Publisher: Charles River Editors
Oscar Wilde is considered one of the greatest Irish authors. The Canterville Ghost is one of his most famous short stories. Heraklion Press has included a linked table of contents.
The Odd Women reflects the major sexual and cultural issues of the late nineteenth century. Set in a grimy, fog-ridden London, Gissing's 'odd' women range from the idealistic, financially self-sufficient Mary Barfoot to the Madden sisters who struggle to subsist in low paying jobs and little chance for joy. With narrative detachment, Gissing portrays contemporary society's blatant ambivalence towards its own period of transition.Show book
In Gwen's Adventure in the Snow, Gwen and her siblings set out on a winter evening's sleigh ride only to encounter bad weather. Taking shelter in their country house to wait out the snowstorm, the group builds a fire, makes a picnic from the house's reserves and shares stories to allay each other's fears.Show book
Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree is written by A.A. Milne. Pooh bear hears buzzing in a tree and decides to climb up to find the honey. But he needs help so he asks Christopher Robin for help. With a balloon and some mud Pooh pretends to be a cloud and floats up... A nice bedtime story for young kids.Show book
When a mutinous spirit breaks out among the crew of the schooner, the Captain and Mate cannot comprehend the cause. As the sailors one by one refuse to eat the rotting food the Skipper has supplied, he decides to make an example of the cabin boy. The crew come up with an ingenious plan to change the Skipper's mind and release the stocks of fresh meat and butter. They decide to fake the death by suicide of the cabin boy... but things do not turn out quite as they had hoped. Hilarious!Show book
Mary Frances Butts was born on 13th December 1890 in Poole, Dorset. Her early years were spent at Salterns, an 18th-century house overlooking Poole Harbour. Sadly in 1905 her father died, and she was sent for boarding at St Leonard's school for girls in St Andrews. Her mother remarried and, from 1909, Mary studied at Westfield College in London, and here, first became aware of her bisexual feelings. She was sent down for organising a trip to Epsom races and only completed her degree in 1914 when she graduated from the London School of Economics. By then Mary had become an admirer of the occultist Aleister Crowley and she was given a co-authorship credit on his ‘Magick (Book 4)’. In 1916, she began the diary which would now detail her future life and be a constant reference point for her observations and her absorbing experiences. During World War I, she was doing social work for the London County Council in Hackney Wick, and involved in a lesbian relationship. Life changed after meeting the modernist poet, John Rodker and they married in 1918. In 1921 she spent 3 months at Aleister Crowley's Abbey of Thelema in Sicily; she found the practices dreadful and also acquired a drug habit. Mary now spent time writing in Dorset, including her celebrated book of short stories ‘Speed the Plough’ which saw fully develop her unique Modernist prose style. Europe now beckoned and several years were spent in Paris befriending many artists and writing further extraordinary stories. She was continually sought after by literary magazines and also published several short story collections as books. Although a Modernist writer she worked in other genres but is essentially only known for her short stories. Mary was deeply committed to nature conservation and wrote several pamphlets attacking the growing pollution of the countryside. In 1927, she divorced and the following year her novel ‘Armed with Madness’ was published. A further marriage followed in 1930 and time was spent attempting to settle in London and Newcastle before setting up home on the western tip of Cornwall. By 1934 the marriage had failed. Mary Butts died on 5th March 1937, at the West Cornwall Hospital, Penzance, after an operation for a perforated gastric ulcer. She was 46. Her story ‘In Bayswater’ grippingly describes a man’s friendship with a dysfunctional family he rents a room from. As each facet reveals itself his opinion and decisions change, back and forth, this way and that….Show book
Dating to the ninth century B.C., Homer's timeless poem still vividly conveys the horror and heroism of men and gods wrestling with towering emotions and battling amidst devastation and destruction, as it moves inexorably to the wrenching, tragic conclusion of the Trojan War. Renowned classicist Bernard Knox observes in his superb introduction that although the violence of the Iliad is grim and relentless, it coexists with both images of civilized life and a poignant yearning for peace.Show book
