The Pilot. A Tale of the Sea

James Fenimore Cooper

In The Pilot (1824), James Fenimore Cooper invented a new literary genre: the sea novel. Bold, vigorous, original, it is a tale of high adventure that vividly captures the majesty and power of the seafaring life. Cooper drew on his direct knowledge of ships and sailors to present a truer picture of life on the sea than had ever before achieved in literature. As a boy of seventeen he had experienced the life of a common seaman, learned the craft of sailing, encountered terrifying storms, was chased by pirates, and watched the impressment of crew members by a British man-of-war.The Pilot is loosely based upon stories of John Paul Joness daring hit-and-run tactics during the Revolutionary War. The shadowy hero, modeled on Jones, leads a squadron of the infant American navy in a series of raids on the English coast, braving fierce storms and the guns of hostile warships, yet never revealing his identity. In this novel Cooper introduced the character of the old salt, the seasoned deckhand happy only aboard ship.

Wyspa skarbów

Robert Louis Stevenson

Powieść przygodowa, której głównym bohaterem jest Jim Hawkins. Pewnego dnia wyrusza w emocjonującą wyprawę po wielki skarb kapitana Flinta. Kierując się wytycznymi ze starej mapy, płynie ku marzeniom i przygodzie. Na tym samym pokładzie płyną dawni druhowie legendarnego kapitana. A oni nie będą chcieli podzielić się skarbem. Powieść doczekała się wielu adaptacji filmowych i na stałe weszła do kanonu literatury przygodowej.

The Crimes Club. A Record of Secret Investigations Into Some Amazing Crimes, Mostly Withheld From the Public

William Le Queux

I sometimes despair of the country ever becoming alive to the danger of the unpreparedness of our present position until too late to prevent some fatal catastrophe. This was the keynote of a solemn warning made in the House of Lords by Earl Roberts. His lordship, whilst drawing attention to our present inadequate forces, strongly urged that action should be taken in accordance with the recommendations of the Elgin Commission that no military system could be considered satisfactory which did not contain powers of expansion outside the limit of the regular forces of the Crown.

Lavinia. An Old Tale

George Sand

Ce livre décrit les magnifiques paysages des Piranhas et montre lhabileté habile de George Sand écrire sur les relations. Cette nouvelle, située dans la France du XIXe siecle, montre lhérone dune remarquable endurance émotionnelle. Lavinia elle-mme nest plus nave, mais reste une beauté sombre.

The Black Box

E. Phillips Oppenheim

The Black Box is a series of loosely connected short stories detailing the adventures of Sanford Quest, worlds greatest criminologist. The story starts off in New York City, travels to England, Egypt, and around the world to San Francisco, then into the wild west of New Mexico. There are two main plot lines which merge into one along with romance mixed in with the ever present danger. Melodramatic, episodic, supernatural. Its all great fun and Oppenheim keeps the action moving along swiftly, as he always did. Wonderful entertainment and highly entertaining. If you havent discovered the joys of Oppenheims mysteries there is a good place to start. Highly recommended!

The Cossacks. A Tale of 1852

Leo Tolstoy

The main character of the story, Dmitry Olenin, is close to the author both in spiritual experience and in moral aspirations. Like Tolstoy, he finds himself in the Caucasus in an attempt to start a new life, "in which there will be no more mistakes, there will be no remorse, and probably there will be only happiness." But instead of imagining paintings on the way to the Caucasus in the spirit of Russian romantic literature, the hero of the story had to see real life and feel like a stranger in a world untouched by civilization.

The Light That Failed

Rudyard Kipling

Kipling wrote the first novel, The Light That Failed in many ways an autobiographical novel, having already gained fame with his poems and stories. In addition to the novel and selected stories from collections of different years, the book includes the story Brave Captains - about the romance and hardships of sea travel, the formation of the character of a young man, about metamorphoses that occur in people under the influence of merciless circumstances...

Befehl aus dem Dunkel

Hans Dominik

Professor Allgermissen löst das Problem der Gedankenübertragung. Forscher sind mit Hilfe von bestimmten Wellen in der Lage Gedanken zu lesen und zu beeinflussen. Politisch verfeindete Systeme machen sich die moderne Technik zu Nutze, um ihre Gegner auszuspionieren und gelangen somit an die unbeschränkte im geheimen geführte Macht. Professor wird jedoch wahnsinnig und stirbt daran. Einen Teil seiner Erfindung gelangt in die Hände des verbrecherischen Abtes Turi Chan, der mit dieser Macht einen Krieg der gelben Rasse gegen die Weißen entfesselt, der andere Teil in den Besitz des deutschen Erfinders Georg Astenryk. Sie werden zu heimlichen Herrschern über ihre Mitmenschen, sie bekämpfen einander mit allen Mitteln. Ein Kampf um die Weltherrschaft und das eigene Leben beginnt.