The Dorrington Deed Box

Arthur Morrison

English writer Morrison chronicles the exploits of Horace Dorrington, a raconteur and scoundrel who hails from a very different social strata than the typical Victorian detective. Mr. Dorrington himself is a marvelous creation, charming and with no moral scruples whatsoever, clever, and entirely devoted to achieving as great a profit for himself as possible if this involves doing some honest detection, that is fine if it involved extorting the criminal instead of turning him over to the police, no problem, if it involves having the client murdered well, some things cant be helped. There are six short stories in this collection which begins with The Narrative of Mr. James Rigby. Definitely fun and recommended for readers who want to explore the darker side of Victorian detective stories.

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.

The Avenger

Edgar Wallace

Over a period of time, men disappear, and later their heads are found. Meanwhile a young actress in a small part in a film on location, is disturbed by the actions of the owner of the place where they are filming. A detective comes to investigate, and finds many puzzling things going on. Several of the characters are suspicious, in one way or another, and as the plot unfolds, it grips you. Edgar Wallaces The Avenger is a perfectly fine example of what a page-turning thriller looked like, early in the last century. What Edgar Wallace has over modern writers is the willingness to insert a girl-snatching, sapient orangutan in his plot. Surely the seeds for his King-Kong screenplay can be found here.

Le livre de la pitié et de la mort

Pierre Loti

Pour le lecteur moderne, le nom de Pierre Loti est presque oublié, et au tournant des XIX XX siecles. ses uvres ont été lues et raffinés esthetes et large lectorat. Le livre Mercy and Death contient les meilleures uvres de lécrivain, attisées par le parfum magique des aventures errantes et romantiques. En mettant en valeur des peintures exotiques dans ses uvres, P. Loti déploie de superbes drames damour sur leur fond.

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.

Young Lord Stranleigh

Robert Barr

If you have interest in finance, mining and sailing which is largely centered around those 3 topics in this novel, you are welcome! Young Lord Stranleigh is a thrilling tale of romance and suspense by Robert Barr. Some very sharp City of London operators think that rich Lord Stranleigh, a Bertie Woosterish West End fashion plate, is an easy mark to make some money. There is a potential gold mine in Africa, for example; a dilapidated but workable cargo steamer The Rajah, to haul the gold ore back to England. What more is needed? An entertaining yarn of dealing, double dealing and even triple dealing, and young Lord Stranleigh is by no means as big a mug as he looks. Suspenseful and full of character, this tale is a must for Barr fans.

Der Weg zum Glück

Karl May

Mehrere unabhängig voneinander eingeführte Handlungsstränge verbinden sich im Laufe des Romans, der zum allergrößten Teil in einem geografisch recht knapp gefassten Gebiet zwischen Bayern, Österreich und Böhmen spielt. Die voneinandern unabhängigen Episoden verweben sich immer wieder zu einem äußerst unterhaltsamen und interessanten Gesamtwerk. Der Weg zum Glück war der letzte große Fortsetzungsroman des großen deutschen Schriftstellers. Behandelt wird die Lebensgeschichte des berühmten Bayernkönigs Ludwig II. Die Helden dieses Romans sind ein schrulliges bayerisches Original, genannt Wurzelsepp, und der bayerische König Ludwig II. Beide greifen in das Schicksal von mehreren Personen ein und sorgen dafür, dass diese glücklich werden können. So wird die arme Sennerin Magdalena, das Patenkind des Wurzelsepp, die von dem Wilderer Krickelanton sitzengelassen wurde, eine gefeierte Opernsängerin und Gräfin von Senftenberg. Einen Großteil des Romans nimmt aber der Kampf gegen die Machenschaften der beiden Bösewichte Peitschenmüller und Silberbauer ein, die vor langer Zeit in der Walachei eine Fürstin ermordet und ihr Kind entführt haben. Karl May bemüht sich in diesem Roman mit einem selbstgebasteltem und äußerst fehlerhaften bayerischen Dialekt erfolgreich um Lokalkolorit.

Profesor Wilczur

Tadeusz Dołęga-Mostowicz

Dalsze losy bohatera powieści Znachor profesora Rafała Wilczura, wybitnego warszawskiego chirurga. Po kilkunastu latach pracy jako wiejski znachor bohater ponownie zostaje naczelnym lekarzem renomowanej stołecznej kliniki. Nie wszystkich jednak cieszy jego powrót. Doktor Dobraniecki, który przez lata nieobecności profesora pełnił jego funkcję, czuje się zagrożony. Prowadzi zakulisową walkę z Wilczurem. Kiedy dochodzi do niezawinionej przez nikogo śmierci pacjenta, którego operował Wilczur, rozpętuje przeciwko swemu zwierzchnikowi nagonkę prasową. Rozgoryczony i załamany profesor ponownie tym razem już w pełni świadomie opuszcza Warszawę. Wraca do wioski, w której spędził ostatnie lata i znów jak dawniej leczy biednych ludzi. Razem z Wilczurem osiedla się tam zakochana w nim młoda lekarka Łucja... Czy życie z dala od wielkomiejskich intryg stanie się dla Rafała Wilczura skutecznym lekiem na jego depresję i pozwoli mu odnaleźć utracony sens życia? Profesor Wilczur to znakomita sensacyjno-obyczajowa historia z wątkami miłosnymi.

Souvenirs de la maison des morts

Fiodor M. Dostoevski

Souvenirs de la maison des morts lun des premiers ouvrages documentaires décrivant la gravité de la vie dans le camp. La base de Souvenirs de la maison des morts formait les souvenirs personnels de Fyodor Mikhailovitch Dostoievski, qui, apres sa condamnation dans le cas des Petrashevites, avait consacré quatre ans de sa vie aux travaux forcés. Gryachnikov a été condamné a dix ans de travaux forcés pour le meurtre de sa femme. Il réside dans une colonie située dans une petite ville sibérienne.

Short Stories. 18961922

Lucy Maud Montgomery

Lucy Maud Montgomery, called Maud by family and friends and publicly known as L.M. Montgomery, was a Canadian author best known for a series of novels beginning with Anne of Green Gables, published in 1908. Anne of Green Gables was an immediate success. Montgomery published some 20 novels as well as 500 short stories and poems before her death in 1942. Because many of the novels were set on Prince Edward Island, Canada and the Canadian province became literary landmarks. She was awarded Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1935. This book contains Lucy Maud Montgomerys short stories from the year 1896 to 1922. This great collection is full of her usual assortment of quirky, down-home, loyal, and loveable characters with honest and heart-warming stories.

Tales of Hearsay

Joseph Conrad

This collection of four stories. One of the stories is Prince Roman. It tells about the Polish people and their hero. The conversation was about aristocracy. How did this discredited item come about? However, neither the great Florentine artist, who did not close his eyes at death while thinking about his city, nor Saint Francis, who blessed the city of Assisi with his last breath, were barbarians.

Smoke Bellew

Jack London

The famous cycle of novels and short stories by the American writer Jack London is a peculiar and unique painting of life in inhuman conditions, where people still manage to remain human beings. The story is about a man who found the courage, courage and power to exchange the clerks prosperous, but dull and boring life for danger, the exciting and fascinating fate of an adventurer in the wild lands of the Northern Way. The whole North knew him under the name Smoke Bellew.

The Black Flame

Stanley G. Weinbaum

When The Black Flame was first published in 1939, Stanley G. Weinbaum had already been dead for three years. This novel contains of two short novels: Dawn of Flame and The Black Flame. Both are very similar stories, the reason for that is that Weinbaum had not released the first one and reworked it into the longer second part. The story itself is a weird SciFi love story set in a very distant future. Mankind had nearly become extinct, but recovers to a good number by the help of scientists who also discover the secret of stopping people from aging and dieing.

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...

The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders

Daniel Defoe

Written in a time when criminal biographies enjoyed great success, Daniel Defoes The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders (aka Moll Flanders) details the life of the irresistible Moll and her struggles through poverty and sin in search of property and power. Born in Newgate prison and abandoned six months later, Moll Flanders drive to find and hold on to a secure place in society propels her through incest, adultery, bigamy, prostitution and a resourceful career as a thief before her crimes catch up with her, and she is transported to the colony of Virginia in the New World. The bawdy story of Moll Flanders vividly illustrates Defoes themes of social mobility and predestination, sin, redemption, reward and womans struggle for independence.

The Bishop and Other Stories

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

One of the last stories of Chekhov. This is the tragedy of a representative of the intelligentsia, whose pursuit of a very successful church career cuts him off from real human intercourse. Until he faces death, the bishop does not understand that something important is missing in his life, namely, love and respect for himself, and not for his title.