Publisher: Charles River Editors
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu was a famous Irish writer best known for Gothic and mystery fiction. Le Fanu was the most prominent ghost-story writer in the 19th century. This edition of The Room in the Dragon Volant includes a table of contents.
The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon is a fascinating, detailed account of Japanese court life in the closing years of the 10th century. Written by a lady of the court at the height of Heian culture, this book enthrals with its lively gossip, witty observations and subtle impressions. Lady Shonagon was an erstwhile rival of Lady Murasaki, whose novel, The Tale of Genji, fictionalized the elite world Lady Shonagon so eloquently relates. Featuring reflections on royal and religious ceremonies, nature, conversation, poetry and many other subjects, The Pillow Book is an intimate look at the experiences and outlook of the Heian upper class. Sei Shonagon, born around 965, was lady-in-waiting to Empress Sadako and between the early 990s and 1002, she kept these ‘personal notes', recording what she saw and encountered with wit, accuracy and intelligence. There is immense variety here. There are more than 320 entries, each with its own heading: ‘Birds', Trees', ‘When His Excellency The Chancellor Had Departed', ‘Unreliable Things'.... Some entries are very brief, no more than ‘asides', and there are even concise lists. Some reflect the sensitive Japanese response to nature or patterned silk, and there are longer narratives of incidents involving prominent political figures. Her singular humour is often to the fore: ‘Masahiro really is a laughing stock. I wonder what it is like for his parents and friends.' But there are also entries which reflect a considerate nature as shown in ‘One of Her Majesty's Wet-Nurses'.While Arthur Waley's classic translation remains well-known it was abridged, and this Ukemi recording presents the translation by Ivan Morris, the first unabridged English version. It is fluent and lively, and reflects the sparkling character of Sei Shonagon's writing which, in the 21st century, belies its ancient origins and its academic standing as one of the great works of Japanese literature. This is perfectly captured by in Georgina Sutton's reading.Show book
Our Mutual Friend, written in 1864-1865, is the last novel completed by Charles Dickens and is one of his most sophisticated works, combining savage satire with social analysis. It centres on, in the words of critic J. Hillis Miller, quoting the book's character Bella Wilfer, "money, money, money, and what money can make of life".Most reviewers in the 1860s continued to praise Dickens's skill as a writer in general, but did not review this novel in detail. Some found the plot both too complex and not well laid out. The Times of London found the first few chapters did not draw the reader into the characters. In the 20th century, however, reviewers began to find much to approve in the later novels of Dickens, including Our Mutual Friend. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, some reviewers suggested that Dickens was, in fact, experimenting with structure, and that the characters considered somewhat flat and not recognized by the contemporary reviewers were meant rather to be true representations of the Victorian working class and the key to understanding the structure of the society depicted by Dickens in the novel.Show book
Victor-Marie Hugo (26 February 1802 - 22 May 1885) was a French poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, and dramatist of the Romantic movement. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote abundantly in an exceptional variety of genres: lyrics, satires, epics, philosophical poems, epigrams, novels, history, critical essays, political speeches, funeral orations, diaries, and letters public and private, as well as dramas in verse and prose.BOOK 7: PARENTHESIS: Such being the case, and a convent having happened to be on our road, it has been our duty to enter it. Why? Because the convent, which is common to the Orient as well as to the Occident, to antiquity as well as to modern times, to paganism, to Buddhism, to Mahometanism, as well as to Christianity, is one of the optical apparatuses applied by man to the Infinite.Show book
Persuasion follows the romance of Anne Elliot and naval officer Frederick Wentworth. They were happily engaged until Anne’s friend, Lady Russell, persuaded her that Frederick was “unworthy.” Now, eight years later, Frederick returns, a wealthy captain in the navy, while Anne’s family teeters on the edge of bankruptcy. They still love each other, but their past mistakes threaten to keep them apart.An Author's Republic audio production.Show book
This Audiobook contains the following works :The Castle of Otranto—Horace Walpole The Damned (Là-bas)—Joris-Karl HuysmansThe Legend of Sleepy Hollow—Washington Irving Frankenstein—Mary Shelley The Picture of Dorian Gray—Oscar Wilde Dracula—Bram StokerThe Turn of the Screw—Henry JamesThe Dunwich Horror—H.P Lovecraft The Masque of the Red Death—Edgar Allan PoeThe Phantom of the Opera—Gaston LerouxShow book
Ten years after the school at Plumfield was founded, Jo’s boys – including wanderer Dan, sailor Emil and musician Nat – are grown up and discovering more about the world. But life after childhood can be confusing and frightening, and it is Jo and the warm-hearted March family who can comfort and guide the boys when they need it the most. Jo’s Boys is the sequel to Louisa May Alcott’s beloved work, Little Men.Show book
