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Entra in un mondo di storie

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Hermann Hesse

The word Siddhartha is made up of two words in Sanskrit language, which together means 'he who has found meaning of existence' or 'he who has attained his goals'. In fact, the Buddha's own name, before his renunciation, was Siddhartha Gautama, Prince of Kapilavastu. In this book, the Buddha is referred to as 'Gotama'.

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Siddhartha

H.G. Wells

The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth is is about a group of scientists who invent a food that accelerates the growth of children and turns them into giants when they become adults.

The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth

George du Maurier

Svengali, a rogue, masterful musician and hypnotist seduces, dominates and exploits Trilby, a young Irish girl. Svengali promises and makes Trilby a famous singer in Paris. It was popularly believed that the hypnotic control Svengali has over Trilby was modelled after the relationship between the French harpist and composer Nicolas-Charles Bochsa and the English operatic soprano Anna Bishop.

Trilby

Mary Shelley

"The Last Man" by Mary Shelley is a gripping tale set in a dystopian future where a devastating plague sweeps across the globe, decimating humanity. As civilization crumbles, the protagonist, Lionel Verney, navigates a world of despair and isolation. Shelley weaves a narrative that explores themes of survival, loss, and the fragility of human existence. Against the backdrop of a desolate Earth, Verney grapples with the profound loneliness of being the last living man. Shelley's work is a haunting reflection on the human condition and the endurance of the spirit in the face of overwhelming adversity.

The Last Man

Mathilda, a poignant tale by Mary Shelley, explores the tormented emotions of a young woman who grapples with the aftermath of her father's inappropriate affection. Wrestling with a sense of isolation, guilt, and the shadows of a tragic past, Mathilda's narrative unfolds as a haunting exploration of forbidden love, societal constraints, and the profound impact of familial wounds on the human psyche. Shelley's lyrical prose delves into the complexities of the human heart, weaving a narrative that is both emotionally charged and psychologically profound.

Mathilda

Henry Fielding

"Joseph Andrews" by Henry Fielding is a satirical novel that parodies the conventions of the sentimental novel popular in the 18th century. The eponymous hero, Joseph, is a virtuous footman who embarks on a series of comedic adventures. Fielding employs wit and humor to critique societal norms, class distinctions, and the hypocrisy of the time. As Joseph encounters various characters, including the amorous Lady Booby, the narrative unfolds with irony and clever commentary. A precursor to Fielding's more famous work, "Tom Jones," "Joseph Andrews" is a comedic romp filled with social satire and a keen understanding of human nature.

Joseph Andrews

"Amelia" by Henry Fielding is a poignant novel that follows the life of the virtuous and resilient Amelia Booth. As the wife of Captain William Booth, she faces numerous trials, including financial struggles and societal challenges. Fielding skillfully weaves a narrative that explores themes of love, morality, and the human condition. With vivid characters and intricate plot twists, "Amelia" offers a satirical glimpse into 18th-century society, highlighting the struggles and triumphs of its heroine in a world marked by virtue and vice.

Amelia

"Jonathan Wild" by Henry Fielding is a satirical novel that exposes the corrupt nature of 18th-century society through the character of Jonathan Wild, a notorious criminal. Fielding uses wit and irony to criticize the moral decay of the time, presenting Wild as a hypocritical figure who exploits the legal system for personal gain. The narrative explores themes of deception, justice, and the consequences of unchecked ambition. Through a blend of humor and social commentary, Fielding creates a compelling story that reflects on the complexities of human nature and the flawed institutions of the era.

Jonathan Wild

H. G. Wells

On a freezing February day, a stranger emerges from out of the gray to request a room at a local provincial inn. Who is this out-of-season traveler? More confounding is the thick mask of bandages obscuring his face. Why does he disguise himself in this manner and keep himself hidden away in his room?

Aroused by trepidation and curiosity, the local villagers bring it upon themselves to find the answers. What they discover is a man trapped in a terror of his own creation and a chilling reflection of the unsolvable mysteries of their own souls.

In the tradition of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein comes another undisputed classic of science fiction and horror to stir the imagination and conscience. It is considered by many to be one of the greatest science fiction horror stories ever written.

James Adams

Blackstone Publishing

The Invisible Man

An adventurous scientist constructs a device that allows travel through time. Propelling himself into the distant future, he finds Earth populated by two distinct species: the gentle Eloi and the fearsome Morlocks. As he navigates this futuristic landscape, he unravels the dark truth about humanity's fate. A pioneering work of science fiction, this tale explores themes of evolution, class division, and the inherent curiosity that drives mankind to seek the unknown.

The Time Machine

The Island of Dr. Moreau follows a shipwreck survivor to an island on which animals are being transformed into human-like creatures, both physically and socially, by the cold and calculating Dr. Moreau. When it was first published in 1896, The Island of Dr. Moreau shocked and horrified most of its audience as well as reviewers. H. G. Wells effectively employs disturbing elements to explore both the implications of evolutionary theory and to satirize modern society's religious institutions and its pride in its "civilization"—all through a story filled with suspense and adventure.

As with the other early "scientific romances" that initiated Wells's literary career, The Island of Dr. Moreau successfully integrates serious ideas into a story driven not only by fast-paced action but also by the author's gift for placing the fantastic parts of the story in the realistically depicted world of his audience. Thus, Wells offered the growing field of science fiction an important model as well as one of its most highly regarded examples.

Jonathan Kent

Tantor Media

The Island of Doctor Moreau

The Last War erupts in Europe, rapidly escalating from bloody trench warfare and vicious aerial duels into a world-consuming atomic holocaust. Paris is engulfed by an atomic maelstrom, Berlin is an ever-flaming crater, and the cold waters of the North Sea roar past Dutch dikes and sweep across the Low Countries. Moscow, Chicago, Tokyo, London, and hundreds of other cities become radioactive wastelands. Governments topple, age-old cultural legacies are destroyed, and the stage is set for a new social and political order.
 

The World Set Free is H. G. Wells's chilling and prophetic tale of a world gone mad with atomic weapons and of the rebirth of humankind from the rubble. Written long before the atomic age, Wells's novel is a riveting and intelligent history of the future that discusses for the first time the horrors of the atomic bomb, offering a startling vision of humanity purged by a catastrophic atomic war.

Shelly Frasier

The World Set Free

First published by H. G. Wells in 1898, The War of the Worlds is the granddaddy of all alien invasion stories. The novel begins ominously, as the lone voice of a narrator intones, "No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's."

Things then progress from a series of seemingly mundane reports about odd atmospheric disturbances taking place on Mars to the arrival of Martians just outside of London. At first, the Martians seem laughable, hardly able to move in Earth's comparatively heavy gravity, even enough to raise themselves out of the pit created when their spaceship landed. But soon the Martians reveal their true nature as death machines 100 feet tall rise up from the pit and begin laying waste to the surrounding land. Wells quickly moves the story from the countryside to the evacuation of London itself and the loss of all hope as England's military suffers defeat after defeat. With horror, the narrator describes how the Martians suck the blood from living humans for sustenance and how it's clear that man is not being conquered so much as corralled.

Simon Vance

The War of the Worlds

Ovid

Ovid’s sensuous and witty poem brings together a dazzling array of mythological tales ingeniously linked by the idea of transformation, often as a result of love or lust, in which men and women find themselves magically changed into new and sometimes extraordinary beings. Beginning with the creation of the world and ending with the deification of Augustus, Ovid interweaves many of the best known myths and legends of ancient Greece and Rome, including Daedalus and Icarus, Pyramus and Thisbe, Pygmalion, Perseus and Andromeda, and the fall of Troy. Mortals become gods, animals turn to stone, and humans change into flowers, trees, or stars.

First published in AD 8, Ovid’s Metamorphoses remains one of the most accessible and inspirational introductions to Greek mythology.

Barry Kraft

Metamorphoses

Frank Justus Miller

Apuleius

The story is based around incident when Apuleius was accused of using magic to gain the attentions and fortune of a wealthy widow. He declaimed and then distributed a witty tour de force in his own defense before the proconsul and a court of magistrates convened in Sabratha, near ancient Tripoli, Libya.

The Apologia

Apollonius Rhodius

The Argonautica is a Greek epic poem written by Apollonius Rhodius in the 3rd century BC. The only surviving Hellenistic epic, the Argonautica tells the myth of the voyage of Jason and the Argonauts to retrieve the Golden Fleece from remote Colchis. Their heroic adventures and Jason's relationship with the dangerous Colchian princess/sorceress Medea were already well known to Hellenistic audiences, which enabled Apollonius to go beyond a simple narrative, giving it a scholarly emphasis suitable to the times.

The Argonautica

The Metamorphoses, or The Golden Ass, is the only Ancient Roman novel to survive in its entirety. The protagonist of the novel is called Lucius. At the end of the novel, he is revealed to be from Madaurus, in ancient Algeria, the hometown of Apuleius himself. The plot revolves around the protagonist's curiosity and insatiable desire to see and practice magic. While trying to perform a spell to transform into a bird, he is accidentally transformed into an ass. This leads to a long journey, literal and metaphorical, filled with in-set tales. He finally finds salvation through the intervention of the goddess Isis, whose cult he joins.

The Metamorphoses

Stendhal

The Red and the Black is the Bildungsroman of Julien Sorel, the intelligent and ambitious protagonist. He comes from a poor family and fails to understand much about the ways of the world he sets out to conquer. He harbours many romantic illusions, but becomes mostly a pawn in the political machinations of the ruthless and influential people about him. The adventures of the hero satirize early 19th-century French society, especially the hypocrisy and materialism of the aristocracy and members of the Roman Catholic Church, foretelling the coming radical changes that will depose them from their leading role in French society.

Bill Homewood

Naxos Audiobooks

The Red and the Black

John Milton

The poem is based on the Biblical story of the Fall of Man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Milton originally envisioned his epic to be based on a legendary Saxon or British king like the legend of King Arthur.

Paradise Lost

Voltaire

Candide, is a French satire written in 1759 by Voltaire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment. One of the finest satires ever written, this lively tale follows the absurdly melodramatic adventures of the youthful Candide, who is forced into the army, flogged, shipwrecked, betrayed, robbed, separated from his beloved Cunégonde, and tortured by the Inquisition. As Candide witnesses calamity, upon calamity, he becomes disillusioned and discovers that all is not always for the best.

Candide is characterized by its sarcastic tone, dark humor and erratic, fantastical, fast-moving plot. Voltaire ridicules religion, theologians, governments, armies, philosophies, and philosophers and romance. 

Candide has enjoyed both great success and great scandal. It was widely banned because it contained religious blasphemy, political sedition and intellectual hostility hidden under a thin veil of naïveté. Voltaire never admitted to having written the highly controversial Candide; instead, the work is signed Mister Doctor Ralph.

Epic Story - La serie di libri

Epic Story - La serie di libri

Epic Story libri in ordine cronologico

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