European Literature

A shot rang out. The Arabs surged forward under a savage fusillade of heavy fire. Nearer and nearer they came, shouting with hate and blood-lust. Geste rushed up and down his side of the roof, pausing only long enough to load his rifle and fire into the shrieking mob below, hoping to trick the Arabs into believing the fort was heavily manned.

"Les Diaboliques" regroupent six nouvelles de Barbey d'Aurevilly parues en 1874, en voici deux : "La Vengeance d'une femme" et "Le Plus Bel Amour de Don Juan". Ces courts textes ont pour traits communs de soulever une part de mystère dans des situations ordinaires, où la banalité d'une époque rencontre le crime, la passion, et les plus sombres desseins. Les femmes représentent une idée de la beauté fière et scandaleuse, elles laissent derrière elles des regrets et une incompréhension troublante.

"Je veux vous expliquer comment une famille, un petit groupe d'êtres, se comporte dans une société, en s'épanouissant pour donner naissance à dix, à vingt individus, qui paraissent, au premier coup d'oeil, profondément dissemblables, mais que l'analyse montre intimement liés les uns aux autres. L'hérédité a ses lois, comme la pesanteur." Emile Zola.

The Sorrows of Young Werther was Goethe's first major success, turning him from an unknown into a celebrated author practically overnight. Napoleon Bonaparte considered it one of the great works of European literature. He thought so highly of it that he wrote a soliloquy in Goethe's style in his youth and carried Werther with him on his campaigning to Egypt.

In this Welsh tale, Nel loves to knit stockings for her brothers as she walks her family’s land. One day, a fairy leaves her a gift—a golden chair! To keep the fairy from stealing it back, Nel must use her wit and knitting supplies to keep her chair safe while she and her family carry it home. Will Nel’s plan work? Or will the fairy steal the gift back?

The best of cult author Bruno Schulz's captivatingly strange and beautiful short stories. The stories in this collection are rich, tangled, and suffused with mystery and wonder. In the narrowing, winding city streets, strange figures roam. Great flocks of birds soar over rooftops, obscuring the sun. Cockroaches appear through cracks and scuttle across floorboards. Individuals careen from university buildings to dimly lit parlour rooms, through strange shops and endless storms.

Octave Mouret, précurseur inspiré, bouleverse sa corporation comme Haussmann bouleverse la ville. Il parie tout sur les femmes, sur leurs envies et sur leur incapacité à surmonter les tentations.
Une lui résiste : Denise, incarnation de la vertu et de la générosité. Elle devient une obsession pour cet ogre.

What if the last man in the world she could be prevailed upon to marry...is her husband? In Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet tells the proud Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy that she wouldn't marry him if he were the last man in the world. But what if she never said the words? What if circumstances conspired to make her accept Darcy the first time he proposes?

Le XIXe siècle en France est un âge d'or littéraire, marqué par des courants très affirmés comme le romantisme, le réalisme, le naturalisme ou le symbolisme, et une évolution moderne de la poésie et du roman qui donna naissance à des chefs-d’œuvre en nombre inégalé. Cette collection de citations présente la pensée de sept figures incontournables du XIXe siècle sous forme concise et accessible.

"The Irish R.M." refers to a series of books by the Anglo-Irish novelists Somerville and Ross. They are set in the turn-of-the-20th-century west of Ireland. The humor in the audiobook is greatly enhanced if the listener has a broad understanding of the history of Ireland's relationship with England, and how Ireland was governed, as well as the Irish country way of life. The show is, however, not political, although caricatures of Irish and British people are used for humorous purposes.

In Time Shelter, an enigmatic flâneur named Gaustine opens a 'clinic for the past' that offers a promising treatment for Alzheimer's sufferers: each floor reproduces a decade in minute detail, transporting patients back in time. But as the rooms become more convincing, an increasing number of healthy people seek out the clinic as a 'time shelter', hoping to escape from the horrors of our present.

A tour de force of black humor and imaginary erudition, Nazi Literature in the Americas presents itself as a biographical dictionary of writers who espoused extreme right-wing ideologies in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Slowbridge's customs have been set in stone by Lady Theobald, who has decreed that young ladies should always wear white muslin to social events and that their only decoration should be fresh flowers - which invariably wilt by the end of the evening. Enter Octavia, bedecked in yards of lace and ribbons and with a profusion of diamond jewelry. She is soon informed that only married ladies wear diamonds in England. She makes other mistakes: Young ladies do not ask men to join them on terraces; they do not invite men to play croquet on their lawns.

Internationally acclaimed Irish folksinger Maura O'Connell narrates seven of the brightest jewels from the Irish storytelling tradition in this magnificent, unabridged recording of Malachy Doyle's Tales from Old Ireland. With its captivating language, larger-than-life characters, dramatic landscapes, and magical happenings, this enchanting collection of favorite Irish folk tales will transport listeners to another world for many happy hours.

In this fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, a young mermaid saves the life of a prince. She falls in love with him and undergoes many trials. Finally, she achieves salvation as she was prepared to give up her identity as a mermaid to gain a human soul.

"Una família rica, una casa abandonada, un jardí desolat… Tenia ganes de fer una novel·la on hi hagués de tot això." Mirall trencat és la més profusa de les novel·les de Mercè Rodoreda, un retrat de família al llarg de tres generacions, i un imponent retrat de dona amb la figura de Teresa Goday.

Just as Mr. Darcy finally decides to propose to the enticing Miss Elizabeth Bennet, she is summoned to Falmouth, to meet a relation she never knew she had. Thus, the ill-starred Hunsford proposal is avoided - but before he could even begin to understand his luck, adverse circumstances hasten to conspire against him, and Fitzwilliam Darcy is compelled to follow the woman he loves to the far reaches of Cornwall, into a world of deceit and peril, where few - if any - are what they seem to be...

The new summer house on Sandhamn Island is an architectural dream for its owner, Carsten Jonsson. It’s a nightmare for the locals. The venture capitalist has flouted local traditions, property lines, and the natural beauty of the coastline. He’s also too wealthy and arrogant to heed the anonymous warnings to leave. The threats escalate when his guest lodge is burned to the ground and an unidentifiable corpse is found in the charred ruins.

"À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs" se présente en deux parties : "Autour de Mme Swann", où le héros fréquente les Swann à Paris, et "Noms de pays : le pays", deux ans plus tard, qui dépeint un séjour à Balbec en bord de mer. "Enfin elle, je l'aimais et ne pouvais par conséquent la voir sans ce trouble, sans ce désir de quelque chose de plus, qui ôte, auprès de l'être qu'on aime, la sensation d'aimer."

John Keats was largely unappreciated during his lifetime and died in Rome at the age of 26. Most of his 150 poems were written in just nine extraordinary months in 1819. This selection contains some of his finest works, including the principal "Odes", "La Belle Dame Sans Merci", "Old Meg", and "Much Have I Travelled".