Prospero’s Isle

Most recent articles

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  "Fathers and Sons" by Ivan Turgenev (1862)

  15 May, by Ivan Turgenev

  A seminal work revolving around one of the most famous characters in the whole of Russian literature: the self-proclaimed “nihilist” – a term introduced into the Russian language and all the others too by this novel – Bazarov, a very cynical and anti-establishmentarian medical student strongly critical of established ideas and values and non-scientific peccadillos of all sorts such as art and amour for example, who accompanies Arkady, a fellow student and devout follower of his advanced (…)

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  "Spiegel the Cat" by Gottfried Keller - a marvelous Swiss story now at long last available in English (1856)

  1 May, by Gottfried Keller

  Spiegel, a starving but very resourceful cat, strikes a bargain with the town sorcerer to be fed and fed and fed again until such time as he becomes nice and round and plump with cat’s fat – an essential ingredient for the sorcerer’s witchcraft –, but when the fatal day finally comes for Spiegel after a glorious period of sumptuous dining and chasing after the feminine element of the cat world, the sorcerer discovers to his eternal dismay that he had woefully underestimated Spiegel’s (…)

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  "A Village Romeo and Juliet" by Gottfried Keller (1856)

  25 April, by Gottfried Keller

  Two farmers in the Swiss countryside who had always lived and worked in harmony fall into disagreement over the stretch of abandoned land between their properties, and the dispute degenerates into a bitter feud between their families, including notably their children Sali and Vreni who had always played together on that abandoned piece of land and who were becoming ever closer as they advanced in age.
  Under the elegant, ever-so-charming pen of the author of the unforgettable Clothes Make (…)

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  "The Downfall of a Heart" by Stefan Zweig (1927)

  23 April, by Stefan Zweig

  An elderly man is deeply shocked when in the middle of the night he sees his nineteen-year-old daughter coming out of the bedroom of another guest of the hotel in an Italian coastal resort where he’s on vacation with his family for health reasons. The shock is severe and affects both his physical and psychic equilibrium as he comes to grips with the relational and moral gulf between himself and the rest of his family.
  A dramatic story most effectively translated by Eden and Cedar Paul in (…)

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  "Confusion" by Stefan Zweig (1927)

  21 April, by Stefan Zweig

  A university professor reflects on his career when honoured by his colleagues and students with an elaborate 200-page biography on the occasion of his sixtieth anniversary, and is struck by the contrast between the outward image he has represented to the world and his inner vision of himself.
  In particular he remembers his tumultuous first year as a student and his life-changing encounter with an inspired professor with whom he had had the most important relationship in his life, a (…)

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  Seven more of Jack London’s best stories

  17 April, by Jack London

  Our final anthology of Jack’s best stories. TABLE OF CONTENTS
  1. Sakaicho, Hona Asi and Hakadaki A young American sailor in Yokohama is invited by his rickshaw driver to visit the latter’s home in a poor quarter of the city, and samples the traditional hospitality of that intriguing and fast-rising nation. The proud parents present their ten-year-old son, whose education is the unique focus of the sacrifices and efforts of the household; but when the sailor comes back for another visit (…)

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  "The Colonel’s Ideas" by Guy de Maupassant (1884)

  15 April, by Guy de Maupassant

  Colonel Laporte propounds his views on the Frenchman’s overwhelming not to say obsessive interest in the female half of humanity, and illustrates his declaration with the story of how his detachment in the recent Franco-Prussian War managed against all odds to survive after rescuing a young woman and her father who were fleeing from marauding Prussian troops.
  A dramatic tale recounted in an engaging, almost light-hearted spirit that’s hard to resist.
  (2,000 words)
  Translated by (…)

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  "The Legend of Mont-Saint-Michel" by Guy de Maupassant (1882)

  13 April, by Guy de Maupassant

  During his visit of the famous abbey a Norman peasant explains to the narrator the local version of the historic combat between Saint Michael and the Devil around the famous abbey.
  This story was first published in the daily newspaper Gil Blas under the pen-name Maufrigneuse on December 19, 1882, and then in the anthology of Maupassant stories Clair de lune published in 1884.
  (1,600 words)
  It has been translated specially for this site.
  The original French text can be seen below.
  I (…)

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  "Marroca" - Maupassant’s torrid account of love under the African sun (1882)

  9 April, by Guy de Maupassant

  The narrator, who’s sojourning in Algeria and suffering heavily from the heat and the absence of female companionship, writes to a friend who wants to know what the ladies are like in those parts.
  The letter is an account of his steamy affair with the (very) passionate wife of a citizen in the town on the coast where he he’d rented a house.
  Marroca was first published in the daily newspaper Gil Blas on March 2, 1882 under the pen-name Maufrigneuse, and then in the anthology Mademoiselle (…)

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  "Volodya" by Anton Chekhov (1887)

  5 April, by Anton Chekhov

  Volodya is a frail seventeen-year-old student thinking about the critical exam the following day that could result in his expulsion from school, about his inferior social position at the house of the Shumihins where he and his mother are guests, and about the attractiveness of the Shumihins’ thirty-year-old married cousin. This is the account of the quite catastrophic results (for Volodya) of that encounter.
  Volodya) (Russian title: Володя) was first published in the daily newspaper (…)