Showing results by author "lina" in All Categories

This is a story of the English moneyed class and its eternal struggle for creating “sense and sensibility” in its world. A potential marriage prospect must make “sense” by bringing with it enough assets and income to permit the couple to continue to live in happy, idle leisure, complete with servants and a prestigious address. Provided one can find such a match among the eligible persons of the opposite sex, one then hopes for “sensibility”, or capacity for emotion, so that if love is not immediately to hand, it might come around later. And while these gentlemen and ladies make ...

Titelheld Oliver Twist startet in dem zweiten Roman von Charles Dickens, damals seinen Leserinnen und Lesern auch unter seinem Pseudonym „Boz“ bekannt, seinen Lebensweg als Waisenkind in einem für das 19. Jahrhundert typischen britischen Armenhaus. Als er es - von den anderen Waisen ausgelost - wagt, gegen die menschenunwürdigen Lebensumstände zu protestieren, wird er an wechselnde Handwerker verkauft, flieht und landet in der Obdachlosen-Szene von London.Er findet Unterschlupf bei einer jugendlichen Diebesbande, die für den Organisator und Hehler Fagin arbeitet. Oliver Twist wird von ...

Titelheld Oliver Twist startet in dem zweiten Roman von Charles Dickens, damals seinen Leserinnen und Lesern auch unter seinem Pseudonym „Boz“ bekannt, seinen Lebensweg als Waisenkind in einem für das 19. Jahrhundert typischen britischen Armenhaus. Als er es - von den anderen Waisen ausgelost - wagt, gegen die menschenunwürdigen Lebensumstände zu protestieren, wird er an wechselnde Handwerker verkauft, flieht und landet in der Obdachlosen-Szene von London. Er findet Unterschlupf bei einer jugendlichen Diebesbande, die für den Organisator und Hehler Fagin arbeitet. Oliver Twist wird von...

"This magnificent work will be found to embrace not only all the essential doctrines of the Gospel of Christ, but also the whole "path of the just" (Prov. 4:18), in every station and relationship of life." (from the translator's preface) - Summary by Henry Cole

The classic Christmas story of an old miser and the astonishing effect a series of ghostly visitors has upon him. This version has been read in a whisper and is perfect for night-time listening in a quiet room. The low volume is intentional! - Summary by Cori Samuel

The Art of War is an ancient Chinese military treatise attributed to Sun Tzu, a high-ranking military general, strategist and tactician. The text is composed of 13 chapters, each devoted to one aspect of warfare. It is commonly considered to be the definitive work on military strategy and tactics of its time. It has been the most famous and influential of China's Seven Military Classics, and "for the last two thousand years it remained the most important military treatise in Asia, where even the common people knew it by name." It has had an influence on Eastern and Western military thinking, ...

Notes from Underground is an 1864 novella by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Notes is considered by many to be the first existentialist novel. It presents itself as an excerpt from the rambling memoirs of a bitter, isolated, unnamed narrator (generally referred to by critics as the Underground Man) who is a retired civil servant living in St. Petersburg. The first part of the story is told in monologue form, or the underground man's diary, and attacks emerging Western philosophy, especially Nikolay Chernyshevsky's What Is to Be Done?. The second part of the book is called "Àpropos of the Wet Snow," and ...

"A Christmas Carol" has been credited with relaunching the celebration of Christmas as we know it. It relaunched Charles Dickens' literary career, that is for sure! More than that, and more importantly, it is an illustration of one "covetous old sinner" and his opportunity for redemption in the eyes of both God and man. For me the book holds a special meaning for it repeatedly shows me that no matter how I often I may make mistakes, mercy and forgiveness are there for the asking. - Summary by Greg Giordano

Emily Brontë's only novel, published in 1847 under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, tells the tale of the all-encompassing and passionate, yet thwarted, love between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, and how this unresolved passion eventually destroys them and many around them. Now considered a classic of English literature, Wuthering Heights met with mixed reviews by critics when it first appeared, with many horrified by the stark depictions of mental and physical cruelty. Though Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre was originally considered the best of the Brontë sisters' works, many subsequent critics...

The quiet Dutch community of Sleepy Hollow lay in the Adirondack mountains on the western shore of the mighty Hudson River in America’s colonial period. The solitude of the woods was breathtaking, and not even a schoolmaster was immune from the eerie miasma which everyone knew permeated the dense forest. Written in 1820, Washington Irving’s The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow has become a classic of American literature, and has been retold in many different ways. Here is the original, from Irving’s own hand. (Summary by Chip)

A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens first published by Chapman & Hall on 17 December 1843. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation after the supernatural visits of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come. The novella met with instant success and critical acclaim. ( Summary by Wikipedia )

A collection of stories that inspired the works of many writers such as HP Lovecraft, "The King in Yellow" revolves around the play that the main characters read a part of, and those two acts of the play drive them all into madness. - Summary by Eva Staes

Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by four spirits on Christmas Eve, and it changes his life forever. - Summary by W. Blaine Dowler

After hearing Mr. Enfield's account of a distressing event involving Edward Hyde, the heir of his friend, Henry Jekyll, John Utterson is convinced that Jekyll's relationship with Hyde is built on something sinister. Utterson's concern for his friend is not unfounded but the reasons aren't quite what he, at first, believes. (Summary by Kristin Hughes)

Set in a time of oppressive colonisation, when large areas of the world were still unknown to Europe, and Africa was literally on maps and minds as a mysterious shadow, Heart of Darkness famously explores the rituals of civilisation and barbarism, and the frighteningly fine line between them.We get the tale through a classic unreliable narrator, relating as Marlow, a ship’s captain, tells how he was sent by the Company to retrieve the wayward Kurtz, and was shaken to discover the true depths of darkness in that creature’s, and in his own, soul. Conrad based the work closely on his own ...

A Study in Scarlet, a short novel published in 1887, was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes story. At the beginning of the book, Dr. Watson meets the detective for the first time and we ride along with them to the scene of a murder. The crime baffles the Scotland Yard detectives, but of course Holmes solves it easily. In the second half of the story, the scene shifts to Utah as we learn the murderer's history. The action returns to London in the last two chapters. In his first adventure, Holmes demonstrates many of the traits for which he later became well known: meticulous study ...

The tale begins on a Christmas Eve exactly seven years after the death of Ebenezer Scrooge's business partner. Scrooge has no place in his life for kindness, compassion, charity or benevolence. He hates Christmas, calling it "humbug", refuses his nephew Fred's dinner invitation, and rudely turns away two gentlemen who seek a donation from him to provide a Christmas dinner for the Poor... (Summary by Wikipedia and Kara)

Old miser Ebenezer Scrooge undergoes a major transformation after being visited by his deceased colleague Jacob Marley, who warns him to change his ways and has three spirits visit him on the night of Christmas Eve. (Introduction by Jeff Robinson)

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)

The miserly Ebenezer Scrooge is a cold-hearted man of business and has little time for the good humor and charity of the Christmas season. But that's about to change. A visit from his deceased business partner sets in motion a night in which Scrooge is visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future. Will his listen to their messages? Will he heed their warnings? Ebenezer Scrooge is about to take a Christmas journey that he won't soon forget. (Summary by Kyle Munley)