House Classics

A Doll's House is a three-act play in prose by Henrik Ibsen. The play is significant for its critical attitude toward 19th-century marriage norms. It aroused great controversy at the time, as it concludes with the protagonist, Nora, leaving her husband and children because she wants to discover herself. Ibsen was inspired by the belief that "a woman cannot be herself in modern society", since it is "an exclusively male society, with laws made by men and with prosecutors and judges who assess feminine conduct from a masculine standpoint".

Journalist Angus Logan returns to the island of La Roque, where he grew up as part of the Courvel family. Maurice de Courvel has died under extremely mysterious circumstances. What has happened to the island since Angus’ departure is equally shocking. As the details of what have led to the violent death slowly begin to unravel, Angus cannot escape his own past and the danger that has begun to surround him.

Sulle sponde del fiume Mirkwood, in una fertile pianura circondata da fitti boschi, vivono felicemente le tribù gotiche della Gente della Marca. Una sera d'estate lo squillo di un corno squarcia l'aria e un messaggero irrompe nella Dimora dei Wolfings: tra le mani stringe una lancia spezzata, prova dell'avanzata dell'esercito romano. Sarà Thiodolf, saggio capo guerriero della Casata dei Wolfings e discendente di una misteriosa stirpe, a condurre i suoi uomini in battaglia a fianco delle casate alleate della Marca.

The blind man was well aware that her reply was but a subterfuge. Little, however, did he dream the cause. Little did he know that a dark shadow had fallen upon the young girl's life - a shadow of evil. "Gabrielle," he said in a low, intense voice, "why aren't you open and frank with me as you once used to be? Remember that you, my daughter, are my only friend!".

Witty socialite Lily Bart has expensive tastes. Unfortunately, she does not have the social status to match. So far she has managed to get by on ‘old money’ and has become accustomed to a certain level of luxury. Her luck seems to be running out, however, as she approaches thirty and begins to scramble for an eligible bachelor who will secure her both an elevation of social status and stability.

Lily Bart, impoverished though she was born into New York City's high society in the 19th century, was raised and educated to marry well both socially and economically. As she approaches the age of 29, her marital prospects become limited, and she descends on a two-year social slide from privilege to a tragically lonely existence on the margins of society.

A House to Let is a short story originally published in 1858 in the Christmas edition of Dickens' Household Words magazine. The plot concerns an elderly woman, Sophonisba, who notices signs of life in a supposedly empty dilapidated house (the eponymous "House to Let") opposite her own, and employs the efforts of an elderly admirer, Jabez Jarber, and her servant, Trottle, to discover what is happening within.

In the aftermath of the Civil War, siblings Rena and John Walden seek a better life for themselves by passing as white in their new home state of South Carolina. John’s success as an attorney and marriage to a white Southerner help cement his own place, but Rena’s engagement to John’s best friend brings a new level of scrutiny that threatens to expose them both. As the rewards increase, so does the risk, and ultimately, the color line seems determined to re-exert itself.

In the days before the First World War, the measured routine of barrister and accidental Member of Parliament Edward Leithen is disrupted when Charles Pitt-Heron, an Oxford contemporary and now the husband of Leithen’s old flame, abruptly goes missing. As he investigates the mystery, Leithen is soon pitted against the murderous forces of “the Power-House,” an international network of anarchists, and its chilling leader.

Ez a könyv igazi boszorkányokról szól, akik a legveszélyesebb élőlények a föld kerekén. Ráadásul attól lesznek kétszeresen veszélyesek, hogy nem látszanak veszélyesnek. Ezért is mesél el Nagymama az unokájának mindent, amit hosszú élete során sikerült a boszorkányokról kinyomoznia. Pedig akkor még nem is sejti, milyen veszedelmes kalandba keveredik a fiú hamarosan, amikor egy szállodában váratlanul az angliai Boszorkányok Titkos Társaságának éves ülésén találja magát.

Minden alkalommal, amikor Róka úr egy-egy zsíros tyúkkal, libával vagy pulykával tér haza esti portyájáról, a falu három elvetemült gazdája majd szétrobban a dühtől a farmjukat ért támadások miatt. A dagadt Buci, a törpe Bugris és a vézna Bán ezért bosszút esküszik. Elhatározzák, hogy örökre kifor­gatják Róka urat, feleségét és gyerekeiket a családi odúból. Csakhogy Róka úrnak is megvan a magához való esze! Agyafúrt tervet eszel ki, méghozzá fantasztikusat!

James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 - 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, short story writer, poet and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of the 20th century. THE BOARDING HOUSE: Mrs Mooney was a butcher's daughter. She was a woman who was quite able to keep things to herself: a determined woman. She had married her father's foreman and opened a butcher's shop near Spring Gardens.

"The Haunted House" is a story series published in 1859 for the weekly periodical All the Year Round. It was "Conducted by Charles Dickens", with Charles Dickens writing the opening and closing stories, framing stories by Dickens himself and five other authors. The story appeared in the Extra Christmas Number on 13 December 1859. Dickens began a tradition of Christmas publications with A Christmas Carol in 1843 and his Christmas stories soon became a national institution. The Haunted House was his 1859 offering.

Algernon Blackwood was born on 14th March 1869 in Shooter’s Hill, South East London, to a religious middle-class family. Blackwood was interested in the paranormal and the supernatural at an early age, and had a thirst for anything on Buddhism, other Oriental philosophies, mysticism and occultism. The Empty House is one of his most famous ghost stories. A man accompanies his adventurous aunt to a notorious haunted house. As the two exploring its dark, empty rooms, it becomes apparent that the house has not forgotten the earlier tragedy.

The Toll House, standing alone by the wayside under nodding pines, with its streamlet and water-tank; its backwoods, toll-bar, and well trodden croquet ground; the ostler standing by the stable door, chewing a straw; a glimpse of the Chinese cook in the back parts; and Mr. Hoddy in the bar, gravely alert and serviceable, and equally anxious to lend or borrow books; dozed all day in the dusty sunshine, more than half asleep. There were no neighbours, except the Hansons up the hill.

After receiving a letter from his boyhood friend that he is suffering from some sort of debilitating illness, a man feels compelled to travel to a reclusive mansion to assist him. He learns that his friend and his deathly-ill sister are the last in the Usher line, slowly collapsing into madness. The Gothic mansion seems to have a bizarre metaphysical connection with the brother and sister, and there are incredibly strange occurrences that continue to happen late at night. Will this well-meaning friend survive another night in this macabre Gothic house of horror?

In its oppressive atmosphere of fog, mist, and mud, nothing conjures up the dreary days of November and its "implacable" weather like the celebrated opening of Bleak House. The plot concerns a long-running legal dispute (Jarndyce and Jarndyce) that has far-reaching consequences for all involved. Dickens' assault on the flaws of the British judiciary system is based in part on his own experiences as a law clerk.

Rahmenhandlung dieses großen Gesellschaftsromans ist das Gerichtsverfahren Jarndyce gegen Jarndyce um eine Erbschaft. Der Roman lebt jedoch von Einzelgeschichten, die ineinander verwoben sind. Da ist die Erzählung um das "Waisenmädchen" Esther Summerson, das nach dem Tod seiner Tante von John Jarndyce, einem Beteiligten des Erbschaftsstreits und reichen Oberschichtler, in Bleak House aufgenommen wird.

A genealogist conducting research in the backwoods of Massachusetts seeks shelter from the rain in a home he initially believes abandoned. Inside, he discovers that the home, furnished with relics from the American Revolution, is not abandoned.

The long, drawn-out case of Jarndyce versus Jarndyce provides the background to this novel, which takes us into Dickens' world of impoverished people on the street, lovers fallen on hard times, and the grand riches of the upper classes. It is read movingly by Sean Barrett.