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Kate Orme, shocked by the discovery of her fiance's complicity in a tragedy, and by society's willingness to overlook such transgressions, nevertheless marries him. Years later, her son faces a moral crisis similar to the one that showed her his father's moral weakness. (Introduction by Christine Dufour)...

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Minnas neuer Reitknecht Michael kennt weder seine Mutter noch seinen Vater. Sie ist fasziniert von dem Mann, der versucht, das Beste aus seiner Situation zu machen und fühlt sich mehr zu ihm hingezogen, als es ihrem Stand entspricht. Sehr sonderbar ist das Benehmen von Minnas Tante Claudia gegenüber dem Reitknecht. Welches Geheimnis verbirgt sich hinter der Abneigung, die sie Michael gegenüber offensichtlich hegt? (Summary by Hokuspokus)...

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Mastro Don Gesualdo, pubblicato nel 1889, è uno tra i più conosciuti romanzi di Giovanni Verga. Narra la vicenda dell'omonimo protagonista, ed è ambientato a Vizzini, in Sicilia, nella prima metà dell'Ottocento in periodo risorgimentale. L'operazione linguistica condotta dallo scrittore risulta in questo romanzo particolarmente complessa, a causa dell'eterogeneità delle classi sociali rappresentante, ognuna portatrice di un lessico proprio. Mastro Don Gesualdo uscì a puntate sulla Nuova Antologia dal 1º luglio al 16 dicembre 1888, e poi in volume presso l'editore Treves, nel 1889, ma datato 1890. Secondo romanzo del ciclo dei Vinti, è questo il frutto di un lungo lavoro preparatorio proseguito incessantemente per nove anni. I primi abbozzi risalgono al 1881-1882, subito dopo la pubblicazione de I Malavoglia.(Wikipedia)...

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Wladimir Dubrowskij ist der Sohn eines Kleinadligen, dessen väterlicher Besitz durch seinen frühreren Freund und Nachbarn Kirila Petrowitsch Trojekurow durch Tücke in Beschlag genommen wird. Aus Rache beginnt Dubrowskij ein Dasein als Räuber, wobei er nur Reiche überfällt und die armen verschont. Jedoch verliebt er sich in Trojekurows Tochter, schleicht sich waghalsig in dessen Gut ein, und wird letzten Endes entdeckt. (Summary by Herr Klugbeisser) Vladimir Dubrovsky is the son of a nobleman whose father's property is seized by his neighbour, Kirila Petrovitch Troekurov. Seeking revenge, Dubrovsky starts a a bandit's life, assaulting only the rich, but sparing the poor. However, he falls in love with Troekurov's daughter, daringly sneaks into his house, but is discovered at the end of the day. Read in German by Herr Klugbeisser....

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In this collection of Russian stories, editor and compiler Thomas Seltzer selects from a range of the best examples of 19th and early 20th century Russian literature. As a survey of famous authors at the height of the powers, as well as some writers who have been unjustly neglected, this anthology is indispensable. (Summary by Nullifidian) Everything is subordinated to two main requirements--humanitarian ideals and fidelity to life. This is the secret of the marvellous simplicity of Russian literary art.--THOMAS SELTZER....

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The first of only three novels by English author Howard Overing Sturgis, the son of wealthy American expatriates and a close friend of Henry James, Tim portrays a sensitive young boy’s affection for an older boy. (Introduction by Dorlene Kaplan)...

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If you will listen to this book, you will meet a cast of unforgettable characters, as different from one another as the sun and moon. But they have one thing in common - all of them hide many, many secrets. The plot of this book is full of twists which may leave you guessing until the end. Bridget's lively reading adds much to the joy of listening to this book. (Summary by Stav Nisser)...

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Pomona and Jone of Rudder Grange fame travel to England and Scotland. Along the way, Pomona tangles with wild pigs, haymaking, hotels great and small, Pullman cars, comparison-makers, and a Duchess. She makes two matches and - in her usual, unorthodox way - stag hunts and attends a knighting. Pomona is as hilarious as ever, if a bit more rounded off on the edges....

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A bit of a menage-a-quatre in a remote cabin in the wilderness as fugitive Hugh, his younger brother Pete, nursemaid and cook Bella, and now the newly arrived snow-blinded young Sylvie who had been snatched from near death in the snow by the heroic but moody Hugh. Because of her blindness, Sylvie is led to believe her rescuer to be a handsome and dashing hero; his younger brother to be but a young lad of 14; and Bella a matronly old maid. But Sylvie would, in time, form her own image of the clan and attempt to bring them together as they were destined to be split apart. Demonstration lies herein of the inherent ability of the blind to use their other senses to best any situation laid before them. (Introduction by Roger Melin)...

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In 1933, Forman Brown wrote, under the pseudonym Richard Meeker, a controversial novel called Better Angel, about a young man coming to terms with his homosexuality. This novel is regarded as the first American novel to present the 'gay' experience in a healthy light....

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Oswald, Dora, Dicky, Alice, H.O, and Noel fill their free time with entertainments that don't always turn out as they plan. But whether telling fortunes at a fete, unwittingly assisting an elopement, reforming their nasty cousin Archibald or even getting arrested, it is all good fun, and usually in a good cause. (from the back of the book, Puffin publication)....

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Listeners who like to plunge straight into a story would do well to skip the lengthy preamble. Here, Balzac the virtuoso satirist depicts the levels of Parisian society as a version of the Inferno of Dante - but perhaps keeps the reader waiting too long for the first act of his operatic extravaganza. Our beautiful, androgynous hero, Henri de Marsay, is one of the bastard offspring of a depraved Regency milord and himself practises the cynical arts of the libertine. His quarry is the exotic Paquita Valdes, she of the golden eyes. But there is a mysterious third person in this liaison... The shocking truth of their interrelationships marks this out at once as one of those French novels that Lady Bracknell would instantly ban from the house. (Summary by Martin Geeson)...

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Een vader met wetenschappelijke, onderwijskundige en opvoedkundige idealen past deze idealen krachtdadig en consequent toe op zijn zoon en oudste dochter. De effecten van deze opvoeding zijn helaas anders dan door hem gewenst of voorspeld. Iets wat wel vaker gebeurt met krachtdadig toegepaste idealen. (Introductie door Marcel Coenders)...

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More New Arabian Nights: The Dynamiter (1885) is a collection of linked short stories by Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Vandegrift. Three gentlemen of little means and no occupation meet in the Bohemian Cigar Divan, a tobacco shop with couches to sit and smoke. They read of a reward offered for information as to the whereabouts of a man with big moustaches and a sealskin coat. They agree among themselves that they will separate and search for the man so as to claim the reward. The stories that follow concern their adventures. They meet again in the cigar divan in an epilogue to their travels. (Summary by Don W. Jenkins)...

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De kerstverhalen van Charles Dickens uit het jaar 1864. Hoofdstuk 1 en 7 vormen een doorlopend verhaal dat het vervolg is van hoofdstuk 1 en 7 van het boek Juffrouw Lirriper en haar commensalen. De andere hoofdstukken zijn aparte korte verhalen. (Inleiding door Marcel Coenders)...

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Bridges' Eros and Psyche retells the Eros (= Cupid) and Psyche myth first recorded by Lucius Apuleius in his book The Golden Ass. The poem is divided into twelve cantos - one for each of the twelve months of the year - which gives the poem a certain, almost pastoral feel. The number of stanzas in each canto equals the number of days in that month: so the first canto March has 31 stanzas, the second canto April has 30 stanzas, and so on. Each stanza is a septet (ie comprises exactly seven lines) which follow the same end-rhyming schema of a-b-a-b-c-c-b.(Summary by Godsend)...

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Levity is not a word often applied to Henry James, but this story has about it an attractively lighthearted quality. It tells of Peter Baron, a poor, young struggling writer of adequate, if not transcendent, talent, who lives in a dreary London boarding house inhabited also by a mysteriously clairvoyant and beautiful young widow, with her small boy. When Baron buys himself a second-hand writing desk to stimulate the creative juices, he finds carefully hidden within it a cache of letters that appear to compromise a recently deceased statesman. The discovery and his struggle to handle the questions they pose ultimately change his life. Along the way he also discovers, as a fringe benefit, a talent for what Americans (though probably not Jamesians) call Tin Pan Alley. (Summary by Nicholas Clifford)...

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Louisa May Alcott's overwhelming success dated from the appearance of the first part of Little Women: or Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, (1868) a semi-autobiographical account of her childhood years with her sisters in Concord, Massachusetts. Part two, or Part Second, also known as Good Wives, (1869) followed the March sisters into adulthood and their respective marriages. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Seitsemän veljestä on tarina seitsemän nuoren suomalaisen miehen elämästä, unelmista, juopottelusta, tappeluista, ankarasta työnteosta, katumuksesta ja kasvamisesta vastuulliseen miehuuteen 1800-luvun yhteiskunnassa. --(summary from Wikipedia)...

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The Old Wives' Tale is a novel by Arnold Bennett, first published in 1908. It deals with the lives of two very different sisters, Constance and Sophia Baines, following their stories from their youth, working in their mother's draper's shop, into old age. It is generally regarded as one of Bennett's finest works. It covers a period of about 70 years from roughly 1840 to 1905, and is set in Burslem and Paris. (Summary by Andy)...

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