Joseph Conrad was a Polish-British writer regarded as one of the greatest novelists to write in the English language. Under Western Eyes is a story of Razumov, who unwittingly becomes embroiled in a revolutionary conspiracy when he gives refuge to a fellow student who assassinated a public official. Increasingly enmeshed in the radical`s political intrigue, he betrays the anarchist who had placed blind faith in him. The authorities then dispatch Razumov on a mission to spy on the revolutionary`s sister and mother. A fascinating character study, Under Western Eyes hauntingly reveals Razumov`s preoccupation with questions of decency and accountability when confronted by the equally powerful values of human integrity and moral strength.
Charlotte Bronte was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Bronte sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novels have become classics of English literature. The novel Villette reflects her profound loneliness following the deaths of her three siblings. Lucy Snowe, the narrator of this book, flees from an unhappy past in England to begin a new life as a teacher at a French boarding school in the great cosmopolitan capital of Villette. Soon Lucy`s struggle for independence is overshadowed by both her friendship with a worldly English doctor and her feelings for an autocratic schoolmaster. Bronte`s strikingly modern heroine must decide if there is any man in her society with whom she can live and still be free. .
Sir Henry Rider Haggard was an English writer of adventure novels set mostly in Africa, and a founder of the Lost World literary genre. When the World Shook is a story of Arbuthnot who has a sudden urge to travel to the Pacific islands after his wife`s death. He gets on a yacht with two friends, Bickley, a doctor, Bastin, a minister, and Arbuthnot`s dog, Tommy. The craft is then taken by a cyclone after all the crew abandons ship. When the three adventurers awaken, they find themselves shipwrecked on the South Sea island of Orofena.
James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the first half of the 19th century. His historical romances of frontier and Indian life in the early American days created a unique form of American literature. The Wing-and-Wing; Or, Le Fcu-Follet is a classic story of love and sea warfare from one of America`s greatest novelists. Originally published in 1846, it is a captivating novel of seafaring adventure, romance, and Napoleonic history.
Joseph Conrad was a Polish-British writer regarded as one of the greatest novelists to write in the English language. Written at various times, under various influences, these short stories are linked by Conrad`s treatment of loyalty and betrayal. Typhoon is the story of one unremarkable steamship captain, pitted against a storm of incredible fury. Captain MacWhirr has a reputation as a solid, steadfast man, who "having just enough imagination to carry him through each successive day, and no more" cannot fully believe any storm would be a match for his powerful ship. When the barometer and other clues begin to hint at trouble ahead, he is only moderately concerned and unwilling to change course and lose precious time-a decision that may...
James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the first half of the 19th century. His historical romances of frontier and Indian life in the early American days created a unique form of American literature. Wyandotte is set in New York state during the American Revolution. The main character of the novel is an Indian, "Saucy Nick", also called Wyandotte ("Great Chief), whose depictions violate stereo types of Native Americans. The novel Wyandotte arrived at a time when a patriotic mythology about the American Revolution was developing, and Cooper`s somber tale of the sufferings of an isolated family in upstate New York during the Revolution was not congruent with the celebratory stories then being told.
