Download or read book The Birch Grove and Other Stories written by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 2002-01-03 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz's work is familiar to every Polish reader, yet remains unknown to the outside world. The stories in this selection were all written in the 1930s, and provide an extraordinary evocation of Poland's first brief era of independence between the wars. They are also timeless sonatas of love and loss. In 'A New Love', Iwaszkiewicz uses masterful brevity to take a wry, comical look at the illusion of romance from the viewpoint of a jaded, cynical lover. One of his best-known works, 'The Wilko Girls', tells of a middle-aged man's quest to recover his lost youth in the aftermath of the First World War, which has left him psychologically scarred. He travels to the scene of his pre-war summer holidays in the eastern borderlands, where he renews his friendship with the fascinating sisters whom he knew when they were girls. But no one is the same and nothing can be as it was. 'The Birch Grove' is the moving story of a woodsman who, spiritually destroyed by the death of his wife, has buried himself away in an isolated forest. When his lively younger brother unexpectedly comes to stay, his self-centred peace is disrupted. But his brother has come home to die. The lives of two young men, one a deeply religious poet, the other a sceptical, worldly estate owner, are touchingly contrasted in 'The Mill on the River Utrata'. Confirming these stories' central place in Polish cultural history, 'The Wilko Girls' and 'The Birch Grove' were made into classic films by Andrzej Wajda, Poland's leading director.

Download or read book The Birch Grove and Other Stories written by Jaros?aw Iwaszkiewicz and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 2002-01-01 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz (1894-1980) was a significant Polish novelist and poet. Besides his literary work, he fulfilled various social roles during his long life. He studied law in Kiev, worked as a civil servant at the newly created Polish parliament (Sejm) after WW1, served at embassies in Copenhagen and Brussels, joined anti-nazi resistance during WW2, became member of parliament after the war, was president of the writers' union, received Lenin Prize for peace movement acitivities etc. His books are considered classics and even today they still sell well in Poland; some have been adapted into internationally successful films.

Download or read book Dark Companion written by Marta Acosta and published by Tor Teen. This book was released on 2012-07-03 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jane Eyre meets Twilight in Dark Companion, a lush and romantic YA gothic tale about an orphaned girl who attends an exclusive private school and finds herself torn between the headmistress's two sons. Orphaned at the age of six, Jane Williams has grown up in a series of foster homes, learning to survive in the shadows of life. Through hard work and determination, she manages to win a scholarship to the exclusive Birch Grove Academy. There, for the first time, Jane finds herself accepted by a group of friends. She even starts tutoring the headmistress's gorgeous son, Lucien. Things seem too good to be true. They are. The more she learns about Birch Grove's recent past, the more Jane comes to suspect that there is something sinister going on. Why did the wife of a popular teacher kill herself? What happened to the former scholarship student, whose place Jane took? Why does Lucien's brother, Jack, seem to dislike her so much? As Jane begins to piece together the answers to the puzzle, she must find out why she was brought to Birch Grove—and what she would risk to stay there.... At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Download or read book The Birch and the Star written by Zacharias Topelius and published by Nabu Press. This book was released on 2014-02-12 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

Download or read book Fertility and Other Stories written by Vsevolod Vi︠a︡cheslavovich Ivanov and published by Northwestern University Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Combining traditional elements with the fantastic and the surreal, Ivanov's stories address not only the themes of the Russian revolution but also the quiet world of man and nature, and the elemental bond that tied peasants to their native land.

Download or read book Being Poland written by Tamara Trojanowska and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2018-11-05 with total page 853 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Being Poland offers a unique analysis of the cultural developments that took place in Poland after World War One, a period marked by Poland’s return to independence. Conceived to address the lack of critical scholarship on Poland’s cultural restoration, Being Poland illuminates the continuities, paradoxes, and contradictions of Poland’s modern and contemporary cultural practices, and challenges the narrative typically prescribed to Polish literature and film. Reflecting the radical changes, rifts, and restorations that swept through Poland in this period, Polish literature and film reveal a multitude of perspectives. Addressing romantic perceptions of the Polish immigrant, the politics of post-war cinema, poetry, and mass media, Being Poland is a comprehensive reference work written with the intention of exposing an international audience to the explosion of Polish literature and film that emerged in the twentieth century.

Download or read book The House of a Thousand Floors written by Jan Weiss and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 2016-11-15 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The House of a Thousand Floors is one of the earliest science-fiction novels in European literature, published first in 1929. Besides being a pioneer in its genre, the book is highly regarded for its general merits as psychological literature. The novel tells the story of a dream in fever of a soldier wounded in World War I. He finds himself in the stairway of a gigantic (and kafkaesque) tower-like building, which is a metaphor for modern society. He learns that his task is to rescue Princess Tamara from Muller, the lord of the edifice. After a number of surrealistic encounters in the building, during which he is hailed as a liberator by many and is hunted by the cruel security guards, the main character finds Tamara and faces the cruel lord of Mullerdom. The novel makes fine use of a range of experimental styles and techniques. At times, linear storytelling gives way to a collage of incongruous elements: excerpts from fictitious books, encyclopedia articles, radio broadcast transcripts are used as a shortcut to describe places or events; other narrative ingredients include fanciful advertisements, ludicrous administrative documents or political slogans which highlight the idiosyncrasies of this decadent world. ÿ

Download or read book Three Chestnut Horses written by Margarita Figuli and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 2017-04-06 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This gem of Slovak naturalism was written in 1940. The story takes the reader to a mountain village. The protagonist narrates the vicissitudes, suffering, and success he experiences as he pursues a love affair, resulting in the triumph of pure love. Peter has been in love with a girl?Magdalena?since childhood and asks her to marry him. But he is too late, because a rich man, Jano Zapoto?n?, has already proposed to Magdalena, a proposal that her greedy mother promptly accepted on her behalf. Magdalena, out of respect for her mother's wishes, accepts the engagement. However, Magdalena promises Peter that she will put off marrying Jano and will marry him instead if he can prove that he truly loves her. He must build a house and earn a living. After almost two years Peter returns to show her that he kept his promise. But Magdalena is already married; Jano has raped her and she is pregnant. Desperate, Peter is tempted to take out his anger on Jano, nevertheless he resists the impulse. In the end, the author finds a way to reward Peter's faith in love and morality. ÿ

Download or read book What Remains and Other Stories written by Christa Wolf and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1995-12 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What Remains collects Christa Wolf's short fiction, from early work in the sixties to the widely debated title story, first published in Germany in 1990. Addressing a wide range of topics, from sexual politics to the nature of memory, these powerful and often very personal stories offer a fascinating introduction to Wolf's work. What Remains and Other Stories . . . is clear and farsighted. The eight heartfelt stories in the book show why she has been respected as a serious author since her 1968 novel, The Quest for Christa T. . . . Wolf uses her own experiences and observations to create universal themes about the controls upon human freedom.—Herbert Mitgang, New York Times Christa Wolf has set herself nothing less than the task of exploring what it is to be a conscious human being alive in a moment of history.—Mary Gordon, New York Times Book Review The simultaneous publication of these two volumes offers readers here a generous sampling of the short fiction, speeches and essays that Wolf has produced over the last three decades.—Mark Harman, Boston Globe

Download or read book A Tale of Two Worlds written by Vjenceslav Novak and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 2014-03-10 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this novel, written by the esteemed novelist in 1901, a provincial composer and organist from Croatia struggles to find his way along the perilous frontier between the worlds of artistic vocation and humdrum family life. The local kapellmeister—-a Czech, in good Habsburg tradition, and a confidant of Gaj and Palacky, influential politicians of the time—-recognizes young Amadej Zlatanic as a prodigy and persuades the stingy mayor and stubborn parish priest to pack the teenager off to the conservatory in Prague. After several years of sordid student purgatory, Amadej returns to Croatia—-ready for love and ready to make great art.The world of Central Europe in the 1860s flows past, and Amadej tries to keep abreast of political change. At the same time he ducks and dodges predatory relatives and townspeople in his native district, to which he has returned for the sake of employment. Despite his marriage to the impressionable and vulnerable local beauty, Adelka, and his devotion to their daughter Veruska, Amadej is sorely troubled by the political corruption and isolation of Croatia. His wife takes ill and his family is poor. Yet ultimately it is the vulgar, populist notion of Croatian "identity"—-symbolized by the worship of the tamburica, a local musical instrument—-that crushes Amadej's career. As it does so, he contemplates the two worlds of national greatness, amidst the Croatian national awakening, and international fame. Finally, frustrated beyond relief by unsuccessful affairs both amorous and professional, and tortured by the philistinism surrounding him, Amadej leaves the world of sanity for a mind-blowing descent into the maniacal and inescapable world of hallucination, paganism, and paranoia.

Download or read book Found in Translation written by Frank Wynne and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-09-06 with total page 1763 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Without translation, we would be living in provinces bordering on silence' George Steiner. It is impossible to overstate the influence world literatures have had in defining each other. No culture exists in isolation; all writers are part of the intertwining braid of literature. Found In Translation brings together one hundred glittering diamonds of world literature, celebrating not only the original texts themselves but also the art of translation. From Azerbijan to Uzbekistan, by way of China and Bengal, Suriname and Slovenia, some of the greatest voices of world literature come together in a thunderous chorus. If the authors include Nobel Prize winners, some of the translators are equally famous – here, Saul Bellow translates Isaac Beshevis Singer, D.H. Lawrence and Edith Wharton translate classic Italian short stories, and Victoria Hislop has taken her first venture into translation with the only short story written by Constantine P. Cavafy. This exciting, original and brilliantly varied collection of stories takes the reader literally on a journey, exploring the best short stories the globe has to offer.

Download or read book The Poet and the Idiot written by Friedebert Tuglas and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 2007-01-01 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nine stories and an essay written during WWI.

Download or read book The Birch and the Star written by Zacharias Topelius and published by Franklin Classics Trade Press. This book was released on 2018-10-17 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Download or read book Avala Is Falling written by Biljana Jovanović and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 2020-10-13 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Avala Is Falling, Jovanović’s breakout success in 1978, a young woman challenges the expectations that teachers, parents, bus drivers, and doctors have for her. The “Avala” of the title refers to a mountain south of Belgrade which is home to some of Serbia’s most important nationalist monuments and shrines; it is also the site of the main mental hospital for the region, and its “falling” is the unexpected fulfillment of a prophecy from a traditional Serbian folk song. Jovanović’s use of stream of consciousness in her characters’ thinking and speaking, as well as of intertextuality in description and plot advancement heralded the arrival of an innovative new writer who was determined to break with the of traditional concerns of earlier women writers. This book is now recognized as much more than “jeans prose,” although the fame the book achieved under that characterization eventually pushed it to cult status. Jovanović is now considered a major avant-garde writer, whose stylistic innovations were as challenging as her women-centered themes.

Download or read book The Visoko Chronicle written by Ivan Tavčar and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 2021-11-16 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This historical novel—Visoška kronika in the Slovene original—is about two generations of the owners of the Visoko estate in the Duchy of Carniola, a predominantly Slovene province of the Habsburg Empire, in the seventeenth century. The events of the estate and the fate of its owners are affected by witchcraft persecutions, the mistreatment of Protestants, and the Thirty Years’ War. These themes are key to the construction of a Slovene national identity, which was going through a decisive phase as Tavčar was writing. By the time the novel was released in 1919, his nation had left the Habsburg Crown for the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. The work is both romantic and realistic. The deeply romantic motive of crime, repentance, and punishment intertwines the lives of father and son. The very acquisition of the estate is connected to a murder, which casts a long shadow over the next generation. Tavčar insists on the principle of man’s full responsibility for his acts, which can be repaired with action and determination. The author’s bleak realistic description of the farm life at Visoko reflects his polemical view of the Slovene farmer of his time.

Download or read book Przek adaniec 2 2010 vol 24 English Version written by and published by Wydawnictwo UJ. This book was released on with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A Lady of Expectations and Other Stories written by Stephanie Laurens and published by HQN Books. This book was released on 2012-10-23 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Collects three historical romance stories, including "A Lady of Expectations," in which Jake Lester seeks the perfect bride and must convince Sophie Winterton that she is the woman he desires.