The Admirable Carfew

Edgar Wallace

Carfew was an erratic genius, with a horror of anything that had the appearance of discipline, order, or conventional method. So it was with some luck that there was a train disaster while he was working in the newspaper office of The Megaphone. He was dispatched to the scene and came back triumphant: The Spaniard is a fake! shouted Carfew. He had forgotten all about the railway accident. Shortly thereafter, so would his editor. The Admirable Carfew is a collection of loosely linked short stories. The slowly developing fortunes of a young entrepreneur, trying his hand at various deals, from stock dealing to theatre ownership and just managing to scrap through.

Ferragus. Chief of the Devorants

Honoré de Balzac

Ferragus is an 1833 novel by French author Honoré de Balzac and included in the Scenes de la vie parisienne section of his novel sequence La Comédie humaine. It is part of his trilogy Histoire des treize: Ferragus is the first part, the second is La Duchesse de Langeais and the third is The Girl with the Golden Eyes. A captivating story about human emotions and relations, set in the year 1820. Balzac narrates the tale of a man who suspects his wife of infidelity. He shows how relationships can suffer through miscommunication. Balzac proves himself as an author above par by his insightful exploration of the fear of social failure and the way it defines and governs the pattern of human life. A classic tale loved by many for generations, a great addition to the collection.

Plays

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Chekhov extracts from his everyday life the themes of frustration that apply to all of us the difficulty of creating a happy existence, problems of love, the extinction of hope. His pyems are full of tragedy. The theme of the suffering of the current generation. While he hopes the next generation will have a better life. In almost all the plays there is an alcoholic, unrequited love, unhappy marriage, people are irresponsible financially.

Found Dead

Fred M. White

Found Dead is the story of Sir John Mortmain, who was a bum. He was a rich man, owning one of the best estates in North Devon. He was also one of the best novlist in his early years and almost made a name for himself. In a sense, he was quite popular, and yet there was a strange sensation of the abyss between him and the locals.

Ojciec Goriot

Honoriusz Balzak

Powieść Ojciec Goriot jest powszechnie uznawana za najważniejsze dokonanie Balzaka. Jej akcja rozgrywa się w Paryżu w 1819 r. Ukazuje losy trzech bohaterów: zaślepionego miłością do swoich córek starca Goriot, tajemniczego kryminalisty ukrywającego się jako Vautrin i naiwnego studenta prawa, Eugeniusza Rastignaka. W pensjonacie mieszczącym się przy paryskiej ulicy Neuve-Sainte-Genevieve mieszkają student prawa Eugeniusz de Rastignac, tajemniczy propagandzista Vautrin i emerytowany producent makaronu Jan Joachim Goriot. Ten ostatni często pada ofiarą żartów ze strony innych mieszkańców pensjonatu, którzy szybko odkrywają, że zbankrutował on, by wesprzeć swoje dwie dobrze wydane za mąż córki. Rastignaka, który przeprowadził się do Paryża z południa Francji, pociąga klasa wyższa. Ma problemy z dopasowaniem się do niej, ale jest prowadzony przez swoją kuzynkę, wicehrabinę Madame de Beauséant. Rastignac zdobywa względy jednej z córek Goriota, Delfiny de Nucingen. W międzyczasie Vautrin próbuje przekonać go do zdobycia panny Wiktoryny Taillefer, której dostęp do rodzinnej fortuny blokuje jedynie brat. Proponuje Rastignakowi otwarcie drogi przez zabicie brata w pojedynku. Rastignac odmawia wzięcia udziału w realizacji planu, ale wysłuchuje lekcji Vautrina na temat wyższej warstwy. Wkrótce potem mieszkańcy pensjonatu odkrywają, że Vautrin to poszukiwany przez policję mistrz zbrodni znany jako Ołży-Śmierć. Goriot, przeciwny tyrańskiej kontroli, jaką mąż sprawuje nad jedną z jego córek, Delfiną, sprzyja zainteresowanemu nią Rastignakowi...

The Spy. A Tale of the Neutral Ground

James Fenimore Cooper

Inspired by accusations of venality leveled at the men who captured Major Andre (Benedict Arnolds co-conspirator, executed for espionage in 1780), Coopers novel centers on Harry Birch, a common man wrongly suspected by well-born Patriots of being a spy for the British. Even George Washington, who supports Birch, misreads the man, and when Washington offers him payment for information vital to the Patriots cause, Birch scorns the money and asserts that his action were motivated not by financial reward, but by his devotion to the fight for independence. Peopled with memorable characters, some of them real life heroes like George Washington, The Spy by James Fenimore Cooper is a great blend of fact and historical fiction, constructed on a magnificent scale.

The Return of Bulldog Drummond

H.C. McNeile

A stranger comes to the house of detective Hugh Bulldog Drummond asking for help. Hugh is always ready to get down to business. However, two overseers abruptly appear, asking about a man named Morris, the famous assassin who escaped from Dartmoor. The detective says that they are looking for the wrong man and helps the criminal to hide. So who is this stranger?

The Wolf-Leader

Alexandre Dumas

During the absolutism in France, the young clog-maker Thibaudt has a deep desire to belong to the aristocracy. One day he saves the life of a wolf, who fled from the baron Jean de Vez and his hunting party. A while later Thibaudt imagine his amazement: the wolf transformed himself into a human and offers him a pact. The wolf promises to grant Thibaults wishes in exchange for a hair on his head. As Thibault wishes harm upon more and more people, the hairs on his head become red and wiry. Thibaults life only gets worse, however; he is able to take revenge on his enemies, but the villagers suspect him to be a werewolf. The Wolf-Leader, a novel by Alexandre Dumas, was originally published in 1857. In the lengthy but entertaining introduction, Dumas explains that the novel is based on folktales he grew up hearing in his hometown of Villers-Cotterts. This particular tale was told to him by a gamekeeper who often took him hunting as a young man. The novel contains elements of horror, fantasy, and science fiction, yet it times is also quite comic.