Résultats lu par "Gunnar Cauthery" dans Toutes les catégories

Faust is one of the pillars of Western literature. This classic drama presents the story of the scholar Faust, tempted into a contract with the Devil in return for a life of sensuality and power. Enjoyment rules, until Faust’s emotions are stirred by a meeting with Gretchen, and the tragic outcome brings Part 1 to an end. Part 2, written much later in Goethe’s life, places his eponymous hero in a variety of unexpected circumstances, causing him to reflect on humanity and its attitudes to life and death.

The Magician tells the story of Thomas Mann, whose life was filled with great acclaim and contradiction. He would find himself on the wrong side of history in the First World War, cheerleading the German army, but have a clear vision of the future in the second, anticipating the horrors of Nazism. He would have six children and keep his homosexuality hidden; he was a man forever connected to his family and yet bore witness to the ravages of suicide.

We begin with the footsteps of a family walking along a beach 950,000 years ago. From here, Montefiore takes us on an exhilarating epic journey through the families that have shaped our world: the Caesars, Medicis and Incas, Ottomans and Mughals, Bonapartes, Habsburgs and Zulus, Rothschilds, Rockefellers and Krupps, Churchills, Kennedys, Castros, Nehrus, Pahlavis and Kenyattas, Saudis, Kims and Assads.

The Decameron is one of the greatest literary works of the Middle Ages. Ten young people have fled the terrible effects of the Black Death in Florence and, in an idyllic setting, tell a series of brilliant stories, by turns humorous, bawdy, tragic and provocative. This celebration of physical and sexual vitality is Boccaccio's answer to the sublime other-worldliness of Dante's Divine Comedy.

Markus Torgeby was just 20 years old when he headed off into the remote Swedish forest to live as a recluse and dedicate himself to his one true passion: running.... He lived in a tent in the wilderness, braving the harsh Swedish winters - for four years. This is his story. A best seller in Sweden, the audiobook is a powerful exploration of running and personal well-being.

Lewis Romayne returns to the family home, Vange Abbey, after a fatal duel in France–the memory of which still haunts him. In an attempt to put the experience behind him, he visits London where he meets Stella Eynecourt, who will become his wife. However, Romayne also comes across the cunning Father Benwell, who is determined to convert him to Catholicism and to regain Vange Abbey for the Church.

Based on events that took place between 960 and 1020 AD, Njál 's Saga is a mesmerizing drama about a multigenerational cycle of violence and retribution, and the feuds and passions that perpetuate it. The eponymous sage Njál, known for his keen legal mind, is one of Iceland's pre-eminent men, along with Gunnar of Hlidarendi, a fierce and formidable warrior married to the diabolical Hallgerd, whose conniving instigates the interminable pattern of romance, action and brutality - until one unforgivable act ends it all.

Verging on death, a starving, destitute writer navigates the cold and indifferent city of Kristiania in search of his next meal. Frenzied and fevered, he chews on stale bread, devours scraps of wood, and bites his own finger, sleeping under the stars in old, pungent blankets, until one day he is able to sell an article and buy some food - only for the cycle then to repeat itself....

First appearing in 1782, Dangerous Liaisons is one of the most scandalous and controversial novels in European literature. The plot unfolds through a series of letters as the two main protagonists, the Vicomte de Valmont and the Marquise de Merteuil, attempt to bring about the seduction of a young woman. The epistolary nature of the novel gives a multi-faceted perspective of the action, which places the book firmly in the tradition of libertine literature.

Swashbuckling classic adventure, with an updated twist placing Milady in the role of narrator. Young D'Artagnan arrives in Paris to join the King's elite guards but almost immediately finds he is duelling with some of the very men he has come to swear allegiance to - Porthos, Athos and Aramis, inseparable friends: the Three Musketeers. Soon part of their close band, D'Artagnan's loyalty to his new allies puts him in the deadly path of Cardinal Richlieu's machinations.

One morning in October 2013, 19-year-old Ayan Juma and her 16-year-old sister, Leila, left their family home in Oslo. Later that day they sent an email to their parents. 'Peace, God's mercy and blessings upon you, Mum and Dad... Please do not be cross with us....' Leila and Ayan had decided to travel to Syria 'and help out down there as best we can'. They had been planning for months. By the time their desperate father, Sadiq, tracks them to Turkey, they have already crossed the border.

The Poetic Edda is the most important collection of Norse-Icelandic mythological and heroic poetry, covering the creation of the world and the coming of Ragnarok, The Doom of the Gods.

The Letters of Abelard and Heloise is one of the most extraordinary correspondences in European history. Written in the 12th century, the letters document the love affair between Peter Abelard, a revolutionary philosopher and biblical scholar, and his beautiful and precocious student, Heloise. Eviscerated by his religious opponents and castrated by Heloise’s family, Abelard is haunted by ill fortune, and the star-crossed lovers are forced into separate lives, as monk and nun respectively, with letters being their only form of communication.

Torben Helle - art historian, Danish ex-pat and owner of several Scandinavian jumpers - finds himself dragged to a remote snowbound Northumbrian mansion for a ten-year reunion with old university friends. At the dinner table their host, a reclusive and irritating tech entrepreneur, makes some shocking revelations. And when these are followed by an apparent suicide, the group faces a test of their wits...and their trust. Snowed in and cut off, surrounded by enigmatic housekeepers and off-duty police inspectors, not to mention a peculiar last will and testament, suspicion quickly turns to panic.

Tony is a young man who has always been an outsider in life. He grew up with a sick and alcoholic mother who had once been Iceland's leading ballet star. When her dreams of fame in the world of dance are dashed, she tries to pass them on to her son through cruel methods—and dire consequences. A body is found in Öskjuhlíðin that has clearly been lying there for a long time. Investigating lawyer Valdimar gets the case under review and is joined by Ylfa, who is taking her first steps within the police. It soon becomes clear that a brutal killer is on the loose and that all is not what it seems.

Counterfeiters, spies, murderers...and Isaac Newton must use his brilliant mind to defeat them all in this pair of full-cast historical crime dramas. In Master of the Mint, a new figure of justice is walking the streets of 17th-century London—Isaac Newton, scientific genius. After thirty years as a Cambridge academic, Newton takes up a new post at the Royal Mint in the Tower of London. In Nemesis, Isaac Newton must contend not only with opponents to his currency plans, but also with a French secret agent who is aiding the theft of England's entire supply of silver.

The Beetle is a horror novel that was published in 1897 and significantly outsold Dracula, which appeared in the same year. A polymorphous Egyptian creature – the Beetle – seeks revenge on the eminent British politician Paul Lessingham for crimes committed against the disciples of an ancient cult. Although it is less well-known than Dracula to modern audiences, The Beetle remains a leading example of the Gothic novel.

In Helmand province in July 2006, Major Adam Jowett was given command of Easy Company, a hastily assembled and understrength unit of Paras and Royal Irish rangers. Their mission was to hold the District Centre of Musa Qala at any cost. Easy Company found themselves in a ramshackle compound, cut off and heavily outnumbered by the Taliban in the town.

After six years in prison, Sweden's most notorious criminal, Leo Duvnjac, is free, acquitted of all but two of the 10 bank robberies he and his two younger brothers pulled off. While behind bars, he befriended Sam Larsen, who was convicted of murdering his own father - and also happens to be the brother of the cop who caught Leo, Detective Superintendent John Broncks. With Sam at his side, Leo seeks out his now-law-abiding brothers for one last job and a chance at redemption - or revenge.

Thomas De Quincey's highly charged and hauntingly accurate account of laudanum addiction is considered the root of all drug novels. From Baudelaire to Burroughs, Confessions of an English Opium Eater paved the way for later generations of writers. Initially prescribed as pain relief for a chronic condition, De Quincey soon found himself compelled by the opium experience.