Catalog Search Results
Author
Language
English
Description
"An Ideal Husband" explores the intricacies of morality, marriage, and political intrigue as Sir Robert Chiltern faces the consequences of a past indiscretion while navigating the demands of public life and personal integrity.
"The Happy Prince & Other Stories" is a collection of whimsical yet poignant tales that delve into themes of sacrifice, compassion, and the nature of beauty, epitomized by the selfless acts of the golden statue of the Happy...
Author
Language
English
Description
Robert Musil (1880-1942) is best known for his enduring masterpiece The Man Without Qualities, one of the great European works of the 20th century. It was with The Confusions of Young Master Törless first published in 1906, a challenging but very different work, that he signalled his extraordinary talent. As the nineteenth century draws to an end, young Torless is sent to a military boarding school for the sons of the nobility on the eastern outreaches...
3) Der Auftrag
Author
Language
Deutsch
Description
Ein junger Mann wird Zeuge eines Zugunglücks, bei dem ein Adliger ums Leben kommt. Im Sterben gibt dieser ihm den Auftrag, seiner Geliebten die Nachricht seines Todes zu überbringen. Mit gemischten Gefühlen macht sich der junge Mann auf den Weg ... Die bewegende Erzählung Honoré de Balzacs als Hörbuch. Zusätzlich auf diesem Hörbuch: die Erzählung: "Der Arm".
4) Dracula
Author
Language
English
Description
Dracula, that compelling creature of the night, continues his neck-biting ways in a version of the novel that children will devour. Moving from Transylvania to London, the timeless vampire serves up thrills and chills as he imprisons and terrorizes the innocent Jonathan Harker, and then goes after his fiancée, Mina, and her friend Lucy. From creepy, insect-eating Renfield to Dr. Van Helsing-who valiantly fights Dracula's evil-the characters and drama...
Author
Language
English
Description
The Mabinogion, the earliest literary jewel of Wales, is a collection of ancient tales and legends compiled around the 12th and 13th century deriving from storytelling and the songs of bards handed down over the ages. It is a remarkable document in many ways. From an historical perspective, it is the earliest prose literature of Britain. But it is in its drama that many surprises await, not least the central role of King Arthur, his wife, Gwenhwyvar,...
Author
Language
English
Description
This tale of a man who, when tinkering with magic, becomes changed into an ass is one of the most entertaining and remarkable stories from classic Latin literature. It is funny, bawdy and completely approachable - but also shows life from the point of view of a beast of burden in the Roman Empire of the second century CE.
Lucius is an active young man enjoying life - and the favours of an attentive maid, one Fotis - when the temptation to experiment...
Author
Language
English
Description
Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval is the single most important Arthurian romance. It contains the very first mention of the mysterious grail, later to become the Holy Grail and the focal point of the spiritual quest of the knights of Arthur's court.
Chrétien left the poem unfinished, but the extraordinary and intriguing theme of the Grail was too good to leave, and other poets continued and eventually completed it. This is the only English translation...
Author
Language
Deutsch
Description
"Immensee": Reinhard besucht seine Jugendliebe Elisabeth, die mittlerweile mit einem Anderen verheiratet ist, auf dem Gut Immensee. Zwischen Sehnsüchten und der eigenen Handlungsunfähigkeit gefangen, schafft er es nicht, die bestehende Ordnung zu durchbrechen. Eine wunderbare Geschichte über die Liebe und ihre Vergänglichkeit.
"Eine Halligfahrt": Eine kleine Ausflugsgesellschaft, Mutter, Tochter und ein junger Mann, besucht den alten Vetter,...
Author
Language
English
Description
The Good Soldier Švejk, written shortly after the First World War, is one of the great antiwar satires - and one of the funniest books of the 20th (or any) century. In creating his eponymous hero, Jaroslav Hašek produced an unforgettable character who charms and infuriates and bamboozles his way through the conflagration that tore through the heart of Europe, upending empires and changing social history.
It is the closing period of the Austro-Hungarian...
Author
Language
English
Description
No one could have been more surprised than our Provincial Lady to receive an invitation from her American agent to travel transatlantic and embark upon a programme of lectures and signings. She was particularly amazed because, having received an overture sometime before and feeling that she would rather stay in the English countryside, she requested that they meet quite a few 'requirements' before she would agree to go.
They met every stipulation....
11) Der Mantel
Author
Language
Deutsch
Description
Die winterliche Kälte in St. Petersburg macht Akadij Akadijewiitsch zu schaffen. Der verarmte Beamte lässt sich von seinen letzten Rubeln einen neuen Mantel nähen, der ihm überraschend zu mehr Anerkennung und einer Einladung seines Vorgesetzten verhilft. Als das schmucke Kleidungsstück gestohlen wird, scheint ihn sein Glück wieder zu verlassen. So macht sich Akadij Akadijewitsch verzweifelt auf die Suche nach dem Mantel ... Die berühmte Erzählung...
Author
Language
English
Description
In 1913, the Viennese aristocracy is gathering to celebrate the 17th jubilee of the accession of Emperor Franz Josef, even as the Austro-Hungarian Empire is collapsing and the rest of Vienna is showing signs of rebellion. At the centre of this social labyrinth is Ulrich: a veteran, a seducer and a scientist, yet also a man 'without qualities' and therefore a brilliant and detached observer of his changing world.
A classic of the 20th century, Robert...
Author
Language
English
Description
Lady B. stays to tea. (Mem.: Bread-and-butter too thick. Speak to Ethel.) We talk some more about bulbs, the Dutch School of Painting, our Vicar's wife, sciatica, and All Quiet on the Western Front. (Query: is it possible to cultivate the art of conversation when living in the country all the year round?)'
If the question suggests a qualified answer, there is no doubt that the art of diary writing is alive and well and very, very funny in Devonshire...
Author
Language
English
Description
The Provincial Lady Goes Further is the immediate sequel to Diary of a Provincial Lady - and life mirrors art.
Our Provincial Lady has found herself, unexpectedly, with a literary success on her hands! She is suddenly 'somebody', both in her Devonshire environs and in London, where she establishes a bolthole - ostensibly so she could concentrate on the much-awaited sequel, but also so that she can enjoy the fruits of being a best-selling author!
In...
Author
Language
English
Description
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....
Author
Language
English
Description
The Provincial Lady in Wartime, though the last of the Provincial Lady series, is one of the finest.
No further 'Diaries' had appeared since The Provincial Lady in America (published in 1934) when, in 1939, Harold Macmillan, then chairman of Macmillan publishers and a fan, made a personal request to E. M. Delafield for a new book. The onset of the war with Germany was serious, but, he said, Britain, was in need of the entertaining but pertinent...
Author
Language
English
Description
Rose Macaulay was a fascinating and influential British writer, known for her wit and intellect. She wrote numerous novels, essays and biographies, and she was highly regarded for her versatility as a writer. Her works often explored themes of social change, women's rights and the complexities of human relationships. She had a unique ability to capture the essence of her characters and the world they inhabited, making her a much-admired figure in...
Author
Language
English
Description
Against Nature was one of the most shocking French novels of the 19th century. When it was published in 1884, it thrilled the aesthetes, the poets, and the intellectuals of Europe on both sides of the Channel (notably Oscar Wilde) because for all its lofty tone, it had, as its core, an unbridled decadence, and it was this same character that challenged, even horrified, established bourgeois society.
Des Esseintes, a minor aristocrat but a high intellectual...
Author
Language
English
Description
An old man sits in the corner of a London tea house. In comes a young lady reporter, and a conversation ensues.
'Mysteries!' he comments. 'There is no such thing as a mystery in connection with any crime, provided intelligence is brought to bear upon its investigation.' At first, the reporter wants to terminate the exchange, swiftly. But she cannot walk away when a notorious unsolved murder becomes the topic of their conversation and this slightly...
Borrow from another library
Didn't find what you need? Items not owned by Darien Library can be requested from other libraries via our interlibrary loan system (ILL).