Other books that might interest you

• 

  The Gambler

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The Gambler is a psychologically probing novel concerning the gambling episodes, tangled love affairs, and complicated lives of Alexis Ivanovitch, a young gambling addict; Polina Alexandrovna, the woman he loves; a pair of French adventurers; and other characters. Narrated by Alexis, this short novel is based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's own experiences as a compulsive gambler. Like so many characters in Dostoevsky's novels, Alexis is trying to break through the wall of the established order and the human condition itself, but instead he is drawn into the vortex of the roulette wheel.This version of The Gambler is the translation by C. J. Hogarth.

  Show book

• 

  In the House of Suddhoo...

  Rudyard Kipling

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The story was published in the Civil and Military Gazette on April 30 1886 under the title "Section 420, I.P.C." (Indian Penal Code), in the first Indian edition of Plain Tales from the Hills in 1888, and in subsequent editions of that collection.Suddhoo, an old man in an old wooden house in Lahore, is very anxious about his son, who is gravely ill with pleurisy in Peshawar. A seal-cutter, who lives in the house, sees this as a means of extorting money from Suddhoo. He secretly gets a friend in Peshawar to telegraph him daily accounts of the son's health, and undertakes to save him by magic, on payment of many rupees.

  Show book

• 

  The Marquise

  George Sand

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  George Sand was the pseudonym of Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin (1804-1876), and was a much admired French novelist and memoirist. She is equally well known for her much-publicized romantic affairs with a number of celebrities including Frédéric Chopin and Alfred de Musset. It was the way Sand turned her own love affairs into novels and stories packed with vehemence of spirit which endeared her to her audience.In The Marquise, Sand displays her instinctive feeling for the true sense of the "conte" or short story. She neither analyses nor explains the character of the old noblewoman who fell in love with an actor, she merely suggests the strength of passion in the cold, cynical, aged beauty. She leaves the listener's imagination vibrating with its own images thrown up by the hints she gives. A truly exceptional short story.

  Show book

• 

  The Picture Of Dorian Gray

  Oscar Wilde

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The Picture of Dorian Gray" is Oscar Wilde's classic tale of the moral decline of its title character, Dorian Gray. When Dorian has his portrait painted by Basil Hallward and wishes that he would stay young while his picture changes, his wish comes true. In exchange for this Dorian gives up his soul and as he ages the bad deeds that he commits are reflected in his painting and not him. "The Picture of Dorian Gray", arguably Wilde's most popular work, was considered quite scandalous when it was first published in the late 1800s in Victorian England.

  Show book

• 

  The Juryman

  John Galsworthy

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  John Galsworthy was born in Kingston Upon Thames in Surrey, on August 14th 1867.  The family was wealthy and well established.  John was schooled at Harrow and New College, Oxford before training as a barrister. But law was not for him. 
  Galsworthy first published in 1897 with a collection of short stories entitled “The Four Winds”.  Initially he published as 'John Sinjohn' but after the death of his father in 1904 he published as John Galsworthy. 
  Much of his early work was as Plays for which he dealt with social issues and the class system. From there it was but a short step to the works for which he won the Nobel Prize and for which he is so well remembered; The Forsythe Sage trilogy. 
  Although sympathetic to his characters, he reveals their insular, snobbish, and somewhat greedy attitudes and suffocating moral codes. In his writings he campaigns for prison reform, women's rights, animal welfare, and the opposition of censorship as well as a recurring theme of an unhappy marriage from the women’s side. 
  John Galsworthy died from a brain tumour at his London home, Grove Lodge, Hampstead on January 31st 1933. In accordance with his will he was cremated at Woking with his ashes then being scattered over the South Downs from an aeroplane.

  Show book

• 

  Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr...

  Robert Louis Stevenson

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is a gothic novella by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson first published in 1886. The work is also known as The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, or simply Jekyll & Hyde. It is about a London lawyer named Gabriel John Utterson who investigates strange occurrences between his old friend, Dr Henry Jekyll, and the evil Edward Hyde. The novella's impact is such that it has become a part of the language, with the very phrase "Jekyll and Hyde" entering the vernacular to refer to people with an unpredictably dual nature: usually very good, but sometimes shockingly evil instead.Gabriel John Utterson and his cousin Richard Enfield reach the door of a large house on their weekly walk. Enfield tells Utterson that months ago he saw a sinister-looking man named Edward Hyde trample a young girl after accidentally bumping into her. Enfield forced Hyde to pay £100 to avoid a scandal. Hyde brought them to this door and provided a cheque signed by a reputable gentleman (later revealed to be Doctor Henry Jekyll, a friend and client of Utterson). Utterson is disturbed because Jekyll recently changed his will to make Hyde the sole beneficiary. Utterson fears that Hyde is blackmailing Jekyll. When Utterson tries to discuss Hyde with Jekyll, Jekyll turns pale and asks that Hyde be left alone.

  Show book