Editorial: Reading Essentials
When a well-educated young socialite in 1930s England is left orphaned and unable to support herself at age twenty-two, she moves in with her eccentric relatives on their farm.
Vicente Blasco Ibáñez was born in Valencia, Spain on 29th January 1867. At university, he studied law and graduated in 1888 but never felt the urgency to practice - he was more interested in politics, journalism, literature and women. Politically he was a militant Republican partisan and, in his youth, founded a newspaper, El Pueblo (The People). The newspaper was taken to court many times and he made many enemies. In one incident he was shot and almost killed. In 1896, Ibáñez was arrested and sentenced to a few months in prison. Despite this colourful background he found time to write novels. His first published work was ‘La Araña Negra’ (The Black Spider) in 1892, a work that he later repudiated although at the time it was a useful vehicle for him to express his anti-clerical views. In 1894, he published ‘Arroz y Tartana’ (Airs and Graces), about a late 19th Century widow in Valencia trying to keep up appearances in order to marry her daughters well. Ibáñez’s next sequence of books studied rural life in the farmlands of Valencia and failed to gain much of an audience. His writing now took on a new direction with its now familiar sensational and melodramatic themes in 1908 with ‘Sangre y Arena’ (Blood and Sand), which follows the career of Juan Gallardo from his poor beginnings as a child in Seville, to his rise to becoming a famous matador in Madrid However, his greatest success was ‘Los Cuatro Jinetes del Apocalipsis (The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse) in 1916, which tells a tangled tale of the French and German sons-in-law of an Argentinian land-owner who find themselves fighting on opposite sides in the First World War. It was a literary and commercial sensation and became the best-selling book of 1919. It also propelled Rudolph Valentino to stardom in the 1921 film. Ironically his fame in the English-speaking world has come not as a novelist but as the stories behind some of Hollywood’s greatest silent movies. Vicente Blasco Ibáñez died in Menton, France on January 28th, 1928, the day before his 61st birthday. 01 - Vicente Blasco Ibanez - A Short Story Collection - An Introduction 02 - Compassion by Vicente Blasco Ibanez 03 - Luxury by Vicente Blasco Ibanez 04 - Rabies by Vicente Blasco Ibanez 05 - The Last Lion by Vicente Blasco Ibanez 06 - The Windfall by Vicente Blasco Ibanez<Ver libro
Babbitt (1922), by Sinclair Lewis, is a satirical novel about American culture and society that critiques the vacuity of middle class life and the social pressure toward conformity. The controversy provoked by Babbitt was influential in the decision to award the Nobel Prize in Literature to Lewis in 1930. The word Babbitt entered the English language as a "person and especially a business or professional man who conforms unthinkingly to prevailing middle-class standards".Ver libro
Set against the rich backdrop of British-ruled India, Kim tells the story of Kimball O'Hara, an orphaned boy of Irish descent who grows up on the bustling streets of Lahore. Clever and streetwise, Kim becomes involved in the world of espionage, working as a spy for the British Secret Service while traveling with a Tibetan lama on a spiritual quest.As Kim straddles two cultures—British and Indian—he must navigate questions of identity, loyalty, and purpose. Rich with adventure, philosophy, and vivid descriptions of India's landscape and people, Kim is both a thrilling spy novel and a profound exploration of cultural and personal identity.Ver libro
Brought to you by Altrusian Grace Media and narrated by Matthew Schmitz. The Red Fairy Book, compiled by Andrew Lang and first published in 1890, is a richly imaginative collection of classic fairy tales drawn from a wide array of cultural traditions, including Russian, Norse, French, and German folklore. Featuring stories such as “The Twelve Dancing Princesses,” “The Death of Koschei the Deathless,” and “The Master Thief,” the book weaves a tapestry of magical quests, enchanted creatures, clever tricksters, and timeless moral lessons. Each tale is steeped in symbolic resonance—princes undergo trials, maidens are tested, and villains often meet poetic justice—capturing the essence of the mythic imagination. Imbued with the mystique of oral tradition, The Red Fairy Book stands as one of the most enduring volumes in Lang’s influential series, offering readers a glimpse into the enchanted realms of old-world wonder.Ver libro
Written in 1948 and first published in 1951 as Sentinel of eternity, this is the short story on which the 1968 movie 2001: A Space Odyssey was based, and the beginning of Clarke's Space Odyssey series.The story deals with the discovery during an expedition of an artefact on Earth's Moon that will be a turning point for humanity.Ver libro
Out for a walk in London one day, Gip and his father happen upon a magic shop. At Gip's urging, the two go in - and things grow more and more curious by the minute. Counters, store fixtures, and mirrors seem to move around the room, and the shopkeeper is most mysterious of all. Gip is thrilled by all he sees, and his father is at first amused, but when things become stranger and sinister father is no longer sure where reality ends and illusion begins. Fantastical illustrations underscore the macabre atmosphere of the tale, make this a perfect book read aloud together again and again.Ver libro
