The Idiot

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky

Into a compellingly real portrait of nineteenth-century Russian society, Dostoevsky introduces his ideal hero, the saintly Prince Lev Nikolaevich Myshkin. Returning to St. Petersburg from a Swiss sanatorium, the gentle and nave epileptic Myshkin, the last, poverty-stricken member of a once great family and regarded by many as an idiot, pays a visit to his distant relative General Yepanchin and proceeds to charm the General and his family. Here he sees a picture of Nastasya Fillipovna and falls in love with her. Things get complicated when he proposes her and she rejects him for a man of dubious character called Rogozhin. Myshkin finds love in Aglaya but all hell loose breaks when once again Nastasya decides that she is still in love with the Prince. Utterly infatuated, he soon finds himself caught up in a love triangle and drawn into a web of blackmail, betrayal, and finally, murder. In Prince Myshkin, the author portrays the purity of a truly beautiful soul and explores the perils that innocence and goodness face in a corrupt world. A tragicomic masterpiece.

The Idiot

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The Idiot - a novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, a Russian novelist, philosopher and short story writer. Many literary critics rate him as one of the greatest psychological novelists in world literature.   The title is an ironic reference to the central character of the novel, Prince (Knyaz) Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin, a young man whose goodness, open-hearted simplicity and guilelessness lead many of the more worldly characters he encounters to mistakenly assume that he lacks intelligence and insight. In the character of Prince Myshkin, Dostoevsky set himself the task of depicting "the positively good and beautiful man.” The novel examines the consequences of placing such a unique individual at the centre of the conflicts, desires, passions and egoism of worldly society, both for the man himself and for those with whom he becomes involved.  

The Iliad

Homer

One of the greatest stories ever told, "The Iliad" has survived for thousands of years because of its insightful portrayal of man and its epic story of war, duty, honor, and revenge. The poem itself centers on the figure of Achilles the Greek warrior, his quarrel with King Agamemnon the Greek leader, the death of Achilles friend Patroclus, and Achilles ultimate defeat of the Trojan warrior Hector. In the course of relating this core story, the main events of the whole war are covered. Revenge and meddling gods weave through this epic of a seemingly endless war. Seven Greek cities claim the honor of being the birthplace of Homer, the poet to whom the composition of "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" are attributed. "The Iliad" is one of the foremost achievements in Western literature, but the identity or even the existence of Homer himself is a complete mystery, with no reliable biographical information having survived.

The Illustrious Prince

E. Phillips Oppenheim

Written in 1910, The Illustrious Prince is set in England some time after the Russian-Japanese War which ended in victory for the Japanese in 1905. The Emperor of Japan, suspecting an ulterior motive in the world cruise of the American battleship fleet, dispatches his cousin, Prince Maiyo, on a mission to learn the secret if one existed. Two American spies are murdered, an intrepid detective from Scotland Yard is hard on the trail of clues that will lead him to the killer. As Scotland Yard races to solve the mystery of the murders, several highborn ladies (one of them is Penelope Morse who becomes both wary and fascinated by him) and gentlemen from the British aristocracy befriend the charming Prince and get caught up in the intrigue.

The Immersive Metaverse Playbook for Business Leaders. A guide to strategic decision-making and implementation in the metaverse for improved products and services

Irena Cronin, Robert Scoble, Hugo Swart

“The metaverse” has become a widely known term within a very short time span. The Immersive Metaverse Playbook for Business Leaders explicitly explains what it really refers to and shows you how to plot your business road map using the metaverse.This book helps you understand the concept of the metaverse, along with the implementation of generative AI in it. You'll not only get to grips with the underlying concepts, but also take a closer look at key technologies that power the metaverse, enabling you to plan your business road map. The chapters include use cases on social interaction, work, entertainment, art, and shopping to help you make better decisions when it comes to metaverse product and service development. You’ll also explore the overall societal benefits and dangers related to issues such as privacy encroachment, technology addiction, and sluggishness. The concluding chapters discuss the future of AR and VR roles in the metaverse and the metaverse as a whole to enable you to make long-term business plans.By the end of this book, you'll be able to successfully invest, build, and market metaverse products and services that set you apart as a progressive technology leader.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Accounting, Business Practice and Education

Joanna Dyczkowska

Książka prezentuje wpływ pandemii COVID-19 na rachunkowość, działalność gospodarczą oraz edukację. W poszczególnych rozdziałach przedstawiane są doświadczenia płynące z wielu krajów (w tym m.in. z Brazylii, Francji, Niemiec, Kazachstanu, Polski, Rumunii, Słowacji oraz Włoch) na temat sposobów radzenia sobie ze skutkami pandemii. Książka omawia rządowe, instytucjonalne oraz indywidualne środki, które zostały podjęte w celu przeciwdziałania finansowym, organizacyjnym i społecznym implikacjom kryzysu pandemicznego.

The Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on Economics, Accounting Practice, Research and Quality of Education in the Slovak Republic: Lessons Learnt

Daša Mokošová, Miriama Blahušiaková, Joanna Dyczkowska

Sustainable performance accounts for a critical issue for top management and operational managers facing the green and social transition. Accordingly, they require a clear roadmap indicating how to build ESG strategy, track and report on sustainability performance and manage these results in the longer term. This monograph offers insight into the topic of sustainability performance measurement, reporting and management in business organisations and institutions. The Authors from various countries, including Austria, Brazil, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania and Poland, present their broad perspectives and opinions, refer to various business sectors, and indicate how the regulatory framework and institutional bodies support sustainable development. With this focus, the book may interest accounting and management scholars, doctoral and master's students of socio-economic studies, and business practitioners. The book can also be used as supplementary material for accounting and management courses at the graduate and postgraduate levels. The monograph incudes 15 chapters, for example: Non-Financial Disclosure and Sustainability Regulation: Voluntary or Mandatory Effectiveness; Sustainable Performance Measurement under the New European Regulation for Corporate Sustainability Reporting: What Will Be the Impact of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (Beyond New KPIs)?; Cost and Benefits of Sustainability Reporting: Literature Review, Valuable Information for Stakeholders or Corporate Spin? The View of Non-Financial Reports Potential Preparers and Users; Gaining Competitive Advantage through Social Responsibility Reporting - a Lesson from the Non-Profit Sector; The Balanced Scorecard for a Museum as a Non-Profit Organisation; Eco-Efficiency Indicators in District Heating Companies; Sustainability and Sustainability Performance: Empirical Findings from the German Banking and Insurance Sectors.  

The Imperialist

Sara Jeannette Duncan

Lorne Murchison is the son of a respectable first-generation immigrant family. He is of Presbyterian Scottish descent and is running for office with his ideals of a renewed British Empire. An intelligent and insightful snapshot of provincial Canada as it enters the 20th century, torn between being alone in the world and strengthening imperial ties with the mother country.

The Importance of Being Earnest. A Trivial Comedy for Serious People

Oscar Wilde

Once they started a new interesting game in pseudonyms, which led to funny and curious consequences. Each time he came to London, he was convicted of only marrying a man named Ernest. Upon learning of an advanced friend, Algerie decides to play him, for which he goes to Jacks country estate, where he impersonates his brother Ernest, who immediately falls in love with charming Cecilia. Only friends forgot how important it is to be serious, because Ernestov and lies were too much, and there is very little truth.

The importance of social innovations in the knowledge-based economy in the context of footwear sector solutions

Katarzyna Ławińska, Małgorzata Jabłońska

The prepared scientific monograph entitled The importance of social innovations in the knowledge-based economy in the context of footwear sector solutions is an attempt to further exemplify social innovations by identifying real links between social need and a specific good, service, method and process, in the context of solutions used in the footwear industry. Poland is one of the leading European footwear manufacturers, ranking 7th in terms of production volume in the EU, with a market share of 2.5%. In addition, strong competition is observed in the industry, which is conducive to the emergence of new innovations. The work contains theoretical and practical references to innovations in the industry, such as examples of modifications of footwear materials that have been used in business practice, and their measurable effect is to improve the comfort of using footwear. The authors refer to the environmental aspects of innovation, indicating the directions of utilization of production residues of the footwear and tanning industry, including composites, granules, and biostimulants for plants. The subject matter taken up in the monograph is an important contribution to the development of further scientific research covering the footwear industry and its importance in developing social innovations in Poland and the world. Based on the obtained research results and statistical data analysis, we attempted to outline the prospects for the development of social innovations in the footwear industry until 2050. The book can be an interesting study for practitioners and theoreticians, particularly for scientists representing disciplines such as economics and finance, management sciences, materials engineering, or entrepreneurs looking for opportunities to finance innovation in various areas.

The Importance of Universities for Society and Economy. The Experience of Researchers from the Visegrád Group

red. Bogusława Drelich-Skulska, Magdalena Sobocińska, Andrea Tomášková

The monograph entitled "The Importance of Universities for Society and Economy. The Experience of Researchers from the Visegrad Group" was made by 28 authors representing 12 universities from the Visegrad Group. The intention of the authors is to answer the question about the role of universities and the relevance of research they conduct for the construction of sustainable societies and modern economies in conditions of volatile the environments. Addressing the problems discussed in this monograph from the perspective of the experience of researchers from Poland, Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary, corresponds with the important direction in the development of science, namely its internationalisation. The monograph consists of three parts. The first concerns the functioning of universities and directions in the development of education, as well as the scientific research conducted in the context of the sustainability crisis, and the need to expand the scope of implementation of the sustainable development concept. The considerations included in the second part of the monograph regard academic teaching and areas of research emerging in the context of the ongoing technological progress, particularly visible in the growing use of artificial intelligence, and the need to develop digital competencies. The third part presents the results of research undertaken in view of finding research gaps resulting from changes in the geopolitical and social conditions produced by the COVID-19 pandemic

The Impostor

Harold Bindloss

Every person has a choice in this life. It depends on you whether it will be good or bad. So before our hero there was a choice: good or evil. The problem was that this choice will affect his future life. You will feel the hunger of despair when you read the story. This story has a good moral and will teach readers how to distribute fate correctly.

The Inca of Perusalem

George Bernard Shaw

“The Inca of Perusalem” is a play by George Bernard Shaw, an Irish playwright who became the leading dramatist of his generation, and in 1925 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.   The Inca of Perusalem is a comic one-act play written during World War I by George Bernard Shaw. The plot appears at first to be a fairy-tale like story about a fantastical "Inca", but it eventually becomes obvious that the Inca is Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany.  

The Incredulity of Father Brown

G.K. Chesterton

The Incredulity of Father Brown is the third collection of short mysteries by G.K. Chesterton about that character. In The Incredulity of Father Brown, all the stories involve murders and conflicts between Catholicism and atheism and spiritualism. We find the usual Chesterton moral landscape -- in which the author paints a picture of nature somehow mirroring the fact that something is very wrong. In The Incredulity of Father Brown, G.K. Chesterton treats us to another set of bizarre crimes that only his stumpy Roman Catholic prelate has the wisdom and mindset to solve. As usual, Chesterton loves playing with early twentieth-century class distinctions, common-sense assumptions, and the often anti-Catholic biases of his characters.

The India-Rubber Men

Edgar Wallace

The India-Rubber Men is a gripping thriller of Londons River Police, whose swift launches patrol the Thames and guard the ships that lie in port. Inspector John Wade is given the toughest job of his life when he is assigned the task of running to earth a gang of gunmen in rubber gas-masks, rubber gloves and crepe rubber shoes, who rob banks and jewelers, and even commit murder under the very eyes of the police, and get away with it. Through it all runs the Thames, and there is even time for a little excursion out of London to its upper reaches in Oxfordshire. A classic Wallace, stitching together his favorite themes with enough humor and vigor to keep the reader intrigued till the very end.

The Inevitable Millionaires

E. Phillips Oppenheim

In this funny satire, Oppenheim offers us an argument that has been used in several movies: Two brothers come into a large inheritance with a pre-condition that they need to spend a big amount of money within a month. In the letter from their deceased father, they are enjoined to learn how to spend as well as that have learned how to save. The story deals with their noble efforts to spend their money without waste or ostentation. They back a musical comedy, finance a gold club, back an inventor who wants to extract rubber from sea weed will they be able to get rid of their fortune? Join the likeable Mr. Steven and Mr. George Henry Underwood in this goodhearted comedy of The Inevitable Millionaires.