Altri libri che potrebbero interessarti

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  The New Paris - From their pens...

  Johann von Goethe

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  The bookshelves of European literature are incredible collections that have gathered together centuries of very talented authors.  From this continent their fame spread and whilst among their number many are now forgotten or neglected their talents endure.  Among them is the immortally talented Johann von Goethe.

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  The Tragedy of a Comic Song -...

  Leonard Merrick

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  The bookshelves of British literature are incredible collections that have gathered together centuries of very talented authors.  From these Isles their fame spread and whilst among their number many are now forgotten or neglected their talents endure.  Among them is Walter Besant.

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  Gobseck

  Honoré de Balzac

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  In Gobseck, Honoré de Balzac delivers a powerful and penetrating exploration of wealth, obsession, and the hidden machinery of society. Set in post-Napoleonic Paris, this masterful novella—part of Balzac's monumental collection La Comédie Humaine—examines the corrosive power of money and the moral compromises people make in pursuit of status and survival.
  
  At the center of the story stands Jean-Esther van Gobseck, an aging and enigmatic moneylender whose life revolves around one unwavering principle: gold rules the world. Cold, calculating, and emotionally detached, Gobseck has built his fortune by lending money to desperate aristocrats and ambitious social climbers, watching with clinical fascination as debt exposes their secrets, weaknesses, and hypocrisies. To him, human emotions—love, honor, loyalty—are mere illusions, all ultimately subject to the authority of money.
  
  The narrative unfolds through the perspective of a young lawyer, Derville, who recounts Gobseck's life and his dealings with the aristocratic Countess de Restaud. As the Countess spirals into financial and moral ruin to sustain her extravagant lifestyle and illicit passions, Gobseck becomes both witness and silent judge. Through this tragic entanglement, Balzac reveals the fragile façade of high society and the devastating consequences of greed, vanity, and unchecked desire.
  
  Yet Gobseck is more than a portrait of a miser. It is a profound meditation on capitalism, power, and human nature. Gobseck himself is a paradox—both predator and philosopher, villain and observer. Though he accumulates immense wealth, he lives in stark austerity, hoarding treasures he never uses, revealing the emptiness at the heart of his obsession. His life poses unsettling questions: Is wealth power, security, or prison? Can a person truly possess riches without being possessed by them?
  
  Balzac's sharp realism, vivid characterizations, and incisive social commentary make Gobseck a timeless study of ambition and morality. With psychological depth and keen insight into the financial and emotional transactions that govern human relationships, this novella remains strikingly relevant in a world still driven by profit and power.
  
  Dark, intelligent, and unflinchingly honest, Gobseck is a compelling exploration of the price of wealth—and the cost of losing one's soul in its pursuit.

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  George Silverman's Explanation

  Charles Dickens, Dominic Gerrard

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  George Silverman’s Explanation (published in The Atlantic in 1868) is one of Charles Dickens’ rarer short stories. Here the author immerses himself entirely in his character of George Silverman: addressing the reader in a dramatic monologue in which he is reticent, perhaps even unwilling to open up to us, but at the same time compelled to unburden his heart.  
  So deeply does Dickens embody the role of Silverman that in a letter to an editor he writes that: 'I feel as if I had read something (by somebody else) which I should never get out of my head …’ 
  This tale is an indictment against poverty as powerful as you will find in any of Dickens’ larger works. It is also a biting satire against the 'daring ignorance' and little 'meannesses' found in many non-conformist movements. Above all it is a deeply affecting examination of how far a childhood of of both want and punishing religious control can impact a man’s self-worth and future happiness. 
  Narrated by Dominic Gerrard 
  Cover Art by Léna Gibert

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  The Apocryphal Acts of Paul...

  Bernhard Pick

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  The full title of this book is, The Apocryphal Acts of Paul, Peter, John, Andrew and Thomas, published in 1909. As early as the second century, numerous legends concerning the fates of the Christian apostles were in circulation. These Acts, widely regarded as originating circa 150 CE, are among the earliest accounts still in existence of the lives, preaching and martyrdoms of the apostles Paul, Peter, John, Andrew and Thomas. They are written in a fantastic and romantic style, and although they were influential in later Christian conceptions of these apostles, they are historically worthless as biographies. They do, however, reflect many of the beliefs of earliest, pre-Nicene Christianity. 
  Bernhard Pick translated the most complete versions of the Apocryphal Acts available to him in 1909. Although more complete manuscripts of these Acts have since been discovered, Pick was sometimes working with incomplete texts. Several large lacunae, or gaps in the text, are present in Pick’s translation, and this Librivox recording has attempted to make these lacunae obvious without being intrusive. The Acts of Andrew, in particular, is fragmentary. Also included in this recording are Bernhard Pick’s introductions to each Acts, which reflect the state of scholarly opinion at the time of publication. (summary by JoeD)

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  Narrative of A Gordon Pym

  Edgar Allan Poe

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  The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, written and published in 1838, is the only complete novel by the American writer Edgar Allan Poe. The novel is set between 1827 and 1828 and relates the tale of the young Arthur Gordon Pym, who stows away aboard a whaler called the Grampus. Various adventures and misadventures befall Pym, including shipwreck, mutiny, and cannibalism, before he is saved by the crew of the Jane Guy. Aboard this vessel, Pym and a sailor named Dirk Peters continue their adventures farther south. Docking on land, they encounter hostile, black-skinned natives before escaping back to the ocean. The novel ends abruptly as Pym and Peters continue toward the South Pole.
  The story starts out as a fairly conventional adventure at sea, but it becomes increasingly strange and hard to classify. Poe, who intended to present a realistic story, was inspired by several real-life accounts of sea voyages, and drew heavily from J. N. Reynolds and referenced the Hollow Earth theory. He also drew from his own experiences at sea. Analyses of the novel often focus on possible autobiographical elements as well as its portrayal of race and the symbolism in the final lines of the work.

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