Classical Memoirs

Anne of Avonlea follows Anne Shirley from the age of 16 to 18, during the two years that she teaches at Avonlea School.

The book features many of the characters from Anne of Green Gables, including Marilla Cuthbert, Gilbert Blythe, and Diana Barry, and some new ones: Mr. Harrison, Miss Lavendar Lewis, Paul Irving, and the twins Dora and Davy. Anne matures slightly over time, even though she cannot avoid getting into a number of her familiar scrapes.

Keith Moon wasn’t just The Who’s drummer—he was their chaos engine, their comic relief, and their most volatile liability. Known for explosive performances and even more explosive offstage antics, Moon’s life was a whirlwind of fame, destruction, brilliance, and heartbreak. Keith Moon: The Last 24 Hours is an unflinching rock and roll biography that reconstructs the final day of this iconic musician's life, diving deep into the real events that led to his tragic death on September 7, 1978, at the age of 32. This book provides a blow-by-blow account of Moon’s last hours, based ...

Celebrato in tutto il mondo come un tesoro spirituale, questo classico di grande successo ha ispirato milioni di persone a intraprendere il proprio viaggio di trasformazione interiore, per giungere a una vita nuova e più profondamente appagante.

At thirteen years old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a child prodigy who had captured the hearts of northern Europe, but his father Leopold was now determined to conquer Italy. Together, they made three visits there the last when Mozart was seventeen, all vividly recounted here by acclaimed conductor Jane Glover. Father and son travelled from the theatres and concert salons of Milan to the church-filled streets of Rome to Naples, poorer and more dangerous than the prosperous north, and to Venice, the carnivelesque birthplace of public opera.

"We are all travelers in the 'wilderness of the world' - travelers with a donkey." So Robert Louis Stevenson wrote to a friend on completing this enchanting account of a journey in rural France in 1878. Alone with his pack-donkey Modestine, and showing total disregard for discomfort, Stevenson relishes to the full his walking tour of the Cevennes.

The late film icon and screen legend Kirk Douglas was married to Anne Buydens for more than six decades. Here they both look back on a lifetime filled with drama both on and off the screen. Sharing priceless correspondence with each other as well as the celebrities and world leaders they called friends, Kirk and Anne is a candid portrayal of the pleasures and pitfalls of a Hollywood life lived in the public eye. Compiled from Anne's private archive of letters and photographs, this is an intimate glimpse into the Douglases' courtship and marriage.

Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839-1908) was the greatest writer ever to come from Brazil and one of the masters of nineteenth-century fiction. Susan Sontag calls him "the greatest writer ever produced in Latin America", surpassing even Borges. Harold Bloom says that Machado is "the supreme black literary artist to date". And Allen Ginsburg calls him "another Kafka". And The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas is his masterpiece, a dazzling, tragic, and profound novel that belongs next to the greatest works of his contemporaries Melville and Dostoevsky.

Finally home from London after his wartime service in the RAF, James Herriot is settling back into life as a country vet. While the world has changed after the war, the blunt Yorkshire clients and menagerie of beasts with weird and wonderful ailments remain the same. But between his young son, Jimmy, trailing him around copying his every move, stubborn farmers refusing to try his ‘new-fangled’ treatments and a goat that has eaten 293 tomatoes, Darrowby is far from quiet. And with another baby on the way, life is about to get even more chaotic.

The original collection of these stories, published in 1994 in England, did not include "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box" because it was considered "too shocking." It was later added to the first American edition.

In Wild Things, Vanity Fair contributing editor Bruce Handy revisits the classics of every American childhood, from fairy tales to The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and explores the back stories of their creators, using context and biography to understand how some of the most insightful, creative, and witty authors and illustrators of their times created their often deeply personal masterpieces.

Arthur Mervyn is a novel written by Charles Brockden Brown and published in 1799. It was one of Brown's more popular novels and is in many ways representative of Brown's dark, Gothic style and subject matter. It is also recognized as one of the most influential works of American and Philadelphia Gothic literature.

A girl uses her wits to survive a maniacal killer who wipes out her family. A woman is condemned for the "final betrayal of motherhood" for killing her children. A grieving mother becomes convinced that the man convicted of murdering her beautiful teenage daughter is innocent.

As his mother was dying, Philip Kennicott began to listen to the music of Bach obsessively. It was the only music that didn't seem trivial or irrelevant, and it enabled him to both experience her death and remove himself from it. He spent the next five years trying to learn one of the composer's greatest keyboard masterpieces, the Goldberg Variations. In Counterpoint, he recounts his efforts to rise to the challenge, and to fight through his grief by coming to terms with his memories of a difficult, complicated childhood.

A witty and beautifully written account of the lives of Gertrude Stein and her wife Alice B. Toklas and a fascinating look into early 20th century Paris and the development of modernist culture.

Says Charles Pooter, "I fail to see - because I do not happen to be a 'somebody' - why my diary should not be interesting." Surprisingly, Mr. Pooter's life is fascinating! The fascination is two-fold: firstly, his astounding arrogance that we should care about his domestic trivia and narcissistic scribblings. Secondly, we can all sympathize with (and wince at!) this ridiculous slave to convention.

Pietro D’Arcangelo's journey began in the coal mines of Berwind-White and culminated in the heartwarming atmosphere of his own pizzeria. Born in Abruzzo, Italy, Pietro's dream wasn't just to escape the harsh life of a coal miner but to bring a piece of his homeland to America. "A Story About Pizza" delves into the rich history of Italian immigration and the merging of Italian and American cultures through the beloved dish of pizza. Erica D’Arcangelo weaves a narrative that spans generations, sharing her grandfather Pietro's dream, struggles, and triumphs. From the bustling streets of ...

John Amos Comenius, a 17th-century theologian and reformer, had so great an influence on Western schooling that he has been called the father of modern education. To this day he remains one of the most influential and fascinating thinkers in the history of education. In this concise introduction to the work of Comenius, Dr. David Smith sketches some of Comenius's central ideas, pointing to several important themes that summarize Comenius's tireless work for educational reform. Listeners will discover that amongst the literally hundreds of works Comenius wrote in Czech and Latin, many of which are lost to us today, he created one of the world's most successful children's books; suggested that learning should resemble gardening; and proposed that joy, piety, and harmony are central to the education of children.

“In this brief sketch of our great Southern hero, I have endeavored to portray, amid the blaze of his matchless military genius, the unchanging rectitude of his conduct, the stern will-power by which he conquered all difficulties, his firm belief in an overruling Providence, and his entire submission to the Divine Will. These traits of character were the cornerstones upon which he reared the edifice of his greatness, and upon which the young people of our day will do well to build."

Kendall Taylor examines the dalliance between the southern belle and the French pilot from a fresh perspective. Drawing on conversations and correspondence with Jozan's daughter, as well as materials from the Jozan family archives, Taylor sheds new light on this romantic triangle. More than just a casual fling, Zelda's tryst with Edouard affected Scott as much as it did his wife - and ultimately influenced the author's most famous creation, Jay Gatsby. Were it not for Zelda's affair with the pilot, Scott's novel might be less about betrayal and more about lost illusions.

Wonders terrestrial and aquatic, ancient ruins, near drownings, and more kinds of dragons than you can shake a wing at.... Six years after her perilous exploits in Eriga, Lady Trent embarks on her most ambitious expedition yet: a two-year trip around the world aboard the Royal Survey Ship Basilisk, to study all manner of dragons. She must cope with storms, shipwrecks, intrigue and warfare to uncover new insights in the ancient history of dragons.