Lord of the World is a 1907 novel by Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson that centers upon the reign of the Anti-Christ and the End of the World. It has been called prophetic by Dale Ahlquist, Joseph Pearce, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. ? In early 21st century London, two priests, the white-haired Father Percy Franklin and the younger Father John Francis, are visiting the subterranean lodgings of the elderly Mr. Templeton. A Catholic and former Tory who witnessed the marginalization of his religion and the destruction of his Party, Mr. Templeton describes to the two priests the last century of British and world history. ? Since the Labour Party took control of the British Government in 1917, the House of Lords has been abolished, the British Royal Family has been deposed, Oxford and Cambridge have been closed down and all their professors exiled to Ireland. Marxism and Secular Humanism, which are described as the instruments of Freemasonry, dominate both culture and government. The Anglican Communion has been disestablished since 1929 and, like all forms of Protestantism, is almost extinct. The world now has only three main religious forces: Catholicism, Secular Humanism, and "the Eastern religions." ? Nationalism has been destroyed by Marxist internationalism and the world has been divided into three power-blocs. The first, which is generally marked in red on maps, is an European Confederation of Marxist one-party states and their colonies in Africa that use Esperanto for a world language. The second, marked in yellow, is "The Eastern Empire", whose Emperor, the "Son of Heaven", descends from both the Japanese and Chinese Imperial Families. The third, the blue marked, "The American Republic", consists of North, South, and Central America. ? In a move that almost toppled Marxism in the Confederation during the 1970s and '80s, the Eastern Empire invaded, annexed, and now rules India, Australia, New Zealand, as well as all of Russia east of the Ural Mountains. For this and other reasons, Mr. Templeton explains, the Confederation and the Eastern Empire are now on the brink of a global war. ? After Mr. Templeton completes his story, Fathers Franklin and Francis return to their spartan apartments at Westminster Cathedral.

The story begins with the mysterious death of Sir Richard Trevlyn. All the reader knows is that Richard's wife, Alice, who is pregnant with their first child, listens through a keyhole in the library door to a conversation Richard has with a visitor. What she hears horrifies her, she faints, and a servant, Hester, finds her and helps her to bed. Alice insists Richard not be disturbed, but Hester is worried and goes to the library anyway to tell him his wife is ill. She finds him slumped over his desk, dead. ? Twelve years later the child, Lillian, meets a stranger on the grounds, a sixteen year old boy named Paul who applies for work on the estate. He does his job well, advancing in position and earning the affection of family and servants alike. Some of the servants suspect he may be more than a mere gardener or groom, but they like him and when he leaves without a word to anyone they are confused and disappointed.

This Point Blank Classics edition includes the full original text as well as exclusive images exclusive to this edition and an easy to use interactive table of contents.

This Point Blank Classics edition includes the full original text as well as exclusive images exclusive to this edition and an easy to use interactive table of contents.

Twenty-two stories deal with an insane asylum, an old, retired Army officer, superstition, a matchmaker, an architect's trip back to his home town, and a man's efforts to have his brother released from prison.

More New Arabian Nights: The Dynamiter (1885) is a collection of linked short stories by Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Vandegrift. ? "Prologue of the Cigar Divan" "Challoner's adventure: The Squire of Dames" "Story of the Destroying Angel" "The Squire of Dames (Concluded)" "Somerset's adventure: The Superfluous Mansion" "Narrative of the Spirited Old Lady" "The Superfluous Mansion (Continued)" "Zero's Tale of the Explosive Bomb" "The Superfluous Mansion (Continued)" "Desborough's Adventure: The Brown Box" "Story of the Fair Cuban" "The Brown Box (Concluded)" "The Superfluous Mansion (Concluded)" "Epilogue of the Cigar Divan"

While the story is thematically similar to Candide by Voltaire, also published early in 1759 – both concern young men travelling in the company of honoured teachers, encountering and examining human suffering in an attempt to determine the root of happiness – their root concerns are distinctly different. Voltaire was very directly satirising the widely read philosophical work by Gottfried Leibniz, particularly the Theodicee, in which Leibniz asserts that the world, no matter how we may perceive it, is necessarily the "best of all possible worlds". In contrast the question Rasselas confronts most directly is whether or not humanity is essentially capable of attaining happiness. Writing as a devout Christian, Johnson makes through his characters no blanket attacks on the viability of a religious response to this question, as Voltaire does, and while the story is in places light and humorous, it is not a piece of satire, as is Candide.

This collection assembles four of Blackwood's greatest stories: "The Insanity of Jones," "The Man Who Found Out," "The Glamour of the Snow," and "Sand." ? The son of a preacher, Blackwood had a life-long interest in the supernatural, the occult, and spiritualism, and firmly believed that humans possess latent psychic powers. The autobiography Episodes Before Thirty (1923) tells of his lean years as a journalist in New York. In the late 1940s, Blackwood had a television program on the BBC on which he read . . . ghost stories!

Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady is an epistolary novel by Samuel Richardson, published in 1748. It tells the tragic story of a heroine whose quest for virtue is continually thwarted by her family, and is regarded as the longest novel in the English language (based on estimated word count). It is generally regarded as Richardson's masterpiece. ? Clarissa Harlowe, the tragic heroine of Clarissa, is a beautiful and virtuous young lady whose family has become wealthy only recently and now desires to become part of the aristocracy. Their original plan was to concentrate the wealth and lands of the Harlowes into the possession of Clarissa's brother James Harlowe, whose wealth and political power will lead to his being granted a title. Clarissa's grandfather leaves her a substantial piece of property upon his death, and a new route to the nobility opens through Clarissa marrying Robert Lovelace, heir to an earldom. James's response is to provoke a duel with Lovelace, who is seen thereafter as the family's enemy. James also proposes that Clarissa marry Roger Solmes, who is willing to trade properties with James to concentrate James's holdings and speed his becoming Lord Harlowe. The family agrees and attempts to force Clarissa to marry Solmes, whom she finds physically disgusting as well as boorish.

American Fairy Tales is the title of a collection of twelve fantasy stories by L. Frank Baum, published in 1901 by the George M. Hill Company, the firm that issued The Wonderful Wizard of Oz the previous year. ? L. Frank Baum was doing well in 1901, better than ever before in his life. He had written two popular books, Father Goose: His Book and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and was determined to capitalize on this success. In addition to American Fairy Tales, Baum's Dot and Tot of Merryland and The Master Key appeared in 1901. ? Publisher George M. Hill sold the serialization rights to the twelve stories in AFT to five major newspapers, the Pittsburgh Dispatch, the Boston Post, the Cincinnati Enquirer, the St. Louis Republic, and The Chicago Chronicle. The stories appeared between March 3 and May 19, 1901; the book followed in October. The first three papers used or adapted the book's illustrations for their publications of the stories, while the Chronicle and the Republic had their own staff artists do separate pictures.

"The Mystery of the Sycamore" is an early type of detective story, falling somewhere between Conan Doyle's genius Sherlock Holmes and Hammett's tough-guy Sam Spade. It contains elements of the Gothic (the tale of the phantom bugler, which is used by the murderer as a cover) and the Golden Age puzzle. ? Dan Wheeler has been condemned to live his life outside of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as a result of his conviction for forgery, a condition imposed by the former governor of the state, Sam Appleby. Appleby has ambitions for his son to follow in his footsteps, but knows that without Wheeler's support, Appleby junior hasn't much hope. So he hopes to coerce Wheeler's support by holding out the carrot of a full pardon, which would not only allow his wife to keep her inheritance (which comes with the stipulation that she live in Massachusetts--their house is built on the border between Massachusetts and Connecticut) but free his daughter Maida to wed her beloved Jeffrey Allen, a lawyer in Boston. But Wheeler is a man of principle and refuses. Appleby has more tricks up his sleeve, however, and works his plan on Maida. He ends up shot dead in Wheeler's study, and all three Wheelers confess to the deed.

The Marvelous Land of Oz: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman, commonly shortened to The Land of Oz, published on July 5, 1904, is the second of L. Frank Baum's books set in the Land of Oz, and the sequel to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900). This and the next 34 Oz books of the famous 40 were illustrated by John R. Neill. The book was made into an episode of The Shirley Temple Show in 1960, and into a Canadian animated feature film of the same name in 1987. It was also adapted in comic book form by Marvel Comics, with the first issue being released in November 2009. Plot elements from The Marvelous Land of Oz are included in the 1985 Disney feature film Return to Oz.

Nabi Seth AS atau Nabi Syits AS atau Nabi Set AS adalah anak laki-laki dari Nabi Adam AS dan Hawa (Eve). Ia dilahirkan pada saat Adam berumur 130 tahun (Kejadian 5:3). Nabi Syits AS merupakan saudara muda dari Qabil dan Habil (Kain dan Habel). Menurut kitab Perjanjian Adam, mengisahkan bahwa Adam, ketika mengetahui bahwa ajalnya telah dekat, memanggil Set ke sisinya. Ia menyuruh Set kembali ke Taman Eden, masuk dan mengambil tiga benih dari buah Pohon Kehidupan. Adam kemudian meminta Seth kembali kepadanya dan menempatkan ketiga benih itu di mulutnya sebelum menguburkan jenazahnya. Nabi Seth AS melakukan apa yang diminta ayahnya dan pergi ke Taman Eden. Di gerbang taman itu berdirilah Penghulu Malaikat Mikail, yang menanyakan tujuan Set. Set memberitahukannya, dan Mikail mengizinkannya masuk, dan menunjukkan kepadanya pohon kehidupan itu. Set mengumpulkan tiga benih dari buah pohon itu dan kemudian kembali, melalui pintu gerbang, dan kembali ke ayahnya, yang saat ini telah meninggal. Ia menggali kuburan untuk Adam, dan menguburkannya, setelah menempatkan ketiga benih itu di mulutnya lalu menutup liang kuburnya. Dalam kitab Kejadian dari Kitab Suci Ibrani dan Alkitab, adalah salah satu anak (kemungkinan putra ketiga) dari Adam dan Hawa, dan merupakan adik laki-laki dari Kain dan Habel. Ia dilahirkan setelah Habel (Habil) dibunuh oleh Kain (Qabil). Nama Set disebut sepuluh kali dalam Alkitab, yaitu tujuh kali di kitab Kejadian, sekali di kitab Bilangan, Kitab 1 Tawarikh, dan Injil Lukas. Nabi Set AS bagi Nabi Adam AS adalah seorang anak yang "menurut rupa dan gambarnya". Set diberikan oleh Allah SWT sebagai pengganti Habel yang dibunuh. Ia mempunyai seorang anak yang bernama Enos pada usia 105 tahun dan hidup hingga mencapai usia 912 tahun. Melalui keturunan Set dilahirkanlah Nabi Nuh, Nabi Abraham, Nabi Daud, hingga akhirnya menurunkan Nabi Isa. Menurut kisah Islam, setelah kematian Habil, Adam sangatlah marah kepada Qabil. Kemudian Adam memiliki anak kembar kembali bernama Syits (Set/Seth) dan 'Azura. Syits memiliki arti "hadiah", karena Allah telah memberikan hadiah kepada Adam berupa seorang anak soleh, setelah kematian anaknya yang bernama Habil. Syits selain sebagai anak yang berbakti, ia diyakini sebagai seorang nabi dan rasulallah. Sebagai seorang nabi, Syits menerima perintah-perintah dari Allah yang ditulis dalam 50 suhuf/sahifah. Menurut keterangan Ibnu Abbas, ketika Nabi Syits AS dilahirkan, Nabi Adam AS? sudah berusia 930 tahun. Adam sengaja memilih Syits sebab anaknya yang satu ini memiliki kelebihan dari segi keilmuan, kecerdasan, ketakwaan dan kepatuhan dibandingkan dengan semua anaknya yang lain. Adam mengajarkan semua pengetahuan yang ia miliki kepada Syits. Ia mengajarkan bagaimana menyembah Allah dan beribadah yang lainnya. Setelah kematian Adam, Syits memimpin anak cucu Adam. Ia memimpin dengan peraturan dan hukum Allah, ia membawa persatuan diantara orang-orang disekitarnya. Wahab bin Munabbih mengatakan, ketika Nabi Adam AS wafat, Nabi Syits AS telah berusia 400 tahun. Syits telah diwasiati oleh Adam untuk memerangi saudaranya, Qabil. Dia pergi memerangi Qabil dan akhirnya perang itu pun berkecamuk. Itulah perang pertama yang terjadi antara anak-anak Adam di muka bumi. Dalam peperangan itu, Syits memperoleh kemenangan dan dia menawan Qabil. Nabi Syits AS kemudian memimpin anak cucu Adam dan ia memimpin dengan peraturan dan hukum Allah SWT, ia membawa persatuan dan perdamaian diantara orang-orang disekitarnya. Buku ini mengisahkan hikayat Nabi Syits AS (Seth AS) putra Nabi Adam AS bersumberkan dari Al-Quran & Al-Hadist.

Long, long ago there lived a man called Sentaro. His surname meant "Millionaire," but although he was not so rich as all that, he was still very far removed from being poor. He had inherited a small fortune from his father and lived on this, spending his time carelessly, without any serious thoughts of work, till he was about thirty-two years of age.One day, without any reason whatsoever, the thought of death and sickness came to him. The idea of falling ill or dying made him very wretched."I should like to live," he said to himself, "till I am five or six hundred years old at least, free from all sickness. The ordinary span of a man's life is very short."He wondered whether it were possible, by living simply and frugally henceforth, to prolong his life as long as he wished.He knew there were many stories in ancient history of emperors who had lived a thousand years, and there was a Princess of Yamato, who, it was said, lived to the age of five hundred This was the latest story of a very long life record.

This Point Blank Classics edition includes the full original text as well as an easy to use interactive table of contents.

This Housemartin Classics edition includes the full original text as well as an easy to use interactive table of contents.

This Tribeca Press edition includes the full original text as well as an easy to use interactive table of contents.

Today, the Pacific islands reflect the best and worst in western society. On the one hand are the bravery and persistence of early European navigators, missionaries, and government officers; the early, well-meaning efforts by many westerners to help the islanders become ‘civilized’; the assistance readily given in times of natural disasters; and the grants and concessional loans to help Pacific countries develop into independent economic entities, to name but a few. On the other hand are the persistence in demolishing the islanders’ tropical culture and turning them into unwilling citizens or dependents of temperate countries, like puppets; the arrogance of assuming that modern western democracy and societal norms, which date back but a few generations, must replace the islanders’ far longer-standing societies; and the continuation of all these efforts to westernize them and their countries in the face of growing awareness in those Pacific countries of the value of their own well tried-and-tested lifestyles—to name but a few. What if history had gone another way? What if the Pacific islanders had taken over Europe instead? That would have been impossible, of course, or would it?

This Tribeca Press edition includes the full original text as well as exclusive images exclusive to this edition and an easy to use interactive table of contents.

This Tribeca Press edition includes the full original text as well as exclusive images exclusive to this edition and an easy to use interactive table of contents.

This Housemartin Classics edition includes the full original text as well as an easy to use interactive table of contents.