Alexandre Dumas weaves the compelling story of Siamese twins who are separated physically but never in spirit. When one of the brothers is murdered, the other leaves Corsica for Paris to avenge the killing. Dumas brings this thrilling tale to life with his fascinating descriptions of Italy and France and his powerful portrayal of the undying love of brother for brother.

Part local legend of a dark and dangerous Wolf-Leader, part childhood memories of his home near Villers-Cotterets, in Aisne, Dumas here penned a chilling supernaturlal encounter between man and the devil. Our hero, Thibault the shoemaker, is beaten on the orders of the Lord of Vez for hunting in the lord's forest. With Thibault's resentment at his treatment by the world at its height, the devil sees his chance and, in the guise of a wolf, proposes a deal which Thibault accepts; the ever available trade of one's soul for evil power...

This is the first volume of Dumas' Marie Antoinette Romances . This historical fiction chronicles the strange events surrounding the fall of the French monarchy and rise of revolutionaries so terrifying that the period is still called "The Reign of Terrors" . In this volume, a renowned magician, Count Alessandro di Cagliostro , employs various occult tactics, like hypnotism and necromancy, to gain state secrets. Balsamo claims to be plotting against the Bourbons, but one must wonder whether this 3000 year old sorcerer has an ulterior motive... - Summary by jvanstan

This 2nd volume of the Marie Antoinette Romances continues the intrigues of "Balsamo, The Magician" and adds to them the schemes of philosophers and the stirrings of revolution. Balsamo carries on his occult tactics to weaponize the state secrets that he gained in the previous volume. A serious romance and illness takes root in the court of King Louis XV, convincing one of the leading philosophic minds of the era, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, that “the breath of heaven will blast an age and a monarchy.” - Summary by jvanstan

This 3rd volume of the Marie Antoinette Romances begins a decade after the close of "The Mesmerist’s Victim” and is based on a real scandal in Louis XVI’s court, commonly called “The Diamond Necklace Affair.” In this volume, the plotting of a powerful occultist, Count Cogliostro , collides with the long-festering resentments of a previous royal house, Jeanne de Valois , a growing popular movement for sociopolitical reform, and a shrinking supply of bread. It is easy to see how converging...

This 4th volume of the Marie Antoinette Romances begins several years after the close of "The Queen’s Necklace.” It describes the events leading up to and including the storming of the Bastile. Past plots of Count Balsamo to destroy the French monarchy are resurrected by the mysterious Dr. Gilbert – a student of Balsamo’s occult arts and the Enlightenment philosopher, Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Considered by many critics to be a highlight of the Marie Antoinette Romances, Dumas tells this quintessential story of the French Revolution through the lens of the people...

This 5th volume of the Marie Antoinette Romances begins after the fall of the Bastille and the March on Versailles, which forced Louis XVI and his court to be escorted back to Paris. In Paris, political factions battle over the fate of the nation, the royal family, and anyone with royalist sympathies. Our heroes and our anti-heroes must navigate the blood-streaked landscape while keeping their necks out of the guillotine. All the while, the prophetic Balsamo urges on the revolution: "the quantity of blood which must be shed before the sun rises on the free world ...

The Lady of the Camellias (French: La Dame aux camélias) is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils, first published in 1848, that was subsequently adapted for the stage. The Lady of the Camellias premiered at the Theatre de Vaudeville in Paris, France on February 2, 1852. An instant success, Giuseppe Verdi immediately set about to put the story to music. His work became the 1853 opera La Traviata with the female protagonist “Marguerite Gautier” renamed “Violetta Valéry”.

This volume was originally written in Dutch by John Esquemeling, and first published in Amsterdam in 1678 under the title of De Americaeneche Zee Roovers. It immediately became very popular and this first hand history of the Buccaneers of America was soon translated into the principal European languages. The first English edition was printed in 1684. Esquemeling served the Buccaneers in the capacity of barber-surgeon, and was present at all their exploits. Little did he suspect that his first hand observations would some day be cherished as the only authentic and true history of the Buccaneers and Marooners of the Spanish Main...

Arguably, one of the most influential and insightful pieces of work concerned with American political life, Democracy in America directs itself towards American politics and society, and is considered to be one the best books written on the subject. Published in 2 volumes, in 1835 and 1840, Tocqueville records his findings after studying the thriving nation in his nine month exploratory journey. The young French aristocrat first came to America on an official assignment to study the American penal system, but instead used this as a pretext to study American society...

Soyer was a 'celebrity chef', devising innovations such as water-cooled refrigerators and adjustable temperature ovens. He developed many popular recipes and catered for 2000 guests at Queen Victoria's coronation celebration. He had a social conscience and donated a penny for every mean sold, to help alleviate the Irish famine. During the Crimean War, he laid the foundations for the future British Army Catering Corps. He is credited with writing several books, including 'The Shilling Cookery Book for the People' and 'The Poor Man's Regenerator'. In this volume, he traces the history of food, food production, preparation and dining experiences. - Summary by Lynne Thompson

Not a complete history of tea, but a pleasant diversion concerning tea, the pleasures found in its drinking, effects, benefits, cautions, etc. Sprinkled with poetry and excerpts from historical personages and the occasional sermon. - Summary by KevinS

Not all of the English poets laureate have been the greatest masters of verse. Alfred Austin, who assumed this post after Alfred Lord Tennyson, was one of the less distinguished - if more prolific - late Victorian poets. In modern times, his verse has become celebrated not for its smooth earnestness, but rather for the occasional howlers it contains. A notable example is this song from his pastoral epic Fortunatus the Pessimist, the final couplet of which is a popular favourite in anthologies of bad verse. - Summary by Algy Pug

Ayres arranges usage problems alphabetically and treats certain areas in greater detail as he sees fit. For example, his first entry is A-AN (articles). His second is ABILITY-CAPACITY, in which he distinguishes between the meanings. The alphabetical arrangement continues through to YOURS. (Introduction by Bill Boerst)

Science fiction from the 50s by one of the masters, Alfred Bester. Society has committed itself to complete stability. Nothing is allowed to upset this stability, nothing that is not planned and approved and accounted for in advance. Yes, this is hard to imagine but this has produced decades, nay, centuries of predictable prosperity and peace. Even the newspapers have very little to write about. One reporter however is curious about the "Prog" building, where pronouncements are issued every day just as Moses issued the commandments...

Today, almost every layperson understands the concept of intelligence tests and can glibly discuss IQ scores. In fact, these have become so common in the popular imagination that magazines, websites and pop quizzes offer to assess your intelligence at the drop of a hat! In this scenario, it's interesting to recall the very first person who proposed the concept of measurable intelligence. Alfred Binet was basically a clinical psychologist whose wide-ranging interests in learning difficulties faced by school children prompted him to undertake extensive studies in human cognition, psychology, learning and behavior...

Great as is the debt of gratitude which the brewing industry owes to the labours of scientific men, it has been more than repaid by the immense services which that industry has indirectly rendered to the advancement of modern science. It may be said without exaggeration that in respect of the number of scientific investigations of the first order of importance to which it has given rise, the brewing industry stands easily preeminent among the industries of mankind, and that without the stimulus furnished...

In this autobiographic novel, an aging man reflects on his past. We are witness to the relationships he has along the way, his mistakes, and finally- in the most unexpected and honorable way- the sudden developement of his belief in god.

Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish captain in the French Army was court martialed in 1894 on a trumped up charge of treason and condemned to life imprisonment on Devil’s island, a penal colony off French Guiana. His prison diary, published as Five Years of My Life in 1901 is a heroic tale of survival against daunting odds: isolation, deprivation, torture . . Alfred left behind in Paris his wife Lucie, who, forbidden to join her husband in exile, struggled to protect their two children from the rampant anti-Semitism that swirled about them, while she begged her husband to hold onto life as she tried to clear his name...

Twenty-four short stories by famous and not-so-famous British authors.

This work is a look at the life and ideas of Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher of the seventeenth century. The most important ideas are found in his famous work Leviathan. Taylor looks at such concepts of Hobbes as the contract, naturalism, sovereignty, natural laws, church and state, absolutism, and political obligation, etc.

This fictional work is written in 1st person by the dog himself. It's a cute story of the adventures in the life of a noble dog who is appropriately named, Job. The canine society in which he lives is an interesting parallel to human society.

These biographical essays of British subjects were written in 1907-1908 for The Daily News newspaper and reflect their subjects as seen before the great cataclysm of World War I. Gardiner was a British newspaper editor, journalist, and author. His essays were and are highly regarded. - Summary by David Wales

Echoing Homer’s epic poem The Iliad, Church offers a simplified rendering of the classic siege of Troy, as he retells the story which is regarded as one of the greatest masterpieces of Western literature. The Iliad for Boys and Girls is written in an easy to follow style that is certain to provide clarity to the otherwise perplexing tale presented in Homer’s original. Furthermore, the tale explores various themes including the destructive nature of pride, grueling revenge, honor, and the capricious interference of the Ancient Greek gods in temporal affairs...

A brief history of the life Henry the Fifth. - Summary by KevinS

Alfred J. Church created 26 stories from the original Greek version of Virgil's Aeneid. He included well-known ones, such as "The Horse of Wood" and "The Love and Death of Dido," as well as many others perhaps less well-known, such as "King Evander" and "The Funeral Games of Anchises."

A retelling of the adventures of Ulysses, including his adventures both the Cyclops and Circe, as he journeys home to his home of Ithaca. The story then continues to include his quest to rejoin his wife and family of whom he has been separated from for twenty years. This is Homer's Odyssey for the younger set.

"I doubt that anyone who reads [Born Again] will ever forget it: it is quite singularly bad, with long undigestible rants against the evils of the world, an impossibly idealistic Utopian prescription for the said evils, and - as you will have gathered - a very silly plot." - oddbooks.co.ukAlfred Lawson was a veritable Renaissance man: a professional baseball player, a luminary in the field of aviation, an outspoken advocate of vegetarianism and economic reform, and the founder of a pseudo-scientific crackpot philosophy called Lawsonomy...

“The most valuable of all capital is that invested in human beings.” An uncannily prophetic quote from an 1890 book, Principles of Economics by Alfred Marshall presents an idea that has been accepted by major corporations and governments all over the world today. People's understanding of market behavior and how industries operate has its roots in the work done by European economists more than a century ago. Little has changed in terms of principles, though the effects of globalization and technology resulted an unmistakable impact on how business is done today...

If you love and cherish old English nursery rhymes and have fond memories of your early childhood years, Our Old Nursery Rhymes by Alfred Moffat published in 1911 is indeed the little book for you! Or as a parent, if you'd like your own children to share the magic, this book provides them all. One of the most appealing aspects of this charming book is that the rhymes are all set to music and if you're musically inclined, you can certainly keep yourself and your children entertained by playing these pretty tunes...

In The Concept of Nature, Alfred North Whitehead discusses the interrelatedness of time, space, and human perception.The idea of objects as ‘occasions of experience’, arguments against body-mind duality and the search for an all-encompassing ‘philosophy of nature’ are examined, with specific reference to contemporary (Einstein, with whose theory of relativity he has some complaints) and ancient (Plato, Aristotle) approaches.

Alfred Noyes, in the blank-verse epic "Drake", fictionalizes the historical Francis Drake, who, during the reign of Elizabeth I of England, sailed (and plundered) on the Spanish Main and beyond.

This is not heart warming holiday fare. It is a short (one-act) unsubtle antiwar play by the English poet Alfred Noyes (1880-1958), published in 1915 while World War I is in progress. Part of the work is in verse. Music sung by Duane Steadman.

In 1908, the National Monetary Commission was established by Congress to study financial boom-and-bust cycles. Senator Nelson Aldrich was chair of the commission. He, in secret enclave with a group of bankers, drafted what was called The Aldrich Plan, which provided for a central "bank" that would hold funds individual banks could borrow in the case of a bank run, print currency, and act as the fiscal agent of the US government. However, the plan gave little power to the government and seemed to give almost absolute control of the country's currency to Wall Street financiers...

This is a collection of essays on English village life in the late nineteenth century. The essay “My Rector” was the focus of some controversy when published. Alfred Pretor was an English Cambridge don and classicist, author, and translator. - Summary by David Wales

In 1907 Wallace wrote the short book Is Mars Habitable? to criticize the claims made by Percival Lowell that there were Martian canals built by intelligent beings. Wallace did months of research, consulted various experts, and produced his own scientific analysis of the Martian climate and atmospheric conditions. Among other things Wallace pointed out that spectroscopic analysis had shown no signs of water vapor in the Martian atmosphere, that Lowell’s analysis of Mars’ climate was seriously flawed and badly overestimated the surface temperature, and that low atmospheric pressure would make liquid water, let alone a planet girding irrigation system, impossible.

British dramatist Alfred Sutro's collection contains five one act plays: "The Man in the Stalls," "A Marriage Has Been Arranged…", "The Man on the Kerb," "The Open Door," and "The Bracelet." The plays are performed by Amanda Friday, Libby Gohn, Elizabeth Klett, mb, Bob Neufeld, Caprisha Page, Bruce Pirie, and Algy Pug.

Mollentrave has written a “Love Doctor” book for men entitled “Mollentrave on Women” which purports to give any man the “Midas Touch” with the fairer sex. But as King Midas could’ve told us, these things have a way of backfiring… - Summary by Son of the Exiles Cast list: Mr. Mollentrave: azureblue Sir Joseph Balsted, K.C., M.P.: Mike Manolakes Everard Swenboys: Ethan Hurst Lord Contareen: Adrian Stephens Mr. Dexter: ToddHW Mr. Noyes: Alan Mapstone Peters, Sir Joseph’s Butler: Cavaet Martin, Mollentrave’s Butler: David Purdy Lady Claude Derenham: JennPratt Margaret Messilent: Nichole James Miss Treable: Joanna Michal Hoyt Mrs...

This book is a brief, but cogent discussion of Western philosophy-- from Francis Bacon and Giordano Bruno through Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz, Hume, Berkeley and Kant, the German idealists and Hegel, and ending with such nineteenth century luminaries as Mill, Spencer, and Nietzsche. Enchanted with Copernicus, Bruno goes to the stake for positing an infinity of inhabited worlds. Descartes, a professed skeptic, manages to justify everything the Jesuits taught him at La Flèche, while Spinoza, in mystical awe, envisions a pantheistic cosmos in which thought and extension are one and the same thing--God...

In Memoriam is Tennyson’s elegiac tribute to his friend Arthur Henry Hallam, who died in 1833 at the age of 22. Tennyson wrote this long poem over 17 years as a chronicle of his mourning process. The poem became a favorite of Queen Victoria when she was grieving for her husband, and was one of the most popular and artistically influential poems of the Victorian period.

Idylls of the King, published between 1856 and 1885, is a cycle of twelve narrative poems by the English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson which retells the legend of King Arthur, his knights, his love for Guinevere and her tragic betrayal of him, and the rise and fall of Arthur's kingdom. The whole work recounts Arthur's attempt and failure to lift up mankind and create a perfect kingdom, from his coming to power to his death at the hands of the traitor Mordred. Individual poems detail the deeds of various knights, including Lancelot, Geraint, Galahad, and Balin and Balan, and also Merlin and the Lady of the Lake.

The Princess is a serio-comic blank verse narrative poem, written by Alfred Tennyson, published in 1847. The poem tells the story of an heroic princess who forswears the world of men and founds a women's university where men are forbidden to enter. The prince to whom she was betrothed in infancy enters the university with two friends, disguised as women students. They are discovered and flee, but eventually they fight a battle for the princess's hand.

In the poem "Enoch Arden," Tennyson's epic narrative of the enduring power of love in the face of insurmountable odds, is found a classic example of the determination of the human spirit to triumph in circumstances that address the true meaning of the power of love itself. Wanting only the very best for his impoverished wife and family, seaman Enoch Arden undertakes precarious work which leaves him marooned and presumed lost at sea. On his return home Enoch finds his family well and prospering but his wife remarried...

This is Tennyson at his best. This is Tennyson, the master poet at his most descriptive, his most insightful, his most enlightening. This set of four poems has been carefully selected to depict life and life journeys - journeys that encompass timelessness and tragedy, fragility and hope - in ways that illuminate the constant cloud of wonder surrounding the ephemeral quality of existence. These are four magnificent poems that speak of life, its tragedies, its loneliness, its dangers and its brevity in a superb juxtaposition with the enduring and unchanging character of the natural world...

volunteers bring you 21 recordings of The eagle by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. This was the Weekly Poetry project for September 18, 2022. ------ "A single line, nay, a single word, and a scene is by magic before us, as here where the sea is looked down upon from an immense height:— The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls.

This amazing collection of some of Tennyson's best and most capricious poems takes us on a whimsical voyage, an allegorical voyage like no other - and we will be in good hands for at the tiller is Lord Tennyson himself. We will be guided by this master poet through a fantastic imaginary world of things that may exist, things that are, and those that may lie ahead. Our explorations will be wide-ranging as we consider with the poet, other life forms and existences and go on to explore diverse reactions to the events and pathos of lives extended to their fullest and the passion involved when the weight of lives lived as victims are realized to be wanting, melancholy and dismal...

Surely everyone knows “Maud”? Isn’t that the Victorian love song, where the man waits by the garden gate for his lover to appear for a secret rendezvous? Well, that may be the song, but Tennyson’s poem is longer and very much darker. It deals not with love but with the obsession of an unstable young man with the seventeen-year-old Maud, and his gradual descent into madness. The poem’s narrator has been excluded from an evening ball being held at Maud’s home, The Hall, and has climbed into her garden uninvited, convincing himself by a misreading the Language of Flowers that she has sent him a love-token in the form of a rose blossom...

This poem was published just six weeks after the event, its lines emphasize the valour of the cavalry in bravely carrying out their orders, regardless of the obvious outcome. The Charge of the Light Brigade was a charge of British light cavalry led by Lord Cardigan against Russian forces during the Battle of Balaclava on 25 October 1854 in the Crimean War. Lord Raglan, overall commander of the British forces, had intended to send the Light Brigade to pursue and harry a retreating Russian artillery battery, a task well-suited to light cavalry...

A collection of poems by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, his first book of poetry after having become poet laureate in 1850. Among the "other poems" is The Charge of the Light Brigade, the most well-known poem in this collection. However, the bulk of the text is the poem Maud, which explores love, courtship, loss, grief, and purpose through the eyes of the emotionally unstable poet narrator.

The story of Innocencia, an 18-year-old girl who lives in the prairies of Brazil, is a twist on the traditional love triangle. The plot has been compared to the more famous "Paul and Virginie" and "Romeo and Juliet", but it takes place on the dropback of the loneliness of the sparsely populated backregions in 19th century Brazil, visited by a German naturalist in search of new species of insects, Dr. Meyer, who unsuspectedly finds himself caught in a complicated maze of jealousy, love and distrust. Inocencia was the first book by a Brazilian writer to be translated into English, as the translator states in his preface. - Summary by Leni

A tale of horror in which a pleasant sojourn down the Danube tumbles terrifyingly awry as the veil between this world and an unfathomably weird dimension is inadvertently pierced by an innocent pair of vacationers, “The Willows”, arguably Algernon Blackwood’s seminal contribution to supernatural literature, has had a lasting influence on the field. No less a personage than H. P. Lovecraft describing it as “…the greatest weird tale ever written.” A reading will reveal a clear influence to one familiar with Lovecraft’s work...

A party of campers on a deserted Baltic island is terrorized by a huge wolf… or is it?

A supernatural fantasy about the mystical adventures of a lonely English boy named Jimbo–who can fly! It’s really quite beautiful and can be enjoyed by adults and teenagers alike. Be warned, however: The death of a beloved character and a creepy old house haunted by the wraith-like spirits of children makes some of this story far too scary for younger kids or indeed anyone of a sensitive disposition. Algernon Blackwood (1869-1951) was born in south London and wrote many tales of the supernatural.

Another camper tale, this time set in the Canadian wilderness. A hunting party separates to track moose, and one member is abducted by the Wendigo of legend. Robert Aickman regarded this as "one of the (possibly) six great masterpieces in the field".

The story of a man’s deep connection with nature and his wife’s fear of it.

Four stories: The Insanity of Jones, The Man Who Found Out, The Glamour of the Snow, and Sand. Tales by one the greatest practitioners of supernatural literature. Reincarnation, the Occult, and mystery.

Six stories about Dr. John Silence if you want the shivers to run up your back, this is the right place to be

"The Willows" is one of Algernon Blackwood's best known creepy stories. American horror author H.P. Lovecraft considered it to be the finest supernatural tale in English literature. He wrote in his treatise "Supernatural Horror in Literature", "Here art and restraint in narrative reach their very highest development, and an impression of lasting poignancy is produced without a single strained passage or a single false note." "The Willows" is an example of early modern horror and is connected within the literary tradition of weird fiction.

Fifteen short stories by Algernon Henry Blackwood, CBE (1869 – 1951), an English short story writer and novelist, one of the most prolific writers of ghost stories in the history of the genre. He was also a journalist and a broadcasting narrator. S. T. Joshi has stated that "his work is more consistently meritorious than any weird writer's except Dunsany's…"

"The Regeneration of Lord Ernie is a story about a young man with no passion for life, he was very capable and the heir to a large family fortune but just not interested in life. His father employs a teacher, John Hendricks, to take him on a world tour and try to inspire him. In the final stage of the tour in desperation he takes him to the Jura mountains, where he went as a young man, to visit a pastor he stayed with. During the stay they get involved with pagan worship that involves the transforming power of wind and fire, up in the mountains...