Скачать книгу (размер 1 462 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 288) Аннотация: Throughout his life Rudyard Kipling was fond of dogs, and while they featured prominently in early tales such as 'The Dog Hervey' and 'Garm — a Hostage', he later came up with the innovative idea of writing a story from the perspective of a dog, resulting in the hugely successful 'Thy Servant a Dog', narrated by an Aberdeen terrier named Boots.
Скачать книгу (размер 1 462 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 288) Аннотация: Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, the author of one of the most poignant and enduringly popular novels of the twentieth century, left only a few other pieces of fiction when he died prematurely at the age of sixty. Childhood Memories and Other Stories, here presented in a new translation by Stephen Parkin and including previously deleted passages and the unpublished fragment 'Torretta', collects all…
Скачать книгу (размер 1 952 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 384) Аннотация: This evocative account of the life of the Renaissance's greatest figure traces Leonardo's early development as an artist and court figure to his final years in exile, portraying his loves and sufferings, as well as his intellectual curiosity and tireless loyalty to his ideals. But it is the background to his famous painting La Gioconda and his relationship with the mysterious Florentine woman who…
Скачать книгу (размер 1 462 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 288) Аннотация: Dorian Gray is having his picture painted by Basil Hallward, who is charmed by his looks. But when Sir Henry Wotton visits, and seduces Dorian into the worship of youthful beauty with an intoxicating speech, Dorian makes a wish he will live to regret: that all the marks of age will now be reflected in the portrait, rather than on Dorian's own face. The stage is now set for a masterful tale about…
Скачать книгу (размер 1 136 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 224) Аннотация: As Mrs Dalloway works on the preparations for a dinner party, her thoughts throughout the day wander from memories of the past to interrogations about the present and lead her to assess the choices she has made in life and love. Her monologue interweaves with the account of the distress, on that same day, of the shell-shocked veteran Septimus Warren Smith, whose trauma and hallucinations end in…
Скачать книгу (размер 1 401 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 276) Аннотация: Part of Alma Classics Fitzgerald's mini-series. Lavishly produced edition with flaps and b&w plates. A collection of early short stories which helped make Fitzgerald's name, Tales of the Jazz Age combines period pieces — the most notable of which is the novella-length 'May Day' — with more fanciful creations, such as the fantastical 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button', recently made into a…
Скачать книгу (размер 1 299 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 256) Аннотация: New translation of one of the most celebrated novels by the author of Fathers and Children. On his way back to Russia after some years spent in the West, Grigory Mikhailovich Litvinov, the son of a retired official of merchant stock, stops over in Baden-Baden to meet his fiancee Tatyana. However, a chance encounter with his old flame, the manipulative Irina — now married to a general and a…
Скачать книгу (размер 3 584 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 704) Аннотация: After spending several years in a sanatorium recovering from an illness that caused him to lose his memory and ability to reason, Prince Myshkin arrives in St Petersburg and is at once confronted with the stark realities of life in the Russian capital — from greed, murder and nihilism to passion, vanity and love. Mocked for his childlike naivety yet valued for his openness and understanding,…
Скачать книгу (размер 1 064 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 210) Аннотация: Published a year after The Great Gatsby, this short-story collection showcases many of the celebrated novel's themes, as well as its unique writing style. Two of the most famous tales, the beautifully elegiac 'The Rich Boy' and 'Winter Dreams', deal with wealthy protagonists — the old-money Anson Hunter and the self-made man Dexter Green — as they come to terms with lost love; while 'Absolution',…
Скачать книгу (размер 2 605 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 512) Аннотация: As a Fabian and lifelong socialist, Shaw believed that economic inequality was a poison destroying every aspect of our lives. Family affections and relations between the sexes were perverted by it. From Parliament to eduction our institutions were corrupted at the root by pecuniary interest. Idealism, integrity and piecemeal attempts at political reform were all futile in the face of the gross…
Скачать книгу (размер 973 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 192) Аннотация: Written between 1920 and 1921 while Bugakov was working in a hospital in the remote Caucasian outpost of Vladikavkaz, Notes on a Cuff is a series of journalistic sketches which show the young doctor trying to embark on a literary career among the chaos of war, disease, politics and bureaucracy.
Скачать книгу (размер 1 625 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 320) Аннотация: «Turgenev's final novel, Virgin Soil traces the destinies of several middle-class revolutionaries who seek to «go to the people» by working on the land and instilling democratic ideas in the countryside's locals. They include the daydreaming impoverished young tutor Nezhdanov — employed by the liberal councillor Sipyagin and his vain and beautiful wife Valentina — the naive young radical Maryanna…
Скачать книгу (размер 1 523 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 300) Аннотация: As he approaches his fortieth birthday, the introverted monk Seido Oda is ordered by his superior to leave behind his peaceful, quiet refuge in the remote mountains of Japan and set up a temple in Brooklyn's Little Calabria. There Oda is confronted with an uphill struggle to get to understand the ways of his new host country, and finds his patience and beliefs tested by a motley crew of misguided…
Скачать книгу (размер 1 462 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 288) Аннотация: In the Twilight, the third collection of short stories compiled by Anton Chekhov himself, was his first major success and won him the prestigious Pushkin Prize when it was published in 1887. This volume represents a clear milestone in the writer's passage from the youthful Antosha Chekhonte, author of slight comic sketches, to the mature master of the short-story genre.
Скачать книгу (размер 1 136 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 224) Аннотация: Inspired by Dostoevsky's own gambling addiction and written under pressure in order to pay off his creditors and retain his rights to his literary legacy, The Gambler is set in the casino of the fictional German spa town of Roulettenburg and follows the misfortunes of the young tutor Alexei Ivanovich. As he succumbs to the temptations of the roulette table, he finds himself engaged in a battle of…
Скачать книгу (размер 809 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 160) Аннотация: Professor Persikov, an eccentric zoologist, stumbles upon a new light ray that accelerates growth and reproduction rates in living organisms. In the wake of a plague that has decimated the country's poultry stocks, Persikov's discovery is exploited as a means to correct the problem. As foreign agents, the state and the Soviet media all seize upon the red ray, matters get out of hand.
Скачать книгу (размер 1 136 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 224) Аннотация: After being saved from a suicide attempt by a literary editor, the journalist and failed novelist Sergei Maxudov has a book suddenly accepted for stage adaptation at a prestigious venue and finds himself propelled into Moscow's theatrical world. In a cut-throat environment tainted by Soviet politics, censorship and egomania — epitomized by the arrogant and incompetent director Ivan Vasilyevich —…
Скачать книгу (размер 952 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 188) Аннотация: Written in the 1830s and early 1840s, these comic stories tackle life behind the cold and elegant facade of the Imperial capital from the viewpoints of various characters, such as a collegiate assessor who one day finds that his nose has detached itself from his face and risen the ranks to become a state councillor ('The Nose'), a painter and a lieutenant whose romantic pursuits meet with…
Скачать книгу (размер 1 299 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 256) Аннотация: Set in the year after the 1929 crash and incorporating many autobiographical elements, 'Babylon Revisited' tells the story of the widower Charlie Wales, a reformed alcoholic and successful businessman returning to Paris to convince his in-laws to give him back the daughter he abandoned. As the old haunts of the city he used to carouse in seem more and more alien to him, he finds himself assailed…
Скачать книгу (размер 809 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 160) Аннотация: A Hollywood hack who has fallen on hard times since the end of the Silent Era, Pat Hobby spends his time hanging out in the studio lot attempting to devise schemes — such as pressing his secretary for blackmail material against a studio executive — to get more work and earn on-screen credits. Oblivious to his own shortcomings and filled with feelings of self-importance, he embarks on a course…