Un caleidoscopio di incontri inattesi, di racconti folgoranti, di ironiche riflessioni. Con scrittura cristallina e rapidi tratti, Carofiglio disegna personaggi memorabili e, in un gioco di specchi tra verità e finzione, allestisce fulminee messe in scena dove appaiono intensi frammenti di mondo. Un piccolo gioiello in cui si alternano storie amare a situazioni comiche, osservate con impareggiabile sguardo critico e grande umanità.

Passeggeri notturni

In una città stravolta e allucinata, in cui ogni cosa si confonde e chiunque è sostituibile, i protagonisti di queste storie conducono ciascuno un'inchiesta misteriosa e dall'esito imprevedibile. Tutto può cominciare con una telefonata nel cuore della notte, come nel caso di Daniel Quinn (Città di vetro), autore di romanzi polizieschi che accetta la sfida che gli si presenta e si cala nei panni di uno sconosciuto detective. Ma può anche capitare che chi debba pedinare si senta a sua volta pedinato (Fantasmi); o, ancora, che ci sia qualcuno che s'immedesima a tal punto nella vita di un amico da sposarne la vedova e adottarne il figlio (La stanza chiusa). Tre detective-stories eccentriche e avvincenti in cui Paul Auster inventa una sua New York fantastica, un «nessun luogo» in cui ciascuno può ritrovarsi e perdersi all'infinito. Ed è proprio nell'invenzione di questa solitudine che i personaggi della Trilogia misurano il proprio io e scoprono il loro vero destino.

Trilogia di New York

Brando è nato per la danza. Corpo perfetto, movimenti che incantano. Sua madre ha cucito su di lui un sogno preciso, che forse gli va troppo stretto. Ma quando il mondo tace, Brando disegna. Disegna per sentirsi libero, per correre incontro alla sua vera essenza. Ettore è l’opposto. La danza non lo ha scelto, lui l’ha strappata al suo corpo con ostinazione e fatica. Ogni passo è una sfida, ogni errore un colpo incassato. Suo padre non capisce, ma Ettore continua a danzare. Perché lottare è tutto ciò che conosce. Ettore però ha anche un talento naturale. Disegna con istinto e grazia, come se fosse la cosa più semplice al mondo. Brando lo vede. Lo invidia, quasi. Perché mentre lui cerca la libertà nel disegno, Ettore la possiede senza sforzo. Sono così simili, Brando ed Ettore, molto amici e un poco rivali. Ma poi c’è Mirta, che arriva come un temporale d’estate, e li vede, li comprende. E portando scompiglio e allegria li costringe a guardarsi davvero, e a ripensare a tutto quanto... Brando, Ettore, Mirta. La danza, il disegno, l’amore. Qual è il vero talento? Quello che ti è stato dato o quello che scegli di inseguire, contro tutto e tutti? In una coreografia dove tutto si tiene, Matteo Bussola intreccia movimenti e desideri in un crescendo di emozioni. Perché forse il vero talento è trovare il proprio passo e condividerlo con chi si ama.

Il talento della rondine

This newly discovered story by literary legend Sylvia Plath stands on its own and is remarkable for its symbolic, allegorical approach to a young woman’s rebellion against convention and forceful taking control of her own life. Written while Sylvia Plath was a student at Smith College in 1952, Mary Ventura and The Ninth Kingdom tells the story of a young woman’s fateful train journey. Lips the color of blood, the sun an unprecedented orange, train wheels that sound like “guilt, and guilt, and guilt”: these are just some of the things Mary Ventura begins to notice on her journey to the ninth kingdom. “But what is the ninth kingdom?” she asks a kind-seeming lady in her carriage. “It is the kingdom of the frozen will,” comes the reply. “There is no going back.” Sylvia Plath’s strange, dark tale of female agency and independence, written not long after she herself left home, grapples with mortality in motion.

Mary Ventura and The Ninth Kingdom

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW ""BEST HORROR FICTION OF 2024"" From Eliza Clark, the author of the brilliant novels Boy Parts and Penance and one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists, comes a fierce, visionary and darkly comic story collection. A woman welcomes a parasite into her body. A teenager longs for perfect skin. A scientist tends to fragile alien flora. A young man takes the night into his own hands. Unsettling, revelatory, and laced with her signature dark humor, Eliza Clark’s debut short story collection plumbs the depths of that most basic human feeling: hunger.

She's Always Hungry

In quest'opera di Friedrich Nietzsche le idee del "superuomo" e dell'"eterno ritorno" raggiungono una forma compiuta. Dopo dieci anni di solitudine Zarathustra sente il bisogno di donare agli uomini la sua sapienza, ma il popolo distratto ride delle sue parole. Dovrà così cercarsi dei discepoli cui indirizzare i suoi discorsi. Tema dei discorsi è la ribellione alla cultura e alla morale dominanti e la visione della vita come forza indomabile e della volontà come strumento di affermazione. Agli elementi polemici sono inframmezzati brani poetici (canti e canzoni) di grande bellezza. Molteplici le fonti stilistiche, la Bibbia, le poesie di Goethe, la prosa di Lutero, gli aforismi dei moralisti francesi.

Così parlò Zarathustra

In "Al di là del bene e del male", un'opera caratterizzata da un tono polemico e provocatorio fin dal titolo, Nietzsche anticipa e critica quelle che definisce le "idee moderne". Supera la nozione stessa di "spirito libero" spingendosi fino a mettere in questione l'idea di "verità" in sé e tutto ciò che ne discende, a partire dalla morale: questo significa porsi al di là del bene e del male. Nuova riedizione 2024 con divisione in capitoli.

Al di là del bene e del male

An L.A. Theatre Works commissioned adaptation of the classic Agatha Christie "whodunit." Adapted from the novel by Kate McAll. In Christie's clever and beautifully crafted tale, Detective Hercule Poirot receives an urgent letter from Paul Renauld summoning him to France. Upon their arrival, Poirot and his companion, Arthur Hastings, find they are too late. Plus, to complicate things further, certain facts just don't add up. Original Music by John Biddle. Recorded at The Invisible Studios, West Hollywood, in April 2021. Director: Anna Lyse Erikson Producing Director: Susan Albert Loewenberg An L.A. Theatre Works Full-Cast Performance Featuring: Edita Brychta as Madame Renauld and Francoise Kevin Daniels as Detective Giraud Anna Lyse Erikson as Leonie Simon Helberg as Captain Hastings Adhir Kalyan as Jack Renauld Alfred Molina as Hercule Poirot Darren Richardson as Sergeant, Doctor, and others Jocelyn Towne as Cinderella and Marthe Daubreuil Joanne Whalley as Madame Daubreuil Matthew Wolf as Monsieur Hautet Senior Producer: Anna Lyse Erikson Prepared for Audio by: Mark Holden Sound Designers: Andrea Allmond, Charles Carroll Recording Engineer: Neil Wogensen Editor and Mixer: Charles Carroll for The Invisible Studios, West Hollywood Senior Radio Producer: Ronn Lipkin Foley Artist: Jeff Gardner

The Murder on the Links

The most famous, beautiful and spiritually moving poems of the twentieth-century, read by the most famous poet. Historic recordings of the cream of Eliot’s poetry. It is always something of a revelation to listen to a poet reading his own words, and these recordings are no exception. Eliot clearly and evenly characterises and reveals the voices of some of his most important works in this excellent reading. The Waste Land caught the imagination of the age with its powerful emotional impact. Eliot felt that the modern Western city had become a sterile desert waste land, and in it life had become a sham pretence, with no content but stale conventionality. The Four Quartets express the poet’s whole-hearted acceptance of the Christian faith. Each poem describes a meditation which leads to a reconciliation with the burden of the past.

T. S. Eliot Reads The Waste Land, Four Quartets and Other Poems

"I know hardly any other writer who seems to be closer, or more continually close, to the Spirit of Christ Himself." So wrote C. S. Lewis of George MacDonald, the Scottish pastor and novelist who had a profound impact on Lewis’ own literary and spiritual career. Here Lewis gathers 365 of MacDonald’s most inspirational lines, prefacing them with details of the effects MacDonald had on Lewis himself. From “Inexorable Love” to “God at the Door”, MacDonald’s words will edify and uplift, just as they did for C. S. Lewis.

George MacDonald

This collection was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1943. Most of the poems in this volume are short lyrics, published after several unfortunate tragedies had occurred in Frost's personal life, i.e. his daughter Marjorie's death in 1934, his wife's death in 1938, his son Carol's suicide in 1940. Despite these losses, Frost continued to work on his poetry and eventually fell in love with his secretary Kay Marrison, who became the primary inspiration of the love poems in this collection. This collection is the last of Frost's books that demonstrates the seamless lyric quality of his earlier poems. The most popular poem of this volume is "The Gift Outright", a patriotic poem that was recited at the presidential inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961.

A Witness Tree

Sappho The twilight's inner flame grows blue and deep, And in my Lesbos, over leagues of sea, The temples glimmer moonwise in the trees. Twilight has veiled the little flower face Here on my heart, but still the night is kind And leaves her warm sweet weight against my breast. Am I that Sappho who would run at dusk Along the surges creeping up the shore When tides came in to ease the hungry beach, And running, running, till the night was black, Would fall forespent upon the chilly sand And quiver with the winds from off the sea? Ah, quietly the shingle waits the tides Whose waves are stinging kisses, but to me Love brought no peace, nor darkness any rest. I crept and touched the foam with fevered hands And cried to Love, from whom the sea is sweet, From whom the sea is bitterer than death. Ah, Aphrodite, if I sing no more To thee, God's daughter, powerful as God, It is that thou hast made my life too sweet To hold the added sweetness of a song. There is a quiet at the heart of love, And I have pierced the pain and come to peace. I hold my peace, my Cleis, on my heart; And softer than a little wild bird's wing Are kisses that she pours upon my mouth. Ah, never any more when spring like fire Will flicker in the newly opened leaves, Shall I steal forth to seek for solitude Beyond the lure of light Alcaeus' lyre, Beyond the sob that stilled Erinna's voice. Ah, never with a throat that aches with song, Beneath the white uncaring sky of spring, Shall I go forth to hide awhile from Love The quiver and the crying of my heart. Still I remember how I strove to flee The love-note of the birds, and bowed my head To hurry faster, but upon the ground I saw two winged shadows side by side, And all the world's spring passion stifled me. Ah, Love, there is no fleeing from thy might, No lonely place where thou hast never trod, No desert thou hast left uncarpeted With flowers that spring beneath thy perfect feet. In many guises didst thou come to me; I saw thee by the maidens while they danced, Phaon allured me with a look of thine, In Anactoria I knew thy grace, I looked at Cercolas and saw thine eyes; But never wholly, soul and body mine, Didst thou bid any love me as I loved. Now I have found the peace that fled from me; Close, close, against my heart I hold my world. Ah, Love that made my life a lyric cry, Ah, Love that tuned my lips to lyres of thine, I taught the world thy music, now alone I sing for one who falls asleep to hear.

Helen of Troy and Other Poems

Introduction. By Harriet Monroe When 'Poetry, A Magazine of Verse', was first published in Chicago in the autumn of 1912, an Illinois poet, Vachel Lindsay, was, quite appropriately, one of its first discoveries. It may be not quite without significance that the issue of January, 1913, which led off with 'General William Booth Enters into Heaven', immediately followed the number in which the great poet of Bengal, Rabindra Nath Tagore, was first presented to the American public, and that these two antipodal poets soon appeared in person among the earliest visitors to the editor. For the coming together of East and West may prove to be the great event of the approaching era, and if the poetry of the now famous Bengali laureate garners the richest wisdom and highest spirituality of his ancient race, so one may venture to believe that the young Illinois troubadour brings from Lincoln's city an authentic strain of the lyric message of this newer world.

The Congo and Other Poems

Mary Barton is the first novel by English author Elizabeth Gaskell, published in 1848. The story is set in Manchester between 1830 and 1840 and is responsible for the difficulties faced by the lower classes of Victorian England. We're in Manchester around 1840, dramatic period social conflicts and deep lacerations. Among the textile workers in struggle stands out the figure of John Barton, dragged by events to the bottom of a dark slash, and next to him, an extraordinary romantic note in a passionate novel of realism, daughter Mary, contested between two men at the Centre of a love affair that is interwoven with the social drama and turns and wraps , prompting a painful conflict between Mary and her father. Mary Barton, in what is considered the first English realist novel, knows how to combine romance with absolute spontaneity and sense of dramatic realism of life ...

Mary Barton

John Hicklenton was one of Britain's leading comic book artists, who took his own life in March 2010 with the assistance of Dignitas in Zurich. 100 Months is an apocalyptic parable of environmental devastation written and drawn in fore knowledge of his own impending death. An intense, hallucinatory story with overtones of Dostoevsky's 'Legend of the Grand Inquisitor' and artwork of breathtaking intensity, it is the crowning achievement of a brilliant career, a true graphic novel that engages ultimate themes of life, death and salvation. Controversial, haunting and tortured in all senses, it will inevitably fuel debate around the issues of taking one's own life. Includes a foreword by Pat Mills.

100 Months

Seven sweet stories of lesbian love by award-winning queer author Giselle Renarde. Need a break from hot and spicy romance? Find original lesbian fiction between this book’s clean covers, as well as tales that have been featured in prestigious collections such as Best Lesbian Romance and Best Lesbian Love Stories. Opposites attract after two volunteers get off to a rocky start in Beginning Badly. In Flash Freeze, Lauren falls hard for Zarina—so hard she smacks her head on the sidewalk. Hailey doesn’t know how to tell Sashi her biggest secret in When Hailey Met Sashi, but Yvonne and Deva live happily ever after (after saving a man’s life on their wedding day!) in Going to the Chapel. Seven sweet lesbian love stories sealed with a kiss!

Sweet Lesbian Love Stories

This work is a continuation of the "Orlando Innamorato" of Matteo Maria Boiardo, which was left unfinished upon the author's death in 1494. It begins more or less at the point where Boiardo left it. Orlando Furioso; The Frenzy of Orlando, more literally Raging Roland) is an Italian epic poem by Ludovico Ariosto which has exerted a wide influence on later culture. The earliest version appeared in 1516, although the poem was not published in its complete form until 1532. Orlando Furioso is a continuation of Matteo Maria Boiardo's unfinished romance Orlando Innamorato (Orlando in Love, published posthumously in 1495). In its historical setting and characters, it shares some features with the Old French Chanson de Roland of the eleventh century, which tells of the death of Roland. The story is also a chivalric romance which stemmed from a tradition beginning in the late Middle Ages and continuing in popularity in the 16th century and well into the 17th. Orlando is the Christian knight known in French (and subsequently English) as Roland. The story takes place against the background of the war between Charlemagne's Christian paladins and the Saracen army that has invaded Europe and is attempting to overthrow the Christian empire. The poem is about war and love and the romantic ideal of chivalry. It mixes realism and fantasy, humor and tragedy. The stage is the entire world, plus a trip to the moon. The large cast of characters features Christians and Saracens, soldiers and sorcerers, and fantastic creatures including a gigantic sea monster called the orc and a flying horse called the hippogriff. Many themes are interwoven in its complicated episodic structure, but the most important are the paladin Orlando's unrequited love for the pagan princess Angelica, which drives him mad; the love between the female Christian warrior Bradamante and the Saracen Ruggiero, who are supposed to be the ancestors of Ariosto's patrons, the d'Este family of Ferrara; and the war between Christian and Infidel. The poem is divided into forty-six cantos, each containing a variable number of eight-line stanzas in ottava rima (a rhyme scheme of abababcc). Ottava rima had been used in previous Italian romantic epics, including Luigi Pulci's Morgante and Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato. Ariosto's work is 38,736 lines long in total, making it one of the longest poems in European literature.

Orlando Furioso

"Fat and Thin" is a satirical short story by Anton Chekhov, first published in the No. 40, 1 October 1883 issue of Oskolki magazine, signed A. Chekhonte (А. Чехонте). The plot of the short story "Fat and Thin" in its original version was based on an anecdote, and the conflict between the characters arose accidentally, due to the involuntary oversight of the "Thin". At a railway station the fat one, Mischa, accidentally meets the thin one, Porfiri. The thin man travels accompanied by his wife and son. The two old school friends greet each other in an exuberant and informal manner. A conversation follows, and it is about careers of both of them as government officials.

Chekhov Stories

Fat and Thin

War and Peace (Pre-reform Russian: Война и миръ, Voyna i mir) is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published in its entirety in 1869. Epic in scale, it is regarded as one of the central works of world literature. It is considered Tolstoy's finest literary achievement, along with his other major prose work, Anna Karenina (1873–1877). War and Peace delineates in graphic detail events surrounding the French invasion of Russia, and the impact of the Napoleonic era on Tsarist society, as seen through the eyes of five Russian aristocratic families. Portions of an earlier version of the novel, then known as The Year 1805, were serialized in the magazine The Russian Messenger between 1865 and 1867. The novel was first published in its entirety in 1869. Newsweek in 2009 ranked it first in its list of the Top 100 Books. In 2003, the novel was listed at number 20 on the BBC's survey The Big Read.Tolstoy himself, somewhat enigmatically, said of War and Peace that it is "not a novel, even less is it a poem, and still less a historical chronicle". Large sections of the work, especially in the later chapters, are philosophical discussion rather than narrative. He went on to elaborate that the best Russian literature does not conform to standards and hence hesitated to call War and Peace a novel. (Instead, Tolstoy regarded Anna Karenina as his first true novel.) (font: Wikipedia)

War and Peace

Between the Acts is the final novel by Virginia Woolf, published in 1941 shortly after her suicide. This is a book laden with hidden meaning and allusion. It describes the mounting, performance, and audience of a festival play (hence the title) in a small English village just before the outbreak of the Second World War. Much of it looks forward to the war, with veiled allusions to connection with the continent by flight, swallows representing aircraft, and plunging into darkness. The pageant is a play within a play, representing a rather cynical view of English history. Woolf links together many different threads and ideas - a particularly interesting technique being the use of rhyme words to suggest hidden meanings. Relationships between the characters and aspects of their personalities are explored. The English village bonds throughout the play through their differences and similarities.

Between the Acts

COMPLETE and UNABRIDGED Imogene is young, beautiful, kisses like a movie star and knows everything about every film ever made. She's also dead, the legendary ghost of the Rosebud Theater. Arthur Roth is a lonely kid with a head full of big ideas and a gift for getting his ass kicked. It's hard to make friends when you're the only inflatable boy in town. Francis is unhappy, picked on; he doesn't have a life, a hope, a chance. Francis was human once, but that's behind him now. John Finney is in trouble. The kidnapper locked him in a basement, a place stained with the blood of half a dozen other murdered children. With him, in his subterranean cell, is an antique phone, long since disconnected...but it rings at night, anyway, with calls from the dead... Meet these and a dozen more, in 20TH CENTURY GHOSTS, irresistible, addictive fun showcasing a dazzling new talent. Read by David Ledoux (P) 2007 HarperCollins Publishers

20th Century Ghosts

The Passionate Pilgrim, a collection of beautiful verses by Shakespeare and other contemporary poets, is here paired with the Bard's intriguing allegorical work The Phoenix and the Turtle, which focuses on the love and death of two birds a Phoenix and a Turtle Dove. Mysterious and haunting, these rarely recorded works are richly rewarding, performed to perfection by Gerard Logan. Highly praised for his performance of Shakespeare's The Rape of Lucrece, AUK Classics now bring you a wonderful set of readings from Olivier Award nominated actor Gerard Logan. This collection of readings will delight and enthrall in equal measure, and will appeal to many people, from casual listeners to true Shakespare fans. It may also be seen as a masterclass for aspiring performers, and will enhance any audiobook collection.

Shakespeare Classics

The Phoenix and the Turtle / The Passionate Pilgrim

In 1834, Ralph Waldo Emerson, formerly a Unitarian minister, began a new career as a public lecturer. Many of those lectures formed the source material for his essays. Nature (1836), his first published work, contained the essence of his transcendental philosophy, which involved viewing the world of natural phenomena as a symbol of the inner life and emphasizing individual freedom and self-reliance. This collection contains eleven of his most celebrated and memorable essays from this period: “Self-Reliance,” “Nature,” “Circles,” “Friendship,” “Heroism,” “Prudence,” “Compensation,” “Gifts,” “Manners,” “Shakespeare; Or, the Poet,” and “The American Scholar.”

Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson

More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary is a collection of ghost stories by English author M. R. James. M. R. James wrote many of his ghost stories to be read aloud in the long tradition of spooky Christmas Eve tales. His stories often use rural settings, with a quiet, scholarly protagonist getting caught up in the activities of supernatural forces. The details of horror are almost never explicit, the stories relying on a gentle, bucolic background to emphasise the awfulness of the otherworldly intrusions. Stories included in this volume are: "A School Story", "The Rose Garden", "The Tractate Middoth", "Casting the Runes", "The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral", "Martin's Close", "Mr Humphreys and His Inheritance" More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary is the second collection of ghost stories by M. R. James, published in 1911. The first volume (Ghost Stories of an Antiquary) was published in 1904. Audiobook read by Peter Yearsley, running time 5 hours. Unabridged full version. Also available as E-Book: ePUB, 48,300 words, average reading time 4 hours. M. R. James published a total of 4 collections of his ghost stories; Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904), More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1911), A Thin Ghost And Others(1919) and A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories (1925). Montague Rhodes James (1862-1936), was an English medieval scholar. He is best remembered for his ghost stories, which are regarded as among the best in the genre. James redefined the ghost story for the new century by abandoning many of the formal Gothic clichés of his predecessors and using more realistic contemporary settings. However, James's protagonists and plots tend to reflect his own antiquarian interests. Accordingly, he is known as the originator of the "antiquarian ghost story".

A Fragment of Life

Julius Caesar is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1599. It portrays the 44 BCE conspiracy against the Roman dictator Julius Caesar, his assassination and the defeat of the conspirators at the Battle of Philippi. Although the title of the play is Julius Caesar, Caesar is not the central character in its action; he appears in only three scenes, and is killed at the beginning of the third act. The protagonist of the play is Marcus Brutus, and the central psychological drama is his struggle between the conflicting demands of honour, patriotism, and friendship. The play reflected the general anxiety of England over succession of leadership. At the time of its creation and first performance, Queen Elizabeth, a strong ruler, was elderly and had refused to name a successor, leading to worries that a civil war similar to that of Rome might break out after her death

Shakespeare

Julius Caesar

Performed by Sir Michael Redgrave and others, The Tempest possesses a truly wonderful narrative carried by a wonderful cast. Available to download for the first time online. The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place using illusion and skillful manipulation. He conjures up a storm, the eponymous tempest, to lure his usurping brother Antonio and the complicit King Alonso of Naples to the island. There, his machinations bring about the revelation of Antonio's low nature, the redemption of the King, and the marriage of Miranda to Alonso's son, Ferdinand.

The Tempest

Dubliners is a collection of 15 short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. They form a naturalistic depiction of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century. The stories were written when Irish nationalism was at its peak and a search for a national identity and purpose was raging; at a crossroads of history and culture, Ireland was jolted by various converging ideas and influences. They centre on Joyce's idea of an epiphany: a moment where a character experiences self-understanding or illumination. Many of the characters in Dubliners later appear in minor roles in Joyce's novel Ulysses. The initial stories in the collection are narrated by child protagonists, and as the stories continue, they deal with the lives and concerns of progressively older people. This is in line with Joyce's tripartite division of the collection into childhood, adolescence, and maturity. James Joyce (1882-1941) was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century. Joyce is best known for Ulysses (1922), a landmark work in which the episodes of Homer's Odyssey are paralleled in an array of contrasting literary styles, perhaps most prominent among these the stream of consciousness technique he perfected. Other major works are the short-story collection Dubliners (1914), and the novels A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) and Finnegans Wake (1939).

Dubliners

Ariadne is a short story by Anton Chekhov first published in English in 1916 as part of the collection The Darling and Other Stories. The story begins on a steamer bound for Sebastopol, where the narrator meets Shamokhin, who has become a hostage to love. Shamokhin tells the story of his helpless love for Ariadne. She was his neighbor, a beautiful but cold young woman, "a nightingale made of metal," who challenged him to fall in love with her. When Shamokhin refused to elope with her, she eloped with Lubkov, a married man with four children. Months later, Ariadne wrote again to Shamokhin, begging him to join her in Italy. When Shamokhin finally caved in and went to her, he discovered that Ariadne and Lubkov were lovers. A year later, Lubkov had used up all his money and returned to his wife. Shamokhin then became Ariadne's lover. Now his money is almost gone and his life is destroyed, but he feels helpless to leave her. Total Running Time (TRT): 53 min. Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860-1904) was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics. Chekhov had at first written stories only for financial gain, but as his artistic ambition grew, he made formal innovations which have influenced the evolution of the modern short story. His originality consists in an early use of the stream-of-consciousness technique, later adopted by James Joyce and other modernists, combined with a disavowal of the moral finality of traditional story structure. He made no apologies for the difficulties this posed to readers, insisting that the role of an artist was to ask questions, not to answer them.

Ariadne

Sarrasine is a novella by Honoré de Balzac first published in 1830. The tale follows the undulating pathways of Sarrasine the sculptor’s shocking journey to his coming of age. As one of the “fathers of realism” Balzac painted with his words a vivid portrait of life in the swirling salons of Europe at the end of the Bourbon monarchy, and we follow Sarrasine from France to Italy in search of both his métier and his muse. However it is also the story of La Zambinella, an Italian singer with whom Sarrasine falls madly and passionately in love. But that passion holds a secret which Sarrasine spies too late. Total Running Time (TRT): 1 hour, 39 min. Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of short stories, La Comédie humaine. Many of Balzac's works have been made into or have inspired films, and they are a continuing source of inspiration for writers, filmmakers and critics. Before and during his career as a writer, he attempted to be a publisher, printer, businessman, critic, and politician; he failed in all of these efforts. La Comédie humaine reflects his real-life difficulties, and includes scenes from his own experience.

Sarrasine

The Safety Match is a short story by Anton Chekhov first published in English in 1922 as part of the collection The Cook’s Wedding and Other Stories. The Safety Match is a true locked room mystery with a surprise ending. A retired police officer is missing from his room and believed to have been murdered, but the body cannot be found. It appears the killer entered the room through a window and that the dead man was taken from the room through the same window. Suspects are his sister, his mistress, his butler, and his manager who reported the murder. As usual Chekhov will sursprise us with an unexpected ending. Total Running Time (TRT): 46 min. Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860-1904) was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics. Chekhov had at first written stories only for financial gain, but as his artistic ambition grew, he made formal innovations which have influenced the evolution of the modern short story. His originality consists in an early use of the stream-of-consciousness technique, later adopted by James Joyce and other modernists, combined with a disavowal of the moral finality of traditional story structure. He made no apologies for the difficulties this posed to readers, insisting that the role of an artist was to ask questions, not to answer them.

The Safety Match

The Skull is a science fiction short story by Philip K. Dick, first published in 1952. Conger agreed to kill a stranger he had never seen. He wasn't concerned about getting the wrong man. He knew what the man looked like. There was no way he could make a mistake about his target's identity -- he had the man's skull under his shoulder. The Skull is a skilful mesh of time travel, unscrupulous governments, prisoners, and religion. With an assassin thrown in for good measure. The Skull was first published in If Worlds of Science Fiction September 1952. Total Running Time (TRT): 52 min. Philip Kendrick Dick (1928-1982) was an American science fiction author. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments, and altered states. In addition to 44 published novels, Dick wrote approximately 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his lifetime. Although Dick spent most of his career as a writer in near-poverty, ten popular films based on his works have been produced, including Blade Runner, Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly, Minority Report, Paycheck, Next, Screamers, and The Adjustment Bureau. In 2005, Time magazine named Dick one of the one hundred greatest English-language novels published since 1923. In 2007, Dick became the first science fiction writer to be included in The Library of America series.

The Skull

Lord Arthur Savile's Crime is a story written by Oscar Wilde. The main character, Lord Arthur Savile, is introduced by Lady Windermere to Mr Septimus R. Podgers, a chiromantist, who reads his palm and tells him that it is his destiny to be a murderer. Lord Arthur wants to marry, but decides he has no right to do so until he has committed the murder. His first attempted murder victim is his elderly Aunt Clementina, who suffers from heartburn. Pretending it is medicine, Lord Arthur gives her a capsule of poison, telling her to take it only when she has an attack of heartburn. Reading a telegram in Venice some time later, he finds that she has died and victoriously returns to London to learn that she has bequeathed him some property. Sorting through the inheritance, his intended wife Sybil Merton finds the poison pill, untouched; thus Lord Arthur's aunt died from natural causes and he finds himself in need of a new victim. Lord Arthur Savile's Crime was first published in The Court and Society Review, in late 1887. E-Book, ePUB, length 12,800 words, average reading time 1 hour, 5 min. Unabridged full version. Also available as audiobook read by Alex Lau, running time 1 hour, 19 min.

Lord Arthur Savile's Crime

The Portrait of Mr. W. H. is a story written by Oscar Wilde. The story is about an attempt to uncover the identity of Mr. W. H., the enigmatic dedicatee of Shakespeare's Sonnets. It is based on a theory, originated by Thomas Tyrwhitt, that the sonnets were addressed to one Willie Hughes, portrayed in the story as a boy actor who specialized in playing women in Shakespeare's company. This theory rests on the assumption that the dedicatee is also the Fair Youth who is the subject of most of the poems. The only evidence for this theory is the text of a number of sonnets themselves (such as Sonnet 20, that makes puns on the words "Will" and "Hues"). The Portrait of Mr. W. H. was first published in Blackwood's Magazine in 1889. It was later added to the collection Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories, though it does not appear in early editions. Audiobook read by James K. White, running time 1 hour, 12 min. Unabridged full version. Also available as E-Book, ePUB, length 11,700 words, average reading time 1 hour.

The Portrait of Mr. W. H.

A House of Pomegranates is a collection of fairy tales, written by Oscar Wilde, that was published as a second collection after The Happy Prince and Other Tales. Wilde once said that this collection was "intended neither for the British child nor the British public." The stories included in this collection are: The Young King The Birthday of the Infanta The Fisherman and his Soul The Star-Child A House of Pomegranates was first published in 1891. Audiobook read by Noel Badrian, running time 3 hours, 43 min. Unabridged full version. Also available as E-Book, ePUB, length 33,300 words, average reading time 2 hours, 45 min.

A House of Pomegranates

Sir Iqbal was undoubtedly one of the greatest poets, philosophers and seers of humanity of all times. He took a prominent part in the politics of the country and in the intellectual and cultural reconstruction of the Islamic world. His contribution to the literature and thought of the world will live for ever. In 1915, he published his first collection of poetry, the ASRÁR-I KHUDÍ (Secrets of the Self) in Persian. The poems emphasize the spirit and self from a religious, spiritual perspective. Iqbal proves by various means that the whole universe obeys the will of the "Self." His message is not for the Mohammedans of India alone, but for Muslims and non-Muslims everywhere.

THE SECRETS OF THE SELF - A Philosophical Poem

Dubliners is a collection of fifteen short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914.[1] They form a naturalistic depiction of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century. The stories were written when Irish nationalism was at its peak, and a search for a national identity and purpose was raging; at a crossroads of history and culture, Ireland was jolted by various converging ideas and influences. They centre on Joyce's idea of an epiphany: a moment where a character experiences a life-changing self-understanding or illumination. Many of the characters in Dubliners later appear in minor roles in Joyce's novel Ulysses.[2] The initial stories in the collection are narrated by child protagonists, and as the stories continue, they deal with the lives and concerns of progressively older people. This is in line with Joyce's tripartite division of the collection into childhood, adolescence and maturity.

The epic poem BEOWULF has enthralled readers for centuries with its tale of adventure, heroism, and glory in combat. The court of Hrothgar, good king of the Danes, has fallen under attack from the vile giant Grendel. Beowulf, a young hero of the Geats, comes with his band of dauntless warriors to aid the king and prove his might in combat and skill as a leader before ascending the throne of his own land. Believed by scholars to have been composed sometime between A.D. 700 and 1000 by an unknown author, BEOWULF stands today as the great literary masterpiece of the Anglo-Saxon language, also known as Old English. The epic is presented here in the popular Modern English verse translation by Francis Barton Gummere.

Beowulf

The Divine Comedy describes Dante's descent into Hell with Virgil as a guide; his ascent of Mount Purgatory and encounter with his dead love, Beatrice; and finally, his arrival in Heaven. Examining questions of faith, desire and enlightenment, the poem is a brilliantly nuanced and moving allegory of human redemption. Dante Alighieri was born in Florence in 1265 and belonged to a noble but impoverished family. His life was divided by political duties and poetry, the most of famous of which was inspired by his meeting with Bice Portinari, whom he called Beatrice,including La Vita Nuova and The Divine Comedy. He died in Ravenna in 1321.

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

Experience the world of Nora Helmer in 'A Doll's House' by Henrik Ibsen, masterfully brought to life in this unabridged version by the talented Robin LaRee Berry. Immerse yourself in the gripping tale of love, duty, and the pursuit of independence that resonates as much today as it did over a century ago. Our high-quality production process ensures a crisp and clear voice, providing you with an enjoyable listening experience. Each sentence, each word, is carefully edited for clarity and precision. Robin's masterful narration breathes new life into Ibsen's iconic characters, taking you on a journey into the depth of their hopes, their fears, and their dreams. It is a testament to her artistry that Robin captures the essence of each character, delivering performances that are as engaging as they are emotionally impactful. No matter where you are - at home, on the commute, or taking a break - 'A Doll's House' is an audiobook that will engage your senses and touch your soul. Don't miss this opportunity to witness a timeless classic in a new light.

A Doll's House

SELECTED POEMS is a selection of Henrik Nordbrandt's poems, translated into English in a cooperation between Alexander Taylor, Nadia Christensen and Henrik Nordbrandt.

Selected Poems

The Grieving Project is an inventive, unique spoken word audiobook from award-winning artist, author, playwright Aoede (Lisa A. Sniderman), that sets the stages of grief to music to help us move from surviving to thriving… the entire audiobook-all 22 tracks-is spoken over original musical compositions. Four different people. Four different chronic illness experiences. Plunging through 14 stages of grieving and thriving, through a melding of spoken words and an emotional orchestra. Taking us on a moving journey from surviving... to thriving. What can you do when you struggle with an illness or disability that doesn’t go away? You can deny it. You can suffer from and live in fear of it. You can scream at it and demand to know why it’s there. You can come to terms with it. You can feel sorry for yourself. You can make friends with it. You can learn to live your life with it. You can grieve. And perhaps if you grieve, you can awaken, express, rejuvenate, activate, connect, shine and thrive, not only despite, but because of it. During the 12 years I’ve lived with my rare progressive muscle weakness disease, dermatomyositis, I forgot to grieve. In The Grieving Project, I’ve invited myself to grieve and thrive; to express and feel in ways I’ve intentionally avoided, and from my own experiences, created seven new stages of thriving that pick up after grieving. Though presented as separate stages, grieving and thriving do not follow not linear timelines; they are a roller coaster with myriad twists and turns; an intense jumble of simultaneous physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual feelings and reactions. The Grieving Project is a road map to our hearts, an invitation for you to grieve your loss, your change, your unexpected and unwanted transformation, and the inspiration and encouragement you need to awaken, express, rejuvenate, activate, connect, shine and truly thrive. Cover: Jasmine Raskas (unusmundusart.com) Produced by Angelo "Scrote" Bundini

The Grieving Project

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life. After she studied at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth, she spent a short time at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her family's house in Amherst. Thought of as an eccentric by the locals, she became known for her penchant for white clothing and her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, even leave her room. Most of her friendships were therefore carried out by correspondence. In 2016, Terence Davies released A Quiet Passion, a biographical film about the life of Emily Dickinson. The film stars Cynthia Nixon as the reclusive poet. It co-stars Emma Bell as young Dickinson, Jennifer Ehle, Duncan Duff and Keith Carradine.

Emily Dickinson: Complete Poems

Few things can impart such a feeling of satisfaction as a well-tended garden. As he surveys his roses from the comfort of his deckchair on a warm summer’s evening, Brian Lawless can relax and forget for a while the long struggle with spray gun and secateurs. But soon he must return to the fight. Slugs and snails are stirring. Beneath the ground, weeds are beginning to sprout. Soon the hedges will need trimming and the lawn will need mowing. Before long the leaves will be falling and the gardener’s year, with all its frustrations and delights, will begin again.

The Gardener's Little Book of Verse

When strange animals land in Red's yard, he and his friend Slim agree to keep it to themselves. The creatures are unlike any that they've ever seen before, and are - to them - animals that would make a fortune putting on a show at the circus. All the while, their fathers are fretting over the arrival of interstellar diplomats, on whose trade their civilisation may have to rely on to survive. Despite the urgency of the mission, however, neither hide nor hair of them have been seen...

Youth

"The Raven" is a narrative poem by the American writer and poet Edgar Allan Poe. It was published for the first time on January 29, 1845, in the New York Evening Mirror. Noted for its musicality, stylized language and supernatural atmosphere, it tells of the mysterious visit of a talking raven to a distraught lover, tracing his slow descent into madness.

The Raven

This book contains the complete novels of Fyodor Dostoyevsky in the chronological order of their original publication. Poor Folk The Double Notes From The Underground Crime and Punishment The Gambler The Idiot The Possessed (The Devils) A Raw Youth The Dream of a Ridiculous Man The Brothers Karamazov

Fyodor Dostoyevsky: The Complete Novels

Graphic Films Collection was created to offer comic versions of cinema classics that are in the public domain. The scripted versions faithfully respect the original narrative, the scenarios, and the characters. The title that opens this collection is Nosferatu - Eine Symphonie des Grauens (Nosferatu - Symphony of Horrors) is a 1922 German film in five acts, (in this graphic novel in 2 acts), directed by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau. Henrik Gallen's script is an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, so the names of characters and places have changed. The silent film tells the story of Count Orlok, a vampire from the Carpathian Mountains, who falls madly in love by Ellen, the wife of the young realtor Hutter, who goes to the Carpathians to offer a property to the count. Count Orlok, (Nosferatu), takes the terror to the city of Wisborg, while going after Ellen and causes that many think to be the plague...

Graphic Films

Nosferatu

Did a supernatural hound cause the death of Sir Charles Baskerville? Or is the famous Baskerville curse simply a cover for more sinister goings on? The redoubtable Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick Dr. Watson face danger in an old mansion and on the moors in this rollicking stage adaptation of Doyle's classic adventure. An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring: Geoffrey Arend, Wilson Bethel, Seamus Dever, Sarah Drew, Henri Lubatti, James Marsters, Christopher Neame, Moira Quirk, Darren Richardson. Includes a conversation with actors Seamus Deaver (Holmes), Geoffrey Arend (Watson), and Leslie S. Klinger, the New York Times best-selling editor of the Edgar®-winning "New Annotated Sherlock Holmes" and the critically-acclaimed "New Annotated Dracula." Directed by Alexis Jacknow. Recorded by L.A. Theatre Works before a live audience.

The Hound of the Baskervilles

"Beowulf", a sprawling, fantastical tale of bravery, heroism, and Anglo-Saxon heraldry, is the most celebrated epic poem in the English language. The story of the great Geatish fighter Beowulf, who comes to the aid of the beleagued Hrothgar and his men, this poem relates three epic battles: Beowulf's fight with the monster Grendel, his face-off with Grendel's vengeful mother and, after serving as King for 50 years, Beowulf's fateful clash with a fire-breathing dragon. Francis B. Gummere's translation of this ancient text has been hailed for over a century and is here brought back to life with a summary of the poem by the English scholar Dr. J.L. Hall.

Beowulf - An Anglo-Saxon Epic Poem

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Books in category 'Short Stories, Drama & Poetry'

Short Stories, Drama & Poetry

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