Family Classics

A raging flood in Missouri took the lives of a married couple who barely got their three-year-old son into a cradle that carried him downstream. The parents were drowned. A kind rancher managed to pull the makeshift device to shore and wound up calling the boy Dave and raising the youngster to manhood without a known family name. The savior didn’t officially adopt the boy but they behaved as a loving father and son in adult life. A scoundrel family discovered the truth and labeled the young man a “nameless nobody.”

When a notorious lawyer, at the request of a famed composer, meticulously conceals his origins, his adoptive mother takes every measure to bury the truth. Pulling strings and enlisting influential allies—including a television icon—she constructs a carefully crafted facade to ensure he never uncovers his past. But as he grows older, cracks in the carefully constructed facade begin to show, leaving him haunted by an unsettling sense that something is being hidden from him.

The fraternal love that Pierre Roland feels for his younger brother Jean has always been tinged with jealousy. But when a lawyer arrives at the house of their parents, to declare that an old family friend has bequeathed his entire fortune to Jean, this envy rapidly becomes an all-consuming force. Despising himself for the hate that he feels, Pierre roams the seaport of Le Havre alone, desperate to come to terms with his brother's success.

An older New York City couple, Mr. and Mrs. Seth Appleby, decides to leave the city for Cape Cod where they open a tea room. The tea room fails but that's just the beginning of their adventures. With no money and no prospects, they set out as hobos and roam the countryside meeting people and gaining new experiences for the first time in their lives.

Was wäre, wenn jeden Abend Weihnachten wäre? Für Tante Milla ist Weihnachten, als Inbegriff eines besinnlichen Festes im Kreise der Familie, zu ihrem Lebensinhalt geworden. Ihre Lust am Fest wächst ungebremst, bis auch im August die Englein noch singen und die Familie allabendlich zur Feier des Heiligen Abends vorbeikommt. In Nicht nur zur Weihnachtszeit (1952) nimmt Heinrich Böll die deutsche Nachkriegsmentalität und scheinbar unumstößliche Weihnachtsroutinen aufs Korn.

Dumas’ famous musketeers return in another exciting swashbuckler. And this time, Aramis is embarking on the most perilous mission of all: to depose King Louis XIV and put his twin brother, Philip, on the throne instead. Since childhood, Philip has been hidden away so no one would know of his existence - but Aramis believes that he would be the superior ruler. Is Aramis right...or is he making a deadly mistake?

One very special boy weaves some magic in Frances Hodgson Burnett’s sentimental favorite. When young Cedric Errol learns that he is actually a British lord and heir to an estate, his life is transformed. He leaves Boston for Dorincourt Castle to live with his uncle, the earl - a tyrant who’s loathed by one and all. Will Cedric succeed in melting his cold, cruel uncle’s heart?

The Bette referred to in this magnificent novel's title is Lisbeth Fischer, an excruciatingly cunning poor relation who both depends upon and nurses a terrible grudge against the family of her beautiful cousin, Adeline. That family is slowly being ruined by the uncontrollable sexual appetites of Adeline's husband, Baron Hulot - appetites that will, in time, give Cousin Bette opportunity to exact her vengeance.

When the liberal government falls and neither party is able to form a cabinet, Plantagenet Palliser is called upon to lead a coalition government. He is reluctant at first, and displays none of the charisma of his predecessors, but eventually he grows into the role. However, his confidence is short-lived as he becomes embroiled in a scandal involving the villainous Ferdinand Lopez - unintentionally brought about by Lady Glencora Palliser. Pronounced "a beautiful book" by Leo Tolstoy, The Prime Minister is a superb portrait of marriage and politics.

Jane, ich begehre von Ihnen, daß Sie mein Weib werden; nur Sie beabsichtige ich zu heiraten...

Maggie Tulliver has two lovers: Philip Wakem, son of her father's enemy; and Stephen Guest, already promised to her cousin; but the love she wants most in the world is that of her brother Tom. Maggie's struggle against her passionate and sensual nature leads her to a deeper understanding and to eventual tragedy.

Uno dei grandi romanzi di Dickens, scritto tra il 1855 e il 1857, pubblicato in fascicoli mensili Esso è diviso in due libri: Povertà, in cui si parla delle misere condizioni della famiglia Dorrit, la cui madre è morta e il padre è in carcere per debiti, e della bontà della piccola Amy; compare inoltre tutta una folla di piccoli personaggi, seconda la tradizione di Dickens, che si ritroveranno poi nel corso di tutto il libro.

Three years after the close of Little Women, the March girls and their friend Laurie are young adults with only their futures to find. Along the way, they all face painful trials, from Meg's difficult lessons in housekeeping to Laurie's heartbreak in a love tragedy. Each of the girls finds happiness, but not always in the ways they expect.

Året er 1930, og det er jul på Fyrø. Men intet går, som det skal. En vinteraften bliver øen afskåret fra omverdenen, og nu er gode råd dyre - for hvordan holder man jul, når man ikke kan få fat i alle de ting, som man plejer? "Jul på Fyrø" er en julekalenderbog beregnet til højtlæsning og inddelt i 24 spændende og sjove kapitler - ét til hver dag.

Rilla is Anne and Gilbert Blythe’s youngest daughter, an excitable 15-year-old who is unaware of how the world works, and is only interested in having fun. But the world is on the brink of a global war, and soon Rilla’s family and life are turned upside down, as several of her brothers enlist in the army and are sent to fight overseas. The book follows Rilla’s life through the duration of World War I, as she grows up quickly from the responsibilities put on young women in this time.

In the seventh book of the Anne of Green Gables series, Anne and Gilbert Blythe have been happily married for over a decade and have six children. The children take center stage in this story, as they befriend the four children of a new minister in tow, John Meredith. After John’s wife died, he has buried himself into theological studies, and lets his children run free. And though the children are generally kind and loyal, the townsfolk only really notice them on the occasions where they’re getting into trouble.

Virginia Woolf's 1925 novel takes place over the course of a single June day in the lives of some very different Londoners: wealthy society hostess Clarissa Dalloway, who is preparing for a party; her old friend Peter Walsh, recently returned from India, whose proposal of marriage Clarissa rejected years ago; Septimus Warren Smith, a WWI veteran suffering from shell shock; and his Italian-born wife, Rezia, who is trying to care for him as best she can. Woolf's beautiful prose captures the minds and souls of these vivid characters.

"Casa Howard" è ormai considerato il capolavoro di Edward M. Forster, ed è certamente uno dei "classici" della letteratura del ventesimo secolo. La ricchezza del romanzo sta nella pregnanza di una narrazione piena di tensioni, in parte irrisolte perché lo stesso Forster è partecipe di esse e il "solo connettere" del sottotitolo del romanzo gli è impossibile solo in parte, come egli ben sa. Ma forse il fascino di "Casa Howard" sta proprio in questa difficoltà a risolvere contraddizioni ancora irrisolvibili.

A novel based on the emotional conflict centered around a son’s urge to sever the psychological umbilical cord which ties him to a selfish and possessive mother. Completely unsympathetic to his young experiences and inclinations, forever critical of his interests and reactions, she nevertheless appeals to his sympathies and attempts to hold him emotionally.

H.G. Wells is best known for his science fiction, but some of his greatest works were in other genres. "The Passionate Friends" is a love story. It also is a story about dreams, despair, jealousy, sex, the struggle against social convention, the future of civilization, and much much more. It is written by a father to his son, "not indeed to the child you are now, but to the man you are going to be." He writes it so that one day, perhaps when he is dead, his grown son can read it and rediscover him as a friend and equal.