Classical Memoirs

本书选取了老舍先生的一些经典散文和中短篇作品。这些作品多取材于人们的日常生活，通过平凡的场景反映普遍的社会冲突，挖掘对人民生存、命运的思考。这些文章或描写城市平民的生活轨迹，或书写知识分子的生活趣事，或描摹各地的风土人情，其作品充满生活情趣，其文笔细致入微，极尽渲染之笔触，更贯穿着老舍先生一贯的幽默风格，让人从轻快诙谐之中体味人生哲思

Toward the end of the Hundred Years War between France and England, as Merlin predicted, a great warrior emerged, uniting a beleaguered nation and leading it to improbable victories. It was said this warrior was a messenger of God. And it may have been, for a country was saved and a kingdom restored. This great leader of men, this messenger who united a nation, was a 17-year-old maiden named Joan.

In this exclusive ebook, investigative journalist M. William Phelps asks: Did Son of Sam have an intimate, homosexual relationship with a fellow (serial killer) inmate while in prison? Was Sam's real name Richard Falco? Has Son of Sam-who claimed in 2011 that he does not want to seek parole because he has been “freed” by Jesus Christ-been perpetrating a fraud with his supposed “salvation”?

Monk Ambrosius arrives at a rural monastery and the last thing he expects to happen is to be drawn into sympathy with a young girl. Her name is Benedicta, the local hangman’s daughter. Ambrosius is not allowed to spend time with Benedicta but he opposes his superiors and stands by her side until a young impetuous man confronts him. The battle between mind and heart is fierce. Find out what will prevail in Ambrose Bierce’s story "The Monk and the Hangman's Daughter".

When he was arrested in July 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer had a severed head in the refrigerator, two more in the freezer, two skulls and a skeleton in a filing cabinet. But if anything could be more disturbing than the brute horror of this scene, it was the evidence that Dahmer had been using these human remains not only for sexual gratification but as part of a dark ritual of his own devising - to furnish a shrine to himself.

Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada is an engrossing blend of scientific exploration and personal adventure. Clarence King describes the ascent of Mounts Tyndall, Shasta, and Whitney with a scientific poet’s eye, and makes the grandeur of the cliffs, the peaks, the glaciers, and the meadows of Yosemite Valley come alive through his remarkable gifts of portrayal. King describes nature like a master painter while his portrait of the people of California 20 years after the Gold Rush finds engaging expression in a subtle shift of style.

Was Jesse James really shot from behind by friend Robert Ford in 1882? A 100-year-old man comes forward in the late 1940s claiming to be the Missouri outlaw, and he becomes a local sensation. Four affidavits supporting his claim are immediately signed by those who meet him and who knew Jesse James. This is the account of how J. Frank Dalton emerged from obscurity and claimed to be the "outlaw with a heart of gold".

Written when Orwell was a struggling writer in his 20s, it documents his 'first contact with poverty'. Here, he painstakingly documents a world of unrelenting drudgery and squalor - sleeping in bug-infested hostels and doss houses of last resort, working as a dishwasher in Paris's vile 'Hôtel X', surviving on scraps and cigarette butts, living alongside tramps, a star-gazing pavement artist and a starving Russian ex-army captain.

Every ambitious young man and woman would do well to listen to this book; seasoned businessmen and women will recognize something of their own successes and failures in a life that has had as many ups and downs as a turbulent stock market; and wives will see their own husbands in this audio, as well as their own frustrations with the men they love. We can only hope they possess the character of Bew’s wife, Wendy, whose own story leavens this loaf. Astute listeners will deduce that she is the quiet, unassuming anchor that gives this narrative its heartbeat.

Lizzie West falls in love but her future hangs delicately on a thin string of hope so purposefully constructed in "The Letters".

Two-and-a-half centuries after his death, the complex life of composer Johann Sebastian Bach continues to fascinate. Bach's colorful life was anchored in his belief that "music has been ordered by God's Spirit"?so much so that he began each composition by scrawling Jesu, juva (Jesus, help me) at the top of a blank page and concluded each with S.D.G. (short for Soli Deo Gloria, to God alone be the glory). Through the eyes of noted music and culture writer Rick Marschall, the intensely personal yet boldly public faith that earned Bach the nickname "The Fifth Evangelist" takes on fresh meaning.

Published in 1894 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of 11 different stories that center on the beloved character of Sherlock Holmes. The first of these stories is entitled "Silver Blaze", and chronicles Sherlock Holmes' attempts to not only track down a race horse who has disappeared, but to find out who has murdered the horse's trainer.

Very similar in style to Walden, and in fact written while he stayed at Walden Pond, this account chronicles Throeau's 1830 boat trip. In it, he weaves together travel writing, essays on religion, history, and lyrical poetry, as well as his own unique philosophy.

En 1845, Henry David Thoreau part vivre dans une cabane construite de ses propres mains, au bord de l'étang de Walden, dans le Massachusetts. Là, au fond des bois, il mène pendant deux ans une vie frugale et autarcique, qui lui laisse tout le loisir de méditer sur le sens de l'existence, la société et le rapport des êtres humains à la Nature. Une réflexion sereine qui montre qu'il faut s'abstraire du monde et de ses désirs pour devenir réellement soi-même.

In 1969, a twenty-something screenwriter with one movie credit to his name is approached by Jimi Hendrix's management after the legendary guitarist saw the obscure indie film in London and wanted to collaborate on a project of his own. Jonathan Stathakis had no idea how thrilling the next eighteen months would be, as he and Hendrix formed not just a working partnership but a unique friendship.

"Lettres à un jeune poète" regroupe les correspondances qu'échangèrent Rainer Maria Rilke et son élève Kappu entre 1903 et 1908. Rilke a alors 27 ans, mais sa démarche est tellement détachée des velléités d'un "jeune poète", qu'on le croirait déjà revenu d'une longue habitude. Aux envies d'honneur, il répond par la nécessité de créer. Il préconise la solitude et l'introspection et pose au jeune Kappu cette question essentielle : "devriez-vous mourir s'il vous était interdit d'écrire ?"

Screenwriter Jeb Rosebrook presents a captivating behind-the-scenes memoir of the making of Junior Bonner, a 1972 Western classic starring Steve McQueen and directed by Sam Peckinpah.

The original collection of these stories, published in 1994 in England, did not include "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box" because it was considered "too shocking." It was later added to the first American edition.

Each featured novelist, playwright or poet has biographical entries tracing the friendships, loves and rivalries that inspired each individual and influenced their work, revealing insights into the larger-than-life characters, plots and evocative settings that they created. This audiobook introduces the key ideas, themes and literary techniques of each writer, revealing the imaginations and personalities behind some of the world's greatest novels, short stories, poems and plays.

'This could be heaven or this could be hell...' So sings Don Henley on their biggest hit, 'Hotel California', yet for The Eagles their story was one where the dividing line between ultimate Hollywood highs and subterranean LA lows was blurred beyond recognition, blinded by white-powdered double-visions and buried beneath greenback mountains.