The Bridge-Builders
Rudyard Kipling
Editora: Bu Classics Books
Sinopse
Witness an epic struggle of engineering and faith as a massive Victorian bridge project faces the wrath of nature and the judgment of ancient deities.
Editora: Bu Classics Books
Witness an epic struggle of engineering and faith as a massive Victorian bridge project faces the wrath of nature and the judgment of ancient deities.
Layard was a curiosity to sociologists. The planet supported thriving tribes of natives but they were genderless. How could tribes form without families? But Gavin Duncan didn’t care. He had come to Layard to farm vua plants. Their berries cured mental illnesses and were one of the most expensive commodities in the galaxy. He was going to make his fortune if he could just keep the Cytha at bay, a big, dumb animal that could munch through 10 rows of vua in a night. Despite native superstitions he was going to have to hunt and kill the pest if he was to protect his crop. It was a dim-witted beast. How hard could it be? – “The World That Couldn’t Be” was first published in the January 1958 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction magazine. (Summary by Gregg Margarite)Ver livro
Alexander Kuprin was born in Narovchat, Penza in Russia on 7th September 1870. At 3 his Father died and he and mother moved to Moscow. By 10 he was enrolled at the Second Moscow Military High School and there his interest in literature began. The Alexander Military Academy followed and two years later he was a sub-lieutenant and posted to an Infantry Regiment for a further four years. Despite his duties he was a now a keen writer and published his first short story at this time. His military duties also garnered him experiences for his breakthrough work ‘The Duel’. Leaving the military he left for Kiev to work for local newspapers. He continued to publish both stories and novels and by 1901 he was in St Petersburg becoming part of a group that included Chekhov, Ivan Bunin, Maxim Gorky and Leonid Andreyev. In the years that followed further controversial works and acclaim followed. His comments on the regime meant he was also put under secret police surveillance. As World War I erupted, Kuprin opened a military hospital but was then given command of an infantry company in Finland. He was soon discharged on grounds of ill health. The October Revolution saw him praise Lenin, but he warned that the Bolsheviks threatened Russian culture and might cause further widespread suffering to the peasants. As Civil War raged he took his family to Helsinki and then on to Paris. Exile saw his talents decline further and his succumbing to alcoholism. He became lonely and withdrawn. The family's poverty increased his malaise. In May 1937, the Kuprin’s returned to Moscow. He now saw his work published but wrote almost nothing new. In 1938 his health rapidly deteriorated. Already suffering from a kidney problems and sclerosis, he had now developed cancer of the oesophagus. Alexander Kuprin died on 25th August 1938.Ver livro
These Precious Hours is a collection of related and interconnected stories concerning loss and recovery. At the end, many of the characters meet.Declan Mulligan has lost a wife and visits Ireland to connect with a remote past. Dexter Flanagan has lost a beautiful woman to another, but writes a great love song. After a personal tragedy, Sean Dineen joins his ailing ex-wife to see the wedding of their son in Paraguay.About the author: Michael Corrigan holds an MA in English from San Francisco State and attended the American Film Institute. He worked with several theatre artists, including Sam Shepard and Peter Coyote, and was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize for his story, "Free Fall". Idaho State University Press published his grief memoir, A Year and a Day, dedicated to his late wife, Karen. These Precious Hours is his fifth book.Ver livro
Franz Kafka was born on 3rd July 1883 in Prague, then in Bohemia, the eldest of 6, into a middle-class Jewish family. Life for the young Kafka and his passion for literature was often made an ordeal by his over-bearing and domineering entrepreneur of a father. In 1889 Kafka was sent to the Deutsche Knabenschule, an elementary school in Prague. His father would only allow him to be educated in German-speaking schools and even went so far as to limit visits to the synagogue to four a year. In 1901 he graduated from the classics-oriented Altstädter Gymnasium. Kafka did well there and across a large range of subjects. He now enrolled at the Charles Ferdinand University, to study chemistry, but quickly switched to law for which he obtained his degree in June 1906 and then performed the mandatory year of unpaid service as clerk at the civil and criminal courts. A job at an Italian insurance company left him little time to write and after a year he took another job with the Worker's Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia where he stayed until ill health led to his resignation in 1922. Although he saw work as a means to pay the bills and to allow him time to write, he received several promotions and was noted as a good employee. By 1917 Kafka was suffering from tuberculosis, which required frequent periods of convalescence. Interspersed with this, were several intense affairs before he settled in Berlin with Dora Diamant, a 25-year-old kindergarten teacher who herself having left the ghetto now influenced Kafka's interest in the book of Jewish law, the Talmud. Kafka’s on-going health was littered with problems. Apart from TB there were several other ailments, including migraines, insomnia, boils, depression, all usually brought on by excessive stresses and strains. He attempted to counteract all of this by naturopathic treatments, a vegetarian diet and consuming large quantities of unpasteurized milk. His tuberculosis still worsened. He returned to Prague, where he died on 3rd June 1924. He was 40.Ver livro
The Hike: A hiking trail snakes through government secrets, passing by a classified military base where something deadly escapes. The Torment: A filthy rich criminal bribes his way to freedom . . . but at greater cost than he could ever imagine. Ember: The last man on Earth navigates a dangerous landscape, being hunted at every step, as he tries to find the last woman alive. This collection includes five additional stories about an interview with dire consequences, a weakling who develops mysterious powers, an otherworldly animal fight, a legendary battle against giant spiders, and the return of Him.Ver livro
Eight classic spine-tingling tales from M. R. James. This was James' first collection of ghost stories which he intended to be read aloud.Ver livro