D'autres livres qui pourraient vous intéresser

• 

  The Sexton's Hero - From their...

  Elizabeth Gaskell

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Elizabeth Stevenson was born in Chelsea in London on 29th September 1810.  
  Both parents embedded their strong Unitarian beliefs into Elizabeth who rebelliously was often reluctant to display these religious convictions.  
  The early death of Elizabeth’s mother saw her sent away to be brought up by her maternal aunt in Knutsford, Cheshire.  
  Her father now remarried but Elizabeth spent most of her childhood in Cheshire away from her father and his new family but was supportive towards her half-siblings.  
  Elizabeth’s aunt encouraged her education and particularly to read and express herself through writing.   
  In 1828, her brother John, who worked in the merchant navy, disappeared on a journey to India. This disastrous loss depressed her father, and she went to his household to nurse him for the next year before he died.  
  In 1832, she fell in love with William Gaskell, a Unitarian minister like her father, and married him.  They settled in Manchester. This booming industrial city had a great impact on Elizabeth who felt the need to speak up for poor workers and their exploitation by large industrial companies. A collection of poems and short stories, ‘Sketches among the Poor’ appeared in 1837, co-authored by her husband.  Her first major work, under a pseudonym, was ‘Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life’ published in 1848. 
  During her career she worked continually with Charles Dickens and published much in his various magazines. With him she published ‘Lizzie Leigh’ in 1850 which dealt with the taboo subject of prostitution.  She was an excellent writer and impressed her many Victorian literary peers. Much of her writing reflects her work as a social critic highlighting the exploitation of the working class and the situation of women in society.  
  On 12th November 1865, Elizabeth Gaskell died in Holybourne, Hampshire, after suffering from a heart attack a month earlier.

  Voir livre

• 

  Great Expectations

  Charles Dickens

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Great Expectations is the thirteenth novel by Charles Dickens and his penultimate completed novel. It depicts the education of an orphan nicknamed Pip (the book is a bildungsroman, a coming-of-age story). It is Dickens's second novel, after David Copperfield, to be fully narrated in the first person. The novel was first published as a serial in Dickens's weekly periodical All the Year Round, from 1 December 1860 to August 1861. In October 1861, Chapman and Hall published the novel in three volumes.
  The novel is set in Kent and London in the early to mid-19th century and contains some of Dickens's most celebrated scenes, starting in a graveyard, where the young Pip is accosted by the escaped convict Abel Magwitch. Great Expectations is full of extreme imagery - poverty, prison ships and chains, and fights to the death - and has a colourful cast of characters who have entered popular culture. These include the eccentric Miss Havisham, the beautiful but cold Estella, and Joe, the unsophisticated and kind blacksmith. Dickens's themes include wealth and poverty, love and rejection, and the eventual triumph of good over evil. Great Expectations, which is popular both with readers and literary critics, has been translated into many languages and adapted numerous times into various media.

  Voir livre

• 

  Pudd'nhead Wilson

  Mark Twain

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  "Pudd'nhead Wilson" by Mark Twain is a bold, darkly comic novel that blends satire, mystery, and social critique into one of the author's most provocative works. Set in a small Missouri town along the Mississippi River, the story explores identity, race, and morality in pre–Civil War America through a gripping and unconventional narrative.
  
  The novel centers on David "Pudd'nhead" Wilson, a sharp-minded lawyer whose reputation is ruined early in life after a misunderstood remark leads the townspeople to dismiss him as a fool. Living on the margins of society, Wilson spends his time collecting fingerprints—an unusual hobby that later proves crucial to unraveling a shocking crime.
  
  Running parallel to Wilson's story is the powerful and unsettling tale of two boys—one born enslaved and the other born free—who are secretly switched at birth by a desperate mother. As they grow up, the consequences of this deception expose the absurdity and cruelty of racial classifications and social hierarchies. Twain uses this dramatic premise to challenge the idea that race determines character, intelligence, or worth.
  
  Part courtroom drama, part social satire, Pudd'nhead Wilson examines how prejudice, hypocrisy, and rigid social norms distort justice and human relationships. Twain's use of fingerprint evidence—one of the earliest appearances of forensic science in fiction—adds a surprising modern element to the story.
  
  Serious, unsettling, and often ironic, Pudd'nhead Wilson stands apart from Twain's more lighthearted novels, revealing his willingness to confront the moral failures of American society. It is an essential read for lovers of classic literature, social commentary, and thought-provoking fiction that remains strikingly relevant today.

  Voir livre

• 

  Before the Supreme Court - From...

  Lafcadio Hearn

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Lafcadio Hearn was born on the 27th June 1850 on the Ionian isle of Levkás in Greece to a British Army officer and a Greek Mother. 
  His father, fearing for his career prospects at being married to a Greek Orthodox wife, sent them to Dublin whilst he continued to advance his career with further postings.  Life there was difficult for mother and son.  His father returned, wounded and traumatised, when Lafcadio was three.  He annulled the marriage and she remarried but had to give up care of Lafcadio to her sister-in law.   
  After brief periods for Catholic education in England and France he emigrated to Ohio in the United States when he was 19, taking on a series of casual jobs before embarking on a career as a journalist, publishing poems and essays in Cincinnati.  It was whilst here that he began a side-line in translating, starting with Gautier and Flaubert.  He married in 1874 to a 20 year old African-American woman in violation of Ohio's anti-miscegenation law.  The marriage soon failed. 
  In 1877 he relocated to New Orleans to write on a variety of themes before picking up a two year assignment from Harper’s to write in the West Indies, where he also wrote his first novel. 
  In 1890 Harper’s sent him to Japan.  Here he left journalism and took the remarkable decision to become a schoolteacher in the north of Japan.   Enraptured by the culture he was driven to explain it in various Western publications to those who had little, if any, knowledge of its culture.  Within the year he had fallen in love with, and married, a high-born Japanese lady, together they would have four children.   
  In 1895 he became a Japanese national and took the name Koizumi Yakumo, Koizumi being his wife’s family name. 
  The following few years, whilst a professor of Literature at the Imperial University of Japan, were his most creative and admired period.   
  Lafcadio Hearn died of heart failure on the 26th of September 1904, in Tokyo, Japan shortly before leaving to deliver a series of lectures at Cornell University in New York State.  He was 54.

  Voir livre

• 

  Sherlock Holmes: The Beryl Coronet

  Arthur Conan Doyle

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Dive into the captivating mystery of The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet, the eleventh part of the Sherlock Holmes Short Story collection, narrated by Jake Urry. In this intriguing tale by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a distraught banker named Alexander Holder seeks Holmes's help after a precious coronet is damaged and a valuable beryl is stolen. With suspicion falling on Holder's own family, Holmes must navigate a web of secrets and lies to uncover the true culprit. 
  Jake Urry's compelling narration breathes life into the tension and drama of this high-stakes case, making this audiobook a must-listen for both dedicated Sherlock Holmes fans and newcomers. Experience the brilliance of Holmes's detective work and the twists and turns of The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet with this new recording.

  Voir livre

• 

  The Complete Works of O Henry

  O. Henry

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  What if a single twist could change everything?
  
  The Complete Works of O. Henry brings together the full collection of one of the most beloved short-story writers in American literature. Famous for his clever plots, surprise endings, and deep compassion for ordinary people, O. Henry captured life's humor, irony, and quiet beauty in stories that remain unforgettable.
  
  Set in bustling cities and humble neighborhoods, these stories explore love and sacrifice, hope and hardship, chance and fate. With warmth and wit, O. Henry reveals how small moments can carry profound meaning—and how humanity often shines brightest in unexpected places.
  
  Clear, engaging, and emotionally resonant, his stories continue to delight readers of all ages.
  
  Inside this eBook, you'll explore:
  
  All short stories by O. Henry in one complete collection
  
  Famous works such as The Gift of the Magi and The Last Leaf
  
  Heartfelt tales of love, irony, and redemption
  
  A cornerstone of American short fiction
  
  Read in classrooms, shared during holidays, and cherished worldwide, O. Henry's stories remain timeless examples of storytelling at its finest.
  
  Expect the unexpected. Buy now and enjoy the complete works of O. Henry.

  Voir livre