Классика - скачать книги или читать онлайн. Страница 172

A classic tale from Doris Lessing, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, of a family torn apart by the arrival of Ben, their feral fifth child.‘Listening to the laughter, the sounds of children playing, Harriet and David would reach for each other’s hand, and smile, and breathe happiness.’Four children, a beautiful old house, the love of relatives and friends – Harriet and David Lovatt’s life is a glorious hymn to domestic bliss and old-fashioned family values. But when their fifth child is born, a sickly and implacable shadow is cast over this tender idyll. Large and ugly, violent and uncontrollable, the infant Ben, ‘full of cold dislike’, tears at Harriet’s breast. Struggling to care for her new-born child, faced with a darkness and a strange defiance she has never known before, Harriet is deeply afraid of what, exactly, she has brought into the world …

English fantasy at its best, The Dragon-Charmer follows the exciting debut from Jan Siegel, Prospero’s Children.Twelve years have passed since the traumatic events that took place in Prospero’s Children, and it seems that Fern Capel has almost succeeded in putting aside the memory of that magical, terrifying summer, when she fought a witch, fell in love, and made a deal with a demon. More tellingly, she has denied the ancient heritage that will allow her mastery of the Gift.But the past is about to catch up with her. Fern is soon to marry the academic and media personality, Marcus Greig – some twenty years her senior – and he has decided that they should hold the wedding at the Capels’ summer home in Yarrowdale. When Fern returns to the house with her best friend, Gaynor, ancient forces are awoken once more, and Fern will find that she is once again forced to choose between love and destiny.The Dragon-Charmer continues the lyrical, richly atmospheric and enthralling tale begun in Prospero’s Children. Spellbinding in its depiction of places both familiar and strange, of characters both magical and sinister, it is classic English fantasy at its finest.

First published in 1984, under a pseudonym, as ‘The Diary of a Good Neighbour’ and ‘If the Old Could …’, and now published as ‘The Diaries of Jane Somers’, this is in many ways classic Lessing.The diaries introduce us to Jane, an intelligent and beautiful magazine editor concerned with success, clothes and comfort. But her real inadequacy is highlighted when first her husband, then her mother, die from cancer and Jane feels strangely removed. In an attempt to fill this void, she befriends ninety-something Maudie, whose poverty and squalor contrast so radically with the glamour and luxury of the magazine world. The two gradually come to depend on each other – Maudie delighting Jane with tales of London in the 1920s and Jane trying to care for the rapidly deteriorating old woman.‘The Diary of Jane Somers’ contrasts the helplessness of the elderly with that of the young as Jane is forced to care for her nineteen-year-old drop-out niece Kate who is struggling with an emotional breakdown. Jane realises that she understands young people as little as she so recently did the old.

Volume one takes us from his very first story – A Book in Time, published in The Bookseller in 1954 and never seen again until now – right up to his establishment as a major new voice in science fiction by the end of that decade.As he enters his 89th year this is a long-overdue retrospective of the career of one of the most acclaimed science fiction writers of all time, and a true literary legend.This ebook was updated on 6 October 2014 to include three stories missing from the earlier version.

A sharp, funny and beautifully observed satire about the disturbing influence of the Christian right from one of America’s most cherished authors.Ruth Ramsey went too far. She hadn't noticed the changing climate. A Sex Ed teacher «championing» oral sex!? Not now, not in this America…Cherished by her high school pupils as someone who'd tell it straight, after one innocent classroom indiscretion Ruth suddenly finds the curriculum she has taught for nigh on 15 years worryingly out of vogue. It seems these days the kids no longer need teaching; they need telling. As the scandal flares up and attracts the unwelcome eye of the local evangelical Church, the appeasing high-school principal forces her into advocating a pro-abstinence agenda in the classroom that is at odds with all conventional wisdom. Jaded though she is by her recent divorce and fruitless search for a new love, she is not yet ready to kneel at the altar of sophistry – if common sense is to be sacrificed to Puritanism, she won't let it pass without a fight.On the other hand, it is a syllabus change which Tim Mason, recovering addict, local football coach and recent convert to the same plaintiff Church, should consider a victory. But his new found faith is constantly put to the test by the temptations of his former wayward life, forcing him into grand, defensive statements of purpose. When he makes the gesture of leading his football team in prayer after a hard-fought victory, in which Ruth's daughter Maggie starred, he manages not only to incur the wrathful attention of her mother, but to cement his position as the star evangelist of his church – an office he is none too sure about occupying.‘The Abstinence Teacher’ is a cutting portrayal of modern America and the influence of the Christian right from the acclaimed, bestselling author of ‘Election’ and ‘Little Children’. Scathing, witty and brilliantly observed, it will doubtless confirm Perrotta's standing as one of the finest chroniclers of American life.

Clever Italian art-history crime series featuring scholar and dealer Jonathon Argyll, from the author of the best-selling masterpiece ‘An Instance of the Fingerpost’.The hardest part of being an art dealer is having to sell your beloved works. For Jonathan Argyll, the pain is soothed when an American billionaire agrees to pay a vast sum for a relatively minor piece.Arriving in the Californian sunshine eager to collect his cheque, Jonathan bumps into one of his less scrupulous colleagues, and discovers he is not the American's only seller. A bust of Pope Pius V is being smuggled out of Italy, and trouble is following in its wake.Within hours, Jonathan's billionaire is dead and both the smuggler and his bust have gone missing. Thinking things can't get any worse, Jonathan calls for the help of the Italian Art Theft Squad – and instead finds himself the killer's next target…

The lost final novel by the master of the epic swashbuckling adventure stories: The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers.The last cavalier is Count de Sainte-Hermine, Hector, whose elder brothers and father have fought and died for the Royalist cause during the French Revolution. For three years Hector has been languishing in prison when, in 1804, on the eve of Napoleon's coronation as emperor of France he learns what is to be his due. Stripped of his title, denied the honour of his family name as well as the hand of the woman he loves, he is freed by Napoleon on the condition that he serves in the imperial forces. So it is in profound despair that Hector embarks on a succession of daring escapades as he courts death fearlessly. Yet again and again he wins glory – against brigands, bandits, the British, boa constrictors, sharks, tigers and crocodiles. At the Battle of Trafalgar it is his bullet that fells Nelson. But however far his adventures take him – from Burma's jungles to the wilds of Ireland – his destiny lies always with his father's enemy, Napoleon.

The ultimate story of escape to riches, revenge and redemption by ‘the Napoleon of storytellers’.Falsely accused of treason, Edmond Dantes is arrested on his wedding night and imprisoned in the grim island fortress of Chateau d’If. After staging a dramatic escape he sets out to discover the fabuouls treasure on the island of Monte Cristo and uses it to exact revenge on those responsible for his incarceration.The sensational narrative of intrigue, betrayal, escape and triumphant revenge moves at a cracking pace. Dumas’ novels present a powerful conflict between good and evil embodied in an epic saga of rich diversity that is complicated by the hero’s ultimate doscomfort with the hubristic implications of his own actions. A novel of enormous tension and excitement, The Count of Monte Cristo is also a tale of obsession and revenge, with Dantes, believing himself to be an Angel of Providence, pursuing his vengeance to the bitter end before realising that he himself is a victim of fate.

A classic Agatha Christie short story, available individually for the first time as an ebook.When civilian life proves too dull for Major Wilbrahams he contacts Parker Pyne in order to escape his boredom. Pyne’s assistant arranges a chance meeting with the beautiful Freda Clegg and the two join forces, but on leaving for Africa they encounter more than they had bargained for.

A classic Agatha Christie short story, available individually for the first time as an ebook.When a game with a Ouija board spells out the name QUIN and the name of a place, Mr Satterthwaite’s instincts tell him that a murder is about to take place and that he should drop everything to investigate…

A scintillating collection of stories from the master of science fiction.Since the beginning of his career in the 1940s, Ray Bradbury has become synonymous with great science fiction from the pulp comic books of his early work to his adaptations for television, stage and screen and most notably for his masterpiece, ‘Fahrenheit 451’.Bradbury has done a rare thing; to capture both the popular and literary imagination. Within these pages the reader will be transported to foreign and extraordinary worlds, become transfixed by visions of the past, present, and future and be left humbled and inspired by one of most absorbing and engaging writers of this century, and the last.This is the second of two volumes offering the very best of his short stories including 'The Garbage Collector', ‘The Machineries of Joy’ and ‘The Toynbee Convector’.

When a man plunges down a cliff, two adventurous young friends decide to find his killer…While playing an erratic round of golf, Bobby Jones slices his ball over the edge of a cliff. His ball is lost, but on the rocks below he finds the crumpled body of a dying man. With his final breath the man opens his eyes and says, ‘Why didn’t they ask Evans?’Haunted by these words, Bobby and his vivacious companion, Frankie, set out to solve a mystery that will bring them into mortal danger…