Classic Love

Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novella, White Nights, was originally published in 1848. The tender narrative is an appealing blend of realism and romanticism. A daydreamer, the hero is a lonely young man in Saint Petersburg who lives in a fantasy world. After a chance encounter, he falls in love with a young woman, Nastenka, whom he meets in the same place over four nights. Sharing a sense of alienation, they exchange information on their respective backgrounds and grow fond of one another in a short time.

Many masters employed the form of the sonnet, including Petrarch, Spenser, Shakespeare, Keats, and Robert Bridges. However, the most celebrated, and oft quoted, examples are to be found in the collection by Shakespeare, first published in 1609. In the 154 poems, Shakespeare surveys and dissects the subject of love in all its guises, and its relationship with youth, age, illness, death, and memory.

This book is the basis for Whit Stillman's feature film Love and Friendship starring Kate Beckinsale and Chloe Sevigny.

Brooke just graduated college; her parents promised to fund a senior trip if she finished with honors. She does, and they let her go to Greece, where she and her best friend, Trent, visit museums and old ruins from antiquity. She's very open minded and obsessed with Greek mythology, so she just wants to get as close as possible to this ancient religion. She has no idea that this fascination has to do with the fact that she's a descendant of a sea nymph.

Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse fu un umorista inglese dalla prolifica produzione di racconti e romanzi. Il suo tratto delicato e leggero è inconfondibile, oltre che l’ambientazione dei suoi romanzi, che si svolgono spesso nella pacifica campagna inglese, in un mondo quasi irreale.

"Bez ljubvi zhit' legche" - vospominanija, ispoved' L'va Nikolaevicha Tolstogo, russkogo pisatelja i myslitelja. Ego vospominanija o svoej chelovecheskoj prirode, kotoraja sklonna k ubijstvam, dujeljam, kartezhnym igram, k pol'zovaniju chuzhimi blagami, k kaznjam, bludu i obmanu. No v protivoves jetomu vsegda stavalo stremlenie k luchshemu. "Bez ljubvi zhit' legche. No bez nejo net smysla" glavnaja ideja Tolstogo.

Chekhov's meticulous anatomies of complicated human impulse and response, his view of what's funny and poignant, and his clear-eyed observance of life as lived all match our own experience. This audiobook features a trilogy of interlinked stories: "About Truth", "Freedom", and "Love". Read in English, unabridged, and accompanied by orchestral music based on original compositions of Antonin Dvorak.

A 'Woman's Hour' reading by Janet Suzman of Jane Austen's last completed work. When the personable Captain Wentworth reappears in Anne Elliot's life several years after she had been persuaded to break off their engagement, he at first makes no secret of his angry indignation.

They limped painfully down the bank, and once the foremost of the two men staggered among the rough-strewn rocks. They were tired and weak, and their faces had the drawn expression of patience which comes of hardship long endured. They were heavily burdened with blanket packs which were strapped to their shoulders. Head-straps, passing across the forehead, helped support these packs. Each man carried a rifle. They walked in a stooped posture, the shoulders well forward, the head still farther forward, the eyes bent upon the ground.

This spare, mesmerizing novel is Edith Wharton's money-can't-buy-happiness tale. Young Stephen Glennard, a lawyer, is poor, but he has an unanticipated gambling chip: a collection of love letters from a scorned, but now famous, lover, the distinguished novelist Margaret Aubyn. To raise money for his forthcoming wedding to another woman, Stephen stoops to selling the letters.

Here is Thomas Hardy's timeless novel, read by Julie Christie. Far from the Madding Crowd is perhaps the best-known of Hardy's works. The story centres around the beautiful and wilful Bathsheba Everdene, mistress of Weatherbury Upper Farm, and the three men who love her. Hardy combines outstanding description of West Country rural life with a deep sense of romantic passion.

This little gem of a novella manages to include a number of the same themes found in the longer novels in a much more compact form. Young Bessie falls in love with a man "above her station" and, although the love is returned, the social implications lead to many trials and tribulations before true love conquers all.

Unlike Peacock's other novels, Maid Marian has a substantial plot, based on the romantic legend of Robin Hood. As is usual with Peacock, the violence is presented in a rather humorous fashion and the characters indulge lavishly in eating and drinking. Beneath the veneer of this well-known and innocuous narrative, Peacock finds ample opportunity to satirize the foibles of church and secular government.

My Lives and Loves Volume 2 covers Frank Harris's friendship and encounters with the Prince of Wales, Oscar Wilde, Guy De Maupassant, Lord Randolph Churchill, William Parnell and others. He sets the Evening News on its feet and comes to know the minds of Shakespeare and Goethe and the bodies of Elaine and Laura. He comes to realize the virtue of chastity and that it must be practiced - at least from time to time.

You may think you are the only one, but nearly everyone wonders about God's love for them. This story is a tale that could be your own. It is a passionate and personal fictional allegory about one person's search for Divine acceptance and love. Romancing the Divine is everyone's struggle with weakness and inadequacies while longing to know they were born with a purpose. The Traveler grapples with attempting to understand Divine destiny while trying to gain the favor of the One who created him. He is looking for true love.

Den 16-årige Vladimir forelsker sig stormende i den lidt ældre nabodatter, den smukke, men uopnåelige Zinaida, en femme fatale, som driver sit spil med mændene i omgangskredsen. Som offer for Zinaidas koketteri svinger Vladimir mellem håb og fortvivlelse uden at ane, hvem der er hans egentlige rival. En smuk og følsom beskrivelse af en ung mands første kærlighed kontrasteret af en kompleks moden kærlighedsaffære.

A collection of classic erotic poetry including "The Kiss", "A Woman Waits for Me", and "Between Your Sheets".

The unexpected discovery in 2009 of a completed manuscript of Claude McKay's final novel was celebrated as one of the most significant literary events in recent years. Building on the already extraordinary legacy of McKay's life and work, this colorful, dramatic novel centers on the efforts by Harlem intelligentsia to organize support for the liberation of fascist-controlled Ethiopia, a crucial but largely forgotten event in American history.

For every fan who has wished Jane Austen herself might have enjoyed the romance and happy ending she so carefully crafted for all her heroines: The Persuasion of Miss Jane Austen, by Shannon Winslow. What if the tale Jane Austen told in her last, most poignant novel was inspired by momentous events in her own life? Did she in fact intend Persuasion to stand forever in homage to her one true love?

An overlooked middle daughter destined to be a spinster. A handsome rejected naval officer. A family on the brink of financial ruin. Anne Elliot has never forgotten about the man to whom she was persuaded out of an engagement by her family. When he returns to Anne's life eight years later, will she be able to secure a second chance? Reinvigorated by the incredible narration of Prunella Scales, Persuasion is a story of missed opportunities, of family and class systems, love and heartache.