Prospero’s Isle

Latest articles

• "In Autumn" (1883), by Anton Chekhov

  17 January by Anton Chekhov

  On a stormy evening Tikhon’s tavern is crowded with coachmen and pilgrims, and a forty-year-old man in shoddy clothes at the bar is ceaselessly begging for a glass of vodka, eventually proposing his worn-out coat in exchange. Tikhon contemptuously refuses to give him any more vodka until a (...)

• "A Report to an Academy" (1920) by Franz Kafka

  10 January by Franz Kafka

  An ape that has learned human ways reports to an assembly of scientists on the use or rather misuse that mankind had made of his talents.
  A moving and powerful account of his determined, obsessive striving to fundamentally change his essential condition and acquire a form of freedom in spite (...)

• "Candide" (1759) by Voltaire

  3 January by Voltaire

  Voltaire’s brilliant parody of the ideological notion that all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds [1], ironically sub-titled "Optimism", that was written in three incredibly productive days(!) and has retained its charm, its venom and its Enlightenment message for mankind ever (...)

• "The Wonderful Story of Peter Schlemihl" (1814) by Adelbert von Chamisso

  27 December 2021 by Adelbert von Chamisso

  At the very beginning of this justly-famous story the young Peter Schlemihl becomes so alarmed by the amazing powers of a very strange man at a social gathering that he runs away, only to be pursued by the man in question, who insistently offers him an ever-renewable purse in exchange for his (...)

• "A Christmas Tale (Conte de Noël)" by Guy de Maupassant

  20 December 2021 by Guy de Maupassant

  A doctor recounts his most memorable Christmas experience – the resolution of a dramatic case of possession – to a group of listeners.
  A vivid, intense account of a Christmas miracle from a distinctly detached point of view.
  Translated specially for this site. e-books of this striking tale, (...)

• "A Klondike Christmas" and other stories of the Far North, by Jack London

  13 December 2021 by Jack London

  TABLE OF CONTENTS
  1. A KLONDIKE CHRISTMAS (1898) Two brothers are writing home at Christmas describing their life on a mining claim in the Yukon, but are somewhat embarrassed to have to reveal that all they have for Xmas dinner is the miners’ standard fare of beans, bread and bacon. But then (...)

• "The Judgement (Das Urteil)" (1913), by Franz Kafka

  6 December 2021 by Franz Kafka

  A subtle shocker written in Kafka’s detached, almost otherworldly way, where a man-to-man conversation between a father and son brings out long-suppressed thoughts and attitudes and hitherto-hidden facts, and quasi-instantaneously triggers off a final catastrophic conclusion to what had (...)

• English is a wordy language!

  1 December 2021 by Ray

  We have compared the word-counts of the considerable number of translations into English from other languages on our site – 311 at latest count – with the following results: - ALL OF THE TRANSLATIONS INTO ENGLISH OF RUSSIAN AND GERMAN TEXTS HAVE WITHOUT EXCEPTION SIGNIFICANTLY MORE WORDS THAN (...)

• "The Thief" and other stories by Guy de Maupassant

  29 November 2021 by Guy de Maupassant

  TABLE OF CONTENTS
  1. THE THIEF (1882) Three friends are having a party and dress up in the ancient uniforms that the host collects, each with an appropriate weapon. So when they hear a suspicious noise in the attic and realise that a prowler’s up there, they launch a military expedition to (...)

• "The Fantastic Night (Phantastische Nacht)" (1922) by Stefan Zweig

  22 November 2021 by Stefan Zweig

  A well-off and rather idle reserve officer in Vienna in June 1913 quite by hazard finds himself at the races in the Prater, the great Viennese public park, and watches the excited behaviour of the crowd during the races with a detached eye. His day and his whole existence are thrown head over (...)

• "The adventures of Baron Munchausen" (1785) by Rudolf Erich Raspe

  15 November 2021 by Rudolf Erich Raspe

  An extravagant series of adventures purportedly recounted by the authentic Baron Karl Friedrich Hieronymus Freiherr von Münchhausen (1720-1797) to the scholar and sometime author Rudolf Eric Raspe on returning to Germany after ten years of serving in the Russian army.
  This lively and (...)

• The Science-fiction stories of Jack London

  4 November 2021 by Jack London

  Jack London was a major precursor in the domain of science-fiction, with these remarkably innovative tales centered on the potential of science for good or (especially) evil that were as far as we have been able to determine the very first science-fiction stories ever published in the US of A – (...)

• "The Marble Statue" (1819) by Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff

  1 November 2021 by Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff

  Florio is a young poet traveling through Italy who on coming to the ancient town of Lucca meets in rapid succession a boisterous fellow poet and singer, a beautiful young Greek maiden, a strange cavalier and a mysterious and somewhat evanescent lady who bears a strange resemblance to a lovely (...)

• "Amok" (1922) by Stefan Zweig

  29 October 2021 by Stefan Zweig

  An expatriate doctor on the verge of a nervous breakdown in a remote outpost in the Dutch East Indies receives the visit of an elegant lady from the European community in the area’s capital who offers him a large sum of money to perform an illegal operation. Although he does need the money, her (...)

• "Chess Story (Schachnovelle)" (1942) by Stefan Zweig

  25 October 2021 by Stefan Zweig

  Having learnt that the world chess champion is on board the ship that’s taking him from New York to Buenos Aires, the narrator organises a match at high stakes – the hard-nosed champion only plays for money – against the combined forces of the chess enthusiasts on the boat. The champion scornfully (...)

• "The Olive Grove" and other stories by Guy de Maupassant

  22 October 2021 by Guy de Maupassant

  TABLE OF CONTENTS
  1. FEAR (1882) A group on a passenger boat is discussing the topic and one of them intervenes to give two examples of what fear really is other than simply the somewhat-instinctive reaction to a dangerous situation. Both examples have an eerie and almost-but-not-quite (...)

• "The Sinner from Toledo" (1881) - a denunciation of religious extremism by Anton Chekhov

  17 October 2021 by Anton Chekhov

  A moral fable with a sharp edge to it recounting the fate of Maria Spalanzo, who had the misfortune to cross the path of a monk in Barcelona in bygone days looking particularly lovely in the evening moonlight and thereby arousing the deadly wrath of the fanatically misogynous priest and the (...)

• "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" (1927) by B. Traven

  15 October 2021 by B. Traven

  A remarkably realistic novel about a trio of American down-and-outers digging for gold in the troubled Mexico of the post-revolutionary period, told in the inimitably forceful, down-to-earth style of the author of The Death Ship.
  A forceful tale brimming with empathy for the common man and his (...)

• "The Death Ship" (1926) by B. Traven

  11 October 2021 by B. Traven

  This extraordinary account of the life and hardships of a penniless but very articulate and anti-establishmentarian not to say revolutionary sailor in the chaotic post-WW1 world of the twenties was first published as Das Totenschiff in Germany in 1926 under the pen-name of B. Traven. It was (...)

• "Mendel the Book-dealer (Buchmendel)" (1929) by Stefan Zweig

  5 October 2021 by Stefan Zweig

  The narrator recounts how he had taken shelter unexpectedly in a suburban café where he suddenly remembered having met twenty years before Mendel, a book-handler who possessed a phenomenal memory for the slightest details of any book he had ever seen or read about.
  Famous in his day, he had now (...)

• "In the Time of Prince Charley" and other stories by Jack London

  2 October 2021 by Jack London

  TABLE OF CONTENTS
  1. IN THE TIME OF PRINCE CHARLEY (1899) After the decisive Battle of Culloden in 1746 that put an end to Scottish dreams of independance a British officer escorts the captured Prince Charlie through the highlands to a rendezvous with a ship, but opposition from fierce (...)

• "A Living Calendar" and other stories by Anton Chekhov

  27 September 2021 by Anton Chekhov

  TABLE OF CONTENTS
  1. A LIVING CALENDAR (1885) An elderly official is discussing with a friend about how things used to be more lively in their town, citing memorable occasions from the past. He needs reminders from his wife as to exactly when each of these four events had taken place, and (...)

• "A Country Doctor" (1918) by Franz Kafka

  23 September 2021 by Franz Kafka

  An elderly country doctor is called at night to come to the bedside of a suffering young man ten miles away, but the mission is surrounded by difficulties from the start: there’s a snowstorm raging outside and his only horse has just died from over-exertion in the freezing winter. But although (...)

• "A Family Affair" and other stories by Guy de Maupassant

  20 September 2021 by Guy de Maupassant

  TABLE OF CONTENTS
  1. A FAMILY AFFAIR (1881) We follow Monsieur Caravan in his daily routine and trying to cope with the constant state of warfare between his spouse and his elderly mother who lives with them and their two ragamuffin children. But today there’s a dramatic decline in the mother’s (...)

• "Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town" (1912), Steven Leacock’s humorous masterpiece

  13 September 2021 by Steven Leacock

  Steven Leacock (1869-1944), a distinguished university professor [1] brought up on a farm in central Ontario, Canada, was and no doubt remains the most-read and most-loved Canadian humorist, and this famous set of tales about life in a typical town in those there parts in the early part of the (...)

• "A Hunger Artist" (1922) by Franz Kafka

  10 September 2021 by Franz Kafka

  Written in 1922 and published as the title story in the first collection of his stories to be published after his death two years later at the age of forty, this account of a man’s determined and obsessive drive to surpass himself in the art of fasting explores the theme of eating in a calmly (...)

• Corsican stories by Maupassant

  3 September 2021 by Guy de Maupassant

  Guy de Maupassant wrote six stories taking place in Corsica, "l’Île de Beauté" that he knew well and was particularly attracted to.
  These short but powerful tales, written in his straightforward, realistic and elegant style at the height of his literary career, are a remarkable testimonial to (...)

• "Cosmic Encounter" (1980) by A. E. van Vogt

  29 August 2021 by A. E. van Vogt

  In 1704 the English nobleman-turned-pirate Nathan Fletcher is en route to a planned assault on a British merchant ship in the Caribbean when one of the men spots a very strange unidentified object falling from the sky on the horizon. This turns out to be a disabled spaceship from the 83rd (...)

• "Don Juan" (1813), by E. T. A. Hoffmann

  5 August 2021 by E. T. A. Hoffmann

  A traveling salesman discovers that his hotel room leads directly to a private lodge in the neighbouring theatre, where a performance of Mozart’s opera “Don Juan” is about to be given. Delighted, the music lover rushes over to the lodge, where not only is the performance exceptional, but where he (...)

• "Tobacco Shop (Tabacaria)" by Fernando Pessoa (1928)

  4 August 2021 by Fernando Pessoa

  Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935) was one of the most outstanding Portuguese poets of his time and of all time, and this celebrated poem Tabacaria, a complex, melancholic and inspired meditation, is one of his most renowned works, without a doubt one of the most memorable poetic texts of the 20th (...)