Современная зарубежная литература онлайн бесплатно - Страница 668
Четвертая книга монументального автобиографического цикла Карла Уве Кнаусгора «Моя борьба» рассказывает о юности главного героя и начале его писательского пути.
Карлу Уве восемнадцать, он только что окончил гимназию, но получать высшее образование не намерен. Он хочет писать. В голове клубится множество замыслов, они так и рвутся на бумагу. Но, чтобы посвятить себя этому занятию, нужны деньги и свободное время. Он устраивается школьным учителем в маленькую рыбацкую деревню на севере Норвегии. Работа не очень ему нравится, деревенская атмосфера – еще меньше. Зато его окружает невероятной красоты природа, от которой захватывает дух. Поначалу все складывается неплохо: он сочиняет несколько новелл, его уважают местные парни, он популярен у девушек. Но когда окрестности накрывает полярная тьма, сводя доступное пространство к единственной деревенской улице, в душе героя воцаряется мрак. В надежде вернуть утраченное вдохновение он все чаще пьет с местными рыбаками, чтобы однажды с ужасом обнаружить у себя провалы в памяти – первый признак алкоголизма, сгубившего его отца. А на краю сознания все чаще и назойливее возникает соблазнительный образ влюбленной в Карла Уве ученицы…
Description
The young venetian noble Bassanio seeks to woo the beautiful heiress Portia of Belmont. He turns to his friend, a merchant named Antonio, who agrees to help him financially. They go to a Jewish moneylender, Shylock, who agrees to lend the money—but because of their mutual animosity, Shylock demands “A pound of flesh” from Antonio as collateral.
Bassanio succeeds in winning Portia’s hand. Meanwhile, Antonio’s ships are reported lost at sea, and he defaults on the loan. Bassanio rushes back to Venice to help his benefactor where everything comes to a head in Court.
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
Spargo, reporter extraordinaire for the Watchman, stumbles over a murdered man in London’s Middle Temple Lane, and, based on a journalistic hunch, decides to investigate. As the circle of interest widens, strange connections start to emerge; connections that lead towards an unsuspected conspiracy of twenty years before.
The Middle Temple Murder is one of the prolific J. S. Fletcher’s most popular works. It builds on his earlier short story “The Contents of the Coffin,” and was published in 1919 as one of three novels he wrote that year. President Woodrow Wilson publicly praised the work, which helped Fletcher earn U.S. acclaim and eventually a publishing deal.
Description
The Return of Sherlock Holmes is the third collection of Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, published in 1905. It includes stories published in The Strand Magazine in 1903 and 1904, bringing Holmes for the first time into the twentieth century.
Doyle had memorably “killed off” Holmes in a struggle with his nemesis Professor Moriarty in the story “The Final Problem,” which had appeared in 1893 (and which is included in the collection The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes). Intense public demand for more Holmes material after that had led to Doyle writing the novel The Hound of the Baskervilles, and then finally to return to writing Holmes short stories once more. The first story in this collection, “The Adventure of the Empty House” finds Dr. Watson united once again with his old friend Sherlock Holmes, who explains how and why he faked his death at Reichenbach Falls.
Apart from the leading story which “resurrects” Holmes, this collection contains a number of the best-known Holmes stories. “The Adventure of the Dancing Men” has Holmes deciphering a cryptogram to solve a mystery; encountering a callous blackmailer in “The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton;” working out why cheap busts of Napoleon are being shattered all over London; and possibly averting a major European war in “The Adventure of the Second Stain.”
Description
The Prince and the Pauper remains one of Twain’s more popular novels, having been adapted many times for the stage, screen, and elsewhere. When Tom Canty, a young pauper in London, meets Prince Edward, the two switch clothes and assume the other’s identity. Tom then learns the life of royalty, while the true prince discovers the troubles of commoners.
As usual, Twain delivers both humor and social commentary in abundance. Although aimed at children, Pauper provides moral and social criticism of topics like the justice system and inequality, and deals with themes which appeal to readers of all ages.