Family Life Classics

Desperate to escape a harsh and narrow regime, two runaways unwittingly flee headlong into the centre of a terrible battle. This first sequel to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe includes all the hallmarks of its famous predecessor, though this time the fate of Narnia is wound up in the lives of its own children, and a talking horse!

The Irish troubles rage, but up at the 'Big House', tennis parties, dances and flirtations with the English officers continue, undisturbed by the ambushes, arrests and burning country beyond the gates. Faint vibrations of discord reach the young girl Lois, who is straining for her own freedom, and she will witness the troubles surge closer and reach their irrevocable, inevitable climax.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain is an 1876 novel about a young boy growing up along the Mississippi River. It is set in the 1840s in the fictional town of St. Petersburg, inspired by Hannibal, Missouri, where Twain lived as a boy. In the novel Tom Sawyer has several adventures, often with his friend Huckleberry Finn. Originally a commercial failure, the book ended up being the best selling of any of Twain's works during his lifetime. Tom Sawyer, an orphan, lives with his Aunt Polly and his half-brother Sid in the fictional town of St. Petersburg, Missouri sometime in the 1840s.

It starts with a simple wish, and Emma Davies hardly notices when it comes true. She’s too preoccupied with a life she isn’t happy in - the spark in her marriage has fizzled, her career is headed nowhere and her boss is a misogynist. Her teenage daughter has grown distant, and her heart breaks daily for her teenage son with cerebral palsy. But soon Emma discovers her wishes are coming true, and she realizes that she has been given the power to change her life. Either that, or she’s going insane.

After receiving a rose covered sweater from Grandma, Harry is determined to lose it. He tries leaving it all over town, but it is always returned - until a bird catches sight of a loose thread and Harry's luck finally changes.

The novel provides insight and a bit of satire regarding the everyday humdrum in small towns. Cranford is separated into 16 chapters, opening with a snapshot of Captain Brown and his two daughters who live in the book's namesake town: Cranford. The gossipy women of the town are slow to accept Brown socially, but they eventually welcome him into their circles. Captain Brown is later injured, and the responsibility of the house falls on his younger daughter.

A wounded Marine returns to Hawthorne Harbor years after the woman he was married to for exactly one week before she got an annulment...and then a baby nine months later. Can Hunter and Alice make a family out of past heartache? Hunter Magleby hasn't been back to Hawthorne Harbor in nine years. His parents have moved from the small beach town, but Hunter feels called to return to his roots after a career-ending injury overseas. He limps, literally, back into town, some unfinished business between him and the wife he left all those years ago. Alice Kopp got an annulment only a week into the ...

I Malavoglia è il romanzo più famoso di Giovanni Verga, ambientato ad Aci Trezza, alla fine del 1800. Il romanzo non ha un solo protagonista, né una sola famiglia, i Malavoglia, come protagonista, ma è il coro di tutto il paese e di un tipo di vita che segue , senza ribellarsi, i proverbi e le tradizioni, le convinzioni e i pregiudizi dell’ambiente.

Rilla is Anne and Gilbert Blythe’s youngest daughter, an excitable 15-year-old who is unaware of how the world works, and is only interested in having fun. But the world is on the brink of a global war, and soon Rilla’s family and life are turned upside down, as several of her brothers enlist in the army and are sent to fight overseas. The book follows Rilla’s life through the duration of World War I, as she grows up quickly from the responsibilities put on young women in this time.

Here is the preface to 12 magnificent stories, originally part of The John Cheever Audio Collection, in which John Cheever celebrates - with unequaled grace and tenderness - the deepest feelings we have.

In the seventh book of the Anne of Green Gables series, Anne and Gilbert Blythe have been happily married for over a decade and have six children. The children take center stage in this story, as they befriend the four children of a new minister in tow, John Meredith. After John’s wife died, he has buried himself into theological studies, and lets his children run free. And though the children are generally kind and loyal, the townsfolk only really notice them on the occasions where they’re getting into trouble.

Nancy Mitford's first novel, a set of completely incompatible and hilariously eccentric characters collide in a Scottish castle. Inspired by Mitford's youthful infatuation with a Scottish aristocrat, her story follows young Jane Dacre to a shooting party at Dulloch Castle, where she tramps around a damp and chilly moor on a hunting expedition with formidable Lady Prague, xenophobic General Murgatroyd, one-eyed Admiral Wenceslaus and an assortment of other ancient and gouty peers of the realm, while falling in love with Albert, a surrealist painter with a mischievous sense of humour.

The classic transformation story by Kafka. A man is transformed into a bug and how everyone deals with the situation from his mother and father, to his employer and paying boarders, and himself.

Die südfranzösische Stadt Plassan ist der Ursprung der bürgerlichen Familien Rougon und Macquart, deren weit verzweigte Familiengeschichte hier ihren Anfang nimmt. Im Zuge des Staatsstreiches vom 2. Dezember 1851 und den damit verbundenen Aufständen in ganz Frankreich, gelingt es einigen Familienmitgliedern durch Intrigen, Betrug und Verrat sich gesellschaftlich in der Kleinstadt zu etablieren; andere stürzen grausam ab.

Dopo aver perso il padre in quello che ha tutta l'aria di essere stato un doppio suicidio d'amore, Yoshie si trasferisce dalla sua casa di Meguro a un minuscolo e vecchio appartamento a Shimokitazawa, un quartiere di Tokyo famoso per le sue stradine chiuse al traffico, i ristoranti, i negozietti, nonché meta degli alternativi della capitale. Qui Yoshie spera, aiutata dall'atmosfera vivace, di superare il dolore e dare una nuova direzione alla sua vita. Un giorno, però, sua madre le si presenta a casa all'improvviso con una borsa Birkin di Hermès e qualche sacchetto.

Lida Fisher knows that her beloved husband, Quincy, will die soon as the result of a rare and terrible brain rejection syndrome. But there is one hope. If Quincy consents to switch brains with one of the alien beings that have arrived from the other side of the galaxy, he will live on - albeit in the body of a starfish. And that means Lida must agree to let a new man into her life and her bed, one with the face and body of her adored husband but with the mind of an alien stranger.

Tess Durbeyfield, the daughter of an impoverished family, must navigate a world of desire and romance once she meets Alec d'Urberville. The son of a rich widow, he takes a fancy to her and gets her a position as the poultry keeper on his family's estate. However, her good fortune is soon complicated by Alec's libertine ways, and Tess returns home shamed. Once recovered, she separates herself from the gossip by finding work at a dairy farm outside the village.

"Alle glücklichen Familien ähneln einander, jede unglückliche Familie ist auf ihre Weise unglücklich." Dieser Anfangssatz aus "Anna Karenina" ist eines der bekanntesten Zitate von Tolstoi und lässt schon erahnen, dass die Ehe zwischen Mann und Frau eines seiner Lebensthemen war. In "Familienglück", gelesen von Gustl Halenke, heiratet ein Gutsbesitzer die weitaus jüngere Mascha. Eine leidenschaftliche Liebe entwickelt sich. Doch als das Landleben Mascha zu langweilen beginnt, stürzt sie sich in die dekadente Welt des russischen Adels.

Paddington Bear always manages to find himself in tricky situations, sometimes extraordinary situations. Like the time he had a difficult encounter with a policeman or when he found himself in deep water with a newspaper reporter. But since arriving from his native Peru after an earthquake Paddington has always felt at home with the Brown family who found him on Paddington station.

Moumine le troll, ses amis et sa famille partent pour de nouvelles aventures au cours desquelles Moumine le troll découvre l’amitié, le partage, le pardon et le courage. Dans l’une de ces histoires, Moumine le troll perd un précieux télescope qu’il doit récupérer avant qu’il ne soit trop tard. Dans une autre, les amis partent à la recherche de la chanson de l’océan sur une île solitaire. Et dans une troisième histoire, Moumine le troll trouve un magnifique trésor : une perle de la couleur de la lune de minuit. Viens découvrir les autres histoires qui se déroulent dans la vallée des Moumines !