The following text has been drawn from Sir Richard Burton's exhaustive translation of «The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night», more commonly known as «The Arabian Nights». The story of Aladdin, likely the most famous of all the tales of «The Arabian Nights», is the story of a poor young boy who is recruited by the sorcerer Maghreb to retrieve a wonderful oil lamp from a booby-trapped magic cave. When Aladdin is trapped in the cave he ...
Ivan Turgenev's «Fathers and Sons» is considered to be one of the author's greatest literary achievements. It is novel about the clash of ideologies of two generations. The older generation, or the fathers, represents an aristocracy whose power and influence is fading and giving way to the younger generation, or the sons, who represent to middle class nihilistic ideology. «Fathers and Sons» is a brilliant work that captures the tension ...
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 ...
"Emma" is the story of Emma Woodhouse, a young girl from a good home that does not need the financial support of a husband and is determined not to marry. Emma however is not opposed to the idea of marriage for others and is determined to play matchmaker between several of the local citizens. In spite of Emma's resolve not to marry she finds herself attracted to several men throughout the book and considers the prospect of marriage. «E ...
Consisting of three novels and two interludes, the Forsyte saga chronicles several generations of an upper middle class British family at the beginning of the twentieth century. Full of social satire, «The Man of Property» commences this fictional history and introduces the first generation of Forsytes, prominently featuring Soames and his wife Irene. Keenly aware of their nouveau riche standing and highly desirous of material possessions, Soame ...
"Moby-Dick", Herman Melville's classic 1851 novel is the story of a wandering sailor by the name of Ishmael and his voyage aboard the whaling ship the «Pequod», which is commanded by Captain Ahab, a man who is obsessed with the capture of a single white whale of enormous size and ferocity. «Moby-Dick» is a novel rich with symbolism and full of complex themes including the examination of social classes and the struggle of good versus ev ...
Although best known for his scientific romances that paved the way for the modern science fiction genre, H. G. Wells (1866-1946) produced significant works on politics, society, science and history. Thanks in part to his teacher, T. H. Huxley, Wells became quite interested in the works of well known scientists like Charles Darwin, and admired their ability to imagine and think beyond their times. When writing his 1905 novel, «A Modern Utopia», W ...
The third and final volume of the 'd'Artagnon Romances', of which «The Three Musketeers» and «Twenty Years After» constitute the first and second volumes, The Vicomte de Bragelonne was first serialized between October 1847 to January 1850. It has subsequently been published in three, four, and five-volume editions. Our edition contains four volumes: «The Vicomte de Bragelonne», «Ten Years Later», «Louise de la Valliere», and «The ...
"Hard Times" is the 1854 novel by Charles Dickens that sought to highlight the social and economic divide that was growing between capitalistic mill owners and workers during the Victorian era of Great Britain. Originally published in serial form in Dickens's own periodical journal «Household Words», «Hard Times» is unique in that it is not set in London, like many of his works, but in the fictitious Victorian town of Coketown. A criti ...
