Grażyna. Powieść litewska

Adam Mickiewicz

Powieść poetycka Adama Mickiewicza, której akcja rozgrywa się na Litwie w czasach średniowiecza. Bohaterska Grażyna, żona księcia Litwora, stara się nie dopuścić do zawarcia przymierza z Zakonem Krzyżackim i w przebraniu podejmuje walkę. Pełen tajemniczości utwór odznacza się doskonałością formalną, nawiązaniami do języka staropolskiego oraz wątków ludowych.

Panienka z okienka. Starodawny romansik

Deotyma

Powieść słynnej improwizatorki romantycznej Jadwigi Łuszczewskiej, działającej pod pseudonimem Deotyma, zabiera nas do pięknie odmalowanego XVII-wiecznego Gdańska. W ruchliwym mieście portowym porucznik Marynarki Jego Królewskiej Mości w oknie jednej z kamienic dostrzega piękną pannę. Tak zaczyna się starodawny romansik, opisany pełnym ciepła językiem, oddającym ducha dawnych czasów.

Makbet

William Shakespeare

Tragedia Williama Shakespearea napisana około 1606 r. Należy do najczęściej wystawianych i adaptowanych sztuk szekspirowskich. Lord Makbet, wódz w armii króla Dunkana, spotyka trzy wiedźmy, które przepowiadają mu koronę. Ten się opiera, ale podjudzany przez chorobliwie ambitną żonę zabija swojego króla. Aby utrzymać się przy władzy brnie jednak w spiralę zbrodni... Makbet jest archetypiczną opowieścią o niebezpieczeństwach związanych z żądzą władzy i zdradą przyjaciół.

Face Cards

Carolyn Wells

A house party at a country house in Connecticut, reputedly a house under a curse. The owner dies mysteriously, and one of the house party vanishes. The characters of the wealthy murdered man, his young wife and his daughter, as well as those of the servants and detectives are more than usually convincing and the story altogether adapted for effortless fireside reading. While the reader is prevented from divining the solution too easily, a proper number of clues are conscientiously given and the events, nicely dovetailed together. Face Cards, written by an American author and poet Carolyn Wells, is a locked-room mystery in which crime and a family curse are interwoven, with plenty of creepy supernatural events thrown in, relating to exotic masks.

Demon ruchu

Stefan Grabiński

Demon ruchu to zbiór najlepszych trzynastu kolejowych nowel i opowiadań Stefana Grabińskiego, mistrza grozy, nazywanego polskim Edgarem Allanem Poe i H.P. Lovecraftem. Autor stworzył specyficzny rodzaj horroru, w którym grozę sieją opętane wagony, opuszczone stacje kolejowe, błędne pociągi, a katastrofy kolejowe zbierają swoje krwawe żniwo. Utwory Grabińskiego są nacechowane z jednej strony typową dla dwudziestolecia międzywojennego gloryfikacją techniki i nowoczesności, z drugiej zaś tchną grozą rzadko spotykaną i u współczesnych pisarzy. Autor wykorzystuje klasyczne schematy opętania, złych omenów, nawiedzeń czy wreszcie demonów i duchów, wrzuca je do nowej rzeczywistości i uzyskuje efekt znakomity i unikatowy.

The Chronic Argonauts

Herbert George Wells

This story was the first work of fiction in which an explorer traverses time through the use of a man-made device a time machine rather than through magic, divine intervention, or a natural phenomenon such as sleep. HG Wellss The Chronic Argonauts, written seven years before his much more famous time travel work, The Time Machine. The mysterious Dr. Moses Nebogipfel arrives in a small Welsh town in 1887. The apprehensions of the simple rural folk eventually cause them to storm the inventors workshop in an effort to avenge perceived witchery. Nobody knows who he is or how he arrived, but his manner and his appearance soon make Dr. Nebogipfels name dreaded in the village. Nebogipfel escapes with one other person, the sympathetic Reverend Elijah Ulysses Cook, in what is later revealed to be a time machine. After having been missing for three weeks, Cook returns, aged many years older.

The Lair of the White Worm

Bram Stoker

Partly based on the Lambton worm it is a horror story that features a giant white worm that can transform into a woman. Adam Salton, born and raised in Australia, is contacted by his granduncle in England, for the purpose of stablishing a relationship between these last two members of the family. Adam travels to Richard Saltons house in Mercia, and quickly finds himself in the center of some inexplicable occurrences. The new heir to the Caswall estate, Edgar Caswall appears to be making some sort of a mesmeric assault on a local girl. And, a local lady, Arabella March, seems to be running a game of her own, perhaps angling to become Mrs. Caswall. There is something strange about Lady March, something inexplicable and evil.

The Thing on the Doorstep

H.P. Lovecraft

The Thing on the Doorstep is a short story written by H.P. Lovecraft, part of the Cthulhu Mythos universe of horror fiction. Daniel Upton, the storys narrator, begins by telling that he has killed his best friend, Edward Derby, and that he hopes his account will prove that he is not a murderer. He begins by describing Derbys life and career. Daniel Uptons relationship with his friend Edward Derby is abruptly changed after Edward becomes romantically involved with Asenath Waite. Asenaths father Ephraim dabbled in forbidden sorcery, and it looked like Asenath was following in her dads footsteps, performing mysterious occult experiments that caused Derby to become more and more unhinged... As Edwards behavior becomes more erratic and events unexplainable, Daniel investigates. There are two more prominent themes in The Thing on the Doorstep: mind-switching and gender.

Sick Heart River

John Buchan

Sick Heart River is the fifth book in the Edward Leithen series. This is Buchans last novel, about a man who is dying, and it must reflect Buchans own efforts to come to terms with his looming demise."Sick Heart River finds Leithen now in his late fifties facing a terminal diagnosis of turberculosis. Leithen has enjoyed a dazzling career as eminent barrister, member of Parliament, Cabinet minister, and attorney-general but with only months left to live, he leaves it all behind and takes up a whole new mission into the bleak arctic wilds of Canada. The friend of a friend, Francis Galliard, has gone missing in the North, and Leithen volunteers to find him and send him back, and so to die well, far away from the irking sympathy of his friends or the coddled atmosphere of the sick-room. But the North has some surprises in store for Leithen.

The Exploits of Elaine

Arthur B. Reeve

Detective Kennedy and his sidekick Walter Jameson are called in by a District Attorney to look into the murder of an actress in the middle of shooting a movie called The Black Terror. What follows is figuring out the puzzling trail of a calculating killer. Kennedy performs detailed tests in his laboratory and he eventually finds what caused the death of the film star, but he must still go through lots of adventures until he finds the murderer as well. The book is highly entertaining for those who are already familiar with Reeves novels. If you liked this one, maybe you will want to read other Craig Kennedy stories there are more than 80 of them and they are all as exciting and well-written as The Film Mystery.

The Borough Treasurer

Joseph Smith Fletcher

The Borough Treasurer (1921) by J.S. Fletcher is a tale of blackmail, murder and a secret quarry. He has quite a large cast of interesting characters in this one, and manages to bring them all to life with great detail. This novel tales place in an obscure small town by the Yorkshire moors an ideal spot for two ex-cons to start life over. Messrs. Mallalieu and Cotherstone were outsiders who had built a prosperous business in Highmarket and even been elected as Mayor and Treasurer of the borough. But when an ex-detective moves to town, 30 years of respectability is suddenly threatened by revelations from the past. How far will two upstanding citizens go to keep their past a secret?

Under the Lilacs

Louisa May Alcott

Under the Lilacs, published in 1878, is another lovely morality tale by Louisa May Alcott that centers around two young girls who are having a tea party with their dolls when they stumble upon a young boy and his dog who have run away from the circus. Ben and his trained dog, Sancho, run away from the circus and soon find a warm welcome in a kind community where spirited games are played. Theatricals and imaginative pageantry are all part of the fun. This book by Louisa May Alcott will delight readers young and old and remind them that kindness wins the day. The author clearly was fascinated by the moral, physical, and emotional lives and upbringing of boys and girls as they make the transition from youth to young adulthood. A fine example of classic childrens literature.

Starr of the Desert

B.M. Bower

In the aftermath of their fathers death, two orphans set out for the wild desert lands of New Mexico with a plan to eke out a living on a goat ranch. Helen May and her brother Vic should moved to this desert after their father arranges to buy property there, to save Helen May from the TB which is threatening her health. Soon after arriving at their destination, the pair strikes up an acquaintance with a mysterious fellow who goes by the name of Starr. Is he a true friend, or does he have a nefarious plan in mind? Read Starr, of the Desert to find out. A New Mexico ranch story of mystery and adventure.

The Little Gentleman from Okehampstead

E. Phillips Oppenheim

The Little Gentleman from Okehampstead is a collection of connected stories about Mendel Honeywood, a diminutive insurance agent who skips out on his family and his hometown of Okehampstead, Massachusetts, and arrives in England, without a cent, to enter into a life of crime. He meets up with James Van Clarence Smith, disinherited scion of the wealthy American millionaires, and Lady Felicia Lakenham, upper-class, with a very small income. These three engage in somewhat shady adventures in the art world, politics, and international finance, as they seek to make their fortunes. Its all great fun and Oppenheim keeps the action moving along swiftly, as he always did. If you havent discovered the joys of Oppenheims mysteries there is a good place to start.

Die Juweleninsel

Karl May

Die Juweleninsel ist die Fortsetzung von Zepter und Hammer. Noch in bedeutend größerem Ausmaß als beim ersten Teil (Zepter und Hammer) gilt hier, dass die Handlung kaum nacherzählt werden kann. Zehn Jahre sind seit den Ereignissen aus Zepter und Hammer vergangen. Die Angehörigen eines Verschollenen erhalten durch sein Tagebuch Kunde von der Vernichtung eines indischen Fürstenhofs und vom Schatz des Maharadscha, der auf eine einsame Insel gerettet wurde.

Kordian

Juliusz Słowacki

Kordian, a właściwie Kordian. Część pierwsza trylogii. Spisek koronacyjny to dramat romantyczny, napisany przez Juliusza Słowackiego w 1833 r. w Genewie, a wydany anonimowo w 1834 r. w Paryżu. Tytułowego bohatera poznajemy jako piętnastoletniego chłopca. Kordian jest młodzieńcem przedwcześnie dojrzałym. Cały swój wolny czas poświęca rozważaniom nad sensem własnej egzystencji. Przeżywa rozczarowania do romantycznej miłości. Podejmuje nieudaną próbę samobójczą. Następnie Kordian wyrusza do Anglii i Włoch. Podczas tej podróży przekonuje się, że światem rządzi pieniądz. Że za pieniądze można kupić wszystko, nawet miłość. Na szczycie góry Mont Blanc, przełomowej dla utworu, Kordian przechodzi metamorfozę. Z nieszczęśliwego kochanka przemienia się w gorliwego patriotę. Postanawia poświęcić się w imię ojczyzny i zabić cara... Dramat Kordian jest krytyką niezdolności do romantycznego czynu spiskowca, obezwładnionego moralną rozterką legalizmu i polemiką z postawą Konrada z Dziadów Mickiewicza.