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.

Barnaby Rudge. A Tale of the Riots of Eighty

Charles Dickens

Based around the Gordon riots of 1780 as seen through the eyes of the simple but good-hearted Barnaby Rudge. This is Dickens fifth novel and it was his first attempt to write an historical novel and was inspired by the Walter Scotts novels. It is the most neglected, but most rewarding tale of treachery, forbidden love, abduction and the dangerous power of the mob. Barnaby Rudge is a half-witted young innocent simpleton who is devoted to his talkative raven, Grip. When he gets caught up in the mayhem of the Gordon riots and a mysterious unsolved murder, his life is put in jeopardy. And, as London erupts into riot, Barnaby Rudge himself struggles to escape the curse of his own past. With its dramatic descriptions of public violence and private horror, its strange secrets and ghostly doublings, Barnaby Rudge is a powerful, disturbing blend of historical realism and Gothic melodrama.

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.

The Master Key. An Electrical Fairy Tale

L. Frank Baum

The Master Key: An Electrical Fairy Tale was one of Baums earliest full length fantasy books for children, published in 1901 just one year after The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Rob Joslyn is in most respects an ordinary American teenager; his one distinguishing peculiarity is his passion for the new science and craft of electricity. He has his own laboratory in the attic of the family home, and has rigged the house with his electrical gadgets. One day, amid the bewildering cluster of circuits and wires in his workshop, Rob causes a blinding flash of light from which emerges the Demon of Electricity. A young boy receives a series of gifts, electrical gifts, and has a series of unusual adventures. Rob travels the world, rendering assistance to European heads of state and narrowly escaping disaster at the hands of primitive cannibals, Turks and Tatars, pirates, and evil scientists who try to steal his inventions.

The Pearl Lagoon

Charles Nordhoff

Very engaging tale of the South Seas, by the author of Mutiny on the Bounty, who was quite familiar with the area. This book has the same seafaring merit but is set in the pearl atolls of the southwestern Pacific. Into The Pearl Lagoon Charles Nordhoff wove his love and knowledge of the South Pacific islands and their people. It is his only story written through the eyes of young people. It is an adventure story about a California young boy, Charlie Selden who leaves his fathers ranch and is taken by his sailor uncle to the South Pacific on a pearl-hunting trip: encounters with sharks and pirates ensue. The Pearl Lagoon is an adventure book for boys especially, furnished with semi-autobiographical details. The story rings true today and is in all ways entertaining!

The Way of These Women

E. Phillips Oppenheim

England has not been invited to attend a conference of European nations in the Hague. Some think war is about to break out. The Vanished Messenger presents the international intrigue and conspiracy of the Powers against England to separate her from her colonies. Mr. John P. Dunster, an American, is traveling to the Hague with an important document that may prevent the outbreak of war when he mysteriously disappears after a train wreck in England. Richard Hamel is asked by the British government to attempt to solve the mystery of Dunsters disappearance and prevent the outbreak of war in Europe. Intriguing spy novel with a murder, espionage and dramatic denouement nicely plotted and fully developed characters.

Au Bonheur des Dames

Émile Zola

Cest lhistoire de lentrepreneur Octave Mouret, qui a créé un grand magasin florissant dans le centre de Paris. Il existe une technologie de pointe qui vous permet dattirer des acheteurs. Denise est une vendeuse discrete qui essaie désespérément de sortir de la pauvreté et de nourrir ses deux freres. Il y a un prince, Cendrillon et de nombreux autres personnages magnifiquement écrits.