Publisher: Delboy
“The Wind in the Willows” is a young adult novel by Kenneth Graham which follows the adventures of the anthropomorphic animals Mole, Rat, Badger, Toad, and their friends. When the novel begins, Mole is at home doing spring cleaning, and he is quite bored with it.
The Top 10 – Born in London – An Introduction The teeming metropolis of London has a long history of innovation. Amongst its most gilded are the literary talents of its world-famous authors. From Anthony Trollope and Daniel Defoe to Mary Shelley and Virginia Woolf and many others, have come iconic works that still to this day underpin our culture. Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere. In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author? The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme. Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature. Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made. If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something.Show book
When Roger and Virginia Lindhal enroll their son Gregg in Mrs. Alt's Los Padres Valley School in the mountains of Southern California, their marriage is already in deep trouble. Then the Lindhals meet Chic and Liz Bonner, whose two sons also board at Mrs. Alt's school. The meeting is a catalyst for a complicated series of emotions and traumas, set against the backdrop of suburban Los Angeles in the early fifties. The buildup of emotional intensity and the finely observed characterizations are hallmarks of Philip K. Dick's work. This is a realistic novel filled with details of everyday life and skillfully told from three points of view. It is powerful, eloquent, and gripping.Show book
A young sea captain tests his mettle off the coast of Siam in this nineteenth-century psychological tale from the author of Heart of Darkness. When his sailing ship is anchored in the Gulf of Siam—now Thailand—a first-time sea captain questions his ability to command. Anxious and eager for his crew to like him, he takes the first shift of the night watch. Alone in the dark, he encounters a mysterious man swimming alongside the vessel. The captain allows him to board and learns that the stranger, Leggatt, was first mate on another ship and he claims to have accidentally murdered a man. Torn between arresting Leggatt for his crime and secretly harboring him in his own cabin, the young captain faces a choice more difficult than any he has ever known. Forced to determine Leggatt’s fate, the captain must consider the safety of his crew and the ramifications his decision will have on his own future. As in his classic works Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim, author Joseph Conrad crafts a gripping read, endowing a nautical adventure with questions of morality and self-discovery.Show book
Chichikov, a mysterious stranger, arrives in a provincial town and visits a succession of landowners to make each a strange offer. He proposes to buy the names of dead serfs still registered on the census, saving their owners from paying tax on them, and to use these "souls" as collateral to reinvent himself as a gentleman. In this ebullient masterpiece, Nikolai Gogol created a grotesque gallery of human types, from the bear-like Sobakevich to the insubstantial fool Manilov, and, above all, the devilish con man Chichikov. Dead Souls, Russia's first major novel, is one of the most unusual works of nineteenth-century fiction and a devastating satire on social hypocrisy.This version of Dead Souls is the translation by C. J. Hogarth.Show book
It is the natural right of every human being to be happy to escape all the miseries of life. Happiness is the normal condition, as natural as the landscapes and the seasons. It is unnatural to suffer and it is only because of our ignorance that we do suffer. Happiness is the product of wisdom. To attain perfect wisdom, to comprehend fully the purpose of life, to realize completely the relationship of human beings to each other, is to put an end to all suffering, to escape every ill and evil that afflicts us. Perfect wisdom is unshadowed joy.Show book
Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere. In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author? The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme. Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature. Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made. If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something. Whether Central Europe is part of East or West or both it is undeniable that it is also unto itself. Its stories and literature are amongst the boldest narratives anywhere. These authors have helped established the incredible literary heritage of all our ages. 01 - The Top 10 - The Central Europeans - An Introduction 2 - The New Paris by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 3 - A Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka 4 - A Legend of Old Egypt by Boleslaw Prus 5 - Gods in Exile by Heinrich Heine 6 - The Chamomile Drops by Jaroslav Hasek 7 - The Criminal from Lost Honour by Friedrich Schiller 8 - The Bundle of Letters by Moritz Jokai 9 - Vampirismus or Aurelia by E T A Hoffman 10 - The Vampire by Jan Neruda 11 - Wake Not the Dead by Johann Ludwig TieckShow book
