Interactive Media: 1158 books

Highly fantasised origin stories, especially for differences among animals, and accounts of how various phenomena came about. A forerunner of these stories is Kipling's 'How Fear Came,' included in 'The Second Jungle Book'.

In no department of zoological science, indeed, are we quite so much in the dark as with regard to the deep-sea cephalopods. A mere accident, for instance, it was that led to the Prince of Monaco's discovery of nearly a dozen new forms in the summer of 1895, a discovery in which the before-mentioned tentacle was included.

The Sorrows of Young Werther turned Goethe, previously an unknown author, into a celebrated one almost overnight. Napoleon Bonaparte considered it one of the great works of European literature, having written a Goethe-inspired soliloquy in his youth and carried Werther with him on his campaigning to...

A collection of poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe reflecting his Italian Journey and celebrating the sensuality and vigour of Italian and Classical culture. Written mainly after his return to Weimar, they contain poems on many sexual themes serving as a loving tribute to Goethe's companion, Christiane Vulpius.

Beloved by the gods for his wisdom, the demigod Tantalus was once invited to their fellowship. Becoming boisterous whilst celebrating with them, he began to boast, and he stole the gods' nectar and ambrosia, their food of immortality. When the gods came to see Tantalus in turn, he tested their omniscience...

The Sorrows of Young Werther turned Goethe, previously an unknown author, into a celebrated one almost overnight. Napoleon Bonaparte considered it one of the great works of European literature, having written a Goethe-inspired soliloquy in his youth and carried Werther with him on his campaigning to...

The city of Haarlem, Netherlands, has set a huge prize to the person who can grow a black tulip, sparking competition between the country's best gardeners to win the money, honour and fame. Only the city's oldest citizens remember the Tulip Mania thirty years prior, and the citizens throw themselves...

The story of two conjoined brothers who, though separated at birth, can still feel each other's pains.

Lawrence's first novel is set in the Eastwood area of his youth and is narrated in the first person by a character named Cyril Beardsall. A misanthropic gamekeeper makes an appearance, in some ways the prototype of Mellors in Lawrence's last novel, Lady Chatterley's Lover.

Our narrator sees life in a different way. His long philosophical passages about life, death, love, art, friendship, fate, the city reveal a carefully crafted portrait of a sensitive young man searching for his true calling. We follow his quest for meaning, purpose, and freedom from both ordinariness and disappointment.

Jim, a young British seaman, joins his captain and other crew members in abandoning their sinking ship full of passengers. A few days later, they are picked up, and the passengers are later also saved. The reprehensible actions of the crew are exposed. The other participants evade the judicial court of inquiry, leaving Jim to the court alone.

In this symbolic story we follow Charles Marlow as he recounts his adventure to a group of men aboard a ship anchored in the Thames Estuary from dusk through to late night. The passage of time and the darkening sky during Marlow's narrative parallels the atmosphere of the events he narrates.

Nostromo is set in the South American country of Costaguana with a long history of tyranny, revolution and warfare. Costaguana has recently experienced a period of stability under the dictator Ribiera. Charles Gould is a native Costaguanero of English descent who owns an important silver-mining concession....

A young man is taking a sea captaincy which brings with it a succession of crises: his sea is becalmed, the crew laid low by fever, and his deranged first mate is convinced that the ship is haunted by the malignant spirit of a previous captain.