The Scarlet Letter is an 1850 romantic work of fiction in a historical setting, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and is considered to be his magnum opus. Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston, Massachusetts, during the years 1642 to 1649, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an affair and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. Throughout the book, Hawthorne explores themes of legalism, sin, and guilt. The experience of Hester and Dimmesdale recalls the story of Adam and Eve because, in both cases, sin results in expulsion and suffering. But it also results in knowledge – specifically, in knowledge of what it means to be immoral. For Hester, the Scarlet Letter is a physical manifestation of her sin and reminder of her painful solitude. She contemplates casting it off to obtain her freedom from an oppressive society and a checkered past as well as the absence of God. Because the society excludes her, she considers the possibility that many of the traditions held up by the Puritan culture are untrue and are not designed to bring her happiness.As for Dimmesdale, the "cheating minister", his sin gives him "sympathies so intimate with the sinful brotherhood of mankind, so that his chest vibrate[s] in unison with theirs." His eloquent and powerful sermons derive from this sense of empathy. The narrative of the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is quite in keeping with the oldest and most fully authorized principles in Christian thought. His "Fall" is a descent from apparent grace to his own damnation; he appears to begin in purity but he ends in corruption. The subtlety is that the minister's belief is his own cheating, convincing himself at every stage of his spiritual pilgrimage that he is saved. The rose bush's beauty forms a striking contrast to all that surrounds it – as later the beautifully embroidered scarlet "A" will be held out in part as an invitation to find "some sweet moral blossom" in the ensuing, tragic tale and in part as an image that "the deep heart of nature" (perhaps God) may look more kind on the errant Hester and her child than her Puritan neighbors do. Throughout the work, the nature images contrast with the stark darkness of the Puritans and their systems.Chillingworth's misshapen body reflects (or symbolizes) the anger in his soul, which builds as the novel progresses, similar to the way Dimmesdale's illness reveals his inner turmoil. The outward man reflects the condition of the heart; an observation thought to be inspired by the deterioration of Edgar Allan Poe, whom Hawthorne "much admired".

Virginia Woolf was an English writer, and one of the foremost modernists of the twentieth century. Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a central figure in the influential Bloomsbury Group of intellectuals. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs Dalloway, To the Lighthouse and Orlando. Rachel Vinrace leaves on her father's ship for South America and her journey of self-discovery begins. The eclectic group of passengers provides Woolf with an opportunity to poke fun at Edwardian life. The novel is the first published by Woolf and introduces Clarissa Dalloway, the central character of Woolf's later novel, Mrs. Dalloway During the interwar period, Woolf was a signifi-cant figure in London literary society and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and Orlando (1928), and the book-length essay A Room of One's Own (1929) with its famous dictum, "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction". Other Books of V. Woolf: To the Lighthouse (1927)Mrs Dalloway (1925)A Haunted House (1921)Orlando (1928)Mrs Dalloway in Bond Street (1923)Between the Acts (1941)The Duchess and the Jeweller (1938)The New Dress (1927)The Mark on the Wall (1917)The Years (1937)

Seventeen: A Tale of Youth and Summer Time and the Baxter Family Especially William is a humorous novel by Booth Tarkington that gently satirizes first love, in the person of a callow 17-year-old, William Sylvanus Baxter. Seventeen takes place in a small city in the Midwestern United States shortly before World War I. It was published as sketches in the Metropolitan Magazine in 1914, and collected in a single volume in 1916, when it was the bestselling novel in the United States.

Penrod is a collection of comic sketches by Booth Tarkington that was first published in 1914. The book follows the misadventures of Penrod Schofield, an eleven-year-old boy growing up in the pre-World War I Midwestern United States, in a similar vein to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. In Penrod, Tarkington established characters who appeared in two further books, Penrod and Sam (1916) and Penrod Jashber (1929). The three books were published together in one volume, Penrod: His Complete Story, in 1931.

Alexander's Bridge is the first novel by American author Willa Cather. First published in 1912, it was re-released with an author's preface in 1922. It also ran as a serial in McClure's, giving Cather some free time from her work for that magazine.

The story is told by Albert N. Wilmarth, an instructor of literature at Miskatonic University in Arkham. When local newspapers report strange things seen floating in rivers during a historic Vermont flood, Wilmarth becomes embroiled in a controversy about the reality and significance of the sightings, though he sides with the skeptics. Wilmarth uncovers old legends about monsters living in the uninhabited hills who abduct people who venture or settle too close to their territory.

"The Unnamable" is a horror short story by American author H. P. Lovecraft. It was written in September 1923, first published in the July 1925 issue of Weird Tales, and first collected in Beyond the Wall of Sleep. Carter, a weird fiction writer, who is likely the Randolph Carter who features in some of Lovecraft's other tales such as The Statement of Randolph Carter, meets with his close friend, Joel Manton, in a cemetery near an old, dilapidated house on Meadow Hill in the town of Arkham, Massachusetts. As the two sit upon a weathered tomb, Carter tells Manton the tale of an indescribable entity that allegedly haunts the house and surrounding area. He contends that because such an entity cannot be perceived by the five senses, it becomes impossible to quantify and accurately describe, thus earning itself the term unnamable.

The story is written in first person. It depicts the main character going outside Hampden and finding a special tree. The tree makes him day dream about a big temple in a land with three suns. The temple was half-violet, half-blue. Some shadows attracted him into the inside. He thought he saw three flaming eyes watching him and he shouted twice and the vision was gone.

Then I was a little girl, which is now a good many years ago, there came to spend some time with us a cousin who had been brought up in Germany. ??She was almost grown-up—to me, a child of six or seven, she seemed quite grown-up; in reality, she was, I suppose, about fifteen or sixteen. She was a bright, kind, good-natured girl, very anxious to please and amuse her little English cousins, especially me, as I was the only girl. ??But she had not had much to do with small children; above all, delicate children, and she was so strong and hearty herself that she did not understand anything about nervous fears and fancies.

"The Strange High House in the Mist" is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft. Written on November 9, 1926, it was first published in the October 1931 issue of Weird Tales. It concerns a character traveling to the titular house which is perched on the top of cliff which seems inaccessible both by land and sea, yet is apparently inhabited. Thomas Olney, a "philosopher" visiting the town of Kingsport, Massachusetts with his family, is intrigued by a strange house on a cliff overlooking the ocean. It is unaccountably high and old and the locals have a generations-long dread of the place which no one is known to have visited.

"The Statement of Randolph Carter" is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft. Written December 1919, it was first published in The Vagrant, May 1920. It tells of a traumatic event in the life of Randolph Carter, a student of the occult loosely representing Lovecraft himself. It is the first story in which Carter appears and is part of Lovecraft's Dream Cycle.

Many ages ago in North America there was no spring or summer or autumn, but only winter all the time; there were no forests or fields or flowers, but only ice and snow, which stretched from the Arctic Ocean to Maryland. Sometimes the climate would grow a little warmer, and then the great glaciers would shrink toward the north, and then again it would grow cold, while the ice crept southward; but finally it became warmer and warmer until all the southern part of the country was quite free from the ice and snow, which could then only be seen, as it is now, in the Polar regions.??Ages and ages after this, grass and trees began to ap-pear, and at last great forests covered the land, and over the fields and through the woods gigantic animals roved—strange and terrible-looking beasts, larger than any animal now living, and very fierce and strong. Among these were the mammoth and mastodon, which were so strong and ferocious that it would take hundreds of men to hunt and kill them. These great animals would go trampling through the forests, breaking down the trees and crushing the grass and flowers under their feet, or rush over the fields in pursuit of their prey, making such dreadful, threatening noises that all the other animals would flee before them, just as now the more timid animals flee from the lion or rhinoceros. ??Sometimes they would rush or be driven by men into swamps and marshes, where their great weight would sink them down so deep into the mud that they could not lift themselves out again, and then, they would die of starvation or be killed by the arrows of the men who were hunting them.??Besides these mammoths and mastodons there were other animals living in North America at that time, very different from those that are found here now. ?

"The Shunned House" is a horror fiction novelette by American author H. P. Lovecraft, written on October 16–19, 1924. It was first published in the October 1937 issue of Weird Tales. The Shunned House of the title is based on an actual house in Providence, Rhode Island, built around 1763 and still standing at 135 Benefit Street. Lovecraft was familiar with the house because his aunt Lillian Clark lived there in 1919-20 as a companion to Mrs. H. C. Babbit. However, it was another house in Elizabeth, New Jersey that actually compelled Lovecraft to write the story.

So long a time had passed that Dorothy C. had grown to be what father John called "a baker's dozen of years old"; and upon another spring morning, as fair as that when she first came to them, the girl was out upon the marble steps, scrubbing away most vigorously. The task was known locally as "doing her front," and if one wishes to be considerable respectable, in Baltimore, one's "front" must be done every day. On Saturdays the entire marble facing of the basement must also be polished; but "pernickity" Mrs. Chester was known to her neighbors as such a forehanded housekeeper that she had her Saturday's work done on Friday, if this were possible.??Now this was Friday and chanced to be a school holiday; so Dorothy had been set to the week-end task, which she hated; and therefore she put all the more energy into it, the sooner to have done with it, meanwhile singing at the top of her voice. Then, when the postman came round the corner of the block, she paused in her singing to stare at him for one brief instant. The next she had pitched her voice a few notes higher still, and it was her song that greeted her father's ears and set him smiling in his old familiar fashion. ??Unfortunately, he had not been smiling when she first perceived him and there had been a little catch in her tones as she resumed her song. Each was trying to deceive the other and each pretending that nothing of the sort was happening.??"Heigho, my child! At it again, giving the steps a more tombstone effect? Well, since it's the fashion—go ahead!"??"I wish the man, or men, who first thought of putting scrubby-steps before people's houses had them all to clean himself! Hateful old thing!"

"Amerika z?r?s hely volt a hatvanas-hetvenes években: diáklázadások, hippik és polgárjogi mozgalmak, na meg persze szex, drog és rock&roll minden mennyiségben. Skip Gibbs és barátn?je, Robin Abbott kezdett?l fogva benne volt a legkeményebb balhékban, csak épp nem virággal harcoltak a rendszer ellen, hanem dinamittal. Nem csoda, hogy az FBI jó pár évre kivonta ?ket a forgalomból...Robin - akinek volt ideje t?prengeni a sitten - kiszabadulva végül arra a k?vetkeztetésre jut: nincs értelme a kapitalizmus ellen harcolni, elég megsarcolni azokat, akiknek amúgy is túl sok pénzük van. Választása a dúsgazdag Ricks testvérekre esik, els?sorban azért, mert úgy sejti, Woody és az ?ccse, Mark nyomták fel ?ket annak idején a sz?vetségieknél. Robin ?rd?gi tervet eszel ki, hogy elégtételt vegyen a b?rt?nben elvesztegetett évekért. Ha kell, akár dinamittal is.A páros csak egy valakivel nem számol: a volt bombaszakért? Chris Mankowskival, aki épp Woody Ricks után nyomoz a szexi Greta Wyatt meger?szakolása ügyében. Az id?zít? ketyeg, a kérdés már csak az, mikor robban a bomba!"

A fost odat? o fat?… care avea o umbr?. Al treilea volum al trilogiei Alb?-ca-z?pada.Trupa de teatru a unui liceu de art? pune ?n scen? o versiune modern? a basmului Alb? ca Z?pada, cu Lumikki Andersson ?n rolul principal. Repeti?iile merg bine, iar ?ntre Lumikki ?i b?iatul care-l interpreteaz? pe v?n?tor pare s? existe o chimie palpabil?. Oare Lumikki s-a ?ndr?gostit pentru prima oar??Cu pu?in ?nainte de premier?, lui Lumikki ?i parvine un ?ir de scrisori semnate de un admirator secret, a c?rui pasiune pentru ea se preschimb? rapid ?ntr-o obsesie periculoas?.?ncerc?nd s? afle adev?rata identitate a h?r?uitorului, Lumikki trebuie s? aduc? la lumin? cele mai sumbre secrete din propriul trecut. Iar cum premiera spectacolului se apropie cu repeziciune, Lumikki trebuie s?-l prind? ?n capcan? pe h?r?uitorul s?u, cu sufletul negru ca abanosul.?Motive din basme, intrig? poli?ist?, dileme ale lumii de azi – o lectur? nu tocmai u?oar?, care nu-i menajeaz? nici pe cei mai tineri dintre cititori.“ – Kirkus Reviews?Fanii lui Nesb? ?i ai lui Larsson nu vor fi dezam?gi?i.“ – Publishers WeeklyLumikki Andersson. O fat? din Riihim?ki. Care are o opinie ferm? despre fiecare lucru. Care ia note maxime ?i la fizic?, ?i la filosofie. Care a jucat rolul Ofeliei at?t de bine, ?nc?t vreo doi profesori s-au enervat, iar restul au fost emo?iona?i. Care nu ia parte la niciun eveniment al ?colii. Care mereu m?n?nc? de una singur?, dar nu pare niciodat? singuratic?. Nu e precum ceilal?i. Este exact ca ei.

Florin Logreteanu propune noul su roman intitulat Casa cu iedera. Aciunea lui se desfoar pe fundalul evenimentelor care au premers conflictului balcanic dintre srbi i albanezi din ultimul deceniu al mileniului trecut. L-am citit n manuscris i sunt n msur s spun c e vorba de un excelent romn al psihozei colective, care lumineaz subsolurile contiinei umane.“ – Eugen Negrici

Ore de diminea?? ?ntr-o nou? edi?ie. F?r? ?ndoial? un eveniment. Este cartea care arunc? ?n aer bariera dintre pacostea proletcultist? ?i dreptul elementar de a g?ndi ?i a scrie liber. Cu discre?ie dar f?r? mil? prietenul meu Platon reu?e?te s? p?trund? natura uman? ?i s? simt? r?ul acolo unde nimeni n-ar fi crezut c? se poate ascunde. Ore de diminea?? este o carte despre timpul care i-a fost lui dat. Cartea asta vine din trecut dar apar?ine ?n aceea?i m?sur? prezentului ?i, poate, timpurilor care vor veni. O carte pentru cei ce nu scot din context prezentul pe care nu ei l-au ales. ?n aceia?i m?sur?, un text pentru cei (pu?ini?!) ?n stare s? priceap? c? a trimite ca pe o cer?etoare hoa?? istoria la tribunal este, dac? nu demagogie, atunci o prostie incurabil?. Citi?i Ore de diminea??. Scris? ?i tiparit? ?n anii '70. Este cartea unui autor de seam?. G. B?l?i???

Un roman tulbur?tor despre via??, iubire ?i moarte.Unde se afl? via?a noastr? con?tient?? E posibil s? o transfer?m altcuiva? S? o p?str?m intact??Hope, Josh ?i Luke sunt trei studen?i la neuro?tiin?e, lega?i inseparabil printr-o priete?nie necondi?ionat? ?i o idee genial?.C?nd unul dintre ei ajunge pe moarte, hot?r?sc s? ?ncerce imposibilul ?i s?-?i pun? ?n practic? proiectul lor ie?it din comun.Emo?ionant, misterios ?i ?n acela?i timp plin de umor, Orizontul r?sturnat e o poveste de dragoste etern? cu un dez?nod?m?nt uluitor."Cea mai bun? carte a lui Marc Levy! Teribil de captivant?!" - Le Parisien

Pe Nicolae Breban l-am citit, din primul an de facultate, a?a cum i-am citit pe marii scriitori: de la primul la ultimul titlu. ?n cazul s?u, mai mult poate dec?t ?n al oric?rui alt romancier postbelic, acest exerci?iu de fidelitate este obligatoriu. Romanele sale nu sunt indiferente unul fa?? de altul, ci comunic?, toate, ?ntre ele, alc?tuind un sistem omogen, ?n care fiecare pies? este necesar? ?i contribuie la armonia ?ntregului. De altfel, Breban a avut ?nc? de la primele c?r?i ambi?ia operei monumentale, displ?c?ndu-i fragmentarismul ?i proiectele care ?ncep ambi?ios, dar sucomba levantin. Romanele care au ap?rut p?n? ?n 1990, dup? care cititorii s?i fideli de p?n? atunci ?nc? mai suspin? nostalgic, ?n care marile sale teme sunt clar delimitate, reprezint? un reper nu doar pentru literatura rom?n? a ultimei jum?t??i de secol, ci ?i pentru opera ulterioara a scriitorului. C?r?ile publicate ?n ultimii dou?zeci ?i ceva de ani pierd mult dac? sunt citite ??n sine“, f?r? a fi raportate la ?ntregul operei brebaniene. Mai mult dec?t ?nainte, scriitorul a ?nceput s? se ?ntoarc? din ce ?n ce mai des la propriile crea?ii, s? le lege ?ntr-un silogism epic nu ?ntotdeauna facil de sesizat. Cine nu proiecteaz? ?ns? personajele, cazurile contorsionate, ac?iunile din ultimele ispr?vi epice ale autorului la vechile sale realiz?ri pierde imaginea de ansamblu, pierde poate chiar ?i ?calea de acces“ c?tre nucleul acestei opere majore. (Bogdan Cre?u).Ai o imens? ?tabl? de ?ah“, care se ?nt?mpl? s? fie lumea, manevrat? de dou? sisteme aparent antagonice (dar care se ?n?eleg foarte bine, fiindc? au fost de aceea?i parte a frontului ?n r?zboi), c?rora li se subsumeaz? unele subsisteme cu interese colaterale (cum a fost Lumea a treia sau alian?a ??rilor nealiniate). Dincolo de milioanele de mici episoade locale sau regionale care coloreaza jocul, unde se consuma nevroze f?r? num?r ?i mistific?ri extrem de sofisticate, dou? mize profunde r?m?n mereu pe tabl?, estompate ca relevan?? sau voit obscurizate, pentru a nu le vedea adversarul: planetarizarea surselor de energie ?i necesitatea cre?rii unui sistem inovator de control informa?ional, din care va ie?i, ?n cele din urm?, lumea Internetului de azi. Adic?, daca ne g?ndim bine, chiar cele dou? domenii ?n care comuni?tii au fost pu?i s? piard? partida, intr?nd apoi ?n colaps sistemic ?i ?n insolven??. Aminti?i-v? de ce se spunea dup? '89: c? Ceau?escu a fost mefient fa?? de computere. N-a fost singurul, din lumea comunista. Q.e.d. (?tefan Borbely)

Povestea lui Andrei Mladin începe în anul 1983, când a ap?rut Atac în bibliotec?. Atunci cititorii au f?cut cuno?tin?? cu un tân?r jurnalist român glume?, dar ?i grav, în aparen?? superficial, dar tob? de carte ?i dedicat profesiei sale. Dup? ce îi ia un interviu unei violoniste celebre, Mihaela Comnoiu, el se treze?te implicat într-o situa?ie-limit?, descoperind un cadavru în biblioteca sa. La început, de fric?, Mladin eludeaz? mili?ia ?i se decide s? fac? propriile investiga?ii, devenind un detectiv f?r? voie. Treptat-treptat, descoper? c? în jurul lui s-a ?esut o conspira?ie care îi dore?te pieirea. Iste?imea ?i umorul care îl caracterizeaz? îl ajut? s? treac? prin întâmpl?ri periculoase ?i s? dezlege misterul. Totul se petrece într-un Bucure?ti în care sunt prezentate cozi la alimente, uleiul ?i zah?rul se dau pe cartel?, str?zile sunt luminate anemic, apa cald? nu curge la robinete, telefoanele sunt ascultate, cet??enii sunt supraveghea?i zi ?i noapte. Un ora? în care domne?te frica. ?i ast?zi unii se întreab? cum de a trecut de cenzur? un roman în care anchetatorul nu este un reprezentant al autorit??ilor ?i în care deseori se râde de cutumele unei epoci pe care propaganda o considera de „aur“. Dup? Atac în bibliotec? s-a realizat un film de-abia în 1992, scenariul din 1985 fiind respins de cenzura comunist?. Romanul a ap?rut în limba englez? în 2011, la editura londonez? Profusion (Attack in the Library), iar în 2015 în versiune francez?. „Atac în bibliotec? a reprezentat, la momentul lans?rii, o bomb? ale c?rei efecte au r?mas relevante ?i subversive pân? în ziua de azi.“ – Mike Phillips, scriitor britanic, laureat al premiului Silver Dagger acordat de CWA