Historyczna
W.B. Maxwell
1913. The Devils Garden is a popular classic work by W. B. Maxwell. The main character in this story is William Dale who is Postmaster of Rodhaven. He is introduced as an honest peasant of uncompromising temper, whose rough nature is ever softened by his pretty wife Mavis. Dales evening in London is transformed into a catastrophe when he learns a past secret about Mavis that threatens his marriage. Confronted with this secret, Will and Mavis struggle to make their marriage work and become successful. Ironically, Dale is eventually confronted by the same scenario. This work, described as a study of elemental passion and mystery, excited wide discussion and was attacked in many quarters for the daring of its theme, obsession and adultery.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Dr. Dolliver, a worthy character of great antiquity. A persons desire for an immortal existence, an attempt to satisfy which would be stated in various ways: first, through the selfish old sensualist, Colonel Dabni, who greedily grabbed the mysterious elixir and took his draft so that he died on the spot; then, through the plain old Grandir, longing to live for Pansy; and, perhaps, through Pansy herself, who, having come to enjoy some kind of ennobling love, would like to defeat death so that she can always maintain the perfection of her worldly happiness all these forms of desire to be united are higher, a play of shadows that should direct our mind to true immortality outside of this world.
Honoré de Balzac
This is one of the three novelettes that are grouped together as The History of the Thirteen, along with Ferragus: Chief of the Companions of Duty and The Girl with the Golden Eyes. The whole notion is that there is a secret society of wealthy gentlemen in Paris called The Thirteen which has powers approaching the supernatural. General Armand de Montriveau, a war hero, is enamored of Duchess Antoinette de Langeais, a coquettish, married noblewoman who invites him to a ball but ultimately refuses his sexual advances and then disappears. Assisted by the powerful group known as The Thirteen, who subscribe to an occult form of freemasonry, General Montriveau finds the duchess in a Spanish monastery of Discalced Carmelites under the name of Sister Theresa. The ending is romantic and highly tumultuous. Highly recommended!
The Dynamiter. More New Arabian Nights
Robert Louis Stevenson, Fanny Stevenson
The reader will meet with the wise caliph Prince Florisel, with the insignificant but important villain-Dynamite, with the new Scheherazade the charming clever Clara, and with listeners of her fairy tales three noble and trusting young gentlemen. And he learns that being a terrorist is not only bad, but just shameful and bad. And that love is the strongest.
Henry James
In the hope of a successful marriage, Eugene, Baroness Münster, and her younger brother, the artist Felix, descendants of Wentworth, come to Boston. Having settled in the neighborhood, they become close friends with the young Wentworths Gertrude, Charlotte and Clifford. Witness and sophistication of Eugene, along with the cheerfulness of Felix create a difficult combination with Puritan morality, frugality and the intrinsic dignity of Americans.
L. Frank Baum
Need an adventure story with plots and counterplots? Intrigue? A love interest? Politics? Murder? Follow our young American hero, Robert Harcliffe, as he goes on the adventure of his lifetime. A young man just out of college goes to Brazil as secretary of the prime mover in the revolution, and by so doing begins a series of adventures that run from tragic to comic, ending with the success of the conspiracy, a straightening out of many tangles, and the marriage of the hero to one of the most brilliant and beautiful conspirators. Written by the famous Oz author L. Frank Baum under the alias of Schuyler Staunton, The Fate of a Crown is a stirring novel of the events of a South American revolution against the monarchy at the turn of the 20th Century. It was Baums first novel for an adult readership.
Henry James
The Finer Grain a collection of small stories. The A Round of Visits is a thoughtful tragedy that triggered the opening of Watch and Trusteeship. The Bench of Desolation, located in an English seaside town, is a touching story of reconciliation after some very offensive and bitter misunderstandings.
The Forged Coupon and Other Stories
Leo Tolstoy
At the beginning of the story, walking along an incline, some of Tolstoys characters lie, commit robberies and even killings. The author allows his heroes to experience feelings of satisfaction and complete impunity, after they have committed terrible atrocities. Pelageyushkin, going to the massacres, is content with one own impunity. Tolstoy conducts his heroes in hellish circles: all terrible crimes are uncovered. The punishment for the crime hangs with a Damocles sword over the heads of Tolstoy literary characters. It is also interesting that the writer selects his heroes from each social group.
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky
Inspired by Dostoevskys own gambling addiction and written under pressure in order to pay off his creditors and retain his rights to his literary legacy, The Gambler is set in the casino of the fictional German spa town of Roulettenburg and follows the misfortunes of the young tutor Alexei Ivanovich working in the household of an imperious Russian general. He begins gambling to win enough money to become a rich man and therefore win the favor of the woman that he loves. In the disastrous love affairs and gambling adventures of Alexei Ivanovich, Dostoevsky explores the irresistible temptation to look into the abyss of ultimate risk that he believed was an essential part of the Russian national character. In The Gambler, Dostoevsky reaches the heights of drama with this stunning psychological portrait
Honoré de Balzac
The Girl with the Golden Eyes is the third part of a trilogy. Part one is entitled Ferragus and part two is The Duchesse de Langeais. The three stories are frequently combined under the title The Thirteen. It tells the story of a rich and ruthless young man in nineteenth century Paris caught up in an amorous entanglement with a mysterious beauty. Henri de Marsay, a young dandy who is obsessed with appearances, a physically beautiful but spiritually empty young man who devotes all his time to the pursuit of sensation and sensual pleasure. He develops a burning lust for the inaccessible golden-eyed girl of the title, Paquita Valdes. He becomes determined to win her love, regardless of whatever, or whoever, stands in his path. If you enjoy the works of Honoré de Balzac then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection.
Henry James
This is the biography of Henry Morgan, the pirate admiral. In his youth, he spent several years in slavery, later became famous as a skilled warlord and vice-governor of Jamaica. The central theme of the novel ingenious assault, lightning capture and ruthless looting of the Golden Cup so called Panama, which was the richest city in the West Indies.
The Great Stone Face and Other Tales of the White Mountains
Nathaniel Hawthorne
In The Great Stone Face, Hawthorne compares different types of human activity. Most of them are aimed at finding success in society. But Hawthorne believes that the success of the Finnish businessman or general, who turned military affairs into a means of his personal career, or a clever politician who is uncleanly making his way to power, is an imaginary success. Even the poet, the creator of beautiful works of art, still retains a lot of vicious individualism and self-love, and only the humble young man Ernst, who devoted his life to serving people, selflessly doing good, won the favor of the author he gives preference to him and his selfless altruism proclaims the ideal of human life.
May Agnes Fleming
There was nobody on the road except herself. Late time after all, it was almost midnight and an increasing storm kept pedestrians at the door of that gloomy March night. From time to time she passed cottages in which lights were still burning, but most of the houses were shrouded in silence and darkness. And still during the night, and the storm, and the gloom, the wanderer answered, with ruthless rain beating across her face, cold explosions from her thin shabby clothes and long wild black hair. Nevertheless, not stopping, not resting, never taking his gaze away from a distant city like a lost soul, hurrying to death.
The House of the Dead. Or, Prison Life in Siberia
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky
Aleksandr Petrovich lives through a spiritual re-awakening that culminates with his release from the prison camp. The narrator has been sentenced to penalty deportation to Siberia and ten years of hard labor for murdering his wife. Published in 1861, House of the Dead is a semi-autobiographical work based upon Dostoevskys exile to Siberia where he was punished with hard labor after he was initially convicted to be punished by death by firing-squad for his involvement in the Petrashevsky Circle. This experience allowed him to describe with great authenticity the conditions of prison life and the characters of the convicts. Dostoyevsky skillfully portrays the inmates of the prison with sympathy for their plight, and admiration for their energy, ingenuity and talent. The book is a loosely-knit collection of facts, events and philosophical discussion organized by theme rather than as a continuous story.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
In the novel The House of the Seven Gables, Nathaniel Hawthorne, one of the founders of American literature, once again, after a series of short stories and the famous Scarlet Letter, addresses the Puritan past and present of his homeland, New England. Legends and legends from national and family history, animated by the authors fantasy on Gothic themes, add up to the chronicle of the age-old confrontation of two families, which is implicated in greed, perjury and a tribal curse and which can only stop the love of young heroes...
Victor Hugo
The story of a love triangle from the Middle Ages. The young girl falls in love with the captain of the guard, who once saved her. But an aged priest falls in love with her. Both feelings are perverted, the priest pursues the girl, rolls his life downhill for the sake of love. The feeling of his religiosity is even more distorted. The girl is madly in love, she is also ready to give everything and die for the sake of a man who is absolutely indifferent to him and doesnt care when they want to hang the girl because of an attempt on him.