Literatura
Herbert George Wells
The Bulpington of Blup, a 1932 novel by H. G. Wells, is a character study analyzing the psychological sources of resistance to Wellsian ideology, and was influenced by Wellss acquaintance with Carl Gustav Jung and his ideas. Theodore Bulpington is a very ordinary man with a very vivid imagination. Ill at ease with himself, he sees a way to recreate his identity by adding layer upon layer of deception. This he does with such panache that eventually he becomes an impostor, a liar and a cheat. But with so many different masks to hold in place, his carefully woven deception soon spirals out of control and heads towards the chaos of mental torment. The novel is also of interest for its extended analysis of psychological responses to World War I.
The Burning of Rome. A Story of the Days of Nero
Alfred J. Church
Alfred J. Church was a 19th century historian best known for his comprehensive histories on different periods of the Roman Empire, including this one. Vivid story of Rome in the days of Nero, beginning with the burning of the city, seemingly ordered by Nero himself. The narrative revolves around a set of characters who suffer acutely in the cruel persecutions of the Christians, set in motion by Nero after the fire to deflect blame for the conflagration from himself and fasten it on the Christians. Set in pagan Rome, this story outlines the authors conception of what happened immediately before, during, and after the burning of Rome occurred. This authors belief is that it happened exclusively due to Neros perpetuation. While possible, this is not something that is historically established.
The Busted Ex-Texan and Other Stories
W.H.H. Murray
The rumble of merry conversation mixed with the mumble of a stream; and from time to time a piece of a sweet song broke from melodious lips, short, energetic, melodious like a bobolink, rushing up from clover heads. And before the mighty shadow, gloomily lying on the great plain on the prairies, stretching east for a thousand miles, turned into darkness, active, happy workers gave the bivouac the kind of skillful ordering that a trained group always gives to any place.
Edgar Wallace
An enjoyable Edgar Wallace horse-racing escapade. One of the most prolific writers of the twentieth century, Edgar Wallace was an immensely popular author, who created exciting thrillers spiced with tales of treacherous crooks and hard-boiled detectives. The setting of this mystery/thriller is the horse-racing world. A wealthy racehorse owner is banned from racing when he is double- crossed by the woman he loves. With the help of his butler an ex-burglar he succeeds in regaining a L100 note that will clear his name and he falls for the bad girls sister. In an impulsive moment, a man agrees to throw a big race-and then is faced with all the consequences.
H.P. Lovecraft
The Call of Cthulhu is the story of a man who uncovers evidence of otherworldly beings residing in a state of hibernation deep beneath the surface of the Earths oceans. Though the image of Cthulhu is by no means original, as it is heavily borrowed from Scandinavian lore among other sources, Lovecrafts descriptionsin this case of a basrelief carved in its likenessare still nothing short of chilling. It is the only story written by Lovecraft in which the extraterrestrial entity Cthulhu himself makes a major appearance. The story is written in a documentary style, with three independent narratives linked together by the device of a narrator discovering notes left by a deceased relative. Considered as the father of contemporary horror fiction, H. P. Lovecraft shows exquisite details in The Call of Cthulhu that perfectly denote his cosmic indifferentism beliefs and takes advantages of his imaginative universe filled with immense entities to demonstrate how weak humans really are.
Zane Grey
From the master of the western novel comes a tale full of romance and adventure. This is the story of Carley Burch, a young wealthy socialite living in New York City. As the story begins soldiers are coming home from the trenches of WWI, many of them damaged physically and emotionally. Among them is Carleys fiancé, Glenn Kilbourne. He goes West to find his health and himself, with the idea that hell return when all is well. They correspond until she eventually heads West to find and woo him, in the process realizing that she too has changed. How can she reconcile the love for this man and her love for this place he has gone so far away from? Their fate together remains in doubt until the end.
Jack London
The Call of the Wild is a touching novel about a great friendship between a dog and a human. The novel follows up the life of the dog Buck since he lived in sunny California all the way until the day he was kidnapped and tossed into the chaos of the Klondike Gold Rush and the brutal realities of frontier life. Buck changes hands a number of times before landing in the kindly hands of John Thornton who took care of him with great tenderness while not expecting anything in return. The novel carries a high moral, and the author tells us through it that we should never back down because then we will experience the disappointment of failure. However, it also has significant philosophical underpinnings, which strengthen the book and undermine some of its weaknesses.
Jack London
“The Call of the Wild” is a book by Jack London, an American novelist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and an innovator in the genre that would later become known as science fiction. The Call of the Wild is a short adventure novel by Jack London. The central character of the novel is a dog named Buck. The story opens at a ranch in Santa Clara Valley, California, when Buck is stolen from his home and sold into service as a sled dog in Alaska. He becomes progressively more primitive and wild in the harsh environment, where he is forced to fight to survive and dominate other dogs. By the end, he sheds the veneer of civilization, and relies on primordial instinct and learned experience to emerge as a leader in the wild.
The Call of the Wild - With Audio Level 3 Oxford Bookworms Library
London, Jack
A level 3 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. This version includes an audio book: listen to the story as you read. Retold for Learners of English by Nick Bullard. When men find gold in the frozen north of Canada, they need dogs - big, strong dogs to pull the sledges on the long journeys to and from the gold mines. Buck is stolen from his home in the south and sold as a sledge-dog. He has to learn a new way of life - how to work in harness, how to stay alive in the ice and the snow . . . and how to fight. Because when dog falls down in a fight, he never gets up again.
The Call of the Wild Level 3 Oxford Bookworms Library
London, Jack
A level 3 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Retold for Learners of English by Nick Bullard When men find gold in the frozen north of Canada, they need dogs - big, strong dogs to pull the sledges on the long journeys to and from the gold mines. Buck is stolen from his home in the south and sold as a sledge-dog. He has to learn a new way of life - how to work in harness, how to stay alive in the ice and the snow . . . and how to fight. Because when dog falls down in a fight, he never gets up again.
Herbert George Wells
Wellss treatise on education is set in the region of Camford (Cambridge/Oxford), and tells of a visitor who proves that education can save the world from destruction. The story centres around a Utopian ventriloquist who subjects human life and in particular its treatment by the University of Camford to sympathetic but quite unsparing scrutiny. At its core, it was a warning to the educational world of imminent war and of its lack of action, as well as an exploration of the place of education in society. Contents include: Mr Trumbers Experience, In the Cramb Meadows, Mr Preeders Pigeon-holes, The Communist Party is Annoyed in its Turn, Congregation Day, and The Healing Touch in History. In this short tale of 75 pages Wells summarises many of his current preoccupations in the form of a parable which is noteworthy for its careful building up of atmosphere and its lively and biting characterisations.
S.S. Van Dine
One of the best novels by the little American detective writer Van Dyne, The Canary Killing Case, takes the reader to New York sixty years ago, where amateur detective Filo Vance, a literary relative of Sherlock Holmes, brilliantly uses the deductive method to find the killer of the star Broadway at night nicknamed Canary.
Victor L. Whitechurch
The Reverend John Smith is an ordinary cleric who learns during his vacation that he was promoted to canon at the residence of Frattenbury Cathedral. During his stay at the hotel he meets an Englishman who tells him that the clergy is too divorced from reality. This is an interesting mystery involving a clergyman who defends his faith and moral values in solving a crime.
Oscar Wilde
A family of flag-flaunting United States acquire an historic English mansion from the thoroughly prim, thoroughly British Lord Canterville. Throw in a murderous, aesthetically-minded ghost with a penchant for high drama and theater, and you have a classic, joy-inducing tale of clashing cultures, progress vs. tradition, and Wildes self-mockery of his own philosophy of decadent aestheticism. Wilde emphasized differences in culture by creating special characters and then pitting the unsophisticated tastes of the patriotic Americans patriotic as their children are named Washington and Virginia against the Brittish esteem of traditions. More telling, given the storys ending and that the events are closely placed within the historical context of conflicting views and several wars, the overall theme of forgiveness reads surprisingly fresh, even in todays time.
The Canterville Ghost - With Audio Level 2 Oxford Bookworms Library
Wilde, Oscar
A level 2 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. This version includes an audio book: listen to the story as you read. Retold for Learners of English by John Escott. There has been a ghost in the house for three hundred years, and Lord Canterville's family have had enough of it. So Lord Canterville sells his grand old house to an American family. Mr Hiram B. Otis is happy to buy the house and the ghost - because of course Americans don't believe in ghosts. The Canterville ghost has great plans to frighten the life out of the Otis family. But Americans don't frighten easily - especially not two noisy little boys - and the poor ghost has a few surprises waiting for him.
The Canterville Ghost Level 2 Oxford Bookworms Library
Wilde, Oscar
A level 2 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Retold for Learners of English by John Escott There has been a ghost in the house for three hundred years, and Lord Canterville's family have had enough of it. So Lord Canterville sells his grand old house to an American family. Mr Hiram B. Otis is happy to buy the house and the ghost - because of course Americans don't believe in ghosts. The Canterville ghost has great plans to frighten the life out of the Otis family. But Americans don't frighten easily - especially not two noisy little boys - and the poor ghost has a few surprises waiting for him.