Maison d'édition: Legorreta
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace A historical novel set in ancient Judea, it follows Judah Ben-Hur, a nobleman turned slave, seeking revenge against a Roman adversary. His life transforms after encountering Jesus Christ, emphasizing themes of redemption, forgiveness, and spiritual awakening against the backdrop of Roman oppression.
A compelling anthology of Black voices from England, America, Africa and the Caribbean, from people who lived, worked, campaigned and travelled in Britain from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library.Professor Hakim Adi, shortlisted for the Wolfson history prize, draws on a variety of published works in Black Voices on Britain, all of which describe powerful experiences: James Gronniosaw and his family endure poverty, illness and unemployment; Mary Prince is driven out by her cruel owners and turns to London charities for help; Frederick Douglass, on a lecture tour around Britain, reveals how the Christian clergy built churches with slave-owners’ money; and William Wells Brown gives his impressions of England as he travels around a country which welcomes him more readily than America. These and other voices offer a fascinating and thought-provoking portrayal of Black experiences in Britain.Voir livre
Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace was born on the 1st April 1875 in Greenwich, London. Leaving school at 12 because of truancy, by the age of fifteen he had experience; selling newspapers, as a worker in a rubber factory, as a shoe shop assistant, as a milk delivery boy and as a ship’s cook. By 1894 he was engaged but broke it off to join the Infantry being posted to South Africa. He also changed his name to Edgar Wallace which he took from Lew Wallace, the author of Ben-Hur. In Cape Town in 1898 he met Rudyard Kipling and was inspired to begin writing. His first collection of ballads, The Mission that Failed! was enough of a success that in 1899 he paid his way out of the armed forces in order to turn to writing full time. By 1904 he had completed his first thriller, The Four Just Men. Since nobody would publish it he resorted to setting up his own publishing company which he called Tallis Press. In 1911 his Congolese stories were published in a collection called Sanders of the River, which became a bestseller. He also started his own racing papers, Bibury’s and R. E. Walton’s Weekly, eventually buying his own racehorses and losing thousands gambling. A life of exceptionally high income was also mirrored with exceptionally large spending and debts. Wallace now began to take his career as a fiction writer more seriously, signing with Hodder and Stoughton in 1921. He was marketed as the ‘King of Thrillers’ and they gave him the trademark image of a trilby, a cigarette holder and a yellow Rolls Royce. He was truly prolific, capable not only of producing a 70,000 word novel in three days but of doing three novels in a row in such a manner. It was estimated that by 1928 one in four books being read was written by Wallace, for alongside his famous thrillers he wrote variously in other genres, including science fiction, non-fiction accounts of WWI which amounted to ten volumes and screen plays. Eventually he would reach the remarkable total of 170 novels, 18 stage plays and 957 short stories. Wallace became chairman of the Press Club which to this day holds an annual Edgar Wallace Award, rewarding ‘excellence in writing’. Diagnosed with diabetes his health deteriorated and he soon entered a coma and died of his condition and double pneumonia on the 7th of February 1932 in North Maple Drive, Beverly Hills. He was buried near his home in England at Chalklands, Bourne End, in Buckinghamshire.Voir livre
Hans Castorp is a young man ready to start a career in shipbuilding - but before he does, he decides to visit his cousin Joachim, a patient residing at a tuberculosis sanatorium in the mountains of Switzerland. Castorp enjoys meeting and chatting with the wide array of colorful personalities living at the sanatorium, until its director delivers some bad news: Castorp, too, has symptoms of disease, and must remain at the sanatorium indefinitely. Thus begins a black comedy spanning years, in which he lives and learns in this self-contained world in the mountains. The Magic Mountain is a bildungsroman and an allegory of the years surrounding World War I, in which Castorp, a naive blank slate symbolizing the Weimar Republic, spends time with the motley crew in the sanatorium, who each represent the nations and ideologies of Europe vying for his attention. World War I broke out and concluded as Mann was writing the novel; at first, he was opposed to the Weimar Republic, but he later changed his mind, and this development in his personal philosophy is reflected in how Castorp and the patients interact over the years, and in Castorp's ultimate fate. Adding to the novel's staying power are its many layers of allegory and allusion, including Greek mythology, European fable, music, opera, and theater, literature, mysticism, numerology, medicine, and philosophy. Above these layers is Mann's overarching message of illness and death as necessary struggles to overcome before reaching a fulfilled life, a theme from his earlier novella, "Death in Venice," that he explicitly wished to revisit and expand upon.Voir livre
In A Passion in the Desert, Honoré de Balzac crafts a haunting and unforgettable tale of isolation, survival, and the strange, fragile bond between man and nature. Set against the vast and merciless landscapes of the Egyptian desert during Napoleon's military campaign, this short yet powerful narrative explores the depths of human emotion under extreme circumstances. The story follows a French soldier who, separated from his regiment during the Egyptian expedition, finds himself alone in the endless desert—exhausted, starving, and facing certain death. With no civilization in sight and the scorching sun bearing down upon him, he stumbles upon a hidden oasis that becomes his temporary refuge. But his sanctuary is not unoccupied. Within a rocky grotto lies a creature as magnificent as it is deadly—a panther. What unfolds is a mesmerizing psychological drama. Rather than immediate violence, an unexpected relationship develops between the soldier and the wild animal. Through patience, instinct, and a strange mutual recognition, the two form a silent companionship born of necessity and solitude. The desert, stripped of human society and its conventions, becomes a stage where primal instincts, vulnerability, and tenderness coexist in delicate balance. Balzac masterfully examines themes of loneliness, fear, trust, and the thin line between civilization and savagery. The soldier's emotional attachment to the panther blurs the boundaries between affection and danger, reason and instinct. Is their connection genuine, or merely a projection of a desperate mind craving companionship? In this stark wilderness, stripped of rank, identity, and societal structure, the soldier confronts his own humanity in its rawest form. Through vivid imagery and lyrical prose, Balzac transforms the desert into both a physical and symbolic landscape—an expanse reflecting the emptiness, intensity, and unpredictability of the human heart. The story is not merely an adventure of survival, but a profound meditation on passion in its most elemental state: a force that can unite, sustain, and ultimately destroy. Though brief, A Passion in the Desert stands as one of Balzac's most striking and unconventional works. It is a tale of psychological depth and poetic power, inviting readers to contemplate the nature of attachment, the instincts that govern us, and the fragile illusions we build to survive isolation. For lovers of classic literature, philosophical fiction, and evocative storytelling, this remarkable narrative offers an intense and unforgettable journey into the heart of solitude—and the wild passions that arise when humanity stands alone.Voir livre
Hailed as “the definitive Singaporean novel”, this new edition of Heartland is accompanied by a new preface by author Daren Shiau and a publisher’s foreword that contextualises the novel’s imprint on the Singapore literary landscape since its first publication in 1999. An iconic work, Heartland explores the paradox of rootedness and rootlessness in fast-changing Singapore. Set in the early 1990s, the novel follows the years of Wing Seng as he leaves school and is conscripted into full-time National Service. As Wing tries to reconcile his past with his future amid transitions through different phases of life, he finds meaning in his intense attachment to his surrounding landscape. Yet, as relationships and the years slip by, Wing is forced to question his own certainties and the wisdom of the people he values. Set in Singapore’s heartland at the turn of the century, Heartland’s capturing of the texture of everyday life provides the backdrop essential to the bildungsroman’s exploration of identity, belonging and connection in an increasingly urbanised Singapore.Voir livre
When a young sewing woman named Emily vanishes from the house of Mr. Blake, a wealthy New York bachelor, the circumstances suggest something far more serious than an ordinary disappearance. Her room shows signs of disturbance, the window has been used as a means of escape, and traces of blood point to a mystery that may involve both violence and concealment. Detective Q and the celebrated Mr. Gryce are drawn into a case filled with hidden identities, guarded emotions, social secrets, and a household where no one seems willing to tell the whole truth. As the investigation moves through old New York mansions, private rooms, and tangled personal histories, every clue raises a deeper question: who was Emily, and why did she disappear? First published in 1880, A Strange Disappearance is an early American detective novel by Anna Katharine Green, one of the pioneering voices of mystery fiction.Voir livre
