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Description

Dangerous Liaisons (Les Liaisons dangereuses) is an early French novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, first published in four volumes in 1782. At the time of its publication novels were a new literary form, and Laclos chose to present his story in an epistolary style, composing the novel solely of a series of letters written by the major characters to each other. It was first translated into English in 1812 and has since become universally regarded as one the most significant early French novels.

The story is framed around the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont, two narcissistic French aristocrats and rivals who enjoy games of seduction and manipulation, and who most especially enjoy one-upping each other. The letters they send to each other portray an interconnected web of seduction, revenge, and malice, and are interspersed with the more innocent letters of their victims.

Dangerous Liaisons has often been seen as a depiction of the corruption and depravity of the French nobility shortly before the French Revolution, thereby making a negative statement about the Ancien Régime. But it’s also a depiction of the timeless problems surrounding sex and love, and a realistic portrayal of desires that are often beyond our control. As Laclos enjoyed the patronage of Louis Philippe II, the Duke of Orléans, and as other royalist and conservative figures like Queen Marie Antoinette enjoyed the book, it’s likely it wasn’t seen as a morality tale until after the French Revolution.

Description

An American composer, George Bevan, falls in love with a mysterious young lady who takes refuge in his taxicab one day. He tracks her down to an English country manor, where a case of mistaken identity leads to all manner of comedy and excitement.

The novel was first serialized in The Saturday Evening Post in 1919. It was later adapted into a silent film, a stage play, and a musical starring Fred Astaire.

Description

After inheriting a fortune, and just back to New York from a cruise on which he spotted an intriguing young woman, Jimmy Pitt is drifting. So after seeing a blockbuster play about a gentleman thief, he’s ready to bet his friends at the Strollers’ Club that he could pull off a burglary himself. That night he makes friends with a real-life “Bowery Boy” thief, who helps him break into a corrupt police captain’s house, and everyone gets way more than they bargained for. Later, the action moves to the Earl of Dreever’s castle in England. There, the misunderstandings, threats, cheating, and confusion only multiply, requiring all of Jimmy’s wits and daring to clear up.

In this short novel, P. G. Wodehouse takes on many of the themes his fans will recognize from his Jeeves and Wooster books: the ridiculous upper class, the frequent need to hide one’s suspicious origins (while uncovering those of others), and the importance of amateur theatricals, dressing for dinner, champagne, and true love.

First published in 1910, A Gentleman of Leisure has also appeared in several other versions, under the titles The Gem Collector and The Intrusion of Jimmy. It was also adapted into a Broadway play that starred Douglas Fairbanks Sr., and silent movie versions followed in 1915 and 1923. This Standard Ebook is based on the edition published in 1921 by Herbert Jenkins Ltd.

Description

The Kalevala is a Finnish epic poem, which tells of the creation of the world and how the heroes that inhabit it came to be, and the legends of their conflicts and adventures. Spread out over fifty cantos, we hear how existence was created from the egg of a duck, how the forests were created from the chips of a world-tree felled by an ancient wizard, how the mighty Sampo—a multicolored mill of plenty—was created and later stolen, how the nine dread diseases came to be, and many more such stories.

The tales contained here are formed from Finland’s oral history. The author, Elias Lönnrot, was a Finnish doctor who was fascinated with his country’s stories, so between the 1820s and 1850s he embarked on a series of expeditions to the countryside of Finland and the surrounding area to collect and transcribe the folk stories told by local people. These tales were gradually collected into several volumes, the final of which is this “new” Kalevala. Lönnrot collected many different variants of each story, then edited each down into a cohesive whole when composing the new verse. The distinctive Kalevala-meter that was a common feature of all the original oral stories was kept during the process, and Crawford used the same with this English translation.

Lönnrot’s work proved extremely influential in Finland, and the national pride it imbued has been cited as a factor in the later Finnish independence movement. The Kalevala was also a source of inspiration for later authors of the twentieth century. Tolkien reused some of the themes and characters for the basis of his fictional universe (in particular The Silmarillion), the Kalevala-meter was used in Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha, and even Donald Duck has quested—as the Kalevala heroes did—for the legendary Sampo.

This edition was translated by John Martin Crawford in the late nineteenth century, and includes his introduction discussing some of the themes, characters, and settings.

Description

When it was first published in 1812 as Children’s and Household Tales, this collection of Germanic fairy tales contained eighty-six stories and was criticized because, despite the name, it wasn’t particularly well-suited to children. Over the next forty-five years, stories were added, removed, and modified until the final seventh edition was published in 1857, containing 210 fairy tales. Today, the book is commonly referred to as Grimms’ Fairy Tales.

These fairy tales include well-known characters such as Cinderella, Snow White, and Rapunzel, as well as many more that never became quite as popular. Over the years, these stories have been translated, retold, and adapted to many different media.

This is a collection of Margaret Hunt’s 1884 English translation, originally published in two volumes.

Description

Alexander Mackenzie was the first European to complete a land crossing of the continent of America north of Mexico, preceding the famous Lewis and Clark expedition by twelve years. In his journals he details two separate voyages: one up what is now known as the Mackenzie River to the Arctic Ocean in 1789, and another to what is now Bella Coola on the Pacific Ocean in 1792 and 1793.

Both journeys provide a detailed description of the many difficulties in navigating and traveling in a country that had yet to be mapped. Having to rely on Native guides and rumors, and enduring hardships that almost beggar belief, Mackenzie and his team were able to achieve their objective of finding an east to west land crossing through the Rocky Mountains and to the Pacific Ocean. Although his route didn’t prove as practical as routes found by later explorers, Mackenzie has cemented himself as a key explorer of Western Canada.

Description

The Beasts of Tarzan, the third book in the Tarzan series, was first published in All-Story Cavalier magazine in 1914. It was later published as a novel in 1916.

Tarzan’s old enemy, Nikolas Rokoff, escapes prison and plans his revenge by kidnapping the Tarzan’s son, the heir of Greystoke. He also captures Tarzan and Jane, and takes them all back to Africa, where he strands the Ape-man on an island before continuing on with his dastardly plan. On the island prison Tarzan befriends a troop of apes led by Akut and tames Sheeta the panther before escaping and setting off to rescue his wife and child.

Description

Lord Timon is known by the whole city of Athens as a very generous man. He offers to bail his friend Ventidius out of jail, hires local artists for their talents, and invites his admirers to a feast and offers them gifts. Timon’s closest friend Apemantus tries to warn him that these people are parasites, taking advantage of him. Flavius, Timon’s servant, also tries to warn his master that his finances are in dire straits due to the lavish spending, and that he owes a lot of money. Both worries are dismissed—until creditors that were once considered Timon’s “friends” demand his debts be paid.

Many scholars consider Timon of Athens an unfinished work: plot developments that go nowhere, random character appearances, and other inconsistencies make it feel incomplete, and it was never performed in Shakespeare’s lifetime. If it had been, the production might have been considered too controversial because of its allusion to King James I and his lavish spending and debts.

This Standard Ebooks production is based on William George Clark and William Aldis Wright’s 1887 Victoria edition, which is taken from the Globe edition.

Description

In another science-based entry in his Voyages Extraordinaires series, Verne takes us on the journey of Simon Hart, an engineer who poses as an aide to the scientist Dr. Roche. Roche’s whose invention of a world conquering weapon has driven him insane, and as the paranoid doctor rests in a sanatorium, the vicious pirate Karraje kidnaps both him and Hart. Karraje takes them to a secret hideaway in a burned-out island caldera in the Bermudas—but Hart hatches an ingenious escape plan.

Description

Soon after the widowed Lilia Herriton arrives at the dusty Tuscan town of Monteriano with her friend Caroline Abbott, she falls in love with Gino Carella, a handsome—and younger—man. When her overbearing in-laws hear of the engagement, they panic, believing a marriage like that would dishonor their family and the memory of Lilia’s late husband and their child.

Lilia’s brother-in-law, Philip Herriton, rushes to Italy to stop the marriage and “rescue” Lilia from Gino. He soon discovers that he’s too late, and that they’ve already married. Their impulsive decision will have major consequences—not just for the couple itself, but also for Caroline, Philip, and everyone else in their orbit.

Forster was just twenty-six in 1905 when Where Angels Fear to Tread, his first novel, was published. In a contemporary review, The Manchester Guardian called it “almost startlingly original” in its setting and the treatment of its motive, but also wondered if Forster could “could be a little more charitable” in future works. In 1991 it was made into a movie starring Helen Mirren, Helena Bonham Carter, Judy Davis, and Rubert Graves.