The Last Days of Pompeii

Edward Bulwer-Lytton

The Last Days of Pompeii is a love story set in that Roman town just before the famous eruption of Mount Vesuvius buried it and most of its citizens in ash. It draws a vivid portrait of the lifestyle of the Imperial Romans, their daily baths, symposia, and gladiatorial entertainments, their religious practices and their homes while presenting a busy plot full of decadent, diabolical seducers, religious fanatics, and glutinous parasites.The novel itself tells the story of the Athenian Glaucus, his love, the beautiful Ione, and a blind flower-girl Nydia, who is secretly in love with Glaucus. Threatening the love of Glaucus and Ione is Iones guardian, the decadent and deceitful Egyptian Arbaces, who lusts after Ione himself. An amazing historical-fiction novel, set out in a highly elaborate exquisite language.

Legiony

Henryk Sienkiewicz

Akcja powieści toczy się w czasach wojen napoleońskich na ziemiach polskich zaboru pruskiego oraz we Włoszech, gdzie walczą polskie legiony, na których czele stoi generał Jan Henryk Dąbrowski. Marek Kwiatkowski i Stanisław Cywiński to para przyjaciół. Marek jest synem ubogiego leśnika, a Stanisław sierotą pochodzącym ze szlacheckiego rodu (opiekę nad nim i jego majątkiem sprawuje stryj szambelan). Młodzieńcy mimo młodego wieku brali przed kilku laty udział w walkach insurekcji kościuszkowskiej. Teraz postanawiają zaciągnąć się do polskich legionów, które tworzą się we Włoszech i walczą u boku Napoleona Bonapartego przeciwko Austrii.

Записки на манжетах (Notatki na mankietach)

Михаил Афанасиевич Булгаков, Michaił Afanasjewicz Bułhakow

«Записки на манжетах» 2013 частично автобиографическая повесть Михаила Булгакова. Основным мотивом «Записок на манжетах» стала проблема отношений автора с властью. В повести достаточно подробно описана жизнь Булгакова на Кавказе и первые месяцы его пребывания в Москве.В этой книге объединены лучшие рассказы М.А.Булгакова, среди которых «Красная корона», «Китайская история», «Спиритический сеанс» и другие, а также знаменитый автобиографический цикл «Записки на манжетах». Именно в этих произведениях впервые появляются темы и сюжетные линии, которые писатель будет развивать далее в своих романах и пьесах. «Записки на манжетах» местами перекликаются с «Запискам сумасшедшего» Гоголя, а действительность как грань между реальностью и фантазией станет излюбленным художественным стилем Булгакова.

A Tale of Two Cities. A Story of the French Revolution

Charles Dickens

A Tale of Two Cities is the second historical novel by Charles Dickens and it is one of his most tragic works. The plot centers on the years leading up to the French Revolution and culminates in the Jacobin Reign of Terror. The novel, first and foremost, follows several characters including Charles Darnay, a French once-aristocrat who falls victim to the indiscriminate wrath of the revolution despite his virtuous nature, and Sydney Carton, a dissipated British barrister who endeavors to redeem his ill-spent life out of his unrequited love for Darnays wife Lucie Manette. Other major characters include Dr. Manette (Lucies father), who was unjustly imprisoned in the infamous Bastille for many years under a lettre de cachet, and Madame Defarge, a female revolutionary with an implacable grudge against the aristocratic Evremonde dynasty. Here we see how general people can overthrow a government if they are tormented continuously. At the same time, this novel tells a love story too with special emphasis on the sacrificial attribute of Sydney Cartons character.

Death of an Airman

Christopher St. John Sprigg

When George Furnace, instructor of the Baston Aero Club, is found dead in the wreck of his crashed plane, everyone assumes it was a tragic accident, even though he was a skilled airman. An Australian visitor to the Aero Club, Edwin Marriott, Bishop of Cootamundra, suspects that the true story is more complicated. Could this be a dramatic suicide – or even murder? The intrepid Bishop and Inspector Bray of Scotland Yard make an appealing pair of detectives, and ultimately a cunning criminal scheme is uncovered. Death of an Airman is an enjoyable and unorthodox whodunit from a writer whose short life was as remarkable as that of any of his fictional creations.

What Men Live By and Other Tales

Leo Tolstoy

A small work describes the whole life, the meaning of all life on this Earth. The point is that people live by God, people love, they have a heart, they live not for their needs, not for their own good. And it simply struck the appearance, the rebuke of the Angel, how he watched everything, how he smiled at the hearty people who have faith. As a person blossoms after doing good, and faith becomes even stronger.

The Sinister Man

Edgar Wallace

A mystery novel classic by Edgar Wallace with so many twists and turns it becomes utterly baffling by the end. Superintendent Wills investigates the murder of a man found floating in the River Thames, it appears the victim was a archeology Oxford professor, murdered over three small fragments of an ancient text, working on the deciphering of some very rare tablets which if they fall into the wrong hands could cause major problems for one Asian country. He had previously been studying an archeological artefact known as the Kytang Wafers, and this is now missing. Highly recommended for people who like to treat a mystery story as a solvable riddle!

The Room with the Tassels

Carolyn Wells

It had seemed an idyllic way for a group of wealthy New Yorkers to spend a summer month, researching the supernatural in a reputed haunted mansion in the depths of Vermonts Green Mountains. That is until two of their number are mysteriously struck down at afternoon tea. Could the supernatural be at the heart of these deaths? Or did humans do the deed. This is the riddle that the famed detective Pennington Wise must unravel as they tries to discover what happened in... The Room with the Tassels. The Room with the Tassels marks the debut of occult detective Pennington Penny Wise and his female sidekick Zizi. Carolyn Wells created this younger crime fighting duo after the success of her Fleming Stone books. As her twelfth mystery novel, The Room with the Tassels marks a maturity of writing from the author of The Clue.