Other books that might interest you

• 

  Frankenstein

  Mary Shelley

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Written by Mary Shelley (1797-1851), Frankenstein is the best-selling horror classic about an experiment that goes horribly wrong, and a monster who swears revenge on his creator. Swiss student Victor Frankenstein uncovers the secret to bringing life to what is lifeless, and in assembling body parts to create a monster, ultimately sets the stage for his own destruction and that of everything he loves when the monster is rejected by society. Penned as part of a competition between Mary Shelley, Lord Byron, and John Polidori to see who could write the best horror story, Frankenstein is resonant with themes of love, friendship, hubris, and fear. It presents the epic battle between man and monster, showing that man is not always capable of controlling that which he creates.

  Show book

• 

  Darkness

  Anton Chekhov

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  A young peasant finds himself confronting a doctor at a hospital with the hopes of convincing him to release his brother. The doctor is not pleased and refuses to release him saying the peasant needs to go to the authorities. He is disappointed by his statement and unsure of where to go. On his way out he comes to meet an old man just outside the hospital gate. He reveals his problem to him and the old man directs him exactly where he needs to head. The peasant is conflicted because it is a long journey, but after a few moments he decides to head out with the hope of saving his brother.
  .

  Show book

• 

  Farewell Summer

  Ray Bradbury

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The master of American fiction returns to the territory of his beloved classic, Dandelion Wine—a sequel 50 years in the making  
  Some summers refuse to end . . . 
   October 1st, the end of summer. The air is still warm, but fall is in the air. Thirteen-year-old Douglas Spaulding, his younger brother Tom, and their friends do their best to take advantage of these last warm days, rampaging through the ravine, tormenting the girls . . . and declaring war on the old men who run Green Town, IL. For the boys know that Colonel Quartermain and his cohorts want nothing more than to force them to put away their wild ways, to settle down, to grow up. If only, the boys believe, they could stop the clock atop the courthouse building. Then, surely, they could hold onto the last days of summer . . . and their youth. 
   But the old men were young once, too. And Quartermain, crusty old guardian of the school board and town curfew, is bent on teaching the boys a lesson. What he doesn’t know is that before the last leaf turns, the boys will give him a gift: they will teach him the importance of not being afraid of letting go.

  Show book

• 

  The Crux

  Charlotte Perkins Gilman

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  "In place of happy love, lonely pain. In place of motherhood, disease. Misery and shame, child. Medicine and surgery, and never any possibility of any child for me."
  First published in her magazine The Forerunner, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Crux is an emotive tale on the nuances of female independence, social expectation and love in early 20th century America.
  Following an all-female group who move west to open a boarding house for men, The Crux focuses on the experience of Vivian ― and her desire for the undesirable. Deeply in love with Morton, a charismatic young man infected with both syphilis and gonorrhoea, Vivian's expected journey through her 'marriage' years is abruptly turned upside down.
  Torn by her personal intuition, the advice provided by her female companions and the knowledge that Morton will never give her healthy children, Vivian is faced with a permanent choice ― to forfeit love for the benefit of future generations.
  Balancing female and male perspectives on illness, personal preservation and nationalism, The Crux tracks Vivian's path through heart break, emotional development and female camaraderie.
  As an allegory for Gilman's own branch of utopian feminism, The Crux is a story of sacrifice and partnership deliberation within the framework of 20th century disease hysteria, eugenic ideology and developing modernism.
  Often omitted from her writing canon, The Crux is an integral aspect to understanding not only Gilman's own writing ― but the history of feminism as a whole.
  "The Crux is essentially a seminar in biological, feminine and social correctness. As stated in the original Forerunner publication, the novel was intended for a specific set of people - young and impressionable women primarily, followed by men and anyone else willing to listen. The Crux, in its barebones, is a nationalist parable for all of America to heed."
  from Ambrose Kelly's new introduction to The Crux
  * * *
  Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860 – 1935) was an American humanist, novelist, writer of short stories, poetry and nonfiction, and a lecturer for social reform. She was a utopian feminist and served as a role model for future generations of feminists because of her unorthodox concepts and lifestyle.

  Show book

• 

  Lord Jim

  Joseph Conrad

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Jim is a young and naive clerk on a cargo ship plying Asian waters. He harbors romantic fantasies of adventure and heroism which are promptly scuttled one night when the ship collides with an obstacle and begins to sink. Stripped of his seaman's license, convinced of his own cowardice, Jim sets out on a tragic and transcendent search for redemption.

  Show book

• 

  The Broad Highway - A Romance of...

  John Jeffery Farnol

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The Broad Highway is a novel by English author Jeffery Farnol.  It is a best-seller, and it was the number one selling fiction book in the United States of the year. 
  Much of the novel is set in Sissinghurst, a small village South East England in Kent. Our hero, Peter Vibart, an Oxford graduate with no means of support but for 10 guineas he has inherited, sets out on a walking tour of the Kent countryside. Along the way, he meets many quaint and adoring characters as well as a few ne’er-do-wells, meets with several disasters and triumphs, and eventually he meets "The Woman," who leads him to even more disasters and triumphs.
  An Author's Republic audio production.

  Show book