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Barnaby Rudge is, naast Londen en Parijs, een van de twee historische romans van Charles Dickens. Het verhaal behandelt de Gordon oproer uit 1780, een godsdienstig gemotiveerde aanval van protestanten op de Rooms-Katholieken. Dickens beschrijft deze gebeurtenissen aan de hand van het leven van Barnaby Rudge een onschuldige dorpsgek die door de opstandelingen wordt meegesleept in het kwaad. (Introductie door Marcel Coenders)...

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Fiction, Literature

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Excerpt: Chapter 1. How Sir Agravaine and Sir Mordred were busy upon Sir Gawaine for to disclose the love between Sir Launcelot and Queen Guenever In May when every lusty heart flourisheth and bourgeoneth, for as the season is lusty to behold and comfortable, so man and woman rejoice and gladden of summer coming with his fresh flowers: for winter with his rough winds and blasts cause a lusty man and woman to cower and sit fast by the fire. So in this season, as in the month of May, it befell a great anger and unhap that stinted not till the flower of chivalry of all the world was destroyed and slain; and all was long upon two unhappy knights the which were named Agravaine and Sir Mordred, that were brethren unto Sir Gawaine....

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The Book of Job is one of the books of the Hebrew Bible. It relates the story of Job, his trials at the hands of Satan, his theological discussions with friends on the origins and nature of his suffering, his challenge to God, and finally a response from God. The Book itself comprises a didactic poem set in a prose framing device and has been called the most profound and literary work of the entire Old Testament. The Book itself and its numerous exegeses are attempts to address the problem of evil....

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Religion, Literature

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Excerpt: The autumn of the year 1803 was one of the finest in the early part of that period of the present century which we now call ?Empire.? Rain had refreshed the earth during the month of October, so that the trees were still green and leafy in November. The French people were beginning to put faith in a secret understanding between the skies and Bonaparte, then declared Consul for life,--a belief in which that man owes part of his prestige; strange to say, on the day the sun failed him, in 1812, his luck ceased!...

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Excerpt: How at the vigil of the Feast of Pentecost entered into the hall before King Arthur a damosel, and desired Sir Launcelot for to come and dub a knight, and how he went with her. At the vigil of Pentecost, when all the fellowship of the Round Table were come unto Camelot and there heard their service, and the tables were set ready to the meat, right so entered into the hall a full fair gentlewoman on horseback, that had ridden full fast, for her horse was all besweated....

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Preface: When the venture has been made of dealing with historical events and characters, it always seems fair towards the reader to avow what liberties have been taken, and how much of the sketch is founded on history. In the present case, it is scarcely necessary to do more than refer to the almost unique relations that subsisted between Henry V. and his prisoner, James I. of Scotland; who lived with him throughout his reign on the terms of friend rather than of captive, and was absolutely sheltered by this imprisonment throughout his nonage and early youth from the frightful violence and presumption of the nobles of his kingdom....

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Excerpt: Rewards and Fairies by Rudyard Kipling.

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Contents A Charm ........................................................................................................................................................................ 5 Introduction....................................................................................................................................... 6 COLD IRON..................................................................................................................................... 7 Cold Iron ......................................................................................................................................... 21 GLORIANA .................................................................................................................................... 22 The Two Cousins ......................................................................................................................................................... 22 The Looking-Glass.......................................................................................................................... 35 THE WRONG THING...........................................

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Excerpt: Chapter 1. Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God -- 2. In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin?s captivity -- 3. The word of the LORD came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of the LORD was there upon him -- 4. And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the color of amber, out of the midst of the fire....

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Excerpt: Chapter 1. How Beaumains came to King Arthur?s Court and demanded three petitions of King Arthur. When Arthur held his Round Table most plenour, it fortuned that he commanded that the high feast of Pentecost should be holden at a city and a castle, the which in those days was called Kynke Kenadonne, upon the sands that marched nigh Wales. So ever the king had a custom that at the feast of Pentecost in especial, afore other feasts in the year, he would not go that day to meat until he had heard or seen of a great marvel....

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Excerpt: Book First; Introduction -- Childhood and School-time -- OH, there is blessing in this gentle breeze, That blows from the green fields and from the clouds And from the sky; it beats against my cheek, And seems half conscious of the joy it gives. O welcome messenger! O welcome friend! A captive greets thee, coming from a house Of bondage, from yon city?s walls set free, A prison where he hath been long immured. Now I am free, enfranchised and at large, May fix my habitation where I will. What dwelling shall receive me, in what vale Shall be my harbour, underneath what grove Shall I take up my home, and what sweet stream Shall with its murmurs lull me to my rest? The earth is all before me--with a heart Joyous, nor scared at its own liberty, I look about, and should the guide I chuse Be nothing better than a wandering cloud I cannot miss my way. I breathe again--Trances of thought and mountings of the mind Come fast upon me. It is shaken off, As by miraculous gift ?tis shaken off, That burthen of my own unnatural self, The heavy weight of many a weary day Not mine, and such as were not made for me. Long months of peace--if su...

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Table of Contents: Book First Introduction: Childhood and School-time, 1 -- Book Second Childhood and School-time (Continued), 20 -- Book Third Residence at Cambridge, 34 -- Book Fourth Summer Vacation, 53 -- Book Fifth Books, 67 -- Book Sixth Cambridge and the Alps, 85 -- Book Seventh Residence in London, 105 -- Book Eighth Retrospect: Love of Nature Leading to Love of Mankind, 126 -- Book Ninth Residence in France, 150 -- Book Tenth Residence in France and French Revolution, 176 -- Book Eleventh Imagination, How Impaired and Restored, 205 -- Book Twelfth Same Subject (Continued), 217 -- Book Thirteenth Conclusion, 228...

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Excerpt: Shanghaied This is to be a story of a battle, at least one murder, and several sudden deaths. For that reason it begins with a pink tea and among the mingled odors of many delicate perfumes and the hale, frank smell of Caroline Testout roses. There had been a great number of debutantes ?coming out? that season in San Francisco by means of afternoon teas, pink, lavender, and otherwise. This particular tea was intended to celebrate the fact that Josie Herrick had arrived at that time of her life when she was to wear her hair high and her gowns long, and to have a ?day? of her own quite distinct from that of her mother....

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Excerpt: ACT I. SCENE I. KING JOHN?S palace. [Enter KING JOHN, QUEEN ELINOR, PEMBROKE, ESSEX, SALISBURY, and others, with CHATILLON.] KING JOHN: Now, say, Chatillon, what would France with us? CHATILLON: Thus, after greeting, speaks the King of France In my behavior to the majesty, The borrow?d majesty, of England here. QUEEN ELINOR: A strange beginning: ?borrow?d majesty!? KING JOHN: Silence, good mother; hear the embassy. CHATILLON: Philip of France, in right and true behalf Of thy deceased brother Geffrey?s son, Arthur Plantagenet, lays most lawful claim To this fair island and the territories, To Ireland, Poictiers, Anjou, Touraine, Maine, Desiring thee to lay aside the sword Which sways usurpingly these several titles, And put these same into young Arthur?s hand, Thy nephew and right royal sovereign....

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Excerpt: Chapter 1. Of the joy King Arthur and the queen had of the achievement of the Sangreal; and how Launcelot fell to his old love again. So after the quest of the Sangreal was fulfilled, and all knights that were left alive were come again unto the Table Round, as the book of the Sangreal maketh mention, then was there great joy in the court; and in especial King Arthur and Queen Guenever made great joy of the remnant that were come home, and passing glad was the king and the queen of Sir Launcelot and of Sir Bors, for they had been passing long away in the quest of the Sangreal....

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The Lusiads (Os Lusíadas) is a Portuguese epic poem, written in the 16th century by Luis Vaz de Camões. The poem tells the tale of the Portuguese discoveries in the 15th and 16th centuries, specially the voyage to India by Vasco da Gama. Modelled after the classic epic tradition, Camões' Lusiads are considered not only the first literary text in Modern Portuguese, but also a national epic of the same level as Vergil's Aeneid. In the 19th century, Sir Richard Francis Burton translated Camões' Lusiads, in what he considered the most pleasing literary labour of his life. (Summary by Leni)...

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Historical Fiction, Literature, Poetry, Travel

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Paul and Virginia was first published in 1787. The novel's title characters are very good friends since birth who fall in love, but sadly die when the ship Le Saint-Geran is wrecked. The story is set in the island of Mauritius under French rule, then named Île de France, which the author had visited. Written on the eve of the French Revolution, the novel is hailed as Bernardin's finest work. It records the fate of a child of nature corrupted by the false, artificial sentimentality that prevailed at the time among the upper classes of France.(Summary by Wikipedia)...

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Fiction, Literature, Romance, Tragedy

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Excerpt: CHAPTER 1; Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea. There are circumstances in which, whether you partake of the tea or not--some people of course never do--the situation is in itself delightful. Those that I have in mind in beginning to unfold this simple history offered an admirable setting to an innocent pastime. The implements of the little feast had been disposed upon the lawn of an old English country-house, in what I should call the perfect middle of a splendid summer afternoon. Part of the afternoon had waned, but much of it was left, and what was left was of the finest and rarest quality. Real dusk would not arrive for many hours; but the flood of summer light had begun to ebb, the air had grown mellow, the shadows were long upon the smooth, dense turf. They lengthened slowly, however, and the scene expressed that sense of leisure still to come which is perhaps the chief source of one?s enjoyment of such a scene at such an hour. From five o?clock to eight is on certain occasions a little eternity; but on such an occasion a...

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Table of Contents: CHAPTER 1, 1 -- CHAPTER 2, 10 -- CHAPTER 3, 15 -- CHAPTER 4, 22 -- CHAPTER 5, 28 -- CHAPTER 6, 38 -- CHAPTER 7, 46 -- CHAPTER 8, 54 -- CHAPTER 9, 60 -- CHAPTER 10, 66 -- CHAPTER 11, 77 -- CHAPTER 12, 83 -- CHAPTER 13, 92 -- CHAPTER 14, 104 -- CHAPTER 15, 113 -- CHAPTER 16, 125 -- CHAPTER 17, 135 -- CHAPTER 18, 141 -- CHAPTER 19, 154 -- CHAPTER 20, 170 -- CHAPTER 21, 181 -- CHAPTER 22, 187 -- CHAPTER 23, 202 -- CHAPTER 24, 210 -- CHAPTER 25, 221 -- CHAPTER 26, 227 -- CHAPTER 27, 238 -- CHAPTER 28, 247...

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Excerpt: CHAPTER 1. Fellow Travelers. In the autumn of the year, Darkness and Night were creeping up to the highest ridges of the Alps. It was vintage time in the valleys on the Swiss side of the Pass of the Great Saint Bernard, and along the banks of the Lake of Geneva....

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CONTENTS BOOK THE SECOND: RICHES 1. Fellow Travellers 2. Mrs General 3. On the Road 4. A Letter from Little Dorrit 5. Something Wrong Somewhere 6. Something Right Somewhere 7. Mostly, Prunes and Prism 8. The Dowager Mrs Gowan is reminded that ?It Never Does? 9. Appearance and Disappearance 10. The Dreams of Mrs Flintwinch thicken 11. A Letter from Little Dorrit 12. In which a Great Patriotic Conference is holden 13. The Progress of an Epidemic 14. Taking Advice 15. No just Cause or Impediment why these Two Persons should not be joined together 16. Getting on 17. Missing 18. A Castle in the Air 19. The Storming of the Castle in the Air 20. Introduces the next 21. The History of a Self-Tormentor 22. Who Passes by this Road so late? 23. Mistress Affery makes a Conditional Promise, respecting her Dreams 24. The Evening of a Long Day 25. The Chief Butler Resigns the Seals of Office 26. Reaping the Whirlwind 27. The Pupil of the Marshalsea 28. An Appearance in the Marshalsea 29. A Plea in the Marshalsea 30. Closing in...

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Excerpt: The War in the Air by H. G. Wells.

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Kleinere Schriften von Friedrich von Schiller (1759 - 1805) Vorrede zu der Geschichte des Maltheserordens nach Vertot von M. N. bearbeitet. (1792) Herzog von Alba bei einem Frühstück auf dem Schlosse zu Rudolstadt, im Jahr 1547. (1788) Der Spaziergang unter den Linden (1782) Vorrede zu dem ersten Theile der merkwürdigsten Rechtsfälle nach Pitaval. (1792) Eine großmütige Handlung aus der neuesten Geschichte (1782) Ueber Egmont, Trauerspiel von Goethe (1788) Spiel des Schicksals (1789)...

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Literature, History

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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th-century Middle English alliterative romance outlining an adventure of Sir Gawain, a knight of King Arthur's Round Table. In the tale, Sir Gawain accepts a challenge from a mysterious warrior who is completely green, from his clothes and hair to his beard and skin. The Green Knight offers to allow anyone to strike him with his axe if the challenger will take a return blow in a year and a day. Gawain accepts, and beheads him in one blow, only to have the Green Knight stand up, pick up his head, and remind Gawain to meet him at the appointed time. The story of Gawain's struggle to meet the appointment and his adventures along the way demonstrate the spirit of chivalry and loyalty. (Wikipedia) This 20th Century rendering is by WA Neilson....

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Fiction, Literature