Altri libri che potrebbero interessarti

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  Marcel Schwob - A Short Story...

  Marcel Schwob

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  Mayer André Marcel Schwob was born in Chaville, Hauts-de-Seine, France on 23rd August 1867 into a cultivated Jewish family.  
   
  As a child he devoured the works of Poe and Stevenson in French and then again in English.  His attachment to the bizarre and dark was already forming. 
   
  His education at the Lycée of Nantes earned him the 1st Prize for Excellence.  In 1881, he was in Paris with his maternal uncle to study at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand.  Schwob quickly developed his multilingual abilities and then studied philology and Sanscrit at the École pratique des hautes études before completing his military service in Vannes with the artillery. 
   
  After completing a Bachelor of Arts in 1888 he became a professional journalist and worked for the Phare de la Loire, the Événement and L'Écho de Paris. 
   
  The 1890’s marked his establishment as a brilliant writer with the publication of six short story collections.   
   
  He fell ill in 1896 with a chronic, incurable intestinal disorder.  He also suffered recurring bouts of influenza and pneumonia.  Intestinal surgery was given several times, at first with success but, by 1900, after two more surgeries, he was told that nothing more could be done for him.  Schwob now existed on kefir and fermented milk. 
   
  By the turn of the century, despite failing health, and often too ill to write, he embarked on several long travels, including to Vailima in the South Pacific where his literary hero Stevenson had died.  
   
  Schwob was regarded as a symbolist writer and a ‘precursor of Surrealism’.  He wrote over a hundred short stories, journalistic articles, essays, biographies, literary reviews and analysis, translations and plays.  
   
  Marcel Schwob died on 26th February 1905 of Pneumonia.  He was 37. 
   
  01 - Marcel Schwob - A Short Story Collection - An Introduction 
  02 - Arachne by Marcel Schwob 
  03 - Spiritualism by Marcel Schwob 
  04 - The Mouthless by Marcel Schwob 
  05 - The Opium Gates by Marcel Schwob 
  06 - The Strong by Marcel Schwob

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  A Tale of Two Cities

  Charles Dickens

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  "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…"
  
  Set against the backdrop of the French Revolution, A Tale of Two Cities is a sweeping historical epic of love, sacrifice, and redemption in a world torn by chaos and change.
  
  From the bustling streets of London to the shadowy alleys of Paris, Charles Dickens masterfully weaves the lives of a cast of unforgettable characters—among them, the selfless and noble Sydney Carton, the virtuous Lucie Manette, and the wrongfully imprisoned Charles Darnay. As revolution brews in France and political tensions rise, their fates intertwine in ways that challenge the limits of loyalty, courage, and the human spirit.
  
  A powerful exploration of justice, resurrection, and the cost of tyranny, A Tale of Two Cities remains one of the most celebrated and widely read novels in the world. With its dramatic plot, vivid historical detail, and haunting conclusion, it continues to resonate with modern readers as a timeless tale of struggle and hope.
  
  A story of contrasts—between peace and violence, love and hatred, freedom and oppression—this is Dickens at his most poetic, urgent, and unforgettable.
  
  Rediscover the classic that has inspired generations and captured hearts across centuries.

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  Queen Bee The - Story Time...

  Brothers Grimm

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  Two sons of a king went out to seek their fortunes, but fell into disorderly ways. The third and youngest son, Simpleton, went out to find them, but they mocked him. They traveled on, and Simpleton prevented his brothers from destroying an ant hill, killing some ducks, and suffocating a bee hive with smoke.

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  Sense and Sensibility - Audiobook

  Jane Austen, Classic Audiobooks,...

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  Sense and Sensibility follows the contrasting lives of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne, as they navigate love, heartbreak, and societal expectations in early 19th-century England. Elinor, the embodiment of sense, values reason, restraint, and propriety, while Marianne, representing sensibility, is ruled by passion, emotion, and romantic idealism.Through their experiences with love — including disappointment, betrayal, and eventual self-discovery — Austen explores the balance between emotion and logic, personal happiness and social obligation. With wit and subtle irony, the novel critiques the limited roles of women and the importance of wealth and marriage in determining one's fate.

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  Pygmalion

  George Bernard Shaw

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  Pygmalion is a play by George Bernard Shaw, named after the Greek mythological figure. It premiered at the Hofburg Theatre in Vienna on 16 October 1913 and was first presented in German on stage to the public in 1913. Its English-language premiere took place at Her Majesty's Theatre in the West End in April 1914 and starred Herbert Beerbohm Tree as phonetics professor Henry Higgins and Mrs Patrick Campbell as Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle.
  In ancient Greek mythology, Pygmalion fell in love with one of his sculptures, which then came to life. The general idea of that myth was a popular subject for Victorian era British playwrights, including one of Shaw's influences, W. S. Gilbert, who wrote a successful play based on the story called Pygmalion and Galatea that was first presented in 1871. Shaw would also have been familiar with the musical Adonis and the burlesque version, Galatea, or Pygmalion Reversed. Shaw's play has been adapted numerous times, most notably as the 1938 film Pygmalion, the 1956 musical My Fair Lady and its 1964 film version.
  Shaw mentioned that the character of Professor Henry Higgins was inspired by several British professors of phonetics: Alexander Melville Bell, Alexander J. Ellis, Tito Pagliardini, but above all, the cantankerous Henry Sweet.

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  Fading Voices - From their pens...

  Boleslaw Prus

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  Aleksander Głowacki who wrote under the nom de plume Boleslaw Prus was born on 20th August 1847 at Hrubieszów in the Kingdom of Poland, at that time, controlled by the Russian Empire. 
  At three his mother died and then at nine his father.  Female relatives helped raise him but at 15 he joined the Polish uprising against the might of Imperial Russia.  Wounded on the battlefield, arrested and imprisoned, he was later released into the care of a relative and resumed secondary school and then Warsaw University but poverty forced him to leave after two years.  At some point he developed agoraphobia which often caused problems. 
  In 1869, he enrolled in the Forestry Department at Puławy but was soon sacked and so he began a system of self-education that led to work as a newspaper columnist on a wide-ranging series of topics that eventually became the ‘Weekly Chronicles’ and spanned 40 years. 
  With his finances now stabilized he married and then adopted his late brother-in-law’s son.  
  It seems he had doubts as to the scale of his talents and early on adopted the name ‘Boleslaw Prus’ for both his journalistic and literary offerings. 
  His work as a short-story writer met with much acclaim. He wrote several dozen of them, originally published in newspapers and ranging in length from micro-story to novella. His keen observation of everyday life and sense of humor are evident in them.  
  During his career he also wrote novels. After ‘Pharoah’, in 1895, he embarked on a four-month journey taking in Berlin, Dresden, Nuremberg, Rapperswil in Switzerland, where he stayed for two months, and his final destination, Paris.  Here his agoraphobia was so bad he couldn’t cross the Seine.  
  However, his writing continued and in 1911 his novel ‘Changes’, though uncompleted, began to be serialised.  It was never finished. 
  Boleslaw Prus died on 19th May 1912, at his Warsaw apartment.  He was 64.  A National Hero, thousands attended both his funeral service and interment.

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