Verlag: Franz Kafka
Often cited as one of the most influential works of short fiction of the 20th century, Metamorphosis is widely studied in colleges and universities across the western world.
Varla Ventura, Coast to Coast favorite, Weird News blogger on Huffington Post, and author of The Book of the Bizarre and Beyond Bizarre, introduces Weiser Books’ new Collection of forgotten occult classics. Paranormal Parlor is an eerie assemblage of affordable digital editions, curated with Varla’s sixth sense for tales of the weird and unusual.From 1859's Christmas edition of All Year Round, edited by Charles Dickens, a collection set in an abandoned house where the guests are each asked to take up residence in one of the haunted rooms on the Twelfth Night of Christmas (a night of high magical power when the veil between the mortal and the spirit world was thinnest). Read what lurks in the Cupboard Room.Zum Buch
Young bride-to-be Dolly must overcome several obstacles in this hilarious, sardonic novella by Julia Strachey set in 1930s England. Following an excellent film adaptation in 2012, this audio edition of Cheerful Weather for the Wedding is read by internationally acclaimed actress Miriam Margoyles. Dolly is twenty-three and about to marry the Honourable Owen Bigham. Her wedding day is filled with hasty and chaotic preparations for the entire household. Matters are complicated further by Dolly swigging from a bottle of Jamaica rum, which she later transfers into the folds of her white dress. Will she arrive at her own wedding on time, or will the fumbling advances of Joseph, the man she really loves, get in the way? Cheerful Weather for the Wedding is part of the Persephone Audiobook Collection, a series of forgotten classics including neglected fiction and non-fiction by women writers. This edition was first published in 1932 by Leonard and Virginia Woolf’s Hogarth Press. It includes a preface by the late author Frances Partridge, a longtime friend of Strachey’s who wrote her biography, Julia, A Portrait of Julia Strachey (1983).‘A very cute, clever, indeed rather remarkable acidulated story . . . I think it is astonishingly good – complete and sharp and individual’ – Virginia WoolfZum Buch
Perceval Gibbon (1879-1926) was an author and journalist working on the Rand Daily Mail in South Africa and several other publications. He is best remembered for his masterly short stories, which were often characterized by an ironic twist at the end.The Victim tells the tale of César Savinien, a French poet who finds himself enjoying a terrifying streak of good fortune. Everything he does turns out brilliantly...but he believes that luck is like a pendulum and that the further it swings in one direction, the further in the opposite direction it will swing when his luck turns....This is the tale of Savinien's good fortune...and what happens when the pendulum suddenly swings the other way.Zum Buch
Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific English writer, now best remembered for his science fiction novels and often credited as being the father of science fiction.'The Country of the Blind' is the strange story of a mountain guide who accidently falls off a cliff ledge in the Andes. He survives the fall unhurt, and finds himself in a remote valley where a tribe lives completely cut off from the rest of the world.A hereditary illness has meant that for 15 generations all the members of the tribe have been born blind. As a result, they now have a highly evolved sense of hearing, scent and touch. 'In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king,' thinks the mountaineer. But he finds that the gift of sight is far less useful or appreciated that he had expected in the country of the blind.Zum Buch
Italo Calvino was only 23 when he first published this bold and imaginative novel. It tells the story of Pin, a cobbler's apprentice in a town on the Ligurian coast during World War II. He lives with his sister, a prostitute, and spends as much time as he can at a seedy bar where he amuses the adult patrons. After a mishap with a Nazi soldier, Pin becomes involved with a band of partisans. Calvino's portrayal of these characters, seen through the eyes of a child, is not only a revealing commentary on the Italian resistance but an insightful coming-of-age story. Updated to include changes from Calvino's definitive Italian edition, previously censored passages, and his newly translated, unabridged preface—in which Calvino brilliantly critiques and places into historical context his own youthful work—The Path to the Spiders' Nests is animated by the formidable imagination that has made Italo Calvino one of the most respected writers of our time.Zum Buch
Johann Christoph Friedrich Schiller was born on 10th November 1759, in Marbach, Württemberg, the sole son of six children, into a very religious family. During his childhood his father was away, engaged in the Seven Years War and contact was sporadic until with the War’s end in 1763. His father became a recruiting officer and the family moved to Lorch. It was here that Schiller received his early education, the quality of which was poor, not helped by the child’s frequent truancy. His parents sought a clerical career for him and a local priest was engaged to teach him Latin and Greek. As a boy, Schiller was excited by the idea of becoming a cleric and often wore black robes and pretended to preach. In 1766, the family left Lorch. Schiller's father had not been paid for three years, and the family’s savings were depleted, so his father Kaspar, joined the garrison in Ludwigsburg for the Duke of Württemberg. There the boy Schiller came to the attention of the Duke. He entered the elite military academy, the Karlsschule Stuttgart, in 1773, and eventually studied medicine, which led him to frequently attempt cures for his various illnesses. At the academy, he wrote his first play, ‘The Robbers’, which dramatizes the conflict between two aristocratic brothers. The play's themes of social corruption and proto-revolutionary republican ideals astounded its original audience. Schiller became an overnight sensation. In 1780, he obtained a post as regimental doctor in Stuttgart. In order to attend the first performance of ‘The Robbers’ in Mannheim, Schiller left his regiment without permission. As a result, he was arrested, sentenced to 14 days imprisonment, and forbidden from publishing any further works. He fled Stuttgart in 1782, going via Frankfurt, Mannheim, Leipzig, and Dresden to Weimar. Along this journey he had an affair with an army officer's wife, Charlotte von Kalb. She was at the centre of an intellectual circle and known for her cleverness and instability. Schiller settled in Weimar in 1787. Two years later he was appointed professor of History and Philosophy in Jena, where he wrote only historical works. On 22nd February 1790, he married Charlotte von Lengefeld who bore him two sons and two daughters. Schiller returned with his family to Weimar from Jena in 1799. There Johann Wolfgang von Goethe convinced him to return to playwriting and together they founded the Weimar Theater, which led to a renaissance of drama now referred to as Weimar Classicism. They also worked together on Xenien, a collection of short satirical poems in which they challenged opponents of their philosophical vision. For his achievements, Schiller was ennobled in 1802 by the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, adding the nobiliary particle ‘von’ to his name. Schiller died on 9th May 1805, at age 45, from tuberculosis, at Weimar. Although primarily admired for his plays Schiller also wrote histories, poetry and some notable translations. In his short story ‘The Criminal from Lost Honour’ the layers of a man’s life are examined as perhaps only Schiller and his literary genius can.Zum Buch
