Classics World Literature

The world is only half made. What exists has been carved out amidst a war between two rival factions: the Line, paving the world with industry and claiming its residents as slaves; and the Gun, a cult of terror and violence that cripples the population with fear. The only hope at stopping them has seemingly disappeared - the Red Republic that once battled the Gun and the Line, and almost won. Now they're just a myth, a bedtime story parents tell their children, of hope.

Discover the books that have already changed the lives of millions. This unabridged guide to the literature of the spirit surveys 50 of the all-time classics, giving you their key ideas, insights, and applications - everything you need to know to start benefiting from these legendary works.

Лев Николаевич Толстой (1828 - 1910) - великий русский писатель, классик отечественной и мировой литературы, мыслитель и просветитель. В своих публицистических и художественных произведениях проповедовал идеи всеобщей любви, стремления к совершенствованию, непротивления злу насилием.

Fully dramatized by best-selling narrator Steve Cook, with cinematic music and sound effects, this unabridged re-telling of Dickens' classic Christmas tale has something for everyone. All the sounds of 19th-century London are captured, from clopping hooves on cobblestones to booming Westminster chimes at midnight to the supernatural comings and goings of Scrooge’s four nocturnal visitors. Plus, a complete soundtrack of suspenseful and seasonal music throughout puts the finishing touches on a true, old-fashioned radio theatre-style experience.

Two Years Before the Mast is a book by the American author Richard Henry Dana, Jr., written after a two-year sea voyage starting in 1834 and published in 1840. While at Harvard College, Dana had an attack of the measles that affected his vision. Thinking it might help his sight, Dana, rather than going on a Grand Tour as most of his fellow classmates traditionally did (and unable to afford it anyway), and being something of a nonconformist, left Harvard to enlist as a common sailor.

The Book of the Courtier remains the definitive account of Renaissance court life. Because of this, it is considered one of the most important Renaissance works. The book is organized as a series of fictional conversations that occur between the courtiers of the Duke of Urbino in 1507 (when Baldassare was in fact part of the Duke's Court). In the book, the courtier is described as having a cool mind, a good voice (with beautiful, elegant and brave words) along with proper bearing and gestures.

Jason and the Golden Fleece is one of the finest tales of Ancient Greece, an epic journey of adventure and trial standing beside similar stories of Perseus, Theseus and the Labours of Heracles. The finest classic account comes from Apollonius of Rhodes, the Greek poet of the 3rd century BCE and librarian at Alexandria. Though less well-known than Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, and much shorter, it is an epic poem which is both exciting and moving, with remarkably vivid portraits of the main characters, Jason and Medea.

This heartwarming fictionalized autobiography tells the story of what it is like for a little girl to be growing up in an unfamiliar place. While other girls her age were enjoying childhood in America, Jean Fritz was in China in the midst of political unrest. During this time, foreigners were becoming more and more unpopular, and evacuation at a moment’s notice was imminent. Although Jean appreciated the beauty of China - the mountains, the countryside, the sea - she knew she belonged in America and longed to make her home there.

Colette (1873-1954) is one of the most widely read and critically acclaimed French writers of the twentieth century. The Cat first serialised then published in volume form in 1933) is one of her short novels. This story of a middle-class couple in 1920s Paris follows the familiar romantic structure of the 'eternal triangle', with the unexpected twist that the female rival is not a woman but a cat. The novel displays her capacity to conjure up a vibrantly physical world and a particular social moment, her radical yet nuanced view of gender roles, and her empathy with non-human creatures.

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by the English poet William Blake consists of a series of texts written in the style of biblical prophecy but expressing Blake's own beliefs. Composed between 1790 and 1793, the book makes reference to Milton and Swedenborg, and adopts a device from Dante's Divine Comedy and Milton's Paradise Lost: a visit to hell. Blake expresses a deliberately depolarized and unified vision of the cosmos in which the material world and physical desire are both part of the divine order.

Lecture par André Falcon de la Comédie française en 1955. "Je suis un mensonge qui dit toujours la vérité." Jean Cocteau. "Thomas l'imposteur" est le lieu clos d'un enjeu et d'un débat impossibles. Une lutte incessante entre le réel et l'imaginaire. Guillaume Thomas, l'imposteur, se fait passer pour ce qu'il n'est pas par amour pour Henriette. Il s'invente un destin de fils de Général.

L'action se déroule sous la Régence, période aux mœurs débridées succédant à l'austère fin de règne de Louis XIV. Le jeune chevalier des Grieux rencontre une belle adolescente : Manon Lescaut. Une passion irraisonnée naît entre ces deux très jeunes gens. Leur inconséquence et leur candide immoralité vont projeter le couple dans des aventures qui aboutiront à leur déchéance. Eduqué pour un avenir honorable, des Grieux, par passion amoureuse, ne pourra résister aux penchants licencieux de Manon.

Join Dale as he continues to grow as a Keeper. With the experiences slowly piling up around him, how will he deal with the changes to come? Is he ready for all that awaits him? Find out....

Plus que des œuvres littéraires brillantes, ce sont des portraits en creux de la société russe du XIXème siècle. Ces tableaux de mœurs nous renseignent avec talent et sagacité sur une société, des tempéraments, l'évolution d'un peuple, d'un Empire, et brosse le portrait au quotidien des hommes et des femmes, tous ces personnages qui vivent et qui peuplent ces chefs d'œuvres. La littérature en langue russe proprement dite naît au cours du XVIIème siècle, tout d'abord avec la poésie et le théâtre, mais très tôt naît une très riche tradition romanesque.

"Lorsque "L'Assommoir" a paru dans un journal, il a été attaqué avec une brutalité sans exemple, dénoncé, chargé de tous les crimes. Est-il bien nécessaire d'expliquer ici, en quelques lignes mes intentions d'écrivain ? J'ai voulu peindre la déchéance fatale d'une famille ouvrière, dans le milieu empesté de nos faubourgs. Au bout de l'ivrognerie et de la fainéantise, il y a relâchement des liens de la famille, les ordures de la promiscuité, l'oubli progressif des sentiments honnêtes, puis comme dénouement, la honte et la mort. C'est la morale en action, simplement."

Ramona Ortegna, the foster child of Señora Moreno, is much loved by all who live and work at the Moreno ranch, except Señora herself, who cannot bring herself to think of the girl as anything but a mixed-blood child. Half white, half Indian, Ramona had been adopted by the Senora’s sister who then entrusted the child to her upon her death. Already embittered by the loss to the Americans of much of her southern California land as the result of the 1846 Mexican-American War, the pious old woman is also distraught by the near destruction of California’s Catholic missions.

Italo Calvino was not only a prolific master of fiction, he was also an uncanny reader of literature, a keen critic of astonishing range. Why Read the Classics? is the most comprehensive collection of Calvino's literary criticism available in English, accounting for the enduring importance to our lives of crucial writers of the Western canon. Here - spanning more than two millennia, from antiquity to postmodernism - are 36 immediately relevant, accessible ruminations on the writers, poets, and scientists who meant most to Calvino at different stages of his life.

Вам предлагается аудиопрочтение знаменитой повести великого русского поэта, прозаика и драматурга Александра Сергеевича Пушкина (1799–1837). Главный герой произведения Петр Андреевич Гринев - молодой человек, дворянин, сын прославленного русского офицера в отставке.

Victor Frankenstein, un jeune étudiant brillant, crée de toutes pièces un être à l'apparence humaine. Bien vite, il regrette son geste. En effet, la créature prend l'apparence d'un monstre sanguinaire qui ne pense qu'à semer la mort et le malheur sur son passage et qui persécute son créateur. Au travers de l'histoire de Victor Frankenstein et de son monstre, Mary W. Shelley nous pose la question de l'origine de la cruauté humaine. Le monstre de Frankenstein est rejeté par tous. Il aimerait avoir des relations avec les humains mais ceux-ci le fuient. Il devient alors violent et s'en prend aux personnes qu'il rencontre.

"La Morte amoureuse" est une nouvelle fantastique de Théophile Gautier, parue en 1836. Le vieux Romuald raconte à un autre ecclésiastique qu'il nomme "frère" les faits étranges qui ont suivi son ordination.