Edith Wharton’s 1913 novel is a devastating critique of American upward mobility, told through the journey of Undine Spragg from fictional Midwestern Apex City to New York to Paris. Undine Spragg is one of the most ruthless characters in all of literature, as selfishly unscrupulous as she is fiercely beautiful. As Undine climbs the social ladder through a series of marriages and affairs, she shows little concern for who she has to step on to get anything and everything she ...
Considered by some to be her finest work, Edith Wharton’s „Summer” created a sensation when first published in 1917, as it was one of the first novels to deal honestly with a young woman’s sexual awakening. Seventeen-year-old Charity Royall is desperate to escape life with her hard-drinking adoptive father. Their isolated village stifles her, and his behavior increasingly disturbs her. When a young city architect Lucius Harney visits for the summer, it offers Charity the ch...
Even a short novel like „Madame de Treymes” shows you what a masterful writer Edith Wharton was. It is a captivating portrait of turn-of-the-century American and French culture. Inspired by Wharton’s own entré into Parisian society in 1906 and reminiscent of the works of Henry James, it tells the story of two young innocents abroad: Fanny Frisbee of New York, unhappily married to the dissolute Marquis de Malrive, and John Durham, her childhood friend who arrives in Paris in...
One of Edith Wharton’s most famous novels – the first by a woman to win the Pulitzer Prize – exquisitely details a tragic struggle between love and responsibility during the sumptuous Golden Age of Old New York, a time when society people „dreaded scandal more than disease”. Newland Archer, a restrained young attorney, is engaged to the lovely May Welland but falls in love with May’s beautiful and unconventional cousin, Countess Ellen Olenska who returns to New York after a...
Originally published in 1916, but actually written in 1890, „Bunner Sisters” is a compelling, heartbreaking little novella about two sisters, who have never been apart, struggling to eek an existence as small shopkeepers on the margins of late nineteenth-century society in New York. They barely make enough money to live on. But when Ann Eliza the elder buys Evelina the younger a clock that does not work for her birthday, the sisters commence a relationship with Herbert Ramy...
In the early years of the 20th century, life on a farm in Massachusetts is not easy. The New England winters are hard; snow and ice cover the fields for months, and the nights are long and cold. For a poor farmer like Ethan Frome, life has few bright moments. He works his unproductive farm and struggles to maintain a bearable existence with his difficult, suspicious and hypochondriac wife, Zeena. But when Zeena’s young and beautiful cousin Mattie Silver enters their househo...
Originally published in 1901, „Crucial Instances” is the second collection of six short stories connected, as the title suggests, by a hinging moment in the narrative through which the plot alters dramatically. The contents included the following: „The Duchess at Prayer”, „The Angel at the Grave”, „The Recovery”, „Copy: A Dialogue”, „The Rembrandt”, „The Moving Finger” and „The Confessional”.This is a great collection of stories, where Edith Wharton shows her wide range of ...
A humorous account of a trip to London and brief sojourn in that city and its vicinity. It includes: „A Ticket to Europe”, „Crossing the Atlantic”, „In England–Now! „, „Mayfair in the Fair Month of May”, „A Hostess at Home”, „The Light on Burns’s Brow”, „Certain Social Uncertainties”, „A Sentimental Journey”, „All in a Garden Fair”, „I Went and Ranged about to Many Churches”, „Piccadilly Circus and its Environs”, „The Game of Going On”, „A French Week-End”. Carolyn Wells (1...
A collection of short sketches by the prolific American author which was first published in 1913. Carolyn Wells was an early 20th century poet and author best known for mysteries like „The Gold Bag” and „Fleming Stone Detective Stories”. During the first ten years of her career, she concentrated on poetry, humor, and children’s books. After 1910, she devoted herself to the mystery genre. The book contains: „At the lost-and-found desk”, „Tootie at the bank”, „The dressmaker ...
In this dense novel, the house in which the Darke family exists apparently has its own impassive but claustrophobic influence on the family, which, in turn, tied itself up too quickly in its network of special hate agreements and connections. Jasper fights against his religion, Ruby is trapped between her need for conventions and her own desires, and Peter is forced to rebel.
”Seven For A Secret” is the story of a young girl who turns into a compassionate, passionate, loving woman, who is visible through the eyes of a shepherd poet who loves her. Gillian is nineteen when the romance opens, and she is a romantic star who wants to flirt with men to fall in love with her. Gillian, in many ways, still behaves like a child, and she is selfish, narcissistic, and stupid with others in her life. A kind and simple shepherd named Robert, working with her ...
This is an exciting collection of 15 stories. Indeed, there are some who are very good – there is a sad and exciting „Silly old fool” about a canon who believes that a woman cares for him, and „Engraving” sees how an obsessed husband goes against his wife’s desires, collecting engravings. Other great stories are Little Donkeys with Raspberry Saddles, gentle Chinese Horses about two women and a man, and Major Wilbraham sees a World War I major go crazy. This is a wide genre ...
Despite the severity of the life he encounters, like a little rat, Douglas Gordon, with good mood and good fortune, with calm courage, pushes his way through difficulties. And this is followed by a fairy tale full of sea fool, the enchanting beauty of the islands in the Gulf of Georgia, the color of the promenade: a boy, a girl and a dog in a human adventure on the wild sea coast life near Vancouver.
A magnificent classic tale of family life at a former age. The wooden horse is the story of the Trojans, a family that calmly accepted the belief that they were people for whom the world was created. But when Harry Troyan returned home twenty years later in New Zealand, with the democracy that he learned by working with his hands, he was a „wooden horse” who boldly carried an army of alien ideals into the walls of Troyan, which made a group of people out of this selfish fam...
The story – the mother-in-law – the situation of the daughter-in-law, growing hatred, as motherhood possessions find disappointment. The final break looks like anti-climax. In the story, the story is reminiscent of „The Daughter of Mr. Despondency” by Anna Parrish, although Walpole dealt with his material more confidently, with great skill.
The book opens shortly before Christmas, many years ago. The city of Polchester was an old rickety building on a cliff above old grass. The house was a windy, creaky, bitten rain place where three elderly women lived as tenants, including Miss Beringer, who had moved the day before. These old women are only 70 years old, but in the history of Walpole, written in 1924, they are seriously ancient, poor, oppressed, miserable creatures. If you have any doubts about the progress...
An energetic girl enters society and must choose between her rebellious and exiled cousin or an ordinary young man. Rachel chooses an ordinary young man, but when their marriage begins to degenerate, she again comes into contact with her cousin. She falls in love with him – will she leave her husband and run away with her romantic but weak lover?
Strikingly bright characters. Such a well-designed image of moods, places and feelings. Maggie Cardinal’s father dies very suddenly, leaving her alone, not very upset, since he never showed special love for her. She is „strange”, „misunderstood” a captive in a world in which others fit in, but she does not.
In the first novel, which takes place in Galicia during the retreat of the Russian army in 1915, the narrator tells of a tragedy that unfolds inside a triangle: John Trenchad – Maria – Semenov. The theme of spiritual love in the novel is promoted by the motive of white nights. It was during this period (on white nights) that John Trenchad met Mary.
This is a wonderful story of English school life, depicting the driving of boys and the hungry, cramped life of the masters, as well as the tragedy that captures and leads Mr. Perrin. We are set up so as not to love the school teacher Mr. Perrin, who is falling into our eyes into some kind of paranoid delusion. Nevertheless, at every step, the author deviates from the expected result, truly not letting us understand why this was not so inevitable as he drew it up to this po...
Bright pavilions – the fifth book of a series of six volumes of The Chronicles of Harris. As a historical background, the stormy Elizabethan England, including her enemy Queen of Scots. The story tells how one family shared fidelity and frustrated love. If you like to plunge into history, then this book is for you.
This chronicle tells of several generations of a family that lives in the Lake District in England, dating back to the late seventeen hundred. Hugh’s descriptions of this area are excellent. He had such a great love for him that he conveyed a great sense of his presence throughout all four novels. His characters also become so alive for the reader, because, I think, he is completely immersed in them.
The House of the Blind is Walpole’s last book before his death. This is a psychological study of the village and people who come in contact with a blind person and his young bride. The letter is impeccable. If you enjoy in-depth character study and enjoy reading old novels, then you will really enjoy it.
This is a story about the life of a genius who has only dreams. But really make dreams a reality? After all, this is not a fantasy world. Walpole wrote mainly about a character whose life was never very real, and who could not find happiness, except in strange moments because of this abyss between him and the world. Walpole’s romantic flights have a realistic break to temper them.
Nicholas Harris, his father, and Rosamund Harris, his mother, looked at him with love and pride. Nicholas, a huge man, was 1603 fifty-nine years old this year, and his wife thirty-seven. They were in their own house in Westminster, and everything was fine with them. Robert, their only child, was three years old. He was wide and well-built, but not tall, his strong legs lay firmly on the ground, his round head sat well on his thick neck, his eyes were steady and piercing. He...
This is a novel with catchy locations and characters. A man in a midlife crisis travels to a remote Kornish village with his wife. The strange happy village, where drunkenness is widespread and people are very open, begins to influence the actions of visitors – up to a change in their character. The very strangeness of history guarantees that it will remain in memory for a long time.
This is a horror book, but prone to human psychology. The book begins: between the kitchen and the pantry there was a certain window, which was a favorite for Hamlet. Thirty years ago – these chronicles of 1894 – the basements of houses in provincial English cities, even large houses owned by wealthy people, were dark, cold, odorous caves sizzling with bad gas and smelling of poorly prepared cabbage. The basement of Coles’ house in Polchester was the same bad, like any othe...
This is the story of a sadist, in this case, a grandfather with excessive ego and a thirst for satisfying his sense of strength. The boy’s mother, his aunt, the boy himself become a victim of his madness, and the story gathers momentum until they are forced to flee from an environment that gives him his strength. This is a skillful build-up of atmosphere and tension.
This novel is served with a psychological detective dressing. In reality, this is a mixture of experiences, feelings and thoughts of the protagonist, describing events that in any case should end in tragedy. This is not hidden from the very beginning. Everything that happens is written very atmospheric, gradually thickening events to an inevitable outcome.
This is a collection of short stories. These are rather atypical horror stories. After all, here the heroes are not afraid of ghosts or a monster. Namely, the behavior of the characters in the stories scares everyone. Some contain ghosts or another supernatural phenomenon, others are simply disturbing – they inspire the reader with a sense of anxiety, talking about coincidences that may not be quite like that. This is something unusual.
Captain Nicolas is the author’s most recognizable character. One for which it’s immediately clear whose story it is. Hugh Walpole tells the story of a family conflict. This is an ideal family, an example for everyone, but an evil and dissatisfied brother breaks into this idyll. The story is about an evil brother who is returning to visit his family, and about the destruction that he is reaping with his activity.
Hans Frost is a great figure for his fans. The protagonist is the greatest writer. Hans Frost received his guests and graciously accepted the wonderful gift that his fans combined to buy for him. His books do not bring such a large income, and the wealth of his wife provides the luxury that he possessed from the time of their marriage. Natalie’s entry into his world is the catalyst that Hans needs to wake him from recession.
Harmer John went to Italy to study art there. He was enraged by the desire to develop a plan to save the world. Life is a pure flame, and we live under the invisible Sun inside us... „We all live in the cemetery of the innocent saints, as in the sands of Ayegipt; Ready to be anyone, in the ecstasy of eternity and be content with six feet, like Adrian’s moles. Will the main character be able to ask for his task?
In Walpole style, an excellent collection of short story bedside tables in the guest room, for recovering or reading aloud. There is nothing modern cynicism; the stories seem somewhat outdated – but in the end it often reassures. One group may be left alone, „Let the storm tremble,” built on the fascinating idea of business to rid society of boring ones.
The vicar suffered – almost the same way he suffered the night his wife, Elena, died – and because he suffered, he put his beautiful cameo-like face in the sunniest smile. It was his path – part of his daily life, an integral part of himself. A pious man, in the strongest senses of this over-used word, Philip Reynolds possessed a noble talent for the things of the earth that at the same time soften human life and give it a poignancy.
At the core of the oldest state, civil war destroyed or wrested from them all the possessions of the town-sands. But Rosehill remained the widow of the southern general, and now she came with two children left by her war, and lived in it bitterly until the hour of her death, but retained her state of Virginia as much as she could, and in no way case without changing her lifestyle.
The novel is about a young woman of both English and Chinese descent, who must choose between lovers of both races, between East and West. Neither effort, nor suffering, nor experience can give perfection to any person, nor any race. Humanity, individual or herd, can only strive – never fully triumph or to fulfill. But there are separate people, there are different people: vintage masculinity, vintage nation.
The Usurper is an affair with two heroes and two heroines. The double plot of love and ambition, in which fate. four intersect each other. The romance of the poet who dies young, loved by all men and women, is very cute. moving. But a greater interest in the book is to find out the life and character of Jasper Wellacot: a millionaire who is so amazingly flabbergasted in his wealth, a philanthropist who is almost ashamed of his good deeds.
This is a late set of long stories that are read at the pace of a narrator who is in no hurry. Similarly, Locke does not tell his story to the great storyteller, an English artist named Charles Fontenay, who lives for health in the south of France in Cannes, often tells his usual storyteller, whose stories he reports, Monsieur Alcide Tombarelle, mayor of Creel Mountain City, to speed up or stop being distracted.
During the war, Joshua Fendik became rich against his will and found for himself an entrance to social circles, completely new to him. In particular, he falls under the influence of Robins Dale, a sculptor who supports a useless husband abroad. Robins „mothers” Joshua and prompts him to try his hand with a chisel.
Trion is Alexis Trion, a man with a mysterious past, a tormented hero, a man who writes his story, which instantly becomes a bestseller. It was at this moment that Olivia enters his life. Olivia is a rich, recently orphaned young woman who wants adventure to see the world, etc. to start her new life. There she reads Alexey’s book and meets him in person.
The best novel that Mr. Lock has written since he created his masterpiece. He put all his strength into it... history is a real story with a real plot, real people, real human emotions and real character development. History keeps you from beginning to end. You cannot lay it down. And over this story there is a constant play of that light humor and fantastic fun, which Mr. Locke alone among the living novelists knows how to charm his readers.
Miss Mapp came to the village of Tilling to expose many of the inhabitants there. Mappa must defeat the small and sad curious villagers. People have many questions about the Royal Family. Though there are superstitions that only young people can live in Tilling. However, our main character breaks these stereotypes. After all, she is old, but very smart.
Mówią, że ten, kto mści się na drugiej osobie, traci część swojej niewinności. Ale ja nie jestem niewinna. Już od dawna. Zostałam okradziona z niewinności. Odebrano mi los, który był mi pisany. Duszę, z którą przyszłam na świat. Rubinowe serce osadzone w życiu pełnym nadziei i marzeń.To wszystko odeszło.Przepadło.Nigdy nawet nie miałam wyboru. Opłakuję tamto życie. Rozpaczam nad każdym „co by było, gdyby...”. Ale z tym już koniec. Jestem gotowa o...
"The Well-Beloved" complete the series of Hardy’s great novels, repeating his favorite themes of man’s eternal pursuit of excellence both in love and in art, and the ensuing suffering, Jocelyn Pearston, a famous sculptor, tries to create the image of his ideal woman - his imagined Beloved - in stone, just as he tries to find her in the flesh. Powerful symbolism marks this romantic fantasy, which Hardy firmly substantiated in reality with a characteristic authentic display o...
This story began around Christmas, when a group of guys from the village of Melstock walked and sang carols. It was then that the cab driver Dick Dewey saw and fell in love at first sight with the new teacher Fancy Day who had just arrived. She is also looked after by a wealthy farmer Shiner, whom Father Day favors, and pastor Maybold, who considers himself the most suitable party for Fancy. But the story did not begin in vain on the fabulous days of Christmas - it will end...
Young beauty Eustace Way, passionate, self-willed, selfish and ambitious, eager to break out of the hateful rural outback into a “different life”, full of splendor, fun and pleasure. Meanwhile, after several years of service as a manager in a Paris jewelry salon, Clime Ibright returns to his Blooms End estate, who also wants to live a different life - to settle in his native land and open a school for the rural poor. Soon, Eustace and Klyme meet - and this meeting is destin...
In the novel “Far From the Crazed Crowd”, Hardy reveals the great and eternal drama of the relationship between a man and a woman. At one time, the vivid, complicated story of the love triangle of the independent and proud Bathsheba, who inherited the farm in the wilderness of Northern England, the peasant Gabriel Oak and the “alien from urban civilization” sergeant Troy became a real literary scandal. Interestingly, Hardy’s novel is still considered scandalous and violates...
Hardy’s fifth novel, entitled "Comedy in Chapters." In a typical Hardy manner, the story is based on a love triangle. Ethelberta and her involuntary sister Picoti are in love with the same man, Christopher, who reciprocates Ethelberta’s feelings. However, a happy result for them is out of the question, because it is poor.
A group of "local historians" of men comes together and tells each other stories about women from the past. All stories are connected with love, marriage to the wrong person and illegitimate children. This says a lot about how women looked at that time. Even those in abundance had very little influence and were often convicted of using it when they had a chance.
The novel takes the reader to the very depths of rural England. The small village of Hintok, the scene of the novel, is so small that it’s even hard to find in the thicket of the forest, but this is where the tragedies of “truly Sophocles greatness” are played out. The reason for these tragedies is the clash of natural human characters preserved in the reserved wilderness of rural England.
Jude is a layman who is cursed by an even larger figure: a pre-feminist minx. In the case of Jude, being associated with a woman in the then strange double is a fatal flaw. And not just any woman: Sue Briadhead, a Bovarian double, is ambivalent, mean and not romantic. Of course, she alone would betray Judah’s affection, break his heart. She is the sad queen of drama!
Paula Power, daughter of a wealthy railroad tycoon, inherited De Stancy Castle, an ancient castle in need of modernization. She instructs a young London architect, George Somerset, to do this work. Somerset falls in love with Paulo. But Paula, the Laodicean title, referring to a person with a warm or indecisive soul, is torn between the admiration of George and the admiration of Captain de Stancy, whose romanticism in the old world contrasts with Somerset’s visionary gaze....
Once upon a time there lived in the 19th century a charming young lady from a poor but proud family and a young ambitious gentleman in spirit, but not in origin. And now the boundaries of estates and welfare were ready to be erased under the pressure of the couple’s feelings and understanding of the girl’s parents that it’s not the age of her daughter to attract men and we need to work with what we have. However, the lady turned out to be capricious, fell into a hysteria an...
Hardy’s historical novel against the backdrop of the grandest Napoleonic wars tells about the love and sorrows of ordinary people who found themselves in unusual times. When the expected invasion brings several regiments to her small rural community, the young maid Anna Garland is looked after by three people in uniform: faithful trumpet major John Loveday, his sailor brother Bob, and the cowardly Festus Derriman of the cavalry of Yomanria.
This is a story about psychological and spiritual health, about true happiness, about loneliness and about genius. The main character finds complete spiritual harmony and happiness only in a state of mental illness, when he sees hallucinations in the form of a mysterious Black Monk, with whom you can talk for hours about the eternal, true, truly valuable. This is definitely one of the best works of Anton Pavlovich on the topic of madness and, at the same time, quite a calm,...
One of the last stories of Chekhov. This is the tragedy of a representative of the intelligentsia, whose pursuit of a very successful church career cuts him off from real human intercourse. Until he faces death, the bishop does not understand that something important is missing in his life, namely, love and respect for himself, and not for his title.
This is a collection of many outstanding stories of Chekhov. There is a pleasant and patient satire in all Chekov’s stories, most of which are tragic, some are political, and all of them are revealed in many complex topics. The stories in this anthology bring back memories of a different time and place when life was completely different. These stories will hook everyone.
A small collection of stories. The general theme of the stories is the diversity of emotions that the main characters experience, and by the end it turns out to be a bit painful. A variety of subjects, simple but wonderful, honed by irony. Most stories of unhappy marriages. The main characters can get married because of unhappy love or unexpected pregnancy.
Many stories from this collection about animals and children. This is perhaps the cutest collection, with unusual animals and kittens. This story you can live and feel through the eyes of a child. The choice of the main character leaves a lot of question in the future, but we ourselves can guess the reason for this choice.
The main theme of the story – dedication to his work. Fyodor Lukich never forgets about his students, nor about the ill-treatment that could be imposed on them by others. The end of the story is also interesting, because the reader can again see how devotional Fyodor Lukic really is. He advocates fair treatment to his students to the end.
The center of attention was a small group of people, but everything was spinning around Ivan Laevsky, self-confident and selfish 28-year-old. He escaped with the wife of another man and lived in sin. Perhaps there is not even a duel in the literal sense, but a duel with the contradiction of the main character. He realized that love was not so, and did not know what to do, what to say.
No, this is not a banal story about a resort romance. Spiritually, her heroes escaped beyond the boundaries of the nineteenth century, but are forced to live in its choking conditions and foundations. The stands that will soon be brought down by World War I with an explosion of revolution. In the meantime, two loving hearts are torn in a world in which they will never be together.
There is a trial of the bare and thin peasant Denis Grigoriev. He is accused of unscrewing the nut, which rails are attached to the cross ties. „The little man” does not deny this, but does not see his guilt. The investigator finds out that Denis, like other men, unscrews the nuts in order to make them sinkers. The defendant sincerely does not understand that such unscrewing can lead to train accidents and death. The investigator sends the attacker to prison, but he still d...
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