03/07/2024
Unicorns
An engaging collection of essays about artists, composers, writers, and, of course, unicorns. – Summary by Stav Nisser [chương_files]
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03/07/2024
Hearts of Controversy
Alice Meynell was an English essayist, critic, and poet who was also a leading suffragist, serving as vice-president of the Women Writers’ Suffrage League, She and her husband Wilfrid Meynell were active in publishing and editing literary works including helping to launch the first works of Francis Thompson, author of “Hound of Heaven.” The Meynell’s later converted to Roman Catholicism. In this volume, In this volume Meynell offers her impressions on some of the best known literary figures of her day including Charles Dickens, Tennyson.and the Bronte sisters. – Summary by Larry Wilson [chương_files]
03/07/2024
Furchtbare Rache
Die Geschichte vom Leben und Tod des ukrainischen Kosaken Danilo Burulbasch und seiner Familie wird vom Autor genutzt, um ein Bild des Kosakenlebens „in alter Zeit“ zu malen. Dabei werden Heimat- und Naturverbundenheit aber auch religiöse und heidnische Mythen der am Dnjepr lebende Kosaken dargestellt. Realität und tief im Volke verwurzelte Legenden und Sagen erklären verschiedene Naturerscheinungen; Zauberer und Nixen, aus den Gräbern steigende Leichname, personifizierte Flüsse, Berge und Wolken lassen neben der eigentlichen Handlung ein mystisches Bild entstehen und sorgen dafür, dass der Spannungsbogen nicht erschlafft. (Zusammenfassung von Friedrich) [chương_files]
03/07/2024
Secret Places of the Heart
Richard Hardy, a member of the British gentry, tries to resolve problems in his marriage as he travels with a psychiatrist. The book is to a great extent autobiographical. H. G. had read some brilliantly composed articles by a writer who wrote under the name Rebecca West. In one piece she called H. G. “pseudo-scientific.” He contacted her and asked what she meant. When they met for lunch, it was the beginning of a very intense and volatile relationship. Soon she was pregnant, so he divided his time between her and his wife Jane with their two sons. After World War I, Rebecca became more demanding. She wanted him to divorce Jane. Finally, in 1923 Wells told Rebecca she should either get serious about her writing or break off their relationship. The criticism stung her. After a speaking tour in the U.S., she returned newly independent, and the two went their separate ways. In this novel H. G. based the character Martin on Rebecca, who both mesmerized and repelled him. (Summary by Bill Boerst) [chương_files]
03/07/2024
Ambassadors
Henry James considered The Ambassadors his best, or perhaps his best-wrought, novel. It plays on the great Jamesian theme of the American abroad, who finds himself in an older, and some would say richer, culture that that of the United States, with its attractions and dangers. Here the protagonist is Lambert Strether, a man in his fifties, editor of a small literary magazine in Woollett, Massachusetts, who arrives in Europe on a mission undertaken at the urging of his patron, Mrs. Newsome, to bring back her son Chadwick. That young man appears to be enjoying his time in Paris rather more than seems good for him, at least to those older and wiser. The novel, however, is perhaps really about Strether’s education in this new land, and one of his teachers is the city of Paris — a real Paris, not an idealized one, but from which Strether has much to learn. Chad Newsome, of course is there too, and so are a scattering of other Americans, his old friend Waymarsh and his new acquaintance Maria Gostrey among them. Had Strether his life to live over again, knowing what he has now learned,. how different would it be? and what are the lessons he takes home with him? (Introduction by Nicholas Clifford) [chương_files]
03/07/2024
Judenbuche (Version 2)
“Die Judenbuche – Ein Sittengemälde aus dem gebirgichten Westfalen” ist eine Novelle von Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, die erstmals 1842 im Cotta’schen Morgenblatt für gebildete Leser erschien. Sie behandelt ein Verbrechen und vor allem dessen Vor- und Nachgeschichte und spielt in dem entlegenen westfälischen “Dorf B.” in einem deutschen Kleinstaat des 18. Jahrhunderts, vor den Umwälzungen, die die Französische Revolution für Europa mit sich brachte. Das Stück wird außerdem als Milieustudie und Kriminalgeschichte verstanden. (Zusammenfassung von Wikipedia) [chương_files]
03/07/2024
Misérables – tome 2
C’est un roman historique, social et philosophique dans lequel on retrouve les idéaux du romantisme et ceux de Victor Hugo concernant la nature humaine. L’auteur lui-même accorde une grande importance à ce roman et écrit en mars 1862, à son éditeur Lacroix : « Ma conviction est que ce livre sera un des principaux sommets, sinon le principal, de mon œuvre ». Le tome II de l’œuvre qui en compte cinq est consacré à Cosette. (Source : Wikipedia) [chương_files]
03/07/2024
Rover Boys Winning A Fortune
The Rover Boys is a generational series that follows the Rover family through many exciting adventures. In this case the story revolves around two sub plots. The first involves the robbery at the offices of the senior Rovers in New York. The second is a passionate quest to find a treasure contained in a yacht that was lost at sea. As well as this the personal lives of the junior Rovers also enhance the enjoyment. – Summary by Howard Skyman [chương_files]
03/07/2024
Souls for Sale
Perhaps the most commercially successful Hollywood novel of the 1920s, Rupert Hughes’ Souls for Sale is a direct response to contemporaneous charges of the film industry’s moral laxities and predilections toward vice. Remember “Mem” Steddon, the pious and steadfast daughter of a religious firebrand who preaches about the sins of Hollywood, is forced to migrate to the west coast after discovering that she’s become pregnant out of wedlock. On her journey, Mem runs into the inhabitants of a movie colony and soon befriends many of these delightful (if somewhat peculiar) “film folk.” She finds temporary employment as a film extra and soon develops aspirations to become a star herself. But Mem soon discovers that Hollywood is a far different place than she had originally imagined and that the road to film stardom is not straightforward or easy to navigate. This novel was the basis for the popular 1923 film adaptation, which starred an up-and-coming Eleanor Boardman and was directed by Rupert Hughes himself. (Summary by ChuckW) [chương_files]
03/07/2024
Emperor of Portugallia
Selma Lagerlöf was born in Vaermland, Sweden, in 1858 and enjoyed a long and very successful career as a writer, receiving the Nobel-Prize in Literature in 1909. She died in Vaermland in 1940. The Emperor of Portugallia was first Published 1914 in Sweden, and 1916 in English, translated by Velma Swanston Howard. The Story i set in Vaermland around 1860 or 1870. In the centre is Jan of Ruffluck Croft. He loves his daughter more than anything, but when she moves to Stockholm and never sends a word home about her doings, he sinks into a dream-world where she is a noble Empress of Portugallia. And he believes himself to be Emperor too. His whole world and all his thoughts are dominated by the thoughts of her return and what will happen then. In the role of Emperor in the poor forest country where he lives he can question the social hierarchies around him, and dressed in his Royal regalia he sits in the frontbench in the Church, and he takes the place of honour at Parties etc. After 15 years his daughter returns home and is shocked to see what a mad clown her father has become and …. (Summary by Lars Rolander) [chương_files]