Showing results by author "ciesse" in All Categories

Giovanna and Costantino Ledda are a happily married couple living with their young child in a Sardinian country village close to their extended family. Costantino is wrongly convicted of murdering his wicked uncle and with no way of supporting herself, Giovanna reluctantly divorces him and is driven to marry Brontu Dejas, a wealthy but brutish drunkard who has always lusted after her. As well as enduring a marriage amounting to slavery, Giovanna is derided by villagers for having two husbands. When Constantino is freed after the real murderer confesses to his crime, he and Giovanna are ...

The Woodlanders is one of Hardy's later novels, although he originally intended it as a successor to Far From The Madding Crowd. It concerns the life and loves of Giles Winterborne, Grace Melbury, Edred Fitzpiers, Felice Charmond and Marty South. The topics of class, fidelity and loyalty are dealt with in Hardy's exquisite style and set in the beautiful woodlands of Hintock (T.Hynes)

Poems of the Past and the Present is the second collection of poems by Thomas Hardy published in 1901. It is divided into 5 sections, War Poems, Poems of Pilgrimage, Miscellaneous Poems, Imitations and Retrospect.The first poem is a tribute to Queen Victoria written in the week of her death. (Summary by Alan Mapstone)

This novel is subtitled The Mellstock Quire, A Rural Painting of the Dutch School. The Quire is the group of musicians who accompany the hymns at the local church and we follow the fortunes of one member, Dick Dewy, who falls in love with the new school mistress, Fancy Day. Another element of the book is the battle between the traditional musicians of the Quire and the local vicar, Parson Maybold, who installs a church organ. This battle illustrates the developing technology being introduced in the Victorian era and its threat to traditional country ways. The novel was published anonymously in...

The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886) is a tragic novel by English author Thomas Hardy subtitled, "The Life and Death of a Man of Character". It is set in the fictional town of Casterbridge (based on the town of Dorchester in Dorset). The book is one of Hardy's Wessex novels, all set in a fictional rustic England. (Wikipedia)A poor, disgruntled, drunken young man sells his wife and child to the highest bidder. When he awakens, sober, the next day he regrets his rash act and vows to give up drink and find his family and bring them home. Eventually he is forced to give up the search and move on with ...

The Laodicean (someone whose religious beliefs are “lukewarm”) of the title is Paula Power who bought the ancient castle De Stancy which she is determined to restore. Being of a modern frame of mind, she has the telegraph connected to the castle – and uses it all the time in the course of the story.George Somerset is a young architect who is invited to compete for the chance of the commission to restore the castle and who falls in love with Paula.However, the brother of Paula’s great friend Charlotte De Stancy – of the aristocratic family that once owned the castle – aided by his ...

Eleven short stories. - Summary by david wales

Cytherea Graye is poor, but accepts a post as lady's maid to the eccentric Miss Aldclyffe, the woman whom her father had loved but had not been able to marry. Cytherea in turn loves a young architect, Edward Springrove; but will Miss Adclyffe's machinations, the knowledge that Edward is already engaged to a woman whom he does not love, and the urgent need to support her sick brother drive Cytherea to accept the hand of Aeneas Manston? Will true love triumph in the end or will she be forced to live a life of misery with a man she doesn't love? ( Michele Eaton )

Thomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, especially William Wordsworth. Charles Dickens was another important influence. Like Dickens, he was highly critical of much in Victorian society, though Hardy focused more on a declining rural society. - Summary by Wikipedia

A great collection of 12 classic stories about ghosts and the supernatural. Included are stories by Thomas Hardy, Fitz-James O'Brien, and Margaret Oliphant. Recommended for fans of classic ghost stories of yesteryear. - Summary by Phyllis Vincelli

This is a collection of short stories, poems, and play fragments published in 1926. Many of them are set during World War I. Many have strong references to the Masonic Lodge and its "brethren." The odes attributed to Horace are actually poems written by Kipling imitating the old Roman style.Note: Some of these stories contain outdated attitudes and racial stereotypes. Section 7, "The United Idolaters," and section 13, "The Prophet and the Country," contain racial terms objectionable to many listeners.Cast list for Gow's Watch (both scenes)Narrator: Larry WilsonGow: Ehsan Ahmed MehediFerdinand:...

Real men don't take guff from snotty kids. Neither does Disko Troop, skipper of the "We're Here", a fishing schooner out of Gloucester, Massachusetts, when his crew fishes Harvey Cheyne out of the Atlantic. There's no place on the Grand Banks for bystanders, so Harvey is press-ganged into service as a replacement for a man lost overboard and drowned. Harvey is heir to a vast fortune, but his rescuers believe none of what he tells them of his background. Disko won't take the boat to port until it is full of fish, so Harvey must settle in for a season at sea. Hard, dangerous work and performing ...

LibriVox volunteers bring you 12 recordings of The Derelict by Rudyard Kipling .This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for March 10, 2024. ------Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. In 1907, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, as the first English-language writer to receive the prize, and at 41, its youngest recipient to date. He was also sounded out for the British Poet Laureateship and several times for a knighthood, but declined both. (Summary by Wikipedia)

Set in an English-Scottish border village during the waning days of the Napoleonic era, this adventure story introduces us to Jock Calder, whose quiet way of life is shattered when a mysterious stranger steps ashore near his home. The stranger changes forever the lives of Jock, his cousin Edie, and his best friend Jim, sending the young men into the jaws of the final battle to defeat The Great Shadow that threatens to devour the whole of Europe. Don't look for Sherlock Holmes in this well-written tale, but do expect a wonderful glimpse of life at the end of the Napoleonic era, including an ...

This is a volume of poems by Arthur Conan Doyle, published in 1919. Many of them concern wartime experiences. - Summary by Carolin

In this collection of Sherlock Holmes stories, the great detective continues doing what he does best: averting political scandals, tracking down murderers, dragging Dr. Watson into unpleasant situations. As always, it's adventurous fun for the rest of us. This book was published in 1917, after The Return of Sherlock Holmes. (Summary by Laurie Anne Walden)

The hero, Etienne Gerard, is a Hussar in the French Army during the Napoleonic Wars. Gerard's most notable attribute is his vanity - he is utterly convinced that he is the bravest soldier, greatest swordsman, accomplished horseman and gallant lover in all France. Gerard is not entirely wrong since he displays notable bravery on many occasions, but his self-satisfaction undercuts this quite often. Obsessed with honour and glory, he is always ready with a stirring speech or a gallant remark to a lady. (Introduction from Wikipedia)

Arthur Conan Doyle first published his memories of his many various adventures around the world and his relationships with such famous figures of the age including Oscar Wilde, Empress Eugenie and Prime Minister Arthur Balfour to name a few, in The Strand Magazine between October 1923 and July 1924. This memoir was later formed into a book and published in September 1924.

After a number of deaths in his close family, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle turned to spiritualism in hope of finding proof of the afterlife. Being open in this way, he wanted to believe that spirits and other supernatural being including fairies were real. Because of this he believed the photographs of fairies taken by the Cottingley girls were proof of the existence of such beings. In this book he presents his stance on the issue. Eventually it was proven that the photographs were indeed a hoax. (Summary by Amy Gramour)

Las aventuras de Sherlock Holmes (en inglés: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes) es una colección de doce cuentos escritos por Arthur Conan Doyle, en los que el personaje principal es el detective de ficción Sherlock Holmes. Se publicaron por primera vez el 14 de octubre de 1892; las historias se habían publicado individualmente en The Strand Magazine entre junio de 1891 y julio de 1892. En el libro no se presentan las historias en orden cronológico y los únicos personajes que se repiten en todos ellas son Holmes y el doctor Watson, quien los narra en primera persona - Summary by Phileas ...