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This romantic mystery - or mysterious romance - tells the tale of jilted lover, Jim Conrad, who discovers an unusual gold ring while on a visit to Paris. What is the story of the ring? Why is Clelia Vine so sad? Who is the nameless 'chief'? And how is a dour English barber in a Parisian salon mixed up in all this? The novel, published in 1896, was written by Justin McCarthy, an Irish nationalist, Liberal historian, novelist and politician. (Introduction by Ruth Golding)...

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Mystery, Fiction, Romance

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Carl Stanton is an invalid suffering from an unusual bout of rheumatism. His fiancée is gone for the winter and though he begs her to write to help ease his boredom and pain she is stingy with her letters. She sends him what she calls a ridiculous circular which she states is very apropos of his sentimental passion for letters. In a sudden fit of mischief, malice and rheumatism, Carl decides to respond to the circular which results in bringing about the necessary distraction in a flurry of letters that do ease Carl’s boredom and pain but also bring him something else that he never quite expected. ( Summary by wikisource )...

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Fiction, Humor

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Ilias von Homer (vermutlich gegen Ende des 8. Jahrhunderts v. Chr.) Translated by: Johann Heinrich Voß (1751-1826) Language: German (Deutsch) Ein herrliches Epos, welches viele Erkenntnisse über die menschliche Natur beinhaltet. Gilt als das älteste erhaltene Werk der abendländischen Literatur. Voß übersetzte das den Streit zwischen Agamemnon und Achilleus im Trojanischen Krieg erzählende Werk 1793 aus dem Altgriechischen ins Deutsche. (Zusammenfassung von redaer)...

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Fiction, Literature

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Don Quixote is an early novel written by Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. Cervantes created a fictional origin for the story in the character of the Morisco historian, Cide Hamete Benengeli, whom he claims to have hired to translate the story from an Arabic manuscript he found in Toledo's bedraggled old Jewish quarter. The protagonist, Alonso Quixano, is a minor landowner who has read so many stories of chivalry that he descends into fantasy and becomes convinced he is a knight errant. Together with his companion Sancho Panza, the self-styled Don Quixote de la Mancha sets out in search of adventures. His lady is Dulcinea del Toboso, an imaginary object of his courtly love crafted from a neighbouring farmgirl by the illusion-struck knight (her real name is Aldonza Lorenzo, and she is totally unaware of his feelings for her. In addition, she never actually appears in the novel). Published in two volumes a decade apart, Don Quixote is the most influential work of literature to emerge from the Spanish Golden Age and perhaps the entire Spanish literary canon. As a founding work of modern Western literature, it regularly appea...

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Adventure, Fiction, Literature

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Theodore Racksole, a rich American multi-millionaire, buys the Grand Babylon Hotel, a luxurous hotel in London, as a whim - and then finds out there are strange things going on - a German prince is supposed to arrive but never turns up, someone is found murdered in the hotel, but then the body disappears. With the help of his independent daughter Nella and another German prince, Racksole sets out to solve the mystery. Bennett wrote this as a 15-part serial, for a lark, in 15 days, and sold it for 100 pounds. It first appeared in The Golden Penny in 1902, which described it as the most original, amusing, and thrilling serial written in a decade. (Summary by Anna Simon)...

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Fiction, Comedy, Adventure

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Some day an enterprising editor may find time to glean from the whole field of Canadian literature a representative collection of wit and humour. . . . The present little collection obviously makes no such ambitious claim. It embraces, however, what are believed to be representative examples of the work of some of our better-known writers, many of which will no doubt be quite familiar to Canadian readers, but perhaps none the less welcome on that account. (Summary from the Introduction)...

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Fiction, Poetry, Humor

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In the six volumes of the Library of the World's Best Mystery and Detective Stories, Julian Hawthorne presents us thrilling and mysterious short stories from all corners of the world. Some of the stories appeared in this collection for the first time translated into English, and many of them come from unexpected sources, such as the letters of Pliny the Younger, or a Tibetan manuscript. In the first volume, we find stories written by American authors. (Summary by Leni)...

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Fiction, Mystery, Short stories

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Introduction - This is a collection of ten comic pieces from the 16th century and earlier, as compiled and edited by Frederick Furnivall for private circulation in 1871. Only the first is by Copland. (Introduction by Grant Hurlock)...

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Comedy, Fiction, Humor, Poetry

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The Wit and Humor of America is a 10 volume series. In this, the tenth volume, 62 short stories and poems have been gathered from 42 authors. This volume is sure to delight listeners. (Summary by Linette Geisel)...

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Humor, Fiction, Poetry

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Brazilian Tales is a collection of six short stories selected by Isaac Goldberg as best representative of the Brazilian Literature of his period - the end of the 19th century. His comprehensive preface aims at familiarizing the reader with a literature that was - and still is - virtually unknown outside the boundaries of its own land, and the pieces chosen by Goldberg to be translated belong to writers that reached popularity and appreciation while still alive. This pioneer volume, as the translator himself puts it, still keeps its charm and interest as a way of offering to the English speaking public some sample cases of Brazilian Literature. (Summary by Leni)...

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Fiction, Short stories, Humor, Literature

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Camilla is Frances Burney's third novel. It became very popular upon its publication in 1796. Jane Austen referred to it, among other novels, in her novel Northanger Abbey:“'And what are you reading, Miss — ?' 'Oh! It is only a novel!' replies the young lady, while she lays down her book with affected indifference, or momentary shame. 'It is only Cecilia, or Camilla, or Belinda'; or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are conveyed to the world in the best–chosen language.This is the story of Camilla, her beloved but selfish brother Lionel, her sisters Eugenia and Lavinia, and their extremely beautiful but thoughtless cousin Indiana on the months proceeding their marriages. Camilla is deeply in love with Edgar and he loves her back. However, on the advice of a friend, decides to make sure that she is free of fault. She has the luck to find herself in lot of uncomplimentary and comic situations which doesn't make Edgar's wish easy. Meanwhile, Camilla, ...

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Fiction, Literature, Romance

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This year is the 200th anniversary of Dickens' birth. This is the third volume of this collection, which aims to catalogue as many as possible of Dickens' short works which have not previously been recorded for .(Summary by Ruth Golding)...

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Essay/Short nonfiction, Fiction, Poetry, Short stories

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Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Jack London / H.H. Knibbs-inspired, selfless, poetry-spouting, hobo character, Bridge, makes another appearance in the novellete, The Oakdale Affair (original title, Bridge and the Oskalooska Kid.) Joining the poetic hobo in this gothic-like tale are many other unusual elements: dark mysterious nights, a deserted haunted farmhouse, a violent thunderstorm, the Oskalooska Kid, a nameless girl, thieves and murderers, Beppo the bear, and other surprises. The Oakdale Affair is a deep mystery and would puzzle even Sherlock Holmes.(Introduction by Ralph Snelson)...

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Adventure, Fiction

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The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel (in French, La vie de Gargantua et de Pantagruel) is a connected series of five novels written in the 16th century by François Rabelais. It is the story of two giants, a father (Gargantua) and his son (Pantagruel) and their adventures, written in an amusing, extravagant, satirical vein. There is much crudity and scatological humor as well as a large amount of violence. Long lists of vulgar insults fill several chapters.(Summary by Wikipedia)...

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Fiction, Myths/Legends

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Ernest William Hornung (June 7, 1866 – March 22, 1921) was an English author. Hornung was the third son of John Peter Hornung, a Hungarian, and was born in Middlesbrough. He was educated at Uppingham during some of the later years of its great headmaster, Edward Thring. He spent most of his life in England and France, but in 1884 left for Australia and stayed for two years where he working as a tutor at Mossgiel station. Although his Australian experience had been so short, it coloured most of his literary work from A Bride from the Bush published in 1899, to Old Offenders and a few Old Scores, which appeared after his death. After he returned from Australia in 1886, he married Constance Doyle, the sister of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1893. (Wikipedia)...

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Fiction, Mystery

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Irritated and drunken, an itinerant farm-worker sells his wife and child to a stranger. Thus begins The Mayor of Casterbridge, set in rural and small-town England in the mid-1800s. In the original subtitle, Hardy called this the story of a man of character, and the central character, Michael Henchard, is one of English fiction's greatest creations. Henchard is deeply developed as a realistic character, but also larger-than-life in the manner of a Greek or Shakespearean tragic hero — huge in his determination and huge in his failings. The novel deals with the struggles between individual will, the hold of the past, and the relentless control of circumstances in a changing society. (Summary by Bruce Pirie)...

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Fiction, Literature, Tragedy

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Anthony Trollope’s fortieth novel, published in 1881, concerns a respectable Christian boys’ school whose proprietor unknowingly hires a woman who apparently has two husbands: A devoted English scholar and an abusive drunkard from the American south. The book interweaves a sensitive and realistic exploration of Dr. Wortle’s moral dilemma with a humorous look at small-town gossip and--of course--a romance involving the doctor’s beautiful young daughter. ( Summary by Angela Rowland )...

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Fiction, Romance, Humor

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The horse is perfect in all its parts—a splendid steed, saddled, bridled, and otherwise completely caparisoned. In it there appears nothing amiss—nothing to produce either wonder or alarm. But the man—the rider? Ah! About him there is something to cause both—something weird—something wanting! By heavens! it is the head! (Excerpt from the Prologue) The Headless Horseman is a novel by Mayne Reid written in 1865 or 1866 and is based on the author's adventures in the United States. The Headless Horseman or a Strange Tale of Texas was set in Texas and based on a South Texas folk tale. Vladimir Nabokov recalled The Headless Horseman as a favourite adventure novel of his childhood years - which had given him a vision of the prairies and the great open spaces and the overarching sky. At 11, Nabokov even translated The Headless Horseman into French alexandrines.(Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Fiction, Adventure

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English romantic adventure starring a young American in London and inspired by the personal ads (agony columns) in the London papers. In this treacherous tale of murder and intrigue young American Geoffrey West tracks a killer from the posh dining room of the Carlton Hotel to the opium dens of London's Limehouse district in search of the truth and the heart of his true love only to find the culprit all too close to home. Earl Derr Biggers is better known as the author of numerous Charlie Chan novels, The Agony Column was released as a movie under the name Second Floor Mystery in 1930. While this movie was in production, its two stars, Loretta Young and Grant Withers, eloped. (Summary by peac)...

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Fiction, Mystery

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This volume describes, in verse, the mythical creatures and people of ancient Scotland. It also includes explanatory notes about about the characters and folk tales that inspired the author's poetry. (Introduction by Matthew Reece)...

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Fairy tales, Fiction, Myths/Legends