The Old Ladies

Hugh Walpole

The book opens shortly before Christmas, many years ago. The city of Polchester was an old rickety building on a cliff above old grass. The house was a windy, creaky, bitten rain place where three elderly women lived as tenants, including Miss Beringer, who had moved the day before. These old women are only 70 years old, but in the history of Walpole, written in 1924, they are seriously ancient, poor, oppressed, miserable creatures. If you have any doubts about the progress made by women over the past 100 years, this will convince you that in our Western societies we are much better in every way.

Sylvie and Bruno Concluded

Lewis Carroll

If you think that the story about Alice is the most fantastic, then you are mistaken. Sylvie and Bruno are proof of that. There are many hidden gems here, mostly sweet, sentimental stories of the fabulous children of Sylvie and Bruno. The second half of the story is not much different from the first, only it came to a conclusion.

Ponad śnieg bielszym się stanę. Dramat w trzech aktach

Stefan Żeromski

Ponad śnieg bielszym się stanę to dramat w trzech aktach. Jego akcja rozgrywa się na Kresach. Główny bohater, Wincenty z miłości do kuzynki staje się winny ludzkiej śmierci i zrywa z matką. W Ponad śnieg bielszym się stanę dostrzec można Ibsenowskie konflikty sumień. Główny bohater dramatu to prawdziwy, modernistyczny melancholik, pogrążony w nieuleczalnym marazmie niespełnionego idealisty. Poprzez didaskalia oraz kwestie wypowiadane przez inne postaci Żeromski wyraźnie zaznacza słabość i skrajną, depresyjną wręcz niemoc tego bohatera. Dramat otwierał w 1919 r. działalność słynnego Teatru Reduta Juliusza Osterwy. Spektakl okazał się wielkim sukcesem.

War in Heaven

Charles Williams

War in Heaven is a horrific romance, with many mythical creatures present. Instead of creating a unique secondary fantasy world or switching between two universes, Williams allows the supernatural to invade his modern world. This allows him to explore the influence of another reality on different characters. The object that guides the supernatural to the natural in this novel is the Holy Grail

The Measure of the Rule

Robert Barr

Robert Barr has been almost completely overlooked by critics and anthologists of Canadian literature, in part because, although he was educated in Canada, he spent most of his life in the United States and England. However, since most of his serious novels are either set in Canada or have some Canadian connection, Barr deserves attention. The Measure of the Rule is a 1907 coming-of-age novel about a country teacher who migrates to the city to study engineering, but is forced by dint of circumstance to go to a teachers training college, where he meets his wife-to-be. In this novel, Barr is exorcising unhappy memories and is ironic, even bitter, about the schools system and schools quality of education, the rigid discipline observed by its staff and their indifference to their students, and the sexual segregation practiced. A number of men under whom Barr actually studied are vividly caricatured.

Nena Sahib

John Retcliffe

Sir John Retcliffe, eigentlich Hermann Ottomar Friedrich Goedsche (1815-1878), war ein deutscher Schriftsteller. Er benutzte auch das Pseudonym Theodor Armin. Die Historisch-politischen Romane aus der Gegenwart von Sir John Retcliffe sind mit Abenteuern angereicherte Tendenzromane, die das gesamte politische Geschehen seiner Zeit zum Inhalt haben. Der indische Aufstand war ein Medienereignis, über das 1857 weltweit berichtet wurde. Indien wird einerseits als tropisches Paradies, andererseits als ein höllischer Ort blutrünstiger Menschenopfer dargestellt. Zum Rückfall Nena Sahibs kommt es, als ein britischer Major seine Frau vergewaltigt. Er wird der Agent der Vergeltung, indem er eine Mörderbande in den Kampf gegen die Kolonialherren führt. Retcliffes Roman orientalisiert die Rebellen zu unbeherrschten Gewalttätern, deren angeblich essenziell rachsüchtige und sadistische Natur in der Revolte durchbricht. Nena Sahib mutiert zum radikalen Terroristen, der antikoloniale Aufstand wird auf einen Ausbruch der wilden Natur gegen die Zivilisation reduziert.

Master Humphreys Clock

Charles Dickens

Originally a regular magazine written entirely by Charles Dickens from April 4, 1840-December 4, 1841, Master Humphreys Clock uses an elderly gentleman named Master Humphrey as a frame for a number of stories. He is a lonely, crippled old man who lives in London. He keeps manuscripts in an antique clock by the chimney. He decides to start a little club, Master Humphreys Clock, at which the members eventually six in total, including Mr. Pickwick would write and read out their manuscripts to the others. A mirror club in the kitchen, Mr. Wellers Watch, includes Master Humphreys maid, the barber, and Sam Weller. Ultimately, the periodical included the complete novels The Old Curiosity Club and Barnaby Rudge. These two novels are, however, referenced in the recording, when Master Humphrey and his friends refer to them. This recording presents all the published material except for the two novels.

The Uphill Climb

B.M. Bower

Beloved Western author B. M. Bower is back with another classic yarn of the Old West. Much like her best-known works, The Uphill Climb showcases the inner lives of the cowhands and ranchers who made the region livable and whose rough-and-tumble lifestyles all too often exacted a harsh toll. Also this story deals with one mans fight to overcome alcohol addiction. Still very relevant to today. But it also has romance and a good bit of humor from supporting characters. Bower knows the West of the cowboys, as do few writers... the writing is realistic, and strongly suffused with local color. One of many recommended Westerns by this prolific author.

The Regents Daughter

Alexandre Dumas

Philippe dOrléans, regent of France, although having a hard time with his two daughters and a son, wants to take care of another young girl, his illegitimate and hidden daughter, Helene de Chaverny, raised in a convent as an orphan. Helene, who ignores his parentage, is in love with Chevalier Gaston de Chanley, a conspirator who has sworn an oath to a cabal of plotting Bretons to murder their enemy, the prince regent Philippe Duc DOrleans. Young lovers, eager to get married, head towards the Paris unaware of the dramatic tangle that is played around them. A sequel to The Conspirators, this thrilling romantic adventure is reminiscent of Dumass seminal Three Musketeers saga, and will not disappoint those looking for an exciting tale of adventure, romance, royalty, intrigue, misfortune, and love.

The Mill Mystery

Anna Katharine Green

Early detective novelist Anna Katharine Green was a unique writer in several respects, including the fact that many of the detectives featured in her novels are women. In this mystery, protagonist Constance Sterling takes on the seemingly impossible task of uncovering the true culprits behind the drowning death of a popular well-respected clergyman who is believed to have killed himself. The news is fatal to his fiancée. Why? And why are her two sons behaving in such a sinister manner? The Mill Mystery is a book that can be classified as a sensational novel, as highly spiced as readers of this kind of fiction can desire. Green does an excellent job of giving the readers clues, but not enough clues to make the mystery easily solvable.

The Lightning Warrior

George Owen Baxter

The Lightning Warrior is the name given to the great white wolf that is so swift in attacking its prey. A bounty is offered but no one can catch or kill the animal, that is until Cobalt arrives in the area. When Sylvia Baird, a proud woman determined not to marry Cobalt, a fierce warrior, tells him that she will consent to be his wife only if he brings her the pelt of this elusive white wolf, he succeeds much to her horror, and she must escape with the wolf at her side. Max Brands action-filled stories of adventure and heroism in the American West continue to entertain readers throughout the world. This is one of his Western fiction.

Alraune. Die Geschichte eines lebenden Wesens

Hanns Heinz Ewers

Hanns Heinz Ewers (1871-1943) war ein deutscher Schriftsteller, Filmemacher, Globetrotter und Kabarettist. Ewers Geschichten kreisen um die Themen Phantastik, Erotik, Kunst bzw. Künstler und Reisen in exotische Länder. Seine teils äußerst drastischen Darstellungen machten ihn zum skandalumwitterten Bestsellerautor. Eine Gruppe skrupelloser Menschen nimmt eine künstliche Befruchtung an einer Prostituierten vor und pflanzt ihr den Samen eines Gehängten ein. Der Samen stammt von einem Lustmörder und wurde ihm zum Zeitpunkt seiner Hinrichtung entnommen. Dies entspricht jenem Aberglauben, der um die Alraunenpflanze rankt. Die auf diese Weise erschaffene Alraune ist ein Geschöpf mit ganz besonderen Fähigkeiten. Das Mädchen Alraune selbst wird als promiskuitiv veranlagt beschrieben und verursacht den Suizid eines ältlichen Liebhabers. Dann wird sie die Geliebte des Professor Ten Brinken. Er war der Leiter jener künstlichen Befruchtung, die zu ihrer Erzeugung führte.

Nienasycenie

Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz

Powieść Witkacego, której głównym bohaterem jest Genezyp Kapen de Vahaz. Poznajemy go, gdy wkracza w dorosłość i usiłuje budować samodzielne życie. Poszukuje w nim sensu i treści, usiłując zaspokoić tytułowe nienasycenie. Świat, w którym żyje, stanowi przewrotną wizję zwycięstwa komunizmu, któremu opiera się jedynie Polska i to tylko z powodu wszechogarniającego marazmu.

The Postmaster of Market Deignton

E. Phillips Oppenheim

This early work from the prince of storytellers E. Phillips Oppenheim published as a novel in 1897. Mr. Norman Scott is a young, hardworking, distinguished physician with a busy practice in London. He is called to visit a patient, Mr. Humphrey Deignton, who suffers from gout and who is murdered later. Dr. Scott is suspected. Two years later, we meet Mr. John Martin, postmaster and chemist in Market Deignton. A lonely, bitter, impoverished man. He is living near the home of Lady Deignton, seeking revenge upon the person who killed Lord Deignton, and ruined his name and career. There are lots of unexpected turns and twists to the adventure of poor John and the local color of the setting is extremely charming.

A Silent Witness

R. Austin Freeman

All the Dr. Thorndyke books are outstanding. This one is no exception. In this installment, the action centers on one Dr. Humphrey Jardine, who is the narrator of the story, and who himself is the focus of several strange events. Jardines troubles begin with a casual walk, where he comes across the body of a man and runs to fetch the police, only to come back and find that the dead man has disappeared. The police can find no trace that the man was ever there, so Jardine takes it upon himself to examine the scene for clues. His findings lead him into a very strange adventure which can only be solved with the technical expertise of Dr. Thorndyke, but not before Jardine finds his life in danger, and not just once.

The Vicomte de Bragelonne

Alexandre Dumas

The dArtagnan Romances are a set of three novels by Alexandre Dumas telling the story of the musketeer dArtagnan from his humble beginnings in Gascony to his death as a marshal of France in the Siege of Maastricht in 1673. It is May 1660 and the fate of nations is at stake. Mazarin plots, Louis XIV is in love, and Raoul de Bragelonne, son of Athos, is intent on serving France and winning the heart of Louise de la Valliere. DArtagnan, meanwhile, is perplexed by a mysterious stranger, and soon he learns that his old comrades already have great projects in hand. Athos seeks the restoration of Charles II, while Aramis, with Porthos in tow, has a secret plan involving a masked prisoner and the fortification of the island of Belle-Ile. DArtagnan finds a thread leading him to the French court, the banks of the Tyne, the beaches of Holland, and the dunes of Brittany. The Vicomte de Bragelonne: Ten Years Later is the 3rd and largest continuation of the Musketeer saga, following The Three Musketeers and Twenty Years After.