Herman Melville (1819-1891), now at the center of the American literary canon, was wildly dismissed for this labyrinthine effort. With the Boston Post writing upon its release, «it might be supposed to emanate from a lunatic hospital rather than from the quiet retreats of Berkshire.» Perhaps Melville's most difficult and wildly textured work, «Pierre: Or, The Ambiguities», (1852) to this day evades easy categorization or critical interpreta ...
Widely believed to be among Melville's most popular works, «Redburn, His First Voyage» follows the young Wellingborough Redburn on his first journey at sea. A boy just on the verge of manhood, Redburn's decision to become a sailor is apparently at odds with his gentle upbringing, which has made him in many ways unprepared for the hardships of his chosen profession. He is unmercifully initiated into the life of a sailor by his fellow cr ...
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (1881-1975) was a master of English prose, who produced novels, collections of short stories, scripts, screenplays and lyrics for Broadway shows. Wodehouse enjoyed a long, prosperous career, despite the many political and social changes that he witnessed throughout his life. Although he spent most of his time in France and the United States, his works usually reflected his early life experiences in pre-war English ...
The tenth novel in the Rougon-Macquart series by Emile Zola, «Pot Luck (Pot-Bouille)» was first published in serially format in the periodical «Le Gaulois» between January and April 1882. The title of the work, Pot-Bouille, is a 19th-century French slang term for a large cooking pot used for preparing stews. It is a term that really has not direct translation in English. The title of the novel which recounts the activities of the residents of a ...
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) dreamed since childhood of becoming a poet. However, he produced several popular works that cemented his reputation as a great novelist of the Victorian period, and earned him the admiration of later writers like D. H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf. He achieved greatness in the fiction genre early on, writing novels for a living until his mid-fifties, then abandoning fiction entirely in order to devote himself to his true ...
Jules Gabriel Verne (1828-1905) has been ranked alongside Hugo Gernsback and H.G. Wells for the title of «Father of Science Fiction.» The French novelist wrote about scientific and technological advancements – particularly in air, space and water travel – before they existed. His popular stories of travelers in unknown realms, known as his «voyages extraordinares», have made him the second-most translated author in the world. His 1877 novel, «Of ...
Agatha Christie's famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot makes his debut in «The Mysterious Affair at Styles.» The mystery of the novel is the one of who poisoned wealthy heiress Emily Inglethorp and how did the killer get in and out of her locked bedroom. The suspects are many and Poirot must use Holmesian deduction to discover the killer. Mystery fans will delight in the first installment of Agatha Christie's famous series of Poirot ...
Prosper Merimee (1803-1870) was an author by hobby, not necessity, being the son of two talented and highly successful artists. He was also a lawyer, a public official, a senator, a painter, an authority on Russian literature and a member of the French Academy. As a public official, Merimee travelled through France and Europe, from which he drew inspiration for his stories and novels. Quite indifferent about his literary popularity, Merimee clai ...
James Matthew Barrie's «Peter Pan» is considered one of the greatest fantasy tales ever written. It is the story of a boy who wouldn't grow up. Follow Peter Pan with Wendy to Neverland and share in their adventures with the lost boys, Tinker Bell and the evil Captain Hook. Originally performed as a play in 1904, «Peter Pan» is presented here in the book format that was subsequently written and published by Barrie following the success ...
