Verlag: Interactive Media
"Good Luck" by L. T. Meade is a delightful story of a young girl's journey through life's ups and downs. With determination and a positive outlook, she faces challenges, makes new friends, and discovers the power of kindness. This heartwarming tale emphasizes the importance of resilience and spreading good luck to those around us.
"Agnes Grey" is a novel written by Anne Brontë, the youngest of the Brontë sisters. The book was first published in 1847 under the pseudonym Acton Bell. It is a semi-autobiographical novel that provides a poignant and insightful portrayal of the life of a governess in the 19th century. The novel follows the life of the protagonist, Agnes Grey, who becomes a governess to support her financially struggling family. Agnes faces various challenges and hardships in her role as a governess, dealing with unruly and spoiled children as well as indifferent and sometimes cruel employers. The narrative explores themes of social class, morality, and the limited opportunities available to women in the Victorian era. Through Agnes's experiences, the novel offers a critical commentary on the treatment of governesses and the prevailing social norms of the time.Zum Buch
"Prelude" is a short story by Katherine Mansfield. It was first published by the Hogarth Press in July 1918, after Virginia Woolf encouraged her to finish the story. Mansfield had begun writing "Prelude" in the midst of a love affair she had in Paris in 1915. It was reprinted in Bliss and Other Stories (1920). The story was a compressed and subtler version of a longer work The Aloe, which was later published posthumously in full. The story is based on the Beauchamps' move to Karori, a country suburb of Wellington, in 1893. Alpers says that some readers may not pick up the numerous hints that Linda is pregnant.Zum Buch
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born in Mumbai, India on 30th December 1865. As was the custom in those days, he and his sister were sent back to England when he was 5. The ill-treatment and cruelty by the Portsmouth couple they boarded with Kipling said contributed to the onset of his literary life. At 16 he returned to India to work on a local paper where he was soon contributing and writing. It also exposed him to the issues of identity and national allegiance which pervade much of his work. In 1886, his ‘Departmental Ditties’, collection of verse appeared in print followed by 39 short stories for his newspaper over only 8 months. These were then published as ‘Plain Tales from the Hills’, shortly after his 22nd birthday. He continued his prolific pace of writing before being dismissed in a dispute and, taking his pay-off and the profits from the sale of some publishing rights, decided to return to London, travelling via Rangoon, Hong Kong, Japan and the United States, all the while writing articles, and arriving at Liverpool in October 1889. Over the next two years he saw further works published as books and in magazines, as well as a nervous breakdown for which he was prescribed a sea voyage, to South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and India. Happier times came with marriage to Caroline Starr Balestier in January 1892. The honeymoon began in Vermont and ended in Yokahama where they heard their bank had failed. They returned to Vermont and settled. Caroline was now pregnant and he was planning the ‘Jungle Books’. A failed arbitration between the US and England resulted in an argument between Caroline’s brother and Kipling, and then his arrest. At the hearing he was mortified by the exposure of his private life and after settling the matter they returned to England and life in Torquay. ‘Kim’ was published in 1902, and ‘Just So Stories for Little Children’, a year later. In 1907 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature with the citation “in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration which characterise the creations of this world-famous author”. When the Great War erupted, he scorned those who refused conscription. His son enlisted and was killed at the Battle of Loos in September 1915, at 18, an exploding shell had ripped his face apart. This death inspired Kipling’s writing thereafter, but the tragedy broke his life and by 1930 his prolific pen had almost ceased. Rudyard Kipling died on 18th January 1936 from a perforated duodenal ulcer. He was 70. His ashes are buried at Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey. In the Maltese Cat Kipling returns once more to India and the British Empire. A polo match is being played. The fierce competitive instincts of two social classes are fighting for dominance. All told through the voice of the Maltese Cat, the most cunning of the horses.Zum Buch
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (January 29, 1860 - July 15, 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who, though a doctor by profession, is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his best short stories are held in high-esteem by writers and critics. The following recording includes the short stories, "The Trousseau" and "Champagne (A Wayfarer's Story)."Zum Buch
The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, the novel depicts first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and Gatsby's obsession to reunite with his former lover, Daisy Buchanan. Inspired by a youthful romance Fitzgerald had with socialite Ginevra King, and the riotous parties he attended on Long Island's North Shore in 1922. During World War II, the novel experienced an abrupt surge in popularity when the Council on Books in Wartime distributed free copies to American soldiers serving overseas. This new-found popularity launched a critical and scholarly re-examination, and the work soon became a core part of most American high school curricula and a part of American popular culture. Numerous stage and film adaptations followed in the subsequent decades. Gatsby continues to attract popular and scholarly attention. Contemporary scholars emphasize the novel's treatment of social class, inherited versus self-made wealth, race, and environmentalism, and its cynical attitude towards the American dream. The Great Gatsby is widely considered to be a literary masterwork and a contender for the title of the Great American Novel. Narrated by Michael Ward.Zum Buch
Set during the French and Indian War, The Last of the Mohicans follows the perilous journey of two British sisters, Cora and Alice Munro, as they travel through the untamed wilderness of 18th-century America to reunite with their father, a British officer. Guided by the noble frontiersman Hawkeye and his Native American companions, Chingachgook and his son Uncas—the last members of the Mohican tribe—the group must evade treacherous enemies, including the vengeful Huron warrior Magua.The novel is a gripping tale of adventure, loyalty, and cultural conflict. It explores the tragic consequences of colonization and the fading way of life for Native American tribes. With its vivid descriptions of the American frontier and powerful themes of honor, identity, and sacrifice, The Last of the Mohicans has become a timeless classic in American literature.Zum Buch
