The adventures of the unlucky, good-natured English traveling across the Thames, about which Jerome wrote in his famous novel Three in a Boat, Not Counting a Dog, translated into almost all the languages of the world and repeatedly filmed, became well known even in the most remote corners of the planet. It was originally planned that the book would be a guide covering local history as the route followed. At first, Jerome was going to name the book "The Story of the Thames." “I was not even going to write a ridiculous book at first,” he admitted in his memoirs. The book was supposed to focus...
Emma Woodhouse, a young twenty-year-old girl, lives with her father in Highbury, a small village near London. The Wodehouse is the first family in the village. The affair begins immediately after Emma arranged the marriage of her pupil Miss Taylor to become Mrs. Weston and rise in society. After Emma succeeds, she realizes that this is her vocation. In order not to be bored, she is preparing a new marriage. Her next “victim” is Harriet Smith, a young girl with whom she makes friends and is going to marry the village priest, Mr. Elton. To do this, she uses all means, although the matchmaker,...
Herman Melville's tale is a grotesque narrative of a poor office worker whose unusual behavior breaks the usual rhythm of business life and makes others doubt the correctness of the world order....
A young American, Winterbourne, who has lived in Europe for many years and has managed to break the habit of American customs, arrives in the small Swiss town of Vevey to see his aunt. At the hotel, he accidentally meets a wealthy American Miller family - a nine-year-old boy, his older sister and their mother. They travel around Europe accompanied by their agent and are going to go to Italy. The girl - Daisy Miller - amazes Winterbourne with her beauty, as well as free and laid-back behavior, which is not accepted in Europe. He is trying to understand what is behind this strange behavior from...
Medieval England. King Richard the Lionheart was returning home from the Crusades when he was captured and imprisoned in Austria. His treacherous brother John has already seized the throne and refuses to pay a ransom for Richard. Meanwhile, the conflict between the Saxons and the Normans threatens to escalate into a civil war. Aivengo, the deprived son of Cedric, returns from the crusade to claim his inheritance and marry Rowena, a cousin and niece of Cedric, who seeks to marry the girl to the last offspring of the Saxon royal family....
Spouses Monark, once rich gentlemen, aristocrats. They lost their fortune and were now forced to look for work. Tall stately, graceful, graceful. Spouses considered themselves genuine samples, ideal for working as sitters. But the drawings always turned out to be the same, they looked like beautiful statues. And they were much inferior to real sitters, poor people without any position, but at the same time talented, artistic, able to transform, alive....
Andrew Lang is a British writer, translator, historian and ethnographer. "Coloured Fairy Books" is the famous series of fairy-tale collections compiled by Andrew Lang. It includes 25 books and The Arabian Nights Entertainments, one of which is a unique collection of magical Arabian stories....
Eugenia Grande was considered the most enviable bride in Saumur. Her father, a simple bochar, became rich during the Revolution, buying up confiscated church estates for nothing - the best vineyards and several farms in the Saumur district. He was elected mayor at the Consulate, and during the time of the Empire he was only called Mr. Grande - however, he was familiarly called "dad" by the eyes. No one knew exactly what capital the former Bochar had, but savvy people said that dad Grande had six to seven million francs loyal. Only two people could confirm this, but the notary Kruscho and the...
Gaston Leroux wrote one of the most inspired theater stories. Based on her motives, films, musicals and theatrical productions were created. Within the walls of the famous opera house, in the center of Paris, a mysterious ghost lives. A young, very beautiful simple chorus girl Kristina Dae becomes, under his leadership, a famous singer with a bewitching voice. But the young viscount Raul de Chagni entered her life. The girl is confused. The past returns to pursue her in a mask of death, the future is foggy, and the present is unsteady. Who will be able to win the girl’s heart: the handsome...
The novel is about a Midwestern girl, Undine Spragg, who was born into a nouveau riche family. She lives in the province, but dreams of a completely different life. To get into the high society of New York, and then conquer Europe and the whole world, the provincial is ready to sacrifice even the closest people. Spragg intends to overcome many obstacles to achieve his goal, because her main dream remains a high position in society....
The interweaving of realistic narratives and fairy tales with gothic elements, "bizarre", "strange and grotesque" characters, dark secrets. In the novel about Nell, the little girl of the "infinitely sweet temper", her grandfather, the mind-boggling dreamer-gambler, and the cruel dwarf pursuing them the money-lender Quilpe - the eternal theme of the confrontation between good and evil. One of the most touching novels of C. Dickens....
The family lives in a small mountain cottage on the outskirts of the village, their life flows calmly and leisurely. Walt is a dreamy, creative person, earns a living by writing poetry, hardworking and affectionate Madge is engaged in the house. Young people are happy together, despite the periodic financial difficulties to which they relate philosophically. The even course of their life disrupts the appearance of a wild beast in their garden. An emaciated wolf with its paws broken in blood falls by the stream behind their house and remains there, unable to move on. Spouses cautiously feed an...
Jeeves and Wooster is a popular series of comedy novels and short stories by the English writer P. G. Wodehouse about the adventures of the young English aristocrat Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves. The novel about Worcester and Jeeves takes place mainly in London, its suburbs, and in New York at the beginning of the 20th century. Bertie Wooster is a young rich aristocrat-idler from the "golden youth" who, in general, does not shine with his mind, but is at the same time a true noble gentleman. In the novel, he invariably appears in the company of his resourceful and erudite valet Jeeves,...
America, 1889. Eighteen-year-old Carolina Mieber, or, as she was affectionately called home, sister Carrie, leaves Columbia City's hometown and takes the train to Chicago, where her married older sister lives. Carrie’s wallet has only four dollars and her sister’s address, but she is inspired by the hope of a new happy life in a big and beautiful city....
This is the `Villette`. The book, officially considered at one time `the most scandalous novel of Charlotte Bronte`. Many years have passed, many decades. `Villette` has long lost track of scandal, has long been recognized as a classic work of the 19th century, but still remains a truly unique example of` female - in the best sense of the word - prose` and the first book of English-language literature that reveals the `big secrets of small towns`. Now it is familiar to millions of readers. Then it was just the beginning ......
