Editorial: Thomas Hardy
Though he is best remembered today for Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Far From the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy's 1881 novel A Laodicean is also a worthy read for fans of his work. An architect falls madly in love with a young heiress, but his feelings initially are not requited. Along the way, a number of unsavory secrets are revealed.
A European businessman and his Malayan wife have a daughter, Nina. A Malayan prince comes to do trade with the businessman and falls in love with the daughter. Conflict arises when other influences cause distrust in the business partnership and the daughter runs off to be with the prince.Ver libro
Persuasion is a novel by Jane Austen that follows the story of Anne Elliot, an unmarried woman struggling to reconcile her feelings for a man she met and fell in love with eight years earlier, Captain Frederick Wentworth. The fast-paced novel explores themes of love, class, and social expectations in 19th-century England. Austen uses Anne's character to highlight the societal limitations placed upon women during this time. Women were expected to marry for financial security and status, rather than for love. Anne's struggle to navigate her desires and the expectations of her family and society highlights the conflict that many women faced during this period. In addition to exploring themes of love and societal expectations, the novel also delves into the class system of England at that time. Austen uses the characters of the landed gentry and the navy officers to comment on the societal changes that were occurring during this time period. Through these characters, Austen highlights the shifting power dynamics and changing social structures of the time.Ver libro
The Valley of Fear is the fourth and final Sherlock Holmes novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is loosely based on the Molly Maguires and Pinkerton agent James McParland. The story was first published in the Strand Magazine between September 1914 and May 1915. The novel starts with Sherlock Holmes receiving a cipher message from Fred Porlock, a pseudonymous agent of Professor Moriarty. After Porlock sends the message, however, he changes his mind for fear of Moriarty's discovering that he is a traitor. He decides not to send the key to the cipher, but he sends Holmes a note telling of this decision. From the cipher message and the second note, Holmes is able to deduce that it is a book cipher and that the book used for the encryption is a common book, large (with at least 534 pages), printed in two columns per page, and standardised. An almanac fits these conditions exactly. Holmes tries the latest edition of Whitaker's Almanac, which he had only received a few days earlier, and fails; he then tries the previous edition. With this almanac, Holmes is able to decipher the message as a warning that "some devilry is intended against one "Douglas", a country gentleman residing at Birlstone House.Unlike many of the other Holmes novels, mostly linear entertainments, Doyle crafted The Valley of Fear as "two parts and a coda and carefully stage managed the elements of fear and terror".Famous works of the author Arthur Conan Doyle: A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of the Four, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, The Valley of Fear, His Last Bow, The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, Stories of Sherlock Holmes, The Lost World.Ver libro
Jerome. K. Jerome allows us to laugh, with and at, both himself and ourselves in his writing. As we peruse his “Idle Thoughts” on subjects ranging from babies to ambition, from dogs to poverty, we find that the dust of over a hundred years have not dimmed the mirror in which we look. Jerome, as in his other comic works presents a seeming stream of consciousness that can shift in a moment from the ridiculous to the sublime, from self-deprecation to intense longing. Such “Idle Thoughts” will not be in vain while we can still recognise that humanity changes very little over the ages, and while we can still laugh at ourselves. Narrated by Simon Hester with original music.Ver libro
Doug Bradley's Spinechillers takes you into the world of classic short horror stories read by Hollywood horror icons.Volume 7 starts off with Edgar Allan Poe's story of a gifted boy hounded by his shadow, "William Wilson".We take to the sky's with a pilots investigation into unexplainable events thousands of feet above ground in Athur Conan Doyle's "A Horror of the Heights". Next up, Ambrose Bierce plays with time in "The Suitable Surroundings".A beleagured British army waiting upon the German forces march of doom in the "The Bowmen", marks Arthur Machen's first appearance in Spinechillers.An ancient evil is called in M.R. James' "Oh Whistle and i'll come to you my Lad".We finish with Edgar Allan Poe's compelling poem, "The Haunted Palace".Ver libro
In A Respectable Woman, Mrs. Baroda, the wife of a wealthy sugar plantation owner plays hostess to Mr. Gouvernail, a friend of her husband's. The reserved Mr. Gouvernail is a puzzle to Mrs. Baroda who is nonetheless intrigued by the man's retiring nature. When the two speak to each other outside one evening, Mrs. Baroda wants to get closer to her guest but realizes this would be at odds with her position as a respectable woman. First published in Vogue in 1894, A Respectable Woman is the story of a woman struggling to understand her desires.Ver libro
