TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Pluck and Pertinacity (1899) In the words of the author: “The true story of a man who practically achieved the impossible in his hazardous ice-journey in the dead of the Arctic winter. Happily, success crowned the effort.” (1,450 words).
2. The Scorn of Women (1901) Floyd Vanderlip has at last struck it very rich on Bonanza Creek in the Klondike and has sent funds for his young sweetheart down south to come up to Dawson for a wedding. But in the meantime the star (…)
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"The Pearls of Parlay" and other stories by Jack London
8 December 2020, by Jack London -
"The Burning Log" and other stories by Guy de Maupassant
6 December 2020, by Guy de MaupassantTABLE OF CONTENTS
1. THE BURNING LOG (1882) The narrator is having tea with a close friend when a log burning in the fireplace rolls onto the carpet. That reminds him of a similar but more dramatic incident when he’d been dining with very close and newly-married friends, a story that the lady insists he tells her and us. (1,850 words)
2. THE BED (1882) The narrator discovers a letter hidden in an old priest’s gown that he had just bought at a public auction. It’s a letter from a sick and (…) -
"The Black Monk" and other stories by Anton Chekhov
4 December 2020, by Anton ChekhovTABLE OF CONTENTS
1. CHORISTERS (Певчие) (1884) The sacristan of a village church has been intensely rehearsing a complex choral with the school’s choir in preparation for the forthcoming visit of a Petersburg dignitary, in spite of the vocal inadequacies of the singers and the hostility of the church deacon. But when the big day arrives, there is a crisis that reconciles the two churchmen. (1,900 words)
2. THE MARSHAL’S WIDOW (У предводительши) (1885) Every year on the estate of Madame (…) -
"Burning Daylight" (1910) - Jack London’s last Klondike novel
22 November 2020, by Jack LondonThis big and quite ambitious rags-to-riches-and-back story has a long first part describing the adventures of the central personage Elam Harnish – known by one and all as Burning Daylight because of his habit of routing his comrades out of their blankets with the complaint that daylight was burning – on his way to acquiring a formidable fortune in the Klondike gold rush in northern Canada in the late 1890’s, and then how he continues his economic adventures in the even tougher world of (…)
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German prefixes and suffixes - an overview
15 November 2020, by RayThe German language has a large number of prefixes and suffixes whose function is to enable the formation of an open-ended number of new words by adding new nuances, aspects and dimensions to other words.
These powerful tools can be added in front of or behind just about anything to create new, usually particularly precise and expressive terms that are so numerous that only a small sub-section of these terms are ever included in the dictionaries – there just isn’t room for all the possible (…) -
"A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens (1843)
14 November 2020, by Charles DickensA Christmas Carol was a huge hit in both England and the United States when it was published shortly before Christmas in 1843.
This famous novella was instrumental in reinvigorating popular enthusiasm for the Christmas season among the general public on both sides of the Atlantic, and it established the name Scrooge, and what it stands for, solidly in the English language.
Its utter charm is as effective today as when the book first appeared.
We have reproduced here the splendid (…) -
"The Invisible Collection" (1925) and other stories by Stefan Zweig
24 October 2020, by Stefan ZweigTABLE OF CONTENTS
1. TWO LONELY SOULS (1901) A disabled lad limps home at the end of the day’s work in his factory, left behind by the other workers because of his handicap. He stops when he hears sobbing by the roadside and tries to console another social outcast, a female worker at the factory who has been brutalised because of her ugliness. (1,400 words)
2. THE STAR OVER THE FOREST (1904) The waiter François is suddenly stricken with a slavish worship for the elegant countess (…) -
"Burning Secret" by Stefan Zweig (1911)
7 September 2020, by Stefan ZweigIn in the celebrated Austrian mountain resort of Semmering an experienced ladies’ man sets his sights on an attractive woman who has come there with her sickly twelve-year-old son for a cure, and cleverly first strikes up a friendship with the boy as a way to his mother’s heart. This stratagem is brilliantly successful, but the baron makes the mistake of ignoring the boy from then on.
This 23,000-word novella is one of Stefan Zweig’s best-known works – with Letter From an Unknown Woman (…) -
ALL THE STORIES OF STEFAN ZWEIG: SYNOPSES, COMMENTS AND RATINGS
27 August 2020, by RayBorn and raised in the glorious pre-WW1 Vienna of the Belle Epoque, Stefan Zweig was one of the most outstanding European intellectuals of the 20th century, and a prolific writer of stories, biographies, historical studies, essays, travel journals, memoirs and letters – as well as several plays, two books of poetry, an opera libretto and three novels.
Of all his works there’s no doubt that his short fiction has best weathered the test of time and that it’s the portion of his legacy that’s (…) -
"At the Spa" and other stories by Guy de Maupassant
30 July 2020, by Guy de MaupassantMore excellent tales by master Maupassant, all of which have been translated into English specially for this site. TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. COCONUT, COCONUT, FRESH COCONUT! (1878) Pierre’s uncle left him 500 francs and also 100 francs to be given to the first street coconut-vendor he comes across. In a manuscript the uncle explains that one of them had played a role at a number of the key moments in his life. (1,300 words)
2. FLOTSAM (1881) The narrator comments on his attraction to seaside (…)