The Slave of Silence

Fred M. White

It is difficult to make a choice and make the right choice. Our hero was in such a situation. Helpless businessman forced to sell his daughter to marry. Though his daughter is against this idea, because she does not like her husband at all. But she must for the sake of her father and his money. Will she be in such slavery all her life?

Vendetta

Honoré de Balzac

Fans of Romeo and Juliet will delight in the novella Vendetta, Honoré de Balzacs unique take on the timeless theme of star-crossed lovers. This short novel is a story of love and revenge, dealing with the vendetta between two families of Corsican origin, set in early 19th century Paris just after the fall of Napoleon. It relates the tragic fate of Ginevra Piombo, the daughter of proud Corsican immigrants, who has the misfortune of falling in love with another Corsican Luigi Porta. When it becomes known that Luigi is the sole survivor of a massacre in which the rest of his family were the victims of a bloody vendetta with Ginevras family, Ginevras father Bartolomeo is determined to complete the act of vengeance by having him killed. But Ginevra refuses to yield to her fathers demands and she and Luigi are married...

Die Verwandlung

Franz Kafka

Gregor Samsa wacht eines Morgens als Käfer auf kein Alptraum, sondern traurige Realität. In Tiergestalt hält Gregor Samsa der Welt den Spiegel vor. Trotz seines friedfertigen und unschuldigen Lebens als Ungeziefer wird er von seiner Familie verstoßen und schließlich in den Tod getrieben. Kafkas Verwandlung ist die groteske Parabel einer stillen Revolte gegen die Unmenschlichkeit. Ein schweigender Protestschrei, der am Ende ohnmächtig bleibt, aber bis heute eines der aufregendsten Werke der Weltliteratur.

Arundel

E.F. Benson

Arundel is the name of the country house where most of the events take place. Elizabeth, like every good girl heroine of Benson, is completely devoted to her father... but not as much as it may seem. Many heroes are filled with negative characteristics. They are mean and cunning. Although this is a novel, but there are echoes of comedy.

Gniazdo Białozora

Maria Rodziewiczówna

Mieszkańcy zubożałych kresowych dworków na Podlasiu po odzyskaniu niepodległości muszą zmierzyć się z idącymi od wschodu bolszewikami. Łączą swe wysiłki dla osiągniecia jednego celu zachowania tego, co dopiero odzyskali.

The Comedy of Errors

William Shakespeare

The comedy is surprisingly lively, sparkling and witty, despite the fact that the plot is set by conventions that seem to be implausible: two pairs of separated twins, and even with the same names, because of which there are ridiculous confusions. Here, there is the atmosphere of the Italian Renaissance, and the topicality of the Shakespearean era, and some special Greek flavor, and a little lyricism, and satire on family customs, and the touchingness of meeting and reuniting family people, and all this is so naturally intertwined that its just a delight.

Nowele i opowiadania pozytywistyczne. Wybór

Praca zbiorowa

Najsłynniejsi pisarze polskiego pozytywizmu Maria Konopnicka, Eliza Orzeszkowa, Bolesław Prus i Henryk Sienkiewicz mają w swoim dorobku oprócz licznych powieści także setki nowel i opowiadań. Utwory te poruszały aktualne problemy, opisywały życie środowisk zacofanych, nawoływały do poprawy warunków na wsiach. Te zwięzłe, jednowątkowe utwory wypowiadały protesty pisarzy, którzy starali się w ten sposób walczyć z niesprawiedliwością i krzywdą ludzką. Pozytywiści podejmowali próby pracy u podstaw, pragnęli działać na rzecz klas najuboższych. Głoszono również hasła emancypacji kobiet i asymilacji Żydów. Odzwierciedlenie haseł epoki pozytywizmu można było przede wszystkim odnaleźć właśnie w nowelistyce. Utwory typu: Gloria victis, Antek, Sachem, Janko Muzykant czy Nasza szkapa, zebrane w tomie Nowele i opowiadania pozytywistyczne, nie tylko tworzą kanon literatury, lecz także pozwalają zobaczyć, jak bardzo świat zmienił się od drugiej połowy XIX stulecia.

The Glimpses of the Moon

Edith Wharton

Set in the 1920s, Glimpses of the Moon details the romantic misadventures of Nick Lansing and Susy Branch, a couple with the right connections but not much in the way of funds. They are in love and decide to marry, but realize their chances of happiness are slim without the wealth and society that their more privileged friends take for granted. Nick and Susy agree to separate when either encounters a more eligible proposition. Their conditional marriage begins to falter as Susy grows jealous of her husbands attentions to a wealthy young woman and Nick becomes increasingly disgruntled by the moral compromises arising from his wifes social negotiations. An expertly drawn portrait of two young lovers, caught between bright-eyed passion and the bitter allure of wealth.

The Manderpootz Series

Stanley G. Weinbaum

The Manderpootz Series includes the three stories of Stanley G. Weinbaums early science fiction trilogy. He is best known for his short story A Martian Odyssey which has been influencing Science Fiction since it was first published in 1934. Weinbaum is considered the first writer to contrive an alien who thought as well as a human, but not like a human. In a series of comedies featuring the eccentric scientist Professor Manderpootz including the Alternate-History story The Worlds of If, The Ideal and The Point of View he flippantly devised absurdly miraculous Machines. The humorous stories follow the doings of Dixon Wells, a perpetually late playboy who runs afoul of the inventions of his friend and former instructor in Newer Physics, Professor Haskel van Manderpootz, a supremely immodest genius who rates Einstein as his intellectual equal.

Black Jack

Max Brand

"Black Jack" is a grand western adventure story told by a masterful storyteller Max Brand about the son of a murdered bad guy who is raised as a fine gentleman. But, in truth, Terry is the son of the outlaw Black Jack Hollis. The story is about a bet between sister and brother whether genetics is stronger and the child will turn bad like his father or environment shall prove stronger and the child will become an outstanding citizen. As usual, Brands West is peopled with characters from mythology grander and much more eloquent than average dime-novel heroes.

Światła

Maria Rodziewiczówna

Zbiór nowel pisanych przez Marię Rodziewiczównę przede wszystkim w okresie, gdy Polska była pod zaborami. Stąd ich tematem jest często obrona majątku, kultury, języka i dziedzictwa narodowego. W kręgu zainteresowań autorki znajdowała się również emancypacja i oświata wiejskich kobiet. Dzięki epickiemu talentowi autorki odkrywamy świat już nieistniejący, będący częścią naszej bogatej i złożonej historii. Bohaterowie opowieści są jak zawsze u Rodziewiczówny osobami z krwi i kości. Bywają dobrzy albo źli, kochają albo nienawidzą, często nie potrafiąc znaleźć swego miejsca w świecie. Zbiór zawiera utwory: Światła, Złe, Na tokach, Skręt, Wydaleni, Pięć koron, Skrzypek, Surma, Drwal, Siódmy syn, Tajemniczy medalik oraz Wrażenia i przeżycia. Lato 1915.

The Voyages and Adventures of Captain Hatteras

Jules Verne

"The Forward Brig" sailed from Liverpool Port with eighteen crew members on board. But neither during the sailing, nor even for a long time after him, none of them knew the purpose of the voyage, nor even the name of the captain. And only having plunged far into the Arctic waters, the sailors learned that the famous navigator John Hatteras, who set the ambitious task of becoming the first person to reach the North Pole, was leading the expedition.

Sanctuary Island

Edgar Wallace, Robert Curtis

1936. Sanctuary Island is a crime novel by the pioneer of detective fiction Edgar Wallace (an adaption by Robert Curtis). Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace was born in London, England in 1875. He received his early education at St. Peters School and the Board School, but after a frenetic teens involving a rash engagement and frequently changing employment circumstances, Wallace went into the military. He served in the Royal West Kent Regiment in England and then as part of the Medical Staff Corps stationed in South Africa. Over the rest of his life, Wallace produced some 173 books and wrote 17 plays. These were largely adventure narratives with elements of crime or mystery, and usually combined a bombastic sensationalism with hammy violence.

The Turn of the Tide

Fred M. White

An old-fashioned frivolous firm for a long time, which more progressive competitors talk about with good-natured contempt, they were still in the markets of the business world. They called themselves ordinary merchants selling mixed goods from all over the world, and, as people say, Mortimer Croot, the current sole owner, was considered a person of integrity and being. He had been manager and confidential clerk to an ailing owner, and when the latter was no more Croot quite naturally stepped into all there was left of the once great concern, together with the freehold house in Great Bower Street where the business was carried on.

Fraszki

Jan Kochanowski

Jan Kochanowski pisał fraszki przez całe życie. W ciągu całej z górą dwudziestoletniej działalności poety powstało ich ponad trzysta. Fraszka to drobny utwór poetycki wierszem, często o charakterze żartobliwym, oparty na dowcipnym pomyśle. Pierwowzór fraszek w literaturze polskiej dał Mikołaj Rej w Figlikach. Kochanowski ustalił swoimi Fraszkami obowiązujący wzór stylistyczny tego typu utworów. Fraszki Kochanowskiego charakteryzuje duża różnorodność. Są wśród nich utwory żartobliwe, humorystyczne, satyryczne, frywolne, ale także bardzo poważne. Autor przedstawia w nich portreciki swoich znajomych, zdarzenia ze swego życia, scenki obyczajowe. Liczne utwory zawierają rozważania filozoficzne oraz ironiczne refleksje, także na temat własnej twórczości.

Love Eternal

H. Rider Haggard

According to the story of Love Eternal, written by Henry Rider Haggard, love never dies, it is eternal.It is the story of Godfrey Knight, son of a puritanical parson in Essex and Isobel Blake, daughter of a wealthy shipping magnate who grow up together. Father sends Godfrey to Sweden to separate lovers. For the next 23 years, young lovers did not see each other, having only brief meetings in important moments. Is it true that Romeo and Juliets story will repeat?

The Solution of a Remarkable Case

Nick Carter

Carter is probably the most famous private detective after Sherlock Holmes. It has been a character of pulp fiction since 1886 and has appeared in a variety of formats over more than a century. Considered the King of Detectives, he was based out of an apartment on Madison Avenue in New York City and later out of Manchester. The Nick Carter name was treated as a pseudonym, and many of the volumes were written in first person. Nick Carter would go on to become one of the most popular heroes of the 19th and 20th centuries. In The Solution of a Remarkable Case, Nick investigates the mysterious death of popular dancer Eugenie La Verde, who has been brutally strangled in her bed.

Les Confidences dArsene Lupin

Maurice Leblanc

Cest un récit de neuf romans qui sont rassemblés par le narrateur rencontré dans un précédent volume, Arsene Lupin gentleman-cambrioleur. Les neuf nouvelles sont variées et représentent Lupin comme un personnage élégant, qui peut surprendre tout le monde dans une intrigue incroyable. Il nhésite pas aider ceux qui sapparaissent sur son chemin, mais il noublie pas sa part de richesse. Il est lintelligence et la subtilité, un voleur génial, il naccomplit aucun crime, tout est pensé au millimetre pres, ses plans sont savoureux suivre. Toutes les histoires de notre héros lui apportent la réputation et la popularité. Alors, voules vous explorer lunivers dArsene Lupin?

The Live Corpse. A Play in Six Acts

Leo Tolstoy

In the play The Living Corpse, the famous Russian writer L.N. Tolstoy appears as a playwright. It is filled with intense psychological collisions, complex images of heroes, ambiguous and with that vitally revealed throughout the whole story. And, as always, the themes of love, kindness and human destiny are in the foreground. The play is based on real events, it was popular at the beginning of the 20th century, when it was translated into foreign languages, put on stages, filmed.

Her Majestys Minister

William Le Queux

The Ambassadors office was indeed a very thankless one, while my own position as second secretary of the Paris Embassy was a post not to be envied, even though it is popularly supposed to be one of the plums of the diplomatic service. With Paris full of spies endeavouring to discover our secrets and divine our instructions from Downing Street, and the cabinet noir ever at work upon our correspondence, it behoved us to be always on the alert, and to have resort to all manner of ingenious subterfuges in order to combat our persistent enemies.

The Lost Million

William Le Queux

See! Itsits in my kit-bag, over there! The thingthe Thing at which the whole world will stand aghast! The thin, white-faced, grey-bearded man lying on his back in bed roused himself with difficulty, and with skinny finger pointed at his strong but battered old leather bag lying in the corner of the small hotel bedroom.

Roads of Destiny

O. Henry

O. Henrys unique style of writing will introduce you to story filled of mystery, suspense and of course a decision. A decision which will lead a certain main character to three roads of which he must choose from. A collection of 22 short stories: Roads of Destiny, The Guardian of the Accolade, The Discounters of Money, The Enchanted Profile, Next to Reading Matter, Art and the Bronco, Phobe, A Double-dyed Deceiver, The Passing of Black Eagle, A Retrieved Reformation and others. The title story of the volume Roads of Destiny, a story allegorical in nature, deals with that all important moment of choice: the decision to act, speak, or dress in a way which seems to determine the whole course of a life. O. Henry builds his own concept suggesting that the choice is not so much among different fates as among different versions of the same fate.

On the Spot. Violence and Murder in Chicago

Edgar Wallace

Set in Chicago, and written in 1931 by Edgar Wallace, On the Spot truly reflects the horror of gang life in Prohibition Chicago. Tony Perelli, the gang boss, recruits men for his gang and women for his bed with the same ruthlessness and rapidly arranges for their disposal when they become a nuisance. But Minn Lee, the half-Chinese widow, is a little too much for him, and as she gradually learns the extent of his treachery, she plans a revenge... The constant threat of death, the interaction between cops and gangsters, love gone wrong, love gone right, loss of youth, bootlegging, prostitution... its all here and beautifully handled by Edgar Wallace.

A Pair of Blue Eyes. A Novel

Thomas Hardy

The heroine of the novel is a young Elfrid. She can easily charm anyone with the look of her blue eyes. In her life, two appear, a young architect and an experienced writer. Former friends become rivals, and Elfrida is faced with a painful choice.