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Oscar Wildes play The Importance of Being Earnest is both humorous and lighthearted. Set in England and published in 1895, it is one of Wildes best-loved works. It is a comedy of identity and self-invention. It is a satire on the hollowness of Victorian society and has the themes of homosexual relationships. It was thought to be Wildes most original work, however, it has been borrowed from most of the other plays."The Importance of Being Earnest is the story of two bachelors, John Jack Worthing and Algernon Algy Moncrieff, who create alter egos named Ernest to escape their tiresome lives. They attempt to win the hearts of two women who, conveniently, claim to only love men called Ernest. The pair struggle to keep up with their own stories and become tangled in a tale of deception, disguise and misadventure. The elaborate plot ridicules Victorian sensibilities with some of the best loved, and indeed bizarre, characters to be found on the modern stage. Wilde originally wrote it in four acts, but during the first rehearsals George Alexander persuaded him to shorten it down to three.

"The Prime Minister" is a novel by Anthony Trollope published in book form in 1876. This novel is the fifth in Trollopes six-volume Palliser series and considered by modern critics to represent the apex of the series. It is a wonderfully subtle portrait of a marriage, political expediency, and misplaced love. The novel brilliantly dissects the politics of both marriage and government, and its juxtaposition of the personal and political conflicts is skilfully handled."The Prime Minister" sustains two plot lines. One records the clash between the Duke of Omnium, now prime minister of a coalition government, and his high-spirited wife, Lady Glencora, whose drive to become the most brilliant hostess in society causes embarrassment for her husband and eventually contributes to his downfall. The second plot relates the machinations of Ferdinand Lopez, an ambitious social climber who wins the support of Lady Glencorabut not her husbandfor an election campaign. Novels in the Palliser series:1- Can You Forgive Her? (1864)2- Phineas Finn (1869)3- The Eustace Diamonds (1873)4- Phineas Redux (1874)5- The Prime Minister (1876)6- The Dukes Children (1879)The series overlaps with Trollopes Chronicles of Barsetshire, also a series of six novels, which deal with life in the fictional county where the Palliser family is politically important.

"Tess of the dUrbervilles" is a novel written by the English author Thomas Hardy in 1891. The novel was originally published in serial form by the British illustrated newspaper The Graphic the year before its official release in 1892. The book was well received by the public and became a literary classic. In 1897, just 6 years after its original publishing, the novel was adapted into a Broadway play which achieved great success and ran for 5 years. The play was then adapted into one of the first motion pictures in 1913, starring Minnie Maddern Fiske as Tess Durbeyfield who portrayed the same character in the play.The novels titular character, Tess Durbeyfield, is a young woman who discovers that her family has noble blood and is sent to work for the matriarch of her line in a large house in another village. While working in the house, Tess meets the old noblewomans son, Alec dUrberville and he become taken with her. Alec begins trying to convince Tess to become his lover and, when he is unsuccessful, rapes her. Tess becomes his lover after the rape because she fears him and eventually escapes to return to her parents home.Tess soon leaves her parents home to take a job in a dairy where she meets a young clergymans son named Angel Clare. Angel is also taken with Tess right away and considers her pure and virginal. Tess keeps the secret of her relationship with Alec until after she and Angel are married. Angel is angered by the revelation and abandons Tess for one year. When he finally returns...Hardy felt that its heroine was a virtuous victim of a rigid Victorian moral code. Now considered Hardys masterwork, it departed from conventional Victorian fiction in its focus on the rural lower class and in its open treatment of sexuality and religion.

"News from Nowhere" is a prose work by William Morris, published serially in The Commonweal in 1890 and as a book later the same year.Most of the work consists of a vision of England in the year 2090 presented as a dream of William Guest, a thin disguise for Morris himself. Poverty, misery, and the ugliness of factories have vanished, along with money, the legal system, and government itself; labour, art, and nature are ennobled. Those improvements prove to have been brought about by a violent socialist revolution."News from Nowhere" is the best-known novel of William Morris and the only significant English utopia to be written since Thomas Mores.

In "Myths and Folklore of Ireland" Jeremiah Curtin compiles twenty folk tales representing hundreds of years of the collective Irish imagination that transport readers to a world where everything is alive and anything can happen! Vivid descriptions of battles with giants, dead men who come back to life, humans imprisoned in animals bodies, heroes with incredible strength, and more.Taken down from Gaelic story tellers, these 20 tales fall into two parts: 11 are miscellaneous stories offering Irish versions of the general European fairy tales, and 9 are stories from the Fenian cycle--tales of Fin MacCumhail and his warriors, the Fenians of Erin.

In Joseph Conrads The Shadow Line, written in 1915, the author explores the passage to manhood.The story begins with thoughts of youth and its lack of introspection and reflection. The narrator speaks of rash moments, such as when one suddenly marries. He says there is a shadow line that must be crossed from youth to adulthood. This is indeed a work full of "sudden passions," in which Conrad is able to show how the full intensity of existence can be experienced by the man who, in the words of the older Captain Giles, is prepared to "stand up to his bad luck, to his mistakes, to his conscience." A subtle and penetrating analysis of the nature of manhood, "The Shadow-Line" investigates varieties of masculinity and desire in a subtext that counters the tales seemingly conventional surface."The Shadow-Line" is based upon events and experiences from twenty-seven years earlier to which Conrad returned obsessively in his fiction. A young sea captains first command brings with it a succession of crises: his sea is becalmed, the crew laid low by fever, and his deranged first mate is convinced that the ship is haunted by the malignant spirit of a previous captain.

The Count of Monte Cristo is Dumass most famous work. It was written in 1844 and published in sequels during the next two years. The plot is taking place before and after Napoleons reign from 1815 to 1844, during the time of the Bourbon Restoration in France.The main character is Edmond Dantes, a honest and honorable man who believed in the good in everyone, until he was wrongfully accused and imprisoned for alleged political actions. Edmond Dantes was betrayed by his friends, convicted for being a Bonapartist and imprisoned in the Chateau dIf, prison changed him and made him a different man. Edmond started being led by the desire for revenge against people who wronged him. His vengeance is the main motive of the plot and he doesnt give up until he gets what he wants. The development of the main character is important because he became a vengeful man out of a naive, good and honest man. He escaped after fourteen years and assumed the identity of the Count of Monte Cristo. He hid behind aliases to complete his plan. In the end of the novel, after getting his revenge, he found a piece of himself. He also found happiness and love.The novel also has a political background based on two divisions in France; one supported Napoleon and one didnt. Dumas supported Napoleon. In the novel, there are many characters, such as Villeforts father who received a letter from Napoleon and his son, who were against Napoleon. He, because of his political beliefs, denied his father and it was the cause of Dantess sentence.The narrator is in the third person, and he was objective. Also, all the events have detailed descriptions. The main theme in the novel is tasting the boundaries of justice, and the main character takes on himself the duty to establish justice.

"Middlemarch" (in full "Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life") is a novel by George Eliot (pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans), published in eight parts in 187172. It is considered to be Eliots masterpiece. The realist work is a study of every class of society in the town of Middlemarch (a fictional town) from the landed gentry and clergy to the manufacturers and professional men, farmers, and labourers. The focus, however, is on the thwarted idealism of its two principal characters, Dorothea Brooke and Tertius Lydgate, both of whom marry disastrously.On the eve of the great Reform Bill of 1832 and under the shadow of changes in every walk of life, the town of Middlemarch and its surrounding countryside become the site of diverse personal events that gradually resolve themselves into four chief narratives. The first is the story of Dorothea Brookes moral and romantic awakening. The plot turns on her escape from the mistaken hopes she places in her first husband, the fussy cleric and pedantic scholar Edward Casaubon, and then, after Casaubons death, on her surprised discovery that she loves his young cousin Will Ladislaw who, like Dorothea, is in search of lifes proper vocation. The complicated relationship between public vocation and private emotion is what links this first plot to the plot of Tertius Lydgate and Rosamond Vincy. With the limitless ambition of a young doctor at a moment of great medical transition, Lydgate aims to professional success and gives only passing thought to the rest of life. Rosamond has little interest in medical ambition but consuming interest in the romance that she has projected onto her married life with Lydgate. The downward course of both the marriage and the medical career gives the book its darkest tones. On the other hand, the third love story in Middlemarch, which recounts the love between Rosamonds brother Fred and Mary Garth, is selfconsciously idyllic. It is disturbed only in consoling ways when the Reverend Camden Farebrother appears as a worthy rival for Marys affections.

In "Daniel Deronda", enduring Victorian classic written in 1876 by George Eliot, two stories weave in and out of each other: The first is about Gwendolen, one of Eliots finest creations, who grows from a self-centered young beauty to a thoughtful adult with an expanded vision of the world around her. The second is about Daniel Deronda, adopted son of an aristocratic Englishman who becomes fascinated with Jewish traditions when he meets an ailing Jewish philosopher named Mordecai and his sensitive sister, Mirah."Daniel Deronda" is notable for its exposure of Victorian anti-Semitism. The novel builds on the contrast between Mirah Cohen, a poor Jewish girl, and the upper-class Gwendolen Harleth, who marries for money and regrets it. The less convincingly realised hero, Daniel, after discovering that he is Jewish, marries Mirah and departs for Palestine to help establish a Jewish homeland. The warm picture of the Cohen family evoked grateful praise from Jewish readers, but the best part of "Daniel Deronda" is the keen analysis of Gwendolens character, which seems to many critics the peak of George Eliots achievement.

After the great success of "Far From the Madding Crowd", its editor, Leslie Stephen, asked Thomas Hardy for another novel. "The Hand of Ethelberta", Hardys fifth published novel, first appeared in the Cornhill Magazine between July 1875 and May 1876. In "The Hand of Ethelberta", Hardy drew on conventions of popular romances, illustrated weeklies, plays, fashion plates, and even his wifes diary in this comic story of a woman in control of her destiny. Ethelberta was raised in humble circumstances but became a governess and consequently, at the age of 18, married well. However, her husband died two weeks after the wedding. Her father-in-law, Lord Petherwin, died shortly afterwards. Ethelberta (now 21) lives with her mother-in-law, Lady Petherwin. In the three years that have elapsed since her marriage, Ethelberta has been treated to foreign travel and further privileges by Lady Petherwin but restricted from seeing her own family. The story follows Ethelbertas career as a famous poetess and storyteller. Meanwhile, she struggles to support her family and conceal the fact that her father is a butler. Ethelberta easily attracts four very persistent suitors but is reluctant to give her much-coveted hand.

Louisa May Alcott, highly popular author of "Little Women", wrote a less known literary jewel in 1869, "An Old-Fashioned Girl"."An Old-Fashioned Girl" is a morality tale, its the town mouse and the country mouse, its a romantic love story with a happy ending and with some satisfactory twists to keep it fresh, and its a novel of womens emancipation in the Gilded Age of America in the late 19th century."An Old-Fashioned Girl" revolves around Polly Milton", the old-fashioned girl who titles the story. Polly visits her wealthy friend Fanny Shaw in the city and is overwhelmed by the fashionable and urban life they live--but also left out because of her "countrified" manners and outdated clothes. However, Pollys warmth, support and kindness eventually win her the hearts of all her friends family members. Six years later, Polly comes back to the city to become a music teacher.

"The Phantom of the Opera" is a novel by French author Gaston Leroux. It was published in 1911 and has since been adapted into many other forms. Despite this, it remains a remarkable piece of Gothic horror literature in and of itself, deeper and darker than any version that follows."The Phantom of the Opera" is a riveting story that revolves around the young, Swedish Christine Daae. Her father, a famous musician, dies, and she is raised in the Paris Opera House with his dying promise of a protective angel of music to guide her. After a time at the opera house, she begins hearing a voice, who eventually teaches her how to sing beautifully. All goes well until Christines childhood friend Raoul comes to visit his parents, who are patrons of the opera, and he sees Christine when she begins successfully singing on the stage. The voice, who is the deformed, murderous ghost of the opera house named Erik, however, grows violent in his terrible jealousy, until Christine suddenly disappears. The phantom is in love, but it can only spell disaster.

"The Riddle of the Sands" was published in May 1903, and it has probably sold more than two million copies in its lifetime. Its author Erskine Childers was infuriated when it was described as fiction, because for him the issue of a probable German invasion by sea was real and the danger obvious. Then, Childers meant it as a wake-up call to the British government to attend to its North Sea defences, "The Riddle of the Sands" accomplished that task and has been considered a classic of espionage literature ever since, praised as much for its nautical action as for its suspenseful spy craft.The theme of "The Riddle of the Sands" is the relationship between Britain and Germany, in language, loyalty, and states of aggression. The novel shows what relations between Britain and Germany were like before the First World War. It develops the story of a sailing trip in the Baltic Sea, where two young adventurers-turned-spies uncover a secret German plot to invade England.

"The Perpetual Curate" is the 5th of seven works set in the delightful country town of Carlingford by Margaret Oliphant. She wrote most of her books in the middle of the night, after all of her children and deadweight relatives had gone to bed. With that kind of constraint, she was able to crank out a novel as good as "The Perpetual Curate" in 1864.Frank Wentworth is the popular Perpetual Curate of the beautiful church of St Roques in Carlingford. The position is poorly paid and has no district attached, though he has unofficially taken over the poor district of Wharfside and is proud of the "great work" in progress there. He has yet to declare his love for Lucy Wodehouse, who works alongside him. Then numerous events affect his reputation and shatter his calm...

CLOUDLeon, einfacher Wartungsingenieur im Genfer LHC (Large Hadron Collider), wird wahrend einer Versuchsreihe schwer verletzt und fallt ins Koma. Als er erwacht ist er nicht mehr derselbe. Leon erinnert sich an Ereignisse, die er nie bewusst erlebt hatte... SchwammerlrisottoIn einem Baustofflager findet man einen schwerverletzten kleinen Buben, der Junge konnte im Zusammenhang mit den Verbrechen an zwei weiteren Kindern stehen... Wallensteins TodIn Altdorf bei Nurnberg wird zur Zeit des Festspiels ein Toter in der Lowengrube gefunden. Er tragt das Kostum Wallensteins, in seiner Brust steckt ein Sabel...Ein Vorgeschmack auf drei spannende Krimis!

"An International Episode" was published in the December 1878 and January 1879 editions of Cornhill Magazine in England. The story has Jamess famous international theme the collisions between the old world of Europe and the new of America.It is one of many tales exploring this international theme made famous by Henry James. As an American who had lived in Europe (and in England in particular) for many years, he very frequently put European characters in an American setting, and vice versa exploring the manners, morals, and behaviour of one group on another.Two men visiting the US from London meet a pair of charming women who return the visit the following year in London. Romantic intrigues, miscommunication and cultural faux pas abound in this short but delightful novel.

Romantic intrigue, financial speculation, satire in the medical profession, a social commentary on the status of women, are all delivered in de Maupassants "Mont-Oriol", a masterpiece appeared in 1887.Young bride Christiane arrives in Auvergne to "take the waters" in a spa with her husband, described as "a sickly flower, or a sucking pig with its hair shaved off." But rather than the relaxing family vacation she expects, she finds herself the centre of a conspiracy between her father, the Marquis, and the "fossil" medical team in an effort to solve the problem of a lack of heir. Suddenly the discovery of a new spa throws the resort into disarray and brings a lowly family to prominence.

Originally published in 1904, "Ghost Stories of an Antiquary" is a collection of eight classics written by the great Edwardian scholar and storyteller Montague Rhodes James. "Number 13,""The Mezzotint" or "Canon Alberics Scrapbook," within others tales, are renowned for their wit, erudition and suspense. These stories are each masterfully constructed and represent a high achievement in the ghost genre.

Sviluppando uno spunto narrativo assolutamente originale, con un sapiente equilibrio tra realta e fantasia e passando da momenti di puro gioco e tenerezza, a momenti di grande suspense, il racconto autobiografico del protagonista adolescente Primo Volo, scorre via leggero ed avvincente sino al suo fantastico epilogo. Le straordinarie capacita uditive di cui Primo e dotato sin dalla nascita, grazie alle quali egli non solo riesce a riconoscere il canto degli uccelli, ma anche a comprenderne il linguaggio e a farseli addirittura amici, unite ad una altrettanto straordinaria sensibilita danimo, lo portano a vivere in un rapporto quasi simbiotico con la Natura (Non a caso Primo da un nome proprio a ciascuno dei suoi amici pennuti e riporta puntigliosamente con liniziale maiuscola il nome delle specie animali e vegetali che compaiono nel racconto!). Assorbito dalla sua passione per il birdwatching, Primo vive piuttosto isolato, ma non e un misantropo e non rifugge dal mondo dei suoi coetanei.

"Far from the Madding Crowd", was a popular attraction and Hardys first critical success. It was first published in serial form in Cornhill magazine between January and December 1874, and then published the same year in London in book form. Hardy had already published several novels, but this was the first of the five novels that would assure his place in the annals of literature."Far from the Madding Crowd" tells the story of a young woman, Bathsheba Everdene, and the three men in her life: one is a poor sheep farmer who loses his flock in a tragedy and ends up working as an employee on Bathshebas farm; one is the respectable, boring owner of a neighbouring farm who takes Bathshebas flirtations too seriously; and the third is a dashing army sergeant who treats her like just another of his conquests. In chronicling their hopes, plans, and disappointments, Hardy presents to readers a clear example of Victorian romanticism. At the same time, his understanding of the lives of farmers and ranchers in rural England makes him a forerunner to the realistic tradition in literature.Wessex, the location for "Far from the Madding Crowd", is an imaginary English county that Hardy coloured with fine details throughout the course of his writing career. It is similar to Dorset, where Hardy lived most of his life, but its fictitious nature gave the author freedom to describe the landscape at will.