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  Dance of Death

  August Strindberg

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  The Dance of Death is a play in two parts by the Swedish dramatist August Strindberg, written in 1900. It depicts the dissolution of a marriage between Edgar, an artillery captain, and Alice, a former actress. Increasingly isolated in their fort-like house, they manipulate and bait each other, until the unexpected arrival of Curt, Alice's cousin. His presence creates a tense triangular relationship that escalates throughout Part One, and is complicated with the introduction of two of the trio's children, Allan and Judith, in Part Two.

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  Twelve Dancing Princesses The -...

  Brothers Grimm

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  The Twelve Dancing Princesses is a fairytale by the Brothers Grimm about some beautiful daughters that somehow manage to sneak out of their bedrooms every night to go dancing. Their father is desperate to find out what they are up to and enlists the help of potential suitors to find out.

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  A Doll's House

  Henrik Ibsen

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  Ibsen's "A Doll's House," written two years after "The Pillars of Society," became a sensation and is now widely considered his most famous play. Required reading in many secondary schools and universities, the play was highly controversial upon its release due to its sharp criticism of 19th Century marriage norms. Despite following the structure of a traditional well-made play, the play breaks convention by ending with a discussion instead of an unraveling in its final act. Although Ibsen himself denied it, "A Doll's House" is often referred to as the first true feminist play.

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  Arcadian London (Unabridged)

  Charles Dickens

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  Charles Dickens was a writer and social critic who created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity.
  ARCADIAN LONDON: The retreat into which I have withdrawn myself, is Bond-street. From this lonely spot I make pilgrimages into the surrounding wilderness, and traverse extensive tracts of the Great Desert.

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  Bobok - From their pens to your...

  Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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  Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky was born in Moscow on 11th November, 1821 to distinguished multi-ethnic parents from a Lithuanian background.  
  His childhood years were at the family home in hospital grounds which also contained an orphanage, an insane asylum and a cemetery for criminals.  The young Fyodor often disobeyed his father by talking to the ill in the hospital gardens.   
  His health was compromised at age 9 when he experienced his first epileptic fit. By the time he was a teenager both parents had died and he was now enrolled in a military academy where he graduated and eventually became a Lieutenant in 1842.  He left military service the next year. 
  In 1846 he published his first novel ‘Poor Cow’ to great literary acclaim.  His next was unable to emulate that success but his short stories helped provide an income.  Life as an author was definitely difficult. As he began his next work he was arrested and incarcerated for treason and participation in the political and literary Petrashevsky Circle. Although the case was weak and unjustified he was sentenced to 4 years of hard labour followed by 5 years of military service in a Siberian regiment.  
  Despite the undoubted hardships and setbacks in his life, and whether they helped or hindered his writing, his talents produced many exceptional works of literature including ‘Crime and Punishment’, ‘The Idiot’ and ‘The Brothers Karamazov’.   
  Dostoevsky’s ability to get under the skin of his characters and show the inner workings of their mind was hugely influential and ahead of its time.  Interwoven with this was the influence of the broader social, spiritual and political forces at work in a person's psyche.   
  Fyodor Dostoevsky struggled financially and remained in poor health for much of his adult life.  He died from a lung haemorrhage on 9th February, 1881.

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  A Tragic Actor

  Anton Chekhov

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  "A Tragic Actor" by Anton Chekhov follows the story of Masha, a young and impressionable woman who falls in love with the titular character Fenogenov, a struggling actor. Despite her father's disapproval, Masha decides to run away with Fenogenov and marry him. However, her idealized view of her husband quickly crumbles as she discovers his lack of stability and success. In a desperate moment, Masha must turn to her father for help, leading to a confrontation between father and daughter as well as a reflection on the consequences of following one's heart over practicality. The story highlights themes of love, sacrifice, and the complexities of family relationships.

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