Other books that might interest you

• 

  Girl in Hyacinth Blue

  Susan Vreeland

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  This New York Times bestseller explores the life and many owners of an imaginary Vermeer painting in an “impressive debut collection” of linked stories (Publishers Weekly).   A Dutch painting of a young girl survives three and a half centuries of loss, flood, anonymity, theft, secrecy, and even the Holocaust. This is the story of its owners whose lives are influenced by its beauty and mystery. Despite their many troubles and unsatisfied longings, the girl in hyacinth blue has the power to inspire love in all its human variety.   This luminous story begins in the present day, when a professor invites a colleague to his home to see a painting that he has kept secret for decades. The professor swears it is a Vermeer—but why has he hidden this important work for so long? The reasons unfold in a series of events that trace the ownership of the painting back to World War II and Amsterdam, and still further back to the moment of the work’s inspiration. As the painting moves through each owner’s hands, what was long hidden quietly surfaces, illuminating poignant moments in multiple lives. Susan Vreeland’s characters remind us, through their love of this mysterious painting, how beauty transforms and why we reach for it, what lasts and what in our lives is singular and unforgettable.  “Vreeland’s book is a work of art.” —New York Post

  Show book

• 

  A Lesson on a Tortoise

  D H Lawrence

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  'A Lesson on a Tortoise' is set in a local school and shows how Lawrence was ground down by the tiresomeness of teaching and longed to be free.

  Show book

• 

  Abaft The Funnel

  Rudyard Kipling

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Men in pajamas sitting abaft the funnel and swapping lies of the purple seas. Thirty one early short stories by the master story teller Kipling. (Summary by David Wales and title page)

  Show book

• 

  Edward Lear: The Stories & Rhymes

  Edward Lear

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Ah, Nonsense! The English, it is often said, have a peculiar brand of humour. Along with copious cups of tea and a stiff upper lip it keeps life together in moments of difficulty and strife. One of our most-loved humourists is Edward Lear, famed throughout the world for his nonsense verse and limericks.
  
  Born in Holloway, North London, Lear was the 21st child of Ann and Jeremiah Lear, and raised by his sister, Ann, who was, of course, 21 years older than Edward. His early life was unsettled, prone to illness, especially epileptic fits which gave him a character coloured with guilt and shame. However by his 30s he had published his first book of limericks in which his touching drawings were also displayed.
  
  His early works as an artist are easily recognised, but his later works such as "The Owl and the Pussycat" and "The Jumblies" have established him first and foremost as a writer of humourous verse.
  
  Lear travelled widely during his years and eventually settled in San Remo, in Italy, eventually succumbing to death in 1876. On his headstone are inscribed these lines from Tennyson's "To E.L. [Edward Lear], On His Travels in Greece": "...all things fair. With such a pencil, such a pen. You shadow forth to distant men, I read and felt that I was there."

  Show book

• 

  The Ghost in the Chair

  Lettice Galbraith

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Lettice Galbraith is as mysterious as the stories she wrote. She appeared on the literary scene in 1893 with a rash of short stories and one novel, published another story four years later, and then disappeared without a trace. Yet despite the brevity of her presence on the literary stage, her supernatural stories have remained popular to this day.'The Ghost in the Chair' tells the story of a strange shareholders' meeting at a troubled mining company. The chairman arrives, delivers a magnificent and inspirational speech to the 150 stockholders which saves the company from ruin, then departs.Moments after his exit, the doctor dramatically arrives to announce that the chairman had been found dead two hours previously - and had already been dead for some hours. A search of the dead man's papers reveals something very disturbing indeed....

  Show book

• 

  Count of Monte Cristo The...

  Alexandre Dumas

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Le Comte de Monte-Cristo is an adventure novel and one of the author's most popular works. He completed the work in 1844. The story takes place in France, Italy, islands in the Mediterranean and in the Levant during the historical events of 1815-1838 (from just before the Hundred Days to the reign of Louis-Philippe of France). It deals with themes of hope, justice, vengeance, mercy and forgiveness. The book is considered a literary classic today. (Summary by David Clarke, ref. Wikipedia)

  Show book