Publisher: e-artnow
War and Peace is regarded as one of the central works of world literature. The novel charts the history of the French invasion of Russia, the period in the beginning of the 19th century that leads to the invasion, and the impact of the Napoleonic era on Tsarist society. The story is told through the relationships and histories of five Russian aristocratic families.
“Enthralling . . . Boyne’s novel can stand comparison with William Golding’s Rites of Passage . . . Mutiny is storytelling at its most accomplished.” —The Independent (UK) Internationally bestselling author John Boyne has been praised as “one of the best and original of the new generation of Irish writers” by the Irish Examiner. With Mutiny, he’s created an eye-opening story of life—and death—at sea. Fourteen-year-old pickpocket John Jacob Turnstile has just been caught red-handed and is on his way to prison when an offer is put to him—a ship has been refitted over the last few months and is about to set sail with an important mission. The boy who was expected to serve as the captain’s personal valet has been injured and a replacement must be found immediately. Given the choice of prison or a life at sea, John soon finds himself on board, meeting the captain, just as the ship sets sail. The ship is the Bounty, the captain is William Bligh, and their destination is Tahiti. Their journey, however, will become one of the most infamous in naval history. Mutiny is the first novel to explore all the events relating to the Bounty’s voyage, from the long passage across the ocean to their adventures on the island of Tahiti and the subsequent forty-eight-day expedition toward Timor. This vivid retelling of the notorious mutiny is packed with humor, violence, and historical detail, while presenting an intriguingly different portrait of Captain Bligh and Mr. Christian than has ever been presented before. “The writing grows into a mesmerizing tour-de-force . . . this is a remarkable and compelling piece of storytelling.” —The Irish TimesShow book
Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel Passing is hailed today as a significant literary work of Harlem Renaissance, though for several decades it, like all of her works, was out of print. As history rights a wrong and recommits Larsen’s name to memory, it is beneficial to look at the other writings she published over her short career, collected here in Beyond Passing: The Further Writings of Nella Larsen. Contained within are her autobiographical novel Quicksand, and three short stories “Freedom,” “The Wrong Man,” and “Sanctuary.” With a growing number of titles under its Magna Releases banner, CSRC Storytelling promotes and provides positivity, power and presence in print, restoring literary classics across genres and making them newly accessible to modern readers. This edition of Nella Larsen’s Passing is a CSRC Storytelling Magna Release.Show book
Mayer André Marcel Schwob was born in Chaville, Hauts-de-Seine, France on 23rd August 1867 into a cultivated Jewish family. As a child he devoured the works of Poe and Stevenson in French and then again in English. His attachment to the bizarre and dark was already forming. His education at the Lycée of Nantes earned him the 1st Prize for Excellence. In 1881, he was in Paris with his maternal uncle to study at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. Schwob quickly developed his multilingual abilities and then studied philology and Sanscrit at the École pratique des hautes études before completing his military service in Vannes with the artillery. After completing a Bachelor of Arts in 1888 he became a professional journalist and worked for the Phare de la Loire, the Événement and L'Écho de Paris. The 1890’s marked his establishment as a brilliant writer with the publication of six short story collections. He fell ill in 1896 with a chronic, incurable intestinal disorder. He also suffered recurring bouts of influenza and pneumonia. Intestinal surgery was given several times, at first with success but, by 1900, after two more surgeries, he was told that nothing more could be done for him. Schwob now existed on kefir and fermented milk. By the turn of the century, despite failing health, and often too ill to write, he embarked on several long travels, including to Vailima in the South Pacific where his literary hero Stevenson had died. Schwob was regarded as a symbolist writer and a ‘precursor of Surrealism’. He wrote over a hundred short stories, journalistic articles, essays, biographies, literary reviews and analysis, translations and plays. Marcel Schwob died on 26th February 1905 of Pneumonia. He was 37.Show book
Anything But Yes is the true story of a young woman's struggle to defend her identity in the face of relentless attempts to destroy it. In 1749, eighteen-year-old Anna del Monte was seized at gunpoint from her home in the Jewish ghetto of Rome and thrown into a convent cell at the Casa dei Catecumeni, the house of converts. With no access to the outside world, she withstood endless lectures, threats, promises, isolation and sleep deprivation. If she were she to utter the simple word "yes," she risked forced baptism, which would mean never returning to her home, and total loss of contact with any Jew—mother, father, brother, sister—for the rest of her life. Even in Rome, very few people know the story of the Ghetto or the abduction of Jews, the story of popes ever more intent on converting every non-Catholic living in the long shadow of the Vatican. Young girls and small children were the primary targets. They were vulnerable, easily confused, gullible. Anna del Monte was different. She was strong, brilliant, educated, and wrote a diary of her experiences. The document was lost for more than 200 hundred years, then rediscovered in 1989. Anything But Yes is also based on Davidow's extensive research on life in the eighteenth-century Roman ghetto, its traditions, food, personalities, and dialect.Show book
Liberté, Egalité, Sororité It’s 1885. When murderous circumstances force two widows--Annie & Euphémie---and the precocious Auguste to flee their French village, a quartet of missionaries from the Church of Solemn stow them away within the Statue of Liberty’s head on a steamer that arrives in New York after a deadly tempest. From NY, the Solemnites usher the refugees to the staid village of Solemn, Indiana, where pleasure is forbidden. The village embraces the refugees while at the same time avoiding certain delicate subjects, including the relationship between the two widows, as well as Auguste’s endless blasphemies. These delicate subjects become unavoidable when Solemn is tapped to host the All-Tent Revival. The revival calls itself a “multi-denominational marketplace for God.” More accurate would be: “a time-bomb composed of two-hundred rival factions of late-19th-century American crack-pot religious sects.” Guess who sets off that bomb. With its cast of obedient romantics, mystical nutbags, and adorable cynics, Sister Liberty is the rollicking, thunderous introductory volume to The Stables Family Chronicles. WARNING! THIS AUDIOBOOK CONTAINS DESCRIPTIONS OF: whistling, allegorical situations, lesbians, apostasy, and a pleasure wheel. Also: Eleven instances of the word fuck.Show book
Hilary Durwood writes his father a letter of confession from the London gaol in which he awaits execution. Eager for glory as an explorer in the further reaches of the Empire he is duped into undertaking a semi-mythical mission, in semi-mythical lands. After many adventures and setbacks he returns to London destitute, dismayed at having killed someone, and seeking revenge against the Gentleman Explorer who set him up. Meanwhile a serial killer, The Slasher, stalks the streets and inevitably their paths will cross… Hilary has survived dangerous islanders who are intent on eating human flesh, a huge cat with a wooden leg, a giant centipede, and a man who is determined to taste every animal on the planet. He has been fed by birds bringing hallucinogenic berries and held up the crumbling Tower of Ectha. And now Hilary must write his final letter and contemplate the nature of murder and of guilt. This dark comedy thriller is a page-turning and riotous engagement with the notions and myths of Empire, the nature of reality, the power of narrative and the gullibility of those who wish to believe, even in the face of the truth. 'Crisp and memorable language' – Sheenagh Pugh, LIVEJOURNALShow book
