Around the World in Eighty Days

Jules Verne

The hero of the novel, Phileas Fogg, made a bet that he would be able to circumnavigate the globe from west to east in no more than 80 days, given the technical capabilities of 19th century transport. Foggs journey begins in England, and then he goes to France, Italy, Egypt, India, China, Japan and America. In India, Fogg and his servant, Jean Passepartout, save the beautiful Audu, who is about to be burned alive with the body of her late husband. Subsequently, she becomes Foggs wife. Detective Fix fixes the journey: the police are convinced that it was Fogg who stole a large sum from the Bank of England, and betting is an opportunity to evade punishment.

The House of the Dead. Or, Prison Life in Siberia

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky

Aleksandr Petrovich lives through a spiritual re-awakening that culminates with his release from the prison camp. The narrator has been sentenced to penalty deportation to Siberia and ten years of hard labor for murdering his wife. Published in 1861, House of the Dead is a semi-autobiographical work based upon Dostoevskys exile to Siberia where he was punished with hard labor after he was initially convicted to be punished by death by firing-squad for his involvement in the Petrashevsky Circle. This experience allowed him to describe with great authenticity the conditions of prison life and the characters of the convicts. Dostoyevsky skillfully portrays the inmates of the prison with sympathy for their plight, and admiration for their energy, ingenuity and talent. The book is a loosely-knit collection of facts, events and philosophical discussion organized by theme rather than as a continuous story.

Szatan i Judasz (Tom 9). Szatan i Judasz. Jasna Skała

Karol May

Szatan i Judasz. Jasna Skała to dziewiąta część z 11-tomowego cyklu przygodowego autorstwa Karola Maya. Grupa dzielnych bohaterów odbywa wspólnie szalone podróże, aby mierzyć się z wszelkiej maści niegodziwcami, walczyć o sprawiedliwość i odnajdywać zaginione skarby. Dzięki pracy zespołowej, zaufaniu i wzajemnej pomocy udaje im się wyjść obronną ręką z najgorszych opresji.

Typee. A Peep at Polynesian Life

Herman Melville

Basically, it turns out that the Typee tribe untouched by civilization is children of nature, surrounded by the care and warmth of their native land, spending their easy days in the shade of a palm tree, eating the fruits of breadfruit, bananas and coconuts. Here, Melville begins to compare civilized countries with a clearly backward society and concludes that the former are at a lower stage of development. And the natives with their cannibalism and promiscuity are in many ways more advanced and healthy people in social and psychological terms.

Cierpienia wynalazcy

Honoriusz Balzak

W Angouleme Dawid Séchard kupuje od ojca nieuznającego prostego przekazywania z pokolenia na pokolenia drukarnię, z zamiarem udoskonalenia panującego w niej sposobu produkcji. Wkrótce udaje mu się poważnie ulepszyć pracę w swojej drukarni. Jednak jego naiwność sprawiła, że drogą misternej intrygi został oszukany przez konkurentów braci Cointet i wtrącony do więzienia. Zrozpaczony Lucjan, czując się współwinnym za los przyjaciela, postanawia popełnić samobójstwo, topiąc się w stawie. Po drodze spotyka jednak tajemniczego księdza, Hiszpana Carlosa Herrerę (w rzeczywistości Jacques Collin, znany już z Ojca Goriot), który odwodzi go od tego kroku. Namawia Lucjana, by wrócił do Paryża i na nowo spróbował wspiąć się na szczyty towarzyskiej drabiny, jednak za cenę całkowitego posłuszeństwa jego radom. Lucjan zgadza się, wysyła Dawidowi pieniądze potrzebne do uregulowania wszystkich wierzytelności, po czym wraca do stolicy. Cierpienia wynalazcy to klasyka twórczości autora.

Told in the East

Talbot Mundy

Guards, go out! he ordered. Twelve men went out one by one from the house he had left. They seemed to feel more warm than Brown did, because they fell into the sword of Brown. In this nameless sanatorium there was no flag, and no flag was there, so the sword, without her nail, performed duties, pointing down to the ground as the totem pole of the empire. Brown was stuck there, like the Boanerges sandals, and there he stayed from the sunrise to the sunset, so that he would be replaced by whoever dared to do it, at his peril.

Sen srebrny Salomei. Romans dramatyczny w 5 aktach

Juliusz Słowacki

Dramat Juliusza Słowackiego nawiązujący do wydarzeń konfederacji barskiej, z których autor wysnuwa wnioski historiozoficzne dotyczące dziejów narodu polskiego. Osią fabuły jest bunt chłopstwa ukraińskiego przeciw szlachcie polskiej i polskiemu klerowi, zwany koliszczyzną. Sprowokowany prawdopodobnie przez Rosję odznaczał się wyjątkowym okrucieństwem.

The Call of the Wild

Jack London

The Call of the Wild is a touching novel about a great friendship between a dog and a human. The novel follows up the life of the dog Buck since he lived in sunny California all the way until the day he was kidnapped and tossed into the chaos of the Klondike Gold Rush and the brutal realities of frontier life. Buck changes hands a number of times before landing in the kindly hands of John Thornton who took care of him with great tenderness while not expecting anything in return. The novel carries a high moral, and the author tells us through it that we should never back down because then we will experience the disappointment of failure. However, it also has significant philosophical underpinnings, which strengthen the book and undermine some of its weaknesses.