Collection of humorous historical essays. According to Wikipedia: "Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874 - 1936) was an influential English writer of the early 20th century. His prolific and diverse output included journalism, philosophy, poetry, biography, Christian apologetics, fantasy and detective fiction. Chesterton has been called the "prince of paradox."[1] He wrote in an off-hand, whimsical prose studded with startling formulations. For example: "Thieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it."[2] He is one of the few Christian thinkers who are equally admired and quoted by both liberal and conservative Christians, and indeed by many non-Christians. Chesterton's own theological and political views were far too nuanced to fit comfortably under the "liberal" or "conservative" banner."

Dodo Collections brings you another classic from Irvin S. Cobb, ‘"Speaking of Operations". ? Speaking of Operations is a monologue about the author's experience in having an operation in 1915 written in his typical tongue-in-cheek style. ? American author, humorist, editor and columnist from Paducah, Kentucky who relocated to New York during 1904, living there for the remainder of his life. ? 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.

Aleksandr Petrovich lives through a spiritual re-awakening that culminates with his release from the prison camp. The narrator has been sentenced to penalty deportation to Siberia and ten years of hard labour for murdering his wife. Dostoyevsky skillfully portrays the inmates of the prison with sympathy for their plight, and admiration for their energy, ingenuity and talent.

A young priest is preparing to spend three nights alone with the corpse of a dead witch and only his faith to protect him. He is ordered to supervise the waking of the dead witch in a small old wooden church of a remote village. Join the priest on his journey in this Sovereign Classic edition of Viy.

From a story by Hans Christian Andersen In ancient China, young emperor Wu is kept a virtual prisoner in his palace by his devious guardian, Li Si. Wu believes the world outside the Forbidden City is an evil and dangerous place. But when Xiao, a young servant girl, tells him of the most beautiful sound on earth – the song of the nightingale – it’s too much to resist. The two embark on an adventure that will take them across mountain tops and waterfalls, past chattering monkeys and magical dragons to the far reaches of his kingdom. When Wu returns with the nightingale, and starts to overturn the old palace customs, Li Si plots to restore things to the way they were before. Featuring puppetry, music and all the colour, movement and spectacle of Chinese theatre, this joyful adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale is a feast for the senses that will delight the whole family. Suitable for ages 6+

The story of a modern Asian young woman trying to straddle Western attitudes and traditional beliefs. You've heard of an Essex Girl or even a Chelsea Girl but what is a Hounslow Girl? The term has become a byword for confident, young Muslim women who are grappling with traditional values, city life and fashion. From the joys of Pakistani weddings to fights on the night bus, Ambreen Razia's? The Diary of a Hounslow Girl ?is a funny, bold, provocative play highlighting the challenges of being a teenage girl in a traditional Muslim family, alongside the temptations and influences of growing up in and around London. “Ambreen’s writing is poetic in its structure and intensity, funny, moving, chilling, and delivered in a style that takes inspiration from spoken word and physical theatre. She has created a rhythm that draws the audience in, as compelling as a thriller, complete with gathering ominousness, shocks and comic relief.” Deborah Bestwick, Director, Ovalhouse “Ambreen Razia’s terrific play is exactly the kind of new work we wish to support in the new home of multi-cultural theatre in London. Hounslow Girl is a wonderfully funny take on a London phenomenon and one audiences will enjoy.” Jatinder Verma, Artistic Director, Tara Arts” "a powerful piece of theatre... Ambreen Razia's performance is astonishing."?BritishTheatre.com "This is a sophisticated, moving and often very funny piece of writing, particularly nuanced in its depiction of Shaheeda's relationship with her mother ... astute in tackling the breakdown of the loving bonds between parent and child that can occur when a child becomes a teenager – and also how this experience can be magnified for the children of first-generation immigrants, whose parents feel distant from their children’s British lives... Razia's script touches on everything from first love to cultural expectations to student-teacher relationships; it’s a bit like an inner-city version of An Education."?The Stage Ambreen Razia is an actress and writer from South London.? The Diary of a Hounslow Girl is Ambreen's debut show which premiered at Ovalhouse in 2015. Passionate about re-establishing British Asian comedy within the UK, she continues to write her comedy sketch show involving two British Asian girls exploring the?clash between traditional Indian/Pakistani culture and modern British life. She is also currently writing her next play POT primarily focusing on the recent comeback of gang culture within the UK.?Performance credits include: On the Middle Day (Old Vic Theatre);? Words and Women (Edinburgh Fringe); Random Acts (Channel 4);? Fair Exchange (Hen and Chickens Theatre);? Variations on a Theme (Camden People's Theatre);? Mind the Gap (National Theatre ); No Guts, No Heart, No Glory? (BBC4/Perth Festival Australia) and Murdered by my Father? (BBC3).

The original 'banana republic' stories which explore aspects of life in a paralytically sleepy Central American town, each advancing some aspect of the larger plot and relating back one to another in a complex structure. The larger, overriding plot slowly explicates its own background, even as it creates a town which is one of the most detailed literary creations of the period.

Roderigo, a rich and dissolute gentleman, complaining to Iago, an ensign, that Iago has not told him about the secret marriage between Desdemona, the daughter of a Senator named Brabantio, and Othello, a Moorish general in the Venetian army. He is upset by this development because he loves Desdemona and had asked her father for her hand in marriage.

A collection of most well known stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The title Twice-Told Tales, is based on a line from William Shakespeare's The Life and Death of King John: Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale. The collection was considered as one of the most influential for its time and Hawthorne praised for purity and effectiveness of thought.

Richard Mutimer is a young lower-class working-man who unexpectedly inherits a large fortune. He becomes the leader of a socialist movement and decides to use his inheritance to set up a cooperative factory. However, his new wealth and power serve to highlight the defects of his character and he begins to treat his workers harshly, as well as abandoning the girl of his own station to whom he had been engaged.

Miriam Baske, a young widow, freed from the constraints of making a living, leaves behind the grey stone chapels and flinty hearts of Lancashire for the sun and artistic splendour of Italy. She meets a host of her countrymen vacationing and occupying themselves with travel, art, philosophy, romance, and improving their health.

A young wealthy gentleman looses everything in speculation and is forced into a humble life of a grocer. He finds his circumstances tragic at first and keeps his fate secret from all his friends and family. He re-considers his attitudes only when the woman with whom he is falling in love discovers he is a grocer, and throws him over.

An officer by the name of Jilin served in the army in the Caucasus. One day he received a letter from home. It was from his mother, who wrote, 'I am getting old now, and I want to see my beloved son before I die. Come and say good-bye to me, and when you have buried me, with God’s grace, you can return to the Army. I have found a nice girl for you to marry; she is clever and pretty, and has some property of her own. If you like her perhaps you will marry and settle down for good.'

In this continuing sequel to The Three Musketeers, d'Artagnan resigns as captain of the Musketeers as he perceives the young king Louis XIV as weak-willed. He resolves to aid the exiled Charles II to retake the throne of England, unaware that Athos is attempting the same. With their assistance Charles II is restored to the throne and d'Artagnan is rewarded richly.

This eBook features the unabridged text of ‘Mr Standfast by John Buchan - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’ from the bestselling edition of ‘The Complete Works of John Buchan’. Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. The Delphi Classics edition of Buchan includes original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of the author, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily. eBook features: * The complete unabridged text of ‘Mr Standfast by John Buchan - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’ * Beautifully illustrated with images related to Buchan’s works * Individual contents table, allowing easy navigation around the eBook * Excellent formatting of the text Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to learn more about our wide range of titles

Join Dickens on his night walks through London and discover the hidden night life of Victorian society. Dickens often suffered from insomnia and used his night-time wanderings to collect impressions and ideas giving him an insight into some of the hidden aspects of Victorian London. He incorporated these discoveries into many sketches and stories of this book.

This eBook features the unabridged text of ‘Sylvia’s Lovers by Elizabeth Gaskell - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’ from the bestselling edition of ‘The Complete Works of Elizabeth Gaskell’. Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. The Delphi Classics edition of Gaskell includes original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of the author, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily. eBook features: * The complete unabridged text of ‘Sylvia’s Lovers by Elizabeth Gaskell - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’ * Beautifully illustrated with images related to Gaskell’s works * Individual contents table, allowing easy navigation around the eBook * Excellent formatting of the text Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to learn more about our wide range of titles

Classic travelogue. According to Wikipedia: "Thackeray is most often compared to one other great novelist of Victorian literature, Charles Dickens. During the Victorian era, he was ranked second only to Dickens, but he is now much less read and is known almost exclusively for Vanity Fair. In that novel he was able to satirize whole swaths of humanity while retaining a light touch. It also features his most memorable character, the engagingly roguish Becky Sharp. As a result, unlike Thackeray's other novels, it remains popular with the general reading public; it is a standard fixture in university courses and has been repeatedly adapted for movies and television. In Thackeray's own day, some commentators, such as Anthony Trollope, ranked his History of Henry Esmond as his greatest work, perhaps because it expressed Victorian values of duty and earnestness, as did some of his other later novels. It is perhaps for this reason that they have not survived as well as Vanity Fair, which satirizes those values."

This collection includes: The Rise of Historical Criticism, The English Renaissance of Art, House Decoration, Art and the Handicraftsman, Lecture to Art Students, London Models, and Poems in Prose. 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.'"

From the Translator's Note: "Of the eighteen hundred and ninety letters published by Chekhov's family I have chosen for translation these letters and passages from letters which best to illustrate Chekhov's life, character and opinions. The brief memoir is abridged and adapted from the biographical sketch by his brother Mihail. Chekhov's letters to his wife after his marriage have not as yet been published." 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."

Autobiographical journal, with first-hand account of slavery in Georgia, first published in 1863. According to Wikipedia: "Frances Anne Kemble (27 November 1809 - 15 January 1893), was a famous British actress and author in the early and mid nineteenth century… In 1834, she retired from the stage to marry an American, Pierce Butler, grandson of the Founding Father Pierce Butler, and heir to a large fortune founded on cotton, tobacco and rice... Butler squandered a fortune estimated at $700,000, but was saved from bankruptcy by the March 2–3, 1859 sale of his 436 slaves at Ten Broeck racetrack, outside Savannah, Georgia—the largest single slave auction in American history. Following the American Civil War, he tried to make his plantations profitable with free labor, but was unsuccessful. Butler died in Georgia, of malaria, in 1867. Neither he nor Fanny ever remarried... In 1877, Fanny returned to England, where she lived using her maiden name till her death. During this period, Fanny Kemble was a prominent and popular figure in the social life of London. She became a great friend of and inspiration for Henry James during her later years. His novel Washington Square (1880) was based upon a story Fanny had told him concerning one of her relatives... Her various volumes of reminiscences contain much valuable material illuminating the social and dramatic history of the period. Her elder daughter Sarah married a doctor, Owen Jones Wister, and they had one child, Owen Wister (b. 1860), the popular American novelist and author of the 1902 western novel, The Virginian."