(first published 1938)
George Orwell (1903 – 1950)
Language: English
George Orwell, writer of Animal Farm and 1984 also fought in the Spanish Civil War (1936 – 1939)! Here he details his time fighting for the Republican side in the War. This book includes his leaving the UK to fight, his training for battle, getting shot and wounded in the conflict, and his escape to France when the regiment he fought for, was declared illegal. … (summary by Adrian Wilson)
(first published 1949)
George Orwell (1903-1950)
Language: English
Depiction of a dystopian society in the future in which manipulative social control is exercised on a gullible population… (summary by Peter Tucker)
(first published 1929)
Lord Alfred Douglas (1870 – 1945)
Language: English
Lord Alfred “Bosie” Douglas wrote his autobiography in his late fifties, some 29 years after the death of Oscar Wilde. Since the publication of his first memoir, “Oscar Wilde and Myself” (1914), Douglas’s anger at his former lover had cooled somewhat, but he still took the opportunity to strike back at his many perceived enemies. (summary by Rob Marland)
(first published 1936)
Lloyd Lewis (1891 – 1949) and Henry Justin Smith (1875 – 1936)
Language: English
In 1882, Oscar Wilde toured North America from New York to San Francisco and Montreal to New Orleans, lecturing on art and home decoration. The American public was familiar with Wilde thanks to the newspaper cartoons that mocked him and his fellow aesthetes for their peculiar dress and ideas. They were more eager to see his long hair and knee breeches than hear him talk. Oscar Wilde Discovers America [1882] is the first full account of Wilde’s tour. Lewis and Smith create a picture of Wilde at the very beginning of his career, and vividly conjure the cultural milieu of America at the end of the 19th century. (summary by Rob Marland)
(first published 1933)
William Butler Yeats (1865 – 1939)
Language: English
Yeats’s poem ‘After Long Silence’ was written late in life. In it, he reflects on his relationship with the author Olivia Shakespear.
This project brings you recordings by seven different Legamus readers.
(Summary by Newgatenovelist)
(first published 1934)
Robert Sherard (1861 – 1943)
Language: English
Robert Sherard was Oscar Wilde’s friend of 20 years and first biographer. The Life of Oscar Wilde was the last of the four books he wrote about the Irish playwright and wit. Oscar Wilde Twice Defended is a shorter work than his full length biographies (The Life of Oscar Wilde, and The Real Oscar Wilde), in which Sherard responds to other Wildean biographers, including André Gide and Frank Harris. (summary by Rob Marland)
(first published 1934)
Steele Rudd (1868-1935)
Language: English
This book describes the experiences of Dick Gall, a young Australian countryman, from the time of his first application for ‘a homestead selection’ to that of the birth of his ‘son an’ heir’ on the green-grey homestead. It also includes memories of his younger years, when he chased scrub cattle, hunted wild pigs on wild horses and played on the polo field. Steele Rudd knew what he was writing about, having grown up on a homestead selection at Emu Creek himself, and worked as a stockrider (or cowboy) as a teenager.
The book is written in a very lively style, and remarkably, in the second person singular – “you” will literally be Dick Gall himself. The opening sentence: “You’ll be single when the idea of taking up a homestead first gets you.” Or later: “You’ll be three years on the little grey homestead, working hard and becoming well-known and respected; you’ll receive kindly handturns from one and another, and be known to them all as Dick Gall.” (Summary by Anna Simon)
(first published 1935)
William Butler Yeats (1865 – 1939)
Language: English
William Butler Yeats first published this collection in 1935. In it, he developed themes and symbolism prevalent throughout his work, including his fascination with masks and Irish legends.
(Summary by Newgatenovelist)
(first published 1930)
James Jeans (1877-1946)
Language: English
One of the earliest of the popular science book genre, it is a philosophical summary of the new physics of the era by a leading British physicist. Keeping technical references to a bare minimum, Jeans argues that physics has entered a new age in which mathematical representation has supplanted mechanical models.
(Summary by Peter Tucker)
Language: German/Deutsch, English
This is a collection for poetry and prose, fiction and non fiction in any language.