万本电子书0元读

万本电子书0元读

The Dream and the Glory
The Dream and the Glory
Barbara Cartland
¥40.79
Staying at the British Ambassador’s exquisite Bay of Naples Villa, beautiful young Cordelia and her brother David, the Earl of Hunstanton, are far from the Berkshire estate that is their home. But since the death of their parents there has been nothing to stop David realising his dream – to go to Malta and become a Knight of St. John. Except, that is, the money to finance a ship to take him there. So when, out of the blue, a handsome, English buccaneer appears, who turns out to be none other than their cousin, Mark Stanton, he seems Heaven-sent. As Captain of a ship en route to Malta, he is in position to offer them passage to the island. To their chagrin, however, he attempts to dissuade David from his Pilgrimage and Cordelia from her notion of joining a Convent. But, when the siblings resist his appeals and press ahead, Mark vows to protect them both from the perils not only of David’s Maltese Crusade but also of the Napoleonic War, Barbary pirates in the Mediterranean and the scheming snobbery of Neapolitan Society. Valiant Mark saves Cordelia from the lecherous clutches of the Duca di Belina and from the terrors or war against the French, but he cannot protect David from a noble death in battle protecting Malta, nor his own heart from falling hopelessly in love.
The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
Daniel Defoe
¥40.79
Set on a tropical island where Robinson Crusoe found himself after a terrible storm at sea, we follow his life and adventures far away from civilization. A novel which has inspired countless imitations and adaptations, remains one of the most original and inspiring stories in the English language.
Dead Souls
Dead Souls
Nikolai Gogol
¥40.79
Chichikov, a gentleman of middling social class and position arrives in a small town and quickly tries to make a good name for himself by impressing the officials of the town. Despite his limited funds, he spends extravagantly hoping that a great show of wealth and power at the start will gain him the connections he needs to carry out his mysterious plan to acquire 'dead souls.'
The Hound of the Baskervilles
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Conan Doyle
¥40.79
The Hound of the Baskervilles is one of the four crime novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in which detective Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson investigate the legend of a supernatural beast that may have been trained to murder Sir Henry Baskerville on the fog-shrouded moorland that makes up his estate.
Frankenstein
Frankenstein
Mary Shelley
¥40.79
A landmark work of romantic and gothic literature, as well as science fiction, the novel's storyline emerged from a dream and Shelley's own travels of the region in which the story unfolds. Mary Shelley started writing the story when she was just eighteen.
Agamemnon
Agamemnon
Aeschylus
¥40.79
A watchman on top of the house, reporting that he has been lying restless there like a dog for a year, for so rules the expectant manly-willed heart of a woman (that woman being Clytemnestra awaiting the return of her husband, who has arranged that mountaintop beacons give the signal when Troy has fallen). He laments the fortunes of the house, but promises to keep silent: 'A huge ox has stepped onto my tongue.' However, when Agamemnon returns, he brings with him Cassandra, the enslaved daughter of the Trojan king, Priam, and a priestess of Apollo, as his concubine, further angering Clytemnestra.
The Choephori
The Choephori
Aeschylus
¥40.79
Orestes arrives at the grave of his father, accompanied by his cousin Pylades, the son of the king of Phocis, where he has grown up in exile; he places two locks of his hair on the tomb. Orestes and Pylades hide as Electra, Orestes' sister, arrives at the grave accompanied by a chorus of elderly slave women (the libation bearers of the title) to pour libations on Agamemnon's grave; they have been sent by Clytemnestra in an effort to ward off harm. Just as the ritual ends, Electra spots a lock of hair on the tomb which she recognizes as similar to her own; subsequently she sees two sets of footprints, one of which has proportions similar to hers. At this point Orestes and Pylades emerge from their hiding place and Orestes gradually convinces her of his identity.
The Persians
The Persians
Aeschylus
¥40.79
The Persians takes place in Susa, which at the time was one of the capitals of the Persian Empire, and opens with a chorus of old men of Susa, who are soon joined by the Queen Mother, Atossa, as they await news of her son King Xerxes' expedition against the Greeks. Expressing her anxiety and unease, Atossa narrates what is probably the first dream sequence in European theatre.
The Knights
The Knights
Aristophanes
¥40.79
The Knights is a satire on political and social life in 5th-century BC Athens, the characters are drawn from real life and Cleon is clearly intended to be the villain. However it is also an allegory, the characters are figures of fantasy and the villain in this context is Paphlagonian, a comic monstrosity responsible for almost everything that's wrong with the world.
Da Vinci Notebooks
Da Vinci Notebooks
Leonardo Da Vinci
¥40.79
A singular fatality has ruled the destiny of nearly all the most famous of Leonardo da Vinci's works. Two of the three most important were never completed, obstacles having arisen during his life-time, which obliged him to leave them unfinished; namely the Sforza Monument and the Wall-painting of the Battle of Anghiari, while the third—the picture of the Last Supper at Milan—has suffered irremediable injury from decay and the repeated restorations to which it was recklessly subjected during the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries. Nevertheless, no other picture of the Renaissance has become so wellknown and popular through copies of every description.
Summer
Summer
Edith Wharton
¥40.79
Charity Royall is eighteen, bored with life in the small town of North Dormer. While working at the library, Charity meets visiting architect Lucius Harney and they become friends. Will their growing closeness lead to a happy marriage? Charity was born in an impoverished mountain community and her life is complicated by Mr. Royall who intruded into her bedroom when she was seventeen and later urged her to marry him. Lucius starts an affair with Charity Royall, all the while hiding the fact that he is engaged to society girl Annabel Balch.
From the Earth to the Moon; and, Round the Moon
From the Earth to the Moon; and, Round the Moon
Jules Verne
¥40.79
The Gun Club, a society based in Baltimore and dedicated to the design of weapons of all kinds, come up with a plan to construct a cannon capable of shooting a projectile to the moon. The projectile is successfully launched, but the destinies of the three astronauts are left inconclusive. The sequel, Around the Moon, deals with what happens to the three men in their travel from the earth to the moon.
Ten Years Later
Ten Years Later
Alexandre Dumas
¥40.79
In this continuing sequel to The Three Musketeers, d'Artagnan discovers Belle-Isle is being fortified and the engineer ostensibly in charge is Porthos. The blueprints show Aramis' handwriting. Despite his friends, d'Artagnan hides the true reason for his presence. Aramis, suspicious of d'Artagnan, sends Porthos back to Paris to warn Fouquet, whilst tricking d'Artagnan into searching for Porthos around Vannes. Porthos warns Fouquet in time, and he cedes Belle-Ile to the king, humiliating Colbert. On returning from the mission, d'Artagnan is made Captain of the King's Musketeers.
The Marble Faun
The Marble Faun
Nathaniel Hawthorne
¥40.79
The Marble Faun, a romance set in beautiful Italy tells the story of Miriam, the painter with an unknown past. Throughout the novel, she is compared to many other women including Eve, Beatrice Cenci, Judith, and Cleopatra. Miriam is pursued by a mysterious, threatening man who is her evil genius through life.
Leviathan
Leviathan
Thomas Hobbes
¥40.79
Leviathan is one of the earliest and most influential examples of social contract theory. A classic western work on statecraft comparable to Machiavelli's The Prince. Written during the English Civil War (1642–1651), Leviathan argues for a social contract and rule by an absolute sovereign.
The Apologia
The Apologia
Apuleius
¥40.79
The story is based around incident when Apuleius was accused of using magic to gain the attentions and fortune of a wealthy widow. He declaimed and then distributed a witty tour de force in his own defense before the proconsul and a court of magistrates convened in Sabratha, near ancient Tripoli, Libya.
Lysistrata
Lysistrata
Aristophanes
¥40.79
Lysistrata is a comedy originally performed in classical Athens in 411 BC. A comic account of one woman's extraordinary mission to end the Peloponnesian War. Lysistrata persuades the women of Greece to withhold sexual privileges from their husbands and lovers as a means of forcing the men to negotiate peace—a strategy, however, that inflames the battle between the sexes. The play is notable for being an early exposé of sexual relations in a male-dominated society.
The Thesmophoriazusae
The Thesmophoriazusae
Aristophanes
¥40.79
Today the women at the festival are going to kill me for insulting them!' This bold statement by Euripides is the absurd premise upon which the whole play depends. The women are incensed by his plays' portrayal of the female sex as mad, murderous, and sexually depraved, and they are using the festival of the Thesmophoria (an annual fertility celebration dedicated to Demeter) as an opportunity to debate a suitable choice of revenge.
Arabian Nights
Arabian Nights
Neil Duffield
¥40.79
When Sheherazad is brought to the palace to be the Sultan’s new bride, her very life depends upon her skill as a storyteller. She tells him tales of lost cities and buried treasure, of slave girls and robbers, of genies in bottles and evil sorcerers. But will it be enough to save her? The stories of the Arabian Nights date back more than a thousand years and originate from Persia, India and Arabia. Neil Duffield has combined elements of many of them, keeping alive the excitement and humour to produce a show which will transport the audience into a world of myth and legend where fantasy and reality can never be separated.
Combustion
Combustion
Asif Khan
¥40.79
Bradford, in the month of Ramadan. Shaz, a local garage mechanic, is trying to keep his business going despite the terrible scandal of Asian men involved in grooming young girls for sex in the area. A protest march through the city is planned and Samina, Shaz’s sister wants to make a speech at a counter-demonstration for Peace. Shaz just wants a quiet life so that his prospective in-laws will let him marry their beautiful daughter, but as the city gets swept up in the protest, his world gets turned upside down. Asif Khan’s debut play is a fabulously comic take on the combustion surrounding young British Muslim lives.
The Libation Bearers
The Libation Bearers
Aeschylus
¥40.79
Orestes arrives at the grave of his father, accompanied by his cousin Pylades, the son of the king of Phocis, where he has grown up in exile; he places two locks of his hair on the tomb. Orestes and Pylades hide as Electra, Orestes' sister, arrives at the grave accompanied by a chorus of elderly slave women (the libation bearers of the title) to pour libations on Agamemnon's grave; they have been sent by Clytemnestra in an effort to ward off harm. Just as the ritual ends, Electra spots a lock of hair on the tomb which she recognizes as similar to her own; subsequently she sees two sets of footprints, one of which has proportions similar to hers. At this point Orestes and Pylades emerge from their hiding place and Orestes gradually convinces her of his identity.