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,...
Emanuel Lasker was a German chess player and mathematician, a representative of a positional school, and the second world chess champion (he won this title from Steinitz in 1894 and lost to Capablanca in 1921). Lasker retained the title of world champion for 27 years, which is a record achievement for chess. Even after losing the championship title, he continued to perform at the highest level until the age of 68....
José Raúl Capablanca - Cuban chess player, chess writer, diplomat, 3rd world chess champion (won the title in a match with Lasker in 1921, lost to Alekhine in 1927), one of the strongest chess players in the world in the 1910 - 1930s, winner of many international tournaments. In its heyday, Capablanca gained fame as a “chess machine”, equally masterly leading the party in the middlegame and the endgame and almost error-free. In official high-level meetings (since 1909), Capablanca lost only 34 games, and from 1916 to 1924 remained undefeated....
Recently, when talking about Johnson's History, many usually grinned condescendingly, considering it a mishmash of real facts and fiction, but from time to time in some dusty nooks and crannies they find forgotten documents confirming the author’s correctness. Many events still considered a product of the imagination, turn out to be absolutely reliable both in time and in circumstances....
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 ......
To survive, immigrants grow fruit in California. But often the crop dies from insects or rots. Once a traveler comes to the city and talks about the riches that he found in ancient cities, but soon dies. And some immigrants decide on a dangerous journey for gold....
“Odyssey” is a fabulous and everyday poem, its action takes place, on the one hand, in the magical lands of giants and monsters where Odysseus roamed, on the other hand, in his small kingdom on the island of Ithaca and its environs, where his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus. In the Odyssey, only the very end of his wanderings, the last two stages, from the far western edge of the earth to his native Ithaca, was chosen for the story. Odysseus talks about everything that was before at a feast in the middle of the poem. In Odyssey, a fairy tale sets off everyday life, and not vice versa,...
At the invitation of the owner, a certain Mr. Tartuffe settled in the house of the venerable Orgon. Orgon didn’t see the soul in him, reckoning an incomparable model of righteousness and wisdom: Tartuffe’s speeches were extremely exalted, teachings - thanks to which Orgon learned that the world is a big garbage hole, and now he would not blink an eye, burying his wife, children and other relatives - supremely useful, devotion aroused admiration; but how selflessly Tartuffe was the morality of the Orgon family......
The famous novel by Robert Lewis Stevenson, accompanied by a detailed historical and everyday commentary on maritime affairs in 18th-century England and the “golden age” of piracy. Drawings, prints, maps, pages from books of that time, interactive elements help to recreate the vibrant atmosphere of the era. In England, near Bristol, in the Admiral Benbow tavern, in the room of the old captain, in a sailor’s chest, in a bag of oilcloth, what is known as the beginnings of adventure that every boy knows begins is safely hidden. We will go to England of the 18th century with this book in order to...
Charles Elmes’s fascinating book on the history of maritime piracy is unique in its breadth of coverage: it tells about Danish, Norman, Spanish, Westindian, Malay, Algerian and many other brutal and merciless sea robbers that instilled fear in sailors and peaceful mercantile people in different areas Oceans. The stories about the life of filibusters, supplemented by materials from lawsuits, reports of the Admiralty, stories of unfortunate people who fell into the hands of pirates, about the sufferings and misadventures that they had to endure, will allow you to find out a lot of interesting...
Ella Cheever Thayer was a telegraph operator at the Brunswick Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts, and used her telegraph experience as the basis for her book Wired Love, A Point and Dash Novel, a bestseller for 10 years. This book tells how genuine a romance can be, which is transmitted by telegraph by two telegraphists....
The plot of the "Merry Corner" is built around the episode of the return of Spencer Brydon to his home in New York. The hero spent a significant period in Europe - thirty-three years. The intrigue unfolding in the story resembles the one presented in the earlier story of James “The Beast in the Thicket”....
