Mr. Marxs Secret

E. Phillips Oppenheim

This is another adventure Oppenheim thriller written in 1899. When Phillip Morton is eight years old, his father is pushed off the edge of a slate quarry. A servant from the local castle is suspected. Ten years later, by chance, Phillip meets the lord of the local castle, the scholar and adventurer Ravenor. On a whim, Ravenor offers to pay for Phillips further education if Phillip will befriend his wayward nephew. Phillip meets Mr. Marx, Lord Ravenors secretary, and is both attracted and repelled by him. Mysterious pasts, lonely castle, family secrets, evil adventurers, dissolute youths, disguises and madness... a little of everything, including lovely ladies. The hero Philip Morton doesnt know who to trust. Very enjoyable and escapist as many characters live in extreme luxury.

Private Selby

Edgar Wallace

As a prophecy of modern warfare, this book, written before the Great War, is distinctly remarkable, as well as having the genuine Edgar Wallace sense of thrilling narrative. The centre of the plot is the invasion of Britain in 1909. It could be a crime story, as it opens in the mean streets of working class Deptford in the opening years of the 20th century, and includes criminals petty and not so petty. It is also a war story, and includes a balloon air raid over London; and finally the love story of Private Selby and his dream girl, the Brown Lady, also known as O.C. An interesting small novel which changes rather abruptly from a crime novel to a military drama and finally an early alternative history-meller describing a conflict.

Мертвые души (Martwe dusze)

Николай Васильевич Гоголь, Nikołaj Wasiljewicz Gogol

«Мертвые души» 2013 уникальный роман, ставший для русской литературы своеобразным эталоном иронической прозы. Никому до Гоголя и после него не удавалось так ярко и остро описать пороки и слабости русского человека, так живо и правдиво отразить важнейшие для России проблемы. История гениального дельца Чичикова, скупающего в глухой провинции «мертвые души» крепостных крестьян. Под выражением «мертвые души» Гоголь подразумевал не только души умерших крестьян, но и погребенные под бытовыми интересами жизни многих людей. Раскрытая автором в романе тема по сей день поражает своей современностью и тонким юмором.

Abenteuer in Sibirien

John Retcliffe

Sir John Retcliffe, der eigentlich Herrmann Ottomar Friedrich Goedsche heißt, war ein deutscher Schriftsteller, aber er war auch bei der Preußischen Geheimpolizeit tätig, arbeitete für Redaktionen, war Herausgeber und Kriegsberichterstatter. Sir John Retcliffes historisch-politische Romane sind im ureigensten Sinn mit Abenteuern angereicherte Tendenzromane, die das gesamte politische Geschehen seiner Zeit zum Inhalt haben. Abenteuer in Sibirien ist eine autonome Episode aus dem 13-bändigen Riesenroman Biarritz. Hier präsentiert der Autor einen historischen Abenteuerroman aus den Weiten der sibirischen Tundra.

The Middle of Things

Joseph Smith Fletcher

Viner stumbles upon the body of a murdered man whilst just following through his ordinary day routines. Little does he know that this find would make him a key figure in solving a big mystery. Well its soon discovered that the murdered mans name was Ashton and some important documents were stolen from him, but the true purpose for killing him and his real identity and that of his charge, make for a rather excitingly interesting murder-mystery... Nevertheless, Mr. Fletcher accomplishes it in a story that keeps the reader in suspense until the very last word. This talented author has no rival to-day in ingenuity.

The Bird of Paradise

E. Phillips Oppenheim

Mr. Hamer Wildburn, a young American, graduate of Harvard is wintering on the Mediterranean coast of France in his newly purchased yacht The Bird of Paradise, and is puzzled by the desire he finds in visitors coming aboard at different times to buy the vessel from him. One night he is awoken at 3 am by the cries of a beautiful, and wearing priceless emeralds, woman swimming alongside. She comes aboard and offers to buy the yacht for twice what he paid. The next day, the foreign minister of France also makes an offer to buy the yacht at an outrageous price. Soon a known terrorist develops a bomb to utterly destroy the boat and all its inhabitants. And so on, and with the material of conspiracies, French politics, love and adventure the story is woven around the yacht.

Summer

Edith Wharton

Considered by some to be her finest work, Edith Whartons Summer created a sensation when first published in 1917, as it was one of the first novels to deal honestly with a young womans sexual awakening. Seventeen-year-old Charity Royall is desperate to escape life with her hard-drinking adoptive father. Their isolated village stifles her, and his behavior increasingly disturbs her. When a young city architect Lucius Harney visits for the summer, it offers Charity the chance to break free. But as they embark on an intense affair, will it bring her another kind of trap? Praised for its realism and honesty by such writers as Joseph Conrad and Henry James and compared to Flauberts Madame Bovary, Summer remains as fresh and powerful a novel today as when it was first written.

The Social Gangster

Arthur B. Reeve

The fifth volume in the chronicles of Craig Kennedy, scientific detective, takes up the familiar and successful formula for a new round of adventures. Craig Kennedy continues to amaze with his usual sorts of crimes jewel theft, missing persons, wrongly accused suspects, fixed horse races, arson, murder, and blackmail but he uses scientific procedures to analyze the evidence, sometimes involving fantastical devices. The Social Gangster is the story focused on a mysterious robbery, which gives a glimpse of a greater threat hanging over social life of big city youngsters. But no one seems to be concerned enough with it, until it is too late. It is up to Kennedy and his science to resolve the case and reduce the impact falling on the society.

The Missing Million

Edgar Wallace

When millionaire Rex Walton mysteriously vanishes on the eve of his wedding, a chain of strange, violent events is set in motion. Intrepid Joan Walton assists Inspector Dicker in the search for her brother. The main suspect is notorious criminal The Panda (The Prince of Blackmailers). You quickly find out that Rex has his own connection to the blackmailer. This is a great example of The Golden Age of Detection. It has many more characters than the typical mystery from this era making it difficult, if not impossible, to simply eliminate the Hero Detective, the Heroine Love Interest, and the Obvious Suspect to figure out who the bad guy is. The Missing Million is a mystery novel from the prolific author of detective fiction Edgar Wallace.

Le Vicomte de Bragelonne

Alexandre Dumas pere

Le Vicomte de Bragelonne est le dernier volume de la trilogie des trois mousquetaires. Véritablement cest un des meilleurs, le plus vibrants et le plus émouvants romans de Dumas. L atmosphere est plus sombre que dans le premier volume de la série. Les amis ne sont pas dans le mme camp, els mettent des bâtons dans les roues lun lautre. Mais, aucun des personnages nest vraiment bon, aucun nest totalement mauvais. Chacun lutte pour ses ambitions, et essaie de placer ses pions avec ses qualités et ses défauts.

The Just Men of Cordova

Edgar Wallace

There are crimes for which no punishment is adequate, offences that the written law cannot redress. The three friends, Pioccart, Manfred and Gonsalez, may be enjoying the exotic, Spanish city of Cordova with its heat and Moorish influences, but they are still committed to employing their intellect and cunning to dispense justice. In The Just Men of Cordova, written in 1917, the just men move into the treacherous, aristocratic world of gambling, horse-racing and high finance. It seems that police services, even governments, have no power to control this world, where blackmail, poison and murder are commonplace. The just men, working outside the law, take it upon themselves to clean things up in their own way.

The Human Chase

E. Phillips Oppenheim

The six stories in Part I of this book trace the early career of Peter Benskin. He is a public school graduate with a small private income who joins the police force in London. After an early success he transfers to Scotland Yard where he becomes a detective. He is successful in solving several difficult cases but is hampered at times by his ethical feelings towards criminals who have been coerced or forced to commit crimes. He allows the innocent to escape, while he pursues the truly guilty. Part II of the book, which also consists of six stories, chronicles Benskins pursuit of and ultimate victory over a self-conceited master-criminal known only by the sobriquet Matthew.

The Secret Places of the Heart

Herbert George Wells

H.G. Wells is best remembered as a central figure in the development of the science fiction genre. However, much of his literary output was more conventional in nature, and he published a number of novels dealing with interpersonal relationships and social themes. H.G. Wells was so charmed by Margaret Sanger that he based The Secret Places of the Heart on his time with her. The novel is a thinly-veiled autobiography that depicts an English gentleman, Sir Richard Hardy, who is attempting to sort out his marital problems while he travels the English countryside in the company of a psychiatrist and much brilliant discussion ranging over the past and future topics of world-wide significance. The Secret Places of the Heart was, in many ways, a love letter from Wells to Sanger... Many critics regard The Secret Places of the Heart as a heavily autobiographical account of one of Wells failed love affairs.

P.-C. Lee

Edgar Wallace

This unique thriller collection contains the 24 short vintage crime stories a complete series featuring Police Constable Lee of the London D Division, written by the great Edgar Wallace. P.-C. Lee is a typical Wallace character, full of wit and charm. A number of these were reprinted in Ideas in 1928-1929 and in other magazines. Nine of the P.-C. Lee stories were later included in the 1961 collection The Undisclosed Client and Other Stories. Written by prolific writer Edgar Wallace, creator of J. G. Reeder, and a dozen more characters in his dozens of books and hundreds of short stories, his publishers once claimed that a quarter of all books then read (in the 1910-1920s) in England were written by him.

Na jedną kartę. Dramat w pięciu aktach

Henryk Sienkiewicz

Henryk Sienkiewicz to nie tylko autor niezapomnianych powieści i nowel, lecz także twórca sztuk scenicznych. Laureat literackiej Nagrody Nobla był także świetnym dramaturgiem. Na jedną kartę to sztuka społeczno-obyczajowa. Jej premiera odbyła się we Lwowie 14 marca 1879 r. W dwa lata później dramat wystawiono w warszawskim Teatrze Rozmaitości. Bohaterem dramatu Na jedną kartę jest człowiek z nizin społecznych, doktor Józwowicz, wychowanek i lekarz księcia Starogrodzkiego, a zarazem działacz polityczny ugrupowania demokratycznego. Prowadzi on grę polityczną i wyborczą jako kandydat na posła demokratów. Jednocześnie stara się zdobyć rękę córki księcia Starogrodzkiego, Stelli. Na drodze do szczęści stoi jednak narzeczony Stelli, Jerzy Pretwic. Józwowicz postanawia usunąć z drogi rywala. Knuje intrygę, którą doprowadza do pojedynku narzeczonego Stelli z Karolem hrabią Drahomirem...

Les Misérables

Victor Hugo

Dans les premieres pages on fait la connaissance de Jean Valjean. Au début il est un, mais puis écoeuré par sa propre noirceur, et grâce la générosité dun évque Fauchelevent il deviendra le bienfaiteur de certaines âmes sans titre ni fortune. Son destin croise le chemin de la pauvre Fantine, une mere qui est prte tout pour le bonheur de sa fille. Cette fille Cosette devient sa raison de vivre. Mais son passé le rattrape...