Prospero’s Isle

Latest articles

• "Humans, Go Home!" (1969) by A. E. van Vogt

  20 July by A. E. van Vogt

  Miliss and Dav are the only two humans on the Jana planet, and their mission is to help the population evolve progressively towards a more advanced state of civilization, more compatible with the ultra-developed nature of the rest of the human-controlled galaxy. But there are big problems, not (...)

• "The Universe Maker" (1953) by A. E. van Vogt

  17 July by A. E. van Vogt

  We are in 1953 and Lieutenant Morton Cargill is on leave from the Korean War when he stumbles into a young woman who is also leaving the dive he has been binge-leavng in. The next thing he knows is that he’s running away from a car crash that the young acquaintance hasn’t survived. However, when (...)

• "The Golden Pot" (1814) by E. T. A. Hoffmann

  12 July by E. T. A. Hoffmann

  An extravagant fairy-tale for grown-ups, the story of how the student Anselmus blundered his way to eternal happiness through a maze of mysterious not to say magical water-snakes, elder-trees, a golden pot and fantastic events of all sorts — one of the celebrated master of German Romanticism E. (...)

• "Little Zaches, called Zinnober" (1819) by E. T. A. Hoffmann

  9 July by E. T. A. Hoffmann

  Little Zaches is a very small, misshapen, evil-tempered, utterly selfish and vainglorious little boy who’s a complete burden to his poverty-stricken mother, until one day the kindly Fräulein von Rosenschön — actually the Fairy Rosabelverde in the shape of the mistress of a convent — takes pity on (...)

• "The War of the Worlds" (1898) by H. G. Wells

  5 July by H. G. Wells

  This was, we do believe, the first novel on the theme of conflict with alien civilisations in the history of literature.
  It has remained justly famous for its dramatic story line — the invading Martians have superior tecHnology and are more advanced scientifically than mankind — and its (...)

• "The Metamorphosis" (1915) by Franz Kafka

  1 July by Franz Kafka

  One of the strangest stories of its time, a moving account of Gregor Samsa’s sudden transformation into a giant beetle that has retained his sensibility and understanding — but not the ability to express himself in ordinary language that his family can understand — and how he has to contend with (...)

• More of A. E. van Vogt’s best late-period stories

  28 June by A. E. van Vogt

  1. RESEARCH ALPHA (1965) A ruthless doctor in a research lab secretly tries out his new serum for accelerating evolutionary development on two unsuspecting office workers, with variable but amazing results, astounding even the superiorly-intelligent aliens who are monitoring the lab’s results — (...)

• "Waiting for the Barbarians" (1904) by Constantin Cavafy

  24 June by Constantin Cavafy

  Constantin Cavafy (1863-1933) , who lived all his life in the ancient Greek community in Alexandria, Egypt, was one of the most important poets of modern times.
  His legacy has been celebrated by writers and poets around the world, notably by Laurence Durell in his monumental Alexandria Quartet (...)

• "The Time Machine" (1895) by H. G. Wells

  21 June by H. G. Wells

  H. G. Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific author in many diverse domains (novels, short stories, social commentary, history, satire and biography) and a very engaged social commentator and critic. He was nominated four times for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
  But he is best remembered today for (...)

• "Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland" (1865) by Lewis Carroll

  17 June by Lewis Carroll

  Written in 1862 by the Oxford lecturer in mathematics Charles Dodgson (1832-1898) to amuse Alice Liddell, one of the daughters of the dean of his Christ Church faculty, this brilliant, inventive, very original and very funny tale gained immediate world-wide attention when it was published in (...)

• "The Overcoat" (1843) by Nikolai Gogol

  17 June by Nicolai Gogol

  The story of Akaky Akakiyevich, an administrative assistant in a government office, who is constantly treated with arrogance and mockery by one and all, particularly on account of his threadbare coat that is falling apart to such an extent that it cannot even be repaired. When, at the price of (...)

• "Dead Souls" (1842) by Nikolai Gogol

  16 June by Nicolai Gogol

  The account of the not-always-successful attempts of the traveling schemer Chichikov to make his way in the world by ingratiating himself with important people and devising complicated schemes to achieve financial and social success by wile and charm — notably to purchase deceased surfs (“dead (...)

• "The Portrait" (1842) by Nikolai Gogol

  15 June by Nicolai Gogol

  An impoverished painter finds an unusual portrait in a market shop that he buys for 20 kopecs, and finds on cleaning it that the piercing gaze of the mysterious man in the portrait has a bizarrely ominous effect on him and on his whole life — and indeed on all those who possess it in turn.
  One (...)

• "The Nose" (1836) by Nikolai Gogol

  13 June by Nicolai Gogol

  The adventures of a government official in search of his nose, that’s apparently gone off on adventures of its own.
  Recounted in a semi-serious, semi-farcical tone, this imaginative, very original tale with a light, fantastic touch effortlessly sweeps the reader along wondering with Major (...)

• "The Diary of a Madman" (1835) by Nikolai Gogol

  10 June by Nicolai Gogol

  Extracts from the diary of an employee in a government office, documenting his frustrations with the rigid hierarchical system of his time, his aspirations for recognition, his libertarian impulses, his infatuation with the director’s daughter, his dreams of grandeur, his persecution complex and (...)

• "Nevsky Prospect" (1835) by Nikolai Gogol

  7 June by Nicolai Gogol

  Nevsky Prospect in Saint Petersburg is one of the most famous streets in Russia and this account by Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852) of the goings-on in and around it is one of the most famous stories of all Russian literaature.
  Combining an elegant evocation of Saint Petersburg, that magnificent (...)

• "A Simple Soul (Un cœur simple)" by Gustave Flaubert (1877)

  4 June by Gustave Flaubert

  Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880) is generally considered as one of the greatest Franch-language stylists of all time because of the elegant, clear and incisive quality of his prose.
  During his lifetime he published just four novels (two "mainstream" novels and two historical novels) and one (...)

• Herman Melville’s masterful story "Bartleby, the Scrivener" (1853)

  31 May by Herman Melville

  The narrator-lawyer recounts how a young man in his office, the mildest and most inconspicuous person one could imagine, demonstrated the most determined and persistent refusal to obey instructions in a surprising and surprisingly effective way by simply stating in the calmest of tones: “I would (...)

• "Nutcracker and the Mouse-King" (1816) — a fairy-tale by E. T. A. Hoffmann

  24 May by E. T. A. Hoffmann

  Marie’s godfather is a very talented watchmaker who gives his grandchildren a castle with a marvellous set of animated figures on Christmas Eve – and a strangely realistic little figure with a large head that can crack nuts with its teeth. These presents are carefully put away by the parents for (...)

• "Nineteen Eighty Four" by George Orwell (1949)

  13 May by George Orwell

  One of the most famous novels of its time and certainly the best-known and most widely-read science-fiction novel of all time, Nineteen Eighty Four is an extrapolation some forty years into the future of the Stalinist regime in the Soviet Union — that had just been extended to a significant part (...)

• "Animal Farm" (1945) by George Orwell

  11 May by George Orwell

  This brilliant parable describes in simple, clear and convincing terms the revolt of the animals in an English farm that at first succeeds in establishing an egalitarian society only to evolve relentlessly into an system of oppression under the leadership of a small group of intelligent, (...)

• "Homage to Catalonia" (1938) by George Orwell

  10 May by George Orwell

  George Orwell, a convinced left-wing socialist, went to Barcelona in December 1936 to join the forces in Catalonia fighting against the military uprising led by the General Franco. He joined the extreme-left party P.O.U.M. there and spent six months on duty in their section of the front line (...)

• "Down and Out in Paris and London" (1933) by George Orwell

  6 May by George Orwell

  George Orwell (1903-1950) was a passionate defender all his life of the underdogs in the society of his time, and in spite of his background as a member of the upper middle class — he was well educated and spoke with a „posh“ accent — spent several years in his late twenties working as a dishwasher (...)

• Great music

  23 April by Ray

  A selection of musical texts and interpretaions of the very highest level of artistic inspiration. Date Composer Work/Movement_______ Artist(s) Label time Comments________________________ 1 1708 Bach Cantate BWV 106 "Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit"/ Chœur Süddeutscher Madrigalchor & (...)

• "The Five Sisters" and "The Baron of Grogzwig" — tales by Charles Dickens

  22 April by Charles Dickens

  These charming stories quite imbued with the author’s sensitivity and sense of humour are narrrated by travellers in Dickens’s early novel "Nicolas Nickelby" (1939) — written when he was only 27 years old — and well deserve to be read and enjoyed on their own by all admirers of the great master of (...)

• "The Mind Cage" (1957) by A. E. van Vogt

  13 April by A. E. van Vogt

  A brilliant scientist has been condemned to death for suggesting that the collectivist social system of the government that’s on the verge of taking over control of the entire world needs to be seriously called into question, and when his close friend comes to deliver the verdict to him he (...)

• "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" (1869) - the last work of Charles Dickens

  26 March by Charles Dickens

  Dickens’s last work, tragically interrupted by his sudden death from a stroke at the age of 58. It was a mystery novel, written to rise to the challenge of showing that he too could write in that new genre after the considerable success of his good friend Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White (...)

• "Dombey and Son" (1846) by Charles Dickens

  26 March by Charles Dickens

  After the huge popular successes of his first four novels and the lukewarm reception by the mass public of the next two, but encouraged by the success of his Christmas Carol stories published in 1843, Dickens raised his sights and clearly aimed at impressing the arbiters of literary good taste, to show them just what he could do.

  Dombey and Son thus flows at a calmer, more sedate pace than any of his previous works, with more attention to atmosphere and psychology and with somewhat (...)

• "Bleak House" (1853) by Charles Dickens

  21 March by Charles Dickens

  A blockbuster of a book [1], with what was for Dickens a big theme — the incredibly antiquated and abstruse, bureaucratic procedures involved in property legislation via the time-hallowed Chancery Law courts.
  Today the very lengthy satire about the inefficiencies of that antiquated system has (...)

• "Martin Chuzzlewit" (1844) - where Charles Dickens goes to America

  16 March by Charles Dickens

  The most interesting aspect of this middle-period Dickens novel is that most of it takes places in the United States, whereto Martin flees to escape from disgrace in London and to make his fortune. However, everyone in New York is a hustler scrambling after the almighty dollar, and things get (...)