Roosevelt's popular book Through the Brazilian Wilderness describes his expedition into the Brazilian jungle in 1913 as a member of the Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition co-named after its leader, Brazilian explorer Cândido Rondon. The book describes all of the scientific discovery, scenic tropical vistas and exotic flora, fauna and wild life experienced on the expedition. One goal of the expedition was to find the headwaters of the Rio da Duvida, the River of Doubt, and trace it north to the Madeira and thence to the Amazon River. It was later renamed Rio Roosevel. Roosevelt's crew consisted of his 24-year-old son Kermit, Colonel Cândido Rondon, a naturalist sent by the American Museum of Natural History named George K. Cherrie, Brazilian Lieutenant Joao Lyra, team physician Dr. José Antonio Cajazeira, and sixteen highly skilled paddlers (called camaradas in Portuguese). The initial expedition started on December 9, 1913, at the height of the rainy season. The trip down the River of Doubt started on February 27, 1914. During the trip down the river, Roosevelt contracted malaria and a serious infection resulting from a minor le...

Adventure, History, Memoirs, Nature, Science

When the Inter-Planetary Corporation's (IPC) crack liner “IPV Arcturus” took off on a routine flight to Mars, it turned out to be the beginning of a unexpected and long voyage. There had been too many reports of errors in ship's flight positions from the Check Stations and brilliant physicist Dr. Percival (“Steve”) Stevens is aboard the Arcturus on a fact-finding mission to find out what's really happening, and hopefully save the honor of the brave pilots of the space-liner Arcturus from the desk-jockeys' in the Check Stations implications of imprecision - the nastiest insult you could cast at a ships pilot. He and the pilots are right, it was the Check Stations that were out of position, not the ships. But that's cold consolation because before the Arcturus reaches Mars it's attacked by a small, mysterious, globe shaped spaceship. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

Science fiction

In The Blonde Lady, being a record of the duel of wits between Arsène Lupin and the English detective - original title Arsène Lupin contre Herlock Sholmes - the gentleman-burglar once more meets his enemy, the English detective Herlock Sholmes. If in the last story of Arsène Lupin, gentleman-burglar Sherlock Holmes arrives too late (the name was at a later date changed to Herlock Sholmes in reply to complaints and threats by Conan Doyle regarding copyrights), in the two stories that compose The Blonde Lady these two great intellects are bound in opposite directions. Where one chooses to abide to the law, the other uses his power and wits to crime - and who is going to win? These two stories appeared in chapters and as separate pieces in the magazine Je Sais Tout , during the years of 1906 and 1907, and were published together as a book first in 1908, being the second of the books where Arsène Lupin, the kind-hearted and humorous thief, is the main character. (Summary by Leni)...

Adventure, Spy stories, Mystery

Stendhal - a German pen-name for a French writer who hated the English. Contemporary to some of the great names of French literature like Balzac and Flaubert, Stendhal is quite often considered a writer that doesn't seem to fit a defined genre. Some say he's a Romantic, others that he's a Modernist and that Le Rouge et Le Noir is the first modern novel. On one point they are all agreed: the novel is a masterpiece that shows a young theology student - Julien Sorel - intelligent, handsome and who is determined to rise above his humble peasant origins. Stendhal presents the reader with a satirical plot that will involve you in passions, intrigues, last-minute reversals and, mostly, the hypocrisy by which society operates. (Summary by sailormoon)...

Literature

This book is an early collection of ten well-known fairy tales. It is thought to have begun the genre of fairy tales.(Summary by A.L. Gramour)

Fiction, Fairy tales, Children

The Black Arrow tells the story of Richard (Dick) Shelton during the Wars of the Roses: how he becomes a knight, rescues his lady Joanna Sedley, and obtains justice for the murder of his father, Sir Harry Shelton. Outlaws in Tunstall Forest organized by Ellis Duckworth, whose weapon and calling card is a black arrow, cause Dick to suspect that his guardian Sir Daniel Brackley and his retainers are responsible for his father's murder. Dick's suspicions are enough to turn Sir Daniel against him, so he has no recourse but to escape from Sir Daniel and join the outlaws of the Black Arrow against him. This struggle sweeps him up into the greater conflict surrounding them all. The story of the Wars of the Roses is told in miniature by The Black Arrow. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

Adventure, Children, Historical Fiction, Teen/Young adult, Romance

Beyond the Horizon is a 1920 play written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. It was O'Neill's first full-length work, and the winner of the 1920 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play focuses on the portrait of a family, and particularly two brothers Andrew and Robert. In the first act of the play, Robert is about to go off to sea with their uncle Dick, a sea captain while Andrew looks forward to marrying his sweetheart Ruth and working on the family farm as he starts a family. ( Summary by Wikipedia)...

Play

Douglas William Jerrold (1803-1857) was the son of an actor manager. After some time in the Navy and as an apprentice printer he became a playwright and later a journalist. He was a contemporary and friend of Charles Dickens. As a journalist he worked for Punch magazine in which Mrs Caudle's Curtain Lectures were serialised, to be published in book form in 1846. Job Caudle, the 'hero' of the book is a Victorian shopkeeper whose wife finds she can only talk to him without interruption in bed. Caudle, who outlives his wife, finds he can no longer sleep easily because of his memory of these 'lectures' and resolves to exorcise his wife's memory by recording the lectures, it seems with a view to future publication for the edification of others. Jerrold's humour shines through this insight into Victorian middle class culture. Summary by Martin Clifton...

Comedy

This book includes the classic alphabet, Sing-A-Song Of Sixpence, The Frog Who Would A Wooing go, The Three LIttle Pigs, Puss In Boot, and The Ugly Duckling. Fun for all ages! (Summary by Sam Stinson)...

Children

Dies ist das erste Buch, in dem Alfred Wegener seine Theorie der Kontinentalverschiebung darlegt. Zeit seines Lebens wurde diese Theorie größtenteils abgelehnt, und geriet nach seinem Tod in Vergessenheit. Erst Jahrzehnte später wurden seine Ideen als wahr erkannt und auf verschiedene Arten nachgewiesen. Alfred Wegener war ein deutscher Meteorologe, Geo- und Polarwissenschaftler. Er starb auf seiner dritten Expedition nach Grönland. (Zusammenfassung von Availle)...

Nature, Science

This is a detailed and accurate account of the most awful marine disaster in history, constructed from the real facts as obtained from those on board who survived (gutenberg.org)....

Sea stories, History

Clearly frustrated at the refusal of his contemporaries to recognise the iniquity of society, Tressell's cast of hypocritical Christians, exploitative capitalists and corrupt councillors provide a backdrop for his main target — the workers who think that a better life is not for the likes of them. Hence the title of the book; Tressell paints the workers as philanthropists who throw themselves into back-breaking work for poverty wages in order to generate profit for their masters. The hero of the book, Frank Owen, is a socialist who believes that the capitalist system is the real source of the poverty he sees all around him. In vain he tries to convince his fellow workers of his world view, but finds that their education has trained them to distrust their own thoughts and to rely on those of their betters. Much of the book consists of conversations between Owen and the others, or more often of lectures by Owen in the face of their jeering; this was presumably based on Tressell's own experiences.(Summary by Tadhg)...

Fiction

Waverley is set during the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745, which sought to restore the Stuart dynasty in the person of Charles Edward Stuart (or 'Bonnie Prince Charlie'). It relates the story of a young dreamer and English soldier, Edward Waverley, who was sent to Scotland in 1745. He journeys North from his aristocratic family home, Waverley-Honour, in the south of England first to the Scottish Lowlands and the home of family friend Baron Bradwardine, then into the Highlands and the heart of the 1745 Jacobite uprising and aftermath....

Fiction, Historical Fiction

Der Staatsvertrag betreffend die Wiederherstellung eines unabhängigen und demokratischen Österreich, wurde am 15. Mai 1955 in Wien im Schloss Belvedere von Vertretern der alliierten Besatzungsmächte USA, der Sowjetunion, Frankreichs und Großbritanniens sowie der österreichischen Regierung unterzeichnet und trat am 27. Juli 1955 offiziell in Kraft. Gegenstand des Vertrages war die Wiederherstellung der souveränen und demokratischen Republik Österreich nach der nationalsozialistischen Herrschaft in Österreich (1938-1945), dem Ende des Zweiten Weltkrieges und der darauf folgenden Besatzungszeit (1945-1955). (Zusammenfassung von Wikipedia)...

History, Politics

Henry VI, Part 2 or The Second Part of Henry the Sixt (often written as 2 Henry VI) is a history play by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1591, and set during the lifetime of King Henry VI of England. Whereas 1 Henry VI deals primarily with the loss of England's French territories and the political machinations leading up to the Wars of the Roses, and 3 Henry VI deals with the horrors of that conflict, 2 Henry VI focuses on the King's inability to quell the bickering of his nobles, the death of his trusted adviser Duke Humphrey of Gloucester, the rise of the Duke of York and the inevitability of armed conflict. As such, the play culminates with the opening battle of the War, the First Battle of St Albans. Henry VI may be viewed as a study in insurrection, which moves from the private and personal jostlings in the court in Part 1 to outright civil war in Part 3. In Part 2 the discord between prominent state officials, notably Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, and Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, spreads to the common people, fomenting an abortive rebellion, lead by the rascally Kentishman, Jack Cade. With the dea...

Play

Excerpt: The Proverbs, the Twentieth Book of the King James Bible.

Excerpt: Prayers Written at Vailima and a Lowden Sabbath Morn by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Contents Prayers Written At Vailima ...........................................................................4 FOR SUCCESS................................................................................................................................ 6 FOR GRACE.................................................................................................................................... 7 AT MORNING ................................................................................................................................. 7 EVENING ......................................................................................................................................... 7 ANOTHER FOR EVENING........................................................................................................... 8 IN TIME OF RAIN .......................................................................................................................... 8 ANOTHER IN TIME OF RAIN ..................................................................................................... 8 BEFORE A TEMPORARY SEPARATION ...................................

Introduction: In September of the year during the February of which Hawthorne had completed ?The Scarlet Letter,? he began ?The House of the Seven Gables.? Meanwhile, he had removed from Salem to Lenox, in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, where he occupied with his family a small red wooden house, still standing at the date of this edition, near the Stockbridge Bowl....

Excerpt: PART I. Chapter One. We were in class when the head-master came in, followed by a ?new fellow,? not wearing the school uniform, and a school servant carrying a large desk. Those who had been asleep woke up, and every one rose as if just surprised at his work. The head-master made a sign to us to sit down. Then, turning to the class-master, he said to him in a low voice-- ?Monsieur Roger, here is a pupil whom I recommend to your care; he?ll be in the second. If his work and conduct are satisfactory, he will go into one of the upper classes, as becomes his age.?...

Excerpt: War and Peace: Twelve by Leo Tolstoy.