Prior to the twentieth century, philosophy was the driving force behind all literature. Authors used the novel as a means to communicate their ideas on man’s purpose and his place in the universe. With Louis Lambert, however, Balzac takes the idea of the philosophical novel a little too far in giving us this odd, chimerical mashup of philosophical treatise and coming-of-age novel. The novel seems to focus on the life and particularly the thoughts of the genius boy protagoni...
By the French author, who, along with Flaubert, is generally regarded as a founding-father of nineteenth-century realism in European fiction. His large output of works, collectively entitled „The Human Comedy” (La Comedie Humaine), consists of 95 finished works and 48 unfinished works. The novel „A Start in Life” is part of the „Scenes of Private Life” section of Balzac’s masterpiece. In much of Balzac’s work, the aristocracy is portrayed as vain, duplicitous, and greedy. B...
This is the coming of age story of a young sculptor named Sarrasine and the choices he will face on his journey towards his destiny. We follow Sarrasine as he travels from France to Italy to search for his passion and find the love of his life. The story of Sarrasine is intertwined with that of the beautiful La Zambinella, and Italian singer with whom the young sculptor will fall madly, deeply in love with. From that moment, he was no longer the owner of his thoughts. Howev...
Immerse yourself in the inner workings of a quaint French village in this charming novel from Honoré de Balzac, an early master of literary realism. The work was dedicated to Balzac’s brother in law, an engineer in the corps royal des ponts et chaussées, Eugene Midy de la Greneraye Surville. Brimming with finely observed details and Balzac’s trademark insight into human motivations and morality, „An Old Maid”, the first book in „The Jealousies of a Country Town”, follows se...
This is one of the three novelettes that are grouped together as „The History of the Thirteen”, along with „Ferragus: Chief of the Companions of Duty” and „The Girl with the Golden Eyes”. The whole notion is that there is a secret society of wealthy gentlemen in Paris called „The Thirteen” which has powers approaching the supernatural. General Armand de Montriveau, a war hero, is enamored of Duchess Antoinette de Langeais, a coquettish, married noblewoman who invites him to...
„Ferragus” is an 1833 novel by French author Honoré de Balzac and included in the „Scenes de la vie parisienne” section of his novel sequence „La Comédie humaine”. It is part of his trilogy „Histoire des treize”: „Ferragus” is the first part, the second is „La Duchesse de Langeais” and the third is „The Girl with the Golden Eyes”. A captivating story about human emotions and relations, set in the year 1820. Balzac narrates the tale of a man who suspects his wife of infideli...
The Tragedy of Coriolan – the tragedy of Shakespeare, based on the ancient biographies of the semi-legendary Roman leader of the times of the Republic of Gnay Marcia Coriolanus. Heroes are alive and you can not even read who said what: everyone’s speech is easily distinguished. The images of the tragedy are complex and multifaceted, the problems raised in the play are deep and serious. Reading and re-reading Shakespeare you always find something new that you missed during t...
Emilie de Fontaine is a spoiled and pround brat. She rejects all suitors her father proposes. Emilie has incredibly high standards for the man she will marry, and at the top of her unreasonable list of criteria is that he absolutely must be a peer of France. Leaving Paris for the summer, as all good families do, they go to Sceaux. At the local ball, Emilie falls in love with a charming, beautifully mannered, elegant young man. Is he noble? Will he bestow a title on his wife...
„Apache Gold, A Story of the Strange Southwest” is a rip-roaring tale of adventure set on the Arizona frontiers of the American Old West written by Joseph Alexander Altsheler (April 29, 1862 – June 5, 1919). He was an American newspaper reporter, editor and author of popular juvenile historical fiction. An abiding classic of western literature, our hero in this tale is Charles Wayne, a young but strong and sharp lad who seeks adventure in the southwesterly desert frontier o...
„Domestic Peace”, a short story by Honoré de Balzac, was originally published in 1831 under the French title of „La Paix du Ménage” and can be found in Scenes from private life (Scenes de la vie privee) in „La Comedie Humaine”. It takes place in November of 1809 at the height of Napoleon’s empire, a time of great splendor and decadence. Everyone who’s anyone in the Parisian aristocracy is gathered at a grand ball at the home of the Comte de Gondreville. Two guys Martial and...
Monsieur Guillaume is a draper in Paris. He owns his shop, „La Maison du Chat-qui-pelote” and took the business over from his master, also marrying the daughter. Guillaume is the very portrait of the successful bourgeois. He has three clerks apprenticed to him, the first of whom, Joseph, is an orphan he intends to marry to his elder daughter Virginie. However, Joseph is in love with the younger daughter Augustine but Augustine is in love with a successful artist Théodore. H...
In 1807 Colonel Chabert, Napoleon’s beloved commander, is severely wounded in the Battle of Eylau. Taken for dead and buried in a mass grave, he manages to escape and wanders in poverty through Europe for 10 years, torn between life and death, oblivion and consciousness. Finally recovering his memories, he sets out for Paris to search for his wife who had been a prostitute before he married her and to reclaim his possessions. In the several years while he had been gone, his...
In 1895, this scandalous book titled „The Woman Who Did” by Grant Allen promulgating certain startling views on marriage and kindred questions, became a bestseller. The book told the story of an independent, young, self-assured middle-class woman who has a child out of wedlock. Herminia Barton, Cambridge-educated daughter of the Dean of Dunwich, is more determined than most to arrange her own life. She accordingly enters into a relationship outside marriage with one of her ...
„The Country Doctor” („Le Médecin de Campagne”), by Honoré de Balzac, belongs to the series known as „Scenes from Country Life”; a part of his great cycle of fiction, „The Comedy of Human Life”. It is one of Balzac’s noblest pieces of fiction, presenting beautiful traits of human nature with sympathy and power. The scene is laid in a village near Grenoble in France, and the story begins with the year 1829. Doctor Benassis is the title character of this novel. He is a compas...
In a dark, narrow street in Paris lives an old widow and her pretty young daughter, sit by the window most days. They share a poor but contented existence, supporting themselves through embroidery work. They see a gentleman in a brown coat pass by in the mornings and return in the evenings. The mother always remarks that he appears either over-worked or in delicate health. The daughter ignores most of her remarks as her mother sees every passer-by as a possible protector fo...
An extremely collectible, sweet little book named for and written in honor of Balzac’s mother. Comtesse Honorine de Bauvan was married to the Comte at nineteen. She leaves him and is later abandoned by her lover when she becomes pregnant. She lives simply and earns money by making artificial flowers. What she doesn’t know is that her husband is paying exorbitant prices for her work, thus supporting her while letting her think she is independent of him. The story is perhaps ...
Now married, the warm-hearted and fiesty Jo Bhaer (nee March) couldn’t be happier. Jo, along with her husband Professor Friedrich Bhaer, operates the Plumfield Estate School, an unconventional school based on individuality and diversity. Plumfield is a haven for poor orphans which is attended by 12 adopted boy and Jo’s own two sons. Although Plumfield is a place of trust and warmth, the boys occasionally struggle to maintain good manners. Personal relationships are key to t...
Better known for her novels „Little Women” and „Little Men”, Louisa May Alcott continued the story of her feisty protagonist Jo in this final novel chronicling the adventures and misadventures of the March family. It is the only Alcott novel that has not had a film adaption. Originally published in 1886, two years before Ms. Alcott’s death, Jo’s boys follows the lives of the young men readers came to love and cherish in its prequel. In it, we learn the fates of Jo’s sons Ro...
„Flower Fables” is Louisa May Alcott’s first book, penned at 16. She created the fanciful stories for the amusement of the daughter of a family friend, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Miss Alcott loved and was well acquainted with flowers, insects, birds and animals of the meadows and forest. From these beauties she spun adventures of enchanting nature’s woodland fairies, telling them to children of friends and others. Each fable has a moral of sorts, a captivating way to inspire chil...
By the time of the author’s death, at least ten editions of the poem had been published. Adonis is preparing for a hunt; Venus is trying in every way to seduce him. Passion flares up between them, but Adonis believes that he is too young for romance novels and he is more interested in hunting. Soon Adonis dies due to an accident during a hunt.
Originally published in 1866 under the pseudonym „A. M. Barnard.” Louisa May Alcott’s novel of romance and sexual intrigue is one of her lesser-known gems. „Behind a Mask, or A Woman Power” is a controversial novella; its tone and characterizations strike a markedly different chord from her best-known works, such as „Little Women” and „Little Men”. The plot of the novella is focused upon Jean Muir, who works as a governess for one of the rich families of Coventry to their s...
This play is not just a fairy tale by its name, everything in it is amazing and unbelievable, and it would be ridiculous to look for likelihood here! But, as you know, a fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it, because among the wonderful fairy-tale accidents of the play we learn about what actually happens. That there are jealous husbands, rejected wives, abandoned children, as well as good nurses, loyal servants, honest counselors. That evil can take possession of ...
Do you ever feel like you are tied up in our times? Worrying too much about cell phones, fashions, and the latest whatever’s? This book can set you straight. It gives you a peace of mind and fills you with simple pleasures. Polly Milton is a fourteen-year-old country girl raised on old-fashioned values and invited to Boston for an extended stay with her friend, Fanny Shaw. Quite the unlikely friendship since Fanny, despite being only two years older, is no longer just a gir...
Louisa May Alcott created some fascinating short stories here. „A Modern Cinderella: or The Little Old Shoe And Other Stories” contains four short stories by Louisa May Alcott, the author of „Little Women”: „A Modern Cinderella”, „Debby’s Debut”, „The Brothers”, and „Nelly’s Hospital”. Like her more famous novels, Alcott tells stories of young women interacting with people and events from the late 1800s. Louisa May Alcott bestows a truly amusing and thoroughly modern retell...
