Classics World Literature

Rusant pour échapper à son exécution, la belle Chahrazade entame un récit qui durera mille et une nuits : aventure, humour, poésie, cruauté et sagesse composent ces histoires empruntes d'une fascinante atmosphère propre aux contes orientaux, qui ont marqué l'imaginaire collectif depuis des siècles. Un vrai voyage littéraire à la rencontre du monde arabe du XIIIe siècle, un monde où les princesses et les khalifes côtoient les djinns et les voleurs, où la passion parle haut et où la magie fait corps avec le quotidien.

Un soir de juin 1940, lorsqu'il se retrouve face à un peloton d'exécution improvisé, un garçon de six ans découvre la guerre. Il sait que, désormais, plus rien ne sera comme avant. Ce livre audio dit la misère, la faim, la fuite, les exactions vues par les yeux d'un enfant, puis l'interminable voyage dans le train qui l'emmène dans un camp. Ce récit est écrit comme il a été vécu: avec les tripes, par un gamin de la guerre qu'on a amputé de sa jeunesse. C'est aujourd'hui un classique étudié dans des écoles.

Le narrateur (dont l'identité ne nous est pas connue) arrive à la maison de son ami Roderick Usher, ayant reçu de lui une lettre dans laquelle il se plaignait de maladie et réclamait sa présence. Cette maladie se manifeste par une hyperacuité des sens et une grande anxiété. La sœur jumelle de Roderick, Madeline, est elle aussi malade, tombant dans des états de transes cataleptiques.

Saint-Pétersbourg, un fonctionnaire devenu petit rentier, s'adonne à une introspection à l'adresse d'interlocuteurs muets. Bavard inoffensif ou pervers déroutant, il explore ses propres petitesses, se décrit tour à tour comme vil, malade et méchant puis se reprend, s'absout, visite son passé. Enlisé dans l'inaction, l'oisiveté l'entraîne vers des sentiments amers envers ses semblables, sa conscience l'accable mais il avance en forcené solitaire.

While millions face hunger, malnutrition, and starvation, the world's population is increasing by over 225,000 people per day, 80 million per year. In many countries, supplies of food and water are inadequate to support the population, so the world falls deeper and deeper into what economists call the "Malthusian trap". Here, Malthus examines the tendency of human numbers to outstrip their resources, and argues that poverty, disease, and starvation are necessary to keep societies from moving beyond their means of subsistence.

Court roman, conte philosophique et récit de voyage, "Zadig" raconte de façon drôle et emportée les aventures d'un jeune homme voué à une destinée rocambolesque. L'histoire se déroule dans un Orient fantasmé, où le héros se retrouve confronté à des situations aussi loufoques les unes que les autres.

Écrite en 1879, Boule de Suif est la nouvelle qui a imposé Guy de Maupassant comme un maître. L'action se situe durant la guerre de 1870 : dix personnes fuient Rouen, occupée par les soldats prussiens, pour gagner Dieppe en diligence. Parmi ces dix personnes, se trouvent des bourgeois, des commerçants, des nobles, et une prostituée, surnommée Boule de Suif, à cause de son embonpoint.

Using affirmations to focus on improving your health, wealth, and happiness has shown to be a successful strategy in living mindfully. Florence Scovel Shinn's work has been praised and referenced by self-improvement experts as diverse as Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, Louise Hay, and Norman Vincent Peale. Shinn uses affirmations and success stories of her students to illustrate the power of the spoken word to attract prosperity, love, and good health.

First published in 1940, Florence Scovel Shinn's work has been praised and referenced by self-improvement experts as diverse as Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, Louise Hay, and Norman Vincent Peale. Shinn interprets biblical passages as pathways to activating our beliefs. The Secret Door to Success includes success stories of her students to illustrate the power of the spoken word to attract prosperity, love, and good health. This book is a sequel to The Game of Life and How to Play It.

Thomas Watson was one of the most famous Puritan preachers in history, and his 17th-century writings are still read across the world today. A highly influential example of Puritan writing, The Great Gain of Godliness is Watson's study of Malachi 3:16-18. British Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon bemoaned the fact that he couldn't find a copy of The Great Gain of Godliness.

Ces lettres écrites par le poète allemand Rainer Maria Rilke ont été rédigées entre 1903 et 1908 à Franz-Xaver Kappus. Ce dernier était élève du prytanée militaire que Rilke avait fréquenté. Le jeune Kappus adressa à Rilke, alors âgé de 28 ans, une longue lettre où il lui confiait sa vocation de poète. Rilke ne s'attache pas à porter un jugement sur les poèmes de Kappus.

Widely acclaimed as a progenitor of 20th-century Latin American fiction, Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839-1908), the son of a mulatto father and a washerwoman, was hailed in his lifetime as Brazil's greatest writer. His prodigious output of novels, plays, and stories rivaled contemporaries like Chekhov, Flaubert, and Maupassant, but, shockingly, he was barely translated into English until 1963, and still lacks proper recognition today.

Mary Ann Evans (1819-1880), known by her pen name George Eliot, was one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. Her novels are known for their realism and psychological insight. Four of them are included in this volume: Middlemarch, Daniel Deronda, The Mill on the Floss, and The Lifted Veil.

Gwendolen Harleth gambles her happiness when she marries a sadistic aristocrat for his money. Beautiful, neurotic, and self-centered, Gwendolen is trapped in an increasingly destructive relationship, and only her chance encounter with the idealistic Deronda seems to offer the hope of a brighter future. Deronda is searching for a vocation, and in embracing the Jewish cause he finds one that is both visionary and life-changing.

Join Dale on his greatest journey yet. The world has grown so much bigger than he had ever realized, and he is doing everything he can to stay one step ahead of the rest of the game. But no matter what he does, can he truly get ahead of the curve, and earn the strength to govern his worlds?

Dystopian literature is a genre of fictional writing used to explore social and political structures in a nightmarish world. The term dystopia refers to a society characterized by misery, squalor, or oppression, and the theme is most commonly used in science-fiction and speculative-fiction genres.

Little Dorrit is Amy, born in debtor’s prison, the youngest child of debtor William Dorrit, an inmate of the Marshalsea. The two are befriended by a man whose wife hires Little Dorrit as a seamstress. When William Dorrit inherits a fortune, he escapes the Marshalsea. The family, assuming a station befitting their wealth, travel to Italy.

Octave Mouret (le futur héros du "Bonheur des dames"), débarque à Paris et devient le nouveau locataire d'un immeuble bourgeois de six étages, situé rue de Choiseul. Il découvre rapidement que dans cette demeure en apparence de réputation irréprochable, les intrigues font partie de la vie courante des habitants. Derrière une belle façade se dissimule une cour intérieure d'où émanent des odeurs nauséabondes dues aux détritus des cuisines que les domestiques jettent par les fenêtres. Et par analogie, derrière cette respectable façade, existe un puant cloaque moral.

When Prince Oroonoko's passion for the virtuous Imoinda arouses the jealousy of his grandfather, the lovers are cast into slavery and transported from Africa to the colony of Surinam. Oroonoko's noble bearing soon wins the respect of his English captors, but his struggle for freedom brings about his destruction. Inspired by Aphra Behn's visit to Surinam, Oroonoko reflects the author's romantic view of native peoples as noble savages in 'the first state of innocence, before man knew how to sin'.

One of Mark Twain’s classic tales, a small band of boys in a medieval village make friends with a very real angel whose name is Satan. He assures the boys that he’s not The Satan, but his nephew. He looks like a boy of their own age, but his magical powers and unusual perspectives on morals and mankind leave the boys amazed and bewildered. Mark Twain never finished this story to his own satisfaction. In 1916, his biographer and friend Albert Bigelow Paine, with fellow author Frederick Duneka, added an evil astrologer and devised an ending, and published the version presented here.