The Awakening and Selected Short Stories (Legend Classics)

Kate Chopin

Sinopsis

“The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth.”
The Awakening follows Edna Pontellier, a resident of coastal Grand Isle of Louisiana, in her late twenties, who has a quintessential set-up for a content housewife. Indeed, her husband makes good money, and her daily routine should gleefully hinge on the two children, but, Edna is neither a self-sacrificing mother, nor a devoted wife. Instead, she is gradually awoken to rebel against this ‘perfect set-up’. Edna finds herself in the middle of two extremes. On one hand, she finds selfless Madame Ratignolle, who is a model wife. On the other, there is dejected Mademoiselle Reisz, who pursues her artistic aspiration in solitude. While taking bold decisions and carving her niche, she explores her sexuality with a womanizer, Alcee and an intimate understanding with a young man, Robert Lebrun. Will this awakening predetermine her ultimate happiness or signpost personal tragedy? Will the duality of the ‘outward existence’ and ‘inward life’ be reconciled for Edna to signify her emancipation?
This short novel is widely acknowledged to do both, encapsulating the features of fin de siècle realism in its linear narrative, and anticipates literary modernism of the early twentieth century. Edna’s defiance of the American alternative of Victorian ‘Angel in the House’ is reminiscent of such classics as Anna Brontë’s Tenant of the Wildfell Hall. The Awakening also procures modernist works where the heroines look for the self - namely, Mrs Dalloway, Their Eyes Were Watching God and The Bell Jar. The condensed and intense prose style gives the novel a cryptic charm in line with Fitzgerald’s classic, The Great Gatsby. Besides, vivid natural symbolism of water, birds and the moon are the calling card of the novel that enhances its level of ambiguity and multivalence.
The Legend Classics series:Around the World in Eighty DaysThe Adventures of Huckleberry FinnThe Importance of Being EarnestAlice's Adventures in WonderlandThe MetamorphosisThe Railway ChildrenThe Hound of the BaskervillesFrankensteinWuthering HeightsThree Men in a BoatThe Time MachineLittle WomenAnne of Green GablesThe Jungle BookThe Yellow Wallpaper and Other StoriesDraculaA Study in ScarletLeaves of GrassThe Secret GardenThe War of the WorldsA Christmas CarolStrange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr HydeHeart of DarknessThe Scarlet LetterThis Side of ParadiseOliver TwistThe Picture of Dorian GrayTreasure IslandThe Turn of the ScrewThe Adventures of Tom SawyerEmmaThe TrialA Selection of Short Stories by Edgar Allan PoeGrimm Fairy TalesThe AwakeningMrs DallowayGulliver’s TravelsThe Castle of OtrantoSilas MarnerHard Times

Disponible desde: 30/09/2022.

Otros libros que te pueden interesar

Apache Ambush (Stonecroft Saga...

B.N. Rundell

The south country beckoned, and Gabe and Ezra answered. 
It was nothing more than a re-supply trip to Santa Fe, but an encounter with the Tabeguache Ute and the Caputa Ute changed the course of their journey. It wasn’t until they came upon the massacre at a Mexican Hacienda and the subsequent attack from a rampaging band of renegade Jicarilla Apache, that they would uncover a prospering trade in captives and slaves that would raise the ire of both Gabe and Ezra. 
When a garrison of Mexican Soldados and one particular officer intervenes, things are not as they would first appear. Their purpose was derailed when an unexpected ambush by Apache would prompt a rescue expedition. When all is complicated by the intervention of slave traders, Comancheros, and the perpetrators masking as Mexican Soldados, only then does a simple re-supply journey become a vengeance quest, and all the blood that would flow would not be Apache! 
This historical western series will have you gasping for air and capture your heart.

Ver libro

The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet

Arthur Conan Doyle

The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet, one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is the eleventh of the twelve stories collected in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The story was first published in Strand Magazine in May 1892.A banker, Mr. Alexander Holder of Streatham, makes a loan of £50,000 to a socially prominent client, who leaves a beryl coronet—one of the most valuable public possessions in existence—as collateral. Holder feels that he must not leave this rare and precious piece of jewellery in his personal safe at the bank, and so he takes it home with him to lock it up there. He is awakened in the night by a noise, enters his dressing room, and is horrified to see his son Arthur with the coronet in his hands, apparently trying to bend it. Holder's niece Mary comes at the sound of all the shouting and, seeing the damaged coronet, faints dead away. Three beryls are missing from it. In a panic, Mr. Holder travels to see Holmes, who agrees to take the case.The case against Arthur seems rather damning, yet Holmes is not convinced of his guilt. Why is Arthur refusing to give a statement of any kind? How could Arthur have broken the coronet (even Holmes, who has exceptionally strong hands, cannot do it) and without making any noise? Could any other people in the household be involved, such as the servants, or Mary? Could some visitor, such as the maid's wooden-legged suitor, or Arthur's rakish friend Sir George Burnwell, have something to do with what happened to the coronet? The failure to resolve the case will result in Mr. Holder's dishonour, and a national scandal.Famous works of the author Arthur Conan Doyle's: "A Study in Scarlet", "Silver Blaze", "The Hound of the Baskervilles", "The Yellow Face", "A Scandal in Bohemia", "The Red-Headed League", A Case of Identity", "The Boscombe Valley Mystery", "The Five Orange Pips", "The Man with the Twisted Lip", "The Blue Carbuncle", "The Speckled Band", "The Engineer's Thumb", "The Noble Bachelor", "The Beryl Coronet", "The Copper Beeches" and many more.

Ver libro

Aloysha the Pot - From their...

Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy was born in 1828 in the Russian province of Tula to a wealthy noble family. As a child, he had private tutors but he showed little interest in any formal education. When he went to the University of Kazan in 1843 to study oriental languages and law, he left without completing his courses. Life now was relaxed and idle but with some writing also taking place. Gambling debts forced an abrupt change of path and he joined the army to fight in the Crimean War. He was commended for his bravery and promoted but was appalled at the brutality and loss of life. He recorded these and other earlier experiences in his diaries which formed the basis of several of his works.
In 1852 ‘Childhood’ was published to immediate success and was followed by ‘Boyhood’ and ‘Youth’.
His experience in the army and the horrors he witnessed resulted in ‘The Cossacks’ in 1862 and the trilogy ‘Sevastopol Tales’. After the war he travelled around Europe, visiting London and Paris and meeting such luminaries as Victor Hugo and Charles Darwin.
It was now that Tolstoy began his masterpiece, ‘War and Peace’. Published in 1869 it was an epic work that changed literature. He quickly followed this with ‘Anna Karenina’.
These successes made Tolstoy rich and helped him accomplish many of his dreams but also brought problems as he grappled with his faith and the lot of the oppressed poor. These revolutionary views became so popular that the authorities now kept him under surveillance.
He led a life of asceticism and vegetarianism and put his socialist ideals into practice by establishing numerous schools for the poor and food programmes. He also believed in giving away his wealth, which caused much discord with his wife.
His writing continued to bring forth classics such as ‘The Death of Ivan Ilyich’ and many brilliant and incisive short stories such as ‘How Much Land Does A Man Need’.
In 1901 Tolstoy was excommunicated from the Church and controversially deselected for the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Whilst undertaking a pilgrimage by train in October 1910 with his daughter Aleksandra he caught pneumonia in the nearby town of Astapovo. Leo Tolstoy died on November 9th, 1910, he was 82.

Ver libro

War and Peace - Audiobook

Leo Tolstoy, Classic Audiobooks,...

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy is a monumental novel that intertwines the lives of aristocratic families with the sweeping events of the Napoleonic Wars. Spanning years of political upheaval, personal transformation, and moral reflection, the novel explores the tension between individual freedom and historical inevitability. Through the eyes of unforgettable characters like Pierre Bezukhov, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, and Natasha Rostova, Tolstoy presents an epic portrait of Russian society in one of its most turbulent eras.At once a love story, a philosophical inquiry, and a historical chronicle, War and Peace challenges the very meaning of fate, power, and human agency. With its powerful psychological depth and richly detailed narrative, the novel remains one of the greatest achievements in world literature, offering timeless insights into the human condition.

Ver libro

Transition of Juan Romero The...

H. P. Lovecraft

The story involves a mine that uncovers a very deep chasm, too deep for any sounding lines to hit bottom. The night after the discovery of the abyss the narrator and one of the mine's workers, a Mexican called Juan Romero, venture together inside the mine, drawn against their will by a mysterious rhythmical throbbing in the ground. Romero reaches the abyss first and is swallowed by it. The narrator peers over the edge, sees something - "but God, I dare not tell you what I saw!" and loses consciousness. The next morning, the narrator and the deceased Romero are both found in their bunks. Other miners swear that neither of them left their cabin that night. The chasm has vanished as well.

Ver libro

Emma (Volume 3)

Jane Austen

Emma (Volume 3), by Jane Austen, is a novel about youthful hubris and the perils of misconstrued romance. The story takes place in the fictional village of Highbury and the surrounding estates of Hartfield, Randalls, and Donwell Abbey and involves the relationships among individuals in those locations consisting of "3 or 4 families in a country village".

Ver libro