Showing results by author "ciesse" in All Categories

The Little Baron Trump is a man of adventure. He and his dog Bulger have already braved many adventures together, but at the time our story opens, they are kind of dull at home, upset with the increasing familiarity of both two- and four legged neighbours. What to do? Luckily, an old manuscript of the learned Spaniard, Don Constantino Bartolomeo Strepholofidgeguaneriusfum, falls into his hands, and off he goes to a journey to the centre of the earth. This is a remarkable book from 1893, blending the tradition of the Münchhausen stories with more modern fantasy and science fiction. - Summary ...

“Being the Familiar Correspondence of Vincent Van Gogh ... [Van Gogh's] art was appreciated during his life only by a very few and it is but within recent years that it has found admirers who in many cases have been most ardently enthusiastic. Of the following letters, some were addressed to his brother and the remainder to his friend E. Bernard. (Summary from Preface)

After an unspecified family disaster, protagonist Lucy Snowe travels to the fictional city of Villette to teach at an all-girls school where she is unwillingly pulled into both adventure and romance. Summary by Wikipedia Cast list: Narrator: Mary J Lucy Snowe: Elizabeth Barr Graham/Dr. John: Robert Dixon Monsieur Paul: Herman Roskams Madame Beck: Elizabeth Klett Polly/Paulina: Amanda Friday Mrs. Bretton: Michele Eaton Ginevra Fanshawe: Libby Gohn Mr. Home/Bassompierre: tovarisch Rosine [the portress]: Leanne Mademoiselle St. Pierre [a teacher]: Kristin Gjerløw Isabelle [a student]: Arie Pere ...

Charlotte Brontë was a British author, the eldest of the three famous Brontë sisters who have become standards of English literature. She is best known for her novel Jane Eyre, one of the greatest classics of all time. Just two years after Charlotte's death, her friend Elizabeth Gaskell wrote her biography. Want to know more about Charlotte Brontë? If you do, please read this biography. Summary by Stav Nisser. A recording of Volume 2 of this work is also available.

The Ramsey family, with house guests, visit the Isle of Skye at least twice. The plot is not at all the point though, as this is a book about how people think and feel and relate. There’s insight into the world of childhood thought and emotion, and a variety of views of adult cares and perceptions.I hope this doesn’t make it sound ‘difficult’, it doesn’t need to be – just let the sentences flow and make your own sense of the words. It’s perhaps as close as a novel can come to the highly individual experience of looking at a painting. … - Summary by Cori SamuelThis recording was...

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 moeurs qui...

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)

The Douay–Rheims Bible is a translation of the Bible from the Latin Vulgate into English made by members of the Catholic seminary English College, Douai, France. It is the foundation on which nearly all English Catholic versions are still based.It was translated principally by Gregory Martin, an Oxford-trained scholar, working in the circle of English Catholic exiles on the Continent, under the sponsorship of William (later Cardinal) Allen. The New Testament appeared at Rheims in 1582; the Old Testament at Douai in 1609.The translation, although competent, exhibited a taste for Latinisms ...

This feminist essay argues for both a literal and figural space for women writers within a literary tradition dominated by patriarchy. First published on 24 October 1929, the extended essay was based on a series of lectures delivered by Virginia Woolf at Cambridge University in October 1928. While it employs a fictional narrator and narrative to explore women both as writers of and characters in fiction, the manuscript for the delivery of the series of lectures, titled “Women and Fiction”, and hence the essay, are non-fiction. - Summary by Cori SamuelThis recording was originally published...

George Eliot's own favorite among her novels, this novel tells the story of Romola, the intelligent daughter of a blind scholar, who is falling in love with a man who is going to change her life and the politics of Florence in a way she doesn't like. Set in 15th century Florence, it is "a deep study of life in the city of Florence from an intellectual, artistic, religious, and social point of view". Summary by Stav Nisser and Wikipedia.

Far from the Madding Crowd (1874) is Thomas Hardy's fourth novel and offers in ample measure the details of English rural life that Hardy so relished. Hardy's growing taste for tragedy is also evident in the novel. It first appeared, anonymously, as a monthly magazine serial, where it gained a wide readership and critical acclaim. According to Virginia Woolf, "The subject was right; the method was right; the poet and the countryman, the sensual man, the sombre reflective man, the man of learning, all enlisted to produce a book which . . . must hold its place among the great English novels." ...

Elizabeth von Arnim, author of Vera and The Enchanted April, takes us on a novelized journey through the German island and vacation getaway of Rügen. Here we meet and enjoy "Elizabeth", who solely, with only a maid and coachman, encounter several other quaint and intriguing characters and stories. This book is full of quick wit and WILL make you chuckle along the way! (Summary by Christine Rottger)

Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné (5 February 1626 – 17 April 1696) was a French aristocrat famous for the precision, clarity, wit and vividness of her letters, which deal with personal issues and also with public events in the France of Louis XIV - Summary by Wikipedia

“Who ever lov’d, that lov’d not at first sight?”The wonder-decade of the English drama was suddenly interrupted in 1592, when serious plague broke out in London, forcing the closure of the theatres. Leading playwrights took to penning languorously erotic poetry to make ends meet: so we have Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece - and Marlowe’s blazing masterpiece, Hero and Leander.Marlowe’s poem became more notorious than either of Shakespeare’s, due not only to its homophile provocations but also to the scandal attaching to every aspect of Marlowe’s brief life, violently ended...

Trafalgar, es el primero de los 46 Episodios Nacionales, escritos por Benito Pérez Galdós, que es considerado el mayor novelista español después de Cervantes. Galdós narra la intervención de Gabriel Araceli, al servicio de D. Alonso Gutiérrez de Cisniega, capitán de navío, en la batalla de Trafalgar a los catorce años de edad, el 21 de Octubre de 1805. Ante el promontorio de Trafalgar las naves inglesas, a las órdenes de Nelson, se enfrentaron a la flota franco-española en la legendaria batalla que supuso el comienzo del dominio inglés en los mares y la primera derrota de ...

This is a collection of essays, verbal sketches, and stories by Washington Irving. Irving lived at the Alhambra Palace while writing some of the material for his book. In 1828, Washington Irving traveled from Madrid, where he had been staying, to Granada, Spain. At first sight, he described it as "a most picturesque and beautiful city, situated in one of the loveliest landscapes that I have ever seen." He immediately asked the then-governor of the historic Alhambra Palace as well as the archbishop of Granada for access to the palace, which was granted because of Irving's celebrity status. ...

Born in the Marshalsea Prison for Debtors, Amy—Little Dorrit—the daughter of the ruined, but self-respectful William Dorrit, has put her entire heart in caring for her dear father, until one day her humble path is crossed by Arthur Clennam. Their meeting proves providential not only for Amy's life, but for the whole Dorrit family, whose new rise will, in many ways, be also their fall. As in all his novels, in Little Dorrit Dickens ushers us into a fascinating and startlingly rich world of human characters and destinies, where virtue and nobility cross swords with vice and villainy, where ...

Sketches by Boz is a collection of short pieces published by Charles Dickens in 1836 accompanied by illustrations by George Cruikshank. It consists of 56 passages divided into four sections: "Our Parish", "Scenes", "Characters", and "Tales". Of these, only the last contains fiction. (Summary by Wikipedia)

Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronté, KB (29 September 1758 – 21 October 1805) was an English flag officer famous for his service in the Royal Navy, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. He won several victories, including the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, during which he was killed. These are the letters that he wrote to Lady Hamilton, with whom he was having a notorious affair until his death in 1805. (Summary by Wikipedia)