Скачать книгу (размер 1 462 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 288) Аннотация: Interest in supernatural phenomena was high during Charles Dickens lifetime. His natural inclination towards drama and the macabre lead him into the telling of ghost tales. Twelve ghosts stories are presented here, and the full range of Dickens' gothic talents can be seen.
Скачать книгу (размер 1 136 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 224) Аннотация: This is a fascinating selection of Kipling's most famous short stories, bringing together the very best of his work. Life's Handicap reflects his experiences of India, and contains two horror stories which permeate the collection with an air of haunted destinies. Delusions and obsessions, past lives and the slums of London in 1890 are the diverse topics featured in Many Inventions. While Traffics…
Скачать книгу (размер 2 115 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 416) Аннотация: The Best of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of twenty of the very best tales from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s fifty-six short stories featuring the arch-sleuth. Basing his selection around the author’s own twelve personal favourites, David Stuart Davies has added a further eight sparkling stories to Conan Doyle’s ‘Baker Street Dozen’ creating a unique volume which distils the pure essence of the…
Скачать книгу (размер 1 625 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 320) Аннотация: Melville's short stories are masterpieces. The best are to be appreciated on more than one level and those presented here are rich with symbolism and spiritual depth. Set in 1797, Billy Budd, Foretopman exploits the tension of this period during the war between England and France to create a tale of satanic treachery, tragedy and great pathos that explores human relationships and the inherently…
Скачать книгу (размер 5 624 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 1104) Аннотация: Wilde's works are suffused with his aestheticism, brilliant craftsmanship, legendary wit and, ultimately, his tragic muse. He wrote tender fairy stories for children employing all his grace, artistry and wit, of which the best-known is «The Happy Prince». Counterpoints to this were his novel «The Picture of Dorian Gray», which shocked and outraged many readers of his day, and his stories for…
Скачать книгу (размер 4 237 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 832) Аннотация: Jacob Grimm (1785-1863) and his brother Wilhelm (1786-1859) were philologists and folklorists. The brothers rediscovered a host of fairy tales, telling of princes and princesses in their castles, witches in their towers and forests, of giants and dwarfs, of fabulous animals and dark deeds. Together with the well-known tales of 'Rapunzel', 'The Goose Girl', Sleeping Beauty', 'Hansel and Gretel'…
Скачать книгу (размер 5 542 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 1088) Аннотация: Gibbon's «The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire», published between 1776 and 1788, is generally acknowledged to be a masterpiece of English historical writing. Gibbon takes the reader through the history of Europe from the 2nd-century AD, to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. This edition includes Gibbon's footnotes and quotations, together with brief explanatory comments, a…
Скачать книгу (размер 2 115 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 416) Аннотация: Democracy in America is a classic of political philosophy. Hailed by John Stuart Mill and Horace Greely as the finest book ever written on the nature of democracy, it continues to be an influential text on both sides of the Atlantic, above all in the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe. De Tocqueville examines the structures, institutions and operation of democracy, and shows how Europe can…
Скачать книгу (размер 1 299 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 256) Аннотация: The Wordsworth Dictionary of Synonyms & Antonyms will enable readers to find the most appropriate word to use on a wide range of occasions. It is designed in particular for students, those writing reports, letters and speeches, and crossword solvers, but everyone who enjoys the richness and diversity of the English language will find a great deal to reward them within its covers. The dictionary…
Скачать книгу (размер 1 136 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 224) Аннотация: Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) is one of the most important and innovative figures of the European Middle Ages. Writing his Comedy (the epithet 'Divine' was added by later admirers) in exile from his native Florence, he aimed to address a world gone astray both morally and politically. At the same time, he sought to push back the restrictive rules which traditionally governed writing in the Italian…
Скачать книгу (размер 2 523 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 496) Аннотация: Dickens' final novel, left unfinished at his death in 1870, is a mystery story much influenced by the 'Sensation Novel' as written by his friend Wilkie Collins. The action takes place in an ancient cathedral city and in some of the darkest places in Victorian London. Drugs, disappearances, sexual obsession, disguise and a possible murder are among the themes and motifs. A sombre and menacing…
Скачать книгу (размер 2 115 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 416) Аннотация: 'A grain in the balance will determine which individual shall live and which shall die...'. Darwin's theory of natural selection issued a profound challenge to orthodox thought and belief: no being or species has been specifically created; all are locked into a pitiless struggle for existence, with extinction looming for those not fitted for the task. Yet 'The Origin of the Species' (1859) is…
Скачать книгу (размер 4 563 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 896) Аннотация: Plutarch of Chaeronea is one of the great storytellers of antiquity, a writer whose ability to create unforgettable scenes matches the grandeur of his subject matter. The heroes of his «Lives» were the great men of antiquity, often greatly flawed, but with tragic depth and epic stature. Thomas North's translation, one of the most splendid works of sixteenth-century English prose, presents a…
Скачать книгу (размер 1 381 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 272) Аннотация: This specially commissioned selection of Conrad's short stories includes favourites such as Youth, a modern epic of the sea; The Secret Sharer, a thrilling psychological drama; An Outpost of Progress, a blackly comic prelude to Heart of Darkness; Amy Foster, a moving story of a shipwrecked, alienated Pole; and The Lagoon and Karain, two exotic, exciting Malay tales. Il Conde and The Tale are…
Скачать книгу (размер 1 952 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 384) Аннотация: »The Shadows of Sherlock Holmes» is a fascinating collection of stories featuring detectives, criminal agents and debonair crooks from the golden age of crime fiction: a time when Sherlock Holmes was esconsced in his rooms at 221B Baker Street and London was permanently wreathed in a sinister fog. These gripping tales of mystery, suspense and clever puzzles are wonderfully entertaining and in…
Скачать книгу (размер 809 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 160) Аннотация: In The Social Contract Rousseau (1712-1778) argues for the preservation of individual freedom in political society. An individual can only be free under the law, he says, by voluntarily embracing that law as his own. Hence, being free in society requires each of us to subjugate our desires to the interests of all, the general will. Some have seen in this the promise of a free and equal…
Скачать книгу (размер 1 544 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 304) Аннотация: As these three specially commissioned stories amply demonstrate, Conrad is our greatest writer of the sea. His characters are tested by dramatic events 'that show in the light of day the inner worth of a man, the edge of his temper, and the fibre of his stuff; that reveal the quality of his resistance and the secret stuff of his pretences, not only to others but also to himself'. In «Typhoon»,…
Скачать книгу (размер 4 237 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 832) Аннотация: With an Introduction and Notes by Deborah Wynne, Chester College. Illustrated by Marcus Stone. «Our Mutual Friend», Dickens' last complete novel, gives one of his most comprehensive and penetrating accounts of Victorian society. Its vision of a culture stifled by materialistic values emerges not just through its central narratives, but through its apparently incidental characters and scenes. The…
Скачать книгу (размер 5 869 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 1152) Аннотация: For 150 years, the tales of Hans Christian Andersen have been delighting both adults and children. This edition contains all of Andersen's 168 tales, and among the favourites are The Red Shoes, The Mermaid, The Emperor's New Clothes, and The Ugly Duckling.
Скачать книгу (размер 1 299 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 256) Аннотация: With a new Introduction by Cedric Watts, Research Professor of English, University of Sussex. Guy de Maupassant was a master of the short story. This collection displays his lively diversity, with tales that vary in theme and tone, ranging from tragedy and satire to comedy and farce. In a lucidly direct style, he provides unflinching realism and sceptical irony. He depicts the deceptions,…