Verlag: Wildside Press
Sinclair Lewis's 8th novel, Babbitt, (1922) is a satire of American life and commercialism, and contributed significantly to his being awarded the Novel Prize for Literature. Includes an introduction by Karl Wurf.
Notes from the Underground (1864) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky is one of the first existentialist novels. It presents itself as an excerpt from the rambling memoirs of a bitter, isolated, unnamed narrator, who is a retired civil servant living in St. Petersburg. The first part of the story is told in monologue form, or the underground man's diary, and attacks emerging Western philosophy, especially Nikolay Chernyshevsky's What Is to Be Done? The second part of the book is called "Apropos of the Wet Snow", and describes certain events that, it seems, are destroying and sometimes renewing the underground man, who acts as a first person, unreliable narrator and anti-hero.Zum Buch
This story was inspired by a remark of Mark Twain's to the effect that it was a pity that the best part of life came at the beginning and the worst part at the end. By trying the experiment upon only one man in a perfectly normal world I have scarcely given his idea a fair trial. Several weeks after completing it, I discovered an almost identical plot in Samuel Butler's "Note-books."Zum Buch
Filled with fantasy, comedy and grand suspense, Around the World in 80 Days is classic entertainment that is sure to enchant listeners of all ages. When an eccentric Englishman named Phileas Fogg makes a daring wager that he can circle the globe in just eighty days, it’s the beginning of a breathlessly-paced world tour. With his devoted servant Passepartout at his side, Fogg sets off on an adventurous journey filled with amazing encounters and wild mishaps. Pursued all the way by the bumbling Detective Fix, who believes the two travelers are bank robbers on the run, Fogg and Passepartout must use every means of transportation known to 19th-century man—including a hot-air balloon, a locomotive, and an elephant—to win the bet. When Jules Verne’s delightful tale of two globetrotting gentlemen first appeared in 1873, it won the hearts—and imaginations—of readers across Europe. Published chapter by chapter over the course of many months, Around the World in 80 Days aroused so much excitement that readers placed bets on the outcome of Phileas Fogg’s race against time.Zum Buch
The extraordinarily evocative stories depict the generation born in a small-town America during the Depression and growing up in a world where the old sexual morality was turned around and material comforts were easily had. Yet, as these stories reflect so accurately, life was still unsettling, and Updike chronicles telling moments both joyful and painful. The texts are taken from his recent omnibus, The Early Stories, 1953-1975. In describing how he wrote these stories in a small, rented, smoke-filled office in Ipswitch, Massachusetts, he says, ""I felt that I was packaging something as delicately pervasive as smoke, one box after another, in that room, where my only duty was to describe reality as it had come to me -- to give the mundane its beautiful due.""Zum Buch
While "The Battle of Life" is one of Charles Dickens' Christmas Books - his annual release of a story just before Christmas - this one breaks the tradition by not being concerned with Christmas. The major events of this book take place on land that once was a battleground. That is just a backdrop for Dickens' idea of the real battle of life - finding and winning the right partner, so that life will go on to the next generation. The family that lives there is rather confused in its affections and intentions regarding who should end up with whom. We are thrust into the fight to make things work out, and, happily for a Christmas book, Dickens leads us on to a happy ending.Zum Buch
The Swing of the Pendulum is a short story by Katherine Mansfield: The landlady knocked at the door. - "Come in," said Viola. - "There is a letter for you," said the landlady, "a special letter" - she held the green envelope in a corner of her dingy apron. - "Thanks." Viola, kneeling on the floor, poking at the little dusty stove, stretched out her hand. "Any answer?"...Zum Buch
