Searched over 21.6 Million titles in 0.33 seconds
Please wait while the eBook Finder searches for your request. Searching through the full text of 2,850,000 books. Full Text searches may take up to 1 min.
A doctor, an architect, an engineer, and a geologist step into a space car. In their new invention, they set off on an expediton to Mercury, planning to visit Venus on the return voyage. On Mercury they find a strange city eerily abandoned. Sculptures of giant figures alarm them. In a building they discover a machine. The engineer gets it running, and blaring out of the machine a thundering voice speaking Mercurian begins to sound in a way that conveys to them that it is telling a story. After an enormous effort the men translate the audio book. Here is the story translated from the Mercurian’s recording explaining what happened to him, and the story of the space travelers of what happened next. (Summary by A. Gramour)...
Adventure, Science fiction
Excerpt: CHAPTER 1; Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea. There are circumstances in which, whether you partake of the tea or not--some people of course never do--the situation is in itself delightful. Those that I have in mind in beginning to unfold this simple history offered an admirable setting to an innocent pastime. The implements of the little feast had been disposed upon the lawn of an old English country-house, in what I should call the perfect middle of a splendid summer afternoon. Part of the afternoon had waned, but much of it was left, and what was left was of the finest and rarest quality. Real dusk would not arrive for many hours; but the flood of summer light had begun to ebb, the air had grown mellow, the shadows were long upon the smooth, dense turf. They lengthened slowly, however, and the scene expressed that sense of leisure still to come which is perhaps the chief source of one?s enjoyment of such a scene at such an hour. From five o?clock to eight is on certain occasions a little eternity; but on such an occasion a...
Table of Contents: CHAPTER 1, 1 -- CHAPTER 2, 10 -- CHAPTER 3, 15 -- CHAPTER 4, 22 -- CHAPTER 5, 28 -- CHAPTER 6, 38 -- CHAPTER 7, 46 -- CHAPTER 8, 54 -- CHAPTER 9, 60 -- CHAPTER 10, 66 -- CHAPTER 11, 77 -- CHAPTER 12, 83 -- CHAPTER 13, 92 -- CHAPTER 14, 104 -- CHAPTER 15, 113 -- CHAPTER 16, 125 -- CHAPTER 17, 135 -- CHAPTER 18, 141 -- CHAPTER 19, 154 -- CHAPTER 20, 170 -- CHAPTER 21, 181 -- CHAPTER 22, 187 -- CHAPTER 23, 202 -- CHAPTER 24, 210 -- CHAPTER 25, 221 -- CHAPTER 26, 227 -- CHAPTER 27, 238 -- CHAPTER 28, 247...
Norie's series of piloting and sailing directions was something of a staple in the chart-room of 19th century British (and other) merchant vessels. The description of landmarks and ports, as well as the rules and regulations provide another viewpoint to an earlier age. Please note that these piloting directions are rather completely out of date. They are given here for purposes of historical interest only, and should not be used for navigation purposes. (Summary by P Hirvonen)...
Adventure, History, Instruction, Travel
volunteers bring you 17 recordings of O Hollow Hollow Hollow by W.S. Gilbert. This was the Weekly Poetry project for January 8, 2012. Here is a poem by the fleshly poet, Bunthorne, from the opera Patience, by Gilbert and Sullivan. Who better to introduce it than the poet himself: BUNTHORNE. It is a wild, weird, fleshy thing; yet very tender, very yearning, very precious. It is called, Oh, Hollow! Hollow! Hollow! PATIENCE Is it a hunting song? BUNTHORNE. A hunting song? No, it is not a hunting song. It is the wail of the poet's heart on discovering that everything is commonplace. To understand it, cling passionately to one another and think of faint lilies. Bunthorne was considered to have been modelled on Oscar Wilde, but more recent reseach has suggested that this claim is not correct. ( Summary by Algy Pug )...
Humor, Literature, Nature, Satire, Poetry
The mask is the one which we all wear, even though unconsciously, to hide our thoughts and feelings. Alison Terry wore one, though she had never realized it until she faced a crisis in her life. Alison, a girl of sympathetic mood and action whose keen intelligence is overbalanced by the inexperience of innocence and a sheltered upbringing, goes to New York with her erratic husband, Phil Howland. She passes through various stages of disillusionment inevitably resulting from cheap boarding-house life, association with the undesirable friends of her husband, and the discovery that Phil himself is selfish and lacking in ambition, a man whose chief interests seem to lie in restaurant-life and gambling. Then comes tragedy in the loss of their little child in a horrible accident for which Phil is responsible. The splendid strength with which Alison forces him to forgive himself and the subsequent loneliness and suffering, lead to the establishment of a mutual bond of sympathy, understanding and encouragement which starts them on the road to their ultimate happiness. Miss Irwin has written a story that rings true, and its publishers recomme...
Romance
The American Senator is a novel written in 1875 by Anthony Trollope. Although not one of Trollope's better-known works, it is notable for its depictions of rural English life and for its many detailed fox hunting scenes. In its anti-heroine, Arabella Trefoil, it presents a scathing but ultimately sympathetic portrayal of a woman who has abandoned virtually all scruples in her quest for a husband. Through the eponymous Senator, Trollope offers comments on the irrational aspects of English life. (Description by Wikipedia)...
Fiction
Excerpt: Chapter 1. Night is generally my time for walking. In the summer I often leave home early in the morning, and roam about fields and lanes all day, or even escape for days or weeks together; but, saving in the country, I seldom go out until after dark, though, Heaven be thanked, I love its light and feel the cheerfulness it sheds upon the earth, as much as any creature living....
volunteers bring you 23 recordings of Upon His Mistress Dancing by James Shirley. This was the Weekly Poetry project for January, 15, 2012. James Shirley (sometimes spelt Sherley) was a prolific English playwright and poet who was active in the first half of the seventeenth century. (Summary by Lucy Perry)...
Poetry, Romance
Excerpt: Chapter 1. The weather door of the smoking-room had been left open to the North Atlantic fog, as the big liner rolled and lifted, whistling to warn the fishing- fleet....
Excerpt: Chapter 1. Mother Bunch. There was once a wonderful fortnight in little Lucy?s life. One evening she went to bed very tired and cross and hot, and in the morning when she looked at her arms and legs they were all covered with red spots, rather pretty to look at, only they were dry and prickly. Nurse was frightened when she looked at them. She turned all the little sisters out of the night nursery, covered Lucy up close, and ordered her not to stir, certainly not to go into her bath. Then there was a whispering and a running about, and Lucy was half alarmed, but more pleased at being so important, for she did not feel at all ill, and quite enjoyed the tea and toast that Nurse brought up to her. Just as she was beginning to think it rather tiresome to lie there with nothing to do, except to watch the flies buzzing about, there was a step on the stairs and up came the doctor....
Excerpt: The Man Who Hunts and Doesn?t Like It. It seems to be odd, at first sight, that there should be any such men as these; but their name and number is legion. If we were to deduct from the hunting- crowd farmers, and others who hunt because hunting is brought to their door, of the remainder we should find that the ?men who don?t like it? have the preponderance. It is pretty much the same, I think, with all amusements. How many men go to balls, to races, to the theatre, how many women to concerts and races, simply because it is the thing to do? They have perhaps, a vague idea that they may ultimately find some joy in the pastime; but, though they do the thing constantly, they never like it. Of all such men, the hunting men are perhaps the most to be pitied....
Contents THE MAN WHO HUNTS AND DOESN?T LIKE IT ................................................................... 4 THE MAN WHO HUNTS AND DOES LIKE IT .......................................................................... 9 THE LADY WHO RIDES TO HOUNDS ..................................................................................... 15 THE HUNTING FARMER ............................................................................................................ 20 THE MAN WHO HUNTS AND NEVER JUMPS ....................................................................... 26 THE HUNTING PARSON.............................................................................................................. 31 THE MASTER OF HOUNDS ........................................................................................................ 37 HOW TO RIDE TO HOUNDS....................................................................................................... 43...
Preface: The First Volume of these Poems has already been submitted to general perusal. It was published, as an experiment which, I hoped, might be of some use to ascertain, how far, by fitting to metrical arrangement a selection of the real language of men in a state of vivid sensation, that sort of pleasure and that quantity of pleasure may be imparted, which a Poet may rationally endeavour to impart....
Contents PREFACE ........................................................................................................................................... 5 EXPOSTULATION AND REPLY .................................................................................................... 22 THE TABLES TURNED................................................................................................................... 23 ANIMAL TRANQUILLITY & DECAY ............................................................................................... 24 THE COMPLAINT OF A FORSAKEN INDIAN WOMAN ........................................................... 24 THE COMPLAINT, etc. .................................................................................................................... 24 THE LAST OF THE FLOCK............................................................................................................ 26 LINES—Nay, Traveller! rest. This lonely yew-tree stands ............................................................... 29 THE FOSTER-MOTHER’S TALE ..............................................................................
This is an early novel by the phenomenally successful author of frontier, western and sports stories. It deals with historical characters and incidents in the Ohio Valley in the late 18th century, especially with the foundation of Gnaddenhutten, a missionary village intended to bring Christianity to the Indians of Ohio, despite the violent opposition of both Indians and white renegades. This turbulent adventure romance features the heroics of a semi-legendary frontiersman, Lewis Wetzel, who attempts to protect the settlers from hostile Native Americans and the vicious white outlaws the Girty brothers. (Introduction by Leonard Wilson)...
Historical Fiction
The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896) is considered Jewett’s finest work, described by Henry James as her “beautiful little quantum of achievement.” Despite James’s diminutives, the novel remains a classic. Because it is loosely structured, many critics view the book not as a novel, but a series of sketches; however, its structure is unified through both setting and theme. Jewett herself felt that her strengths as a writer lay not in plot development or dramatic tension, but in character development. Indeed, she determined early in her career to preserve a disappearing way of life, and her novel can be read as a study of the effects of isolation and hardship on the inhabitants who lived in the decaying fishing villages along the Maine coast. (summary from Gutenberg e-text)...
History
Jeremy Garnet, a second-rate novelist, gets talked into joining his old pal Stanley Featheringstonehaugh Ukridge in an insane plan to start a chicken ranch. Garnet should bail out on his crazy friend, but he falls in love with one of Ukridge's neighbors, Phyllis. Soon he is up to his neck in sick chickens, bad debts, a hostile future father-in-law, a sinister plot, and dirty golf. It all gets a bit thick, what? (Summary by Mark Nelson)...
Comedy
Excerpt: Virginibus Puerisque & Other Papers by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Contents ?VIRGINIBUS PUERISQUE? .......................................................................................................... 4 CHAPTER I ? ?VIRGINIBUS PUERISQUE?................................................................................ 4 CHAPTER II ? CRABBED AGE AND YOUTH ......................................................................... 38 CHAPTER III ? AN APOLOGY FOR IDLERS.......................................................................... 49 CHAPTER IV ? ORDERED SOUTH ........................................................................................... 58 CHAPTER V ? AES TRIPLEX ..................................................................................................... 69 CHAPTER VI ? EL DORADO ...................................................................................................... 77 CHAPTER VII ? THE ENGLISH ADMIRALS .......................................................................... 80 CHAPTER VIII ? SOME PORTRAITS BY RAEBURN............................................................ 91 CHAPTER IX ? CHILD?S PLAY ...............................................
Do remember reading a panic-mongering news story a while back about genetically engineered “Frankengrass” “escaping” from the golf course where it had been planted? That news story was foreshadowed decades previously in the form of prophetic fiction wherein a pushy salesman, a cash-strapped scientist, and a clump of crabgrass accidentally merge forces with apocalyptic consequences. A triple-genre combo of science fiction, horror, and satire, Greener Than You Think is a forgotten classic that resonates beautifully with modern times. This is a faithful reading of a 1947 first edition text. (Summary by Lee Elliot)...
Horror/Ghost stories, Science fiction, Satire
Cyril Gordon, a young and handsome secret service agent is running from pursuers who desperately want the information he holds. He hides out from them in a church, and then finds himself married to a woman he’s never seen before. A sweet and sometimes, funny, romance, with several exciting chases. (Summary by Gail Mattern)...
Adventure, Fiction, Romance, Religion, Spy stories
A book reminiscent of the days when football was gaining popularity in America by MHAIJH85
Memoirs
Dickson McCunn, a respectable, newly retired grocer, plans a walking holiday in the hills of south-west Scotland. He meets a young English poet and finds himself in the thick of a plot involving the kidnapping of a Russian princess, who is held prisoner in the rambling mansion, Huntingtower. This modern fairy-tale is also a gripping adventure story. (Summary by Simon Evers)...
Fiction, Mystery, Adventure