Book picks similar to
La vuelta al mundo en 80 días/ De la tierra a la luna/ Miguel Strogoff by Jules Verne
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The Invention of Morel
Adolfo Bioy Casares - 1940
Set on a mysterious island, Bioy’s novella is a story of suspense and exploration, as well as a wonderfully unlikely romance, in which every detail is at once crystal clear and deeply mysterious.Inspired by Bioy Casares’s fascination with the movie star Louise Brooks, The Invention of Morel has gone on to live a secret life of its own. Greatly admired by Julio Cortázar, Gabriel García Márquez, and Octavio Paz, the novella helped to usher in Latin American fiction’s now famous postwar boom. As the model for Alain Resnais and Alain Robbe-Grillet’s Last Year at Marienbad, it also changed the history of film.
Briefing for a Descent Into Hell
Doris Lessing - 1971
But Watkins has embarked on a tremendous psychological adventure where, after spinning endlessly on a raft in the Atlantic, he lands on a tropical island inhabited by strange creatures with strange customs. Later, he is carried off on a cosmic journey into space…
The Collected Poems of Wilfred Owen
Wilfred Owen - 1918
By the time Owen was killed at the age of 25 at the Battle of Sambre, he had written what are considered to be the most important British poems of WWI. This definitive edition is based on manuscripts of Owen's papers in the British Museum and other archives.
Fairy Tales
Hans Christian Andersen - 1835
Writing in the midst of a Europe-wide rebirth of national literature, Anderson broke new ground with his fairy tales in two important ways. First, he composed them in the vernacular, mimicking the language he used in telling them to children aloud. Second, he set his tales in his own land and time, giving rise to his loving descriptions of the Danish countryside. In contrast to such folklorists as the Brothers Grimm, Anderson’s tales are grounded in the real and often focus on the significance of small or overlooked things.Tinderbox --Little Claus and big Claus --Princess on the pea --Thumbelina --Traveling companion --Little mermaid --Emperor's new clothes --Steadfast tin soldier --Wild swans --Flying trunk --Nightingale --Sweethearts --Ugly duckling --Fir tree --Snow queen --Red shoes --Shepherdess and the chimney sweep --Shadow --Old house --Little match girl --Story of a mother --Collar --Bell --Marsh King's daughter --Wind tells of Valdemar Daae and his daughters --Snowman --Ice maiden --Wood nymph --Most incredible thing --Auntie toothache.
Diary of a Superfluous Man
Ivan Turgenev - 1850
Turgenev once said that there was a great deal of himself in the unsuccessful lovers who appear in his fiction. This failure, along with painful self-consciousness, is a central fact for the ailing Chulkaturin in this melancholy tale. As he reflects on his life, he tells the story of Liza, whom he loved, and a prince, whom she loved instead, and the curious turns all their lives took.
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories
Ken Liu - 2016
This mesmerizing collection features all of Ken’s award-winning and award-finalist stories, including: “The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary” (Finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, and Theodore Sturgeon Awards), “Mono No Aware” (Hugo Award winner), “The Waves” (Nebula Award finalist), “The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species” (Nebula and Sturgeon award finalists), “All the Flavors” (Nebula award finalist), “The Litigation Master and the Monkey King” (Nebula Award finalist), and the most awarded story in the genre’s history, “The Paper Menagerie” (The only story to win the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy awards).A must-have for every science fiction and fantasy fan, this beautiful book is an anthology to savor.
Wilt
Tom Sharpe - 1976
Ahead of him at the Polytechnic stretch years of trying to thump literature into the heads of plasterers, joiners, butchers and the like. And things are no better at home where his massive wife, Eva, is given to boundless and unpredictable fits of enthusiasm -for transcendental meditation, yoga or the trampoline. But if Wilt can do nothing about his job, he can do something about his wife, in imagination at least, and his fantasies grow daily more murderous and more concrete. After a peculiarly nasty experience at a party thrown by particularly nasty Americans, Wilt finds himself in several embarrassing positions: Eva stalks out in stratospheric dudgeon, and Wilt, under the inspiration of gin, puts one of his more vindictive fantasies into effect. But suspicions are instantly aroused and Wilt rapidly achieves an unenviable notoriety in the role of The Man Helping Police With Their Enquiries. Or is he exactly helping? Wilt's problem -although he's on the other side of the fence -is the same as Inspector Flint's: where is Eva Wilt? But Wilt begins to flourish in the heat of the investigation, and as the police stoke the flames of circumstantial evidence, Wilt deploys all his powers to show that the Law can't tell a Missing Person from a hole in the ground.
Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology
Bruce SterlingJames Patrick Kelly - 1986
Fans and critics call their world cyberpunk. Here is the definitive "cyberpunk" short fiction collection.Contents:The Gernsback Continuum (1981) by William GibsonSnake-Eyes (1986) by Tom MaddoxRock On (1984) by Pat CadiganTales of Houdini (1981) by Rudy Rucker400 Boys (1983) by Marc LaidlawSolstice (1985) by James Patrick KellyPetra (1982) by Greg BearTill Human Voices Wake Us (1984) by Lewis ShinerFreezone (1985) by John ShirleyStone Lives (1985) by Paul Di FilippoRed Star, Winter Orbit (1983) by William Gibson and Bruce SterlingMozart in Mirrorshades (1984) by Bruce Sterling and Lewis Shiner
Netochka Nezvanova
Fyodor Dostoevsky - 1849
The young girl is strangely drawn to this drunken ruin of a man, who exploits her and drives the family to poverty. But when she is rescued by an aristocratic family, the abuse against Netochka's delicate psyche continues in a more subtle way, condemning her to remain an outsider - a solitary spectator of a glittering society. Conceived as part of a novel on a grand scale, Netochka Nezvanova remained incomplete after Dostoyevsky was exiled to Siberia for 'revolutionary activities' in 1849. With its depiction of the suffering, loneliness, madness and sin that affect both rich and poor in St Petersburg, it contains the great themes that were to dominate his later novels.
Manon Lescaut
Antoine François Prévost d'Exiles - 1731
It is one of the great love stories, and also one of the most enigmatic: how reliable a witness is Des Grieux, Manon's lover, whose tale he narrates? Is Manon a thief and a whore, the image of love itself, or a thoroughly modern woman? Prevost is careful to leave the ambiguities unresolved, and to lay bare the disorders of passion." This new translation includes the vignette and eight illustrations that were approved by Prevost and first published in the edition of 1753.
Selected Short Stories
Maxim Gorky - 1969
He spent his early childhood in Astrakhan where his father worked as a shipping agent, but when the boy was only five years old, his father died, and he was sent to live with his maternal grandparents. This was not a happy time for the young Gorky as conditions were poor and often violent. At the age of eight, the boy's grandfather forced him to quit school and apprenticed him to several tradesmen including a shoemaker and an icon painter. Fortunately, Gorky also worked as a dishwasher on a Volga steamer where a friendly cook taught him to read, and literature soon became his passion. At the age of twelve, Gorky ran away from home and barely survived, half starving, moving from one small job to the next. He was often beaten by his employers and seldom had enough to eat. The bitterness of these early experiences led him to choose the name Maxim Gorky (which means "the bitter one") as his pseudonym.
No Man is an Island: Stories of Friendship and Bonding
Ruskin Bond - 2013
Featuring classic tales such as The Woman on Platform No. 8, in which a mysterious stranger befriends a young boy, and The Crooked Tree, in which a writer and a hawker form an unlikely bond, this heart-warming collection is a must-read.
The Complete Inspector Crow Mystery #1-8
Roy Lewis - 2020
She’d only just returned from an unexplained absence of months. Peter had already taken a new lover, but there’s no real proof he killed his wife. Can Inspector John Crow solve the case before anyone else dies?BOOK 2: ERROR OF JUDGMENTA young woman is found dead in college amid a student protest. It turns out she was the principal’s secretary and there was more to her than meets the eye. Who wanted her dead and why? And what does it have to do with the student revolt led by a charismatic firebrand from Iraq?BOOK 3: THE WOODS MURDERSchoolgirl Jenny Carson is brutally murdered in Kenton Wood. Then Charles Lendon is found skewered through the heart. He was a ruthless lawyer and a shameless womaniser. Jenny’s father blames him for her murder.BOOK 4: MURDER FOR MONEYGossip-mongering journalist Charlie Rutland is found brutally slain. In his line of work, he wasn’t short of enemies. DI Crow must interrogate a long list of suspects, from a homeless Yorkshireman to an ex-Gestapo officer. Then British spy services get involved. Can Crow crack the case before it’s taken out of his hands?BOOK 5: MURDER IN THE MINEA hunt for a missing dog leads to a gruesome discovery down a Welsh mineshaft. Not just the injured dog, but a valuable piece of jewellery and the decaying corpse of a woman. A surprising confession follows. But Inspector Crow is not convinced he has his man. Can he uncover the true killer, despite the many perplexing questions surrounding the case?BOOK 6: A COTSWOLDS MURDERCaravan park manager Chuck Lindop is found with his head caved in. The locals insist he was a lovable rogue. So who wanted him dead and why? As the investigation wears on, Inspector Crow uncovers shady dealings at the caravan park. Could Chuck himself have been involved?BOOK 7: A FOX HUNTING MURDEROne crisp autumn morning, the hunt is in full swing. But instead of a fox, they find their notorious opponent: dead in a bush. Inspector Crow uncovers a side to the victim that no one has seen before. But can he trust his instincts in a case where nothing is what it seems?BOOK 8: A DARTMOOR MURDERFred Norman is found dead in a pond near the mine where he worked. DI Crow is called in to investigate and finds a community divided. Many local activists oppose the mine. Suspicion soon falls on their womanizing leader, but Crow is aware that are many false trails and too many lies. Then he learns a secret about the victim that changes everything.
The Cat's Pajamas and Other Stories
James K. Morrow - 2004
Other outlandish tales include John Wayne battling cancer using a highly alternative therapy, a gene for integrity being harvested from the brain of an unwilling donor, and the landing of Christopher Columbus in modern-day Manhattan. Included are the Locus and Nebula Award-nominated novelette Auspicious Eggs and several previously unpublished pieces.ContentsIntroduction by Michael Swanwick“Auspicious Eggs”“Come Back, Dr. Sarcophagus”“Director’s Cut”“Fucking Justice”“Isabella of Castile Answers Her Mail”“Martyrs of the Upshot Knothole”“The Cat’s Pajamas”“The Eye That Never Blinks”“The Fate of Nations”“The War of the Worldviews”“The Wisdom of the Skin”“The Zombies of Montrose”
Inseparable
Simone de Beauvoir - 2020
For the next ten years, the two are the closest of friends and confidantes as they explore life in a post-World War One France, and as Andrée becomes increasingly reckless and rebellious, edging closer to peril.Sylvie, insightful and observant, sees a France of clashing ideals and religious hypocrisy—and at an early age is determined to form her own opinions. Andrée, a tempestuous dreamer, is inclined to melodrama and romance. Despite their different natures they rely on each other to safeguard their secrets while entering adulthood in a world that did not pay much attention to the wills and desires of young women.Deemed too intimate to publish during Simone de Beauvoir’s life, Inseparable offers fresh insight into the groundbreaking feminist’s own coming-of-age; her transformative, tragic friendship with her childhood friend Zaza Lacoin; and how her youthful relationships shaped her philosophy. Sandra Smith’s vibrant translation of the novel will be long cherished by de Beauvoir devotees and first-time readers alike.