The Russian Czar is informed during a formal diplomatic reception in the Kremlin that a great invasion of hundreds of thousands of Tartar troops is menacing Russian positions and towns throughout Siberia, and that the Czar’s brother, the Grand-Duke, is in great danger in the eastern Siberian town of Irkutsk where he had gone on a mission. The Czar commissions one of his most trusted officers, Michael Strogoff, to carry a missive to the Grand-Dule to warn him that an infamous traitor and (…)
Most recent articles
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"Michael Strogoff" by Jules Verne (1876)
30 September, by Jules Verne -
"Around the World in Eighty Days" by Jules Verne (1872)
23 September, by Jules VernePhileas Fogg is a distinguished albeit somewhat reclusive and mysterious member of the prestigious Reform Club in London who enters into a debate with his partners at the whist table about an article in a leading paper that had declared that with modern technology it was now possible to travel right around the world in a mere 80 days – assuming that there were no unexpected delays, that the steamships and railways always maintained their schedules and that the traveller made all the (…)
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"The Mysterious Island" by Jules Verne (1875)
17 September, by Jules VerneA group of Unionist prisoners in the besieged Confederate capital of Richmond escapes in a balloon in the middle of a hurricane-level storm only to find themselves driven many thousands of miles into an unknown part of the south Pacific, where they manage finally to land nearby an uncharted island. Under the guidance of their supremely competent engineer-leader, the group manages to not only survive but to prosper – until their very existence is threatened by brutal invaders and by natural (…)
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"Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas" by Jules Verne (1869)
12 September, by Jules VerneThis remarkable adventure story with a strong scientific-exploration bent has somehow retained its credibility and readability so many years later in spite of the phenomenal advances made since Verne’s day in engineering and natural science, thanks to his unerring talent for creating drama and excitement at the wonders of nature and the unlimited perspectives for scientific and technological progress.
And above all thanks to his knack for telling a marvellous story with pace and enthusiasm (…) -
"The Prodigious Adventures of Tartarin de Tarascon" by Alphonse Daudet" (1872)
19 August, by Alphonse DaudetTartarin is an enthusiastic hunter in the southern French town of Tarascon (where game is unfortunately very scarce) and although at forty-five he has never left his sunny and comfortable home town, he has nevertheless acquired great renown as a hunter because of his ability to shoot down caps thrown in the sky, his formidable collection of weapons, his extensive (reading) knowledge of wild-game hunting all over the world and his elaborate accounts of the lion-hunting expedition that he (…)
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"Monsieur Seguin’s Goat" by Alphonse Daudet (1866)
10 August, by Alphonse DaudetThis timeless tale of a little she-goat’s dream of finding true liberty in the high mountains by the author of Tartarin de Tarascan is probably the best-known short story in all of French literature, familiar to every Gallic citizen young and old.
(2,200 words)
Translated specially for this site
The original text can be consulted in the annex here. MONSIEUR SEGUIN’S GOAT
To M. Pierre Gringoire, lyrical poet in Paris.
You’ll never change, my poor Gringoire!
What? You’ve been (…) -
"A Confession" and other early Chekhov stories with a humorous touch
5 August, by Anton ChekhovTABLE OF CONTENTS
1. A CONFESSION, OR OLYA, ZHENYA, ZOYA (Исповедь, или Оля, Женя, Зоя) (1882) A thirty-nine year-old man writes to a lady friend who had asked him why he had never yet married, and explains with three examples of cases (there were many other occasions, these were just examples) when he had been on the verge of proposing to a woman he was in love with when something unexpected happened to ruin the event and the whole project. (2,300 words)
2. HOW I CAME TO BE LAWFULLY (…) -
"The Magic Mountain" by Thomas Mann (1924)
28 July, by Thomas MannReading this extraordinary book is an unforgettable experience.
No one who has read this masterpiece can ever forget the young Hans Castorp’s visit to a sanatorium nestled high in the Swiss mountains where he meets and becomes so intensely involved with its cosmopolitan patients from all over Europe, especially the tantalizingly mysterious Clawdia Chauchat, her explosive protector Mynheer Peeperkorn and the impetuous philosopher Settembrini. Their encounters and discussions and intense (…) -
"The Death in Venice (Der Tod in Venedig)" by Thomas Mann (1912)
13 July, by Thomas MannWe follow the quite famous author Gustav von Aschenbach and his elevated thoughts (at the beginning: they tend to go steadily downhill as the narrative unfolds) from his native Munich to the Adriatic coast and to Venice, where he is plunged into the thralls of physical desire for a very handsome fourteen-year-old boy whose family is staying at the same hotel on the Lido, and who quite innocently (?) sets our man off on dithyrambic meditations on the lessons of Plato’s The Banquet and (…)
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"Buddenbrooks" by Thomas Mann (1900)
7 July, by Thomas MannThe saga of the rise and fall of a family in the Hanseatic (Baltic) town of Lübeck, written when Mann was only 25, an enormous best-seller at the time and afterwards. Splendidly recounting in many memorable chapters and passages – notably an unforgettable chapter about a catastrophic day at school of the young Hanno Buddenbreooks – the ups and especially downs of a once-distinguished and wealthy family, this masterwork was cited by the jury as the main reason for awarding the distinguished (…)