A Start in Life

Honoré de Balzac

By the French author, who, along with Flaubert, is generally regarded as a founding-father of nineteenth-century realism in European fiction. His large output of works, collectively entitled The Human Comedy (La Comedie Humaine), consists of 95 finished works and 48 unfinished works. The novel A Start in Life is part of the Scenes of Private Life section of Balzacs masterpiece. In much of Balzacs work, the aristocracy is portrayed as vain, duplicitous, and greedy. But in this novel, it is members of the working class who are mercilessly skewered when what starts out as a harmless prank rapidly snowballs into a comedy of errors with profound consequences. A comic novel in which an intrigue about property serves as the excuse for a trip in a public diligence, where a group of people try to mystify each other with strange tales of their lives.

A Strange Disappearance

Anna Katharine Green

The book that will keep your attention until the very last page! A Strange Disappearance by Anna Katherine Green is one of the first detective stories to ever be published in USA. Her novels are known for their well thought out plots and their legal accuracy and A Strange Disappearance is one of her finest works. In this story, a young woman working as a home help disappears from a rich household in New York City, and the police begin their search to find her.

A Strange Story

Edward Bulwer-Lytton

A lot of Edward Bulwer-Lyttons works contributed to the early growth of the science fiction genre. A Strange Story is a mystery novel, which is told from the perspective of Dr. Allan Fenwicke, a rational materialist. He publically debunks the spiritualist beliefs of his fellow physician Dr. Lloyd, and thereby hastens his colleagues demise. It is an interesting novel with beautiful story full of suspense, thrill, love, drama and unexpected twists.

A Studio Mystery

Frank Aubrey

Weird mystery with rationalized supernaturalism featuring private detective Matthew Grimlock. A Studio Mystery is a secret, and there is not much of a secret about the murder of the artist Arnold. The suspicions of the reader fall at once on Gustave. There is a certain ingenuity, however, in the working out of the motive of the crime. Altogether, A Studio Mystery is a fairly good specimen of its class written by Frank Aubrey. Francis Henry Frank Atkins (18471927) was a British writer of pulp fiction, in particular science fiction aimed at younger readers, writing at least three Lost-World novels along with much else. He wrote under the pseudonyms Frank Aubrey and Fenton Ash.

A Study in Scarlet. Illustrated Edition

Arthur Conan Doyle

Illustrated edition with original illustrations by Richard Gutschmidt, a famous German painter, book illustrator and graphic artist. A Study in Scarlet is the first Sherlock Holmes book written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Dr John H. Watson meets the great detective Sherlock Holmes and together they solve a case of murder, in which Watson is amazed at Holmes science of deduction. The only clues are a wedding ring, a gold watch, a pocket edition of Boccaccios Decameron, and a word scrawled in blood on the wall.

A ślady zasypał piasek

Zofia Jeżewska

Ależ lekko napisana, jak piasek przesypuje się ze strony na stronę. Romantyczna , polityczna i sensacyjna. Wszystkie te wątki dopełniają się znakomicie w tej książce pełnej zagadek, niespełnionej miłości, wielkich wydarzeń politycznych Syrii lat 30tych, fascynujących opisów pustyni i wydobywanych spod niej zagadek historii. A wszystko dzieje się w Palmyrze, stolicy królowej Zenobii, którą odbudowuje z kamieni prof. Michałowski. W Syrii szybkimi krokami zbliża się czas wielkich zrywów niepodległościowych. Rewolucja wybuchnie za chwilę. W Palmyrze trwają wykopaliska i jest Ona – pół Francuzka-pół Polka, piękna i wyzwolona kobieta i On – też archeolog ale i syryjski patriota – który musi walczyć o swój kraj z Francuzami. Czy taki związek ma szansę w tym momencie ?   ’’...Pragnę zwrócić uwagę na fakt, że tło historyczne dokładnie przestudiowano, a także znajomość Palmyry i wykopalisk archeologicznych z autopsii dały możność autorce oddania nie zafalszowanego, ale istotnego nastroju otoczenia, warunków i specyfiki badań archeologicznych w terenie. Nie wahałbym się powiedzieć, że znam tylko drugą książkę w literaturze światowej, która oddaje tak wiernie atmosferę obozu archeologicznego, a napisana jest ona przez żonę znanego archeologa angielskiego, A. Mallowan'a, słynną autorkę powieści detektywistycznych, Agatę Christie, p.t. « Murder in Mezopotomia », która stanowi do dnia dzisiejszego jeden z najbardziej poczytnych utworów…”                                                                                                                 Prof. Kazimierz Michałowski

A Tale of Three Lions

H. Rider Haggard

Henry Rider Haggard wrote adventure novels. A Tale of Three Lions is an exciting story about the dangerous adventure of a young girl, Harry. She wants to join her father, who became a celebrity, thanks to the lion hunt. This novel, though not a fantasy, but still strikes a denouement.

A Tale of Two Cities

Charles Dickens

A Tale of Two Cities - a novel by Charles Dickens, an English writer who is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.   A Tale of Two Cities is set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris and his release to live in London with his daughter Lucie, whom he had never met.