Global Last ebooks – Rows

Dinesen, Isak – Siete cuentos góticos –
Language: Spanish, Short Stories – Format: ePub

Este libro de Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen) se compone de siete cuentos con historias fascinantes que componen uno de sus mejores libros. Es una joya de la literatura del siglo XX con relatos en ambientes aristocráticos, góticos, (More) románticos. La narración es inmejorable y parece ausentarse de la realidad. Se muestra escapista, intrincada pero accesible. Posee una penetrante hondura psicológica y una maravillosa captación atmosférica. Son textos que emanan gran belleza, bebiendo su prosa sutil y exquisita tanto de fuentes literarias clásicas (`Las mil y una noches`) como de los cuentos de hadas o de las historias tradicionales nórdicas, para regalarnos gemas como Las carreteras de Pisa, El mono o El poeta. El simbolismo, la fabulación y la evocación melancólica ofertan unos arrebatadores pasajes de fenomenal literatura, compleja, delicada y elegante, que hará las delicias de los amantes de textos de Henry James o Edgar Allan Poe.

Trollope, Anthony – The Prime Minister –
Language: English, Novel – Format: ePub

Plantaganet Palliser, Prime Minister of England – a man of power and prestige, with all the breeding and inherited wealth that goes with it – is appalled at the inexorable rise of Ferdinand Lopez. An exotic impostor, seemingly (More) from nowhere, Lopez has society at his feet, while well-connected ladies vie with each other to exert influence on his behalf – even Palliser’s own wife, Lady Glencora. But when the interloper makes a socially advantageous marriage, Palliser must decide whether to stand by his wife’s support for Lopez in a by-election or leave him to face exposure as a fortune-hunting adventurer. A novel of social, sexual and domestic politics, The Prime Minister raises one of the most enduring questions in government – whether a morally scrupulous gentleman can make an effective leader.

Northup, Salomon – Twelve Years as Slave –
Language: English, History & Biography – Format: ePub

Twelve Years a Slave, sub-title: Narrative of Solomon Northup, citizen of New-York, kidnapped in Washington city in 1841, and rescued in 1853, from a cotton plantation near the Red River in Louisiana, is a memoir by Solomon (More) Northup as told to and edited by David Wilson. It is a slave narrative of a black man who was born free in New York state but kidnapped in Washington, D.C., sold into slavery, and kept in bondage for 12 years in Louisiana. He provided details of slave markets in Washington, D.C. and New Orleans, as well as describing at length cotton and sugar cultivation on major plantations in Louisiana.

Crane, Stephen – Maggie, a Girl of the Street –
Language: English, Novel – Format: ePub

Originally published in 1893, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets tells the story of the impoverished Johnson family and their experiences living in the squalid Bowery neighborhood of New York City. When the eldest of the Johnson (More) children, Maggie, commits an act deemed disgraceful by society, her life is tragically altered by the aftermath of the community’s rejection.
Considered risqué at the time of its publication due to its strong, realistic themes, Maggie is now recognized as one of Stephen Crane’s best works, and is an example of one of the first instances of naturalism in American fiction.

Gogol, Nikolai – I racconti degli Arabeschi –
Language: Italian, Short Stories – Format: ePub

Un giovanotto ventiseienne non bello, bussino di statura, dalla passione maniacale per la cura dell’aspetto e dell’abbigliamento, con una grande opinione di sé, vezzeggiato e protetto da letterati famosi quali Puškin e Žukovskij, (More) molto ambizioso e fiducioso nella gloria prossima ventura: questo era Nikolàj Vasìl’evič Gogol’ nel 1835. Ciononostante, il 7 ottobre quello stesso giovanotto scriveva a Puškin: «No, i miei Arabeschi e Mirgorod non vanno proprio. Lo sa il diavolo che vuol dire! I librai sono una razza tale che senza nessun rimorso di coscienza li si potrebbe impiccare al primo albero!»1. Con queste parole Gogol’ comunicava al più celebre collega il suo sconcerto per lo scarso successo di vendite delle due raccolte, uscite nel corso dell’anno a distanza di qualche mese l’una dall’altra. La sua inquietudine era motivata, oltre che dall’orgoglio ferito di autore, anche dal fatto che proprio in quei mesi egli stava decidendo la svolta da dare alla propria vita: carriera letteraria o universitaria?

Hope, Anthony – El prisionero de Zenda –
Language: Spanish, Novel – Format: ePub

Cuenta cómo Rudolf Rassendyll, un joven inglés pelirrojo y con una llamativa nariz puntiaguda, rasgos que se asemejan curiosamente a los de algunos miembros de la familia real de Ruritaria, va a este reino con el propósito de ver (More) la coronación del nuevo Rey, su primo lejano. Pero cuando el Rey es capturado por su traidor hermano durante la víspera de su coronación, únicamente Rudolf puede rescatarlo. Por ser físicamente, incluso en la voz, exactamente igual al Rey, los partidarios de éste lo hacen pasar por tal ante el pueblo, ya que el Rey, por un descuido, no puede llegar a tiempo para la coronación. Pero Rudolf no pretende usurpar el trono, sino tan sólo cumplir la misión de salvar al Rey. Todo sucede de tal modo que sólo un pequeño grupo de personas llega a conocer la sustitución.
Arrojado a una serie de aventuras que van más allá de sus más alocados sueños, Rudolf lucha para vencer a sus enemigos, y a la vez se enamora de la hermosísima princesa Flavia, quien está prometida con el Rey. Finalmente Rudolf consigue liberar a su primo, el verdadero rey, pero no consigue quedarse con la princesa pese al amor que los dos sienten, ya que Rudolf Rassendyll decide volver a Inglaterra, porque tiene la conciencia de que su misión ha sido cumplida y la princesa no le pertenece.

Poe, Edgar Allan – The Murders in the Rue Morge –
Language: English, Short Stories – Format: ePub

“The Murders in the Rue Morgue” is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe published in Graham’s Magazine in 1841. It has been claimed as the first detective story; Poe referred to it as one of his “tales of ratiocination”. Similar works (More) predate Poe’s stories, including Das Fräulein von Scuderi (1819) by E.T.A. Hoffmann and Zadig (1748) by Voltaire.
C. Auguste Dupin is a man in Paris who solves the mysterious brutal murder of two women. Numerous witnesses heard a suspect, though no one agrees on what language was spoken. At the murder scene, Dupin finds a hair that does not appear to be human.
As the first true detective in fiction, the Dupin character established many literary devices which would be used in future fictional detectives including Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. Many later characters, for example, follow Poe’s model of the brilliant detective, his personal friend who serves as narrator, and the final revelation being presented before the reasoning that leads up to it. Dupin himself reappears in “The Mystery of Marie Roget” and “The Purloined Letter”.

Wharton, Edith – The Age of Innocence –
Language: English, Novel – Format: ePub

The Age of Innocence is Edith Wharton’s 12th novel, initially serialized in four parts in the Pictorial Review magazine in 1920, and later released by D. Appleton and Company as a book in New York and in London. It won the 1921 (More) Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, making it the first novel written by a woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and thus Wharton the first woman to win the prize. The story is set in upper-class New York City in the 1870s.
In an era before the advent of electric lights, telephones or motor vehicles, there exists a small cluster of aristocratic “old revolutionary stock” families that rule New York’s social life. Under the rules of this society, “being things” is better than “doing things” and reputation and outward appearances come at the exclusion of everything else. In this Gilded Age, when America’s expansion and increased industrialism produce a group of newly wealthy robber barons and financiers, the patient, time-honored values of the old ruling class, and century, are giving way to the expediencies of the new. Caught at this cusp, a triangle of lovers, who must choose between the expectations of family and society, and the deepest yearnings of the heart.

Tolstoi, Lev – Guerra e pace –
Language: Italian, Novel – Format: ePub

Guerra e pace è un romanzo storico di Lev Tolstoj.
Il romanzo ha per sfondo storico gli eventi che avevano dominato i primi due decenni del secolo XIX, determinando la penetrazione in Russia delle idee della Rivoluzione francese. (More) Si intrecciano le vicende di due famiglie russe: i Bolkonskij e i Rostov, unificate da un filo conduttore rappresentato da un personaggio, il conte Pierre Bezuchov, nel quale è evidente la personificazione dell’alter ego dell’autore. Attraverso la grandiosa rappresentazione di tali vicende, dosata da un realismo che stabilisce un miracoloso equilibrio tra il mondo psicologico dei personaggi e quello esteriore dei fatti della natura, Tolstoj prosegue la sua ricerca delle ragioni e dei fini della vita, ricerca serena, profonda e soprattutto vera.

Scott, Walter – Ivanhoe –
Language: Italian, Novel – Format: ePub

Ivanhoe è un romanzo storico di Sir Walter Scott ambientato in Inghilterra intorno al 1194. Il romanzo è considerato dagli studiosi come il primo vero esempio di genere storico.
Le vicende narrate si proiettano sullo sfondo della (More) contrapposizione tra Sassoni e Normanni, vinti e vincitori separati anche dall’uso di due lingue diverse, destinate solo in seguito a fondersi nell’inglese. Wilfred di Ivanhoe, il protagonista, è un sassone, figlio di Cedric, un acceso patriota, al limite del fanatismo, che ha giurato di non fare più di tre passi incontro ad un ospite che si presentasse alla sua porta, a meno che non si trattasse di un discendente dei re sassoni di un tempo.