Books

Hazlitt wrote that of the three notable writers whom the eighteenth century had produced, in the North American colonies, one was “the author (whoever he was) of the American Farmer’s Letters.” Crevecoeur was that unknown author; and Hazlitt said further of him that he rendered, in his own vividly characteristic manner, “not only the objects, but the feelings, of a new country.” Great is the essayist’s relish for passages descriptive of “a battle between two snakes,” of “the dazzling, almost invisible flutter of the humming- bird’s wing,” of the manners of “the Nantucket people, their frank simplicity, and festive rejoicings after the perils and hardships of the whale-fishing.” “The power to sympathise with nature, without thinking of ourselves or others, if it is not a definition of genius, comes very near to it,” writes Hazlitt of our author. And his references to Crevecoeur are closed with the remark: “We have said enough of this ILLUSTRIOUS OBSCURE; for it is the rule of criticism to praise none but the over-praised, and to offer fresh incense to the idol of the day.”

The present compandium of letters and abridged memoirs written by the noted Russian short story writer Anton Pavlovich Chekhov to his family and friends was first published in this form in the year 1920.

An epistolary novel written by renowned French novelist Balzac, who is regarded as one of the founders of realism and a significant influence to later novelists, the novel focuses on two young women who preserve their friendship through regular correspondence. Originally published in the French newspaper La Presse in 1841 as a serial, the piece later became a part of Balzac’s distinguished novel sequence La Comédie Humaine, or The Human Comedy. Furthermore, Letters of Two Brides surrounds intriguing topics including love, romance, confusion, duty, and the complexity of relationships.

Sixteen of these Letters, which were written at the suggestion of the editor of the ‘St. James’s Gazette,’ appeared in that journal, from which they are now reprinted, by the editor’s kind permission. They have been somewhat emended, and a few additions have been made. The Letters to Horace, Byron, Isaak Walton, Chapelain, Ronsard, and Theocritus have not been published before.

The letters of the great Russian writer Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev to M me Pauline Viardot, the famous singer, have their story.
Lost or stolen, when the war of 1870 forced the Viardot family to leave Baden for London, these letters were found more than a quarter of a century later.
Naturally, Ms. Viardot wished to take possession of documents which she had never voluntarily divested, and to which she had all the moral and legal rights. On the other hand, the motives advanced by the present possessor to keep the letters were not without value either. He had found the precious package-among some unimportant papers-in a box he had bought from a Berlin bookstaller; he, in his turn, had acquired it from the widow of a French doctor, it seems; here, stop my investigation on the origin of the box.
Be that as it may, the last purchaser, a devoted admirer of Tourgueneff, made it his duty to preserve as a sacred deposit the correspondence which chance placed in his hands until the day when he could make it public, and he thought that this day could come only after the death of the recipient of the letters.
Since, in the end, the owner of the letters was less preoccupied with a pecuniary question than with the desire to surround this publication with better possible literary conditions, I end up persuading him of the real advantages that would be gained by living it. under the auspices of the famous artist.

Leviathan, or the Matter Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil’ is a book written by Thomas Hobbes and published in 1651. The work concerns the structure of society and legitimate government, and is regarded as one of the earliest and most influential examples of social contract theory.

Excerpt from Life and Adventures of Frank and Jesse James: The Noted Western Outlaws. Authentic and carefully written biographies of the famous Younger Brothers were also added, forming the second part of the present volume.

The present book ‘Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit’ is a classic fiction novel by one of the most celebrated and widely read writers of the nineteenth century – Charles Dickens. It was first published in the year 1844.

First published in the year 1680, the present book ‘Life and Death of Mr. Badman’ by John Bunyan was designed as a companion to The Pilgrim’s Progress. In this work, the two characters – Mr. Wiseman and Mr. Attentive have a dialogue about sin and redemption over the course of a long day.

This book attempts to explain in a clear and logical manner some of life’s mysteries. Mystery, of course is only absence of knowledge, for when we understand a thing it ceases to be a mystery. But since we never will know all, there will always be mysteries.

Life Is a Dream is a Spanish-language play by Pedro Calderón de la Barca. The play has been described as “the supreme example of Spanish Golden Age drama”. The story focuses on the fictional Segismundo, Prince of Poland, who has been imprisoned in a tower by his father, King Basilio, following a dire prophecy that the prince would bring disaster to the country and death to the King. Basilio briefly frees Segismundo, but when the prince goes on a rampage, the king imprisons him again, persuading him that it was all a dream.

His grandfather, Frederick George Goethe, who sprang from a family belonging to the working class, and was himself a tailor, made his way, in the latter part of the seventeenth century, from Artern on the Unstrut to Frankfort. Here he settled, and, early in the eighteenth century, took as his second wife a handsome widow of thirty-seven, Cornelia Schelhorn, the owner of the inn, “Zum Weidenhof.” Frederick George is said to have been a man of pleasant manners and a skilful musician. His second wife was in every way worthy of him, an energetic and kindly woman, with all the gracious qualities evoked in generous natures by prosperous circumstances. They had three children, of whom Johann Kaspar, Goethe’s father, born on the 27th of July, 1710, was the youngest.

Life on the Mississippi is Twain’s happiest book. Written early in his career, before the difficulties of his personal life had a chance to color his perception, and filled with reminiscent celebration of his time as a boy and man, as an apprentice and as a Mississippi steamboat pilot, it is a lively, affectionate tribute hardly muted by the fact that the world of the romantic pilots of the Mississippi had disappeared forever during the Civil War and the development of the railroads.

If a man walk in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer; but if he spends his whole day as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making earth bald before her time, he is esteemed an industrious and enterprising citizen. As if a town had no interest in its forests but to cut them down! — From the Book

An eminent German geologist has characterized the discovery of fossils in the Laurentian rocks of Canada as “the opening of a new era in geological science.” Believing this to be no exaggeration, I have felt it to be a duty incumbent on those who have been the apostles of this new era, to make its significance as widely known as possible to all who take any interest in scientific subjects, as well as to those naturalists and geologists who may not have had their attention turned to this special topic.

Life’s Little Ironies’ is a collection of short stories by Thomas Hardy, who is known as one of Victorian era’s best English novelists.

In this 1912 work, James Allen tackles the myriad of problems facing the world and all its people from a perspective of mind over matter.

Lightfoot stamped his hoofs on the hard rocks, shook his horns, wiggled the little bunch of whiskers that hung beneath his chin, and called to another goat who was not far away:
“I’m going up on the high rocks!”
“Oh, you’d better not,” said Blackie. “If you go up there you may slip and fall down here and hurt yourself, or some of the big goats may chase you back.”
“Well, if they do I’ll just jump down again,” went on Lightfoot, as he stood on his hind legs.
“You can’t jump that far,” said Blackie, looking up toward the high rocks which were far above the heads of herself and Lightfoot.

The river is so fine, that before going to Bayonne I have come down as far as Royan. Ships heavy with white sails ascend slowly on both sides of the boat. At each gust of wind they incline like idle birds, lifting their long wing and showing their black belly. They run slantwise, then come back; one would say that they felt the better for being in this great fresh-water harbor; they loiter in it and enjoy its peace after leaving the wrath and inclemency of the ocean.

“This book is an effort to bridge the gulf between literary theory and literary practice. In these days of specialization it is more than ever true that the man who lectures and writes about the craft of writing seldom has the time or the inclination to show, by actual work, that he can apply his principles. On the other hand, the successful novelist, poet, or playwright devotes himself to his craft and seldom attempts to analyze and display the methods by which he obtains his effect, or even to state his opinion on matters intellectual and æsthetic.” -Introduction

And Black Jumbo went to the Bazaar and bought him a beautiful Green Umbrella and a lovely little Pair of Purple Shoes with Crimson Soles and Crimson Linings.

And then wasn’t Little Black Sambo grand?

He dropped over the stone wall and flattened to the ground. He looked warily about him like a young wolf, head down, eyes up. His name was Steven—but he’d forgotten that. His face was a sunburned, bitter, filthy eleven-year-old face—tight lips, lean cheeks, sharp blue eyes with startlingly clear whites. His clothes were rags—a pair of corduroy trousers without any knees; a man’s white shirt, far too big for him, full of holes, stained, reeking with sweat; a pair of dirty brown sneakers.
He lay, knife in hand, and waited to see if anyone had seen him coming over the wall or heard his almost soundless landing on the weedgrown dirt.

Cedric himself knew nothing whatever about it. It had never been even mentioned to him. He knew that his papa had been an Englishman, because his mamma had told him so; but then his papa had died when he was so little a boy that he could not remember very much about him, except that he was big, and had blue eyes and a long mustache, and that it was a splendid thing to be carried around the room on his shoulder. Since his papa’s death, Cedric had found out that it was best not to talk to his mamma about him.

First published in the year 1871, the present children’s fictional novel ‘Little Men’ by American author Louisa May Alcott reprises characters from Little Women and is considered by some the second book in an unofficial Little Women trilogy, which is completed with Alcott’s 1886 novel Jo’s Boys, and How They Turned Out: A Sequel to “Little Men”. It tells the story of Jo Bhaer and the children at Plumfield Estate School. It was inspired by the death of Alcott’s brother-in-law, which reveals itself in one of the last chapters, when a beloved character from Little Women passes away. (courtesy: wikipedia)

“Please, sir, is this Plumfield?” asked a ragged boy of the man who opened the great gate at which the omnibus left him.

“Yes. Who sent you?”

“Mr. Laurence. I have got a letter for the lady.”

“All right; go up to the house, and give it to her; she’ll see to you, little chap.”