The Benson Murder Case

S.S. Van Dine

The Benson Case is the first case, the first detective from the Philo Vens series. Again, we are dealing with an amateur detective who has his own Watson and Lestrade, a first-person narrator who is present at all events and a good acquaintance of Vance, the New York City Police Attorney Markham. In this book, he still does not particularly believe in Vances ability to psychologically unwind potential victims of murder suspects.

Fentons Quest

Mary Elizabeth Braddon

Women are forced to marry and forced to marry for money, not love. As in all her books, the basis is a mystery, and, like everything I read, for the reader, the screaming is obvious what is actually happening. But this does not detract from the expectations of history. The characters are well drawn, each with a distinctive style.

The Good Soldier

Ford Madox Hueffer

The Good Soldier (1915) by Ford Madox Ford is a modernist classic, an intricately worked novel. It tells the stories of two outwardly happy couples who meet at a health spa in Germany just before the start of the First World War, and whose loveless, adultery-ridden relationships are strained and gradually disintegrate, with tragic consequences. The story is narrated by the character John Dowell, half of one of the couples whose dissolving relationships form the subject of the novel.

Chronicles of Melhampton

E. Phillips Oppenheim

In the sleepy little Devonshire town of Melhampton, the lives of the village stalwarts are revealed in this charming collection of tales by Oppenheim. Mr Tidd, the manager of the local bank branch, has invested his life and savings in the education of his daughter, but has dipped into the banks funds to maintain appearances. On the eve of quarterly bank examiners visit, he is confronted with guilt and exposure. In another tale, the town veterinarian is conflicted about his desire to marry the serving girl at the local Melhampton Arms. Each of these stories presents a social or financial quandary typical of England at the time.

La Comédie humaine. Volume I. Scenes de la vie privée. Tome I

Honoré de Balzac

Cest une histoire sur la façon dont, en contractant un mariage inégal, des personnes risquent de se retrouver dans une situation o ce mariage mme devient un fardeau et une torture. Balzac raconte lhistoire sans blâmer ni épargner personne. Ici et les parents qui ont vécu une vie vide, ici et Théodore, qui, la recherche de divertissement chic, jette sa jeune femme dans langoisse. Voici Augustine elle-mme qui, elle essaie de régler son malheur.

Benita. An African Romance

H. Rider Haggard

The main task of the heroes is to find the treasure. The trader heard the legend of the great treasure buried by the Portuguese party for hundreds of years before the last source tried to find it with the help of a mesmericist. The child was put into a trance and told his mesmerists details about the adventures and death of the unfortunate Portuguese men and women. With many other details, the boy so accurately described the burial of the great treasure and its exact position that the white man and the mesmerist could find the place where he was.

Off on a Comet. Or, Hector Servadac

Jules Verne

Jules Vernes novel Hector Servadac tells about the adventures of the captain of the French troops and his friends, who, as a result of an unprecedented disaster, fell on a fragment of the globe captured by a flying comet. Hector, his orderly, the Russian Count Timashev, a colony of English soldiers from Gibraltar, an Italian girl with a goat, a Jewish money-lender and another odd scientist are forced to organize their life in new conditions. The book contains a lot of information on astronomy, corresponding to the level of the second half of the XIX century.

Ben Hur. Opowiadanie historyczne z czasów Jezusa Chrystusa

Lewis Wallace

Juda Ben Hur jest bogatym żydowskim księciem, kupcem z Jerozolimy. Przyjaźni się z rzymskim żołnierzem, Messalą, którego zna od dziecka. Messala obecnie dowódca legionów rzymskich w Judei pragnie zdławić żydowską rebelię. Prosi o pomoc Ben Hura. Ten jednak odmawia udziału w bratobójczej walce. Wkrótce obok domu Ben Hura odbywa się uroczysta parada na cześć nowego namiestnika Judei. Siostra Ben Hura przypadkowo strąca dachówkę, która pechowo trafia w namiestnika. O czyn ten zostaje oskarżony Juda. Sądzi go sam Messala. Chociaż wie, że to był tylko wypadek, wysyła Judę na galery, a jego matkę i córkę do więzienia. Ben Hur poprzysięga zemstę... Jedna z największych powieści wszech czasów, pełna porywającej akcja, scen lirycznych i dramatycznych, w której wątki polityczne splatają się z miłosnymi.