Stories from Pentameroneby Giambattista BasileNOTEThe collection of folk-tales known as Il Pentamerone was firstpublished at Naples and in the Neopolitan dialect, by GiambattistaBasile, Conte di Torrone, who is believed to have collected themchiefly in Crete and Venice, and to have died about the year 1637.CONTENTS1. How the Tales came to be told2. The Myrtle3. Peruonto4. Vardiello5. The Flea6. Cenerentola7. The Merchant8. Goat-Face9. The Enchanted Doe10. Parsley11. The Three Sisters12. Violet13. Pippo14. The Serpent...
The Wife and Other Storiesby Anton ChekhovTranslated by CONSTANCE GARNETTCONTENTSThe WifeDifficult PeopleThe GrasshopperA Dreary StoryThe Privy CouncillorThe Man in CaseGooseberriesAbout LoveThe Lottery TicketTHE WIFEII RECEIVED the following letter:"DEAR SIR, PAVEL ANDREITCH!"Not far from you that is to say, in the village of Pestrovo very distressing incidents are taking place, concerning which I feel it my duty to write to you. All the peasants of that village sold their cottages and all their belongings, and set off for the province of Tomsk, but did not succeed in getting there, and ha
THE SKETCH BOOKWESTMINSTER ABBEYby Washington IrvingWhen I behold, with deep astonishment,To famous Westminster how there resorteLiving in brasse or stoney monument,The princes and the worthies of all sorte;Doe not I see reformde nobilitie,Without contempt, or pride, or ostentation,And looke upon offenselesse majesty,Naked of pomp or earthly domination?And how a play-game of a painted stone...
The Uncommercial Travellerby Charles DickensCHAPTER I - HIS GENERAL LINE OF BUSINESSAllow me to introduce myself - first negatively.No landlord is my friend and brother, no chambermaid loves me, nowaiter worships me, no boots admires and envies me. No round ofbeef or tongue or ham is expressly cooked for me, no pigeon-pie isespecially made for me, no hotel-advertisement is personallyaddressed to me, no hotel-room tapestried with great-coats andrailway wrappers is set apart for me, no house of publicentertainment in the United Kingdom greatly cares for my opinion of...
The Muse of the Departmentby Honore de BalzacTranslated by James WaringDEDICATIONTo Monsieur le Comte Ferdinand de Gramont.MY DEAR FERDINAND,If the chances of the world of literature/habent sua fata libelli/should allow these lines to be anenduring record, that will still be but a trifle in return for thetrouble you have takenyou, the Hozier, the Cherin, the King-at-Arms of these Studies of Life; you, to whom the Navarreins,Cadignans, Langeais, Blamont-Chauvrys, Chaulieus, Arthez,Esgrignons, Mortsaufs, Valoisthe hundred great names that form...
DICKORY CRONKEDICKORY CRONKEBy Daniel Defoe1- Page 2-DICKORY CRONKEPREFACEThe formality of a preface to this little book might have been very wellomitted, if it were not to gratify the curiosity of some inquisitive people,who, I foresee, will be apt to make objections against the reality of thenarrative.Indeed the public has too often been imposed upon by fictitious stories,...
360 BCSOPHISTby Platotranslated by Benjamin JowettSOPHISTPERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: THEODORUS; THEAETETUS; SOCRATES;An ELEATIC STRANGER, whom Theodorus and Theaetetus bringwith them; The younger SOCRATES, who is a silent auditorTheodorus. Here we are, Socrates, true to our agreement ofyesterday; and we bring with us a stranger from Elea, who is adisciple of Parmenides and Zeno, and a true philosopher.Socrates. Is he not rather a god, Theodorus, who comes to us in...
THE CRITIC AS ARTIST - WITH SOME REMARKS UPON THE IMPORTANCE OF DOING NOTHINGA DIALOGUE. Part I. Persons: Gilbert and Ernest. Scene: the library of a house in Piccadilly, overlooking the Green Park.GILBERT (at the Piano). My dear Ernest, what are you laughing at?ERNEST (looking up). At a capital story that I have just come across in this volume of Reminiscences that I have found on your table.GILBERT. What is the book? Ah! I see. I have not read it yet. Is it good?ERNEST. Well, while you have been playing, I have been turning over the pages with some amusement, though, as a rule, I
Dreams & Dustby Don MarquisTOMY MOTHERVIRGINIA WHITMORE MARQUISCONTENTSPROEMDAYLIGHT HUMORSTHIS IS ANOTHER DAYAPRIL SONGTHE EARTH, IT IS ALSO A STARTHE NAMETHE BIRTHA MOOD OF PAVLOWATHE POOL"THEY HAD NO POET"NEW YORKA HYMNTHE SINGERWORDS ARE NOT GUNSWITH THE SUBMARINESNICHOLAS OF MONTENEGRODICKENSA POLITICIANTHE BAYONETTHE BUTCHERS AT PRAYERSHADOWSHAUNTEDA NIGHTMARETHE MOTHER...
HIGH-WATER MARKWhen the tide was out on the Dedlow Marsh, its extended drearinesswas patent. Its spongy, low-lying surface, sluggish, inky pools,and tortuous sloughs, twisting their slimy way, eel-like, towardthe open bay, were all hard facts. So were the few green tussocks,with their scant blades, their amphibious flavor and unpleasantdampness. And if you choose to indulge your fancyalthough theflat monotony of the Dedlow Marsh was not inspiringthe wavy lineof scattered drift gave an unpleasant consciousness of the spentwaters, and made the dead certainty of the returning tide a gloomy...
Padre IgnacioOr The Song of Temptationby Owen WisterIAt Santa Ysabel del Mar the season was at one of those moments when theair rests quiet over land and sea. The old breezes were gone; the newones were not yet risen. The flowers in the mission garden opened wide;no wind came by day or night to shake the loose petals from their stems.Along the basking, silent, many-colored shore gathered and lingered thecrisp odors of the mountains. The dust hung golden and motionless longafter the rider was behind the hill, and the Pacific lay like a floor of...
Industrial BiographyIron Workers and Tool Makersby Samuel SmilesPREFACE.The Author offers the following book as a continuation, in a moregenerally accessible form, of the Series of Memoirs of Industrial Menintroduced in his Lives of the Engineers. While preparing that workhe frequently came across the tracks of celebrated inventors,mechanics, and iron-workersthe founders, in a great measure, of themodern industry of Britainwhose labours seemed to him well worthyof being traced out and placed on record, and the more so as theirlives presented many points of curious and original interest. Hav
Autobiography of a Pocket-Handkerchiefby James Fenimore CoopoerCHAPTER I.Certain moral philosophers, with a due disdain of the flimsy foundationsof human pride, have shown that every man is equally descended from amillion of ancestors, within a given number of generations; therebydemonstrating that no prince exists who does not participate in theblood of some beggar, or any beggar who does not share in the bloodof princes. Although favored by a strictly vegetable descent myself, thelaws of nature have not permitted me to escape from the influence ofthis common rule. The earliest accounts I po
The Ethics [Part 4](Ethica Ordine Geometrico Demonstrata)by Benedict de SpinozaTranslated by R. H. M. ElwesPART IV: Of Human Bondage, or the Strength of the EmotionsPREFACEHuman infirmity in moderating and checking the emotions I name bondage:for, when a man is a prey to his emotions, he is not his own master, butlies at the mercy of fortune: so much so, that he is often compelled,while seeing that which is better for him, to follow that which is worse....
The VillageAfter hoeing, or perhaps reading and writing, in the forenoon, Iusually bathed again in the pond, swimming across one of its covesfor a stint, and washed the dust of labor from my person, orsmoothed out the last wrinkle which study had made, and for theafternoon was absolutely free. Every day or two I strolled to thevillage to hear some of the gossip which is incessantly going onthere, circulating either from mouth to mouth, or from newspaper tonewspaper, and which, taken in homoeopathic doses, was really as...
The Adventure of Wisteria LodgeThe Adventure ofWisteria LodgeArthur Conan Doyle1- Page 2-The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge1. The Singular Experience of Mr.John Scott EcclesI find it recorded in my notebook that it was a bleak and windy daytowards the end of March in the year 1892. Holmes had received atelegram while we sat at our lunch, and he had scribbled a reply. He made...