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  History of Pendennis The...

  W.M. Thackeray

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  The author plunders his own past to create the character of Arthur Pendennis and the world in which he lives: from miserable schoolboy to striving journalist, from carefree Oxbridge to the high (and low) life of London. The result is a panoramic blend of people, action and background. The true ebb and flow of life is caught and the credibility of Pen, his worldly uncle, the Major, and many of the other characters, extends far beyond the pages of the novel. Pendennis is a rich portrait of England in the 1830s and 1840s.

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  The House on Moon Lake

  Francesca Duranti

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  In a novel both “lively [and] dreamlike,” a translator’s obsession leads him into the literary spotlight—and toward the line between fantasy and reality (Los Angeles Times).   Fabrizio Garrone is an impoverished but aristocratic translator who has been living a life of quiet desperation in Milan. He feels underappreciated and tormented by a persistent sense of having been cheated by life. But when he reads about a lost Viennese novel—The House on Moon Lake—in the journals of a late esteemed literary critic, he dreams that this project will put him on the cultural and literary map, and finally bring him the accolades that have eluded him.   Fabrizio journeys to Vienna, tracks down the book, and translates it, and in so doing embarks on a nightmarish search for the truth behind the events depicted in it, as well as for clues about the tragic life of its forgotten author. When asked to write a short biography of the novelist, Fabrizio must invent details missing from the last three years of his subject’s life. The resulting biography is a publishing phenomenon. But the repercussions for Fabrizio are profound: he becomes the willing victim of a person he had thought to be fictional.

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  Russian Short Story The - Volume...

  Nikolai Gogol, IVAN TURGENEV,...

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  The Russian novel has a reputation that is immense, both in narrative and in length.  Unquestionably though the ideas, themes and characters make many novels rightly revered as world class, as icons of literature. 
   
  Perhaps an easier way to enjoy a wider selection of the Russian heritage, with its varied and glorious literary talents, is with the short story.  These gems sparkle and beguile the mind with their characters and narrative, exploring facets of society and the human condition that more Western authors somehow find more difficult to navigate, or to explore, explain and relate to.   
   
  The Russian short story is, in many respects, in a genre of its own.  It is at its captivating best whether it’s an exploration of real-life experiences, through fantasy and fables and on to total absurdity. 
   
  In a land so vast it is unsurprising that it is a world almost unto itself. Cultures and landscapes of differing hues are packed together bound only by the wilful bonds and force of Empire. 
   
  The stories in this collection traverse the decades where one might be a serf under an absolute monarch, and the reality of that was pretty near to slavery, into an emancipation of sorts in the fields, or towns under the despotic will of landowners and the rich into the upheavals of Empire and then the overthrow of the ruling class and its replacement by the communists, who promised equality for all and delivered a society where the down-trodden remained the lowest yet vital cog of the state machine and its will.  
   
  Whilst Tolstoy, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Pushkin and Chekhov are a given in any Russian collection we also explore and include Andreyev, Korolenko, Turgenev, Blavatsky and many others to create a world rich and dense across a sprawling landscape of diverse people, riddled with the class and unfairness in perhaps some of the most turbulent times that Russia has ever experienced. 
   
  01 - The Russian Short Story - Volume 2 - An Introduction 
  02 - Diary of a Madman by Nikolai Gogol 
  03 - Taman by Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov 
  04 - The Jew by Ivan Turgenev 
  05 - The Rendezvous by Ivan Turgenev 
  06 - A Strange Story by Ivan Turgenev 
  07 - Mumu by Ivan Turgenev 
  08 - The District Doctor by Ivan Turgenev 
  09 - The Dream of a Ridiculous Man by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 
  10 - The Beggar Boy at Christ's Christmas Tree by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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  Treasure Island (Part 1: The Old...

  Robert Louis Stevenson

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  Part 1: The Old Buccaneer from Treasure Island:
  "For sheer storytelling delight and pure adventure, Treasure Island has never been surpassed. From the moment young Jim Hawkins first encounters the sinister Blind Pew at the Admiral Benbow Inn until the climactic battle for treasure on a tropic isle, the novel creates scenes and characters that have fired the imaginations of generations of readers. Written by a superb prose stylist, a master of both action and atmosphere, the story centers upon the conflict between good and evil - but in this case a particularly engaging form of evil. It is the villainy of that most ambiguous rogue Long John Silver that sets the tempo of this tale of treachery, greed, and daring. Designed to forever kindle a dream of high romance and distant horizons, Treasure Island is, in the words of G. K. Chesterton, 'the realization of an ideal, that which is promised in its provocative and beckoning map; a vision not only of white skeletons but also green palm trees and sapphire seas.' G. S. Fraser terms it 'an utterly original book' and goes on to write: 'There will always be a place for stories like Treasure Island that can keep boys and old men happy.'

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  Black Beauty

  Anna Sewell

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  This well known classic, an autobiography of the horse Black Beauty, beginning with his carefree days as a colt on an English farm with his mother, to his difficult life pulling cabs in London, to his happy retirement in the country. Along the way, he meets with many hardships and recounts many tales of cruelty and kindness. It has been cited as "the most influential anticruelty novel of all time" by Bernard Unti. The novel was an immediate best seller and is one of best selling books of all time. 
  Narrated by Michael Ward.

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  Hansel & Gretel's Big Adventure...

  Joel Thielke

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  The tale of Hansel and Gretel is well known, but Sleep Stories brings it to you in an exciting new light. Welcome to the new Sleep Stories adaptation of the Brothers Grimm's story, Hansel and Gretel. Sleep Stories are the perfect sleep aid for listeners of all ages. Just lay back and relax, and enjoy a new twist on classic tales. And just listen to the soothing voice of narrator Meg Saricks as she guides you gently to sleep.  
  This sleep story has a sleep induction and introduction to help guide you into a deep sleep. Hansel and Gretel's Big Adventure follows a brother and sister who are left in the woods during a famine. The two must fend for themselves and outsmart a wicked witch living in a gingerbread house.

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