Publisher: Washington Irving
"I have no wife nor children, good or bad, to provide for. A mere spectator of other men's fortunes and adventures, and how they play their parts; which, methinks, are diversely presented unto me, as from a common theatre or scene."
In the charming town of Hart’s Crossing, neighbors still care about neighbors and visitors are offered a respite from fast-paced living as they observe the antics of the town’s lovable residents. In this wonderful collection of four novellas, a daughter returns home from the big city to care for her injured mother, childhood sweethearts reconnect after decades apart, a single mom finds herself the target of her starry-eyed daughter’s matchmaking scheme, and a young couple struggles to find their own American dream. Celebrating family, faith, and forgiveness, Here in Hart’s Crossing will warm your heart and soothe your spirit.Show book
Here is one of twelve magnificent stories, originally part of The John Cheever Audio Collection, in which John Cheever celebrates—with unequaled grace and tenderness—the deepest feelings we have. As Cheever writes in his preface, ""These stories seem at times to be stories of a long-lost world when the city of New York was still filled with a river light, when you heard the Benny Goodman quartets from a radio in the corner stationery store, and when almost everybody wore a hat.""Show book
Alphonse Daudet (1840-1897) was one of France's finest storytellers.The Reverend Father Gaucher's Elixir is set in a dilapidated monastery in Provence. The order has fallen on hard times and the future of the entire monastery is in jeopardy. But the order's simpleton cow-herd, Brother Gaucher, has an unexpected idea. His old Auntie Bégon had in her later years invented a marvellous herbal elixir. By producing, bottling, and selling this, Brother Gaucher believes the order can become as rich as the Trappists and the monks of Chartreuse.The Prior is enthusiastic and Brother Gaucher sets to work, and before long the whole monastery is thriving. Brother Gaucher - now elevated to Father Gaucher - works alone and in secret in his distillery producing the wonderful and sought-after brew. But it is not long before Father Gaucher starts behaving very oddly...and his madness threatens to destabilize the whole monastery....Show book
Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923) was a prominent modernist writer of short fiction and a close associate of D. H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf. "Something Childish but very Natural" is a story about a young couple who meet by chance on a train and fall head over heels in hot-headed teenage love.Show book
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) and his sister Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894) played important roles in the artistic milieu of Victorian England. Members of a highly cultured Italian immigrant family, they achieved widespread fame and exerted a significant influence upon the poetry and art of their time. Dante Gabriel was a co-founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of painters, contributing to a renewed interest in medieval themes and techniques. Both his painting and his poetry anticipated the Aesthetic movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His deep intellect and highly emotional nature are reflected in poems that exhibit a combination of complex symbolism and powerful feeling. He was a master of the sonnet form, as best exemplified in his book The House of Life.Christina served as a model for some of her brother’s early paintings, and she was closely identified with the Pre-Raphaelites. Her poetry is more accessible and displays perhaps a greater felicity of expression than her brother’s. Today she holds a higher reputation, often being ranked (sometimes rather condescendingly) among the leading women poets. Other critics, quite appropriately, consider her a major poet without the feminine label. A deeply devout person, she never married, although she eventually rejected two suitors, both for religious reasons. She produced a large body of Christian poetry, which is not represented in this collection. She also wrote many delightful poems for children. (Summary by Leonard Wilson)Show book
The international bestselling story collection. “Truth and beauty are here brought together with all the visual beauty and power of a major literary work” (Lire Magazine, France). A cast of extravagant and affecting characters lovingly portrayed by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt animates these eight contemporary fables about people in search of happiness. One of Europe's most popular and bestselling authors, Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt captivates the reader with his spirited style and enchanting stories that move effortlessly from the everyday to the fantastical. The eight stories in this collection, his first to be published in English, represent his best and most imaginative storylines: from the touching and surprising love story between Balthazar, a wealthy author, and Odette, a shop clerk, to the tale of a barefooted princess; from the moving title story about a group of female prisoners in a Soviet gulag to the entertaining portrait of a perennially disgruntled perfectionist. Behind each story lies a simple, if elusive, truth: though we may be frequently blind to it, happiness is often right in front of our eyes.Show book
