Born in 1912, in a small town in Wyoming, Jackson Pollock embodied the American dream as the country found itself confronted with the realities of a modern era replacing the fading nineteenth century. Pollock left home in search of fame and fortune in New York City. Thanks to the Federal Art Project he quickly won acclaim, and after the Second World War became the biggest art celebrity in America. For De Kooning, Pollock was the “icebreaker”. For Max Ernst and Masson, Pollock was a fellow member of the European Surrealist movement. And for Motherwell, Pollock was a legitimate candidate for the status of the Master of the American School. During the many upheavals in his life in Nez York in the 1950s and 60s, Pollock lost his bearings - success had simply come too fast and too easily. It was during this period that he turned to alcohol and disintegrated his marriage to Lee Krasner. His life ended like that of 50s film icon James Dean behind the wheel of his Oldsmobile, after a night of

Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (June 1599 – August 6 1660), known as Diego Vélasquez, was a painter of the Spanish Golden Age who had considerable influence at the court of King Philip IV. Along with Francisco Goya and Le Greco, he is generally considered to be one of the greatest artists in Spanish history. His style, whilst remaining very personal, belongs firmly in the Baroque movement. Velázquez’s two visits to Italy, evidenced by documents from that time, had a strong effect on the manner in which his work evolved. Besides numerous paintings with historical and cultural value, Diego Vélasquez painted numerous portraits of the Spanish Royal Family, other major European figures, and even of commoners. His artistic talent, according to general opinion, reached its peak in 1656 with the completion of Las Meninas, his great masterpiece. In the first quarter of the 19th century, Velázquez's style was taken as a model by Realist and Impressionist painters, in particular by ?douard

Piet Mondrian (1872-1944), who can be assigned to the school of classical modernism, was born in Amersfort, Netherlands. After studying in Amsterdam, he started his artist?s career in the impressionist style as a figure and landscape painter. His works from these years showed the influence of Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) and of Fauvism, a French school from the beginning of the 20th century. When he traveled to Paris in 1911, he discovered Pablo Picasso?s works (1881-1973) and, with that, Cubism. He thereafter became a pioneer of abstract painting in the Netherlands. From the 1920s on, his paintings show a vertical and horizontal composition that, combined with the oppositions of blue, yellow, red, and noncolored spaces, turned into his trademark. His art was very appreciated in New York, where he spent his last years. Mondrian was not only a painter but also an art theoretician and cofounder of the art school De Stijl.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir was born in Limoges on 25 February 1841. In 1854, the boy’s parents took him from school and found a place for him in the Lévy brothers’ workshop, where he was to learn to paint porcelain. Renoir’s younger brother Edmond had this to say this about the move: “From what he drew in charcoal on the walls, they concluded that he had the ability for an artist’s profession. That was how our parents came to put him to learn the trade of porcelain painter.” One of the Lévys’ workers, Emile Laporte, painted in oils in his spare time. He suggested Renoir makes use of his canvases and paints. This offer resulted in the appearance of the first painting by the future impressionist. In 1862 Renoir passed the examinations and entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and, simultaneously, one of the independent studios, where instruction was given by Charles Gleyre, a professor at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. The second, perhaps even the first, great event of this period in Renoir’s life was

在弗里达·卡罗（Frida?Kahlo）的自画像背后，是她一生的故事。也正是因此，读者会被这本画集所深深吸引。弗里达的作品是她生命的记录，很少有艺术家如同弗里达一样，能够让我们从画框之间获得如此多的东西。弗里达·卡罗确实是墨西哥艺术史的礼物。当她年仅十八岁的时候，一场严重的车祸永远地改变了她的生命，她自此以后被残疾和频繁的疼痛所困扰。但是弗里达那火爆的个性、天然的决心和勤奋的工作造就了她的艺术才能。即使是花花公子的伟大画家迭戈·里维拉（Diego Rivera）也深深迷恋着她。弗里达靠自身的魅力、才能和智慧赢得了迭戈·里维拉，她也学会了依靠里维拉的成功来探索世界，从而在一群紧密的友人之中创造了自己独特的风格。她的私生活极其混乱，一方面她常常摆脱与迭戈的关系，另一方面她也深陷双性恋之中。不仅如此，弗里达和迭戈还不断拯救着他们之间分崩离析的关系。弗里达留给我们的故事和绘画作品为我们诠释了一个女人不断发现自我的勇者历程。

米开朗基罗（Michelangelo）的名字不断浮现在西斯廷教堂、阿波罗、丘比特等数不计数的杰作中。在《意大利绘画》（The Italian Painting）这本书中，作者司汤达写道：“在古希腊风物和米开朗基罗之间，没有任何距离，除了或多或少技术娴熟的伪造物。”在《漫步罗马》（Promenade in Rome）一书中，沙特布莱表达了对《圣母怜子像》（Pieta）中那些精致的线条的崇敬之情。诸如司汤达等大连古欧秀的作家将米开朗基罗视为西方艺术复兴的大家之一。毫无疑问，米开朗基罗的作品经历住了时间的考验。在若干年后，米开朗基罗的作品何以能够揭示希腊先驱们的创造性来源？米开朗基罗是创造性的天才和超人，是意大利文艺复兴中无与伦比的艺术家，他的影响力和成就与达芬奇可相媲美。在这本著作中， Jean-Matthieu Gosselin探讨了米开朗基罗所有的身份：雕塑家、建筑师、画家和美术家。

The Metamorphoses, or The Golden Ass, is the only Ancient Roman novel to survive in its entirety. The protagonist of the novel is called Lucius. At the end of the novel, he is revealed to be from Madaurus, in ancient Algeria, the hometown of Apuleius himself. The plot revolves around the protagonist's curiosity and insatiable desire to see and practice magic. While trying to perform a spell to transform into a bird, he is accidentally transformed into an ass. This leads to a long journey, literal and metaphorical, filled with in-set tales. He finally finds salvation through the intervention of the goddess Isis, whose cult he joins.

Referindu-se la Pesc?ru?ul ?ntr-o scrisoare din octombrie 1895, Cehov nota, ?ntre altele: ?Scriu o pies? pe care probabil nu o voi termina p?n? la sf?r?itul lui noiembrie. O scriu nu f?r? pl?cere, de?i m? tem de conven?iile scenei. E o comedie, exist? trei roluri pentru femei, ?ase pentru b?rba?i, patru acte, peisaje (priveli?tea unui lac), o mul?ime de conversa?ii despre literatur?, pu?in? ac?iune, mult? iubire“. Premiera s-a dovedit dezastruoas?, editorul s?u aduc?ndu-i acuze ca, pild?, la?itatea evident?, caracterul din cale afar? de feminin. Con?tient de geniul s?u, Cehov riposteaz?: ?De ce aceast? calomnie? Dup? reprezenta?ie am luat cina la Romanovi. Pe cuv?ntul meu de onoare. Apoi m-am dus la culcare, am dormit s?n?tos ?i a doua zi am mers acas? f?r? a suspina vreo nemul?umire. Dac? a? fi fost un la?, a? fi alergat de la un editor la altul ?i de la un actor la altul, i-a? fi implorat s? fie ?ng?duitori ?i a? fi petrecut dou? trei s?pt?m?ni ?n Petersburg, agit?ndu-m? cu Pesc?ru?ul meu, cu emo?ie, cu o transpira?ie rece ?n lamenta?ii. Am ac?ionat at?t de rece ?i de responsabil precum un om care a f?cut o ofert? ?i apoi a fost ?nt?mpinat cu un refuz ?i nu mai are nimic altceva de f?cut dec?t s? plece. ?ntr-adev?r, vanitatea mea a fost n?ucit?, dar ?ti?i, nu a fost o lovitur? din senin. A?teptam un e?ec ?i m? preg?tisem pentru el precum te-am prevenit cu o absolut? sinceritate“.

Candide is characterised by its sarcastic tone, as well as by its erratic, fantastical and fast-moving plot. A picaresque novel with a story similar to that of a more serious bildungsroman, it parodies many adventure and romance clichés, the struggles of which are caricatured in a tone that is mordantly matter-of-fact. Still, the events discussed are often based on historical happenings, such as the Seven Years' War and the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. As philosophers of Voltaire's day contended with the problem of evil, so too does Candide in this short novel, albeit more directly and humorously. Voltaire ridicules religion, theologians, governments, armies, philosophies, and philosophers through allegory; most conspicuously, he assaults Leibniz and his optimism. Voltaire's men and women point his case against optimism by starting high and falling low. A modern could not go about it after this fashion.?He would not plunge his people into an unfamiliar misery. He would just keep them in the misery they were born to. But such an account of Voltaire's procedure is as misleading as the plaster cast of a dance. Look at his procedure again. Mademoiselle Cunégonde, the illustrious Westphalian, sprung from a family that could prove seventy-one quarterings, descends and descends until we find her earning her keep by washing dishes in the Propontis. The aged faithful attendant, victim of a hundred acts of rape by negro pirates, remembers that she is the daughter of a pope, and that in honor of her approaching marriage with a Prince of Massa-Carrara all Italy wrote sonnets of which not one was passable. We do not need to know French literature before Voltaire in order to feel, although the lurking parody may escape us, that he is poking fun at us and at himself. His laughter at his own methods grows more unmistakable at the last, when he caricatures them by casually assembling six fallen monarchs in an inn at Venice. A modern assailant of optimism would arm himself with social pity. There is no social pity in "Candide." Voltaire, whose light touch on familiar institutions opens them and reveals their absurdity, likes to remind us that the slaughter and pillage and murder which Candide?witnessed among the Bulgarians was perfectly regular, having been conducted according to the laws and usages of war. Had Voltaire lived today he would have done to poverty what he did to war. Pitying the poor, he would have shown us poverty as a ridiculous anachronism, and both the ridicule and the pity would have expressed his indignation. About Author: VOLTAIREFran?ois-Marie Arouet (1694 – 1778), known by his nom de plume Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit, his attacks on the established Catholic Church, and his advocacy of freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and separation of church and state. Voltaire was a versatile writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. He wrote more than 20,000 letters and more than 2,000 books and pamphlets. He was an outspoken advocate, despite the risk this placed him in under the strict censorship laws of the time. As a satirical polemicist, he frequently made use of his works to criticize intolerance, religious dogma, and the French institutions of his day.

El Rey se acercó a la cama de Xenia y miró su lujoso cabello rojo que brillaba a la luz de las velas y sus tiernos labios, que temblaban porque tenía miedo. "?Sabes lo hermosa que eres?" él dijo. Xenia sabía que el momento finalmente había llegado, el momento en que ella debía decirle la verdad. "?Te amo!". ?Pero él lloró antes de que ella pudiera hablar. ?l dijo: "Estoy loco… locamente enamorado … nunca en la vida so?é que me sentiría así … y tengo algo que ... decirte…" Ella lo sintió ponerse serio y lentamente lo vio retroceder. Xenia respiró profundamente… ?Cómo podría ella decirle ? Ella se decía a sí misma. ?Cómo podría ella barrer la felicidad de sus ojos? Estaba arrebatada por su amor… y sin embargo atrapada por otro destino…?

There was a young King who ought to have been the happiest monarch in the world. He was blessed with everything a mortal could desire. His palace might have been designed by the Divine architect Himself, so perfect was it in all its parts; and it stood amidst gardens with its dependent village at its gates, like a dream of feudal beauty in a story of romance. Notwithstanding his good fortune, the King was oppressed with what he conceived to be a great trouble.

A futuristic satire on the trade in live organs from the Third World to the West. Om, a young man is driven by unemployment to sell his body parts for cash. Guards arrive to make his home into a germ-free zone. When his brother Jeetu returns unexpectedly, he is taken away as the donor. Om can’t accept this. Java, his wife, is left alone. Will she too be seduced into selling her body for use by the rich westerners? Harvest won first prize in the first Onassis Cultural Competition for Theatre and was premiered in Greek at the Teatro Texnis, Athens. It has also been performed by a youth theatre in the UK, broadcast by the BBC World Service and made into a feature film, directed by Govind Nihalani, titled Body, which was screened at the Regus London Film Festival.

Liverpool, 1863: Newly arrived in England, wealthy liberals enlist Trinity, an escaped slave girl, in their campaign to abolish slavery and support Abraham Lincoln's Union. Jubal, a high-ranking Confederate officer, has just arrived in Liverpool to find supporters and raise funds for the opposing side. When Trinity discovers a high-stakes conspiracy there to help win the war for the Southern States, she must risk everything to stop it – including her new-found freedom. But who will believe a runaway slave? And who can she really trust?

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Lucy Snowe travels to the fictional city of Villette to teach at an all-girls school where she is unwillingly pulled into both adventure and romance.

Set in Yukon, Canada during the Klondike Gold Rush, the story is written from the view-point of a wild wolf-dog White Fang. The novel explores how animals view their world and how they view humans.

One of Shakespeare's most famous stories of young lovers, Romeo and Juliet who would do anything to be together.

Is murder is permissible in pursuit of a higher purpose? Meet Raskolnikov, an impoverished ex-student in St. Petersburg who formulates and executes a plan to kill an unscrupulous pawnbroker for her cash. Raskolnikov argues that with the pawnbroker's money he can perform good deeds to counterbalance the crime.

Anne’s House of Dreams begins with Anne and Gilbert's wedding, which takes place in the Green Gables orchard. After the wedding, they move to their first home together, which Anne calls their house of dreams. This book follows Anne from the age of 25 to 27.

Inspired by experiences in Chekhov's own life, Cherry Orchard follows life of an aristocratic Russian woman and her family as they return to the family's estate. Written as a comedy and containing elements of farce, Stanislavski directed the play as a tragedy in Moscow. Since this initial production, many prominent directors of the world continue to stage this play, each interpreting the work differently.