Showing results by author "ciesse" in All Categories

We meet Miss Lucretia Lane as she is dressing for her marriage to Captain Francis Reynolds of the British Merchant Service. Though he loves her truly, she has severe misgivings. She goes through with the wedding in spite of this, but refuses to live with her new husband, and cannot be enticed or cajoled to do so. Then on the day the Captain is scheduled to ship out, she receives word that he has been gravely injured and his dying request is to see his wife. She flies to his side... and thus begins an adventure spanning eight years - love, loathing, shipwreck, love lost, and redemption. (...

Edith Wharton became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction with this 1920 novel about Old New York society. Newland Archer is wealthy, well-bred, and engaged to the beautiful May Welland. But he finds himself drawn to May's cousin Ellen Olenska, who has been living in Europe and who has returned following a scandalous separation from her husband. (Introduction by Elizabeth Klett)Proof listened by Stav Nisser & Betty M.

Everybody makes mistakes, and everything has a price. This novel describes, according to its name, the life of Adeline Mowbray, full of everything: sorrow, happiness, falsehood, truth, kindness, and mistakes. This novel is an exploration of the human heart. Be prepared for a strong and enjoyable read. (Summary by Stav Nisser)

This story presents through letters, poems and third-person commentary the love affair between a young man named Freeman Jones and a married woman named Elinor, lady of the castle he is visiting in Scotland. Events in the affair are traced from initial attraction through seduction to (somewhat) graphic sexual encounters and their aftermath. (Allegedly based on a real-life scandal, the author, in re-issuing his story two years later, transplanted the action to Italy, renaming the principals Fernando Jeronimi and Leonora.) (Summary by Grant Hurlock)

George Eliot was the pen name of Mary Ann Evans – an ironic ‘deception’ given that Adam Bede, her first novel, is written unashamedly from a feminist standpoint.The story centres on a pastoral love triangle. Two young men, carpenter Adam Bede and squire Captain Arthur Donnithorne, are both in love with the mercurial Hetty Sorrel. There’s a further love interest between Adam and beautiful lay preacher Dinah Morris.The setting is a country village in the north of England in the last years of the eighteenth century. The author paints a wonderful landscape of contemporary life as it really...

Bartley Alexander is a construction engineer and world-renowned builder of bridges going through what's known today (but not in 1912) as a mid-life crisis. Although married to his wife Winifred, Bartley resumes his acquaintance with a former lover, Hilda Burgoyne, in London. The affair proves to gnaw at Bartley's sense of propriety and honor. (Summary from Wikipedia)

This is the first volume of a three volume novel. In this novel, Amelia marries William Booth against her mother's desires, and the two must move to London. Fielding explores the issues of married life such as infidelity and whether women's intelligence is equal to men's. (Summary by Libby Gohn)

In an era before the advent of electric lights, telephones or motor vehicles, there exists a small cluster of aristocratic "old revolutionary stock" families that rule New York's social life. Under the rules of this society, "being things" is better than "doing things" and reputation and outward appearances come at the exclusion of everything else. In this Gilded Age, when America’s expansion and increased industrialism produce a group of newly wealthy robber barons and financiers, the patient, time-honored values of the old ruling class, and century, are giving way to the expediencies of ...

Dick Brewster is implicated in a murder and comes to his aunt's farm to hide. His Aunt Sarah stands by him in his need and they all move to the city in the effort to clear his name. She investigates on her own account and.... - Summary by The AuthorCast list:Lily Ann, Help at the farm: Devorah AllenAaron Flint, the hired man: Alan MapstoneMrs. Brewster, from New York: TJ BurnsHelen Brewster, her daughter: Jenn BrodaLeonard Fillmore, a young country lawyer: skypigeonSarah Newcomb, sister of Mrs. Brewster: AvailleDick Brewster: David PurdyHenson, a butler: Adrian StephensRalph Deering: Matthew ...

Andrew Lang's Blue Fairy Book (1889) was a beautifully produced and illustrated edition of fairy tales that has become a classic. This was followed by many other collections of fairy tales, collectively known as Andrew Lang's Fairy Books. (Wikipedia)

After Prince Florimel flees his home (and a particularly nasty uncle) he has a series of adventures with the mischevious but helpful Brownies, Queen Titania and her fairies, and the ill-tempered enchanter, Dragonfel.Reader's note: Although some terms in this 1918 book are not really acceptable anymore, the book’s overall message that people should not be judged by their size is still a worthy lesson today. - Summary by Jude Somers

Wild animals play a big role in many fairy tales, and foxes are some of the best-represented animals in folklore. In this volume, Clifton Johnson has collected stories about foxes from all over the world, adapted for children as bedtime fairy tales. - Summary by Carolin

This group project is a collection of 43 fairy tales (both old and new), folk lore, myths and real life stories by a variety of authors, brought together by writer Fanny E Coe. They are mostly short and are fun to read and tell to children and most teach valuable lessons about life. (Summary by Phil Chenevert)

This book contains 13 stories for little children, about a little boy named Birdie and his adventures out in nature with the fairies. The stories include "The Frost Fairies", made famous by a very similar short story entitled "The Frost King", penned by deaf/blind Helen Keller when she was a young girl. Helen's story was so similar to Margaret Canby's tale, that Keller was accused of plagerizing. Her teacher Anne Sullivan finally pieced together that a friend had read Margaret’s story to Helen years before, and she had internalized many details without remembering the story having been read ...

"I am going to tell you about a splendid unexplored country, and several adventures that happened therein, and I hope some day that some of you will go and see those countries, and penetrate even further into their mysteries, than did the girls and boys who figure in this book." This is the original children's tale and should not be confused with the R rated 1987 movie of the same name. - Summary from the introduction

A. O. Stafford, an African American educator and folklorist, wrote this collection of African and African Diaspora folktales for students in elementary school. By combining African and Diaspora stories together in a single collection, Stafford sought to demonstrate the storytelling continuity between African cultures and African American culture in the United States. The stories are all fables about animals, and many of them are trickster stories featuring the trickster rabbit and also stories about the trickster jackal. There are also "just-so" stories explaining the world of nature, such as ...

This is a collection of fairy tales, retold by Sabine Baring-Gould. The collection contains such well-known stories as Cinderella and the Beauty and the Beast, but also tales which are now not as widely known, such as the Yellow Dwarf and the White Cat. - Summary by Carolin

La entrada de Alicia en el panorama de las letras castellanas se produjo, en realidad, el 15 de noviembre de 1914 con la primera entrega de una versión que vio la luz en las páginas de una revista juvenil editada en Madrid, Los Muchachos. Semanario con regalos. (El curioso subtítulo de la publicación se explica porque incluía cupones para unos sorteos de juguetes y libros entre los lectores). La serie se prolongó en ocho entregas dominicales hasta el 5 de enero de 1915. El texto abreviado parece conceder más importancia a los capítulos iniciales y finales, así como al de la Merienda ...

Diggeldy Dan (rhymes with Wiggildy Wan) is a most ingenious fellow who lives in a circus called Spangleland. He looks like a clown because he perhaps is a clown but a very special clown who invites the Pretty Lady with the Blue Blue Eyes (a very special person herself) to meet with the animals of the circus. Many things happen that are just too amazing to talk about because you won't believe them but if you read this book you will perhaps learn that fun is inside all of us. The writing is adult, not childlike, and easy to understand. - Summary by phil chenevertDiventa un supporter di questo ...

A collection of Aesop's fables for children from the classic American book illustrated by Milo Winter. Read along and see the illustrations at: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19994. (Summary by Jill Engle)