万本电子书0元读

万本电子书0元读

When a Man Marries
When a Man Marries
Mary Roberts Rinehart
¥8.09
According to Wikipedia: "Mary Roberts Rinehart (August 12, 1876-September 22, 1958) was a prolific author often called the American Agatha Christie.[1] She is considered the source of the phrase "The butler did it", although she did not actually use the phrase herself, and also considered to have invented the "Had-I-But-Known" school of mystery writing.... Rinehart wrote hundreds of short stories, poems, travelogues and special articles. Many of her books and plays, such as The Bat (1920) were adapted for movies, such as The Bat (1926), The Bat Whispers (1930), and The Bat (1959). While many of her books were best-sellers, critics were most appreciative of her murder mysteries. Rinehart, in The Circular Staircase (1908), is credited with inventing the "Had-I-But-Known" school of mystery writing. The Circular Staircase is a novel in which "a middle-aged spinster is persuaded by her niece and nephew to rent a country house for the summer. The house they choose belonged to a bank defaulter who had hidden stolen securities in the walls. The gentle, peace-loving trio is plunged into a series of crimes solved with the help of the aunt. This novel is credited with being the first in the "Had-I-But-Known" school."[3] The Had-I-But-Known mystery novel is one where the principal character (frequently female) does less than sensible things in connection with a crime which have the effect of prolonging the action of the novel. Ogden Nash parodied the school in his poem Don't Guess Let Me Tell You: "Sometimes the Had I But Known then what I know now I could have saved at least three lives by revealing to the Inspector the conversation I heard through that fortuitous hole in the floor." The phrase "The butler did it", which has become a cliché, came from Rinehart's novel The Door, in which the butler actually did do it, although that exact phrase does not actually appear in the work."
The Witch and Other Stories
The Witch and Other Stories
Anton Chekhov
¥8.09
This collection includes: THE WITCH, PEASANT WIVES, THE POST, THE NEW VILLA, DREAMS, THE PIPE, AGAFYA, AT CHRISTMAS TIME, GUSEV, THE STUDENT, IN THE RAVINE, THE HUNTSMAN, HAPPINESS, A MALEFACTOR, and PEASANTS. 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."
In Exile and Other Stories
In Exile and Other Stories
Mary Hallock Foote
¥8.09
Collection of stories, first published in 1894. 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.'
History of the Incas
History of the Incas
Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa
¥8.09
According to Wikipedia: "Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa (1532–1592) was a Galician (Spanish) explorer, author, historian, astronomer, and scientist… Written in Cuzco, the capital of the Inca Empire, just forty years after the arrival of the first Spaniards in the city, Sarmiento's The History of the Incas contains extremely detailed descriptions of Inca history and mythology. The royal sponsorship of the work guaranteed Sarmiento direct access to the highest Spanish officials in Cuzco. It also allowed him to summon influential natives, as well as those who had witnessed the fall of the Inca Empire, so that they could relate their stories. Sarmiento traveled widely and interviewed numerous local leaders and lords, surviving members of the royal Inca families, and the few remaining Spanish conquistadors who still resided in Cuzco. Once the first draft of the history was completed, in an unprecedented effort to establish the unquestionable authenticity of the work, his manuscript was read, chapter by chapter, to forty-two indigenous authorities for their commentary and correction. After the public reading, which occurred on 29 February and 1 March 1572, the manuscript was entrusted to a member of the viceroy's personal guard. He was to take the manuscript to Spain and deliver it to King Philip II, along with four painted cloths showing the history of the Incas and a number of other artifacts and objects that Toledo had collected. However, due to a series of unusual events, this irreplaceable document of Inca history was relegated to obscurity for centuries."
Underwoods
Underwoods
Robert Louis Stevenson
¥8.09
Poetry. According to Wikipedia: "Robert Louis (Balfour) Stevenson ( 1850 - 1894), was a Scottish novelist, poet, and travel writer, and a leading representative of Neo-romanticism in English literature. He was the man who "seemed to pick the right word up on the point of his pen, like a man playing spillikins", as G. K. Chesterton put it. He was also greatly admired by many authors, including Jorge Luis Borges, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling, Vladimir Nabokov, and J. M. Barrie. Most modernist writers dismissed him, however, because he was popular and did not write within their definition of modernism. It is only recently that critics have begun to look beyond Stevenson's popularity and allow him a place in the canon."
The Adventures of Maya the Bee (Illustrated)
The Adventures of Maya the Bee (Illustrated)
Waldemar Bonsels
¥8.09
Acccording to Wikipedia: "The Adventures of Maya the Bee is a German book ... written by Waldemar Bonsels and published in 1912. The book has been published in many other languages. The stories revolve around a little bee named Maya and her friends Willy the bee, Flip the grasshopper (referred to as "Maja", "Willi" and "Philip" respectively in some versions), Mrs. Cassandra (Maya's teacher), and many other insects and other creatures. The book depicts Maya's development from an adventurous youngster to a responsible adult member of bee society."
Cockaynes in Paris
Cockaynes in Paris
Blanchard Jerrold
¥8.09
Popular novel, first published in 1871. According to Wikipedia: "William Blanchard Jerrold (London 23 December 1826 – 10 March 1884), was an English journalist and author. He was born in London, the eldest son of the dramatist, Douglas William Jerrold. Due to his disagreements with the practices at the elite Mao ("Martin's Academy at Old Slaughter's") school, where he was educated for two and a half years, he quit school and began working on newspapers at an early age. He was appointed the Crystal Palace commissioner to Sweden in 1853, and wrote A Brage-Beaker with the Swedes (1854) on his return. In 1855 he was sent to the Paris exhibition as correspondent for several London papers, and from that time he lived much in Paris. In 1857 he succeeded his father as editor of Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper, a post which he held for twenty-six years... Paul Gustave Doré (January 6, 1832 – January 23, 1883) was a French artist, printmaker, illustrator and sculptor. Doré worked primarily with wood engraving."
Story of the War in South Africa 1899-1900
Story of the War in South Africa 1899-1900
Alfred Thayer Mahan
¥8.09
Classic work of history. According to Wikipedia: "Alfred Thayer Mahan (September 27, 1840 - December 1, 1914) was a United States Navy officer, geostrategist, and educator. His ideas on the importance of sea power influenced navies around the world, and helped prompt naval buildups before World War I. Several ships were named USS Mahan, including the lead vessel of a class of destroyers. His research into naval History led to his most important work, The Influence of Seapower Upon History,1660-1783, published in 1890."
Persuasion
Persuasion
Jane Austen
¥8.09
Posthumously published novel. According to Wikipedia: "Jane Austen (1775 – 1817) was an English novelist whose realism, biting social commentary and masterful use of free indirect speech, burlesque and irony have earned her a place as one of the most widely read and most beloved writers in English literature. Austen lived her entire life as part of a small and close-knit family located on the lower fringes of English gentry. She was educated primarily by her father and older brothers as well as through her own reading. The steadfast support of her family was critical to Austen's development as a professional writer. Austen's artistic apprenticeship lasted from her teenage years until she was about thirty-five years old. During this period, she experimented with various literary forms, including the epistolary novel which she tried and then abandoned, and wrote and extensively revised three major novels and began a fourth. From 1811 until 1815, with the release of Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1815), she achieved success as a published writer. She wrote two additional novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, both published after her death in 1817, and began a third, which was eventually titled Sanditon, but died before completing it."
Seventeen
Seventeen
Booth Tarkington
¥8.09
According to Wikipedia: "Newton Booth Tarkington (July 29, 1869, Indianapolis – May 19, 1946) was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novels The Magnificent Ambersons and Alice Adams…. Much of Tarkington's work consists of satirical and closely observed studies of the American class system and its foibles. He himself came from a patrician family that came down in the world after the Panic of 1873. Today he is best known for his novel The Magnificent Ambersons, which Orson Welles filmed in 1942. It is included in the Modern Library's list of top-100 novels."
Over Strand and Field
Over Strand and Field
Gustave Flaubert
¥8.09
Record of a trip made in 1847, ten years before the publication of Madame Bovary. According to Wikipedia: "Gustave Flaubert (December 12, 1821 – May 8, 1880) was a French writer who is counted among the greatest Western novelists. He is known especially for his first published novel, Madame Bovary (1857), and for his scrupulous devotion to his art and style... More than perhaps any other writer, not only of France, but of modern Europe, Flaubert scrupulously avoids the inexact, the abstract, the vaguely inapt expression which is the bane of ordinary methods of composition. As a writer, Flaubert was nearly equal parts romantic, realist, and pure stylist. Hence, members of various schools, especially realists and formalists, have traced their origins to his work. The exactitude with which he adapts his expressions to his purpose can be seen in all parts of his work, especially in the portraits he draws of the figures in his principal romances. The degree to which Flaubert's fame has extended since his death presents an interesting chapter of literary history in itself. He is also accredited with spreading the popularity of the colour Tuscany Cypress, a colour often mentioned in his chef-d'oeuvre Madame Bovary. Flaubert was fastidious in his devotion to finding the right word ("le mot juste"), and his mode of composition reflected that. He worked in sullen solitude - sometimes occupying a week in the completion of one page - never satisfied with what he had composed, violently tormenting his brain for the best turn of a phrase, the final adjective. His private letters indeed show that he was not one of those to whom correct, flowing language came naturally. His style was achieved through the unceasing sweat of his brow. Flaubert’s just reward, then, is that many critics consider his best works to be exemplary models of style."
The Adventures of Gerard
The Adventures of Gerard
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
¥8.09
According to Wikipedia: "Brigadier Gerard is the hero of a series of comic short stories by the British writer Arthur Conan Doyle. The hero, Etienne Gerard, is a Hussar in the French Army during the Napoleonic Wars. Gerard's most notable attribute is his vanity – he is utterly convinced that he is the bravest soldier, greatest swordsman, most accomplished horseman and most gallant lover in all France. Gerard is not entirely wrong, since he displays notable bravery on many occasions, but his self-satisfaction undercuts this quite often. Obsessed with honour and glory, he is always ready with a stirring speech or a gallant remark to a lady. Conan Doyle, in making his hero a vain, and often rather uncomprehending, Frenchman, was able to satirise both the stereotypical English view of the French and – by presenting them from Gerard's baffled point of view – English manners and attitudes."
The Last of the Mohicans: Second of the Leatherstocking Tales
The Last of the Mohicans: Second of the Leatherstocking Tales
James Fenimore Cooper
¥8.09
Second of the Leatherstocking Tales. Historical novel, set in 1757, during the French and Indian War. First published in 1826. According to Wikipedia, "It was one of the most popular English-language novels of its time, and helped establish Cooper as one of the first world-famous American writers." The other Leatherstocking Tales are: Deerslayer, Pathfinder, Pioneers, and Prairie. According to Wikipedia: "James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851) was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century. He is best remembered as a novelist who wrote numerous sea-stories and the historical novels known as the Leatherstocking Tales, featuring frontiersman Natty Bumppo. Among his most famous works is the Romantic novel The Last of the Mohicans, which many consider to be his masterpiece."
Browning's Shorter Poems
Browning's Shorter Poems
Robert Browning
¥8.09
Selected and edited by Franklin Baker. According to Wikipedia: "Robert Browning (1812 – 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets."
As You Like It/ Wie Es Euch Gefallt: Bilingual edition
As You Like It/ Wie Es Euch Gefallt: Bilingual edition
William Shakespeare
¥8.09
Bilingual, English and German. Shakespeare comedy in English with line numbers and translated to German. According to Wikipedia: "As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 or early 1600 and first published in the First Folio, 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has been suggested as a possibility. As You Like It follows its heroine Rosalind as she flees persecution in her uncle's court, accompanied by her cousin Celia and Touchstone the court jester, to find safety and eventually love in the Forest of Arden. " Zweisprachig, Englisch und Deutsch. Shakespeare-Kom?die in Englisch mit Zeilennummern und ins Deutsche übersetzt. Laut Wikipedia: "As You Like It" handelt es sich um eine Pastoralkom?die von William Shakespeare, die vermutlich im Jahr 1599 oder Anfang 1600 geschrieben und erstmals im First Folio 1623 ver?ffentlicht wurde. Die erste Aufführung des Stücks ist ungewiss, obwohl eine Aufführung im Wilton House in 1603 wurde als eine M?glichkeit vorgeschlagen, wie Sie es m?gen, folgt seine Heldin Rosalind, wie sie Verfolgung in Hof ihres Onkels flieht, begleitet von ihrer Cousine Celia und Touchstone der Hofnarr, um Sicherheit und schlie?lich Liebe im Wald von Arden zu finden.
Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes
Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes
Robert Louis Stevenson
¥8.09
Travelogue/memoir that begins "The journey which this little book is to describe was very agreeable and fortunate for me. After an uncouth beginning, I had the best of luck to the end. But we are all travellers in what John Bunyan calls the wilderness of this world - all, too, travellers with a donkey: and the best that we find in our travels is an honest friend. He is a fortunate voyager who finds many. We travel, indeed, to find them. They are the end and the reward of life. They keep us worthy of ourselves; and when we are alone, we are only nearer to the absent."
Sixes and Sevens
Sixes and Sevens
O. Henry
¥8.09
According to Wikipedia: "O. Henry was the pen name of American writer William Sydney Porter (September 11, 1862 – June 5, 1910). O. Henry short stories are known for wit, wordplay, warm characterization and clever twist endings…. Most of O. Henry's stories are set in his own time, the early years of the 20th century. Many take place in New York City, and deal for the most part with ordinary people: clerks, policemen, waitresses. Fundamentally a product of his time, O. Henry's work provides one of the best English examples of catching the entire flavor of an age. Whether roaming the cattle-lands of Texas, exploring the art of the "gentle grafter," or investigating the tensions of class and wealth in turn-of-the-century New York, O. Henry had an inimitable hand for isolating some element of society and describing it with an incredible economy and grace of language. Some of his best and least-known work resides in the collection Cabbages and Kings, a series of stories which each explore some individual aspect of life in a paralytically sleepy Central American town while each advancing some aspect of the larger plot and relating back one to another in a complex structure which slowly explicates its own background even as it painstakingly erects a town which is one of the most detailed literary creations of the period. The Four Million is another collection of stories. It opens with a reference to Ward McAllister's "assertion that there were only 'Four Hundred' people in New York City who were really worth noticing. But a wiser man has arisen—the census taker—and his larger estimate of human interest has been preferred in marking out the field of these little stories of the 'Four Million.'" To O. Henry, everyone in New York counted. He had an obvious affection for the city, which he called "Bagdad-on-the-Subway,"
A Drift from Redwood Camp
A Drift from Redwood Camp
Bret Harte
¥8.09
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."
Henri VI, Troisieme Partie (Henry VI Part III in French)
Henri VI, Troisieme Partie (Henry VI Part III in French)
William Shakespeare
¥8.09
Pièce d'histoire de Shakespeare, Henry VI, troisième partie, en traduction fran?aise. Selon Wikipédia: "Henry VI, Part 3 ou La Troisième Partie de Henry le Sixt (souvent écrit comme 3 Henry VI) est une pièce d'histoire de William Shakespeare qui aurait été écrite en 1591, et placée pendant la vie du Roi Henri VI Alors que Henry VI traite de la perte des territoires fran?ais de l'Angleterre et des machinations politiques menant aux guerres des deux Roses, Henry VI met l'accent sur l'incapacité du roi à réprimer les querelles de ses nobles et l'inévitabilité des conflits armés. 3 Henri VI aborde principalement les horreurs de ce conflit, avec la nation autrefois ordonnée jeté dans le chaos et la barbarie alors que les familles s'effondrent et que les codes moraux sont subvertis dans la poursuite de la vengeance et du pouvoir.
The Yellow Fairy Book
The Yellow Fairy Book
Andrew Lang
¥8.09
Collection of classic fairy tales. According to Wikipedia: "Andrew Lang (March 31, 1844, Selkirk ? July 20, 1912, Banchory, Kincardineshire) was a prolific Scots man of letters. He was a poet, novelist, and literary critic, and contributor to anthropology. He now is best known as the collector of folk and fairy tales." With the active (hyperlinked) table of contents, click on a story title to go to that story.
Shakespeare's Winter's Tale in French
Shakespeare's Winter's Tale in French
William Shakespeare
¥8.09
Le conte d'hiver de Shakespeare en traduction fran?aise. "Selon Wikipedia:" The Winter's Tale est une pièce de William Shakespeare, initialement publié dans le premier folio de 1623. Bien qu'il ait été regroupé parmi les comédies, certains éditeurs modernes ont ré-étiqueté la pièce comme une des dernières romances de Shakespeare. Certains critiques, parmi lesquels W. W. Lawrence, considèrent que c'est un des ?problèmes de jeu? de Shakespeare, parce que les trois premiers actes sont remplis de drame psychologique intense, tandis que les deux derniers actes sont comiques et fournissent une fin heureuse.