Showing results by author "ciesse" in All Categories

This book, written in the mid 19th century and illustrated by Charles H. Bennett, provides an entertaining introduction to topics in science for children. In each chapter, the author uses a popular myth or fairy tale to lay the groundwork for an equally fascinating "fairy tale of science" full of interesting facts and real life examples. (Summary by J. M. Smallheer)

1793. The new revolutionary government of France is laboring mightily to end injustice and bring in an ideal new age of liberty, equality, and brotherhood, beginning by killing those obnoxious persons who don't appreciate their ideals. In Vendée a force of peasants, strongly supported by imperial England, is laboring mightily to overthrow the revolutionary government and restore Christianity, family, honor and decency, beginning by killing those obnoxious persons who fail to appreciate those noble phenomena. The exiled Marquis de Lantenac returns from England to lead the Vendéan revolt, to ...

Ce n'était pas une petite tâche que de peindre les deux ou trois mille figures saillantes d'une époque, car telle est, en définitif, la somme des types que présente chaque génération et que La Comédie Humaine comportera. Ce nombre de figures, de caractères, cette multitude d'existences exigeaient des cadres, et, qu'on me pardonne cette expression, des galeries. De là, les divisions si naturelles, déjà connues, de mon ouvrage en Scènes de la vie privée, de province, parisienne, politique, militaire et de campagne. Dans ces six livres sont classées toutes les Études de mœurs qui...

The novel centres, in a very ambiguous way, around the life story of the protagonist Jacob Flanders, and is presented entirely by the impressions other characters have of Jacob [except for those times when we do indeed get Jacob's perspective]. Thus, although it could be said that the book is primarily a character study and has little in the way of plot or background, the narrative is constructed as a void in place of the central character, if indeed the novel can be said to have a 'protagonist' in conventional terms. Motifs of emptiness and absence haunt the novel and establish its elegiac ...

¿Qué harías si te dijesen que solo con desear la muerte de un desconocido heredarías al instante una fabulosa fortuna? Esa es la hipótesis que desarrolla este cuento largo o novela corta de gran narrador portugués, que actualiza y enriquece el mito de Fausto. En las siguientes páginas conoceremos cómo Teodoro, modesto funcionario, afronta semejante dilema. Ten cuidado con lo que deseas...porque puedes conseguirlo (Introducción por Epachuko)

O Defunto é um conto de Eça de Queirós, considerado sua melhor incursão pela literatura gótica ou fantástica. A história se passa em 1474 na cidade de Segóvia e conta a história da paixão de D. Rui de Cardenas, devoto de Nossa Senhora do Pilar, por Dona Leonor, esposa de um fidalgo local, muito ciumento, que a mantém trancada em casa. O marido ciumento, ao perceber o interesse de D.Rui, prepara uma armadilha para o amante, que é interpelado em meio caminho pelo defunto de um enforcado, que o auxilia em sua aventura sobrenatural. - Summary by Leni

Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941), also known by the sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali poet, Brahmo religionist, visual artist, playwright, novelist, and composer whose works reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He became Asia’s first Nobel laureate when he won the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature.The Home and the World is a 1916 novel, set in the estate of the rich Bengali noble Nikhil. He lives happily with his beautiful wife Bimala until the appearance of his friend and radical revolutionist, Sandip.Sandip, a passionate and active man, is a ...

One of the great literary tragedies of all time, The Hunchback of Notre Dame features some of the most well-known characters in all of fiction - Quasimodo, the hideously deformed bell-ringer of Notre-Dame de Paris, his master the evil priest Claude Frollo, and Esmeralda, the beautiful gypsy condemned for a crime she did not commit. (Summary by Mark Nelson)

The year is 1896. The United States is rocked by the election of an unlikely president. On election night, riots broke out in the streets of New York. The city was paralyzed with dread. Mobs organized under the lead of Anarchists and Socialists. Farther South, people celebrated. This was a President elected by the working class and he was a President who followed through with his commitment to fight for the rights of the people. This president would fight to end the enslavement of the people by money lenders, big bankers, corporations and government overtax. But can he be successful in a ...

The mutiny on the Bounty occurred aboard a British Royal Navy ship on 28 April 1789. The mutiny was led by Fletcher Christian against the commanding officer, William Bligh.On 4 April 1789, after five months in Tahiti, the Bounty set sail with its breadfruit cargo. On 28 April 1789, some 1,300 miles west of Tahiti, near Tonga, mutiny broke out. From all accounts, Fletcher Christian and several of his followers entered Bligh's cabin, which he always left unlocked, awakened him, and pushed him on deck wearing only his nightshirt, where he was guarded by Christian holding a bayonet. When Bligh ...

Dumas's 'Celebrated Crimes' was not written for children. The novelist has spared no language--has minced no words--to describe the violent scenes of a violent time.In some instances facts appear distorted out of their true perspective, and in others the author makes unwarranted charges. The careful, mature reader, for whom the books are intended, will recognize, and allow for, this fact. (from publisher's note)The first volume comprises the annals of the Borgias and the Cenci. The name of the noted and notorious Florentine family has become a synonym for intrigue and violence, and yet the ...

“Extreme busyness…is a symptom of deficient vitality; and a faculty for idleness implies a catholic appetite and a strong sense of personal identity.”What comforting words for the idle among us! Like many of the best essayists, Stevenson is very much the genial fireside companion: opinionated, but never malicious; a marvellous practitioner of the inclusive monologue.In this collection of nine pieces he discusses the art of appreciating unattractive scenery, traces the complex social life of dogs, and meditates in several essays upon the experience of reading literature and writing it. ...

Beatrix Potter's delightful stories come to life in this LibriVox recording of some of her most famous tales. This collection is extra special because it was read by children for children. Come along as we experience the well-loved stories of Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle Duck, Tom Kitten, and many others! Summary by Adele de Pignerolles.The Tale of Peter RabbitNarrator: Adele de PignerollesMrs. Rabbit: RosalynnPeter Rabbit: Johnny Smith Mr. McGregor: Eddy ShermanThe Tale of Benjamin BunnyNarrator: Adele de PignerollesMrs. Rabbit: RosalynnBenjamin Bunny: Eddy ShermanPeter Rabbit: Johnny SmithThe...

When a few men decide to go for looking for gold in the outback of Australia, days of extreme heat with no water and no rain in sight, make them turn back and give up the trip; all but two of them that is, Smith and Mandeville, aka the "Baker. Smith and Baker decide to tough it out and go after their dreams, chancing their lives to find "their luck". Little do they realize, they will put their lives in grave danger, and this quest for gold will turn into a nightmare. Life threatening food and water deprivation is a constant issue, and they had no idea they would stumble upon an unknown tribe ...

Volume 3 of The d'Artagnan Romances is divided into three parts. The first begins in 1660, ten years after Volume 2, with d’Artagnan as Lieutenant of the King’s Musketeers. In this post, he is very near to achieving his dream (becoming Captain) and even nearer to his King, being young Louis XIV’s personal guard. Seeing first-hand how powerless the child King was, d’Artagnan resigns his illustrious, but dull, post to turn his sharp wit and sword toward another ambitious aim: restoration of the English monarchy. To the joy of France, Cardinal Mazarin dies, leaving a power vacuum that ...

Giurista di formazione e docente universitario, Sighele contribuì con le sue opere ad approfondimenti in diverse discipline moderne, particolarmente e a livello internazionale in psicologia e criminologia, e può forse essere ancora oggi di stimolo per dibattiti contemporanei. Di riferimento furono le sue analisi del comportamento dell’essere umano in diversi contesti e della suggestione collettiva di cui può essere oggetto, dove si evidenzia come gli individui siano in grado di perdere alcune capacità che possiedono singolarmente - autocontrollo, empatia, razioncinio - quando facenti ...

Virginia Woolf's most successful novel recounts the extraordinary biography of Orlando from his youth in the reign of Elizabeth I to her life as a successful author and mother in 1928, the year of the book's publication. Over the 350 years of his/her life, Orlando loves and is betrayed by a Russian princess, serves as British ambassador to Constantinople, changes sex, lives among gypsies, narrowly escapes marriage to the Archduchess Harriet/Archduke Harry, enjoys the society of Addison, Dryden and Pope, and finally marries Marmaduke Bonthrop Shelmardine with whom she has a child. Over the same...

The English Romantic Period in literature featured a towering group of excellent poets: Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and Keats. If we add in forerunners Burns and Blake, we have perhaps an unmatchable collection of writers for any era. Of these, Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the brightest and best, coupling a giant intellect with a highly emotional and impetuous nature. He was always a champion of liberty, but was largely ignored when he tried to promote political and social reform. He was wise enough, however, to realize that his efforts were ineffective, and he chose instead, not ...

A story of two sets of lovers and the development of their relationships, set in rural France in the mid 19th century. - Summary by PeterTucker

Poems of the Past and the Present is the second collection of poems by Thomas Hardy published in 1901. It is divided into 5 sections, War Poems, Poems of Pilgrimage, Miscellaneous Poems, Imitations and Retrospect.The first poem is a tribute to Queen Victoria written in the week of her death. (Summary by Alan Mapstone)