Download or read book Character Sketches of Romance Fiction and the Drama written by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer and published by . This book was released on 1892 with total page 754 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Character Sketches of Romance Fiction and the Drama written by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer and published by The Minerva Group, Inc.. This book was released on 2004-03 with total page 568 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in 1892, "the object of this Handbook is to supply readers and speakers with a lucid, but very brief account of such names as are used in allusions and references, whether by poets or prose writers; - to furnish those who consult it with the plot of popular dramas, the story of epic poems, and the outline of well-known tales. The number of dramatic plots sketched out is many hundreds. Another striking and interesting feature of the book is the revelation of the source from which dramatists and romancers have derived their stories, and the strange repetitions of historic incidents. It has been borne in mind throughout that it is not enough to state a fact. It must be stated attractively, and the character described must be drawn characteristically if the reader is to appreciate it, and feel an interest in what he reads." This work, an American reprint of The Reader's Handbook by E. Cobham Brewer, ..".while retaining all of the original material that can interest and aid the English-speaking student, gives also 'characters and sketches found in American novels, poetry and drama.'"

Download or read book Dictionary of Fictional Characters written by Martin Seymour-Smith and published by Writer. This book was released on 1992 with total page 628 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Identifies more than fifty thousand fictional characters and the nmovels, short stories, poems, plays, and operas in which they appear.

Download or read book The Reader s Handbook of Famous Names in Fiction Allusions References Proverbs Plots Stories and Poems written by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer and published by . This book was released on 1899 with total page 616 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Reader s Handbook of Famous Names in Fiction Allusions References Proverbs Stories and Poems written by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer and published by . This book was released on 1913 with total page 1268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Author s Digest written by Rossiter Johnson and published by . This book was released on 1908 with total page 678 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Slime Beast written by Guy N Smith and published by Black Hill Books. This book was released on with total page 123 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Professor Lowson is searching the Wash for King John's lost treasure. Instead he awakes a reptilian creature buried in the mud, which seems to have arrived on this planet in a meteorite. It starts wandering around, killing and eating anybody it comes across. Lowson wants to capture it alive, his companions want to kill it before it kills anyone else. Soon the locals are involved and following a number of violent deaths and an attempted rape, there can only be a catastrophic finale.

Download or read book Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell written by Susanna Clarke and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2010-06-05 with total page 1162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the Hugo-award winning, epic New York Times Bestseller and basis for the BBC miniseries, two men change England's history when they bring magic back into the world. In the midst of the Napoleonic Wars in 1806, most people believe magic to have long since disappeared from England - until the reclusive Mr. Norrell reveals his powers and becomes an overnight celebrity. Another practicing magician then emerges: the young and daring Jonathan Strange. He becomes Norrell's pupil, and the two join forces in the war against France. But Strange is increasingly drawn to the wild, most perilous forms of magic, and he soon risks sacrificing his partnership with Norrell and everything else he holds dear. Susanna Clarke's brilliant first novel is an utterly compelling epic tale of nineteenth-century England and the two magicians who, first as teacher and pupil and then as rivals, emerge to change its history.

Download or read book Candide written by By Voltaire and published by BookRix. This book was released on 2019-06-10 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Candide is a French satire by Voltaire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment. It begins with a young man, Candide, who is living a sheltered life in an Edenic paradise and being indoctrinated with Leibnizian optimism (or simply Optimism) by his mentor, Pangloss. The work describes the abrupt cessation of this lifestyle, followed by Candide's slow, painful disillusionment as he witnesses and experiences great hardships in the world. Voltaire concludes with Candide, if not rejecting optimism outright, advocating a deeply practical precept, "we must cultivate our garden", in lieu of the Leibnizian mantra of Pangloss, "all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds". Candide is characterized by its sarcastic tone, as well as by its erratic, fantastical and fast-moving plot. A picaresque novel it parodies many adventure and romance clichés, the struggles of which are caricatured in a tone that is mordantly matter-of-fact. Still, the events discussed are often based on historical happenings, such as the Seven Years' War and the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. As philosophers of Voltaire's day contended with the problem of evil, so too does Candide in this short novel, albeit more directly and humorously. Voltaire ridicules religion, theologians, governments, armies, philosophies, and philosophers through allegory; most conspicuously, he assaults Leibniz and his optimism. As expected by Voltaire, Candide has enjoyed both great success and great scandal. Immediately after its secretive publication, the book was widely banned because it contained religious blasphemy, political sedition and intellectual hostility hidden under a thin veil of naïveté. However, with its sharp wit and insightful portrayal of the human condition, the novel has since inspired many later authors and artists to mimic and adapt it. Today, Candide is recognized as Voltaire's magnum opus and is often listed as part of the Western canon; it is arguably taught more than any other work of French literature. It was listed as one of The 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written.

Download or read book Up at the Villa written by W. Somerset Maugham and published by DigiCat. This book was released on 2022-08-01 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Up at the Villa" by W. Somerset Maugham. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

Download or read book Savages written by Don Winslow and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-07-13 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the New York Times bestselling author of The Cartel, The Force, and The Border A New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, and Chicago Sun-Times Favorite Book of the Year “A revelation…This is Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid on autoload.” —Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly “Startling…Stylish…Mega-cool.” —Janet Maslin, The New York Times Ben, Chon, and O are twentysomething best friends living the dream in Southern California. Together they have made a small fortune producing premium grade marijuana, a product so potent that the Mexican Baja Cartel demands a cut. When Ben and Chon refuse to back down, the cartel kidnaps O, igniting a dizzying array of high-octane negotiations and stunning plot twists as they risk everything to free her. The result is a provocative, sexy, and darkly engrossing thrill ride, an ultracontemporary love story that will leave you breathless.

Download or read book The Dark Unwinding written by Sharon Cameron and published by Scholastic Inc.. This book was released on 2012-09-01 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the award-winning author of Rook comes a delicious and twisty tale, filled with spine-tingling intrigue, juicy romance, and dangerous family secrets. When a rumor that her uncle is squandering away the family fortune surfaces, Katharine Tulman is sent to his estate to have him committed to an asylum. But instead of a lunatic, Katharine discovers a genius inventor with his own set of childlike rules, who is employing a village of nine hundred people rescued from the workhouses of London. Katharine becomes torn between protecting her own livelihood and preserving the peculiar community she grows to care for deeply -- a conflict made more complicated by her developing feelings for her uncle's handsome apprentice. As the mysteries of the estate begin to unravel, it is clear that not only is her uncle's world at stake, but also the state of England as Katharine knows it. With twists and turns at every corner, this extraordinary adventure will captivate readers with its thrills and romance.

Download or read book Still Life written by Sarah Winman and published by Penguin Group. This book was released on 2024-07-23 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK* *A GLOBE AND MAIL BEST BOOK* “[A] winsome, large-hearted novel ... [Still Life] pulses from the page.” —Entertainment Weekly Set between World War II and the 1980s, Still Life is a beautiful, big-hearted story of strangers brought together by love, war, art, flood, and the ghost of E. M. Forster, from the bestselling, prize-winning author of Tin Man and When God Was a Rabbit. In the wine-cellar of a Tuscan villa, as the Allies advance and bombs fall around them, two people meet and share an extraordinary evening: Ulysses Temper is a young British soldier from London's East End; Evelyn Skinner is a worldly older art historian and possible spy. She has come to Italy to rescue paintings from the ruins and relive her memories of the time she encountered E.M. Forster and had her heart stolen by an Italian maid in a particular Florentine room with a view. Evelyn's talk of truth and beauty plants a seed in Ulysses's mind that night, one that will shape the trajectory of his life—and the lives of those who love him—for the next four decades. Moving from war-ravaged Tuscany to the boozy confines of The Stoat and Parrot pub in London and the piazzas of post-war Florence, Still Life is both sweeping and intimate, mischievous and deeply felt. It is a novel about beauty, love and fate, about the things that make life worth living, and the things we're prepared to die for.

Download or read book The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels written by India Holton and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-06-15 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Notable Book of 2021 “The kind of book for which the word “rollicking” was invented.”—New York Times Book Review A prim and proper lady thief must save her aunt from a crazed pirate and his dangerously charming henchman in this fantastical historical romance. Cecilia Bassingwaite is the ideal Victorian lady. She's also a thief. Like the other members of the Wisteria Society crime sorority, she flies around England drinking tea, blackmailing friends, and acquiring treasure by interesting means. Sure, she has a dark and traumatic past and an overbearing aunt, but all things considered, it's a pleasant existence. Until the men show up. Ned Lightbourne is a sometimes assassin who is smitten with Cecilia from the moment they meet. Unfortunately, that happens to be while he's under direct orders to kill her. His employer, Captain Morvath, who possesses a gothic abbey bristling with cannons and an unbridled hate for the world, intends to rid England of all its presumptuous women, starting with the Wisteria Society. Ned has plans of his own. But both men have made one grave mistake. Never underestimate a woman. When Morvath imperils the Wisteria Society, Cecilia is forced to team up with her handsome would-be assassin to save the women who raised her--hopefully proving, once and for all, that she's as much of a scoundrel as the rest of them.

Download or read book Six Degrees of Separation written by John Guare and published by Vintage. This book was released on 1990-11-14 with total page 137 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this soaring and deeply provacative tragicomedy of race, class, and manners, John Guare has created the msot important American play in years. Six Degrees of Separation is one of those rare works that capture both the supercharged pulse of our present era and the deepest and most mysterious movements of the human heart. Six Degrees of Separation won the 1990 New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play, as well as the Hull Warriner Award and the Obie.

Download or read book The Sot Weed Factor written by John Barth and published by Deep Vellum Publishing. This book was released on 2016-01-12 with total page 737 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is Barth's most distinguished masterpiece. This modern classic is a hilarious tribute to all the most insidious human vices, with a hero who is "one of the most diverting...to roam the world since Candide." "A feast. Dense, funny, endlessly inventive (and, OK, yes, long-winded) this satire of the 18th-century picaresque novel-think Fielding's Tom Jones or Sterne's Tristram Shandy -is also an earnest picture of the pitfalls awaiting innocence as it makes its unsteady way in the world. It's the late 17th century and Ebenezer Cooke is a poet, dutiful son and determined virgin who travels from England to Maryland to take possession of his father's tobacco (or "sot weed") plantation. He is also eventually given to believe that he has been commissioned by the third Lord Baltimore to write an epic poem, The Marylandiad. But things are not always what they seem. Actually, things are almost never what they seem. Not since Candide has a steadfast soul witnessed so many strange scenes or faced so many perils. Pirates, Indians, shrewd prostitutes, armed insurrectionists - Cooke endures them all, plus assaults on his virginity from both women and men. Barth's language is impossibly rich, a wickedly funny take on old English rhetoric and American self-appraisals. For good measure he throws in stories within stories, including the funniest retelling of the Pocahontas tale -revealed to us in the "secret" journals of Capt. John Smith - that anyone has ever dared to tell." —Time Magazine

Download or read book The Musical World written by and published by . This book was released on 1876 with total page 900 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: