Публицистика: прочее
Различные книги в жанре Публицистика: прочееThe Complete Shorter Fiction
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was an Irish writer and poet who distinguished himself as a leader of London's school of Aesthetics in the late nineteenth century. He became famous for his long hair, flamboyant dress, green carnations and colorful, biting wit. His successful novels, social comedies, poetry and letters reflected his belief in the supremacy of art. This collection of Wilde's short fiction, written between 1888 and 1891, includes: «Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories», a series of social parody stories; «The Portrait of Mr. W. H.», a conversational story that puts forth the theory that Shakespeare wrote his sonnets out of love for a boy actor named Willie Hughes; «Poems in Prose», a satirical collection of poems on complacency and religious orthodoxy of the bourgeoisie; «The Happy Prince and Other Tales», a collection of stories for children; and «A House of Pomegranates», Wilde's well-known fairy tales.
Typhoon and Other Stories
"Typhoon and Other Stories" is a collection of four shorter works by Joseph Conrad. In the title work «Typhoon» we have a classic tale of the sea which describes how Captain MacWhirr sails the Siamese steamer «Nan-Shan» into a typhoon. «Typhoon» excellently depicts sea-faring life at the turn of the 20th century. Also included in this collection is «Amy Foster», the story of a Polish immigrant who on his way to America becomes shipwrecked off the cost of England. Since he speaks no English, he is treated as a madman and imprisoned by the local Englishmen who find him. In «Amy Foster» Conrad draws upon his Polish heritage to provide a convincing story of the difficulties arising from acclimating oneself to a foreign land. You will also find the stories «Falk: A Reminiscence» and «To-Morrow» in this collection of nautically themed works.
Three Tales and Another
Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880), French novelist and short story writer, was considered to be a master of style, obsessively devoted to finding the right word («le mot juste»), in every piece of literature he produced. Although Flaubert is remembered for his novels, most notably «Madame Bovary,» he took a hiatus from longer pieces near the end of his career to produce a wonderful collection of short stories. Four of these stories are featured in this edition, which includes «A Simple Soul,» a story of love and spiritual awakening seen through the simple life of a servant girl, «The Legend of Saint Julian the Hospitaller,» an Oedipus-like tale that examines fate and the rewards of benevolence, and «Herodias,» the retelling of the beheading of John the Baptist. Also included in this edition is «The Dance of Death,» a strange and darkly beautiful tale of a man's encounters with Death and Satan.
Dracula's Guest and Other Weird Stories
"Dracula's Guest and Other Weird Stories" is a collection of short stories that includes «Dracula's Guest,» «The Judge's House,» «The Squaw,» «The Secret of the Growing Gold,» «A Gipsy Prophecy,» «The Coming of Abel Behenna,» «The Burial of the Rats,» «A Dream of Red Hands,» and «Crooken Hands.» Among the most captivating of these tales is «Dracula's Guest,» which is widely believed to be the first chapter of Stoker's original «Dracula» manuscript. A young Englishman is restlessly wandering about Munich before traveling to Transylvania. When he foolishly leaves his hotel and explores a dense forest, he finds a graveyard with an evil ghost, endures a snowstorm, and has a surprising encounter with a wolf. This volume also includes the novella «The Lair of the White Worm,» a horror story which revolves around Adam Salton, a native Australian invited to England by his only surviving relative, Richard Salton. All seems well until he meets the neighbors and discovers a cruel mesmerist, an enormous kite, a violent woman with unknown designs, and a colossal white worm seeking victims near its pit. Fans of «Dracula» will delight in this fine collection of horror stories by the same author.
The God of His Fathers and Other Stories
Jack London was born into abject poverty in the slums of San Francisco during the winter of 1876. His writing was to reflect the hard life he lived, perpetually chronicling men facing the wild as he did throughout his life. After his eighth grade year, poverty forced London to leave school. This did not stop him, as he furthered his literary knowledge and skill at the Oakland Public Library, borrowing books and educating himself. London faced great obstacles, even landing himself in a Niagara Falls prison as a vagrant just shortly after winning a prize from a newspaper for his piece on a Typhoon near Japan. Once he was released, London decided to go back to high school, finishing his education in just a year and got into the University of California. He left after only one semester and began his prolific writing career. «The God of His Fathers and Other Stories» includes: «The God of His Fathers,» «The Great Interrogation,» «Which Make Men Remember,» «Siwash,» «The Man With The Gash,» «Jan,» «The Unrepentant,» «Grit of Women,» «Where The Trail Forks,» «A Daughter of the Aurora,» «At the Rainbow's End,» and «The Scorn of Women.»
The Schoolmaster and Other Stories
Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) was a master of the short story. The son of a former serf in southern Russia, he attended Moscow University to study medicine, writing short stories for periodicals in order to support his family. What began as a necessity became a legitimate career in 1886 when he was asked to write in St. Petersburg for the Novoye Vremya (New Times), owned by millionaire magnate Alexey Suvorin. Chekhov began paying more attention to his writing, revising and developing his own principles and conceptions of truth, for a time coming under the influence of Leo Tolstoy. As a result of his widespread popularity, Chekhov amassed a vast collection of short stories displaying an early use of stream-of-consciousness writing, as well as his powerful ideas concerning the individual, the tedium of life, and the beauty nature and humanity. This edition contains many stories, including «Enemies,» «In the Dark,» «A Mystery,» «Joy,» «A Peculiar Man,» «The Album,» «Overdoing It,» «In the Graveyard,» and «In a Strange Land.»
The Awakening and Selected Stories
"The Awakening" is the story of Edna Pontellier, an attractive twenty-eight year old woman who is a wife and mother of two sons living in the Creole south in the late 19th century. Edna finds herself trapped in her life as a wife and a mother and feels unable to express her passionate sensuality within the confines of her marriage. She seeks a spiritual and sexual awakening through an affair with a younger man during one summer while her husband is away. Liberated by this experience she sends her children away and is determined to live a more independent and self-determined life. However this new found independence also becomes her downfall as her actions are looked down upon by the members of her society in the late 19th century south. «The Awakening» is a classic modern example of the tragic hero. It illustrates the confines of late 19th century America for women and the beginning of an era of changing social attitudes towards the role of women in society. Chopin's novel was meet with great criticism when it was first published and essentially ended her literary career. The reaction to its publication is indicative of the social attitude towards greater independence and freedom for women at the time. At the same time the novel was a harbinger of the greater independence that was soon to come for women in America. Also contained within this volume is a collection of eight shorter works by the author.
The Man Who Would Be King and Other Stories
"The Man Who Would be King and Other Stories" is a classic collection of some of the most loved short stories of Rudyard Kipling. Contained here in this volume are the following short stories: The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes; The Phantom 'Rickshaw; Gemini; A Wayside Comedy; At Twenty-Two; The Education of Otis Yeere; The Hill of Illusion; Dray Wara Yow Dee; The Judgment of Dungara; With the Main Guard; In Flood Time; Only a Subaltern; Baa Baa, Black Sheep; At the Pit's Mouth; Black Jack; On the City Wall; and The Man Who Would be King.
The Garden Party and Other Stories
Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923) is credited alongside James Joyce as the creator of the modern short story. The New Zealand-born Englishwoman embraced a Bohemian lifestyle and became involved in a series of scandalous relationships, which greatly influenced some of her most significant work. Her best-known writings were produced in her final years, as she was plagued by illness. Her fiction is dominated by themes of male-female relationships, sexual ambivalence and gender roles. Most of her work focuses on female protagonists and demonstrates the problems of social relationships. This collection, written between 1920-1922, includes “At the Bay,” a story that proposes there is more to a woman's life than marriage and motherhood; “The Garden Party,” which explores class differences; “The Daughters of the Late Colonel,” a story about life and death; “Marriage à la Mode,” about the dissolution of a relationship; “Miss Brill,” Mansfield's memorable tale of the lonely woman, and several more.
Gothic Tales
In «Gothic Tales,» Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865), the eminent Victorian author, brings us nine chilling gothic stories. Collected here are tales that set a precedent for ghost and horror stories of the era. In «The Poor Clare» a young innocent girl named Lucy is haunted by an unrelenting ghost invoked by her aging grandmother. In the novella «Lois the Witch» the young Lois sails to America to join her distant family. She is greeted by a New England engulfed in the fever of the Salem witch trials. Soon all goes wrong when she is deemed one of the cursed. The reader confronts the peaks of suspense in «The Grey Woman» – a terrifying psychological thriller. These among others shape this well rounded collection of one of the most respected Victorian authors. Gaskell was championed and published by Charles Dickens in his literary magazine «Household Words.» Her style, vision, and delivery are seen at its best here in «Gothic Tales.»