Showing results by author "ciesse" in All Categories

The Fortune of the Rougons (French: La Fortune des Rougon), originally published in 1871, is the first novel in Émile Zola's monumental twenty-volume series Les Rougon-Macquart. In his introduction Zola indicates that this series is intended to demonstrate the interaction of heredity and environment along the lines of natural selection and evolution. While Zola's metascience is questionable, this novel is successful in its analysis of the interaction of momentous social and political events and the everyday lives and aspirations of a provincial society. In a satisfyingly intricate, vast and ...

“These papers were originally published as prefaces to the separate books of Dickens in one of the most extensive of those cheap libraries of the classics which are one of the real improvements of recent times. Thus they were harmless, being diluted by, or rather drowned in Dickens. My scrap of theory was a mere dry biscuit to be taken with the grand tawny port of great English comedy; and by most people it was not taken at all--like the biscuit.Nevertheless the essays were not in intention so aimless as they appear in fact. I had a general notion of what needed saying about Dickens to the ...

There are certain names which are familiar, as names, to all mankind; and every person who seeks for any degree of mental cultivation, feels desirous of informing himself of the leading outlines of their history, that he may know, in brief, what it was in their characters or their doings which has given them so widely-extended a fame. Consequently, great historical names alone are selected; and it has been the writer's aim to present the prominent and leading traits in their characters, and all the important events in their lives, in a bold and free manner, and yet in the plain and simple ...

George Eliot's own favorite among her novels, this novel tells the story of Romola, the intelligent daughter of a blind scholar, who is falling in love with a man who is going to change her life and the politics of Florence in a way she doesn't like. Set in 15th century Florence, it is "a deep study of life in the city of Florence from an intellectual, artistic, religious, and social point of view". Summary by Stav Nisser and Wikipedia.

The worshipers of this ancient tentacled horror are still with us, waiting for this terrible being to awake and take vengeance again on an earth filled with nonbelievers. Lovecraft delves into this eons old cult in the greatest detail of any of his stories about Cthulhu and gives us hints about how it is worshiped and the abominable rituals involved. Creepy. Very creepy. - Summary by phil chenevert

The letters... will perhaps more clearly exhibit the temper and character of Knox, than his more elaborate compositions: but to understand the allusions with which they abound, it is necessary to revert to his domestic history while he resided in England. During his stay at Berwick, be contracted an acquaintanceship with Mrs. Bowes, in the course of which, a mutual attachment was formed between him and her daughter Marjory, with the approbation of the mother, who gave her hearty consent to their union. But the intended match was opposed by her husband’s relatives, and especially, by Sir ...

Alcott in 1862 served as a nurse in Georgetown, D.C during the Civil War. She wrote home what she observed there. Those harrowing and sometimes humorous letters compiled make up Hospital Sketches. (Summary by Aaron Elliott)

"International disputes that end in war are not generally questions of absolute right and wrong. They may quite as well be questions of opposing rights. But, when there are rights on both sides; it is usually found that the side which takes the initiative is moved by its national desires as well as by its claims of right.This could hardly be better exemplified than by the vexed questions which brought about the War of 1812."This volume of the Chronicles of Canada series explains both the causes of the War of 1812 and the campaigns of the war from a primarily Canadian viewpoint, a perspective ...

This 1866 book was published in a time of great change in the Church of England. Trollope began as a High Church adherent and then worked his way to a Broad Church stance, a theological liberalism (toleration of belief and interpretation, regard for the individual conscience, a willingness to tolerate the ambiguity of finding truth in the extremes as well as the middle). This book deals with a crisis of faith and a crisis of structural form in the Victorian Church of England. It possesses all the interesting attributes of the novelist’s style. Note on the final chapter: John William Colenso ...

This is a 50-poem sequence of 16-line sonnets, divided into 10 sections. It has been called "a novelette in sonnet form". The author, George Meredith, pours his heart out in raw anguish, pain, and heartbreak, as he recalls the moments, and sometimes intimate memories of his wife who deserted him for another lover. (Summary by Laur)

Sickly and sheltered, nine-year-old Elizabeth Ann is horrified to hear she must be sent away to live with the "Putney cousins." According to Aunt Harriet, these mysterious relations are cold-hearted, stiff-necked, as well as heavy-handed when it comes to the delegation of children's chores. But what will life at the Putney farm truly have in store for Betsy? (Summary by Twinkle88)Cast List:Narrator: MaybeCordeliaBetsy: Nancy HalperAbigail Putney: Maria KasperHenry Putney: Larry WilsonAnn Putney: Joanna Michal HoytAunt Frances: Kim LambAunt Harriet: thestorygirlLittle Molly: LilyEllen Peters: ...

Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century. During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and Orlando (1928), and the book-length essay A Room of One's Own (1929), with its famous dictum, "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."The slim book Monday or Tuesday ...

El libro de los Salmos es la mejor coleccion de cantos, oraciones y poesia en la que los autores, incluyendo al rey David, hablan con Dios de una manera abierta y sincera, expresando todo tipo de sentimientos humanos. Es una de las secciones mas poderosas de la Palabra de Dios, y se encuentra precisamente en el centro de la Biblia! (Summary by Joyfull)

Deuteronomio, que significa "segunda ley", es un recuento de Moisés de las enseñanzas y los eventos de Éxodo, Levítico y Números. Incluye una revisión extensa de los Diez Mandamientos (4: 44-5: 33) y el discurso de despedida de Moisés a una nueva generación de israelitas mientras se preparan para tomar posesión de la Tierra Prometida. Les recuerda la fidelidad y el amor de Dios, pero también la ira de Dios sobre la generación anterior de israelitas debido a su desobediencia. Repetidamente Moisés le encarga a Israel que guarde la ley. Deuteronomio es un llamado solemne a amar y ...

The book examines the role of education in the lives of the characters and how such education and study has affected the characters. Rosamond Vincy's finishing school education is a foil to Dorothea Brooke's religiously-motivated quest for knowledge. Rosamond initially admires Lydgate for his exotic education, and his intellect. A similar dynamic is present in Dorothea and Casaubon's relationship, with Dorothea revering her new husband's intellect and eloquence. In both cases, however, the young wives' expectations of their husbands intellects are not reflected in reality. Despite extreme ...

In W.H. Hudson’s first novel, an Englishman wandering on horseback across the pampas finds adventure and romance in Uruguay. The full title became: “The Purple Land: Being the Narrative of One Richard Lamb's Adventures in The Banda Oriental, in South America, as Told By Himself”. In the preface to "The Sun Also Rises", President Teddy Roosevelt said that everyone should read "The Purple Land."- Summary by A. Gramour

Aunt Jane's Nieces on Vacation is a juvenile novel for girls, written by L. Frank Baum. It is the seventh in the ten volumes in the Aunt Jane's Nieces series, and carries forward the continuing story of the three cousins Lousie Merrick Weldon, Patsy Doyle, and Elizabeth De Graf. Like all the books in the series, it was issued under Baum's "Edith Van Dyne" pseudonym. (Summary adapted from Wikipedia)

Dickens portrayal of selfishness, in this case in the Chuzzlewit family. Old Martin has a great fortune, and everyone wants in on it, especially distant cousin Seth Pecksniff. Meanwhile, his grandson, young Martin, has fallen in love with his grandfather's ward Mary and is disinherited, sending young Martin on an adventure in America from which he will return a changed man. Will he win Mary? Also featuring the dastardly villain Jonas Chuzzlewit, young Martin's cousin, and the hilarious nurse/midwife Sarah Gamp, who is usually found in a state of intoxication. - Summary by Brad J Filippone

Although titled The Possessed in the initial English translation, Dostoyevsky scholars and later translations favour the titles The Devils or Demons. An extremely political book, Demons is a testimonial of life in Imperial Russia in the late 19th century. As the revolutionary democrats begin to rise in Russia, different ideologies begin to collide. Dostoyevsky casts a critical eye on both the radical idealists, portraying their ideas and ideological foundation as demonic, and the conservative establishment's ineptitude in dealing with those ideas and their social consequences. This form of ...

LibriVox volunteers bring you 16 recordings of The True Christmas by Henry Vaughan.This was the Weekly project for December 17, 2023. ------Henry Vaughan was a Welsh metaphysical poet, author and translator writing in English, and a medical physician. - Summary by Wikipedia