Altri libri che potrebbero interessarti

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  The House Of The Seven Gables

  Nathaniel Hawthorne

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  Hepzibah Pyncheon is a dignified but destitute woman residing in the House of the Seven Gables—a manor with a dark history, and her ancestral home. She lives with her brother Clifford, who has completed a thirty-year sentence for murder, and a lodger named Holgrave, who is writing a book about the history of her family. Long ago, Matthew Maule owned the land that the titular house was later built on; but the scheming Colonel Pyncheon, founder of the Pyncheon family, wrongfully seized the land from him, and Maule was accused of witchcraft and condemned to death. Before his sentence was executed, Maule put a curse on the family—and the curse has followed them all the way to Hepzibah, now an older spinster inhabiting the gloomy, moldering house and desperate to make ends meet. But Hepzibah's prospects brighten considerably when a distant relative, a bright young girl named Phoebe, arrives to stay for a while, helping her set up and run a small shop in a side room of the manor. As the two work to launch their business in the ill-omened house while caring for the withdrawn Clifford, a strange mystery unravels. Hawthorne based his depiction of the House of the Seven Gables on a real house, the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion in Salem, Massachusetts, which was owned by one of his cousins. The Pyncheon family, too, is a real family, ancestors of the novelist Thomas Pynchon—though Hawthorne was unaware of this when he wrote the novel, and was unpleasantly surprised when, on the novel's success, some of them came out of the woodwork to claim a connection. The novel was well-received on publication, earning praise from contemporaries like Longfellow and Melville . It has since become a classic of American literature, often taught in schools alongside The Scarlet Letter .

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  Oroonoko

  Aphra Behn

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  "A man that has all the virtues that can adorn a human mind."
  
  Oroonoko, a powerful African prince and brilliant general, falls deeply in love with the beautiful Imoinda. Their romance is shattered when they are both betrayed and sold into slavery, eventually reuniting on a sugar plantation in the English colony of Surinam. Renamed "Caesar" by his captors, Oroonoko cannot be broken by the chains of his station. Aphra Behn's narrative is a searing, tragic exploration of the "noble savage," the cruelty of the colonial system, and the indomitable spirit of a man born to rule.
  
  A Landmark in Literary History: As one of the earliest examples of the English novel, Oroonoko is a fascinating blend of travelogue, memoir, and epic tragedy. Behn claims the authority of an eyewitness, painting a vivid—and often brutal—picture of life in the 17th-century Caribbean. The novel challenges the moral justifications of slavery by presenting a protagonist who possesses more honor and nobility than his "civilized" Christian masters.
  
  The Tragedy of the Heroic Ideal: The story culminates in a desperate and violent rebellion as Oroonoko seeks to win freedom for his family. It is a profound meditation on the conflict between natural law and man-made systems of oppression. Oroonoko remains a critical text for understanding the origins of the novel form and the long history of social justice in literature.
  
  Witness the strength of a royal heart in chains. Purchase "Oroonoko" today and discover a foundational work of English prose.

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  The Locket - From their pens to...

  Kate Chopin

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  Katherine O'Flaherty was born on the 8th February 1850 in St Louis, Missouri to parents of French and Irish descent. 
  At age 5, she was sent to the Sacred Heart Academy and, apart from a 2 year period at home when her father died, remained there until graduating in 1868.  Whilst there she began writing and became an avid reader of almost anything that crossed her path.   
  Kate married Oscar Chopin in 1870 and the couple moved to New Orleans, and later to the rural setting of Cloutierville, Louisiana to raise their 6 children.  
  In 1882 her husband died leaving her in a deep trench of debt.  Despite her best efforts to turn the businesses around they were sold, and she moved the family back to St Louis and the financial help of her mother.  Sadly, her mother died within the year.  Kate, now struggling with depression, pushed herself to write and gained a local reputation as a writer of short stories that captured the local color and vibrancy of her surroundings.  
  By the early 1890’s her short stories were published nationally.  With this widespread audience also came negative reviews, controversy, and cries of immorality as themes such as interracial relationships, the rights of women and other burning issues of the day were written about. 
  Despite the criticism, which unnerved her, she continued to write though in the main her works, around 100 short stories and two novels, were not attributed with any literary worth. 
  Kate Chopin died from a brain haemorrhage in St Louis Missouri on the 22nd of August 1904.  She was 54. 
  For much of the 20th Century her work was forgotten and out of print.  It was only in early 1970’s, with the rise of feminism and the call for a more just society that she was given the status her works had long described and shone a literary light at.  She is now safely revered as one of America’s great authors.

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  Matthew Insists on Puffed Sleeves

  Lucy Maud Montgomery

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  Lucy Maud Montgomery (November 30, 1874 – April 24, 1942), published as L. M. Montgomery, was a Canadian author best known for a series of novels beginning in 1908 with Anne of Green Gables. The book was an immediate success. The title character, orphan Anne Shirley, made Montgomery famous in her lifetime and gave her an international following.
  Matthew Insists on Puffed Sleeves: Matthew was having a bad ten minutes of it. He had come into the kitchen, in the twilight of a cold, grey December evening, and had sat down in the wood-box corner to take off his heavy boots, unconscious of the fact that Anne and a bevy of her schoolmates were having a practice of "The Fairy Queen" in the sitting-room.

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  Cupid and Psyche

  Andrew Lang

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  A forbidden love. A broken promise. A mortal princess willing to defy a goddess to reclaim the husband she lost. 
   
  Psyche is so extraordinarily beautiful that people begin comparing her to Venus herself. Enraged by the mortal princess’s growing fame, the jealous goddess commands her son Cupid to make Psyche fall in love with a monstrous creature. 
   
  But when Cupid sees Psyche, he is wounded by his own arrow—and falls hopelessly in love. 
   
  Hidden away in a magnificent enchanted palace, Psyche becomes the bride of a mysterious husband who visits her only beneath the cover of darkness. He asks for one thing in return: she must never look upon his face or attempt to learn his identity. 
   
  Deceived by her envious sisters, Psyche breaks her promise. Cupid vanishes, leaving her alone and heartbroken. 
   
  Determined to find him, Psyche places herself at the mercy of Venus and is given a succession of seemingly impossible trials. Through courage, perseverance, and unexpected divine assistance, she journeys beyond the limits of the mortal world in pursuit of the love she refuses to surrender. 
   
  Romantic, magical, and timeless, Cupid and Psyche is an enduring tale of trust, jealousy, sacrifice, redemption, and a love powerful enough to overcome even the will of the gods. 
   
  Narrated by Mike Polischuk, Andrew Lang’s classic retelling brings this beloved myth to life with wonder, adventure, and sweeping emotion.

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  Pygmalion

  George Bernard Shaw

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  George Bernard Shaws most well known work, adapted multiple times by film and stage, such as My Fair Lady and Pretty Woman, "Pygmalion" premiered in Vienna in 1913 before coming to england in 1914 on London's West End. This 5 act play introduces us to the irascible Professor Henry Higgins, who in taking a bet from a Colonel Pickering agrees to take a girl from the gutter, Eliza Doolittle, and teach her the accent and manners of high society. But afterwards, what's to happen to her?  
  Narrated by Michael Ward.

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