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Description
Aristotle examines how best to live by looking at the nature of those virtues that characterize the most thriving human beings, and then at how to acquire and develop such virtues. This book is considered the founding document of what is now known as the “virtue ethics” tradition.
Along the way, Aristotle delves into pleasure, happiness, justice, friendship, and willpower. He intended the Nicomachean Ethics to be the foundation on which to build his Politics.
Nicomachean Ethics is based on Aristotle’s lectures at the Lyceum and was originally collected as a series of ten scrolls. In translation it was hugely influential in the development of Western philosophic tradition, quickly becoming one of the core works of medieval philosophy.
Description
Anne Elliot is the under-valued daughter of a vain and improvident English baronet, Sir Walter Elliot. The family is in debt, and in order to save money, they rent their noble property to a retired Admiral and his wife. As the rest of her family removes to Bath, Anne remains behind to attend to her married younger sister, and in doing so finds herself in unexpected contact with Frederick Wentworth, the brother of the Admiral’s wife. Eight years previously, Wentworth had proposed to Anne, only to be rejected by her at the urging of a family friend. Anne initially dreads the reunion, as Wentworth, now a successful captain returned from the Napoleonic Wars, pays his attentions to Anne’s younger sisters-in-law.
Persuasion follows Anne as she supports family and friends alike amidst the upheaval of her family’s relocation, the unexpected return of her estranged cousin (Sir Walter’s heir), Wentworth’s apparent indifference, and the vestiges of regret at her earlier decisions.
Persuasion was published in 1817, six months after Jane Austen’s death, and is the last novel she completed in full. It was well-regarded on publication and has been turned into several television series and movies.
Description
The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope is an adventure novel first published in 1894 that takes place in the fictional Kingdom of Ruritania.
It tells the story of Rudolph Rassendyll, who is, because of past indiscretions in the family and unbeknownst to him, the near twin of King Rudolph V of Ruritania. Labeled a ne’er-do-well by his sister-in-law, young Rudolph determines to escape his family and secretly travel to Ruritania for the coronation of his distant relative. But when the king is drugged and abducted on the eve of this ceremony, young Rassendyll is convinced to take his place to try and save the day.
But things don’t go as planned as the conspirators fail to reckon with the king’s brother, the dastardly Duke of Strelsau or his fiancée, the beautiful Princess Flavia. What follows is a tale of bravery, sacrifice and love, filled with romance and feats of derring-do that still stands the test of time.
The Prisoner of Zenda was Hope’s most famous novel and achieved instant success. Such was the impact of this novel that the setting of Ruritania became famous in its own right as the generic term referring to romantic stories set in fictional central European countries. It went on to spawn numerous adaptations, retellings and homages. Anthony Hope wrote a sequel in 1898 called Rupert of Hentzau but it never achieved the success of the original.
Description
Hidden in the forest, the poet Trirodov attempts to secede from the troubled society of early twentieth century Russia to build his own utopia: a school for the quiet children he cares for. Nothing is ever that easy though, and his personal connections to the outside world tie him into the political whirlwind of agitators, factions and power struggles that threaten his solitude.
The Created Legend portrays a stark contrast to the protagonists of Sologub’s earlier work The Little Demon, even though the setting is the same town of Skorodozh. There, they varied from at best well-meaning to actively malignant; here the lead characters are idealistic, and isolate themselves from the trials of Russian society in an attempt to maintain their idealism. Trirodov sees beauty and mystery everywhere he looks, and (following the title) works to create his own legend.
This volume, originally titled “Drops of Blood,” is the first of the “Created Legend” trilogy and the only one translated contemporaneously into English. It was received with some bewilderment by critics: the combination of current affairs and magical events proved too strange for many. However, treated as an early example of magic realism and with the benefit of hindsight, the setting and symbolism is less shocking and more readily accessible to the modern reader.
Description
The gentleman-thief Arsène Lupin returns in this set of ten short stories to confess—or perhaps boast about—his crimes to the unnamed narrator. Mostly set around Lupin’s attempts to frustrate Chief-Inspector Ganimard and pocket some cash in the process, they also show off his knack for escaping from seemingly impossible situations, and even playing the role of the master detective.
In the chronology of Arsène Lupin, these tales were published after, but set before, the darker stories of The Hollow Needle and 813. They were serialised in Je Sais Tout from 1911, and collected into a single publication in 1913.
Description
A collection of stories that highlight the trials and tribulations of life in the Yukon and Alaska during the gold rush. Greed, determination, compassion, competition, and survival dominate as native tribes intermingle with western settlers. Despite the laws that each culture abides by, the law of the wilderness will overcome you when unprepared.
Description
South! tells one of the most thrilling tales of exploration and survival against the odds which has ever been written. It details the experiences of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition which set off in 1914 to make an attempt to cross the Antarctic continent.
Under the direction of Sir Ernest Shackleton, the expedition comprised two components: one party sailing on the Endurance into the Weddell Sea, which was to attempt the actual crossing; and another party on board the Aurora, under the direction of Aeneas Mackintosh, sailing into the Ross Sea on the other side of the continent and tasked with establishing depots of stores as far south as possible for the use of the party attempting the crossing.
Shackleton gives a highly readable account of the fate of both parties of the Expedition. Both fell victim to the severe environmental conditions of the region, and it was never possible to attempt the crossing. The Endurance was trapped in pack-ice in the Weddell Sea and the ship was eventually crushed by the pressure of the ice, leaving Shackleton’s men stranded on ice floes, far from solid land.
Shackleton’s account of their extraordinary struggles to survive is as gripping as any novel.
Description
Mike Jackson is a rising cricket star who finds his dreams of studying and playing at Cambridge upset by news of his father’s financial troubles. He takes a job with the New Asiatic Bank in London. He arrives to find that his dapper and verbose young friend Psmith is also a new employee, and together they navigate early twentieth century office life, make the best of their position and squeeze in a little cricket from time to time.
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the twentieth century. After leaving school, he was employed by a bank but disliked the work and turned to writing in his spare time. His early novels were mostly school stories, but he later switched to comic fiction, creating several regular characters who became familiar to the public over the years.
Psmith in the City was originally serialized in The Captain magazine in 1908 and 1909 as The New Fold and is the sequel to Mike, an earlier novel by Wodehouse.
Description
Inspired by Robert A. Heinlein’s 1948 novel Space Cadet, the Tom Corbett series started as a TV show in 1950. It stayed on the air for five years and, among other things, spawned a series of novels published by Grosset & Dunlap. Written by unknown authors, they were published under the pseudonym Carey Rockwell, with Willy Ley (the TV show’s technical director) listed as technical advisor.
Stand by for Mars! is the first of eight novels written between 1952 and 1956. It features a young Tom Corbett who is trying to fulfill his dream of becoming a Space Cadet on his way to joining the Solar Guard. But interpersonal conflicts stand in his way. Tom, along with his unit-mates Astro and Roger Manning, must find a way past their difficulties or else risk being washed out. Their adventure takes them from the rigours of the Academy on Earth to the rugged and deadly deserts of Mars where they need to learn that only by working together can they hope to survive.
An entire generation grew up on the adventures of Tom Corbett—it spawned radio shows, music recordings and a whole series of toys and tie-ins. Fans still maintain a Tom Corbett Space Cadet website and have held reunions as recently as 2006. Stand by for Mars! is a classic example of the space-crazy juvenile fiction of its era.
Description
The Book of Tea, one of the great English tea classics, is a long essay about the connection between teaism, Taoism, and the aesthetics of Japanese culture. It was written by Okakura Kakuzō in English and was published in the United States in 1906.
The essay targets a Western audience and seeks to explain the importance of tea in Japanese culture, not just as a beverage, but as a form of art expressed in different aspects. After a brief introduction of the Western attitude towards tea, Okakura demystifies the admiration of the Japanese people for this green plant by presenting the different schools of tea, its connection to Zen philosophy, and how it has affected the arts. The famous tea ceremony and its rigid formalities are explained, together with the contributions of the great tea-masters.
The Book of Tea is considered by many to be one of the first books to introduce Eastern culture and philosophy to the Western world. This was possible due to Okakura’s early contact with the English language and Western thought, but also due to his later involvement in the Asian art division of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, which he came to head in 1910.