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A House to Let is a short story originally published in 1858 in the Christmas edition of Dickens' Household Words magazine. Each of the contributors wrote a chapter (stories within a story, or, in the case of Adelaide Anne Procter, poetry) and the story was edited by Dickens, who also wrote the first and last chapters with Wilkie Collins. The plot concerns an elderly woman, Sophonisba, who notices signs of life in a supposedly empty dilapidated house (the eponymous "House to Let") opposite her own, and employs the efforts of an elderly admirer, Jabez Jarber, and her servant, Trottle, to ...

Hard Times, the shortest of Dickens's full-length novels, is set in the fictitious Victorian-England city of Coketown, where facts are the rule and all fancy is to be stamped out. The plot centers around the men and women of the town, some of whom are beaten down by the city's utilitarian ideals and some of whom manage to rise above it. The novel was written in 1854 and was a scathing attack on then-current ideas of utilitarianism, which Dickens viewed as a selfish and at times oppressive philosophy. Perhaps the novel's best features are its clever, ironic narration and the larger-than-life ...

Before he started writing novels, Charles Dickens tried his hand at theater. The Village Coquettes is a two act musical. Sadly the music was lost long ago so this will be a spoken version. This play completes the recording of the relatively unknown plays of Dickens in celebration of his 200th birthday! (Summary by ToddHW)CastSquire Norton: ToddThe Honorable Sparkins Flam: Elizabeth KlettOld Benson: Alan MapstoneMr. Martin Stokes: Brett W. DowneyGeorge Edmunds: engineerdstYoung Benson: Charlotte DuckettJohn Maddox: John TrevithickLucy Benson: Amanda FridayRose: Eden Rea-HedrickServant: ...

Before he became a novelist, Dickens wrote several successful plays. This one from 1836, his first, he called, “A Comic Burletta in Two Acts”. Characters arrive at a village inn called “The St. James Arms” and much confusion ensues. (Summary by ToddHW)Cast:MR. OWEN OVERTON: NoelBadrianJOHN JOHNSON: Nathanial W.C. HigginsTHE STRANGE GENTLEMAN: David GoldfarbCHARLES TOMKINS: Algy PugTOM SPARKS: John TrevithickJOHN, TOM, WILL - Waiters 1, 2, 3: ToddHWJULIA DOBBS: Tiffany Halla ColonnaFANNY WILSON: Amanda FridayMARY WILSON: DuanMRS. NOAKES: Christine NendzaCHAMBERMAID: Eden ...

Cuento largo o novela breve de intriga y suspense escrita por Charles Dickens. El inicio es ya prometedor: No hace al caso referir la manera cómo supe lo que voy a contar aquí ni quién me lo refirió ... Baste saber que lo ahorcaron y que su historia es como sigue... (Summary by Epachuko)

Charles Dickens' 1854 novel opens with the philosophy of education espoused by the eminently practical Mr. Gradgrind, who prizes "facts and calculations." He raises his children, most prominently Louisa and Tom, to eschew imagination and emotion and embrace order and reason. The results are disastrous: Louisa marries out of duty to the supposed self-made man Mr. Bounderby, while Tom grows up dissolute, ultimately commits theft and blames it on an unfortunate laborer, Stephen Blackpool. Set in the fictional Coketown, a mill town in the north of England, Dickens' novel satirizes capitalism, ...

“Who ever lov’d, that lov’d not at first sight?”The wonder-decade of the English drama was suddenly interrupted in 1592, when serious plague broke out in London, forcing the closure of the theatres. Leading playwrights took to penning languorously erotic poetry to make ends meet: so we have Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece - and Marlowe’s blazing masterpiece, Hero and Leander.Marlowe’s poem became more notorious than either of Shakespeare’s, due not only to its homophile provocations but also to the scandal attaching to every aspect of Marlowe’s brief life, violently ended...

Here are some classic, short Christmas stories from Charles Dickens, who, one may easily argue, was the greatest Christmas storyteller to date. In this season, may we do as Dickens' asked: "Welcome, everything! Welcome, alike what has been, and what never was, and what we hope may be, to your shelter underneath the holly, to your places round the Christmas fire, where what is sits open-hearted!" Happy Holidays! - Summary by jvanstan

The hilarious diary of a young man's recruitment into, and service in a navy, which, though well equipped and disciplined, remains woefully ill prepared for his arrival and dubious contribution. (Introduction by Nigel Boydell)

"Brazilian Tales" is a collection of six short stories selected by Isaac Goldberg as best representative of the Brazilian Literature of his period - the end of the 19th century. His comprehensive preface aims at familiarizing the reader with a literature that was - and still is - virtually unknown outside the boundaries of its own land, and the pieces chosen by Goldberg to be translated belong to writers that reached popularity and appreciation while still alive. This "pioneer volume", as the translator himself puts it, still keeps its charm and interest as a way of offering to the English ...

Humorist Bill Nye, in his brief 46 years, served as justice of the peace, newspaperman, miner, and postmaster in the rough town of Laramie, Wyoming. This 1901 edition, published after his death, includes a Biographical tribute to Nye, quoting his dear friend, Hoosier poet James Whitcomb Riley: "He was unselfish wholly, and I am broken-hearted, recalling the always patient strength and gentleness of this true man, the unfailing hope and cheer and faith of his child-heart, his noble and heroic life, and pure devotion to his home, his deep affections, constant dreams, plans and realizations." ...

When orphaned Oliver Twist asks for more food, the workhouse board are horrified and immediately pack him off to work for an undertaker, who treats him badly. Oliver runs away and finds himself in the streets of London, where he meets the Artful Dodger and is lured into a gang of young pickpockets, led by the evil Fagin. Even amidst his horrible surroundings, Oliver escapes and finds his way into a loving home. But Fagin's gang are determined to steal him back to their life of crime, coming closer and closer...Dickens' classic tale of an orphan boy who has adventures with pickpockets and ...

Mattia Pascal grew up in a small Italian town not dissimilar to that of the author's upbringing. Pascal leads a somewhat feckless boyhood, allowing opportunities to slip away from him and living on the accumulated but dwindling resources of his family. As a young man he finds himself duped into poverty and an unhappy marriage made sadder by grief. He escapes on an adventure at Monte Carlo where he submits himself to Fortune which provides him with an extraordinary erasure of his old identity and the funds to maintain a new one. With the passage of a couple of years however he becomes horribly ...

Asgard Stories - Tales from Norse Mythology. To all our Children who have loved the hearing of these Asgard Stories. This little volume is the outcome of several years experience in telling to classes of children the classic myths, both southern and northern. "A broad simplicity, so very different from the light gracefulness of the old Greek paganism, distinguishes this Norse system. It is thought, the genuine thought of deep, rude, earnest minds, fairly opened to the things about them, - a face-to-face and heart-to-heart inspection of things, - the first characteristic of all good thought in ...

La entrada de Alicia en el panorama de las letras castellanas se produjo, en realidad, el 15 de noviembre de 1914 con la primera entrega de una versión que vio la luz en las páginas de una revista juvenil editada en Madrid, Los Muchachos. Semanario con regalos. (El curioso subtítulo de la publicación se explica porque incluía cupones para unos sorteos de juguetes y libros entre los lectores). La serie se prolongó en ocho entregas dominicales hasta el 5 de enero de 1915. El texto abreviado parece conceder más importancia a los capítulos iniciales y finales, así como al de la Merienda ...

Luís Vaz de Camões (c. 1524 — 10 de Junho de 1580) é frequentemente considerado como o maior poeta de língua portuguesa e dos maiores da Humanidade. O seu gênio é comparável ao de Virgílio, Dante, Cervantes ou Shakespeare. A obra lírica de Camões foi publicada como "Rimas", não havendo acordo entre os diferentes editores quanto ao número de sonetos escritos pelo poeta e quanto à autoria de algumas das peças líricas. Alguns dos seus sonetos, como o conhecido "Amor é fogo que arde sem se ver", pela ousada utilização dos paradoxos, prenunciam o Barroco. Nesta coleção, ...

This is a very impressive collection of some of the best sonnets from the pen of the incomparable William Wordsworth. The appreciation that Wordsworth had for the beauty of his surroundings is vibrantly exhibited in these selections, as are his feelings on love, friendship, society, conflict, history, the supernatural and indeed the art of poetry itself. And what better vehicle for the elegant articulation of a master poet's thoughts and inspirations than the sonnet, an art form ideally suited to assertion, verbalization and contemplation.In these sonnets, we witness Wordsworth's poetic ...

When Diana Henders' father dies and leaves her responsible for running a cattle ranch in Arizona, along with a gold mine on the property, she is left on her own to sort things out between two love interests, Hal Colby and Bull, both of whom are eligible foremen for the ranch. Then, trouble arrives in the form of her cousin Lillian and her lawyer, Corson, from New York. Lillian claims to own half the ranch, and wants to sell out to the Wainrights; a bullying father and son who own land nearby. Meanwhile, the shipments from the gold mine keep being robbed by the notorious "Black Coyote". The ...

This is a 50-poem sequence of 16-line sonnets, divided into 10 sections. It has been called "a novelette in sonnet form". The author, George Meredith, pours his heart out in raw anguish, pain, and heartbreak, as he recalls the moments, and sometimes intimate memories of his wife who deserted him for another lover. (Summary by Laur)

The Holy Sonnets—also known as the Divine Meditations or Divine Sonnets—are a series of nineteen poems by the English poet John Donne (1572–1631). The sonnets were first published in 1633—two years after Donne's death. Summary from Wikipedia.