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The Diary of a Nobody is the fictitious record of fifteen months in the life of Charles Pooter, his family, friends and small circle of acquaintances. It first appeared, serialised in Punch magazine and might be regarded as the first ‘blog’; being a record of the simplicities and humiliations in the life of this mundane, but upright, city clerk, who had an incontestable faith that a record of his daily life was worth preserving for posterity. Set in about 1891 in Holloway, which was then a typical suburb of the impecuniously respectable kind, the authors contrive a record of the manners, customs and experiences of the late Victorian era. The bare record of facts, simply recorded, manages to be humorous rather than dull, no doubt because of the usual occupations of the authors. George Grossmith (1847-1912) was an actor and comedian. Weedon Grossmith (1852-1919) was an entertainer and illustrated the original work. (Summary by Martin Clifton)...

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Comedy

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Excerpt: Records of a Family of Engineers by Robert Louis Stevenson.

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Contents INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 4 CHAPTER I ? DOMESTIC ANNALS...........................................................................................11 CHAPTER II ? THE SERVICE OF THE NORTHERN LIGHTS I ......................................... 32 CHAPTER III ? THE BUILDING OF THE BELL ROCK ....................................................... 57...

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Excerpt: Mugby Junction by Charles Dickens.

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Excerpt: New Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson (1918 ed.).

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Contents PRAYER ........................................................................................................................................................................ 8 LO! IN THINE HONEST EYES I READ ..................................................................................................................... 9 THOUGH DEEP INDIFFERENCE SHOULD DROWSE............................................................................................ 9 MY HEART, WHEN FIRST THE BLACK-BIRD SINGS ......................................................................................... 10 I DREAMED OF FOREST ALLEYS FAIR ................................................................................................................ 10 ST. MARTIN?S SUMMER ......................................................................................................................................... 12 DEDICATION ............................................................................................................................................................. 12 THE OLD CHIMAERAS, OLD RECEIPTS .................................

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Excerpt: ?My dear John,? cried Lucy, with a very wise look indeed, ?it must and shall be so. As for Doughty Street, with our means, a house is out of the question. We must keep three servants, and Aunt Biggs says the taxes are one-and-twenty pounds a year.?...

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Excerpt: Book First; Introduction -- Childhood and School-time -- OH, there is blessing in this gentle breeze, That blows from the green fields and from the clouds And from the sky; it beats against my cheek, And seems half conscious of the joy it gives. O welcome messenger! O welcome friend! A captive greets thee, coming from a house Of bondage, from yon city?s walls set free, A prison where he hath been long immured. Now I am free, enfranchised and at large, May fix my habitation where I will. What dwelling shall receive me, in what vale Shall be my harbour, underneath what grove Shall I take up my home, and what sweet stream Shall with its murmurs lull me to my rest? The earth is all before me--with a heart Joyous, nor scared at its own liberty, I look about, and should the guide I chuse Be nothing better than a wandering cloud I cannot miss my way. I breathe again--Trances of thought and mountings of the mind Come fast upon me. It is shaken off, As by miraculous gift ?tis shaken off, That burthen of my own unnatural self, The heavy weight of many a weary day Not mine, and such as were not made for me. Long months of peace--if su...

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Table of Contents: Book First Introduction: Childhood and School-time, 1 -- Book Second Childhood and School-time (Continued), 20 -- Book Third Residence at Cambridge, 34 -- Book Fourth Summer Vacation, 53 -- Book Fifth Books, 67 -- Book Sixth Cambridge and the Alps, 85 -- Book Seventh Residence in London, 105 -- Book Eighth Retrospect: Love of Nature Leading to Love of Mankind, 126 -- Book Ninth Residence in France, 150 -- Book Tenth Residence in France and French Revolution, 176 -- Book Eleventh Imagination, How Impaired and Restored, 205 -- Book Twelfth Same Subject (Continued), 217 -- Book Thirteenth Conclusion, 228...

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The mask is the one which we all wear, even though unconsciously, to hide our thoughts and feelings. Alison Terry wore one, though she had never realized it until she faced a crisis in her life. Alison, a girl of sympathetic mood and action whose keen intelligence is overbalanced by the inexperience of innocence and a sheltered upbringing, goes to New York with her erratic husband, Phil Howland. She passes through various stages of disillusionment inevitably resulting from cheap boarding-house life, association with the undesirable friends of her husband, and the discovery that Phil himself is selfish and lacking in ambition, a man whose chief interests seem to lie in restaurant-life and gambling. Then comes tragedy in the loss of their little child in a horrible accident for which Phil is responsible. The splendid strength with which Alison forces him to forgive himself and the subsequent loneliness and suffering, lead to the establishment of a mutual bond of sympathy, understanding and encouragement which starts them on the road to their ultimate happiness. Miss Irwin has written a story that rings true, and its publishers recomme...

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Romance

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Excerpt: ?Let the boys have it if they like it,? said Mrs. Garrow, pleading to her only daughter on behalf of her two sons. ?Pray don?t, mamma,? said Elizabeth Garrow. ?It only means romping. To me all that is detestable, and I am sure it is not the sort of thing that Miss Holmes would like.? ?We always had it at Christmas when we were young.? ?But, mamma, the world is so changed.?...

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I am very glad that The Story of the Seven Who Were Hanged will be read in English. The misfortune of us all is that we know so little, even nothing, about one another—neither about the soul, nor the life, the sufferings, the habits, the inclinations, the aspirations of one another. Literature, which I have the honor to serve, is dear to me just because the noblest task it sets before itself is that of wiping out boundaries and distances. -- Leonid Andreyev, in a letter to Herman Bernstein...

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Fiction

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Excerpt: About thirty years ago Miss Maria Ward, of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in the county of Northampton, and to be thereby raised to the rank of a baronet?s lady, with all the comforts and consequences of an handsome house and large income. All Huntingdon exclaimed on the greatness of the match, and her uncle, the lawyer, himself, allowed her to be at least three thousand pounds short of any equitable claim to it....

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Excerpt: No Thoroughfare by Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins.

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White Nights and Other Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky is a compilation published in 1918 by The MacMillan Company, NY (USA) and Heinemann (UK). It contains these 7 works: - White Nights - Notes from the Underground - A Faint Heart - A Christmas Tree and a Wedding - Polzunkov - A Little Hero - Mr. Prohartchin...

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Short stories

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Excerpt: The year 1866 was signalised by a remarkable inci dent, a mysterious and puzzling phenomenon, which doubtless no one has yet forgotten. Not to mention rumours which agitated the maritime population and excited the public mind, even in the interior of continents, seafaring men were particularly excited. Merchants, common sailors, captains of vessels, skippers, both of Europe and America, naval officers of all countries, and the Governments of several States on the two continents, were deeply interested in the matter....

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Excerpt: El Verdugo by Honore de Balzac, translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley.

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In this era of the time cycle, the matchless Gnani Purush absolutely revered Dadashri has manifested in Bharat Kshetra. The speech of the Gnani Purush is beneficial for the entire world; it liberates from all kinds of suffering. His speech purges the disease. The uniqueness of his speech is that it arises based on the worthiness of the other person. His speech flowed in such a way that the other person’s mind became content, and the rest of the work would keep happening through his spiritual powers (sidhhi). If there is awe (ahobhaav) towards the statements of the Gnani Purush, then one starts becoming the absolute Self (Paramatma)! If just a single word of the Gnani Purush is grasped and taken to heart, then that word can lead all the way to liberation;with such tremendous power of words,expounding upon both the real and relative,Dadashri’s speech has flowed. ...

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‘Arati’ in the Hindu tradition, is considered to be an important medium for the devotional worship of God. Here, in the Akram path, after the Self has awakened, what is the purpose, importance and benefit of doing arati? Dadashri says, Trimantra-Vidhi-Arati are devotional praises of the awakened One.It is a way of respecting those that are jagrut, showing love for them, and pleasing them. Bhakti of the jagrut is bhakti of the manifest awakened Oneand it is essential in attaining moksha. The aratis that are done here, of Lord Shri Simandhar Swami and Dada Bhagwan, are of the manifest absolute Self only. Through this arati, the mind is focused, artadhyan and raudradhyan are halted, worries dissipate forever, and the whole day remains peaceful. Through this arati there are no conflicts in the home, the environment within the home is that of purity and bliss, and everyone including the children obtain good values. ...

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In fondo, tutti crediamo nel grande amore, quell’unione che cambia la vita per sempre e che la trasforma in un sogno di fedeltà, rispetto, gioco e complicità. E’ come se fossimo intimamente programmati a cercare nel partner qualcosa di più che una semplice occasione riproduttiva. La Natura ci ha dotati di tutti gli strumenti necessari per procedere lungo il ciclo della riproduzione della Vita, ma invece di fornirci anche gli strumenti per un solido rapporto di coppia, ci ha dotati soltanto del sogno e dell’aspirazione a realizzarlo. Realizzare questo sogno non è compito della Natura, ma è compito delle Persone che desiderano imparare ad amarsi, amare ed essere amate....

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My improbable life. Polio, disability, crime, academic excellence, university. California 1968, LSD, Mexico, Federal police India, study music,, study meditation, 10 years of travel England, care worker, Science teacher, meditation host, wife and daughter, death but not yet!...

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Lunch break, and Mr. McDonalds’s Physics lab is almost full, mostly girls, an’ definitely no teachers. I’m standing behind the front bench, a fish-tank on the right, my trusty assistant John on the left. Grabbing a large goldfish from the tank, I stuff it in my mouth, and swallow. It’s wiggly and a somewhat gritty, but down she goes. Just takes concentration, and a little practice. The girls start screaming. A few break for the door. When things settle down we all leave. Seems nobody’s too keen on lunch. The next day, McDonald puts a sign on the fish-tank. Please Do Not Eat The Fish Just a minute. What really happened here? Nope, there was no slight of hand. The fish truly did go down, albeit with difficulty. However, we’d prepared carefully. Several days before I had a test run, ate a few, and knew I could do it. John went ‘round the school taking bets. The money was more or less an admission fee. I wonder why so many girls, and did they get their 50 cents worth? Gotta smile just thinking about it. Bloody outrageous! By the way, why didn’t someone confront me? The story must have shot ‘round the school. Probably too bizarre. Anyway...

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Difficult Journey, Selling Blood, Infested with Lice Life model in Germany Going Straight Working with disadvantaged children Ten years teaching Science in rough Bristol comprehensive Marriage, one daughter Twenty-six years hosting Meditation Group in Bristol Death not yet confirmed...

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The story told in Frances Hodgson Burnett’s classic novel, A Little Princess , was first written as a serialized novella, Sara Crewe, or What Happened at Miss Minchin’s , and published in St. Nicholas Magazine , in 1888. It tells the story of Sara Crewe, an intelligent, wealthy, young girl at Miss Minchin’s Select Seminary for Young Ladies. Sara’s fortunes change when her father dies, and she goes from being a show pupil and parlor boarder at the school to a drudge, but eventually she finds happiness and a home again. (Summary by Treesh)...

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Children

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The Little Duke by Charlotte M. Yonge is historical fiction based on the the life of Richard, Duke of Normandy. He assumes the title of Duke at only 8 years of age, after his father is murdered. The story first appeared in her magazine, The Monthly Packet, as a serial. (summary by Laura Caldwell)...

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Historical Fiction, Children