence, with the (not completely absurd) hope of maybe someday having his memoir published. An ongoing tally of the good jokes he makes shares space with descriptions of grievous insults to his person, party mishaps, the annoying behavior of everyone around him, and Lupin’s on-again off-again employment and engagement status. The Diary of a Nobody gives everyone a reason to laugh—and recognize themselves in Pooter’s droll prose.  “The funniest book in the world.” —Evelyn Waugh, author of Brideshead Revisited  “There’s a universality about Pooter that touches everybody . . . [he] fits into the tradition of absurd humour that the British do well, which started with Jonathan Swift and runs through Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear to Monty Python.” —Jasper Fforde, Time Out  “Pooter himself is as gentle as you could wish, a wonderful character, genuinely lovable. The book is beautifully constructed.” —Andrew Davies, The Herald

  Show book

• 

  The Merchant of Venice

  William Shakespeare

  • 0
  • 3
  • 0

  A conflict between a nobleman and a moneylender drives this suspenseful comedy filled with twists and turns.Bassanio, a Venetian nobleman and reckless spender, has found himself in financial straits, making it difficult for him to court the woman he loves, Portia. His wealthy friend who usually bails him out, Antonio, will not have funds available until his merchant ships come in. Borrowing from Shylock, the Jewish moneylender, and using Antonio as a guarantor, appears to be Bassanio’s only option if he wants to win Portia’s hand. Shylock, at first reluctant to get involved with the anti-Semitic Antonio, finally offers to waive interest on the loan—if he can take a pound of Antonio’s flesh should the money not be repaid on time. But when Bassanio’s ships are reported lost at sea, danger awaits, in this masterpiece by the Bard, William Shakespeare.

  Show book