Publisher: Jovian Press
Set against a backdrop of pre-Renaissance Italy, convent-bred orphan Bellarion is sidetracked almost immediately upon setting out on a journey from the monastery at Cigliano to study at Pavia. The adventure and practical lessons he finds along the way replace the further education he craves.
"The essence of Mr. Wilder's book is really the feeling in it; it is a 'notation of the heart' with sympathy. Gaily or sadly, but always with understanding, a belief in the miracle of love runs through it all." (Times Literary Supplement (London)) "On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travelers into the gulf below." With this celebrated sentence Thornton Wilder begins The Bridge of San Luis Rey, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, one of the towering achievements in American fiction, and a novel beloved throughout the world. By chance, a monk witnesses the tragedy. Brother Juniper then embarks on a quest to prove that it was divine intervention rather than chance that led to the deaths of those who perished in the tragedy. His search leads to his own death—and to Wilder's timeless investigation into the nature of love and the meaning of the human condition. This edition includes a foreword by acclaimed author Russell Banks and features previously unpublished notes and other illuminating documentary material about the novel and author.Show book
Jules Gabriel Verne was born on February 8th, 1828 on Île Feydeau, a small artificial island on the Loire River in Nantes. His father wanted his son to take over the family law practice. Jules started along this course and despite graduating with a licence en droit in January 1851 was soon diverted by the lure of literature and by his own ambitious talents in this direction. He wrote for the theatre and for magazines and soon with the publication of his first novel; Five Weeks in a Balloon on January 31st, 1863 he had begun his career as an admired and popular author. For many, many years the works flowed, usually no less than and often more than two volumes per year. His meticulous research and imaginative setting and narratives soon established him as a top selling author and he became both famous and wealthy. By publishing firstly as a serialised book and then as a complete book sales swelled as did his reputation. His earnings increased further due to the runaway success from the stage adaptations of Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours (1874) and Michel Strogoff (1876), Strangely he was overlooked for honours. He was not even nominated for membership of the Académie Française. After the death of both his mother and Hetzel, Jules began to publish darker works but still at a prodigious rate. In 1888, Jules entered politics and was elected town councillor of Amiens, and then served for fifteen years. Jules was now entering the last period of his life. His works continued to flow albeit at a slower pace. His reconciled with his son, Michel who now became an active contributor to his father’s works and, when the senior Verne died, would continue to contribute and publish his father’s works, ensuring that the work was kept in the public eye and the legacy preserved. On March 24th, 1905, while ill with diabetes, Jules Verne died at his home at 44 Boulevard Longueville, Amiens. As a legacy Jules Verne is forever remembered as ‘The Father of Science Fiction’. With his rigorous research Jules was not only able to make his works realistic but also to project forward and predict many new things that would eventually come to pass – either in real life or as the basis for others to use in their own science fiction. Extraordinary indeed.Show book
Beautiful, proud Roxana is terrified of being poor. When her husband leaves her penniless with five children, she must choose between being a virtuous beggar or a rich whore. Embarking on a career as a courtesan and kept woman, Roxana passes from man to man in order to maintain her lavish, glamorous lifestyle. But this life comes at a cost; she is torn between sinful prosperity and the respectability she craves.Show book
Dive into the life of a normal man with a normal family in this humorous novel told in diary entries from one Charles Pooter: husband, father, and someone who experiences relatable social embarrassments and humiliations. As he chronicles a year in his life, he discusses his twenty-year-old son's foray into the dating scene, the couple's attempts at blending in with higher society, and his general interactions with friends and co-workers. Originally released as an intermittent serial in Punch, a satirical magazine, The Diary of a Nobody is the literary genius of two brothers who told it like it is.Show book
The bestselling novel that established F. Scott Fitzgerald’s literary reputation and brought to vivid life the glory and despair of the “Lost Generation.” Raised by his mother, a charismatic eccentric determined to show her son the very best that life has to offer, Amory Blaine spends his childhood traveling from one party to the next. For this worldly sophisticate, life is heaven—until reality comes crashing through the door. When a burst appendix limits his mobility, Blaine is sent to live in Minneapolis, where he finds that his unique sensibility does not endear him to the other boys. From prep school to Princeton to the crushing inhumanity of the US Army during World War I, Blaine searches for his proper place in the world. His quest brilliantly personifies the struggles of an entire generation that came of age in a time of great turmoil. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.Show book
Written in 1906, Before Adam is a bit of a departure from London's other novels. Still an adventure novel, this one revolves around the dreams of a young boy, dreams that involve racial memories and the knowledge of his prior existence as a man-like creature named Big Tooth living in prehistoric times."These are our ancestors, and their history is our history. Remember that as surely as we one day swung down out of the trees and walked upright, just as surely, on a far earlier day, did we crawl up out of the sea and achieve our first adventure on land."Show book
