Classics World Literature

Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839-1908) was the greatest writer ever to come from Brazil and one of the masters of nineteenth-century fiction. Susan Sontag calls him "the greatest writer ever produced in Latin America", surpassing even Borges. Harold Bloom says that Machado is "the supreme black literary artist to date". And Allen Ginsburg calls him "another Kafka". And The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas is his masterpiece, a dazzling, tragic, and profound novel that belongs next to the greatest works of his contemporaries Melville and Dostoevsky.

A young lady is kidnapped by a visiting merchant who is enchanted with her. Through divine interference, the ship is beset by a storm and everyone but the lady perishes. Blown up to the North Pole, she inadvertently passes into to another world, the Blazing World, where she is almost immediately made supreme ruler. As the lady begins to exercise her will, Cavendish lays out her own utopia and discusses a wide range of scientific, political, social, and religious topics. But when a war breaks out in her home world, what will the lady do with all power of the Blazing World behind her?

Parce que j'ai maintenant des petits enfants, j'ai souvent envie de raconter des histoires. C'est la fonction naturelle des grands-pères, et peut-être leur plus grand mérite.

The Allegory of the Cave, or Plato's Cave, was presented by the Greek philosopher Plato to compare "[T]he effect of education and the lack of it on our nature". It is written as a dialogue between Plato's brother Glaucon and his mentor, Socrates, narrated by the latter.

Released in 1912, it tells the story of an expedition to a plateau in the Amazon basin where prehistoric animals still survive. The character of Professor Challenger was introduced in this book. The novel also describes a war between Native Americans and a vicious tribe of ape-like creatures.

Old Michael Snowdon returns to London with an inheritance that he determines should go towards helping the poor—but goodness and charity are not to play a part here. Everyone has an agenda, and scheming spreads through the story like a disease. Gissing’s own experience of London as an outsider in a vast city that both fascinated and appalled him gave him the tools and the drive to create a visceral sense of place. Life is unremittingly grim for just about everyone, from the weak and well-intentioned Jane to the coarse, cunning Clem Peckover and her feckless rival Pennyloaf Candy.

Compiled from magazine articles published in the 1850s after his death, Cape Cod details several short trips Thoreau made to "the bare and bended arm of Massachusetts" between 1849 and 1855. "He went to the Cape out of curiosity," explains Paul Theroux, "but in the course of his travel a great thing happened: Thoreau, the woodsman and landlubber, discovered the sea."

Here are 2 classic thrillers by a master of suspense. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde> explores the split nature of man. Dr. Jekyll, a respectable man, transforms into an alter ego named Mr. Hyde who carries out all the wickedness Dr. Jekyll represses. In the body of Mr. Hyde, Jekyll finds freedom from the bonds of social convention but soon finds himself lured deeper into violence, and ultimately murder. The second tale, Markheim, tells of a robber named Markheim who murders a shopkeeper on Christmas day. Award-winning British narrator Ralph Cosham does justice to these 2 bone-chilling tales.

Après la chute de l'Empire, Orso Della Rebbia, officier et gentilhomme corse, rentre au pays. Son père a été assassiné deux ans auparavant, mais Orso, influencé par les mœurs continentales, débarque sans intention agressive, tout occupé par l'intérêt qu'il porte à une jeune anglaise rencontrée sur le bateau. Mais la Corse - ses traditions, sa singularité et surtout sa coutume vengeresse, la "vendetta" - l'attend en la personne de sa jeune sœur Colomba.

From Snuff: Vimes looked at the cover. The title was The World of Poo. When his wife was out of eyeshot he carefully leafed through it. Well, okay, you had to accept that the world had moved on and these days’ fairy stories were probably not going to be about twinkly little things with wings. As he turned page after page, it dawned on him that whomever had written this book, they certainly knew what would make kids like Young Sam laugh until they were nearly sick. The bit about sailing down the river almost made him smile.

The Second World is a mire of intrigue; the game's creators have left several back doors permitting them to terminate anyone at will, and an unlikely sequence of events has brought someone unsuspecting into their field of attention. One player has managed to upset the game world's balance, and now he's hunted by everyone. Every clan wants to recruit him for his achievements while other powers want him for their own, more sinister purposes.

The novel tells the story of Anthony Patch (a 1920s socialite and presumptive heir to a tycoon's fortune), the relationship with his wife Gloria, his service in the army, and his alcoholism. At once a morality tale, a meditation on love, money and decadence, and a social document, the novel provides an excellent portrait of the Eastern elite as the Jazz Age begins its ascent, engulfing all classes into what will soon be known as Café Society.

Anna Karenina is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published in book form in 1878. Many writers consider Anna Karenina the greatest work of literature ever, and Tolstoy himself called it his first true novel. It was initially released in serial installments from 1873 to 1877 in the periodical The Russian Messenger. A complex novel in eight parts, with more than a dozen major characters, it is spread over more than 800 pages (depending on the translation and publisher), typically contained in two volumes.

Dans son univers clos, Angélique, jeune orpheline recueillie par un couple de brodeurs, les Hubert, confond le rêve et la réalité et se passionne pour la vie des saints. Pour quelle raison les miracles de La Légende dorée ne se produiraient-ils plus ? Innocente dans sa conception de l'amour, elle ne rêve plus que de rencontrer l'image pure et idéale de celui qui l'aimera et qui se dévoilera à elle sans se présenter. Elle tombe éperdument amoureuse de Félicien, jeune ouvrier verrier.

Au XIème siècle, en Espagne, à la cour de Castille, un drame humain se noue. Don Rodrigue et Chimène s'aiment. Mais le Roi Don Ferdinand confie l'éducation de son fils à Don Diègue, le père de Rodrigue, ce qui provoque la jalousie et la déception de Don Gomès, le père de Chimène. Celui-ci donne une gifle à Don Diègue, le provoquant ainsi en duel. Le père de Rodrigue demande à son fils de laver son honneur, et Rodrigue se voit obliger de combattre le père de sa bien-aimée.

Suite au décès de M. Dashwood, sa veuve et ses trois filles se voient contraintes de quitter le Sussex et le domaine familial de Norland. Elles se réfugient dans le Devon, à l'invitation d'un généreux parent, où une nouvelle vie, plus modeste les attend. Les sœurs aînées, Elinor et Maria, l'une plus raisonnable, l'autre plus sentimentale vont vivre leur premiers émois amoureux non sans quelques revers.

"La femme de trente ans" évoque la condition féminine au travers du récit d'un mariage qui échoue. Julie de Chastillon est une jeune femme poussée trop vite dans le mariage et en quête permanente d'une rencontre amoureuse digne d'être vécue, elle devient adultère. Entre les déceptions dans l'intimité conjugale et le devoir de garder les apparences en société, Balzac nous fait le récit parfaitement réaliste d'une jeune femme "à qui le mariage ne [...] réussit point".

En 1829, par une jolie matinée de printemps, un homme âgé d'environ cinquante ans suivait à cheval un chemin montagneux qui mène à un gros bourg situé près de la Grande-Chartreuse. Cet homme, le commandant Genestas, en recherche un autre : Monsieur Benassis, médecin de campagne et maire de ce bourg. La rencontre a lieu, mais pourquoi le commandant se présente-t-il sous une fausse identité?

Rastignac, resté seul, fit quelques pas vers le haut du cimetière et vit Paris tortueusement couché le long des deux rives de la Seine où commençaient à briller les lumières. Ses yeux s'attachèrent presque avidement entre la colonne Vendôme et le dôme des Invalides, là où vivait ce beau monde dans lequel il avait voulu pénétrer. Il lança sur cette ruche bourdonnante un regard qui semblait par avance pomper le miel, et dit ces mots grandioses : "À nous deux maintenant !"

Set amid the riot, intrigue, and pageantry of medieval Paris, Victor Hugo's masterful tale of heroism and adventure has been a perennial favorite since its first publication in 1831. It is the story of Quasimodo, the deformed bell-ringer of the Notre Dame Cathedral, who falls in love with the beautiful gypsy Esmeralda. When Esmeralda is condemned as a witch by Claude Frollo, the tormented archdeacon who lusts after her, Quasimodo attempts to save her; but his intentions are misunderstood.