Publisher: Interactive Media
The causes of our poverty; a poverty which we hide under varnished ceilings, or with the help of our dealers in fashion. We are poor with taste. There are some officers of revenue, there are contractors or jobbers, there are merchants, very rich; their children, their sons-in-law, are also very rich, but the nation in general is unfortunately not so.
Neil Munro (1863-1930) was a Scottish journalist, newspaper editor, author and literary critic - a serious writer but now known mainly for his humorous short stories.'Treasure Trove' is an amusing tale of a time when a whale was beached on a Scottish island just off the coast by Tobermory. The crew of a passing ship, led by the enterprising Sunny Jim, came up with a cunning plan to charge visitors to see the whale. The plan worked brilliantly - until the whale began to decay....Show book
"A Study in Scarlet" is a novella written by British mystery novelist Arthur Conan Doyle in 1887. It is also his first work to feature Sherlock Holmes as the protagonist. Although readers are accustomed to calling "A Study in Scarlet" "the first case" because it introduces Sherlock Holmes, John H. Watson and everything about Baker Street to readers for the first time, In later stories, readers will also be able to see the cases Holmes took on before "A Study in Scarlet."Show book
"The Rout of the White Hussars" is an short story by Rudyard Kipling: This story was first published in the first edition of Plain Tales from the Hills in 1888 and was included in subsequent editions of this collection.The White Hussars were a first class cavalry regiment, who 'knew that they could walk round any Horse and through any Guns and over any Foot on the face of the earth.' They were particularly proud of their Regimental Band and of their Drum Horse who carried the silver kettle-drums. A new colonel takes over as Commanding Officer, and to the fury of the whole regiment insists on replacing the Drum Horse with what they see as a much inferior beast. One of the subalterns buys the horse, pretends to have it slaughtered, and mounts a skeleton on its back. One evening, while the horses are being watered after manoeuvres, the spectral-looking Drum Horse is seen riding towards his old comrades, and the regiment flees in disorder across the countryside. The Colonel, after much argument, is persuaded to bring the old horse back.Show book
An exuberant man as well as a prolific and gifted writer, G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) was a man with very strong opinions - and extremely capable of defending them. In this hilarious, satirical romp, Chesterton demonstrates his intense distrust of power and "progressives," railing against Prohibition, vegetarianism, theosophy, and other "dreary and oppressive" forces of modernity. In a spirited response to the government's attempt to curtail alcohol sales, Humphrey Pump (called Hump) a pub owner in the fishing village of Pebblewick takes to the road in a donkey cart. Accompanied by Captain Patrick Dalroy, a crimson-haired giant with a tendency to burst into song, Hump provisions the cart with a cask of good rum, a giant round of cheese, and the signpost from his pub, The Flying Inn. Together, the two men extend good cheer to an increasingly restless populace as they attempt to evade Prohibition. In a journey that becomes a rollicking madcap adventure, the two travel round England, encountering revolution, romance, and a cast of memorable characters. Sure to receive an enthusiastic welcome from Chesterton fans, this new edition of an old classic will also appeal to anyone who enjoys a humorous, well-crafted tale.Show book
Victor-Marie Hugo (26 February 1802 - 22 May 1885) was a French poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, and dramatist of the Romantic movement. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote abundantly in an exceptional variety of genres: lyrics, satires, epics, philosophical poems, epigrams, novels, history, critical essays, political speeches, funeral orations, diaries, and letters public and private, as well as dramas in verse and prose.BOOK 1: PARIS STUDIED IN ITS ATOM: Paris has a child, and the forest has a bird; the bird is called the sparrow; the child is called the gamin. Couple these two ideas which contain, the one all the furnace, the other all the dawn; strike these two sparks together, Paris, childhood; there leaps out from them a little being. Homuncio, Plautus would say.Show book
Oliver Tressilian, a Cornish gentleman who helped defeat the Spanish Armada, is betrayed by his jealous half-brother. When the ship he is on is captured by the Spanish, he is made a galley slave. Freed from slavery by Barbary pirates, he joins up with them and becomes a follower of Islam and the scourge of European ships. Taking the name "Sakr-el-Bahr," or "The Hawk of the Sea," he swears vengeance against his brother. It is this desire for revenge that brings him back to the British shores where he is a wanted man.Show book
