The brothers Jacob Grimm (1785-1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (1786-1859), co-authors of an extremely monumental modern German-language dictionary, are first and foremost renowned in the academic circles of their homeland as two of the main founders of German philology.
But of course among us lesser mortals they are best known for their remarkable collection of popular tales that they published in two volumes in 1812 and 1815.
We present here three of the best tales, selected it is true largely (…)
Articles les plus récents
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Three Grimm Brothers "Witch Tales" (1812-1815)
19 mai 2018, par Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm -
"In the Penal Colony" by Franz Kafka (1919)
15 mai 2018, par Franz KafkaA visiting European researcher is invited by the military commander of a penal colony to witness the execution of a soldier condemned for insubordination, an execution that is to be carried out in a very special manner by a very special machine that has performed the same task very many times in the past. But times are changing and the extraordinary former commander of the camp who invented this amazing machine is no longer there and the values epitomised by the machine and the zealous (…)
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"The Ghost" by A. E. van Vogt (1942)
15 mai 2018, par A. E. van VogtAn unusual ghost story with whodunit and time-conundrum elements, written during van Vogt’s Canadian days.
It was first published in the August 1942 issue of the bi-monthly magazine Unknown Worlds.
With the original Unknown Worlds illustrations by Orban.]]
(12,500 words)
An e-book is available for downloading below. 1. THE GHOST
One of the most unusual tales of haunting and ghosts we’ve seen—and one that might explain what ghosts really are— "Four miles," Kent thought, "four (…) -
"Exit the Professor" (1947) - a comic masterpiece by Henry Kuttner
13 mai 2018, par Henry KuttnerNarrated in the first person in the local dialect by a very uneducated, very unsophisticated and very unusual young man who lives in a remote mountain town in the hills of Kentucky with his equally unusual family, this very funny story relates the adventures of a visiting professor from New York who wants to find out more about the strange and wonderful abilities of this family, who are more than content to continue living peacefully in their out-of-the-way southern town where nothing much (…)
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"The Witch" by A. E. van Vogt (1943)
8 mai 2018, par A. E. van VogtA young teacher comes to the seaside town where his great-grandmother was supposed buried, only to find the lady in good health although apparently capable of being in two places at the same time. The more he observes her, the more he begins to understand the mortal danger she represents for his young wife, whose body the old witch would like to be rejuvenated in at midnight on a certain day.
The Witch was first published in the February 1943 issue of Unknown Worlds.
With the original (…) -
"The Cataaaaa" by A. E. van Vogt (1947)
1er mai 2018, par A. E. van VogtIf you have ever wondered what strange, mysterious thoughts are lurking behind your cat’s impenetrable gaze, then you will be interested by the particularly remarkable cat in this quite brilliant golden-age van Vogt story.
It was initially published in the July 1947 issue of the magazine Fantasy Book.
(5,700 words) When an alien arrives on an inhabited planet, there is usually only one way that he can pass among the intelligent beings on that planet without being recognized… THE (…) -
"Liberation of Earth" (1953) by William Tenn
1er mai 2018, par William TennFirst published in the May 1953 issue of Future Science Fiction, this amusing, insightful and thought-provoking satire of human pretentiousness in a galactic environment – the Earth is invaded by warring very-superior, very-different and very-uncaring aliens, with very terrifying results – was one of the best stories of the distinguished university professor Philip Klass (1920-2010), author of some 60-odd excellent science-fiction stories, mostly under the pen-name of William Tenn. (6,500 (…)
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"The Mysterious Cup" (Der Pokal) by Ludwig Tieck - a classic of German romanticism (1812)
30 avril 2018, par Ludwig TieckLudwig Tieck was one of the leading figures in the German romantic movement at the beginning of the 19th century, a movement that brought themes of the mysterious, the magical, the fantastic and the unexplainable into German-language letters at the time.
It was in a way a precursor of the fantasy and science-fiction themes in the literature of our own times !
Here we have a tender love story featuring notably a magnificent young woman, her ardent but too-poor lover and an alchemist who (…) -
"Shock-Headed Peter (Der Struwwelpeter)" (1845) by Heinrich Hoffmann, an extraordinary set of illustrated lessons showing children how to behave – or else !
20 avril 2018, par Heinrich HoffmannDr. Heinrich Hoffman (1809-1894) drew this sketchbook with verse lessons for his three-year-old son as a Christmas present for him in 1844, after having been unable to find any books able to really interest someone of that age in the bookstores in his town of Frankfurt – they were all either too long, too boring, too stodgily moralistic, too full of adult vocabulary or, mostly, all of that together.
He was at the time the psychiatrist at the city’s Institute for the Mentally Ill – this is (…) -
"Clothes Make People (Kleider machen Leute)" by Gottfried Keller (1874) - one of the most famous German-language stories now available in English
15 avril 2018, par Gottfried KellerThis famous story by the Swiss writer Gottfried Keller (1819-1890) was first published in 1874 in the second volume of his collection of stories The People of Seldwyla about the mores and adventures of the people of the mythical but somehow very typical Swiss town of that name.
It recounts – brilliantly – in a very humorous vein the adventures of a penniless, unemployed tailor whose only possession in the world is a set of rather nice clothes that he has fabricated for himself, thanks to (…)