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Novelle per un anno è una raccolta di 241 novelle scritte da Luigi Pirandello. Originariamente sono state pubblicate sul Corriere della Sera, successivamente ripubblicate in 15 raccolte. Inizialmente erano previste 24 raccolte contenenti 365 novelle, tuttavia la prematura morte dell'autore ha impedito il raggiungimento del traguardo. Postume sono state pubblicate altre novelle scritte dall'autore. Le raccolte sono state pubblicate tra il 1922 e il 1938. La terza raccolta è stata pubblicata nel 1922. (Riassunto di Filippo Gioachin)...

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The Beast in the Jungle' is a 1903 novella by Henry James, first published as part of the collection, The Better Sort. Almost universally considered one of James' finest short narratives, this story treats appropriately universal themes: loneliness, fate, love and death. The parable of John Marcher and his peculiar destiny has spoken to many readers who have speculated on the worth and meaning of human life.(Summary by Wikipedia)...

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A tragic but very captivating tale of a monk in the 17th century. There were actually two authors: Ambrose Bierce and Adolph de Castro.

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Le Dictionnaire des idées reçues : recueil d’exemples de l’intelligence humaine qui se dépasse elle-même. Les temps changent ; ce genre d’intelligence, non. Flaubert nous fait des clins d’œil depuis sa tombe – et ceci durera certainement jusqu’à la fin des temps… (Par Didier)...

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Neither the name of Shakespeare nor that of Stratford appears directly in this short piece by James, and yet both are absolutely central to his plot. The story has to do with Mr. and Mrs. Gedge, tempted away from a dreary northern town library, which he runs, to become the wardens – caretakers and tour guides – of the house where the greatest writer of the English language was born, and in which he grew up. Or did he? There is, after all, a paucity of facts about His life (in James's text, that pronoun is always capitalized, as befits a deity) and only the slenderest of historical evidence about the existence of such a man. No matter; what is important is the myth of his life, and the myth needs to be cared for and fostered so that crowds upon crowds of tourists may come, and, with a proper reverence, worship at His Birthplace. And yet it is only myth, and the more he thinks of it, the unhappier poor honest Gedge becomes (to Mrs. Gedge, however, a job is a job, and too much speculation on reality might perhaps lead to dismissal). James himself was high skeptical about the Shakespeare question (who actually did write all those plays?...

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A classic style western written by one of the first female western writers. Caroline Lockhart was a rancher, writer and possibly the first woman to go over Glacier National Parks Swiftcurrent Pass. (Summary by Dawn)...

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The Castle of Otranto is a 1764 novel by Horace Walpole. It is generally held to be the first gothic novel, initiating a literary genre which would become extremely popular in the later 18th century and early 19th century. Thus, Castle, and Walpole by extension is arguably the forerunner to such authors as Ann Radcliffe, Bram Stoker, Daphne du Maurier, and Stephen King....

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老殘遊記為著名的晚清四大諷刺小說之一，因當時清朝腐敗，國勢衰頹，內憂外患紛擾不斷，國弱民窮，而官僚卻貪腐不堪，劉鶚以生花妙筆，藉著遊記中的主人翁老殘旅遊之見聞來刺諷官僚的剛愎與虐民，雖有暗諷時局之意，但遊記中也時時透露出老殘（影射劉鶚本人）對社會的關懷與瞭解。本書對於晚清的政治與社會民情有相當的描述，且非常寫實。這些都反映在老殘或夢或醒的遊歷過程中，事實上，他也藉由老殘的夢境來映射他對當時官場與社會現實的看法。-- 此書不僅為政治類或社會批判性小說，亦是相當成功的遊記類小說，因作者的寫景、寫人與寫情的能力極高，讓人不知不覺地跟著老殘一起遊歷黃河賞美景，一起聽黑妞白妞「大珠小珠落玉盤」般神妙的說書絕技，一起在夢境中歷險，並一起來斷時局，甚至在必要時斷案解惑。 (Summarized by 林慧菁 Huei-Chin Lin)...

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Casanova ist 53 Jahre alt und wünscht sich nichts sehnlicher, als in seine Heimatstadt Venedig, aus der er einst verbannt worden ist, zurückzukehren und macht sich voller Hoffnung, dieser Bann werde bald aufgehoben, auf die Heimfahrt. Unterwegs begegnet er Olivo, dem Gatten einer ehemaligen Geliebten. Da Casanova Olivo einst zu viel Geld verholfen hat, lädt dieser ihn dankbar zu sich auf sein Landgut. Dort trifft Casanova nicht nur seine ehemalige Geliebte wieder, sondern auch eine betörende junge Schönheit namens Marcolina, die gleich in ihm die alte Leidenschaft erweckt. Casanova bietet dem durchs Kartenspiel hochverschuldeten Liebhaber der Marcolina, Leutnant Lorenzi, viel Geld, um unerkannt und verkleidet eine Nacht bei Marcolina verbringen zu dürfen -- Lorenzi willigt ein, nimmt das Geld und gibt Casanova im Tausch seinen Mantel. Mit diesem bekleidet begibt sich Casanova nach Einbruch der Dunkelheit auf das Zimmer Marcolinas, um noch einmal seine alte Leidenschaft zu entfesseln. Als am nächsten Morgen die ersten Sonnenstrahlen durch das Fenster fallen, erkennt Marcolina, mit wem sie die Nacht verbracht hat. Der fliehende Casano...

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Messieurs les ronds-de-cuir, de Georges Courteline, parut, pour la première fois, en feuilleton, dans l'Echo de Paris, au cours des années 1891-1892. Une version légèrement remaniée fut éditée, sous forme de livre, par Flammarion, en 1893. Le livre, constitué d'une suite de cinq tableaux, narre la vie de quelques employés d'un service administratif - celui des Dons et Legs - dont l'activité, suivie pendant quelques jours, dresse, sous le mode de la comédie, une satire féroce du monde des employés de bureau. (par Aldor)...

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A collection of volunteers’ favourite chapters. Some were chosen for being the key chapter in a great novel, others for the wonderful clarity with which great ideas are expressed, and still others because the reader did a wonderful job. Whatever the reason they were chosen, we hope they will give you as much pleasure as they did us. (Summary by David Barnes)....

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Someone had to take the bank notes to Pittsburgh and take a statement from John Gilmore confirming that they were indeed forged. It was McKnight's turn to go, but he was bagging off because he wanted to spend the weekend visiting Alison West in Richmond. And so his law partner, Lawrence Blakeley, is left with no choice but to make the trip himself. All goes well at first, but on the train home, Blakeley wakes to find that the notes, along with his clothes, are missing from his sleeping berth. It was an eventful night. In addition to the theft, there's been a murder in the berth across, and when the weapon is found under Blakeley's pillow, he becomes one of the prime suspects. (Summary by MaryAnn)...

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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 (with a 46th being an index-guide). 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. In many cases, chapters contemplate not one author, but certain groups of works, organized by nationality, subject or period; there is, thus, a chapter on Accadian-Babylonian literature, one on the Holy Grail, and one on Chansons, for example. The result is a collection that holds the interest, for the variety of subjects and forms, but also as a means of first contact with such famous and important authors that many people have heard of, but never read, such as Abelard, Dante or Lord Byron. According to the editor Charles Dudley Warner, this c...

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The small Midwestern town of Freeport was scandalized years ago when Ruth Holland, then a young girl, ran away to the West with a married man. Now that she's returned home to take care of her dying father, she faces some hard truths about who her true friends are and where her life is headed. (Summary by Arielle Lipshaw)...

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Ada Cambridge (November 21, 1844 - July 19, 1926), later known as Ada Cross, was an English born Australian writer. While she gained recognition as Australia’s first woman poet of note, her longer term reputation rests on her novels. Overall she wrote more than twenty-five works of fiction, three volumes of poetry and two autobiographical works.[1] Many of her novels were serialised in Australian newspapers, and were never published in book form. The story pans over three - four decades revolving the four Pennycuick sisters....

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Un brillant notaire parisien, Alfred L'Ambert, épris d’une danseuse de ballet de quatorze ans est provoqué en duel par son rival turc après une altercation. Ayant perdu son nez au cours du duel, le notaire se tourne alors vers un chirurgien pour une greffe de peau. Le donneur est un auvergnat simple du nom de Chébachtien Romagné ». Le notaire doit passer trente jours le visage collé contre le bras de l’auvergnat. Mais, une fois ce délai écoulé, il n’en est pas au bout de ses peines... A successful Parisian notary, Alfred L’Ambert, is smitten with a fourteen years old ballett dancer. After a quarrel, his Turkish rival challenges him to a duel during which the notary gets his nose cut off. Thereupon, a surgeon is called for a grafting. The donor is a simple man from the Auvergne with whom the notary is forced to spend thirty days, his noze being literally glued to the arm of the man. But even after this term, his bad fortune doesn’t come to an end...(Summary by Didier)...

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L'Ingénu is a satirical novella by the French writer Voltaire, published in 1767. It tells the story of a Huron Indian transported to the sophistication of eighteenth century Paris, and satirizes religious doctrine, as well as the folly and injustices of French society(Summary from Wikipedia)....

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This story is of a time beyond the memory of man, before the beginning of history. . . (Summary from the text)

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Fiction

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An American heiress nicknamed the Manitou Princess (after her daddy's richest silver mine) is devastated to find that her fiancé only loves her money, so she does what anyone might do: she bolts for Europe, dons male attire and sets out on a walking tour of the Alps, passing as a teenage boy. Though professing hatred of all men, she soon falls in with a just-jilted English lord, aptly named Monty Lane, who is attempting to walk off a broken heart of his own. The Princess Passes presents the ups and downs of their alpine relationship through the unpenetrating eyes of Lord Lane. Why, he wonders, is he thus drawn to this beautiful youth? And has the boy a sister? Co-author Alice Livingston, of Poughkeepsie, New York, mentions in her memoirs that she sailed for Europe after a boyfriend tried to shoot her. In London she met literary editor Charles Williamson and began writing for the story magazines of media mogul Lord Northcliffe. At one point she found herself scribbling six serials simultaneously, on the income from which she and Williamson married. She later spun some of her husband's detailed descriptive notes made during their moto...

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It was before the Idiot's marriage, and in the days when he was nothing more than a plain boarder in Mrs. Smithers-Pedagog's High-class Home for Single Gentlemen, that he put what the School-master termed his alleged mind on plans for the amelioration of the condition of the civilized. This humorous story by the editor of Puck magazine describes how the Idiot sets out to improve the lot of civilized man through his inventions - the lot of barbarian man already being well tended to by missionaries and other do-gooders. (Introduction by peac) CAST: Narrator - peac The Idiot - Algy Pug Mr. Pedagog(aka The Schoolmaster) - Adam Bratcher Mrs. Smithers Pedagog - TriciaG The Doctor - Raken The Bibliomaiac - Availle Mr. Poet - Matthew Reece Mr. Whitechoker(aka The Minister) - Aidan Brack The Genial Old Gentleman who occasionally imbibed - om123 Edited by - peac...