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Pozdní hra Williama Shakespeara Zimní pohádka je proslulá mimo jiné umístěním Čech na břeh moře. Líčí chorobnou žárlivost sicilského vladaře Leonta, který choť Hermionu podezírá z toho, že otěhotněla s jeho nejlepším přítelem Polixenem. V úvodním svazku cyklu shakespearovských adaptací pro třetí tisíciletí přenáší autorova krajanka Jeanette Wintersonová motivy tohoto divadelního evergreenu do soudobého vystresovaného Londýna a do města New Bohemia na neklidném americkém Jihu. Její verze příběhu nazvaná TRHLINA V ČASE proplétá klukovské přátelství s mamonem a snobismus s výdobytky počítačových technologií, díky nimž se i sám Čas stává právoplatným hráčem a vysílá na scénu třeba divotvorný automobil z filmu Návrat do budoucnosti. Zásluhou autorčina dlouholetého zájmu o poetiku cestování časoprostorem zvýrazňuje nové uchopení látky nejen devastující účinky zaslepené zloby, ale i kouzlo lásky a ctnost trpělivosti.

Salgarinak, a vérbeli kalóztörténetek mesterének kalandregényében ezúttal egy mindenre elszánt kincskeresocsapat vág neki Chilébol a végtelen Csendes-óceánnak, hogy Új-Kaledónia partjait elérve felkutassa a legendás Kék-Hegység kincsét. Útjuk azonban szerencsétlenséggel kezdodik, s a kis társaságnak a messzi sziget civilizálatlan és olykor barbár törzsei között kell túlélnie... Részlet az e-könyvbol: "Az ?Andaluzia? kapitánya igazi chilei típus volt, barna, mint az Andok keménynyakú harcosai, fekete szemekkel, amelyek ötven éves kora dacára még mindig tüzesen villogtak, vállas, gigászi alak, vastag bikanyakkal. Az arca kellemesnek, sot szépnek volt mondható, habár hosszúra nott fekete körszakálla valami vad kifejezést adott neki. ? Na, mi az megint, Reton? ? fordult a vén tengerészhez, aki még mindig bosszankodott a kis hajósinas feleselgetésén. ? Mindig ingerkednek velem, ? dörmögött a vén tengeri fóka bosszúsan. ? Nem tegnap születtem!?. Nem eloször látom a delfineket. ? Mit mondtál? ? Igen, igen, kapitány: láttam a delfineket. ? Fent vannak? ? Tucatszámra táncolnak a vízen, kapitány. A kapitány homloka elborult. Fölemelte a fejét és minden oldalról kémlelte az eget."

Il Principe (The Prince) is a political treatise by the Florentine public servant and political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli. Originally called De Principatibus (About Principalities), it was written in 1513, but not published until 1532, five years after Machiavelli's death. The treatise is not representative of the work published during his lifetime, but it is the most remembered, and the work responsible for bringing "Machiavellian" into wide usage as a pejorative term. It has also been suggested by some critics that the piece is, in fact, a satire.

While Homer's existence as a historical person is still a topic of debate, the writings attributed to the name have made their mark not only on Greek history and literature, but upon western civilization itself. Homer's epic poems, The Iliad and The Odyssey, laid the foundation upon which Ancient Greece developed not only its culture, but its societal values, religious beliefs, and practice of warfare as well.This publication features the Samuel Butler translation, and while it strays from the poetic style reproduced by more well known translators like Robert Fagles and Robert Fitzgerald, the vision of the epics as if they were prose found in modern novels take their best form under Butler's most capable hand.The source text reproduced for this publication is derived from the online library of the University of Adelaide in South Australia under the freedoms specified by a Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/au/).

Charmides was written in the year -400 by Plato. This book is one of the most popular novels of Plato, and has been translated into several other languages around the world.This book is published by Booklassic which brings young readers closer to classic literature globally.

Plato (428/427–348/347 BCE) was a Greek philosopher and mathematician of the Classic Age who founded the Academy of Athens. Noted as a student of Socrates, Plato has distinguished himself as one of the founders of Western philosophy by recording the teachings of his master and his own philosophies in 35 dialogues and 13 letters (some are disputed as spurious). However, this collection features only 25 authentic works from the reproduced source.Benjamin Jowett is credited for translating these works into English. While there are many websites online where one may find digital copies of his translations, the source of the copies reproduced for this publication may be found at the online library of the University of Adelaide in South Australia, usable under the freedoms specified by a Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/au/).

Marilla Cuthbert and Matthew Cuthbert, middle-aged siblings who live together at Green Gables, a farm in Avonlea, on Prince Edward Island, decide to adopt a boy from an orphan asylum in Nova Scotia as a helper on their farm. Through a series of mishaps, the person who ends up under their roof is a precocious girl of eleven named Anne Shirley. Anne is bright and quick, eager to please but dissatisfied with her name, her pale countenance dotted with freckles, and with her long braids of red hair. Being a child of imagination, however, Anne takes much joy in life, and adapts quickly, thriving in the environment of Prince Edward Island.

Following Anne of Green Gables (1908), the book covers the second chapter in the life of Anne Shirley. This book follows Anne from the age of 16 to 18, during the two years that she teaches at Avonlea school. It includes many of the characters from Anne of Green Gables, as well as new ones like Mr Harrison, Miss Lavendar Lewis, Paul Irving, and the twins Dora and Davy.

This is the continuing story of Anne Shirley and the third book in the Anne of Green Gables series. Anne attends Redmond College in Kingsport, where she is studying for her BA. The book is dedicated to "all the girls all over the world who have "wanted more" about ANNE." There was a gap of six years between the publications of Anne of Avonlea and the publication of this book.

Oscar Wilde's story of a fashionable young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty is one of his most popular works. Written in Wilde's characteristically dazzling manner, full of stinging epigrams and shrewd observations, the tale of Dorian Gray's moral disintegration caused something of a scandal when it first appeared in 1890. Wilde was attacked for his decadence and corrupting influence, and a few years later the book and the aesthetic/moral dilemma it presented became issues in the trials occasioned by Wilde's homosexual liaisons, trials that resulted in his imprisonment. Of the book's value as autobiography, Wilde noted in a letter, "Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to be--in other ages, perhaps."

Miyamoto Musashi's Go Rin no Sho or the book of five rings, is considered a classic treatise on military strategy, much like Sun Tzu's The Art of War and Chanakya's Arthashastra. The five "books" refer to the idea that there are different elements of battle, just as there are different physical elements in life, as described by Buddhism, Shinto, and other Eastern religions. Through the book Musashi defends his thesis: a man who conquers himself is ready to take it on on the world, should need arise.

The Practice of the Presence of God is a text compiled by Father Joseph de Beaufort of the wisdom and teachings of Brother Lawrence, a 17th century Carmelite monk.It is a collection of his letters, and records made, by other participants in them, of his conversations. A constant theme is the development of an awareness of the presence of God.

Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books; a second edition followed in 1674, redivided into twelve books (in the manner of the division of Virgil's Aeneid) with minor revisions throughout and a note on the versification. The poem concerns the Judeo-Christian story of the Fall of Man; the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Milton's purpose, stated in Book I, is "justify the ways of God to men" and elucidate the conflict between God's eternal foresight and free will.

In 1922, F. Scott Fitzgerald announced his decision to write "something new--something extraordinary and beautiful and simple + intricately patterned." That extraordinary, beautiful, intricately patterned, and above all, simple novel became The Great Gatsby, arguably Fitzgerald's finest work and certainly the book for which he is best known. A portrait of the Jazz Age in all of its decadence and excess, Gatsby captured the spirit of the author's generation and earned itself a permanent place in American mythology. Self-made, self-invented millionaire Jay Gatsby embodies some of Fitzgerald's--and his country's--most abiding obsessions: money, ambition, greed, and the promise of new beginnings. "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning--" Gatsby's rise to glory and eventual fall from grace becomes a kind of cautionary tale about the American Dream. It's also a love story, of sorts, the narrative of Gatsby's quixotic passion for Daisy Buchanan. The pair meet five years before the novel begins, when Daisy is a legendary young Louisville beauty and Gatsby an impoverished officer. They fall in love, but while Gatsby serves overseas, Daisy marries the brutal, bullying, but extremely rich Tom Buchanan. After the war, Gatsby devotes himself blindly to the pursuit of wealth by whatever means--and to the pursuit of Daisy, which amounts to the same thing. "Her voice is full of money," Gatsby says admiringly, in one of the novel's more famous descriptions. His millions made, Gatsby buys a mansion across Long Island Sound from Daisy's patrician East Egg address, throws lavish parties, and waits for her to appear. When she does, events unfold with all the tragic inevitability of a Greek drama, with detached, cynical neighbor Nick Carraway acting as chorus throughout. Spare, elegantly plotted, and written in crystalline prose, The Great Gatsby is as perfectly satisfying as the best kind of poem. * * * "Now we have an American masterpiece in its final form: the original crystal has shaped itself into the true diamond. This is the novel as Fitzgerald wished it to be, and so it is what we have dreamed of, sleeping and waking." -- James Dickey * * * The Great Gatsby is a novel by the American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. First published on April 10, 1925, it is set on Long Island's North Shore and in New York City during the summer of 1922. The novel takes place following the First World War. American society enjoyed prosperity during the "roaring" 1920s as the economy soared. At the same time, Prohibition, the ban on the sale and manufacture of alcohol as mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment, made millionaires out of bootleggers. After its republishing in 1945 and 1953, it quickly found a wide readership and is today widely regarded as a paragon of the Great American Novel, and a literary classic. The Great Gatsby has become a standard text in high school and university courses on American literature in countries around the world, and is ranked second in the Modern Library's lists of the 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century. --Wikipedia

Das Buch zeichnet sich durch die persönliche Nähe aus, die der Leser durch die fein gewebte literarische Struktur zum Ich-Erzähler bekommt. Das Werk verbindet damit den objektiven Blick auf die Kultur des alten Europas mit teilweise persönlichen Innenansichten des Ich-Erzählers. Inwieweit Zweig sein persönliches Leben in diesem Buch dargestellt oder eben herausgehalten hat, ist umstritten.

Die Handlung des Romans ist insofern autobiografisch, als Goethe hier seine platonische Beziehung zu der bereits verlobten Charlotte Buff literarisch verarbeitete. Das Motiv für den tragischen Ausgang dieser Liebe, die Selbsttötung Werthers, lieferte Goethe der Suizid seines Freundes Karl Wilhelm Jerusalem, Gesandtschaftssekretär in Wetzlar. Der hatte sich in eine verheiratete Frau verliebt, die für ihn unerreichbar blieb. Die literarische Figur der Lotte im Roman trägt auch Züge von Maximiliane von La Roche, einer weiteren Bekanntschaft des jungen Goethe aus der Entstehungszeit des Romans.

Nach einer behüteten Kindheit heiratet die 17jährige Effi, dem Willen ihrer Eltern entsprechend, den fast 20 Jahre älteren Baron von Innstetten, ein Jugendfreund ihrer Mutter, dem sie nach Kessin, einem kleinen Ort an der Ostsee folgt. In dem etwas unheimlich anmutenden Haus des Barons vereinsamt die junge, phantasievolle und lebhafte Effi, der es schwerfällt, in ihrer neuen Heimat Anschluß zu finden. Auch die Geburt ihrer Tochter kann sie nicht über ihre innere Vereinsamung hinwegtäuschen. Viel von ihrem Mann alleingelassen, geht Effi, der die Lüge eigentlich zuwider ist, fast gegen ihren Willen eine Liebesbeziehung zu dem neuen Bezirkskommandanten Crampas ein, der sie zuvor lange vergeblich umworben hatte. Diese eher leidenschaftslose Beziehung ist zu Effis Erleichterung beendet, als ihr Mann nach Berlin versetzt wird. Die Zeit in Berlin gestaltet sich harmonisch - bis Innstetten durch Zufall Briefe findet, die Crampas während der Kessiner Zeit an Effi geschrieben hatte.

"Jehan de Mandeville", translated as "Sir John Mandeville", is the name claimed by the compiler of a singular book of supposed travels, written in Anglo-Norman French, and published between 1357 and 1371.By aid of translations into many other languages it acquired extraordinary popularity. Despite the extremely unreliable and often fantastical nature of the travels it describes, it was used as a work of reference — Christopher Columbus, for example, was heavily influenced by both this work and Marco Polo's earlier Il Milione (Adams 53).

"The Necessity of Atheism" is a treatise on atheism by the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, printed in 1811 by C. and W. Phillips in Worthing while Shelley was a student at University College, Oxford. A copy of the first version was sent as a short tract signed enigmatically to all heads of Oxford colleges at the University. At that time the content was so shocking to the authorities that he was "rusticated" (expelled from the University) for refusing to deny authorship, together with his friend and fellow student, Thomas Jefferson Hogg. A revised and expanded version was printed in 1813.Shelley's early profession of atheism in this tract not only led to his expulsion from Oxford but also branded him as a radical agitator and thinker, setting an early pattern of marginalisation and ostracism from the intellectual and political circles of his time. Though Shelley's poetry and prose output remained steady throughout his life, most publishers and journals declined to publish his work for fear of being arrested themselves for blasphemy or sedition. Shelley did not live to see success and influence in his time, although these reach down to the present day not only in literature, but in major movements in social and political thought.(Reference: Wikipedia.)