Category Archives: Fiction

Luigi Pirandello – Novelle per un Anno, vol. 15: Una Giornata

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(prima pubblicazione nella forma attuale nel 1937)
(first published in their present form in 1937)

Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936)
Language: Italian

This book contains 15 novels from the 15th book of “Novelle per un anno”, a collections of novels written by Luigi Pirandello over the years.

Novelle per un anno è una raccolta di 241 novelle scritte da Luigi Pirandello. Originariamente sono state pubblicate sul Corriere della Sera, successivamente ripubblicate in 15 raccolte. Inizialmente erano previste 24 raccolte contenenti 365 novelle, tuttavia la prematura morte dell’autore ha impedito il raggiungimento del traguardo. Postume sono state pubblicate altre novelle scritte dall’autore. Le raccolte sono state pubblicate tra il 1922 e il 1937. La quindicesima raccolta, edita nel 1937, contiene novelle pubblicate tra il 1898 ed il 1937. (Riassunto di Filippo Gioachin)

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Das Stigma des Tieres

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(first published/zuerst veröffentlicht 1926)kipling_stigma

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) , übersetzt von Gustav Meyrink (1868- 1932)
Language: German/Deutsch

Nach einer feuchtfröhlichen Silvesterfeier entweiht der volltrunkene Engländer Fleet die Hanuman-Statue in einem indischen Tempel. Als er am nächsten Morgen erwacht, plagt ihn mehr als ein Kater. Aber jeder weiß doch, “daß die Götter der Heiden aus Stein oder Erz bestehen” – nicht wahr? (Zusammenfassung von Hokuspokus)

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Emily Climbs

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(first published 1925)

meyrink_spaetewerkeLucy Maud Montgomery 1874-1942


Language: English
Teenage orphan Emily Starr of New Moon has always wanted to be a great writer. But her old-fashioned aunt, who has never liked Emily’s writing, refuses to let Emily go to high school unless she stops! Shrewsbury brings new friends, new adventures, and new enemies, and the town is scandalized by some of Emily’s exploits. Perhaps the hardest trial is having to board with her Aunt Ruth. Or is it her promise to Aunt Elizabeth? But Emily’s troubles are only the beginning of her climb to success … and perhaps romance.
(Summary by Rachel)

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The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes Part 1

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casebooksherlockholmes(first published 1927)

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930)
Language: English

And so, reader, farewell to Sherlock Holmes! These are positively the last stories. There is some disagreement as to their quality, and some claim that Conan Doyle was writing more experimentally, rather than to the conventional Sherlock Holmes formula. Not all the stories are narrated by the faithful Watson, and the stories are regarded as the darkest of the Holmes canon, with some unusual villains.

Part 2 of this audio book will available as soon as it is recorded.

Please note: Section 5, The Adventure of the Three Gables, includes language which, though normal for the time it was written, is now regarded as highly unacceptable racial slurs. Anyone who finds this too offensive may wish to omit this story. Indeed, any listener who would understandably prefer to avoid my poor attempt at American accents, may prefer not to listen to a number of these stories. Conan Doyle seemed to like American villains. … (summary by Ruth Golding)

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Ik en mijn speelman

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Ik en mijn speelman
(first published 1927)

Aart van der Leeuw (1876-1931)
Language: Dutch

Een jonge edelman, Claude de Lingendres, ontvlucht een gearrangeerd huwelijk in de Middeleeuwen, en trekt met de speelman Valentijn de wereld in. Zo beleven ze spannende avonturen. Droom en werkelijkheid liggen hierbij vaak dicht bij elkaar.
[A young nobleman tries to escape an arranged marriage in the Middle Ages – lots of adventures on the way] … (summary by Anna Simon)

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The Tale of Little Pig Robinson

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(first published 1930)LittlePigRobinson_CoverArt

Beatrix Potter 1866-1943
Language: English

“Poor Pig Robinson Crusoe!
Oh, how in the world could they do so?
They have set him afloat, in a horrible boat,
Oh, poor pig Robinson Crusoe!” – from the book

The charming story of Robinson, the pig from Edward Lear’s poem The Owl and the Pussycat. Robinson is sent to market by his aunts, both of whom are two fat to go themselves. (Summary by Rachel)

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Within a Budding Grove

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(first published 1924) buddinggrove_proust

Marcel Proust (1871-1922)
translated by C. K. Scott-Moncrieff (1889-1930)
Language: English

In Search of Lost Time or Remembrance of Things Past (French: À la recherche du temps perdu) is a semi-autobiographical novel in seven volumes by Marcel Proust. His most prominent work, it is popularly known for its extended length and the notion of involuntary memory, the most famous example being the “episode of the madeleine.”

Begun in 1909, finished just before his death in 1922, and published in France between 1913 and 1927 “… [the] novel has had a pervasive influence on twentieth-century literature, whether because writers have sought to emulate it, or attempted to parody and discredit some of its traits. In it, Proust explores the themes of time, space, and memory, but the novel is above all a condensation of innumerable literary, structural, stylistic, and thematic possibilities.”

“Within a Budding Grove” (A l’ombre des jeunes filles en fleur”, literally “In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower”), the second volume in the sequence, won the Prix Goncourt in 1919. In it, the narrator meets several characters who are to prove very important in his life and in the novel – the aristocrat Robert de Saint-Loup, an eccentric snob called the Baron de Charlus and a group of girls including a certain Albertine Simonet. (Summary by Wikipedia and Andrew Coleman)

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