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Все книги издательства IngramA Russian Gentleman - The Original Classic Edition
In A Russian Gentleman (also known as A Family Chronicle, which is both a more accurate description of the work and a more accurate translation of the original title), Sergei Aksakov narrates a few episodes in his familys history from the time that his paternal grandfather Stepan decided to move to the Russian Empires spacious southeastern provinces until the time of the 1791 birth of Sergei himself. The chronicle is divided into five sketches: the first discusses the move east and calls upon a few anecdotes to introduce the very fiery-tempered but (we are assured) good-hearted character of Stepan; the second recounts the marriage of Stepans beloved ward Parasha at the age of 15 to a brutal scoundrel and recalls Stepans heroic rescue of Parasha from near death at her husbands hands; and the last three discuss the meeting, wedding, and early married years of Sergeis parents, especially emphasizing the difficulties both had in gaining acceptance by their respective in-laws. <p> Aksakov refers to himself not as a novelist but as a chronicler of oral tradition, and the book very strongly retains that feel throughout, bringing us more intimately into the concerns and struggles within the family than an author who only had recourse to his or her imagination realistically could. While most of the characters are fairly well-drawn, the two most memorable ones are Stepan and Aksakovs mother (named Marya in real life and Sofya in the book), the latter of whom shows a great deal of both familial devotion and intelligence without ever seeming to be unrealistically glorified. <p> The portrayal of Stepan (the Russian Gentleman whom translator J.D. Duff chose to recast as the title character) seems a little more suspect, which is unsurprising since Stepan died when Sergei was five years old, so that Sergei had to rely almost exclusively on questionably-accurate oral accounts of Stepans doings many years after the fact in order to get a sense of his character. Throughout the work, pretty much all of Stepans attributes are carried to at-times implausible extremes. Early on, Aksakov portrays Stepan during his angry spells as nothing less than a madman who obliges his whole family to hide from him for days on end, but at the same time as a brilliant judge of character (which Sergei seems to extrapolate merely from the fact that Stepan was the only member of the household to disapprove of Parashas husband and to approve of Sofya). In the last sketch, Stepan doesnt even care whether his granddaughters live or die but dreams constantly of a grandson; while Stepan was surely eager to have his noble and ancient name carried on, one gets the sense that the picture painted in the book is more a reflection of the vanity of the author (who was Stepans first grandson) than of Stepans actual feelings (at least, one hopes so). <p> All the same, part of the charm of oral tradition lies in the exaggeration that comes along with it, and the particular items which get exaggerated can tell us a good deal about the psychology of the storyteller and the values of the culture. As such, A Russian Gentleman gives us an enjoyable and informative glimpse at life among the traditional middling gentry in Imperial Russia at a pivotal point in that countrys history.
Lad: A Dog - The Original Classic Edition
I generally hate clichés like kids of all ages, but it just really suits this book. I first discovered Albert Payson Terhune and Lad in seventh grade, much to the chagrin of our school librarian. She had to eventually temporarily ban me from checking the book out any further so that other kids could read it. In those days I did not realize I was reading about a long dead author and the most famous of his dogs, nor did I realize that the stories actually were taking place in the early part of the 20th century. <p> None of that mattered to me then (or now for the matter). I was drawn into the world of Lad and Terhune every time I opened those pages. Eventually, I managed to read most of his works and came to truly admire Terhunes writing, even though I have since read that he considered himself to be a hack. <p> Its now many years later, and there is still magic in these books for me. I have several of the books waiting for the day my very young daughters (a two year old and a four year old) are ready to read books that dont have pictures on every page. In fact, Ive got a backlog of books I want to share with them, but Im willing to bet we start with Lad. <p> If your children have any interest in animals in general or dogs in particular, you must get this book, and all of Terhunes other works if you can find them, for your children. Sure, the language may be a lttile strange at times, but your child will still love this book all the same.
Women of Achievement - The Original Classic Edition
This is a high quality book of the original classic edition. <p> This is a freshly published edition of this culturally important work, which is now, at last, again available to you. <p> Enjoy this classic work. These few paragraphs distill the contents and give you a quick look inside: <p> Even before emancipation a strong character had made herself felt in more than one community; and to-day, whether in public life, social service, education, missions, business, literature, music, or even the professions and scholarship, the Negro woman is making her way and reflecting credit upon a race that for so many years now has been struggling to the light. <p> …In more recent years those women who have represented the race before the larger public have been persons of more training and culture, though it has been practically impossible for any one to equal the native force and wit of Sojourner Truth. <p> …Not only has Spelman sent to Africa several of her daughters from this country, the first one being Nora Gordon in 1889; she has also educated several who have come to her from Africa, the first being Lena Clark, and for these the hope has ever been that they would return to their own country for their largest and most mature service. <p> …This man moved from his original home in Kentucky to Kansas at the time of the well-known Exodus of 1879, a migration movement which was even more voluntary on the part of the Negro than the recent removal to the North on the part of so many, this latter movement being in so many ways a result of war conditions. <p> …Wendell Phillips said of her: In my opinion there are few captains, perhaps few colonels, who have done more for the loyal cause since the war began, and few men who did before that time more for the colored race than our fearless and most sagacious friend, Harriet.
The Skylark of Space - The Original Classic Edition
Perhaps it is a bit unethical and unusual for editors to voice their opinion of their own wares, but when such a story as The Skylark of Space comes along, we just feel as if we must shout from the housetops that this is the greatest interplanetarian and space flying story that has appeared this year. Indeed, it probably will rank as one of the great space flying stories for many years to come. The story is chock full, not only of excellent science, but woven through it there is also that very rare element, love and romance. This element in an interplanetarian story is often apt to be foolish, but it does not seem so in this particular story. <p> We know so little about intra-atomic forces, that this story, improbable as it will appear in spots, will read commonplace years hence, when we have atomic engines, and when we have solved the riddle of the atom. <p> You will follow the hair-raising explorations and strange ventures into far-away worlds with bated breath, and you will be fascinated, as we were, with the strangeness of it all.
History of Tom Jones, a Foundling - The Original Classic Edition
It says a great deal for Tom Jones that after more than 200 years, its still as fresh and alive as it was when Henry Fielding wrote it. Tom is a foundling who turns up in good Squire Allworthys bed on the night he is born; hes given the surname of Jones because the household believes that his mother is Jenny Jones, a local lady of somewhat easy virtue. Squire Allworthy, out of pity for the foundling, raises him as his own son, along with his loathsome nephew Blifil, but it looks like Tom and his supposed mother have more than a little in common. To put it bluntly, Tom is no better than he should be. Hes wild, rowdy, a womanizer, perpetually in some kind of trouble; but his heart is in the right place even if he thinks with the wrong head most of the time. Hes kind, decent, affectionate, generous to a fault, everything his sneaky, tattle-tale, obnoxious cousin isnt. Hes also in love with his neighbor Squire Westerns daughter Sophia, who is very much in love with him; but Western has decided that Sophia is to marry not Tom but Blifil, and Sophia cant stand the creep. So when Tom is turned out of Allworthys house on a trumped-up charge of aiding and abetting a criminal, Sophia runs away from her fathers house to avoid being forced into marrying Blifil, and they both make their separate ways to London, where the books action culminates. <p> Fielding crafted his novel almost perfectly; of the 18 chapters in the book, the first third take place on Squire Allworthys and Squire Westerns country estates, the second third on the road to London, and the third in London itself. In the exact middle of the book is the hilarious adventure at the inn at Upton, where all the characters, unknown to each other, briefly converge. When the characters all come together in London, Tom finds out his real parentage, Blifil gets what he deserves, and the story, like all good stories, ends happily ever after. <p> The most common criticism leveled at Fielding and Tom Jones when it was first published was that it was crass, low-down and didnt set the high moral tone expected of writers of his time. Fielding pulled no punches in writing this book. One of his most delicious characters is the hard-drinking, ham-fisted Squire Western, who has all the finesse of a bull in a china closet and calls it as he sees it (his description of Lady Bellaston is dead-on); and in Jenny Jones, he presents a lady of ill-repute in so sympathetic and likeable a way that she appeals to us much more than if she had been a prim and proper female. But Fielding knows what moral and immoral really are; Tom Jones, for all his faults, is truly good, just as Blifil, for all his pious moralizing, is truly evil. Whats most refreshing about Tom Jones is that Fielding has presented us with characters that are truly believable; we see them in three dimensions, warts and all. Tom Jones brings us 18th century England as it was; raw, vibrant, bursting with life and energy. Its a book for its own time, our time, and all time.
A Child's History of England - The Original Classic Edition
This book is a delightful history of England. It is a book for all ages. As an adult I have enjoyed reading the book for pure pleasure. My two teenage daughters have used this book numerous times for school projects, especially for their history and compostion classes. <p> I never appreciated Charles Dickens as such a charming writer until I read this book, so after reading this, as an adult, I went back to his most familiar books and found that I still enjoyed this one best! It is written like he is an oral storyteller and is so engrossing as to make it difficult to put down. <p> I originally thought due to the title that I would just read it aloud to my girls but I found when they had fallen asleep I couldnt stop and have since read this book at least three times and bought a used copy for all my nieces and nephews. <p> His descriptions of the wars with the thousands of dead contrast sharply with the clean wars of today. Fields with thousands lying slaughtered is incomprehensible. Life was so cheap then at least as described by Dickens. <p> This is such an engrossing history but with so much strong opinion it certainly wouldnt pass muster in todays historical circles which is part of why it is so fun and dare I say naughty to read. <p> One of the most enjoyable books I have ever read!
Cicero's Tusculan Disputations - The Original Classic Edition
How many men and women who have lived more than 2,000 years ago have impressed us with their humanity? We tend to see the statuary, but rarely the person behind it. When you read this outstanding title, you see that Marcus Tullius Cicero has a human face – and it shows in his work. <p> The Roman Republic that Cicero loved was falling apart. Marius and Sulla, the Gracchi, the conflicts over the powers of the tribunes had dealt a severe blow to a form of government that had proved itself adequate for governing a city-state, but less so for managing a multi-cultural empire. Cicero fought valiantly against corrupt governors like Verres (Against Verres) and would-be dictators like Marc Antony (2nd Phillipic Against Antony). When he finally threw in his lot with Pompey, he picked the wrong horse and put himself in harms way. Eventually, Augustus and Antony had him killed as an obstacle to their plans. <p> The wonderful letters that Cicero wrote to his friend Atticus and others such as Pompey show his hurt at having been rudely pushed aside. He saw himself as the Savior of Rome for his part in quashing the conspiracy of Catiline, but he lived in a world where What have you done for me lately? was the question of the day. <p> Increasingly, Cicero turned to farming and philosophizing. His essays reprinted here, are penetrating, humane, and even Christian in a way. One could see why monk copyists of the Middle Ages saw in the Roman senator a pre-Christian piety at work. <p> This book is definitely a keeper.
Dead Souls - The Original Classic Edition
Nikolai Gogols Dead Soul launches the great Russian novel form with a satire, so apt and so funny, that the novel remains as one of the most popular Russian text ever. Gogols own personal life may have been a dire disaster, but as a novelist he stands next to only Tolstoy and Dostovesky, as short story writer only Chekov comes close to his fame, and mind you, he preceded them and their writing. He was, alongside Pushkin, one of the major early forces in Russian literary scene. Since all other major novelists from Russia have delved into tragedies and melodramas, going down to philosophical and religious questions, Dead Souls comes as a relief fun read, rather one of the funniest reads. <p> In Dead Souls, he provides a cast of unforgettable and hilarious characters in episodes that leave you reeling with laughter. The hero or the anti-hero Chichikov or Tchichikov drives from town to town, buying dead souls i.e. dead peasants, assuring landowners that this will benefit them as they would pay less tax on their workforce. The tax was based on census numbers, and since many peasants died between two census years, landowners ended up paying taxes on people who didnt exist. Chichikovs brilliant idea was to collect a long list of (dead) peasants he had bought, and use that for getting a estate for himself. The novel tells us a story after story of his meeting his landowners and getting his purchase by a mix of tact, sweet talk, and so on, each purchase is full of absurd and funny details. <p> Beyond the obvious laughters, the novel provides a very detailed description of Russia in early nineteenth century. The sketches of nature bring alive similes and metaphors that Gogol (who was a failed poet) uses remarkably well. While the observations related to people, customs, bureaucracy and Russia are full of brilliant wit, they in fact recreate a lively and throbbing world to us. The world as it was. The bureaucracy has not changed much since then. Nor have the quacks and hacks and cheats who make fortunes by buying and selling dubious things. Hence Dead Souls has this undying and translatable humor that will keep this book in publication forever. <p> I would rank Dead Souls alongside Three Men in a Boat, Catch 22, A House for Mr Biswas and The Hitchhikers Guide to Galaxy as the novels that made me laugh the most. It has shades of Tolstoy in details it provides about rural life and rich landowners, shades of both Tolstoy and Dostovesky in pointing to certain moral issues (but that is at most an undertone) and maybe he was the one who influenced the style of his more famous successors. If you havent read Gogol, you definitely need to pick him next.
Nostromo, a Tale of the Seaboard - The Original Classic Edition
Conrad is my favorite 20th century author, so I am biased. Compare him to Tolstoy and you are on the money. Both lived lives that gave them fodder for their fiction; Tolstoy as a soldier in the Crimean war, an aristocrat facing the turbulence of the political and social upheavals of fin-de-siecle Russia, and Conrad as a mariner and a Polish transplant who carved out a language and a career for himself in England. <p> Nostromo contains some of the most vividly realized characterization, plot, and sensory detail of any novel ever written in the English language, period. I would also hope that readers do not form their opinions from the BBC film. It is infinitely shallow by comparison to this rich work. While the eponymous character remains purposefully enigmatic, the other inhabitants of Costaguena are stereoscopically fleshed out. We are on intimate terms with the Goulds. We know Decouds innermost thoughts. Its true that Decoud is the central character of this novel. His isolation and mental defragmentation is Conrads arguement for and refuation of existentialism. We are all islands, yet no man is in island. <p> Take your pick. This is a very large piece of fiction. Do not approch it as you would some best seller. Its not going to entertain you on every page. What it will do is reward you in riches that can never come cheaply. Yet it is not like Finnegans Wake, where you have to have your Boedekkers guide to see you along your journey. <p> Its also a great adventure story, with a larger than life hero. If I could suggest one book to represent the most finely crafted novel of its era, this would be it.
Rilla of Ingleside - The Original Classic Edition
It is certainly hard to begin reading Rilla of Ingleside, knowing it is the eighth and final book in the Anne of Green Gables series. When it was written in 1921 it was actually the sixth book that L.M. Montgomery wrote in the series. Years later she would add Anne of Windy Poplars as the fourth book and Anne of Ingleside as the sixth, pushing this one to eighth place. The title character is Rilla, born Bertha Marilla Blythe (named for Annes mother and the old maid who adopted the red-headed orphan), the youngest of Anne and Gilberts daughters. The novel is set about a decade after Montgomerys previous Anne novel, Rainbow Valley, which was more about the four children of the new widowed minister John Meredith, who become good friends with the Blythe kids. Most of the novel is set during World War I, which is one of the most interesting aspects of the story for me. <p> As the novel begins Rilla is almost fifteen years old, with bright hazel eyes and a dazzling smile. Rilla is still looking forward to her first romance and for her the most important thing in the world is going to her very first dance at the Four Winds lighthouse and getting her first kiss from Kenneth Ford. But the story takes a dramatic turn as the shadow of the World War reaches all the way to Ingleside. Her brothers, her friends and her beau go over the ocean to fight in France and Rilla brings home an orphaned newborn in a soup tureen and organizes the Junior Red Cross. Everything takes on new meaning when there is a war going on, waiting to hear from the battlefields of France and Susan wondering when America is finally going to get involved so the Allies can win and the boys can finally come home. American involvement in that war was pretty brief, so what I found fascinating is to see that war from the Canadian perspective, as it drags on year after year. <p> Young men get killed in a war and that tragedy touches the Blythe family. Then more bad news comes from France, bringing home the nightmare even more. Yet Montgomery creates the possibility of hope in the figure of a faithful dog, waiting at the train station for his master to return. Rilla is not the only one waiting for someone to come home: Una Meredith and Mary Vance are waiting as well. Rilla of Ingleside was published in 1921, which means that L. M. Montgomery provided a contemporaneous account of the war as seen from the home front. We learn of what is happening second-hand as we see the impact of the war on the mothers, sisters and girls who were left behind to worry about Paris being shelled by the Germans along with the fate of the Empire and their loved ones. This gives Rilla an emotional depth unmatched in Montgomerys work, and also sets up the tragic aspects of the story. While this might be a bit sobering for younger readers, by the time they get to this final novel I believe they will be well prepared. <p> There are certainly comic aspects to the story, but this an emotional tale that provides a satisfying conclusion to the story of Anne Shirley and her family.