Publisher: 8
The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet
George Bernard Shaw
“The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet” is a play by George Bernard Shaw, an Irish playwright who became the leading dramatist of his generation, and in 1925 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Shaw claimed that "this little play is really a religious tract in dramatic form", the plot being less important than the debate about morality and divinity that occurs between the characters. He was using the folksy language and quirky insights of his principal character to explore his version of the Nietzschean concept that modern morality must move "beyond good and evil". Shaw took the view that God is a process of continual self-overcoming: "if I could conceive a god as deliberately creating something less than himself, I should class him as a cad. If he were simply satisfied with himself, I should class him as a lazy coxcomb. My god must continually strive to surpass himself." When he heard that Leo Tolstoy had shown an interest in the ideas expressed in the play, he wrote a letter to him explaining his views further.
Łukasz Pigoński
When the emperor Valentinian III murdered the general Flavius Aetius, it has been observed that he had 'cut his right hand with his left', and the story of the fall of the 'last Roman' has been put in the greater context of the subsequent dissolution of the Roman Empire in the West. However, a similar deed committed by the emperor Leo in the East in 471, when he ordered the killing of the general Aspar, certainly did not gain such a legendary status. The underappreciated story of the survival of the Eastern Roman Empire in the turmoil of the fifth century is however no less dramatic, and the role that powerful military leaders played in those events was certainly paramount. This publication aims to reconstruct the involvement of the Eastern Roman military elite in various matters of the state on the wider background of political history marked by the reigns of the emperors Theodosius II (408-450), Marcian (450-457), and Leo I (457-474). On its pages, the author presents the history of the numerous wars in which the Empire found itself entangled in during that uneasy time, as well as the periods of conflict and cooperation between the generals and the emperors. The focus is not only on the military elite as a group, but also on outstanding individuals, such as generals Plintha, Flavius Zeno, Aspar or Zeno-Tarasikodissa, the aforementioned emperors and their civilian advisors. The result is a comprehensive study and a novel interpretation of the nearly seven decades of turmoil that, contrary to what happened in the West, curiously did not result in the collapse of the Eastern Roman state; perhaps, as the author argues, in no small part due to those military leaders, who were serving and protecting it.
A. Merritt
The goddess of love and beauty was adrift on an enchanted ocean in a magic world. The myriad forces of satanic evil plagued the vessel of the red-haired, passionate goddess. Only one man, John Kenton, the American adventurer, WWI vet and archaeologist, could save Ishtars priestess from the black magic which divides her world from ours. Written in 1924, The Ship of Ishtar is a universally hailed classic of the fantasy novel by A. Merritt and is, on surface at least, an obvious early product of Pulps Golden Age. Merritt was influential upon the science fiction and fantasy world primarily through the imaginative power he displayed in the creation of desirable alternative worlds and realities.
Zane Grey
This is a small baseball story about a good young man who does his best to make a living. He has a widow and brother with disabilities. An interesting understanding of the history of early baseball. A bit of romance, a bit of an intrigue, basically a baseball and a pure search for a place in life. It was first published in 1909.
Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
A slow paced story of love and self-sacrifice with thoughtful character development. In this novel, the heroine Sylvia is on the verge of receiving a large and unexpected inheritance. But soon an unexpected discovery leads to unexpected consequences as Sylvia dives deeper into family secrets.
Arthur J. Rees
Another classic book of murder mystery and mayhem skillfully written with an in depth journey to find out who really did the evil deed and why. The Shrieking Pit is one of Arthur Reess earlier works. American private detective Grant Colwyn is on a leisurely holiday in a fashionable seaside hotel in Norfolk when one morning during breakfast the strange behavior of one of the other guests catches his attention. The young man later leaves the hotel without paying his bill, and turns up in a nearby hamlet in the Norfolk marshes where he takes lodgings at the village inn. The next day, another guest at the inn is found dead, and the young man is missing. Can Colwyn sort out the mystery and prove the young mans innocence one way or the other?
E. Phillips Oppenheim
Young Maurice Teyl, just turned 21, shy, non-drinker, non-smoker and the richest man in America, has been raised by his rigid Grandmother on a remote ranch in California but he shuns the limelight. So when a world tour is arranged by his guardian he is none too keen. He misses his train to begin the jaunt and meets up with a young English actress, Lucy Compston, and so begins a friendship and the slight deception, as he does not want her to know exactly who he is. He then goes undercover and forgoes his millionaire status in order to try and win her favor. Love, transatlantic voyages, Paris, and London ensue. A 1941 novel by Edward Phillips Oppenheim, with touches of humor, and consistent characters.
Edgar Wallace
The Companions of the Ace High are a group of aviators, each of whom has his own reason to hate Germans. The groups founder, Dexter, whose wife was driven mad when a German submarine attacked a liner on which she was travelling, dedicates himself to the destruction of Germany. He uses his wealth to establish a base of operations in the small republic of San Romino on the northern border of Italy. From this base the Companions of the Ace High pursue and kill Germans, their spies and sympathizers. Another breathtaking work by the master of mystery Edgar Wallace. As the novel is rather short and quite fast-paced with a lot of scenery-changes and adventures, this nice.