"Candide" is the famous satire and best-known work by Voltaire. First published in 1759, «Candide» is the story of its central character who travels throughout Europe and South America experiencing and witnessing much misfortune on the way. It is within the clever construct of this narrative that Voltaire refutes the philosophy of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, whose central idea was that life was the best of all possible worlds and that disast ...
One of the earliest gothic novels, «The Castle of Otranto» is the story of the Prince of Otranto, who out of concern for carrying on his lineage attempts to marry off his son to a young girl by the name of Isabella. When a tragic accident kills the Prince's son, a series of eerie events are set in motion. «The Castle of Otranto» is a chilling gothic masterpiece that will be enjoyed by any fan of the genre. ...
Anatole France's work «Les dieux ont soif» translates to «The Gods Will Have Blood» or «The Gods are Athirst.» Both translations of the title accurately depict the nature of this novel set during the French Revolution. Young artist Evariste Gamelin is the right-hand man of Jacobin, Marat, and Robespierre and eventually becomes appointed as a juror on the Revolutionary Tribunal during the heinous Reign of Terror. Though Gamelin fully believe ...
Virginia Woolf's 1919 novel «Night and Day», her second novel, is an examination of the relationships of its four main characters: Katharine Hilbery, Mary Datchet, Ralph Denham, and William Rodney. The granddaughter of a distinguished poet, Katherine Hilbery, is struggling with the expectation that she will be a great writer. She is torn between the prospect of marrying either William Rodney, a budding poet who attempts to impress her with ...
Among the most sophisticated examples of Gothic romance, «The Italian» was written in 1797 at the height of Radcliffe's power as an author. The dark, shadowed Italy of this novel immediately encapsulates the fast-paced plot concerning Vincentio di Vivaldi and his beautiful love Ellena Rosalba. While they wish to marry, Vincentio's mother is against their marriage. Her scheming to separate them soon involves Schedoni, a mysterious monk, ...
"The Prince and the Pauper" is the story of how when young Prince Edward Tudor of Wales and Pauper Tom Canty switch clothes that they are mistaken for each other and end up switching places. Prince Edward learns of the struggles of the commoners of England while Tom discovers what it is like to be a Prince and then a King. «The Prince and the Pauper» is both a delightfully comedic tale and a biting social commentary on the inequities among ...
Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893) was an admired 19th century French writer. He became one of the leading artists since Gustave Flaubert and is considered to be one of the fathers of the modern short story. Maupassant's stories are characterized by their wealth of style, clever plotting and effortless resolutions. Many of his stories are set during the Franco-Prussian War of the 1870s, describing the futility of war and the innocent civilians w ...
Mark Twain's semi-autobiographical travel memoir, «Roughing It» was written between 1870-1871 and subsequently published in 1872. Billed as a prequel to «Innocents Abroad», in which Twain details his travels aboard a pleasure cruise, «Roughing It» documents Twain's early days in the old wild west between the years 1861-1867. ...
A work that Mark Twain himself considered his last finished and most important novel, «The Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc», is a departure from Twain's usual comic and satirical spirit. «Joan» is a work of serious historical reflection that suggests that the English deliberately rigged the trial of Joan of Arc to convict her of witchcraft and heresy, a view that recent scholarship seems to support. ...
