The Red Badge of Courage follows events of the American Civil War, and life of a young private of the Union Army, Henry Fleming, who flees from the field of battle. Overcome with shame, he longs for a wound, a red badge of courage, to counteract his cowardice. When his regiment once again faces the enemy, Henry acts as standard-bearer.

Three visitors find shelter from a blizzard at Pat Scully's hotel: a nervous New Yorker known as the Swede, a rambunctious Westerner named Bill, and a reserved Easterner called Mr. Blanc. The Swede becomes increasingly drunk, defensive, and reckless. He is later murdered at the bar.

Once upon a time there was a little girl called Lucie, who lived at a farm called Little-town. She was a good little girl—only she was always losing her pocket-handkerchiefs! One day little Lucie came into the farm-yard crying—oh, she did cry so! I’ve lost my pocket-handkin! Three handkins and a pinny! Have you seen them, Tabby Kitten?

Gulliver sets sail again and, after an attack by pirates, ends up in Laputa, where a floating island inhabited by theoreticians and academics oppresses the land below, called Balnibarbi. The scientific research undertaken in Laputa and in Balnibarbi seems totally inane and impractical, and its residents too appear wholly out of touch with reality. Taking a short side trip to Glubbdubdrib, Gulliver is able to witness the conjuring up of figures from history, such as Julius Caesar and other military leaders, whom he finds much less impressive than in books. After visiting the Luggnaggians and the Struldbrugs, the latter of which are senile immortals who prove that age does not bring wisdom, he is able to sail to Japan and from there back to England.

"I am a human being; I am a woman; I am a black woman; I am an African. Once I was free; then I was captured and became a slave; but inside me, here and here, I am still a free woman."During a period of four hundred years, European slave traders ferried some 12 million enslaved Africans across the Atlantic. In the Americas, teaching a slave to read and write was a criminal offense. When the last slaves gained their freedom in Brazil, barely a thousand of them were literate. Hardly any stories of the enslaved and transported Africans have survived.This novel is an attempt to recreate just one of those stories, one story of a possible 12 million or more.Lawrence Hill created another in The Book of Negroes (Someone Knows my Name in the U.S.) and, more recently, Yaa Gyasi has done the same in Homegoing. Ama occupies center stage throughout this novel. As the story opens, she is sixteen. Distant drums announce the death of her grandfather. Her family departs to attend the funeral, leaving her alone to tend her ailing baby brother. It is 1775. Asante has conquered its northern neighbor and exacted an annual tribute of 500 slaves. The ruler of Dagbon dispatches a raiding party into the lands of the neighboring Bekpokpam. They capture Ama. That night, her lover, Itsho, leads an attack on the raiders’ camp. The rescue bid fails. Sent to collect water from a stream, Ama comes across Itsho’s mangled corpse. For the rest of her life she will call upon his spirit in time of need. In Kumase, the Asante capital, Ama is given as a gift to the Queen-mother. When the adolescent monarch, Osei Kwame, conceives a passion for her, the regents dispatch her to the coast for sale to the Dutch at Elmina Castle. There the governor, Pieter de Bruyn, selects her as his concubine, dressing her in the elegant clothes of his late Dutch wife and instructing the obese chaplain to teach her to read and write English. De Bruyn plans to marry Ama and take her with him to Europe. He makes a last trip to the Dutch coastal outstations and returns infected with yellow fever. On his death, his successor rapes Ama and sends her back to the female dungeon. Traumatized, her mind goes blank. She comes to her senses in the canoe which takes her and other women out to the slave ship, The Love of Liberty. Before the ship leaves the coast of Africa, Ama instigates a slave rebellion. It fails and a brutal whipping leaves her blind in one eye. The ship is becalmed in mid-Atlantic. Then a fierce storm cripples it and drives it into the port of Salvador, capital of Brazil. Ama finds herself working in the fields and the mill on a sugar estate. She is absorbed into slave society and begins to adapt, learning Portuguese. Years pass. Ama is now totally blind. Clutching the cloth which is her only material link with Africa, she reminisces, dozes, falls asleep. A short epilogue brings the story up to date. The consequences of the slave trade and slavery are still with us. Brazilians of African descent remain entrenched in the lower reaches of society, enmeshed in poverty. “This is story telling on a grand scale,” writes Tony Sim?es da Silva. “In Ama, Herbstein creates a work of literature that celebrates the resilience of human beings while denouncing the inscrutable nature of their cruelty. By focusing on the brutalization of Ama's body, and on the psychological scars of her experiences, Herbstein dramatizes the collective trauma of slavery through the story of a single African woman. Ama echoes the views of writers, historians and philosophers of the African diaspora who have argued that the phenomenon of slavery is inextricable from the deepest foundations of contemporary western civilization.” Ama, a Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade, won the 2002 Commonwealth Writers Prize for the Best First Book.

The Portuguese visual artist Paula Rego has inspired this trilogy of plays. Her paintings Crivelli’s Garden, The Prey and Breaking China became the catalyst for writing by theatre maker Fiona Graham. Commissioned by Theatre Centre and Komedia, these three new plays were developed for specific audiences through a series of artist/audience residencies and collaborations. These works have toured Britain and been re-staged in Portugal and Singapore. Crivellis’s Garden was created for a 16+ audience and explores rites of passage as two young women decide whether they should stay or leave their fishing village to go to university in Portugal. Between Friends is for 7 -11 year olds and examines the politics of friendship between three young people when they are shipwrecked and abandoned in a lighthouse. Breaking China is for 4-8 year olds and shows the importance of creative play and storytelling when making sense of change and adversity. About the authorDR FIONA GRAHAMFiona teaches dramaturgy at Goldsmiths University. Previously she spent over a decade in New Zealand writing and teaching at Auckland University. Her plays include: Passage (The Herald Theatre, Auckland 2010), Breaking China (Theatre Centre, 2002 and Singapore’s International Festival, 2004) and Legacy (for Massive Theatre Company, 1998). Most recently she worked as dramaturge with Otago University and Talking House Theatre Company on Be/Longing and Hush, with Red Leap Theatre Company on Paper Sky and Sea, with playwright Mei-Lin Hansen on The Mooncake And The Kumara, with Winning Productions on I Wanna Be -- Ponsonby and Carol Brown on 1000 Lovers and the Pah Collective. Her book Catalyst For Change: The Interventions of the Dramaturge was published in New Zealand in 2017. Reviews: ‘Graham’s poetically eloquent script flows like molten silver and should give students, teachers and other theatregoers much to think about’ (on Crivelli’s Garden) – The Stage ‘A prime example of how an excellent script innovatively directed and beautifully performed can be applied to a wide age range. This joyful production provides much food for thought.’ (on Breaking China) – The Stage

Utopia

The story of the survival of a dynasty bloodline protected by the Priesthood of Isis, setin the Ptolemaic era of Ancient Egyptian history. The main character Harmachis is charged by the Priesthood to overthrow the supposed impostor Cleopatra, drive out the Romans and restore Egypt to its golden era.

In this sequel to The Three Musketeers, we continue following adventured of a young man named d'Artagnan. This story follows events in France during La Fronde, during the childhood reign of Louis XIV, and in England near the end of the English Civil War, leading up to the victory of Oliver Cromwell and the execution of King Charles I.

A scholar and explorer, Dr. Samuel Ferguson, accompanied by his manservant Joe and his friend professional hunter Richard Kennedy, sets out to travel across the African with the help of a balloon filled with hydrogen. The balloon itself ultimately fails before the end, but makes it far enough across to get the protagonists to friendly lands, and eventually back to England, therefore succeeding in the expedition.

Sandy Arbuthnot's friend John Blenkiron discovers that a charismatic industrial tycoon is plotting to rule the world from his base in the small South American country of Olifa. Sandy decides to lead a revolution to scuttle the plot and allow the Olifans to decide their own fate.

The story of two young boys who are identical in appearance: Tom Canty, a pauper who lives with his abusive father in Offal Court off Pudding Lane in London, and Prince Edward, son of King Henry VIII. One day Tom is nearly caught and beaten by the Royal Guards; however, Edward stops them and invites Tom into his palace chamber. There the two boys get to know one another, fascinated by each other's life and their uncanny resemblance. They decide to switch clothes temporarily.

Set in a future England where the Temperance movement has allowed a bizarre form of Progressive Islam to dominate the political and social life of the country. Because of this, alcohol sales to the poor are effectively prohibited, while the rich can get alcoholic drinks under a medical certificate.

The aim of this book is to assist towards the removal of nervous irritants, which are not only the cause of much physical disease, but materially interfere with the best possibilities of usefulness and pleasure in everyday life.

It was approaching nightfall. The sexton, Savely Gykin, was lying in his huge bed in the hut adjoining the church. He was not asleep, though it was his habit to go to sleep at the same time as the hens. His coarse red hair peeped from under one end of the greasy patchwork quilt, made up of coloured rags, while his big unwashed feet stuck out from the other. He was listening. His hut adjoined the wall that encircled the church and the solitary window in it looked out upon the open country. And out there a regular battle was going on. It was hard to say who was being wiped off the face of the earth, and for the sake of whose destruction nature was being churned up into such a ferment; but, judging from the unceasing malignant roar, someone was getting it very hot.

Set in early 19th-century Paris, it tells the story of a young man who finds a magic piece of shagreen that fulfills his every desire. For each wish granted, however, the skin shrinks and consumes a portion of his physical energy. La Peau de chagrin belongs to the Etudes philosophiques group of Balzac's sequence of novels.

The comedy begins with an induction in which we follow a drunken tinker being tricked into believing he is a nobleman. He then watches a play depicting nobleman Petruchio's marriage with an outspoken, intelligent and bad-tempered shrew named Katherine. Petruchio manipulates and tames her until she is obedient to his will. The main subplot features the courting of Katherine’s more conventional sister Bianca by numerous suitors. The content has become the subject of considerable controversy.

An exciting collection of stories from W.W. Jacobs, a London based novelist famous for his humour, horror and travel stories. This volume includes some of his iconic work: The Money-box, The Castaway, Blundell's Improvement, Bill's Lapse, Lawyer Quince, Breaking A Spell, Establishing Relations, The Changing Numbers, The Persecution of Bob Pretty, Dixon's Return, A Spirit of Avarice, The Third String, Odd Charges, Admiral Peters.

An iconic collection of fairy tales from the master of storytelling Charles Perrault including some of his best work: Little Red Riding-Hood, The Sleeping Beauty, Puss in Boots, Little Thumb, Cinderella, Blue Beard.

Un demers hermeneutic grav, efectuat ?n profunzimile operei ionesciene, ?i demonstr?nd cu asupra de m?sur? c? ??n prima pies? a lui Ionesco, Engleze?te f?r? profesor, comunicarea este repetitiv? ?i alienant?. Recurenta cli?eelor limbii de lemn burgheze este efectul (cauz?) unei existen?e osificate. Alienarea ?ncepe prin a fi pa?nic? ?i sf?r?e?te ?n agresiune. La ?nceput, b?tr?nii so?i Smith se afund? ?n banalitatea comunic?rii. Tinerii so?i Martin fac la fel, potrivit psihologiei v?rstei lor. Primii au o ?n?elepciune senil?. Ultimii, o vitalitate copil?reasc?. Pe parcurs (in)comunicarea se ad?nce?te, cuvintele ??i ?ndep?rteaz? tot mai mult sensurile, p?n? la a le abandona ori livra unei anamneze enun?iative. Sensul, p?r?nd genetic absent, ??i caut? identitatea ontologic? fictiv?, ?ntr-o deriv? total?. Noile contexte generate de un astfel de tip de enun?are creeaz? spa?ii retorice ale (?n)comunic?rii, inabitual proliferante, sf?r?ind adesea, cum s-a observat, ?ntr-un joc de-a masacrul logocratic, rupt de comandamentele – instan?ele – enun??rii. Personajele rostesc replicile automat, ?ntr-un ritm tot mai accentuat“.

Poemele dense, pline de miez ale lui Andrei Fischof curg unul dup altul. Fr ostentaie. Firesc, aa cum ploaia se scurge din orbitele zeilor fr nume, aa cum iarba poate fi numit iarb numai dac este pscut, din timp in timp, de pegaii morilor tineri. nfurat n toga marelui frig, poetul refuz zgomotul, nvlmeala, furtunile agitaiilor zadarnice, optnd mereu pentru ipostaza martorului tcut, marcat de o sensibilitate atent, ochiul su, da, cel triunghiular, din frunte, nregistrnd totul, aproape totul. Poemele-peisaje contureaz o lume a sfritului ntunecat, a degenerescentei, a decadenei i pierderii reperelor. E o lume de comar, o lume nurubat n albia apocalipsei care se inventa, clipa de clipa, provocnd martorul – adunat, strns n el nsui, atent la forurile-i luntrice i la vocea creia i se supune necondiionat – s imagineze discret, evaziv, surpat n uimirea de a fi el nsui: o ans de salvare. i martorul rspunde provocrii, aa cum un copil, fiind, pe malul mrii, harponat spre orizonturile mirabile ale dorinei de a fi, deseneaz, cu un beior, pe nisip, o uria corabie fantastic...“ – Aura Christi.