“Lyrical Ballads”, no doubt the most famous book of poetry in the English language, was jointly published in 1798 by William Wordsworth (1770-1850) and Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834).
This book, generally considered to have ushered in the age of romanticism in English literature, contained two of the greatest poems in the language, Wordsworth’s Tintern Abbey [1] and Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
The version of Coleridge’s masterpiece that is generally available today (…)
Articles les plus récents
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The Lyrical Ballads (1798) version of Coleridge’s "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" – the original and arguably most authentic text
19 February 2020, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge -
"The Mutiny of the Elsinore" (1913) - an adventure novel on the high seas by Jack London
3 February 2020, by Jack LondonJohn Pathurst is a rich, very successful and very blasé 30-year-old writer who has taken passage on a big four-masted sailing-ship carrying coals from Baltimore to Seattle, with the aim of resting his jaded nerves. Right away there are signs that the trip is not going to be an easy one – the crew is a gang of drunken, incompetent landlubbers, his quarters are not the best on the ship much to his annoyance, the captain and first mate are strange fellows indeed and, especially, there is a (…)
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The adventures of the Marquise and the Baroness — three of Guy de Maupassant’s most amusing (and amoral) stories
1 February 2020, by Guy de MaupassantThe Marquise de Rennedon and her intimate friend the Baroness de Grangerie are two of Maupassant’s most memorable heroines. They both feature in these three sparkling, amusing and amoral stories about their amorous adventures. TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. THE SECRET (1885) The Baroness of Grangerie is resting when the Marquise de Rennedon rushes in to tell her how utterly fed up she had become not only with her husband’s ugliness but especially with his insane jealousy and surveillance. But she (…) -
"Who Goes There?" (1938) - an iconic sci-fi story by John Campbell
16 January 2020, by John CampbellA scientific expedition in Antarctica discovers the remnants of an alien spaceship that had crashed there millions of years ago, and decides – unwisely – to melt the frozen remnants of one of the forms found nearby. When the alien being revives and reveals incredible shape-changing abilities and other stupendous powers, the race is on not only to save themselves but also and especially to save the whole human race from destruction.
(22,500 words)
First published in the August 1938 issue (…) -
"The House That Stood Still" (1950) by A.E. van Vogt
4 January 2020, by A. E. van VogtWe are in California in a coastal town in the late forties, and a hard-working young lawyer (and ex-Marine) hears screams somewhere in the building as he is leaving his office around midnight. Rushing upstairs to deal vigorously with the problem, he gets rapidly involved with a group of cultists, with the powers that control the city, with the multi-millionaire whose ancient house overlooking the Pacific is at the centre of all of the many dramas in the story, with a series of murders, with (…)
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"La petite Roque" and other stories by Guy de Maupassant
1 January 2020, by Guy de MaupassantTABLE OF CONTENTS
1. THE STORY OF A FARM GIRL (1881) Rosa, a young servant on a rather prosperous farm is pursued by Jacques, a labourer on the farm. She is a strong girl and easily fends him off but one thing leads to another and even a marriage promise. But Rosa’s life falls apart a few months later when she is in an interesting situation and Jacque’s commitment rapidly fades. (6,900 words)
2. IN THE SPRING (1881) The narrator goes out on a fine spring day and right beside him in (…) -
"Ward No. 6" and other stories by Anton Chekhov
24 December 2019, by Anton ChekhovTABLE OF CONTENTS
1. OLD AGE (Старость) (1885) The architect Uzelkov returns on mission to the town that he had left twenty years before after his divorce there, and is invited to dinner by the wily lawyer who had handled his divorce and who reveals to him during the dinner what really went on with his former wife in those far-off days. (2,200 words)
2. ART (Художество) (1886) Seryozhka has a great talent for creating magnificent holy icons out of snow and ice on the frozen river for the (…) -
"Easter Eve" and other great Chekhov stories
7 December 2019, by Anton ChekhovTABLE OF CONTENTS
1. OYSTERS (Устрицы) (1884) An eight-year-old boy accompanying his unemployed father who has decided to go out to beg for alms notices the strange word “OYSTERS” on a sign inside a restaurant. The story continues in ever-starker tones as the little fellow progressively discovers the meaning of the word and the thing itself. (1,500 words)
2. AN ACTOR’S END (Актерская гибель) (1886) The actor Shtchiptsov feels something snap in his chest and totters off to his hotel room (…) -
"The Lady with the Dog" and other great stories by Anton Chekhov
5 December 2019, by Anton ChekhovTABLE OF CONTENTS
1. A TRIVIAL INCIDENT (Пустой случай) (1886) The narrator recounts how he and his companion, a Prince, had been prevented from hunting in the forest of Madame Kandurin, with whom the prince had formerly been connected. The two go to the lady’s mansion, where the narrator realises the extent of the prince’s sad situation and how close he had previously been to an entirely different fate. (4,000 words)
2. ON THE ROAD (На пути) (1887) We follow the unfolding of the intense (…) -
ALL 522 STORIES OF ANTON CHEKHOV: SYNOPSES, COMMENTS AND RATINGS
4 December 2019, by RayAnton Chekhov (1860-1904) was without a doubt the most prolific writer of short stories of all time, having written the 522 stories – and the 110 other texts – overviewed here, as well as 1 novel [1] and 16 plays [2] before his premature death from tuberculosis at the age of 44.
Here you will find a complete list of all of his short stories, novelettes and novellas [3] in chronological order of initial publication, with for each entry: an overview of the story; the original Russian title (…)