Publisher: 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.
This story was first published in The Week's News of 5 May 1888, and in Volume VI of The Indian Railway Library the same year. It was included in Wee Willie Winkie and Other Stories, published in 1890, and in numerous later editions of that collection.Little Toby, 'His Majesty the King', is the neglected six-year-old child of an estranged couple. He is desperate to earn his mother's affection, and be loved, as his friend Patsie is loved by her mother. Attracted by the pretty string, the child intercepts a jewel in a parcel addressed to his mother, containing a curt note that would have widened the breach between his parents had it been delivered. When, later, this comes to light the affair is revealed, and the parents are reconciled.Show book
Charles Dickens saw his fictional work in print for the first time in 1833 when he was only twenty-one. It was a story called “Mr Minns and his Cousin” and was published in the Morning Chronicle. He wrote more tales and sketches for newspapers and magazines which were collected and published in book form in two series in 1836 as “Sketches by Boz”. Here are nine of them:"Horatio Sparkins""Mr. Minns and his Cousin""The Great Winglebury Duel""Mrs. Joseph Porter""The Bloomsbury Christening""Miss Evans and the Eagle""Sentiment""Thoughts about People""Shabby-genteel People"Public Domain (P)2016 Spiders' House Audio/Roy MacreadyShow book
First published in The Week's News on 24 March 1888, and collected in Soldiers Three (Indian Railway Library No. 1) the same year, and in Soldiers Three and other Stories in 1899.This story is told by Mulvaney, now working as a foreman on railway construction after leaving the army. The previous week he had encountered a draft of discharged men from the 'ould regiment on their way to Bombay, drunken and insubordinate because they were technically out of the army. Mulvaney dealt summarily with the drunkest of them, and encouraged their young officer to ignore the regulations and keep them under draconian military discipline. He did so, they knuckled down and behaved themselves, and were delivered to the docks chastened and sober.Show book
Jane Eyre, the beloved heroine, is for many their first introduction to a truly independent female character in classic literature. Charlotte Bronte develops an assertive and passionate character in Jane, whose search for belonging and freedom remains refreshingly relevant for the modern-day reader.Show book
"The Turn of the Screw" is a short novel or a novella written by American writer Henry James. Originally published in 1898, it is ostensibly a ghost story that has lent itself well to operatic and film adaptation. Due to its ambiguous content and narrative skill, "The Turn of the Screw" became a favorite text of New Criticism.The account has lent itself to dozens of different interpretations, often mutually exclusive, including those of a Freudian nature. Many critics have tried to determine what exactly is the nature of evil within the story.Show book
This account of the sinking of the RMS Titanic was written by Lawrence Beesley and was first published in 1912. The interesting element is that Lawrence Beesley was a survivor of the Titanic disaster and provides a realistic account of some of the events leading to and following the sinking of the Titanic. The RMS Titanic was an Olympic class passenger liner that became infamous for its collision with an iceberg and dramatic sinking in 1912. The second of a trio of superliners, she and her sisters, Olympic and Britannic, were designed to provide a three-ship weekly express service and dominate the transatlantic travel business for the White Star Line. Built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland, Titanic was the largest passenger steamship in the world at the time of her sinking. During Titanic's maiden voyage (from Southampton, England; to Cherbourg, France; Queenstown (Cobh), Ireland; then New York), she struck an iceberg at 11:40 PM (ship's time) on Sunday evening April 14, 1912, broke into two pieces, and sank two hours and forty minutes later at 2:20 AM Monday morning. According to the US Senate investigation, 1,523 people perished in the accident, ranking it as one of the worst peacetime maritime disasters in history and by far the most famous. Titanic's design used some of the most advanced technology available at the time and the ship was popularly believed to be "unsinkable". It was a great shock that, despite the advanced technology and experienced crew, Titanic sank with a great loss of life. The media frenzy about Titanic's famous victims, the legends about what happened on board the ship, the resulting changes to maritime law, and the discovery of the wreck in 1985 by a team led by Robert Ballard and Jean-Louis Michel have made Titanic persistently famous in the years since. This account by a survivor of the Titanic disaster was first published in 1912.Show book
