Résultats lu par "Simon Hester" dans Toutes les catégories

The Picture of Dorian Gray is a novel which shocks us still. The sensibilities of its original Victorian readership may have blanched at the exoticism and barely disguised eroticism which drip from Wilde’s prose, but for us today who barely look twice at such things, we find something much more horrific at the heart of the book. 

It is all to easy to be familiar with Oscar Wilde the aesthete, the limpid sophisticate ever ready with a witty epigram designed to both shock and stimulate. However, here in this set of short stories Wilde, at least partly, lays aside his barbs and is careful to not let cynicism cloud the parable like innocence of these tales. There is an undeniable purity in these tales, which Wilde’s simple, lyrical style beautifully enhances. Narrated by Simon Hester with original music.

After first introducing Sherlock Holmes in "A Study in Scarlet", Sir Arthur Conan Doyle then began his series of shorter Holmes' adventures as chronicled by the famous detective's friend and companion Dr. John Watson. Here, we have many classics of the Holmes series. The gothic horror of "The Speckled Band", the bizarre and clever deception of "The Red Headed League", the unique and frightening experience of the "Engineer's Thumb", and the lofty client from "A Scandal in Bohemia", a case that finds Holmes up against "The Woman".

The ghosts of war leave no footprints. When legendary Ottoman seaman Dragut Rais attacked the Maltese islands in 1551, his army left Gozo a smoking ruin emptied of its entire population. Among the 5,000 carried into slavery is Augustine Montesa, father of Domenicus and Katrina. Wounded and broken, Domenicus vows to find his father, even if it means abandoning Angelica, his betrothed.

John Buchan himself stated that he set out to write a book in the style of the ubiquitous American “Dime Novel”. What he actually succeeded in creating was a relatively unique and new genre for British literature, the Spy Novel. Those thrilling elements of the fleeing innocent man hunted through the wilds by sinister and undefined dark forces have been explored countless times in books and on screen ever since.

Initially when one thinks of the possibility of becoming invisible the potential results are both intriguing and faintly comical. For H.G Wells however the subject is developed into a narrative that takes the concept of invisibility to its disturbing conclusion. For the author it is always the impact of science upon the Human heart and mind which is of interest and here results in a classic of science fiction.

Once again, Alice enters into an imaginary world full of nonsense, color, and paradox. This time, she enters through a mirror and, as one might expect, everything becomes back to front. She is on a quest to become a queen in a fantastical game of chess meeting both help and hindrance in a cast of unforgettable characters such as Humpty Dumpty and the White Knight.

Once again Alice enters into an imaginary world full of nonsense, color and paradox. This time she enters through a mirror and, as one might expect, everything becomes back to front. She is on a quest to become a Queen in a fantastical game of chess meeting both help and hindrance in a cast of unforgettable characters such as Humpty Dumpty and the White Knight.

On the edge of the unknown, Oak Wilder is beckoned to defend his homeland from the darkness lurking at his doorstep. However, Oak is not keen on leaving his rich farmland in the western Sussex of England to chase folklore. With the help of the Steward, he finds his courage to embark on the adventure and discover the truth that lay beyond the hills.

First published in 1895 this classic tale of three friends taking a boating holiday on the Thames is as fresh as ever and creates a unique blend of humorous travelogue and historical information; even pausing at times, amidst the comedic mishaps, to reflect eloquently upon life and its sufferings.

Perhaps the most famous and most accessible of Dickens' stories, which can be enjoyed every year afresh at Christmastime, as we never tire of the inspirational story of Scrooge's redemption and transformation. 

The violent clash between the Ottoman Empire and the Knights of St John on the island fortress Malta serves as the backdrop to Eight Pointed Cross. Siblings Domenicus and Katrina Montesa grow up under the threat of a looming Inquisition by Rome and constant raids by corsairs loyal to the Ottoman...

June 1813. As the Peninsular War edges toward its climactic battle at Vitoria, a well-bred, newly commissioned, and hopelessly incompetent officer arrives to take charge of a seasoned troop of British cavalry. The troop's eloquent but shifty corporal takes the officer under his wing, and thus begins a journey through the campaign with many laugh-out-loud moments as the less-than-upright members of the troop determine to turn the war against the French to their pecuniary advantage.

The epic tale of a major inter-war novelist whose work was lauded by the literary establishment of the 1930s - but overshadowed by his biggest hit. As a 10-year-old working in a Leeds knacker's yard, Eric Knight had a dream. Emigrating to the USA, he reinvented himself as artist, newspaper reporter, film critic, and best-selling novelist. His books were praised by Ernest Hemingway and H L Mencken and turned into Hollywood movies. 

First published in 1912, The Unbearable Bassington stands as Saki’s most substantial venture into longer fiction, and perhaps his most poignant. Known primarily for his razor-edged short stories—where wit, mischief, and a certain cool cruelty dance in quick succession—Saki (H. H. Munro) brings those same gifts to this novel, but with a deeper, darker resonance.

Charles Dickens’s The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain (1848) was the last of his five Christmas books, following A Christmas Carol, The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, and The Battle of Life. Like its predecessors, it is not a simple tale of the festive season but a moral study that uses the supernatural to explore human sympathy, memory, and redemption.

The four tales gathered here reveal Oscar Wilde’s gift for blending wit, irony, and moral reflection within the form of the short story.

In The Green Fairy Book, Andrew Lang continues his celebrated work of gathering fairy tales from many nations into one collection, preserving stories that have delighted generations and offering them anew to young listeners—and to all who value the enduring charm of folklore. This volume, the third in Lang’s famous “Coloured” Fairy Book series, draws its tales from an especially wide array of sources: French, German, Russian, Italian, Scottish, and even oral traditions from tribal cultures such as the Zulus of South Africa.