Showing results by author "ciesse" in All Categories

The lot of a younger son was less assured than his older brother in days gone by. It was worse for his descendant, especially if he wanted to marry above his means. Such is the case for young Ralph Woodhall. He is a scholar, but is not attracted by the usual professions. He wishes to make his name -- and fortune -- and win the hand of his love, Margaret. On a whim, the couple visit an astrologer, who tells them that, although there are many trials ahead, happiness will eventually be theirs. With this in mind, Ralph sets out on his adventures. - Summary by LynneT

The first book in the 20-novel Rougon-Macquart Cycle. A monument of French naturalism. The sprawling tale of a family in Provence, during the Second Empire, the family that grew out of the liaisons between Adelaide Fouque and her husband Rougons, and the smuggler Macquart. - Summary by Mark Leder

Eugénie Grandet, first published in 1833, is one of Honoré de Balzac's finest novels, and one of the first works in what would become his large novel series titled La Comédie Humaine. Set in a provincial town in post-Revolutionary France, the story deals with money, avarice, love, and obsession. A wealthy old miser must manage the passion of his innocent daughter, who later has to navigate on her own the treacherous ways of a world in which money is "the only god." Balzac's meticulous use of psychological and physical detail influenced the development of 19th-century literary realism, in ...

Emile, or On Education or Émile, or Treatise on Education (French: Émile, ou De l’éducation) was published in 1762 in French and German and in 1763 in English. The significance of Rousseau in education as well as in politics must be found in his revolutionary attitude toward established institutions. Some of his biographers relate the story that when the Academy of Dijon, in 1749, offered a prize for an essay on the question whether the progress of the arts and sciences has tended to the purification of morals and manners, he followed the suggestion of Diderot, who reminded him of the ...

Effi Briest ist die Titelfigur des gleichnamigen Romans von Theodor Fontane, der in Buchform erstmals 1895 erschienen ist. Als Erscheinungsjahr wurde auf dem Titelblatt 1896 angegeben. Der Gesellschaftsroman wird dem bürgerlichen Realismus zugeordnet und spielt vor dem Hintergrund des durch strenge Normen festgelegten Lebens im Kaiserreich unter Reichskanzler Otto von Bismarck. Der Roman beruht auf einer wahren Begebenheit, der Ehebruchgeschichte der Freifrau Elisabeth von Ardenne, geboren 1853. (Zusammenfassung aus Wikipedia)

Eric, artist for the king, has created a marvelous painting of a royal wedding. It is finished except for the face of the queen, which appeared to him in a dream. When he awoke, he had forgotten the form of the features. Obsessed with recapturing this vision, he goes on a quest to find the woman because he cannot paint another stroke until he sees those eyes again. During his journey, he discovers much more, perhaps even the true meaning of his dream and of his life. - Summary by Amy Gramour

This roman à clef follows the musical adventures of Consuelo, a gifted singer under the tutelage of the composer Nicola Porpora. After encountering betrayal in her home city of Venice, she goes to stay with a family of nobles in an isolated castle in Bohemia and teach singing to the baroness who lives there. It is there that she meets Count Albert, a troubled young man who experiences regressions to past lives. He is strangely drawn to her, but she, though moved with pity for him, is unsure what to think of him. She then sets out for Vienna to meet with Porpora again and on the way befriends ...

Ce n'était pas une petite tâche que de peindre les deux ou trois mille figures saillantes d'une époque, car telle est, en définitif, la somme des types que présente chaque génération et que La Comédie Humaine comportera. Ce nombre de figures, de caractères, cette multitude d'existences exigeaient des cadres, et, qu'on me pardonne cette expression, des galeries. De là, les divisions si naturelles, déjà connues, de mon ouvrage en Scènes de la vie privée, de province, parisienne, politique, militaire et de campagne. Dans ces six livres sont classées toutes les Études de moeurs qui...

Deeper questions of life and death, and of God’s relationship to man, are explored in this collection of “dreams” by a noted English novelist and literary critic. A man takes an uncertain step into the next world as his life ends – Defendants at the Last Judgment hurl their own accusations at the Judge – An angel arrives on Christmas Eve to guide one soul through a night of despair and doubt – Flowers in a garden contemplate their own mortality – What would it mean if the world renounced Christ, or God took Christ away from the world? – And in a world of the future, pleasure ...

The War of the Worlds is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells, first serialized in 1897 by Pearson's Magazine in the UK and by Cosmopolitan magazine in the US. The novel's first appearance in hardcover was in 1898 from publisher William Heinemann of London. Written between 1895 and 1897, it is one of the earliest stories to detail a conflict between mankind and an extraterrestrial race. The novel is the first-person narrative of both an unnamed protagonist in Surrey and of his younger brother in London as southern England is invaded by Martians. The novel is one of the most ...

One of May Sinclair’s “uncanny” stories, this novella explores many of Sinclair’s most treasured themes: the bounds of marriage, the conflict between flesh and spirit, the complexity of human emotions in relation to other humans, the practical everyday implications of philosophical Idealism. In the story, when Agatha Verrall enters into an extra-marital affair with Rodney Lanyon, she struggles to keep the relationship on a spiritual plane without falling into the physical passion that she fears. To her astonishment, she discovers that she has an extraordinary paranormal ability to ...

Dante Alighieri.La Divina Commedia.Lettura di Veniero Jenna.Progetto "LibroParlato".La diffusione di questo titolo NON può essere considerata, IN NESSUN CASO, a scopo commerciale.

Una anciana solterona, última descendiente de los Rondaliego, cuya existencia transcurre íntegramente en un rincón de Asturias; alejada practicamente de todo contacto exterior y acompañada solamente por su vieja criada y un gato, decide marcharse sola para afrontar las consecuencias del pasado.Esta corta novela de Clarín relata con realismo la época, los lugares, las circunstancias que envuelven a Doña Berta quien con empeño y valentía al fín, busca la forma de paliar o compensar los errores cometidos de juventud. (Introducción por Lu)

Doña Perfecta es una novela de Benito Pérez Galdós que muestra el choque entre dos mundos: el de don Ramón, joven liberal y moderno, y el de su tía Doña Perfecta, una mujer muy conservadora. A través de esta historia, Galdós nos cuenta cómo las diferencias ideológicas y familiares pueden destruir relaciones. Es una obra que mezcla drama, crítica social y personajes muy intensos. (Summary by Meri )

La Sacra Bibbia.Versione riveduta sui testi ebraici e grecia cura del Prof. Giovanni Luzzidella Facoltà Teologica Valdese.

— Natale non sembrerà più Natale senza regali — brontolò Jo sdraiata sul tappeto dinanzi al caminetto.— L’essere poveri è una disgrazia — disse Meg, guardando con un sospiro il suo vecchio vestitino.— Non è giusto che alcune ragazze debbano aver tanto ed altre nulla! — soggiunse la piccola Amy con voce piagnucolosa.— Abbiamo però la nostra buona mamma ed il nostro papà e tante altre belle cose — disse Beth dal suo cantuccio.Lettura di Silvia Cecchini.Questa distribuzione NON ha alcuno scopo commerciale o di lucro.

Ebenezer Scrooge is a covetous, miserable old man who lives his life apart from his fellow man and is incapable of showing love or understanding towards them. On Christmas Eve he is visited by three ghosts who show him the error of his ways. (Summary by helensears)

A Christmas Carol recounts the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, an elderly miser who is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come. After their visits, Scrooge is transformed into a kinder, gentler man - Summary by Wikipedia

Dr. Woodson describes the internal migration of African Americans within the United States, including the Northern Migration and the draw of California. Cultural and sociological observations are made as well as a study of principal economic factors in this migration. Summary by KevinS.

Ali Tepeleni, Pacha of Janina, rose to power during the early 1800s in one of the Ottoman Empire’s most unruly territories (Albania). His ferocious imposition of will was limitless, earning him the sobriquet of “the Lion of Janina.” As the mauling and murder of innocents sustains the lion, so did it sustain Ali Pacha’s rule. Thus, the range of celebrated crimes that Dumas describes in this essay are as vast as Ali Pacha’s ambition – an ambition rooted in his mother’s callous advice that “success justified everything, and everything is permissible to him who has the power to do ...