The Turn of the Screw

Henry James

Beschreibung

Widely recognized as one of literature's most gripping ghost stories, this classic tale of moral degradation concerns the sinister transformation of two innocent children into flagrant liars and hypocrites. The story begins when a governess arrives at an English country estate to look after Miles, aged ten, and Flora, eight. At first, everything appears normal but then events gradually begin to weave a spell of psychological terror.
One night a ghost appears before the governess. It is the dead lover of Miss Jessel, the former governess. Later, the ghost of Miss Jessel herself appears before the governess and the little girl. Moreover, both the governess and the housekeeper suspect that the two spirits have appeared to the boy in private. The children, however, adamantly refuse to acknowledge the presence of the two spirits, in spite of indications that there is some sort of evil communication going on between the children and the ghosts.

Verfügbar seit: 26.01.2018.

Weitere Bücher, die Sie mögen werden

Dead Souls

Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol

Regarded as the first great masterpiece of Russian literature, Dead Souls mixes realism and symbolism for a vivid and highly original portrait of Russian life. Chichikov, a mysterious stranger, arrives in a provincial town with a bizarre but seductive proposition for local landowners. He proposes to buy the names of their serfs who have died but who are still registered on the census, saving their owners from paying tax on them. But what collateral will Chichikov receive for these souls ? Full of larger-than-life Dickensian characters rogues and scoundrels, landowners and serfs, conniving petty officials, and the wily antihero Chichikov Dead Souls is a devastating comic satire on social hypocrisy.

Zum Buch

The Coffin Merchant

Richard Middleton

Richard Barham Middleton (1882-1911) was an English poet and author who is remembered mostly for his supernatural tales and ghost stories, in particular 'The Ghost Ship', 'The Coffin Merchant' and 'On the Brighton Road'.'The Coffin Merchant' is the peculiar tale of Eustace Reynolds, who is handed a handbill by a stranger one day. The flyer reads: "You will soon be wanting a coffin! At 606 Gray's Inn Road, your order will be attended to with civility and despatch. Call and see us!"Eustace is curious enough to go to see the coffin merchant, and what happens next is unexpected, to say the least.

Zum Buch

A Hunger Artist

Franz Kafka

A Hunger Artist is a short story by Franz Kafka. The protagonist, a hunger artist who experiences the decline in appreciation of his craft, is an archetypical creation of Kafka: an individual marginalized and victimized by society at large. The title of the story has been translated also to "A Fasting Artist" and "A Starvation Artist". A Hunger Artist explores the familiar Kafka themes of death, art, isolation, asceticism, spiritual poverty, futility, personal failure and the corruption of human relationships. There is a sharp division among critical interpretations of "A Hunger Artist". Most commentators concur that the story is an allegory, but they disagree as to what is represented. Some critics, pointing to the hunger artist's asceticism, regard him as a saintly or even Christ-like figure. In support of this view they emphasize the unworldliness of the protagonist, the priest-like quality of the watchers, and the traditional religious significance of the forty-day period. Other critics insist that A Hunger Artist is an allegory of the misunderstood artist, whose vision of transcendence and artistic excellence is rejected or ignored by the public. This interpretation is sometimes joined with a reading of the story as autobiographical. According to this view, this story, written near the end of Kafka's life, links the hunger artist with the author as an alienated artist who is dying. The moral of the story, says literature critic Maud Ellmann, is that it is not by food that we survive but by the gaze of others and "it is impossible to live by hunger unless we can be seen or represent doing so".

Zum Buch

About Chesterton and Belloc...

H. G. Wells

Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 - 13 August 1946) was an English writer. Prolific in many genres, he wrote dozens of novels, short stories, and works of social commentary, history, satire, biography and autobiography. His work also included two books on recreational war games. Wells is now best remembered for his science fiction novels and is often called the "father of science fiction", along with Jules Verne and the publisher Hugo Gernsback.ABOUT CHESTERTON AND BELLOC: It has been one of the less possible dreams of my life to be a painted Pagan God and live upon a ceiling. I crown myself becomingly in stars or tendrils or with electric coruscations (as the mood takes me), and wear an easy costume free from complications and appropriate to the climate of those agreeable spaces.

Zum Buch

Pudd'nhead Wilson

Mark Twain

At the beginning of Pudd'nhead Wilson a young slave woman, fearing for her infant's son's life, exchanges her light-skinned child with her master's.  From this rather simple premise Mark Twain fashioned one of his most entertaining, funny, yet biting novels.  On its surface, Pudd'nhead Wilson possesses all the elements of an engrossing nineteenth-century mystery:  reversed identities, a horrible crime, an eccentric detective, a suspenseful courtroom drama, and a surprising, unusual solution.  Yet it is not a mystery novel.  Seething with the undercurrents of antebellum southern culture, the book is a savage indictment in which the real criminal is society, and racial prejudice and slavery are the crimes.  Written in 1894, Pudd'nhead Wilson glistens with characteristic Twain humor, with suspense, and with pointed irony:  a gem among the author's later works

Zum Buch

The Coal War - A Novel

Upton Sinclair

The scion of a coal-mining empire sides against his family in the bloody fight to unionize Colorado’s mines in this gripping sequel to King Coal The son of a prominent coal magnate, Hal Warner is horrified by the dangerous working conditions, long hours, and starvation wages endured by the men who toil in his family’s mines. He tries to rouse other members of his privileged class to a similar state of indignation, but soon faces a much more severe test of his progressivism. When a labor group organizes a massive strike and the mining companies respond with punishing brutality, Hal’s commitment to the cause of reform becomes a matter of life and death.  The Coal War is Upton Sinclair’s searing follow-up to King Coal. Based on events surrounding the Ludlow Massacre of 1914, it dramatizes one of the most significant conflicts between labor and capital in American history and offers an unflinching look at the shocking realities of a miner’s life in the early twentieth century. Published posthumously, this powerful and tragic novel is one of Sinclair’s finest. This ebook has been authorized by the estate of Upton Sinclair.

Zum Buch