The Financier is a novel by Theodore Dreiser (1871–1945), based on a true story. It is the first part of the «Trilogy of Desire.» Frank Cowperwood, the son of a banker, starts his own business. He married a wealthy widow. Over time, Cowperwood began to misuse municipal funds with the help of the city treasurer. When the Great Chicago Fire causes a stock market crash, he goes bankrupt, and his fraud is exposed. Frank has an affair with Aileen Butler, the daughter of one of his business partners. Aileen promises to wait for him after his imprisonment.
The Stoic is the third part of Theodore Dreiser’s (1871–1945) «The Desire Trilogy». Frank Cowperwood decides to move to London, where he intends to develop an underground railway system, but soon dies of kidney disease. His inheritance is squandered in lawsuits. His last lover, Berenice, decides to establish a hospital for the poor, as Cowperwood intended.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900–1944), a French writer and military aviator, wrote his most famous work, The Little Prince, during World War II. This magical story about a boy from a fairy-tale planet explores important themes such as friendship, love, loneliness, growing up, and the value of every moment in life.
The last volume of the illustrated four-volume set by Arthur Conan Doyle’s (1859–1930) includes two collections of stories: The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes (12 stories) and His Last Bow (7 stories). The title story His Last Bow is a spy story. On the eve of World War I, a German spy is about to smuggle valuable documents out of England. Sherlock Holmes is going to put a stop to that.
The novel Man and Wife is a drama about a selfish and ambitious man who abandons his wife to marry a wealthier woman, taking advantage of a loophole in marriage law. Under Scottish law at the time, any couple who claimed to be married in front of witnesses was considered legally married in Scotland.
The Titan is the second part of the «Trilogy of Desire» by Theodore Dreiser (1871—1945). After his release from prison, Frank Cowperwood invests in stocks and becomes a millionaire again. He moves to Chicago with Aileen and divorces his first wife. Frank decides to take over the city’s railway system. He makes several competitors bankrupt. Meanwhile, Chicago society learns about his past. Aileen loses faith in him. Cowperwood meets the young Berenice, and she agrees to live with him.
The House by the Churchyard (1863) is a mystery novel by the Irish writer Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. During a burial in the churchyard, a skull is accidentally dug up, bearing the marks of two devastating blows to the head and traces of surgical intervention. The story described in the novel takes place a hundred years before the grisly find, and immerses the reader in a whirlpool of intrigue surrounding Dr. Sturk, a military doctor.
The novel by American writer John Kendrick Bangs (1862–1922) Alice in Blunderland: An Iridescent Dream is a political parody of Lewis Carroll’s two Alice books (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass). Alice travels to Blunderland, where everything is communal; children live in the Town Hall, with the Duchess and the town being their parents. The book features familiar characters made famous by Alice in Wonderland, including the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, among others.
The third volume of Scotland Yard Book by the English writer Edgar Wallace (1875-1932) presents the collection of short stories The Mind of Mr. J. G. Reader, published in 1925. The collection includes the works The Poetical Policeman, The Green Mamba, The Stealer of Marble, The Troupe, Sheer Melodrama, The Investors, The Strange Case, and The Treasure Hunt.
In the novel Miss Billy’s Decision (1912) by American author Eleanor Porter, Billy begins her married life and is quite happy until she begins to listen to the advice of others. After reading an article that young wives should be guided by their own personal interests, Billy takes the idea to extremes.
Pickman’s Model is a collection of horror stories by American writer Howard Lovecraft (1890–1937). In the story Pickman’s Model, the artist paints pictures of horrific images that are considered the fruit of his sick imagination. A friend of the artist comes to Pickman’s private secret gallery. The artist shows new painting, a huge image of a red-eyed creature that devours human victims. The friend finds a photograph that proves that Pickman painted the horrible monsters not from imagination, but he used real-life models.
Charming Lady Susan Vernon is a widow, who seduces both single and married men alike. As she has been left in a financially precarious state due to the death of her first husband, she uses flirting to gain her objectives and maintain a semblance of her former opulent lifestyle. As a widow and a mother, her main goals are to quickly marry off her daughter Frederica to a wealthy man, and to marry someone even richer.
The outstanding English writer, publicist and journalist Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) wrote historical, adventure and fiction novels. But he entered world literature as the creator of the extraordinary detective Sherlock Holmes, for whom there are no hopeless cases.
Dreams in the Witch House is a collection of six horror stories by the American writer H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937). In the story of the same name, Walter Gilman, a student, rents a loft in the Witch House. Gilman learns that over the course of two centuries, many of the house’s residents have died prematurely. Gilman begins to have strange dreams related to black magic…
The second volume of Scotland Yard Book by the English writer Edgar Wallace (1875-1932) offers the thriller novel Black, which was first published in 1926, and two short stories. Black is a mysterious story about a Londoner named James Morelake, who has many secrets and an interesting set of skills.
The Horror in the Museum is a collection of horror stories by the American writer H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937). George Rogers is the owner of a private waxen things museum in London. His friend Stephen Jones ridicules Rogers for telling wild stories about rituals and sacrifices to nameless ancient gods. Jones accepts Rogers’ offer to spend the night at the museum, where he falls victim to Rhan-Tegoth.
