Publisher: Delhi Open Book
Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was born on the 2nd February 1882 in Dublin into a middle-class family, and the eldest of ten surviving siblings Admired as a brilliant student he briefly attended the Christian Brothers-run O'Connell School before excelling at the Jesuit schools of Clongowes and Belvedere. From there he went on to attend University College Dublin from 1898, studying English, French and Italian In 1902, Joyce was now in his early twenties, and went to Paris to study Medicine but soon abandoned his teachings. Back in Dublin to attend to his dying Mother he met Nora Barnacle. They bonded immediately into a life-long match. Together they decided to emigrate to Europe. The couple lived in Trieste, Rome, Paris, and finally Zürich where Joyce pursued a variety of jobs and ventures to supplement his literary pursuits but none of these paid off. After publishing a poetry volume, ‘Chamber Music’, in 1907, his short story collection ‘The Dubliners’, in 1914, helped establish his talent in the rapidly changing world. Although far from home Joyce’s literary heart and works were set in his recollections of Dublin. Characters are close resemblances of family and friends and indeed enemies. His landmark work ‘Ulysses’, published in 1922, is set in the streets and alleyways of the city as it parallels Homer’s Odyssey in a variety of styles including its famed stream of consciousness. His pen continued to produce classics of the order of ‘A Portrait of the Artist as A Young Man’ and ‘Finnegan’s Wake’ together with several volumes of poetry and a play ‘The Exiles, in 1918. On the 11th January 1941, Joyce underwent surgery in Zürich for a perforated duodenal ulcer. The next day he fell into a coma. On the 13th after a brief period of lucidity in which he called for his wife and son he passed. He was 58.Show book
A nightingale overhears a student complaining that his professor's daughter will not dance with him, as he is unable to give her a red rose. The nightingale visits all the rose-trees in the garden, and one of the white roses tell her that there's a way to produce a red rose, but only if the nightingale is prepared to sing the sweetest song for the rose all night, and sacrifice her life to do so. Seeing the student in tears, the nightingale carries out the ritual, and impales herself on the rose-tree's thorn so that her heart's blood can stain the rose. The student takes the rose to the professor's daughter, but she again rejects him because another man has sent her some real jewels, and "everybody knows that jewels cost far more than flowers." The student angrily throws the rose into the gutter, returns to his study of metaphysics, and decides not to believe in true love anymore.Show book
A Peruvian treasure, a dagger of Inca gold, a murdered man in a New York apartment and a curse that the police are not equipped to investigate. Reeve created Craig Kennedy, the scientific detective, and worked the same seam for some eighty stories; here the archaeology is the McGuffin and the laboratory is the point — the arrow poison in this one is run to earth in the laboratory. Fifty-seven plates, among them Winslow Homer and George Bellows, gather the light and labour of the period around this tale of gold, greed and the laboratory.Show book
The Old Nurse's Story by Elizabeth Gaskell is offered here in a clean English digital edition prepared for fluent ebook reading. The work stands within classics and gives modern readers direct access to a public-domain classic with navigable structure and a restrained typographic presentation. The opening pages establish the book's atmosphere with this first movement: You know, my dears, that your mother was an orphan, and an only child; and I daresay you have heard that your grandfather was a clergyman up in Westmoreland, where I come from. I was just a girl in the village school, when, one day, your grandmother came in to ask the mistress if there was any schol This edition is suited to readers who want a reliable, uncluttered version of the text for study, rediscovery, and sustained reading.Show book
This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. “The Charwoman’s Shadow” is a beautiful tale about an apprentice sorcerer who discovers that his master is unscrupulously using stolen shadows. He decides to free an elderly lady from this captivity. The book is one of the pioneering works in the fantasy genre, published before it was officially named. The story is set in Spain during the Golden Age. The main character, Ramon, seeks knowledge of turning lead into gold to provide a dowry for his sister. In exchange for his shadow, he receives a substitute that behaves unexpectedly. When his sister asks for a love elixir, Ramon decides to learn that instead of metal transmutation. His journey leads him to a mysterious old woman whose shadow was stolen. Together, they attempt to reclaim her shadow and break the curse. The book blends elements of historical fantasy with a fairy-tale world.Show book
‘The 12 Days of Christmas’ as interpreted by Emmy-nominated actor Geoffrey Giuliano is a breath of fresh air for this charming Christmas classic. Here is a holiday single that will delight young and old and rekindle the flame of wonder for the beauty of family Christmases’ gone by. A humorous imaginative rendering by one of today's most celebrated actors ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’ promises to become - yet again- a classic part of everyone's holiday.Show book
