According to Wikipedia: "True History or True Story is a travel tale by the Greek-speaking Syrian author Lucian of Samosata, the earliest known fiction about travelling to outer space, alien life-forms and interplanetary warfare. Written in the 2nd century, the novel has been referred to as "the first known text that could be called science fiction". The work was intended by Lucian as a satire against contemporary and ancient sources, which quote fantastic and mythical events as truth."

This collection includes: The Happy Prince, The Nightingale and the Rose, The Selfish Giant, The Devoted Friend, and The Remarkable Rocket. According to Wikipedia: "Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (1854 - 1900) was an Irish playwright, novelist, poet, and author of short stories. Known for his barbed wit, he was one of the most successful playwrights of late Victorian London, and one of the greatest celebrities of his day. As the result of a famous trial, he suffered a dramatic downfall and was imprisoned for two years of hard labour after being convicted of the offence of 'gross indecency.'"

This collection includes: THE HORSE-STEALERS, WARD NO. 6, THE PETCHENYEG, A DEAD BODY, A HAPPY ENDING, THE LOOKING-GLASS, OLD AGE, DARKNESS, THE BEGGAR, A STORY WITHOUT A TITLE, IN TROUBLE, FROST, A SLANDER, MINDS IN FERMENT, GONE ASTRAY, AN AVENGER, THE JEUNE PREMIER, A DEFENCELESS CREATURE, AN ENIGMATIC NATURE, A HAPPY MAN, A TROUBLESOME VISITOR, and AN ACTOR'S END. According to Wikipedia: "Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860 – 1904) was a Russian short-story writer, playwright and physician, considered to be one of the greatest short-story writers in world literature. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics Chekhov practised as a doctor throughout most of his literary career: "Medicine is my lawful wife," he once said, "and literature is my mistress." Chekhov renounced the theatre after the disastrous reception of The Seagull in 1896; but the play was revived to acclaim in 1898 by Constantin Stanislavski's Moscow Art Theatre, which subsequently also produced Uncle Vanya and premiered Chekhov’s last two plays, Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard. These four works present a special challenge to the acting ensemble as well as to audiences, because in place of conventional action Chekhov offers a "theatre of mood" and a "submerged life in the text." Chekhov had at first written stories only for the money, but as his artistic ambition grew, he made formal innovations which have influenced the evolution of the modern short story. His originality consists in an early use of the stream-of-consciousness technique, later adopted by James Joyce and other modernists, combined with a disavowal of the moral finality of traditional story structure He made no apologies for the difficulties this posed to readers, insisting that the role of an artist was to ask questions, not to answer them."

Collection of stories, first published in 1895. According to Wikipedia: "Mary Hallock was born November 9, 1847, in Milton, New York, of English Quaker ancestry. A singular girl and youth, she attended the Female Collegiate Seminary in Poughkeepsie, New York, then studied art in New York City at the new Cooper Institute School of Design for Women. By her early twenties she had become established in New York City as an accomplished artist-illustrator for notable publishers there. In 1876 Hallock married a young mining engineer, Arthur De Wint Foote, then moved cross-continent to live with him at the New Almaden mine near San Jose, California. Subsequently, as Arthur pursued his engineering career, she followed him throughout the West; to Leadville, Colorado, to Deadwood, South Dakota, then to Boise, Idaho, where Arthur originated a major irrigation project on the Boise River; then to Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico, and finally to Grass Valley, California, where Arthur advanced to managing the North Star mine, and retired there...Wallace Stegner's novel Angle of Repose (Pulitzer Prize, 1971) is based directly upon Mary Hallock Foote's extensive personal correspondence.'

Dodo Collections brings you another classic from H. Rider Haggard, ‘Finished.’ ? A curious effect of Haggard's successful emulation of the terse, pithy style of saga prose is that the idiom of this novel actually seems rather less dated in the early 21st century than Haggard's other work or the general run of Victorian adventure fiction. Improvements in our understanding of the Viking period have done surprisingly little to falsify Haggard's imagination of its setting, and the book should still hold appeal to any reader interested in the period. ? Sir Henry Rider Haggard was an English writer of adventure novels set in exotic locations, predominantly Africa, and the creator of the Lost World literary genre. His stories, situated at the lighter end of the scale of Victorian literature, continue to be popular and influential. He was also involved in agricultural reform and improvement in the British Empire.? His breakout novel was?King Solomon's Mines(1885), which was to be the first in a series telling of the multitudinous adventures of its protagonist, Allan Quatermain. Haggard was made a Knight Bachelor in 1912 and a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1919. He stood unsuccessfully for Parliament as a Conservative candidate for the Eastern division of Norfolk in 1895. The locality of Rider, British Columbia, was named in his memory.

Dodo Collections brings you another classic from H. Rider Haggard, ‘Black Heart and White Heart: A Zulu Idyll.’ ? In "Black Heart And White Heart", H. Rider Haggard mounts once more those trusty steeds of his, the nobility of the savage and the rascality of the civilized white. He rides, too, with all his old dexterity, and the story concerning Zulus, witches, battles, sacrifices, and traitors, of which this volume consists, will revive the pleasures of reading his books. ? "Has the age of miracle quite gone by?" asks H. Rider Haggard concerning this story. "Hardly," most readers would be inclined to answer, if the question were put to them while their brains were alive with the witcheries and the wonders which are Haggard's " stock-in trade." The marvels he recounts lose nothing in effect because they deal with the immediate and the remote past of the country in which Briton and Boer have just fought the fight for supremacy and empire. And by an odd coincidence, a book which opens with a description of an encounter between an Englishman and a Boer at Utrecht appeared on the very day on which Utrecht was occupied by British forces. ? Haggard takes us to Zululand just before the outbreak of the war which crushed the power of Cetewayo, to ancient Zimbabwe, just before the period at which the Phoenicians may be supposed to have succumbed to the attacks of the native barbarians, and to a part of Central Africa occupied by the Children of Fire, whose country had been penetrated, and whose horrible customs had been observed by none but a solitary missionary. ? The novelist rings the changes on scenes and ideas which he has made familiar; here are the wizardry, the superstitions, the horrors, the deeds of devotion, of treachery, of love and of triumph, the superlative heroism, spiritual and material, which characterize all his work. Imagination runs riot, making unrealities live, and the fascination of "King Solomon's Mines" and " She" is over all. ? Sir Henry Rider Haggard was an English writer of adventure novels set in exotic locations, predominantly Africa, and the creator of the Lost World literary genre. His stories, situated at the lighter end of the scale of Victorian literature, continue to be popular and influential. He was also involved in agricultural reform and improvement in the British Empire. ? His breakout novel was King Solomon's Mines( 1885), which was to be the first in a series telling of the multitudinous adventures of its protagonist, Allan Quatermain. ? Haggard was made a Knight Bachelor in 1912 and a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1919. He stood unsuccessfully for Parliament as a Conservative candidate for the Eastern division of Norfolk in 1895. The locality of Rider, British Columbia, was named in his memory.

Dodo Collections brings you another classic from Sherwood Anderson, ‘"Marching Men".’ ? Marching Men is the story of Norman "Beaut" McGregor, a young man discontented with the powerlessness and lack of personal ambition among the miners of his hometown. After moving to Chicago he discovers his purpose is to empower workers by having them march in unison. Major themes of the novel include the organization of laborers, eradication of disorder, and the role of the exceptional man in society. The latter theme led post-World War II critics to compare Anderson's militaristic approach to homosocial order and the fascists of the War's Axis powers. ? Anderson was born on Sept. 13, 1876, in Camden, Ohio. He never finished high school because he had to work to support his family. By 1912, he was the successful manager of a paint factory in Elyria, Ohio, and the father of three children by the first of his four wives. In 1912, Anderson deserted his family and job. In early 1913, he moved to Chicago, where he devoted more time to his imaginative writing. He became a heroic model for younger writers because he broke with what they considered to be American materialism and convention to commit himself to art.

Dodo Collections brings you another classic from Arnold Bennett, ‘The Grand Babylon H?tel’. The Grand Babylon Hotel is a novel by Arnold Bennett, published in 1902, about the mysterious disappearance of a German prince. It originally appeared as a serial in the Daily Mail. Bennett (1867-1931) was a British novelist. He was born in a modest house in Hanley in the Potteries district of Staffordshire. At age 21 he went to London as a solicitor's clerk. He won a literary competition in Tit Bits magazine in 1889 and was encouraged to take up journalism full time. From 1900 he devoted himself full time to writing, giving up the editorship and writing much serious criticism, and also theatre journalism, one of his special interests. In 1902 Anna of the Five Towns, the first of a succession of stories which detailed life in the Potteries appeared. In 1908 The Old Wives' Tale was published, and was an immediate success throughout the English-speaking world. His most famous works are the Clayhanger (1910) trilogy and The Old Wives' Tale. These books draw on his experience of life in the Potteries, as did most of his best work. Among his other books are: The Grand Babylon Hotel (1902), The Grim Smile of the Five Towns (1907), Hilda Lessways (1911), The Author's Craft (1914), The Lion's Share (1916), and The Roll-Call (1919).

Western short story. According to Wikipedia: "Bret Harte (August 25, 1836[2] – May 6, 1902) was an American author and poet, best remembered for his accounts of pioneering life in California. He was born in Albany, New York. ... He moved to California in 1853, later working there in a number of capacities, including miner, teacher, messenger, and journalist. He spent part of his life in the northern California coast town now known as Arcata, then just a mining camp on Humboldt Bay. His first literary efforts, including poetry and prose, appeared in The Californian, an early literary journal edited by Charles Henry Webb. In 1868 he became editor of The Overland Monthly, another new literary magazine, but this one more in tune with the pioneering spirit of excitement in California. His story, "The Luck of Roaring Camp," appeared in the magazine's second edition, propelling Harte to nationwide fame... Determined to pursue his literary career, in 1871 he and his family traveled back East, to New York and eventually to Boston, where he contracted with the publisher of The Atlantic Monthly for an annual salary of $10,000, "an unprecedented sum at the time." His popularity waned, however, and by the end of 1872 he was without a publishing contract and increasingly desperate. He spent the next few years struggling to publish new work (or republish old), delivering lectures about the gold rush, and even selling an advertising jingle to a soap company. In 1878 Harte was appointed to the position of United States Consul in the town of Krefeld, Germany and then to Glasgow in 1880. In 1885 he settled in London. During the thirty years he spent in Europe, he never abandoned writing, and maintained a prodigious output of stories that retained the freshness of his earlier work. He died in England in 1902 of throat cancer and is buried at Frimley."

When an elementary class sets out on a quest to save the world from disenchantment, their adventures reveal paradoxes of the human mind and ways of awakening the magic within us. Library Journal -- "An intriguing and very entertaining little novel" Aspect -- "Carroll and Tolkien have a new companion" Lancaster (PA) Independent Press -- "a work so saturated that the mind is both stoned with pleasure and alive with wonder" Philadelphia Bulletin -- "A commentary on our times done delightfully"

Seven short stories, first published in 1895. According to Wikipedia: "William Charles Scully (29 October 1855 – 25 August 1943) is one of South Africa's best-known authors, although little known outside South Africa. In addition to his work as an author, his paid work was principally as a magistrate in Springfontein, South Africa, as well as in Namaqualand and the Transkei. His last position before retirement was as Chief Magistrate of Port Elizabeth, one of South Africa's larger cities. He organised the building of "New Brighton", a township for aboriginal African people in Port Elizabeth. At the time it was regarded as very progressive—a pleasant place to live. Scully was born in Dublin, Ireland, raised in Cashel, County Tipperary, and then emigrated to southern Africa with his parents in 1867. During 1871 he prospected for diamonds with Cecil Rhodes in Africa. His daughter, Miriam Power (b. 1893), married Dr John A.Ryle; their children included Sir Martin Ryle, Nobel laureate and Astronomer Royal from 1972 to 1982. W.C.Scully died in Umbogintwini on Natal's coast in 1943, the same year as his wife Nora died. His novel Daniel Vananda describes the violence engendered by the ethnic legislation of the time. Similarly, Kafir Stories contains stories that are generally sympathetic with the aboriginal African peoples of South Africa."

First published in 2002. The specific examples are dated, because business on the Internet changes rapidly. But the underlying principles and lessons hold true. "You're in basic training for the battle of your life. Your mission is to keep your company alive and to help it move forward quickly in unfamiliar territory. You must master the tools and techniques needed to serve customers and beat the competition into he strange and potentially hostile online business environment. This no-nonsense, tip-driven guide targets key activities that anyone can perform to truly achieve online business success. Internet marketing pioneer Richard Seltzer gets managers out of the boardroom and into the trenches for crucial hands-on Web experience -- which provides insight into how to win on the e-commerce battlefield. He also helps entrepreneurs develop a viable business model without depending on high-priced design services and consultants, as well as gives technology-oriented professionals a broad business perspective for tackling new online responsibilities."

This file includes: The Wind in the Willows, Dream Days (with The Reluctant Dragon as one of the stories), and The Golden Age (retellings of Greek and Roman myths). According to Wikipedia: "Kenneth Grahame (July 20, 1859 – July 6, 1932) was a British writer, most famous for The Wind in the Willows (1908), one of the classics of children's literature. He also wrote The Reluctant Dragon, which was much later adapted into a Disney film."

A short fragment from The Dolliver Romance, an unfinished novel. According to Wikipedia: "Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804 –1864) was an American novelist and short story writer... Much of Hawthorne's writing centers around New England and many feature moral allegories with a Puritan inspiration. His fiction works are considered part of the Romantic movement and, more specifically, dark romanticism. His themes often center on the inherent evil and sin of humanity and his works often have moral messages and deep psychological complexity. His published works include novels, short stories, and a biography of his friend Franklin Pierce."

Classic Conrad short story. "What was known of Captain Hagberd in the little seaport of Colebrook was not exactly in his favour. He did not belong to the place. He had come to settle there under circumstances not at all myste- rious--he used to be very communicative about them at the time--but extremely morbid and un- reasonable. He was possessed of some little money evidently, because he bought a plot of ground, and had a pair of ugly yellow brick cottages run up very cheaply. He occupied one of them himself and let the other to Josiah Carvil--blind Carvil, the retired boat-builder--a man of evil repute as a domestic tyrant." According to Wikipedia: "Joseph Conrad (1857 – 1924) was a Polish-born English novelist. Many critics regard him as one of the greatest novelists in the English language—a fact that is remarkable, as he did not learn to speak English fluently until he was in his twenties (and always with a strong Polish accent). He became a naturalized British subject in 1886. Conrad is recognized as a master prose stylist. Some of his works have a strain of romanticism, but more importantly he is recognized as an important forerunner of modernist literature. His narrative style and anti-heroic characters have influenced many writers, including Ernest Hemingway, D. H. Lawrence, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Graham Greene, William S. Burroughs, Joseph Heller, V.S. Naipaul, Italo Calvino and J. M. Coetzee."

Four Christmas stories by Bret Harte. The Christmas Gift that Came to Rupert, Dick Sppindler's Family Christmas, How Santa Claus Came to Simpson's Bar, and an Episode of Fiddletown. According to Wikipedia: "Bret Harte (August 25, 1836[2] – May 6, 1902) was an American author and poet, best remembered for his accounts of pioneering life in California. He was born in Albany, New York. ... He moved to California in 1853, later working there in a number of capacities, including miner, teacher, messenger, and journalist. He spent part of his life in the northern California coast town now known as Arcata, then just a mining camp on Humboldt Bay. His first literary efforts, including poetry and prose, appeared in The Californian, an early literary journal edited by Charles Henry Webb. In 1868 he became editor of The Overland Monthly, another new literary magazine, but this one more in tune with the pioneering spirit of excitement in California. His story, "The Luck of Roaring Camp," appeared in the magazine's second edition, propelling Harte to nationwide fame... Determined to pursue his literary career, in 1871 he and his family traveled back East, to New York and eventually to Boston, where he contracted with the publisher of The Atlantic Monthly for an annual salary of $10,000, "an unprecedented sum at the time." His popularity waned, however, and by the end of 1872 he was without a publishing contract and increasingly desperate. He spent the next few years struggling to publish new work (or republish old), delivering lectures about the gold rush, and even selling an advertising jingle to a soap company. In 1878 Harte was appointed to the position of United States Consul in the town of Krefeld, Germany and then to Glasgow in 1880. In 1885 he settled in London. During the thirty years he spent in Europe, he never abandoned writing, and maintained a prodigious output of stories that retained the freshness of his earlier work. He died in England in 1902 of throat cancer and is buried at Frimley."

Dodo Collections brings you another classic from Irvin S. Cobb, ‘A Plea for Old Cap Collier.’ ? This is a short novel in which the author makes the case for the value of dime novels as a more fun, immediate read than the "classic" books more in favor with parents and educators. He looks back onto his own childhood to provide examples. ? Cobb joined the staff of the magazine Saturday Evening Post during 1911, and covered the Great War for the magazine. At the same time, he wrote a book about his experiences, published during 1915, titled Paths Of Glory. After a second visit to France to cover the Great War, Cobb publicized the achievements of the unit known as theHarlem Hellfighters, most notably, Croix de Guerre recipients Henry Lincoln Johnson and Needham Roberts. His article "Young Black Joe," published on August 24, 1918 in theSaturday Evening Post and later republished in Cobb's book, The Glory of the Coming, highlighted the discipline and courage displayed by black American soldiers fighting in Europe during World War I. The three-page article and half-page photograph reached a national audience of more than two million readers, and was widely reprinted in the black press.

The Thirty-Nine Steps, set during World War I, tells the story of Richard Hannay, who finds himself accused of murder and must battles both police and spies to prove his innocence. According to Wikipedia, it "is an adventure novel by the Scottish author John Buchan, first published in 1915...It is the first of five novels featuring Richard Hannay, an all-action hero with a stiff upper lip and a miraculous knack for getting himself out of sticky situations. John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (26 August 1875 – 11 February 1940) was a Scottish novelist and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada. Buchan's 100 works include nearly thirty novels, seven collections of short stories and biographies of Sir Walter Scott, Caesar Augustus, and Oliver Cromwell. Buchan's most famous of his books were the spy thrillers (including) The 39 Steps (which was converted to a play as well as an Alfred Hitchcock movie starring Robert Donat as Richard Hannay, though with Buchan's story much altered.) The "last Buchan" (as Graham Greene entitled his appreciative review) was the 1941 novel Sick Heart River (American title: Mountain Meadow), in which a dying protagonist confronts in the Canadian wilderness the questions of the meaning of life. The insightful quotation "It's a great life, if you don't weaken" is famously attributed to Buchan, as is "No great cause is ever lost or won, The battle must always be renewed, And the creed must always be restated."

Diese Datei enth?lt sowohl Knulp (Drei Geschichten aus dem Leben Knulps) als auch Siddhartha (Eine Indische Diktatur) im Original Deutsch. Laut Wikipedia: "Hermann Hesse (2. Juli 1877 - 9. August 1962) war ein in Deutschland geborener Schweizer Dichter, Romancier und Maler. Im Jahr 1946 erhielt er den Nobelpreis für Literatur. Seine bekanntesten Werke sind Steppenwolf, Siddhartha und The Glass Bead Game (auch bekannt als Magister Ludi), von denen jeder die Suche nach Authentizit?t, Selbsterkenntnis und Spiritualit?t erforscht. "

Classic western novel, first published in 1922. According to Wikipedia: "William MacLeod Raine (1871—1954), was a British-born American novelist who wrote fictional adventure stories about the American Old West."

Dodo Collections brings you another classic from James Henry, ‘The Diary of a Man of Fifty.’ ? Returning to Florence after 25 years of military service, a man finds himself haunted by memories of a thwarted love affair?that took place on the banks of the Arno during his youth. On inquiring after the erstwhile object of his affections, he encounters a young man in amorous pursuit of her daughter.?Eager to spare his young friend the sorrow that has marred his own life, the man finds himself deliberating the morality of recounting his own story. This heartbreaking tale touches on themes that were to dominate Henry James's later fiction, including the suggestibility of youth and the dubious morality of influence. With characteristic psychological insight and a youthful fluency of expression, even in his early work James demonstrates himself a master of?the art of fiction.? ? Henry James, OM, son of theologian Henry James Sr., brother of the philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James, was an American-born author, one of the founders and leaders of a school of realism in fiction. He spent much of his life in England and became a British subject shortly before his death. He is primarily known for a series of major novels in which he portrayed the encounter of America with Europe. His plots centered on personal relationships, the proper exercise of power in such relationships, and other moral questions. His method of writing from the point of view of a character within a tale allowed him to explore the phenomena of consciousness and perception, and his style in later works has been compared to impressionist painting.? ??