”Rescue” is not just muscular descriptions of a boiling sea or some kind of intrigue or action. Konrad decisively decides things like lengthy / nuanced conversations. But, as in all his books, „Rescue” is darkly intense, much more happening under the surface than even the characters think. This is not an easy book to concentrate on. Tension, uncertainty about what will happen next, a gloomy atmosphere – all this is alive and overwhelming.
Having returned safely home, Robinson Crusoe marries and starts a family. Peace is not for Robinson, he hardly hangs out in England for several years: thoughts about the island are haunted him day and night. He even buys a farm, intends to engage in rural labor, to which he is so accustomed. After the death of his wife, nothing else keeps him in England, Robinson is overcome by the old wanderlust, and sets out with his faithful companion Friday to see his island once again....
„The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain” is an 1848 ghost story by Charles Dickens. It is the final novella in Dickens’ series of five Christmas Books, the first and best known of which is „A Christmas Carol”. For Victorians these ghost stories began to be associated with Christmas time, and the end of the year. In this story, Dickens narrates the hair-raising experiences of a teacher of chemistry Redlaw. As the protagonist dwells on his past sorrows and mistakes, a phanto...
„The Inheritors” is a little-known book of two main British writers. The plot is based on a political scheme to undermine the British Empire, based on a Congo-like colonial enterprise and manipulated by journalists. The main character claims that she is from the Fourth Dimension and works to replace the human race.
Anyone old enough to have friends they haven’t seen for many years knows how difficult it can be to get everyone together again. And when you do, it’s never quite the same. That’s the theme of „Twenty Years After” (1845), Alexandre Dumas’s sequel to „The Three Musketeers” that is a supreme creation of suspense and heroic adventure. This story follows events in France during La Fronde, during the childhood reign of Louis XIV, and in England near the end of the English Civil ...
Set in Paris during the French Revolution, „The Mesmerist’s Victim” tells the story of two star-crossed lovers whose romance blooms at an extremely inopportune moment in European history. Will they be able to find happiness together, or will they be swallowed up in the tumult of radical political and social change? „The Mesmerist’s Victim” is the second in Dumas’ fictional series on the French Revolution. The story continues the tale where „Memoirs of a Physician” left off....
„The Royal Life Guard – A Historical Romance of the Suppression of the French Monarchy” is a historical romance of the suppression of the French monarchy. France had been changed to a limited monarchy from an absolute one, and King Louis XVI had solemnly sworn to defend the new Constitution. But it had been remarked by shrewd observers that he had not attended the Te Deum at the Paris Cathedral, with the members of the National Assembly: that is, he would tell a lie but not...
An adventure is something that happens outside the course of ordinary life. We can’t go on an adventure all the time, but an adventure story will take you right to that adventure. With no time to scout for a library, now these books are at our fingertips. „The Hero of the People” is the fifth book in the fictional series on the French Revolution by the famous French author Alexandre Dumas. Alexandre Dumas is known for penning many masterpieces of historical fiction, includi...
Charles Dickens’ work is ranked among the finest writing in the Western canon, and the author specialized in seasonal stories to warm the hearts of his adoring fans during the holiday season. Dickens’s relationship with Christmas extends far beyond the success of „A Christmas Carol”, with five short Christmas books and countless slighter stories on a festive theme. In all of them he uses Christmas as a time to wake up the dozing conscience of the prosperous urban middle cla...
Set at the height of the „tulipomania” that gripped Holland in 17th century, this is the story of Cornelius van Baerle, a humble grower whose sole desire is to grow the perfect specimen of the tulip negra. After his powerful godfather is assassinated, the unwitting Cornelius becomes caught up in deadly political intrigue and is falsely accused of high treason by a bitter rival. Condemned to life imprisonment, his only comfort is Rosa, the jailer’s beautiful daughter, and to...
Set against the turbulent years of the Napoleonic era, Alexandre Dumas’s thrilling adventure story is one of the most widely read romantic novels of all time, along with „The Three Musketeers”. The historical setting is a fundamental element of the book, an adventure story primarily concerned with themes of hope, justice, vengeance, mercy, and forgiveness. It centers on Edmond Dantès who is wrongfully imprisoned, escapes from jail, acquires a fortune, and sets about exactin...
French author of famous swashbuckler novels Alexandre Dumas again chooses 18th century France for his milieu. No musketeers in this one, for it is the Queen, Marie Antoinette, who needs defending. Set a few years before the deluge of the French Revolution this plot is convoluted beyond belief; schemes, counter-measures, vicious personal agendas, love-struck young people, royal revenge and ecclesiastical machinations – all are present. Fans of historical fiction will love „T...
The d’Artagnan Romances are a set of three novels by Alexandre Dumas telling the story of the musketeer d’Artagnan from his humble beginnings in Gascony to his death as a marshal of France in the Siege of Maastricht in 1673. It is May 1660 and the fate of nations is at stake. Mazarin plots, Louis XIV is in love, and Raoul de Bragelonne, son of Athos, is intent on serving France and winning the heart of Louise de la Valliere. D’Artagnan, meanwhile, is perplexed by a mysterio...
„The Man in the Iron Mask” is the final episode in the cycle of novels featuring Dumas’ celebrated foursome of D’Artagnan, Athos, Porthos and Aramis, who first appeared in „The Three Musketeers”. Some thirty-five years on, the bonds of comradeship are under strain as they end up on different sides in a power struggle that may undermine the young Louis XIV and change the face of the French monarchy. Unbeknownst to D’Artagnan, Aramis and Porthos plot to remove the inept king ...
The d’Artagnan Romances are a set of three novels by Alexandre Dumas telling the story of the musketeer d’Artagnan from his humble beginnings in Gascony to his death as a marshal of France in the Siege of Maastricht in 1673. It is May 1660 and the fate of nations is at stake. Mazarin plots, Louis XIV is in love, and Raoul de Bragelonne, son of Athos, is intent on serving France and winning the heart of Louise de la Valliere. D’Artagnan, meanwhile, is perplexed by a mysterio...
Alexandre Dumas’s 1846 novel, „Captain Paul” is based on life of John Paul Jones, a captain in the American Navy during the revolutionary war. This epic adventure is written in best traditions of Duma’s work featuring numerous desperate battles, true love, brave heroes, devious villains, and intrigue. This tale of high adventure and daring-do is highly recommended for fans of Dumas’s work, and would make for a fantastic addition to any bookshelf! One of the most widely read...
„The Forty-Five Guardsmen”, by Alexandre Dumas (1894), the most celebrated of French romance writers, is in two volumes, and is the third of a series known as „The Valois Romances”. It basically deals with Diana de Meridor and her servant Remy who find a way to take revenge upon Duc d’Anjou for his heinous betrayal of Bussy d’Amboise. Historically it commences with the execution of Salcede and the arrival of the Forty-Five at Paris and deals with the Guise intrigues, the ca...
Following the phenomenal popularity of „Sketches by Boz”, Dickens produced two short volumes of „Sketches of Young Gentlemen” and „Sketches Young Couples"’. Dedicated to „The Young Ladies of the United Kingdom of Great Britain” as well as to other young ladies, „Sketches of Young Gentlemen” scrutinizes in a very witty and humorous fashion certain familiar characteristics of Victorian men and women. Indeed, the sketches center around certain social stereotypes developed by t...
„Sketches of Young Couples” is similarly a relatively early and short work by Charles Dickens – in which he outlines in a humorous and vaguely satirical way various „types” of couples (young, old and matured) in society under different subjects describing their actions, thoughts and decisions as couple. These subjects are chosen as a moral essay to raise the awareness and information in young couple for coming generation of both sexes. As always, Dickens’ scatterings of hum...
Amidst the conspiracy of the Holy League to make the Duke of Anjou king, Bussy d’Amboise falls in love with a lady of the court of Henry III – a lady with a very jealous husband! This sequel to Dumas’ „Marguerite de Valois” begins four years after the sudden death of King Charles IX and succession of his brother Henry III. Bristling with political plots, secret assignations, mysteries, daring escapes, duels, surprising alliances and betrayals, Dumas orchestrates two plotlin...
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 Scott’s 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 g...
Written in the form of an autobiography, it describes the life of the eponymous narrator Robinson Crusoe. After surviving a terrible shipwreck, Crusoe discovers he is the only human on an island far from any shipping routes or rescue. At first he is devastated, but slowly, with patience and imagination, he transforms his island into a tropical paradise. For twenty-four years he lives with no human companionship – until one fateful day, when he discovers he is not alone... „...
While „The Battle of Life” is one of Charles Dickens’ Christmas Books – his annual release of a story just before Christmas – this one breaks the tradition by not being concerned with Christmas. Rather, its subtitle, „A Love Story”, reveals more of the plot. The setting is an English village that stands on the site of a historic battle. Some characters refer to the battle as a metaphor for the struggles of life, hence the title. This novel basically depicts the battles one ...
Written in a time when criminal biographies enjoyed great success, Daniel Defoe’s „The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders” (aka „Moll Flanders”) details the life of the irresistible Moll and her struggles through poverty and sin in search of property and power. Born in Newgate prison and abandoned six months later, Moll Flanders’ drive to find and hold on to a secure place in society propels her through incest, adultery, bigamy, prostitution and a resource...
