Editora: Jules verne
In the year of 189-, an international auction is organized to define the sovereign rights to the part of the Arctic extending from the 84th parallel, the highest yet reached by man, to the North Pole. Several countries send their official delegates, but the auction is won by a representative from an anonymous United States buyer.
George William Curtis (1824 - 1892) was a traveller, essayist and fiction writer who was particularly renowned for his short stories. He combined a highly polished style with a great sense of humour and his works we enthusiastically received in the heydays of American Periodical Literature.In the marvellous story Titbottom's Spectacles, Curtis displays the individual charm of his work as well as the delicate atmosphere of sympathy and humour in which he sets his scenes and his characters. It is a part mystical, part satirical account of the possession of a pair of spectacles which can reveal people as they really are in their essential qualities.Ver livro
In the winter of 1854 Tolstoy, then an officer in the Russian army, arranged to be transferred to the besieged town of Sebastopol. Wishing to see at first hand the action of what would become known as the Crimean War, he was spurred on by a fierce patriotism, but also by an equally fierce desire to alert the authorities to appalling conditions in the army. The three "Sebastopol Sketches" - December', May' and August' - re-create what happened during different phases of the siege and its effect on the ordinary men around him. Writing with the truth as his utmost aim, he brought home to Russia's entire literate public the atrocities of war. In doing so, he realized his own vocation as a writer and established his literary reputation.Ver livro
For a genuine Conan tale, full of barbarian craftiness, magic, fierce fighting and his berserker strength, this meets every criteria and is one of the best. Conan was raiding with the Free Companions when they were trapped and slaughtered by the merciless Shah Amurath the great Lord of Akif. Conan is one of the very few who escape by hiding in the mud of the marshes like a beast living on raw snake and muskrat. Luck, which seems to have deserted him, smiles again and allows him the chance for revenge and he eagerly seizes it, destroying his enemy with fierce strokes. Barely escaping his soldiers with the slave girl Olivia, once a princess of Koth, they reach a deserted island that holds many enchantments and strange dangers. Then the pirates arrive and things become even bloodier.Ver livro
A non-fiction work, comparing and collecting ghost stories by Classical Greek and Republican or Imperial Roman authors. (Summary by Timothy Ferguson)Ver livro
The Balloon Hoax was first published in The Sun newspaper in New York in 1844. Originally presented as a true story, it detailed European Monck Mason's trip across the Atlantic Ocean in only three days in a hot air balloon.The story turned out to be a hoax and the paper published a retraction two days later (rumoured to also have been written by Poe himself) admitting the deception.The story ignited a fever of excitement in New York: Poe himself claimed that the Sun building was "besieged" by people wanting copies of the newspaper. "I never witnessed more intense excitement to get possession of a newspaper," he wrote.The furore around the story is a testimony to Poe's ability to build up a narrative with such plausible details, that it appears almost inconceivable that it should not be the truth.Ver livro
When the villainous Mr. Hyde embarks on a series of heinous crimes in London, he proves elusive to the authorities. What is more puzzling is the peculiar last will and testament drawn up by the mild mannered and amiable scientist, Dr. Jekyll, leaving everything he owns to the disreputable Mr. Hyde in the case of his own death or disappearance. As Robert Louis Stevenson's tale unfolds from his masterly pen, the listener is drawn into the mystery and waits with bated breath for the denouement. Gripping!Ver livro
