Showing results by author "ciesse" in All Categories

Two boys from the Foundling Hospital are given the same name, with disastrous consequences in adulthood. Two associates, wishing to right the wrong, are commissioned to find a missing heir. Their quest takes them from fungous wine cellars in the City of London to the sunshine of the Mediterranean—across the Alps in winter. Danger and treachery would prevail were it not for the courage of the heroine and the faithful company servant. The story contains crafted descriptions, well-drawn and diverse characters, eerie and exotic backgrounds, mystery, semi-concealed identities, brinkmanship with ...

The first book in the 20-novel Rougon-Macquart Cycle. A monument of French naturalism. The sprawling tale of a family in Provence, during the Second Empire, the family that grew out of the liaisons between Adelaide Fouque and her husband Rougons, and the smuggler Macquart. - Summary by Mark Leder

In this dramatic reading of the classic epic Ben Hur, rediscover the wonder of three wise men who travel through the wilderness together. Thirty years later, Judah ben Hur accidentally looses a tile upon the head of the Roman governor and is sentenced to the galleys for life. When he escapes, he is caught up in his thirst for revenge against his accuser, Messala, and his search for the Messiah of his people, the King who is to come. As Judah learns more about this King, however, he begins to realize that the kingdom he is searching for may not be found in what he can see and the revenge he is ...

In this story, a small village in rural England is the unlikely site of multiple mysterious goings-on. Dick Gordon, a young public prosecutor, and a determined police officer named Elk are on the trail of a secret society called the Frogs. Their leader is a diabolical master criminal simply known as “The Frog”. There are further interesting subplots involving the family of a pretty young lady whom Dick Gordon finds very attractive. There are plenty of other characters and a few delightful twists! - Summary by Howard Skyman

Drugging a Nation is a journalistic reveal of the extent to which the British Empire was culpable in the dissemination and subsequent near total addiction to opium of the Chinese people in the nineteenth century. So weak did it make China, that is was invaded multiple times, often by the British Empire itself looking to make its treaty ports stronger, but by other world powers too. In the end, this resulted in the complete collapse of the empire. The book describes in detail the extent to which opium had taken over the lives of the ordinary Chinese person and how it worked. (Summary by the ...

In a rundown farmhouse near isolated, rural Dunwich, a bizarre family conjures and nurtures an evil entity from another realm, with the purpose of destroying the world and delivering it to ancient gods to rule, and only an aged university librarian can stop them. The Dunwich Horror was first published in 1929 in Weird Tales. (Summary by Mark Nelson)

This is George Sand's first novel. Her real name was Amantine (or Amandine) Lucile Dupin, and she later became baroness Dudevant. As an aristocratic woman living in 19th century France, she chose her first novel to be, above all, a realistic work. Indiana is trapped since the age of 16 in a loveless marriage with a rich, much older, man. Her only real friend is her cousin, sir Ralph, who, sometimes, just does things which are- logically- the best for her but- mentally- the worst he could do. She tries to find means of escape. But would she be able to recreate her own reality? Can a woman find ...

One of the great literary tragedies of all time, The Hunchback of Notre Dame features some of the most well-known characters in all of fiction - Quasimodo, the hideously deformed bell-ringer of Notre-Dame de Paris, his master the evil priest Claude Frollo, and Esmeralda, the beautiful gypsy condemned for a crime she did not commit. (Summary by Mark Nelson)

Shirley is an 1849 social novel by the English novelist Charlotte Brontë. It was Brontë's second published novel after Jane Eyre (originally published under Brontë's pseudonym Currer Bell). The novel is set in Yorkshire in the period 1811–1812, during the industrial depression resulting from the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. The novel is set against a backdrop of the Luddite uprisings in the Yorkshire textile industry. (Summary by Wikipedia)

Alcott in 1862 served as a nurse in Georgetown, D.C during the Civil War. She wrote home what she observed there. Those harrowing and sometimes humorous letters compiled make up Hospital Sketches. (Summary by Aaron Elliott)

La obra se centra en los acontecimientos acaecidos durante la primera guerra mundial en la que se ven enfrentadas dos familias procedentes del mismo tronco “Julio Madariaga” argentino. Al fallecer éste, sus hijas, Luisa casada con el francés Marcelo Desnoyers y Elena casada con el alemán Karl von Hartrott (ambos trabajaban para Madariaga en su gran hacienda) regresan a Europa, aquellos a París y éstos a Alemania.El protagonista de la obra es Julio Desnoyers, hijo de Luisa y don Marcelo y nieto de Julio Madariaga. La buena posición económica y social de su padre hace que Julio, ...

“Extreme busyness…is a symptom of deficient vitality; and a faculty for idleness implies a catholic appetite and a strong sense of personal identity.”What comforting words for the idle among us! Like many of the best essayists, Stevenson is very much the genial fireside companion: opinionated, but never malicious; a marvellous practitioner of the inclusive monologue.In this collection of nine pieces he discusses the art of appreciating unattractive scenery, traces the complex social life of dogs, and meditates in several essays upon the experience of reading literature and writing it. ...

This is the biography of Abraham Lincoln, written by two of his private secretaries. (Summary by ashleighjane)

Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems is a collection of poems by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, first published in 1798 and generally considered to have marked the beginning of the English Romantic movement in literature. The immediate effect on critics was modest, but it became and remains a landmark, changing the course of English literature and poetry. Most of the poems in the 1798 edition were written by Wordsworth, with Coleridge contributing only four poems to the collection, including one of his most famous works, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. (Additionally, ...

Famed American humorist and essayist Washington Irving published a series of short pieces entitled "The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gentleman" in 1815. Included in that collection were the chapters which later formed the standalone work "Old Christmas." This wonderful book introduced the world to Bracebridge Hall, the ancestral home of the Bracebridges, an old English family that lived according to the customs of those who were "unto the manor born." "Bracebridge Hall" is a follow-up to "Old Christmas" which looks at the lifestyle of the rich, country dwellers, their servants, friends and ...

In this enduring Victorian classic written in 1876, two stories weave in and out of each other: The first is about Gwendolen, one of Eliot's finest creations, who grows from a self-centered young beauty to a thoughtful adult with an expanded vision of the world around her. The second is about Daniel Deronda, adopted son of an aristocratic Englishman who becomes fascinated with Jewish traditions when he meets an ailing Jewish philosopher named Mordecai and his sensitive sister, Mirah. (Summary by Becky Miller) Alt-BC: Lucy Burgoyne

Cousin Pons is one of the final works in Balzac's long novel series titled The Human Comedy. It was published in 1847, along with Cousin Betty, as one of a complementary pair of novels, collectively titled Poor Relations. While Cousin Betty tells the story of a bitter woman who seeks revenge on her wealthier relations, in Cousin Pons, Balzac turns to the story of an timid, innocent man who is exploited and victimized by the wealthier members of his extended family.Balzac offers probing character portraits and an indictment of greed and materialism in this detailed portrait of mid-19th-century ...

The Achilleid is the third and unfinished work by the Roman poet Publius Papinius Statius. In its introduction, it promises to present the life of the hero Achilles from his youth as a pupil under the centaur Chiron to his death at Troy. The author died however before writing most of the poem, leaving only one and a half books completed. The part that remains though holds interest for being unusual, bringing an account of the hero's early life and an episode in which his mother, Thetis, disguised him as a girl on the island of Scyros before he joined the Greek expedition against Troy. (Summary...

9/11 Commission Report, formally titled Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, is the official report of the events leading up to the September 11, 2001 attacks. It was prepared by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (informally sometimes known as the "9/11 Commission" or the "Kean/Zelikow Commission") at the request of the President of the United States and Congress. The commission convened on November 26, 2002 (441 days after the attack) and their final report was issued on July 22, 2004.

Red-haired Anne Shirley, the orphan girl mistakenly sent to live with Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, has been one of the world's most beloved characters since the publication of Anne of Green Gables in 1908. In this dramatic reading, Librivox readers tell the story of Anne's adventures as she grows up on Prince Edward Island.(Summary by wildemoose)Cast:Anne/Narrator: Arielle LipshawMarilla Cuthbert: Elizabeth KlettMatthew Cuthbert: Bruce PirieMrs. Rachel Lynde: Amy GramourDiana Barry: Sally McConnellGilbert Blythe: mbStationmaster: Phil ChenevertMrs. Spencer: Sally McConnellFlora Jane Spencer: ...