The Charterhouse of Parma narrates the adventures of the young noble Italian Fabrizio del Dongo, from its birth in 1798 to his death. Fabrice spent his early years in the family’s castle on Lake Como, while most of the rest of the novel is set in a fictionalized Parma. The book begins with the French army sweep in Milan and stir the sleepy region of Lombardy, which was allied with Austria. Fabrice grows surrounded by intrigues and alliances for and against the French.

Stendhal’s masterpiece chronicles the struggles of a young man with the duality of his nature. Julien Sorel, a young dreamer of the province whose imagination is on fire with the ideals of Napoleon, began to make his fortune in the Paris-based Restoration France. His encounters and experiences along the path constantly incite internal conflict, pulling back and forth between sincerity and hypocrisy, idealism and cynicism, humility and pride, love and ambizionen.

Published in 1830, Scarlet and Black (Le Rouge et Le Noir) tells the story of a provincial young man’s attempts to socially rise beyond his modest upbringing with a combination of talent and hard work, deception and hypocrisy — yet who ultimately allows his passions to betray him.In Scarlet and Black, Stendhal paints a sweeping portrait of early nineteenth-century France – its social classes, professions, politics, and manners – in Paris and the provinces...

Sybil by Benjamin Disraeli Sybil, or The Two Nations is an 1845 novel by Benjamin Disraeli. Published in the same year as Friedrich Engels's The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844, Sybil traces the plight of the working classes of England.Disraeli was interested in dealing with the horrific conditions in which the majority of England's working classes lived — or, what is generally called the Condition of En...

Peacock’s novella Nightmare Abbey is a gentle satire of the then-popular gothic movement in literature. He pokes fun at the genre’s obsessions and most of the book’s characters are caricatures of well-known personages of the time. Young Scythrop is the only son of Mr. Glowry, living in the semi-ruined Nightmare Abbey on his estate in Lincolnshire. Mr. Glowry, the survivor of a miserable marriage, is addicted to the depressing and the morbid, surrounding himself with servants whose names, s...

"The Way of All Flesh" is a semi-autobiographical novel that explores themes of family, religion, and the constraints of Victorian society. The story follows the life of Ernest Pontifex, the protagonist, from his childhood to adulthood. Ernest is born into a strict and traditional Victorian family, with a tyrannical father and a submissive mother.The novel critiques the hypocrisy of Victorian morality and the oppressive nature of the society of that time. Ernest faces various challenges an...

Headstrong and naïve, the young Italian aristocrat Fabrizio del Dongo is determined to defy the wrath of his right-wing father and go to war to fight for Napoleon. He stumbles on the Battle of Waterloo, ill-prepared, yet filled with enthusiasm for war and glory. Finally heeding advice, Fabrizio sneaks back to Milan, only to become embroiled in a series of amorous exploits, fuelled by his impetuous nature and the political chicanery of his aunt Gina and her wily lover. Judged by Balzac to b...

This book, newly updated, contains now several HTML tables of contents that will make reading a real pleasure!The first table of contents (at the very beginning of the ebook) lists the titles of all novels included in this volume. By clicking on one of those titles you will be redirected to the beginning of that work, where you'll find a new TOC that lists all the chapters and sub-chapters of that specific work.Here you will find the complete novels and nove...

A Venetian adventurer, author, and lifelong womanizer, the name of Casanova has become interchangeable with the art of seduction since the 18th century. In his most notable book, "Story of My Life," Casanova narrates countless tales of the people with whom he interacted: lovers, European royalty, clergymen, and artists such as Goethe, Voltaire, and Mozart. His writing demonstrates his talent for dialogue, while his life seems an inadvertent testament to skill in plot development. Casanova ...

A Venetian adventurer, author, and lifelong womanizer, the name of Casanova has become interchangeable with the art of seduction since the 18th century. In his most notable book, "Story of My Life," Casanova narrates countless tales of the people with whom he interacted: lovers, European royalty, clergymen, and artists such as Goethe, Voltaire, and Mozart. His writing demonstrates his talent for dialogue, while his life seems an inadvertent testament to skill in plot development. Casanova ...

In the year 1800, toward the close of October, a foreigner, accompanied by a woman and a little girl, was standing for a long time in front of the palace of the Tuileries, near the ruins of a house recently pulled down, at the point where in our day the wing begins which was intended to unite the chateau of Catherine de Medici with the Louvre of the Valois.The man stood there with folded arms and a bowed head, which he sometimes raised to look alternately at the consular palace and at his ...

Casanova captures the essence of the social setup of Paris in this work. He elaborately paints the mesmerizing landscape as well as the people that infuses colour to the picture. The style is not only unique but also captivating.