John Macmillan Brown was born in New Zealand and a University professor, wrote under the pseudonym Godfrey Sweven. An excerpt from the Introduction: "Absorbed in contemplation of its sublimity, I sat for a moment on a rock that rose out of the bush. I almost leapt from it, startled; a voice, unheralded, fell like a falling star through the soundless air. I had heard no footstep, no snap of trodden twig or rustle Of reluctant branch. My senses were so thrilled with the sound that its purport shot past them. There at the base of the rock stood the strangest figure that ever met my eyes." - Summary by Kirk202

A disparate assemblage of lingual mastery spanning genres and prowess with an eye toward style in favor of capitulation. Tocsin was translated by W. H. Lowe Maldoror was translated by John Rodker Gridale was translated by F. S. Flint .

The prophet Al Mustafa, before leaving the city where he has been living twelve years, stops to address the people. They call out for his words of wisdom on many sides of the human condition, and he addresses them in terms of love and care. He has much to offer from his observations of the people, and he illustrates with images they can relate to. The author, Gibran, was influenced by the Maronites, the Sufis, and the Baha’i. His philosophy, though deist, is primarily aimed at the good within ourselves, and the common-sense ways in which we can unlock it...

The following slight and unelaborated sketch of a very commonplace and everyday tragedy will, I am aware, meet with the unqualified disapproval of the 'superior' sex. They will assert, with much indignant emphasis, that the character of 'Lord Carlyon' is an impossible one, and that such a 'cad' as he is shown to be never existed. Anticipating these remarks, I have to say in reply that the two chief personages in my story, namely, 'Lord Carlyon' and his wife, are drawn strictly from the life; and,...

The murder has finally been solved. After 20 years, Humphrey Vargas came with his dog, seemingly from no where, and informed the magistrate of the county that he murdered the popular Mr. Blake. He even told the magistrate the whole story. This book picks up where other books end and shows how this revelation brings about a chain of unexpected events. Knowing who murdered such a popular man does not make things any easier around the county, as memories finally surface, and relationships may change forever. - Summary by Stav Nisser.

Our ethereal man with wings, whom we met in Riallaro, continues his tale about Limanora which is a Utopian Island created as an experiment in Eugenics. Medical and technological advances have led to a central Power Source, computers, and weather control to name a few. - Summary by kirk202

“Digger Smith” is a series of narrative poems about an Australian soldier coming home in the closing months of the Great War minus a leg and with “ANZAC eyes” ... what a later war would call “The Thousand Yard Stare”. Despite his post-traumatic stress disorder, Digger Smith sets about ministering to everybody’s troubles but his own ... his internal conviction that his amputee status will make him seem “half a man” in the eyes of the lady love he left behind when he went off to the War. Oh Digger Smith, how little faith you have in woman... - Summary by Son of the Exiles

This is the seventh volume of the 15-volume series of The World’s Story: a history of the World in story, song and art, edited by Eva March Tappan. Each book is a compilation of selections from prose literature, poetry and pictures and offers a comprehensive presentation of the world's history, art and culture, from the early times till the beginning of the 20th century. Topics in Part VII include the stories from the Nibelungen saga of the Germans, masterpieces of the Dutch Painters and the famous apple-shooting episode from Schiller's drama William Tell...

The author arranged for this collection of three short stories and ten poems to be printed in a small run of 300 copies in Dijon The book entered into the public domain in 2019. - Summary by KevinS

Humphrey Scriven is a fine, genial, mercantile man, left widowed to raise three daughters and a son. Two of the daughters marry well although happiness is not enduring. The other defers her marriage, knowing her father disapproves of her choice. The son is a disappointment to his father -- his character is not as generous or kind. However, in time, this son inherits the business, with the exception of a portion left to a trusted clerk, Mr. Hayley. But there is a secret side to Mr. Hayley and maybe he is not quite the right man to guide the novice merchant. The two part ways acrimoniously and the clerk is driven to actions for which his son pays dearly.

This book is not meant to be a History of English Literature, but an introduction for those who do not know much about it, or who may be thinking of it as a "dull, horrid thing" which they have to learn in school. I venture to hope that this book may become too dear to throw away when the study is done, and overall I have tried very hard not to write a "stuffy" book. Summary by Beth Thomas and the Introduction

Pitou lost his mother when he was small. He was raised by a stern aunt who did not really love him. He starts knowing the world by going to service. How can this man, Pitou the Peasant go on to influence the whole state? How can he go on and take a part in the French revolution? Can his motivation, coming from what he did not have, be enough? - Summary by Stav Nisser

The Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, is a work of enormous proportions. Setting out with the simple goal of offering "American households a mass of good reading", the editors drew from literature of all times and all kinds what they considered the best pieces of human writing, and compiled an ambitious collection of 45 volumes . Besides the selection and translation of a huge number of poems, letters, short stories and sections of books, the collection offers, before each chapter, a short essay about the author or subject in question...

Nami-ko, a young woman of a noble Japanese family, has recently married the naval officer Takeo, the only heir of a friend of her father's. The couple is very happy together and Takeo is doing everything to create the perfect life for his wife, even more so when she contracts tuberculosis. Takeo's mother, however, sees Nami's illness as a threat to the survival of the family line. Egged on by Chijiwa, a spurned lover of Nami's and Takeo's cousin, she uses her son's absence to send Nami back to her family, thus effecting a divorce...

Volume 3 of The d'Artagnan Romances is divided into three parts. In this, the final part, d’Artagnan’s fortune is near its height; having become the illustrious Captain of the Musketeers, he is now the chief defender of King Louis XIV. Fortune has also smiled on his three companions: Aramis is a wealthy bishop and the powerful, secret Superior General of the Jesuit Order ; Athos is the premier nobleman of France; and Porthos becomes a Duke with the proud but garishly long-winded title of “du Vallon de Bracieux de Pierrefonds...

The countryside outside of Los Angeles is a paradise on Earth: nature gives bounty on the land, the animals are majestic, the oaks breathe and the natural pools and ponds are all you would want on a summer's day. And if you are a Pennington or an Evans, life is simple and complete. However, every paradise has a serpent. For Rancho Ganado, that comes in the shape of Bootlegging, Drugs and Murder. All the vice of nearby Hollywood manifest themselves in the picturesque landscape, throwing the lives of these families into turmoil. - Summary by Joseph DeNoiaProof-listened by KevinS and linny

In Vino Veritas is one section of Kierkegaard's Stages on Life's Way, originally published in 1845. In a conscious reference to Plato's Symposium, it is determined that each participant must give a speech, and that their topic shall be love. Lee M. Hollander said, "it excels Plato's work in subtlety, richness, and refined humor. To be sure, Kierkegaard has charged his creation with such romantic superabundance of delicate observations and rococo ornament that the whole comes dangerously near being improbable; whereas the older work stands solidly in reality...

“No good deed goes Unpunished”, as the saying goes. A wealthy Egyptian leaves millions of buried treasure on an island and sends the location to the Captain that saved him while fleeing certain death from Napoleon Bonaparte. However the Egyptian does not leave the entire location: only the Latitude. The Longitude will be made known to him in time. Decades pass before a shifty notary from Alexandria arrives with the necessary Longitude, and now the lust for greed has passed from Captain to Son...

The Dial was an art magazine, which ran to five issues between 1889 and 1897. It was edited and published by Charles Ricketts and Charles Shannon from The Vale, their shared home in Chelsea, London. Contributors to this first number include the editors, R. Savage, and the poet John Gray . - Summary by Rob Marland

Maxwell Bodenheim was once known as the King of Greenwich Village Bohemians after moving to New York after being one of the founders of the The Chicago Literary Times. But his life took a downward spiral and he became a panhandler and led a desultory life, finally ending in his murder along with his third wife in a Bronx apartment. The title of this book characterizes the tone of these 22 poems and 10 small stories, full of dark cynicism and twisted irony, with titles such as “Seaweed From Mars” and “ Insanity.” - Summary by Larry Wilson

This collection of articles by and about Mark Twain and his family was compiled by Barbara Schmidt, publisher of twainquotes.com. Included in the chronological listing are some of Twain’s short stories, speeches and letters, as they appeared in the New York Times from the first up through 1924 . "Part One" of the collection includes articles that appeared from 1867 through 1879. The original microfiche articles are available at the New York Times "Time Machine" website: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/browser/ - Summary by John Greenman and Barbara Schmidt

Giovanna and Costantino Ledda are a happily married couple living with their young child in a Sardinian country village close to their extended family. Costantino is wrongly convicted of murdering his wicked uncle and with no way of supporting herself, Giovanna reluctantly divorces him and is driven to marry Brontu Dejas, a wealthy but brutish drunkard who has always lusted after her. As well as enduring a marriage amounting to slavery, Giovanna is derided by villagers for having two husbands...

This collection of articles by and about Mark Twain and his family was compiled by Barbara Schmidt, publisher of twainquotes.com. Included in Part Two of this chronological listing are some of Twain’s short stories, speeches and letters, as they appeared in the New York Times in that decade. The original microfiche articles are available at the New York Times “Time Machine” website: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/browser/ and here. - Summary by John Greenman and Barbara Schmidt

This is a less known, but not less beautiful, novel by the author of The Secret Garden, A Little Princess, The Lost Prince, Little Lord Fauntleroy, The Shuttle, and many more. There is something different about miss Lysbeth Crespigny. Raised by three maiden aunts and sheltered from the world, she leaves them for the first time in order to explore the world. Yet she is often misunderstood. The world she discovers is more complicated and confusing then she anticipates. She is only 18 when the book starts. However the choices she has to make have consequences which she learns to navigate and become the strong woman she can be. - Summary by Stav Nisser.

Young naive sailor Billy Budd is impressed into military service with the British navy in the 1790s, framed for conspiracy to mutiny, summarily convicted in a drum-head court martial, and hanged. Billy Budd is the final published work by Herman Melville, discovered in his personal papers three decades after his death.

This collection of articles by and about Mark Twain and his family was compiled by Barbara Schmidt, publisher of twainquotes.com. Included in Part Three of this chronological listing are some of Twain’s short stories, speeches and letters, as they appeared in the New York Times in that decade. The original microfiche articles are available at the New York Times “Times Machine” website: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/browser/. - Summary by John Greenman and Barbara Schmidt

This is a 1924 fantasy novel by Anglo-Irish writer Lord Dunsany, which became public domain in January 2020. It is widely recognized as one of the most acclaimed works in all of fantasy literature. Highly influential upon the fantasy genre as a whole, the novel was particularly formative in the subgenres of "fairytale fantasy" and "high fantasy". And yet, it deals always with the truth: the power of love, the allure of nature, the yearning for contentment, the desire for fame, the quest for immortality, and the lure and the fear of magic...

"In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower" is the second volume of Proust's heptalogy, "In Search of Lost Time" . Shadow insightfully deals with adolescent longing, and continues Proust's profound meditation on the nature of memory. The original French version was awarded the prestigious Prix Goncourt in 1919. NOTE: This book contains language that would have been considered appropriate at the time and which may not be appropriate today.

In this work of utopian science fiction from the Victorian era written by Two Women of the West, a moniker for Alice Ilgenfritz Jones and Ella Marchant. A man travels to Mars to discover an Utopian world which is parallel to the Earth in some ways, but strikingly different in some. The freedom of women is not of this world. It is especially intriguing coming from the imagination of these two American women in the 19th Century. Summary by A. Gramour

This is the first edition of Hemingway's in our time, published in a very small run in France in 1924. And American edition was released the following year. There are 18 brief short stories---one might say vignettes---that demonstrate the author's early interests and his increasingly iconic literary style. - Summary by KevinS

Benito Mussolini was an Italian journalist and politician, the leader of the National Fascist Party. He grew up as a violent bully, and the characteristics developed in childhood aided his upward career and later rule in Italy. He was also an excellent orator, and this was one of the qualities that helped him rise to power.This project contains over 60 of his earlier speeches, covering the years 1914-1923: from soon after his expulsion from the Socialist Party for supporting WWI, to his becoming Prime Minister yet still submitting outwardly to democratic rule. - Summary by TriciaG

One of the many Little Blue Books published to make learning available to all. These were short, informative, and inexpensive books that discussed many topics, including biographies, literature, essays, and more. This volume discusses Brazilian literature in an historical context. - Summary by KevinS