The narrator has retired with her husband to a lovely spot on a small hillside overlooking an abandoned canal in the countryside near Bath in England, and she recounts their relationship with their young neighbours, an extraordinarily warm-hearted fellow and his wife, to whom she’d given a puppy for company as the couple had remained childless. The dog becomes the central figure in this increasingly-dramatic story as he assumes ever-greater mastery over his owner until the arrival of a (…)
Articles les plus récents
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"Did He Do It?" by Stefan Zweig (1942)
6 May, by Stefan Zweig -
"Meteor" by John Wyndham (1941)
29 April, by John WyndhamAn advanced civilization on a dying planet mobilizes all its resources to build and send out a hundred spaceships, each with a thousand volunteers on board, to find new worlds on which they could ensure the survival of their race. This is the tragic story of the one that landed on Earth.
This terrific golden-age sci-fi story by the English author John Wyndham was first published in the March 1941 issue of the American monthly magazine Amazing Stories as “Phoney Meteor” under the pen-name (…) -
"Tender is the Night" by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1933)
22 April, by F. Scott FitzgeraldA brilliant account of a couple of sophisticated jazz-age Americans on a jag around the French Riviera and other European hotspots in the 1920s, hobnobbing with fellow expatriates and distilling their existential ennui in a flurry of cocktail conversations and domestic strife.
Fitzgerald manages somehow to create a very adult, credible tone and an atmosphere of significance around his classy couple and their coterie, helped by his gift for witty, wry dialogues and his narrative skill. And (…) -
"Lost Horizon" by James Hilton (1932) - the novel of Shangri-La
15 April, by James HiltonThe story of a very special and hard-but-not-quite-impossible-to-believe-about valley in the high Tibetan mountains called Shangri-La where wandering explorers and others have found an incredible haven hidden far away from the stress and strife of the outside world and where they grow strangely wise while not really growing much older.
A remarkably well-recounted spiritual adventure story that introduced the concept and the wonderful word Shangri-La into the English language. Thank you, (…) -
"The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes" by Arthur Conan Doyle (1927)
8 April, by Arthur Conan DoyleThe final collection of Sherlock Holmes stories, and the last published work of the very distinguished doctor, short-story writer, novelist, poet, historian, dramatist and essayist Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, introduced by a fascinating farewell overview of his Sherlock Holmes works by the author, including his wistful comment “Had Holmes never existed I could not have done more, though he may perhaps have stood a little in the way of the recognition of my more serious literary work.”. An e-book (…)
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"His Last Bow" by Arthur Conan Doyle (1917)
1 April, by Arthur Conan DoyleIntended, as the title indicates, to be the final collection in the series of Sherlock Holmes stories, this quite wonderful book finishes most appropriately by two of the best ones ever: the “The Adventure of the Dying Detective” and “His Last Bow: the War Service of Sherlock Holmes”, the only Sherlock story published during World War I.
Bravo and thank you, Sir Arthur! We have included in an annex a few of the many memorable citations from this Sherlock Holmes/Arthur Conan Doyle (…) -
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"The Valley of Fear" by Arthur Conan Doyle (1915)
25 March, by Arthur Conan DoyleAt the very beginning of this dramatic final Sherlock Holmes novel the renowned detective receives a coded message from a secret contact in the underworld – the underworld of Sherlock’s arch-enemy Professor Moriarty – warning of imminent danger to a prominent citizen, and just when Sherlock had succeeded in decoding the message a Scotland Yard Inspector calls on him to announce that the citizen in question had just been murdered.
That leads Sherlock, Doctor Watson and Inspector MacDonald (…) -
Selected short stories (1914-1920) by Robert Walser
18 March, by Robert WalserA selection of short prose works – veritable prose poems – published in various Swiss and German newspapers during the sombre second decade of the 20th century by the very gifted Swiss poet and writer Robert Walser (1878-1956), author of the memorable story The Promenade, similar in spirit and tone to all of these charming texts.
An e-book, with the original German-language texts in an annex, is available below.
The original German-language texts can also be seen here. (…) -
"The Return of Sherlock Holmes" by Arthur Conan Doyle (1905)
11 March, by Arthur Conan DoyleA collection of 13 Sherlock stories published by Arthur Conan Doyle between September 1903 and December 1904.
Beginning most effectively at the start of The Adventure of the Empty House with Sherlock’s own account of how he had managed to escape death at the hands of the infamous Professor Moriarty – an event that had provoked enormous disappointment in the reading public and a widespread demand for Sherlock’s return – and concluding with one of his most memorable accounts of all, The (…)