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The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights

Sir James Knowles
Novel 已完结 3

King Arthur is a legendary British leader who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defense of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early sixth century. The details of Arthur’s story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and his historical existence is debated and disputed by modern historians. The sparse historical background of Arthur is gleaned from various sources, including the Annales Cambriae, the Historia Brittonum, and the writings of Gildas. Arthur’s name also occurs in early poetic sources such as Y Gododdin. The legendary Arthur developed as a figure of international interest largely through the popularity of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s fanciful and imaginative 12th-century Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain). However, some Welsh and Breton tales and poems relating the story of Arthur date from earlier than this work; in these works, Arthur appears either as a great warrior defending Britain from human and supernatural enemies or as a magical figure of folklore, sometimes associated with the Welsh Otherworld, Annwn. How much of Geoffrey’s Historia (completed in 1138) was adapted from such earlier sources, rather than invented by Geoffrey himself, is unknown. Although the themes, events and characters of the Arthurian legend varied widely from text to text, and there is no one canonical version, Geoffrey’s version of events often served as the starting point for later stories. Geoffrey depicted Arthur as a king of Britain who defeated the Saxons and established an empire over Britain, Ireland, Iceland, Norway and Gaul. In fact, many elements and incidents that are now an integral part of the Arthurian story appear in Geoffrey’s Historia, including Arthur’s father Uther Pendragon, the wizard Merlin, the sword Excalibur, Arthur‘s birth at Tintagel, his final battle against Mordred at Camlann and final rest in Avalon. The 12th-century French writer Chrétien de Troyes, who added Lancelot and the Holy Grail to the story, began the genre of Arthurian romance that became a significant strand of medieval literature. In these French stories, the narrative focus often shifts from King Arthur himself to other characters, such as various Knights of the Round Table. Arthurian literature thrived during the Middle Ages but waned in the centuries that followed until it experienced a major resurgence in the 19th century. In the 21st century, the legend lives on, not only in literature but also in adaptations for theatre, film, television, comics and other media. The Sir James Knowles version of King Arthur is considered as the most accurate and well known original story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

Vanity Fair

William Makepeace Thackeray
Novel 已完结 9

With an Introduction and Notes by Owen Knowles, University of Hull Thackeray’s upper-class Regency world is a noisy and jostling commercial fairground, predominantly driven by acquisitive greed and soulless materialism, in which the narrator himself plays a brilliantly versatile role as a serio-comic observer. Although subtitled ’A Novel without a Hero’, Vanity Fair follows the fortunes of two contrasting but inter-linked lives: through the retiring Amelia Sedley and the brilliant Becky Sharp, Thackeray examines the position of women in an intensely exploitative male world.

Mansfield Park

Jane Austen
Novel 已完结 1

In Mansfield Park, first published in 1814, when the author had reached her full maturity as a novelist, Jane Austen paints some of most witty and perceptive studies of character. Against a genteel country landscape of formal parks and stately homes, the gossipy Mrs Norris becomes a masterful comic creation; the fickle young suitor Henry Crawford provides an unequaled portrait of an unscruplous young man; and the complexy drawn Fanny Price emerges as one of Jane Austen\'s finest achievements--the poor cousin who comes to stay with her wealthy relatives at Mansfield Park and learns how the game of love can too easily turn to folly. More intricately plotted and wider in scope than Austen\'s earlier works, Mansfield Park continues to enchant and delight us as a superb example of a great author\'s craft.

Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours

Jules Verne
Novel 已完结 40

It was at this point that the Union Pacific Road was inaugurated on the 23rd of October, 1867, by its chief engineer, General G. M. Dodge. There stopped the two powerful locomotives, drawing the nine cars of invited guests, prominent among whom was the Vice-President of the road, Thomas C. Durant; there cheers were given; there the Sioux and Pawnees gave an imitation Indian battle; there the fireworks were set off; there, finally, was struck off by means of a portable printing press the first number of the Railway Pioneer. Thus was celebrated the inauguration of this great railroad, an instrument of progress and civilisation, thrown across the desert, and destined to bind together towns and cities not yet in existence. The whistle of the locomotive, more powerful than the lyre of Amphion, was soon to make them rise from the American soil.

Eight Cousins

Louisa May Alcott
Novel 已完结 2

Rose, a shy orphan, blossoms in the company of her spirited relatives when she takes up residence at "The Aunt Hill." This captivating novel by the author of Little Women offers readers of all ages endearing, inspiring stories about growing up, making friends, and facing life with kindness and courage.

Bartleby, the Scrivener:A Story of Wall-Street

Herman Melville
Novel 已完结 2

The narrator, an elderly, unnamed Manhattan lawyer with a comfortable business, already employs two scriveners to copy legal documents by hand, Nippers and Turkey. An increase in business leads him to advertise for a third, and he hires the forlorn-looking Bartleby in the hope that his calmness will soothe the irascible temperaments of the other two.At first, Bartleby produces a large volume of high-quality work. But one day, when asked to help proofread a document, Bartleby answers with what soon becomes his perpetual response to every request: "I would prefer not to." To the dismay of the lawyer and to the irritation of the other employees, Bartleby performs fewer and fewer tasks, and eventually none. The narrator makes several futile attempts to reason with him and to learn something about him; and when he stops by the office unexpectedly, he discovers that Bartleby has started living there.Tension builds as business associates wonder why Bartleby is always there. Sensing the threat to his reputation but emotionally unable to evict Bartleby, the narrator moves his business out. Soon the new tenants come to ask for help: Bartleby still will not leave—he now sits on the stairs all day and sleeps in the building’s doorway. The narrator visits him and attempts to reason with him, and surprises even himself by inviting Bartleby to come live with him. But Bartleby "would prefer not to". Later the narrator returns to find that Bartleby has been forcibly removed and imprisoned in the Tombs. The narrator visits him. Finding Bartleby glummer than usual, he bribes a turnkey to make sure Bartleby gets enough food. But when he returns a few days later Bartleby has died of starvation, having preferred not to eat.Some time afterward, the narrator hears a rumor that Bartleby had worked in a dead letter office, and reflects that dead letters would have made anyone of Bartleby’s temperament sink into an even darker gloom. The story closes with the narrator’s resigned and pained sigh, "Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity!"

Tess of the d’Urbervilles

Thomas Hardy
Novel 已完结 1

Hardy’s novel tells the story of how John and Joan Durbeyfield became convinced that they are descended from the ancient family of d’Ubervilles. They encourage their daughter Tess to cement a connection with the Stoke-d’Uberville family of local gentry (who it turns out are themselves not entitled to the illustrious name) and she is raped by their son, the unprincipled Alec. It is a connection that returns to haunt her after she has married the pure parson’s son Angel Clare. Tess first appeared in a serialized—and bowdlerized—form in The Graphic in 1891. A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented , as Hardy subtitled the work, represented a direct challenge to conventional notions of sexuality and femininity—and, though conventions have radically changed in the past century, the character of Tess has remained a challenging one. In her introduction Maier argues that we should not see Tess merely as a passive victim; she suggests that a combination of sexual vigour and moral rigour makes Tess not just one of the greatest but also one of the strongest women in the canon of English literature. This edition also includes contemproary reviews; the ’bowdlerized’ as well as the author’s original versions of passages censored by the early years of the novel’s life; excerpts from Hardy’s autobiography; and a wealth of other documents that shed light on the context from which this text emerged -- highlighting in particular gender-related issues that lie at the heart of the text.

Little Women

Louisa May Alcott
Novel 已完结 4

Generations of readers young and old, male and female, have fallen in love with the March sisters of Louisa May Alcott’s most popular and enduring novel, Little Women. Here are talented tomboy and author-to-be Jo, tragically frail Beth, beautiful Meg, and romantic, spoiled Amy, united in their devotion to each other and their struggles to survive in New England during the Civil War. It is no secret that Alcott based Little Women on her own early life. While her father, the freethinking reformer and abolitionist Bronson Alcott, hobnobbed with such eminent male authors as Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne, Louisa supported herself and her sisters with woman’s work,” including sewing, doing laundry, and acting as a domestic servant. But she soon discovered she could make more money writing. Little Women brought her lasting fame and fortune, and far from being the girl’s book” her publisher requested, it explores such timeless themes as love and death, war and peace, the conflict between personal ambition and family responsibilities, and the clash of cultures between Europe and America.

Fairy Tales from the Arabian Nights

E.Dixon
Novel 已完结 16

There once was a king of Persia who at the beginning of his reign had distinguished himself by many glorious and successful conquests and had afterwards enjoyed such profound peace and tranquillity as rendered him the happiest of monarchs.

Le Rouge et le Noir

Stendhal
Novel 已完结 76

Le Rouge et le Noir, roman central de Stendhal, porte un titre qui symbolise la table de jeu. Une fois une couleur amen il n\'est plus temps de revenir en arri . Mais le jeu comporte une direction ou un dessous des cartes qui est l\' rgie. La pr nce, le degr u l\'absence de l\' rgie, voil e qui fait une destin Le Rouge et le Noir, c\'est le roman de l\' rgie, celle d\'un jeune homme ardent, exigeant et pauvre dans la soci de la Restauration. Il a pour sous-titre : Chronique de 1830, cela signifie la France, toute la France, la Province et Paris. Julien est le d gu l\' rgie provinciale, le d gu u talent a carri , des classes pauvres a conqu du monde.L\' rgie de Julien ne va pas sans une violence de temp ament, une intensit e chauffe qui le conduit \' afaud.Cette peinture, pleine, puissante, normale de l\' rgie d\'un homme, d\'un pays, d\'une que, compose une oeuvre immense que son temps ne comprit pas mais dont la vivante influence n\'est pas encore is Albert ThibaudetEdition de Michel Crouzet.

Robinson Crusoe

Daniel Defoe
Novel 已完结 2

Wuthering Heights

Emily Bronte
Novel 已完结 3

Emily Jane Bront? (July 30, 1818 – December 19, 1848) was a British novelist and poet, now best remembered for her only novel Wuthering Heights, a classic of English literature. Emily was the second oldest of the three Bront? sisters, being younger than Charlotte and older than Anne. She published under the masculine pen name Ellis Bell. Source: Wikipedia Note: This book is brought to you by Feedbooks.

The Dream of the Red Chamber

曹雪芹
Novel 已完结 12

Considered one of the greatest works of Chinese literature, this five-part story charts the changing fortunes of the Jia family. It sets worldly events - love affairs, sibling rivalries, even murder - within the context of the Buddhist understanding that karma determines the shape of our lives.

Gone with the Wind

Margaret Mitchell
Novel 已完结 69

“A REMARKABLE BOOK, A SPECTACULAR BOOK, A BOOK THAT WILL NOT BE FORGOTTEN!”—Chicago Tribune

Gulliver’s Travels

Jonathan Swift
Novel 已完结 1

In Gulliver’s Travels, the narrator represents himself as a reliable reporter of the fantastic adventures he has just experienced. But how far can we rely on a narrator who has been impersonated by someone else? The work purports to be a travel book, and describes the shipwrecked Gulliver’s encounters with the inhabitants of four extraordinary places: Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa, and the country of the Houyhnhnms. An extraordinarily skillful blend of fantasy and realism makes Gulliver’s Travels by turns hilarious, frightening, and profound. Swift’s alter ego plays tricks on us, and our gullibility uncovers one of the world’s most disturbing satires of the human condition.The fullest, most up-to-date paperback of Gulliver’s Travels currently available, this new edition contains an astute analysis of the nature of Swift’s satire. It includes the changing frontispiece portraits of Gulliver that appeared in successive early editions and whose subtle changes contribute to the reader’s uncertainty about the veracity of the author. A new introduction by Claude Rawson draws on the latest scholarship and considers Swift’s role-playing and the relationship of the author to Gulliver.

The Brothers Karamazov

Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Novel 已完结 16

Anyone interested in the central question facing mankind will find `The Brothers Karamazov an essential guide. That question--on mans capacity for responsibility and the proper role of the state and religion--is posed throughout the story in dialogue and events, and is framed neatly in a 20-page section where Ivan presents a poem titled `The Grand Inquisitor to his brother Alyosha.

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