Two brothers by birth are also brothers in arms in the American Civil War. Their feelings are mixed: they want to destroy the enemy and at the same time, they desperately want to protect each other. Will they succeed?
John Hare should have died… instead he is saved by a man with an adopted Indian daughter. He is also dragged into the light after experiencing the darkness of the West. But he isn’t quite ready to embrace it. First he must learn to love.
First performed in 1895, the play is a satire of Victorian culture and social obligations. This play is witty and funny and is the most popular and enduring of Oscar Wilde's plays.
The Heart of Happy Hollow is a collection of 16 short stories that revolve around a small southern community named Sleepy Hollow. Witness the tense relationship between the former slaves and their masters, the young free African-American’s struggles and the way they see the leading white class.
When a Prince returns to Russia after years in a sanatorium, he finds himself scorned by the aristocracy because of his trusting nature and naiveté. Caught in a love triangle between a virtuous and pretty young girl and a mistress of the aristocracy, he finds his morals threatened in this psychological Russian thriller. The Idiot is one of Fyodor Dostoevsky's greatest works and often called one of the greatest Russian novels of all time.
The Lifted Veil by George Eliot is a gothic novella in the vein of other Victorian horror stories like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Bram Stoker's Dracula. In The Lifted Veil, the unreliable narrator, Latimer, believes that he is cursed with an otherworldly ability to see into the future and the thoughts of other people. This leads to tragedy as his obsession with his brother's fiancee.
In two long letters, Captain Avery tries to exonerate himself from the evil deeds he is accused of. He doesn’t enjoy killing and he isn’t interested in raping women; gold and jewels are all he actually wants. Witness his ‘honorable’ life from his humble beginnings to a true King of Pirates.
This story by Bram Stoker is about young man who helps the people of a small country in the Balkans in their struggle against their more powerful neighbors.
The Light of Western Stars is a western romance novel by Zane Grey. In this story, a New York society girl heads west and ends up with more adventure than she had bargained for.
The Jewel of Seven Stars is a novel that explores common fin-de-siecle themes such as imperialism, the rise of the New Woman and feminism, and societal progress.
The House of Mirth is a novel by Edith Wharton about a woman who is destroyed by the society that created her. It is the story of Lily Bart, a high-society, but penniless, young woman in turn-of-the-century New York.
Upon hearing a woman arguing that marriage should never be arranged and always be subject to love, Pozdnyshev asks: ‘What is love?’ He condemns the argument saying that love doesn’t last forever and can quickly turn into hatred. What is Pozdnyshev’s story? Why doesn’t he believe in love?
The book contains 423 verses in 26 categories, all verses spoken by the Buddha on various occasions. Most of the verses deal with ethics and spiritual thoughts.
The first section of Dante's Divine Comedy. In the first part of Divine Comedy, Dante, guided by the poet Virgil, plunges to the very depths of Hell and embarks on his arduous journey towards God. By fusing humor and satire with intellect, an immortal Christian allegory of humankind’s search for self-knowledge and spiritual enlightenment was created.
Originally titled as The Saddest Story, The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford tells the story of two couples seen by one of the four ‘halves’. The story is tragic criticizing the early 20th-century American and English hypocritical aristocracy. All four are incapable of loving one another and end up prisoners to their unbound lust and greed.
Daren Lane and his two friends, Maynard and Payson, return home to the United States after fighting for three long years in World War One. It’s a dream come true to see familiar ground again, but as they see the changes around them, the dream slowly turns into a never-ending nightmare. How can Lane call home a place he hardly recognize?
The Gentlemen's Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness is the classic guide to gentlemanly behavior. The book is a mine of information and indispensable advice for aspiring gentlemen. Whether you've already bought your first can of mustache wax, or you're simply looking for an old-fashioned guide on how to treat a lady, this book offers insights you won't find in modern men's magazines.
The second section of Dante's Divine Comedy. It opens with Dante the poet picturing Dante the pilgrim coming out of the pit of hell and follows his journey through Purgatory where he observes famous historical figures working through their sins.
Alexei Ivanovich is in love with cruel and cold Polina and swears to her eternal love and obedience. Polina asks him to go to a casino and place a wager for her; Alexei obliges. He comes back with a big win in his pockets but also with a new destructive vice.
Know how to live without using your emotions, guided only by the mind. Learn how to see the mundane, how to approach situations that may or may not be in your direct control. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes and most importantly, don’t be afraid to change. This is what stoicism is all about.
When Elizabeth's family dies, she makes the long journey back to Philadelphia to find her grandmother she has never met. She meets a handsome stranger in the wilderness but when she reaches the city they part without ever sharing their names. As her world changes, will she find her way back to the man she loves?
The Essence of Buddhism is a collection of quotes about life and how to live it at its fullest. While the quotes contain the teachings of the Buddha, they also can provide the non-Buddhist reader a blueprint of how to approach the mundane and how to avoid suffering.
Part of “The Brothers Karamazov”, this is an important short section because of its ideas about freedom and human nature. The central character in this work is a Grand Inquisitor who arrests Jesus.
Using his keen spirit of observation, Anton Chekhov depicts in his short stories the world as it is, focusing on the range of emotions one might feel throughout his life. From love to hatred, from exaltation to misery, from epiphany to utter confusion, every character has to experience all human emotions in order to understand life.
Mark Twain’s short stories aren’t about his religious beliefs. In fact, the Diaries of Adam and Eve should be taken with a grain of salt as they are humorous and witty and describe in a unique way the relationship between two human beings, man and woman who eventually end up falling in love with each other.
