Signora Speranza (Italian Classics)

Signora Speranza (Italian Classics) PDF Author: Luigi Pirandello
Publisher: Mondial
ISBN: 1595691081
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 106

Get Book Here

Book Description
Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936), master of style, appeared first as poet, pure in style, severe in inspiration, but later "found himself" in writing humorous tales, novels and especially dramas. His humor, though at bottom sad and almost pessimistic, is not of a quiet sort. To him man appears as a creature more miserable than grotesque, eternally made sport of by the irony of fate. Such is the philosophy in "Signora Speranza", one of the most characteristic of his novellas. In 1934 Pirandello was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.

Signora Speranza (Italian Classics)

Signora Speranza (Italian Classics) PDF Author: Luigi Pirandello
Publisher: Mondial
ISBN: 1595691081
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 106

Get Book Here

Book Description
Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936), master of style, appeared first as poet, pure in style, severe in inspiration, but later "found himself" in writing humorous tales, novels and especially dramas. His humor, though at bottom sad and almost pessimistic, is not of a quiet sort. To him man appears as a creature more miserable than grotesque, eternally made sport of by the irony of fate. Such is the philosophy in "Signora Speranza", one of the most characteristic of his novellas. In 1934 Pirandello was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.

The Jewess of Toledo (German Classics)

The Jewess of Toledo (German Classics) PDF Author: Franz Grillparzer
Publisher: Mondial
ISBN: 1595691391
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 106

Get Book Here

Book Description
Franz Grillparzer (1791 - 1872) was an Austrian dramatic poet. "The Jewess of Toledo" may perhaps be said to mark the climax of his productive activity. Written in 1851, it was first performed in Prague in 1872, after Grillparzer's death. It is an eminently modern drama of passion in classical dignity of form. The play is properly called "The Jewess of Toledo"; for Rachel, the Jewess, is at the centre of the action, and is a marvelous creation – "a mere woman, nothing but her sex". The King of Castile, however, though relatively passive, is the most important character. He is attracted to Rachel by a charm that he has never known in his coldly virtuous English consort, and, after an error forgivable because made comprehensible, is taught the duty of personal sacrifice to morality and to the state.

The Lady with the Toy Dog, and Other Famous Short Stories

The Lady with the Toy Dog, and Other Famous Short Stories PDF Author: Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
Publisher: Mondial
ISBN: 1595691359
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 138

Get Book Here

Book Description
"The Lady with the Toy Dog," "Goussiev" and other famous tales by Anton Chekhov (1860-1904). -- Time's revenges or the irony of satisfied desires are treated in "The Lady with the Toy Dog." Yet one cannot say that Chekhov himself is "disillusioned." His sense of spiritual beauty is too strong; and his depth of acceptation of life's pattern forms an aura enveloping his subject. This spiritual aura hovers about it and enwraps the gloomiest, greyest, most sardonic facts of life; death itself cannot diminish it. Examine "Goussiev," a sketch of the death of two worn-out soldiers on board a steamer, when returning from the East, a sketch that is so "modern" in its all-embracing outlook and bold acceptations as to shame nearly all our writers of today. It is so humanly broad, so tender, so infallibly true in its spiritual lightings, and it conveys the mystery of nature and all its transitory processes with sharp precision.

The Musketeers

The Musketeers PDF Author: Alexandre Dumas
Publisher: Mondial
ISBN: 1595691405
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 500

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Reunion of the Musketeers: In this sequel to "The Three Musketeers," d'Artagnan has completely lost touch with his friends. The group has been broken up. The two noblemen, Arthos and Porthos, have left the service and are living on their estates, Aramis has gone into the Church, and d'Artagnan alone is still in the King's guard. When Queen Anne needs again the group's service, Cardinal Mazarin commissions d'Artagnan to go in search of his friends. "Twenty Years After" follows events in France during a civil war (the "Fronde," 1648-1653), and in England at the time of Oliver Cromwell until the execution of King Charles I.

Short Story Classics: The lost letter

Short Story Classics: The lost letter PDF Author: William Patten
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Short stories
Languages : en
Pages : 366

Get Book Here

Book Description


Short Story Classics: Italian and Scandinavian

Short Story Classics: Italian and Scandinavian PDF Author: William Patten
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Short stories
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Get Book Here

Book Description


Short Story Classics (Foreign) ...: Italian and Scandinavian

Short Story Classics (Foreign) ...: Italian and Scandinavian PDF Author: William Patten
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Short stories
Languages : en
Pages : 374

Get Book Here

Book Description


Pan Tadeusz (Pan Thaddeus. Polish Classics)

Pan Tadeusz (Pan Thaddeus. Polish Classics) PDF Author: Adam Mickiewicz
Publisher: Mondial
ISBN: 1595691340
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 238

Get Book Here

Book Description
Historical prose translation of the famous Polish verse epic. In the book, Tadeusz tells the story of two feuding noble families; it takes place in a fictional idyllic village, in 1811 and 1812, after the division of Poland-Lithuania between Russia, Prussia, and Austria. --- "No European nation of our day has such an epic as Pan Tadeusz. In it Don Quixote has been fused with the Iliad. ... Pan Tadeusz is a true epic. No more can be said or need be said." (Zygmunt Krasinski) --- "No play of Shakespeare, no long poem of Milton or Wordsworth or Tennyson, is so well known or so well beloved by the English people as is Pan Tadeusz by the Poles. To find a work equally well known one might turn to Defoe's prosaic tale of adventure, Robinson Crusoe; to find a work so beloved would be hardly possible." (George Rapall Noyes)

Trials and Tribulations. A Berlin Novel (Irrungen, Wirrungen) (German Classics)

Trials and Tribulations. A Berlin Novel (Irrungen, Wirrungen) (German Classics) PDF Author: Theodor Fontane
Publisher: Mondial
ISBN: 1595691251
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 142

Get Book Here

Book Description
The gentle melancholy of two people coming together in a way which can never lead to full satisfaction, the quiet tragedy of a separation not forced by external powers but by the constant pressure of circumstances-this is what sounds through this splendid story. "Trials and Tribulations" is built entirely on this motive. An honest sturdy young officer and a decent pretty girl get to know each other on an excursion. Unconsciously they drift into a relation where heart meets heart, the breaking of which causes the deepest pain. But both see clearly from the beginning that there is no other end. For they know that the world is stronger than the individual, and the many small moments than the one supreme. They know it, for they are, like their creator, resigned realists. They shut their eyes only in order not to see the end too near. (Richard M. Meyer)---The interest of Fontane's novels lies rather in character than in action. While he portrays many types characteristic of Berlin and the surrounding region, and is very successful in rendering local color and the atmosphere of the particular circle described in each book, his penetration into universal human nature is sufficiently deep to raise him far above provincialism. His effort is to represent people vividly and naturally in their normal relations, not to strain after sensational or even dramatic situations. "Trials and Tribulations" ("Irrungen Wirrungen", 1887) gives an excellent idea of his power. In a gently moving story, told without the forcing of emotion or the contriving of exciting scenes, he deals with the pathos of the relation between a man and a woman, alike in an attractive simplicity of character, but forced apart by difference of rank. The situation is laid before us without expressed censure or protest, and is allowed to have its effect by the sober truth of its presentation. Fontane's is an honest and sincere art, none the less great because unpretentious. (W.A.N.)

Colas Breugnon (A Burgundian Story; French Classics)

Colas Breugnon (A Burgundian Story; French Classics) PDF Author: Romain Rolland
Publisher: Mondial
ISBN: 1595691332
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 154

Get Book Here

Book Description
"Colas Breugnon" is a charming romance of life in Burgundy three hundred years ago. It is an "autobiographical" novel, the story being told in the first person by Colas, who reviews his fifty years of life, and describes all its joys and sorrows. The story is gay and humorous, and full of wise observations about life. --- "Colas Breugnon is the jovial Burgundian, the lusty wood-carver, the practical joker always fond of his glass, the droll fellow. Before everything, Colas Breugnon is a free man. He loves his king, but only so long as the king leaves him his liberty; he loves his wife, but follows his own bent; he is on excellent terms with the priest of a neighboring parish, but never goes to church; he idolizes his children, but his vigorous individuality makes him unwilling to live with them. He is friendly with all, but subject to none; he is freer than the king; he has that sense of humor characteristic of the free spirit to whom the whole world belongs. From the artistic point of view, 'Colas Breugnon' may perhaps be regarded as Rolland's most successful work. This is because it is woven in one piece, because it flows with a continuous rhythm, because its progress is never arrested by the discussion of thorny problems. It is written throughout in the same key. The first sentence gives the note like a tuning fork, and thence the entire book takes its pitch. Throughout, the same lively melody is sustained. The writer employs a peculiarly happy form. His style is poetic without being actually versified; it has a melodious measure without being strictly metrical. This work is unlike any of Rolland's other writings. It is not an historic study, a critical appreciation, a philosophic essay, nor yet even, in the strictest sense of the word, a novel. It is rather a volume of reminiscences as told by a man of fifty; and the very aimlessness with which this man talks is in itself a pleasure; for Breugnon is himself the one subject of the book, holding our attention by the display of a wayward, sympathetic, and aggressive personality." (Stefan Zweig)