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.

Kidnapped is a historical adventure novel set around 18th-century Scottish events, notably the Appin Murder, which occurred near Ballachulish in the aftermath of the Jacobite Rising. Many of the characters, and one of the principals, Alan Breck Stewart, were real people.

We follow Professor Challenger to a South American plateau in the Amazon basin where dinosaurs and other extinct creatures still survive. A legendary work of science fiction which sparked the Lost World genre.

Four Faultless Felons includes The Moderate Murderer, The Honest Quack, The Ecstatic Thief, and The Loyal Traitor. Chesterton's protagonist's faultless crimes include: murder, fraud, theft, and treason. They are motivated by good intentions of course, by altruism and virtues.

The story tells of a prince who wants to marry a princess, but is having difficulty finding a suitable wife. One stormy night a young woman drenched with rain seeks shelter in the prince's castle. She claims to be a princess, so the prince's mother decides to test their unexpected guest by placing a pea in the bed she is offered for the night. The Princess and The Pea is one of the twenty stories featured in this timeless collection of fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen.

In one of those beautiful valleys, through which the Thames not yet polluted by the tide, the scouring of cities, or even the minor defilement of the sandy streams of Surrey rolls a clear flood through flowery meadows, under the shade of old beech woods, and the smooth mossy greensward of the chalk hills which pour into it their tributary rivulets, as pure and pellucid as the fountain of Bandusium, or the wells of Scamander, by which the wives and daughters of the Trojans washed their splendid garments in the days of peace, before the coming of the Greeks...

Lucien Chardon, the son of a lower middle-class father and an impoverished mother of remote aristocratic descent, is the pivotal figure of the entire work. Living at Angouleme, he is impoverished, impatient, handsome and ambitious. His widowed mother, his sister Eve and his best friend, David Sechard, do nothing to lessen his high opinion of his own talents, for it is an opinion they share.

The Archdeacon, although allowing that Grace is a lady, doesn't think her of high enough rank or wealth for his widowed son; his position is strengthened by the Reverend Mr Crawley's apparent crime. Almost broken by poverty and trouble, the Reverend Mr Crawley hardly knows himself if he is guilty or not; fortunately, the mystery is resolved just as Major Grantly's determination and Grace Crawley's own merit force the Archdeacon to overcome his prejudice against her as a daughter-in-law.

Diary of a Madman is one of Gogol's greatest stories. The tale follows the life of a minor civil servant during the repressive era of Nicholas I. Following the format of a diary, the story shows the descent of the protagonist, Poprishchin, into insanity. Diary of a Madman, the only one of Gogol's works written in first person, follows diary-entry format. This Sovereign Classic edition also includes the following other tales: The Mantle, The Nose, A May Night.

The Piazza Tales is the only collection of short stories by Herman Melville including: The Piazza, Bartleby, Benito Cereno, The Lightning-Rod Man, The Encantadas, The Bell-Tower.

Can too much love be fatal? You are about to find out in this exquisite psychological drama between the owner of a pawnshop and his wife. The narrator's marriage started out cordially enough, but his miserly and reserved ways are taxing to his young wife. A dearth of communication and disagreements about how the pawnshop should be run result in arguments, though the narrator insists that they never quarrelled. One fine morning the narrator opens his eyes to see that his wife is standing over him with the revolver pointed at his temple.

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.

Some of the best of ghost stories from Ambrose Bierce, including: Present at a hanging, A cold greeting, A Wireless Message, An Arrest, A Man with Two Lives, The Isle of Pines, A Vine on a House, The Spook House, The Other Lodgers, and many other ghost stories.

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.

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

"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.

Trebuie spus c ghinga pe nelesul tuturor e i el un volum de construcie. Se vede de la poziionarea la nceput i la final a dou texte pn la capt/ la capt. Nu doar prin abilitatea cu care l structureaz, Coman d impresia unei poete exersate ndelung nainte de a-i propune s debuteze, ci prin modul impecabil n care i concepe fiecare text n parte. Dac vei cuta bjbieli, construcii ntmpltoare, falsete, balast (inerente unui volum de debut), v asigur ca nu le vei gsi aici. Coman reuete s construiasc o lume credibil cu o voce feminin care, dei pare s opteasc, strig. Este o carte care exploateaz jocul de contraste, nuannd: abia dup cel de-al doilea copil al nostru/ am neles ca sunt chestiuni/ perfect distincte – dragostea (am/ putea tri foarte bine/ ca fraii) i plcerea./ pentru amndoi plcerea a venit/ de la corpul strin. n-a mai rmas dect dragostea./ o vom duce cum se cuvine pn la capt. Unei poetici feminine viscerale cu artificii retorice, Coman i opune ceea ce muli ar punea vedea drept o extirpare a afectivitii. Vorbim de dedublare: niciodat n-am ncetat s-mi vorbesc/ altfel dect unei femei/ dar astzi am depit orice nchipuire./ astzi cnd tocmai reuisem/ s-mi adorm trupul/ iar tensiunea dintre mine i el/ aproape c se risipise i de depersonalizare: ntr-un loc n care se aud tot mai tare/ copiii/ cineva m numete nina./ am 40 de ani/ i nu vreau s-mi mai beau cafeaua cu un mort. Vorbim de existen domestica printre oale, robinet, frigider, paa hasan, adjectiv, de hiperchinezie dublat de deficien de concentare, dar i de oboseal cronica (nu m odihnesc niciodat) i acuitate perceptiv, de pnd (ciulesc urechile). O figur care pare c folosete prospecia ca terapie: voi schimba ceva la pr, mi voi/ cumpra ciorapi verzi./ voi zugrvi buctria. mi voi/ face timp s corectez teancurile cu lucrri./ voi mbtrni pentru a cdea, de fapt, imediat n blazare. Pe aceste schimbri brute de direcie, fr a fi disonante, ci perfect muzicale, Coman mizeaz i iese pe deplin ctigtoare.“ – Ioana Dunea

O poezie de o stranietate izbitoare, o lume postapocaliptic cldit pe datele unui imediat nstrinat. O poezie rece, tioas, ritmat (ritmul i aduce aportul formal la respectiva stranietate) care pune n dialog un Eu bntuit de moarte, pe care o citete, o palpeaz n toate detaliile unui univers cvasimitologic pe care-l construiete tocmai pentru a o putea circumscrie. Eul acesta al lui Kemény se afl ntr-o continu stare de asediu pe care o transfer asupra cititorului ideal adoptnd de multe ori structura narativ a mitului, a povestirii legendare (...)Materia are o greutate sufocant n poemele lui Kemény, contrastnd parc cu imaginile aflate n continu micare i transformare. Un vag suprarealism care aduce oarecum, vizual, cu acele videoclipuri ale anilor ’90 trzii, care mizau, pentru a obine stranietatea, pe ocul dat de alternarea dintre accelerarea brusc a micrii i aspectul static al temei mitologice (m gndesc n special la Metallica, clipul de la Until it sleeps)Un volum excelent, un adevrat manual de poezie care sun, datorit lui Andrei Dósa, impecabil.“ – Bogdan Alexandru Stanescu