Description Details
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (or, more briefly, Tristram Shandy ) is a novel by Laurence Sterne. It was published in nine volumes, the first two appearing in 1759, and seven others following over the next 10 years. It was not always held in high esteem by other writers (Samuel Johnson responded that, Nothing odd can last), but its bawdy humour was popular with London society, and it has come to be seen as one of the greatest comic novels in English, as well as a forerunner for many modern narrative devices. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Fiction, Literature

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Lucy Maud Montgomery was born at Clifton (now New London), Prince Edward Island, Canada, on November 30, 1874. She achieved international fame in her lifetime, putting Prince Edward Island and Canada on the world literary map. Best known for her Anne of Green Gables books, she was also a prolific writer of short stories and poetry. She published some 500 short stories and poems and twenty novels before her death in 1942. The Project Gutenberg collection of her short stories was gathered from numerous sources and is presented in chronological publishing order. (Summary by Project Gutenberg.)...

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Fiction, Romance, Teen/Young adult, Short stories, Sea stories

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H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor, is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened in London, England, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical theatre piece up to that time. H.M.S. Pinafore was Gilbert and Sullivan's fourth operatic collaboration and their first international sensation. This is not that opera. It was adapted as a children's book by W. S. Gilbert entitled The Story of HMS Pinafore, or The Pinafore Picture Book, and includes some lovely illustrations by Alice B. Woodward that can be seen by following the archive.org link to the actual scanned book if you wish. No singing or any of Sullivan's music, just Gilbert's witty words laid out - by him - in prose and poetry with amusing asides. (Summary by Wikipedia and ToddHW)...

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Children, Fiction

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Set during the Napoleonic Wars, this story features two French Hussar officers, D'Hubert and Feraud. Their quarrel over an initially minor incident turns into a bitter, long-drawn out struggle over the following fifteen years, interwoven with the larger conflict that provides its backdrop. At the beginning, Feraud is the one who jealously guards his honor and repeatedly demands satisfaction anew when a duelling encounter ends inconclusively; he aggressively pursues every opportunity to locate and duel his foe. As the story progresses, D'Hubert also finds himself caught up in the contest, unable to back down or walk away. This Conrad short story evidently has its genesis in the real duels that two French Hussar officers fought in the Napoleonic era. Their names were Dupont and Fournier, which Conrad disguised slightly, changing Dupont into D'Hubert and Fournier into Feraud. In 1977, it was turned into a movie, The Duellists, starring Keith Carradine and Harvey Keitel. (summary adapted from Wikipedia)...

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Short stories, Historical Fiction

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Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions is an 1884 science fiction novella by the English schoolmaster Edwin Abbott Abbott. As a satire, Flatland offered pointed observations on the social hierarchy of Victorian culture. However, the novella's more enduring contribution is its examination of dimensions; in a foreword to one of the many publications of the novella, noted science writer Isaac Asimov described Flatland as The best introduction one can find into the manner of perceiving dimensions. As such, the novella is still popular amongst mathematics, physics and computer science students....

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Fiction, Science fiction, Satire

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Excerpt: Reprinted Pieces by Charles Dickens.

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Contents THE LONG VOYAGE ...................................................................................................................... 5 THE BEGGING-LETTER WRITER ........................................................................................... 14 A CHILD?S DREAM OF A STAR................................................................................................. 21 OUR ENGLISH WATERING-PLACE ......................................................................................... 24 OUR FRENCH WATERING-PLACE........................................................................................... 33 BILL-STICKING ............................................................................................................................ 46 LYING AWAKE.............................................................................................................................. 62 THE GHOST OF ART.................................................................................................................... 69 OUT OF TOWN .........................................................................................

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The Charles Dickens 200th Anniversary Collection comprises short works previously unrecorded for - fiction, essays, poetry, letters, magazine articles and speeches - and each volume will be a pot pourri of all genres and periods of his writing. This first volume is released on Dickens' 200th birthday, February 7th 2012. Further volumes will follow during the anniversary year. Volume 1 includes short stories including, amongst others, The Holly Tree , the first part of Holiday Romance and three pieces from Mugby Junction . Some items requiring a little further explanation are Prince Bull , written as a fairy tale, but in reality a scathing attack on the Government's handling of supplies to the troops in the Crimean War; Old Lamps for New Ones in which Dickens makes clear his low opinion of the ethos of the Pre-Raphaelite school of painting; and Frauds on the Fairies , a polemic against George Cruikshank's bowdlerisation of fairy tales for moralistic purposes, and the interesting revelation that 'product placement' is by no means a new phenomenon. (Introduction by Ruth Golding)...

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Essay/Short nonfiction, Fiction, Poetry, Short stories, Art, Politics

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Little Lord Fauntleroy is a sentimental children's novel by American (English-born) author Frances Hodgson Burnett, serialized in St. Nicholas Magazine in 1885. It was a runaway hit for the magazine and was separately published in 1886. The book was a commercial success for its author, and its illustrations by Reginal Birch set fashion trends. Little Lord Fauntleroy also set a precedent in copyright law in 1888 when its author won a lawsuit over the rights to theatrical adaptations of the work. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Children, Teen/Young adult

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In The Blonde Lady, being a record of the duel of wits between Arsène Lupin and the English detective - original title Arsène Lupin contre Herlock Sholmes - the gentleman-burglar once more meets his enemy, the English detective Herlock Sholmes. If in the last story of Arsène Lupin, gentleman-burglar Sherlock Holmes arrives too late (the name was at a later date changed to Herlock Sholmes in reply to complaints and threats by Conan Doyle regarding copyrights), in the two stories that compose The Blonde Lady these two great intellects are bound in opposite directions. Where one chooses to abide to the law, the other uses his power and wits to crime - and who is going to win? These two stories appeared in chapters and as separate pieces in the magazine Je Sais Tout , during the years of 1906 and 1907, and were published together as a book first in 1908, being the second of the books where Arsène Lupin, the kind-hearted and humorous thief, is the main character. (Summary by Leni)...

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Adventure, Spy stories, Mystery

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“He had faith in his good fortune, in that power of attraction which he felt within him - a power so irresistible that all women yielded to it.” Though firmly set in 1880s Paris, Maupassant's gripping story of an amoral journalist on the make could, with only slight modifications of detail, be updated to the 1960s, to the Reagan-Thatcher years, or maybe to the present day. Anti-hero Georges Duroy is a down-at-heel ex-soldier of no particular talent. Good-looking but somewhat lacking in self-confidence, he discovers an ability to control and exploit women - whereupon his career in journalism takes off, fuelled by the corruption of colleagues and government arrivistes. He may be a provincial Don Juan, but he is neither accident-prone nor heading for a fall... A Hollywood screen adaptation is in preparation at the time of recording. (Summary by Martin Geeson)...

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Fiction

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Anthem is a dystopic science fiction story taking place at some unspecified future date. Mankind has entered another dark age as a result of what Rand saw as the weaknesses of socialistic thinking and economics. Technological advancement is now carefully planned (when it is allowed to occur, if at all) and the concept of individuality has been eliminated (for example, the word I has disappeared from the language). As is common in her work, Rand draws a clear distinction between the socialist/communal values of equality and brotherhood and the productive/capitalist values of achievement and individuality. The story also parallels Stalinist Russia, which was currently going on at the time as the story was published. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Science fiction, Philosophy

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Excerpt: Chapter 1 Exposition. Notwithstanding the discipline which Marechal Suchet had introduced into his army corps, he was unable to prevent a short period of trouble and disorder at the taking of Tarragona. According to certain fair-minded military men, this intoxication of victory bore a striking resemblance to pillage, though the marechal promptly suppressed it. Order being re-established, each regiment quartered in its respective lines, and the commandant of the city appointed, military administration began. The place assumed a mongrel aspect. Though all things were organized on a French system, the Spaniards were left free to follow ?in petto? their national tastes....

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John Dene comes to England with a great invention, and the intention of gingering-up the Admiralty. His directness and unconventional methods bewilder and embarrass the officials at Whitehall, where, according to him, most of the jobs are held by those whose great-grandfathers had a pleasant way of saying how-do-you-do to a prince. Suddenly John Dene disappears, and the whole civilised world is amazed at an offer of £20,000 for news of him. Scotland Yard is disorganised by tons of letters and thousands of callers. Questions are asked in the House, the Government becomes anxious, only Department Z. retains its equanimity. By the way, what did happen to John Dene of Toronto? (Introduction by Author)...

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Fiction, Adventure, Mystery, Satire, Romance

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Excerpt: Chapter 1. The Foreigner At Home. ?This is no my ain house; I ken by the biggin? o?t.? Two recent books* one by Mr. Grant White on England, one on France by the diabolically clever Mr. Hillebrand, may well have set people thinking on the divisions of races and nations. Such thoughts should arise with particular congruity and force to inhabitants of that United Kingdom, peopled from so many different stocks, babbling so many different dialects, and offering in its extent such singular contrasts, from the busiest over-population to the unkindliest desert, from the Black Country to the Moor of Rannoch. It is not only when we cross the seas that we go abroad; there are foreign parts of England; and the race that has conquered so wide an empire has not yet managed to assimilate the islands whence she sprang. Ireland, Wales, and the Scottish mountains still cling, in part, to their old Gaelic speech. It was but the other day that English triumphed in Cornwall, and they still show in Mousehole, on St. Michael?s Bay, the house of the last Cornish-speaking woman. English itself, which will now frank the traveller through the most of...

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Contents CHAPTER I: THE FOREIGNER AT HOME ..................................................................................... 5 CHAPTER II: SOME COLLEGE MEMORIES................................................................................ 14 CHAPTER III: OLD MORTALITY .................................................................................................. 20 CHAPTER IV: A COLLEGE MAGAZINE ...................................................................................... 28 CHAPTER V: AN OLD SCOTCH GARDENER ............................................................................. 36 CHAPTER VI: PASTORAL .............................................................................................................. 41 CHAPTER VII: THE MANSE .......................................................................................................... 48 CHAPTER VIII: MEMOIRS OF AN ISLET .................................................................................... 53 CHAPTER IX: THOMAS STEVENSON ? CIVIL ENGINEER...................................................... 58 CHAPTER X: TALK AND TALKERS ....................

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Mary Barton is the first novel by English author Elizabeth Gaskell, published in 1848. The story is set in the English city of Manchester during the 1830s and 1840s and deals heavily with the difficulties faced by the Victorian lower class. The novel begins in Manchester, where we are introduced to the Bartons and the Wilsons, two working class families. John Barton reveals himself to be a great questioner of the distribution of wealth and the relation between the rich and the poor. He also relates how his sister-in-law Esther has disappeared after she ran away from home. Soon afterwards Mrs Barton dies, and John is left with his daughter Mary to cope in the harsh world around them. Having already been deeply affected by the loss of his son Tom at a young age, after the death of his wife, Barton tackles depression and begins to involve himself in the Chartist movement connected with the trade unions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Barton...

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Literature, Fiction

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E. Phillips Oppenheim, an English novelist created well in excess of 100 novels and 30 plus collections of short stories. Most of his tales are thrillers and espionage. The Great Impersonation was written following World War I and is considered by many to be perhaps his best novel. The story focuses on German espionage in England prior to the start of World War I. The tale centers on two characters that are almost identical in appearance. Indeed, while both attend the same school in England, they are often mistaken for one another. One character is Sir Everard Dominey, an English baronet who enjoys the “good life” but falls into disfavor when he is accused of murdering Roger Unthank. Unthank, of the same village, has an infatuation for Dominey’s wife, Rosamund, and attacks Dominey. Dominey comes before his wife bloody and ragged after the struggle with Unthank. The spectacle renders her unbalanced. This is more than Dominey can bear and he goes on a long travel and drinking binge spanning years. Dominey’s wife threatens to kill him if he ever returns. The second character is Baron Leopold von Ragastein, a German nobleman. Von Ragast...

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Fiction, Spy stories

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Excerpt: Welcome to the fifth volume of Best of Four. We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we have enjoyed bringing it to you. The purpose of Best of Four is to bring the best writing produced in English 004 each fall semester to the widest audience possible. Our students have important stories to tell and powerful voices to be heard. The students who read these essays will learn that they too have permission to state what is important to them in a public voice....

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Contents How to Use This Magazine .............................................................................................................. 3 High School to College Andrew Makhoul ........................................................................................ 4 Ignoring Problems Creates More! Ashley Morris................................................................................ 5 Hang in There Brad Hart ................................................................................................................. 6 Nate Brandi Saveri ........................................................................................................................... 7 The Best Birthday Is the Sixteenth Brent Heimbach ......................................................................... 9 Sharing the Bread of Angels Christa Sist ......................................................................................... 10 Tragedy in the Night Danielle Gehman .......................................................................................... 11 My Grandfather David Smith ..............................................

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The dead body of a man is found on the steps to some chambers of Middle Temple Lane, near London's law courts. A journalist and a young lawyer start investigating. - This classic English murder mystery was written in 1920 by J.S. Fletcher, himself a lawyer turned journalist and author. (Summary by Gesine)...

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Mystery

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George Sand (the pen name of Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin 1804-1876) is famous for flaunting the convertions of behaviour expected of women of her standing in France at the time and for her numerous romantic liaisons including her long standing affair with Frederic Chopin. The Devil’s Pool (published in 1846 as La Mare au Diable) is one of several short pastoral novels drawn from her childhood experiences in the rural French region of Berri. It tells the story of a young widower, Germain, who, at the insistence of his father-in-law, sets out to remarry so that he will have someone to help raise his three young children. (Summary by the reader)...

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Literature

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On a journey to Tuscany with her young friend and traveling companion Caroline Abbott, widowed Lilia Herriton falls in love with both Italy and a handsome Italian much younger than herself, and decides to stay. Furious, her dead husband's family send Lilia's brother-in-law to Italy to prevent a misalliance, but he arrives too late. Lilia marries the Italian and in due course becomes pregnant again. When she dies giving birth to her child, the Herritons consider it both their right and their duty to travel to Monteriano to obtain custody of the infant so that he can be raised as an Englishman. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Literature

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A contemporary of Arthur Conan Doyle, Maurice Leblanc (1864-1941) was the creator of the character of gentleman thief Arsène Lupin who, in France, has enjoyed a popularity as long-lasting and considerable as Sherlock Holmes in the English-speaking world. This is the delightful first of twenty volumes in the Arsène Lupin series written by Leblanc himself. In an unprecedented act of literary pastiche and cross-over, Sherlock Holmes and Lupin actually meet, briefly in this first volume, and more substantially in the next. But after legal objections from Conan Doyle, the name was changed to Herlock Sholmes. (adapted from Wikipedia by a.r.dobbs)...

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Mystery

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Twenty-four poems in translation.

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Absence Easy Talking of Power and Love The Beloved Max Ernst Series Obsession Nearer To Us Open Door The Immediate Life Lovely And Lifelike The Season of Loves As Far As My Eye Can See In My Body’s Senses Barely Disfigured In A New Night Fertile Eyes I Said It To You It’s The Sweet Law Of Men The Curve Of Your Eyes Liberty Ring Of Peace Ecstasy Our Life Uninterrupted Poetry Index of First Lines...

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The Eye of Osiris is an early example from the Dr. Thorndyke series of detective stories written by R. Austin Freeman. In these stories, the author drew on his extensive medical and scientific knowledge for his main character, a medico-legal expert who relies on forensic evidence and logical deduction in solving cases. In this case, Thorndyke steps in to investigate the disappearance of one John Bellingham, an English gentleman and amateur Egyptologist, who has vanished under very mysterious circumstances. Thorndyke's involvement in the case arises from a both purely professional interest in the unique character of the case, as well as from the fact that a young doctor and former student of his has recently become closely acquainted with the missing man's brother and niece. (summary by J.M. Smallheer)...

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Mystery

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Elusive Isabel is a novel by Jacques Futrelle (April 9, 1875 - April 15, 1912) first published in 1909. Set in Washington, D.C., it is a spy novel about an international conspiracy of the Latin countries against the English-speaking world with the aim to take over world control.Plot summary: The eponymous heroine, Isabel Thorne, is a young woman, half British, half Italian, who works for the Italian secret service and who has been commissioned to bring about the signing of the secret contract right in the capital of the enemy by representatives of all countries involved, both European and American. Her brother, an inventor, has devised a secret weapon by which missiles can be fired from submarines which will, it is hoped, secure military dominion over the rest of the world.Members of the U.S. Secret Service, who have been alerted, are assigned to prevent the signing of this Latin compact and bring to justice those involved who have no diplomatic immunity. One young representative by the name of Grimm, however, although absolutely loyal to his government, falls in love with the beautiful foreign agent.In the end Isabel Thorne, who re...

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Spy stories

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Excerpt: Colonel Chabert. ?Hullo! There is that old Box-coat again!? This exclamation was made by a lawyer?s clerk of the class called in French offices a gutter-jumper--a messenger in fact--who at this moment was eating a piece of dry bread with a hearty appetite. He pulled off a morsel of crumb to make into a bullet, and fired it gleefully through the open pane of the window against which he was leaning. The pellet, well aimed, rebounded almost as high as the window, after hitting the hat of a stranger who was crossing the courtyard of a house in the Rue Vivienne, where dwelt Maitre Derville, attorney-at-law....

Description Details
The main collection is a result of Mr. Flinders Petrie's excavations in 1889, and was brought from Deir El-Hammam, three miles N. of Illahun. To it are added a few fragments (Nos. XX, XXVI, XLIX, and LIII), acquired at Hawara. The subjects represented are (I) Biblical texts :—To the one example previously described, a second is now added. (II) Patristic texts:—I have placed among these some curious fragments which give, inter alia, the account of a dream, because I was at a loss more appropriately to class them. (HI) Liturgical texts : A small group, put together since I wrote my former description. (IV) Letters : This section embraces (as in the other collections) a large proportion of the whole. (V) Lists and accounts: Some very small scraps are included here. Of the so-called Legal documents, numerous in Vienna,' there are but three mutilated specimens (Nos. XXXV, XXXVI, XXXVII). These I have held it allowable to class with the letters....

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Excerpt: William Shakespeare, the protagonist on the great arena of modern poetry, and the glory of the human intellect, was born at Stratford-upon- Avon, in the county of Warwick, in the year 1564, and upon some day, not precisely ascertained, in the month of April. It is certain that he was baptized on the 25th; and from that fact, combined with some shadow of a tradition, Malone has inferred that he was born on the 23d. There is doubtless, on the one hand, no absolute necessity deducible from law or custom, as either operated in those times, which obliges us to adopt such a conclusion; for children might be baptized, and were baptized, at various distances from their birth: yet, on the other hand, the 23d is as likely to have been the day as any other; and more likely than any earlier day, upon two arguments. First, because there was probably a tradition floating in the seventeenth century, that Shakespeare died upon his birthday: now it is beyond a doubt that he died upon the 23d of April....

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Contents SHAKSPEARE ........................................................................................................................4 POPE ................................................................................................................................... 73 CHARLES LAMB ............................................................................................................... 121 GOETHE........................................................................................................................... 163 SCHILLER......................................................................................................................... 187...

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The selection of poems in this anthology may seem a bit unorthodox for Polish literature experts. I have no degree or expertise in any sort of literary research, which may well be the reason for my bizarre taste as presented here. I have tried my very best to include mainly those poems that are obligatory readings in Polish high schools, so that the English Reader can have the chance to get to know a portion of the choicest Polish poetry that an average Pole has willy-nilly come across in his life (one of the poems happens to be a well-known Christmas carol, even). However, Witkacy’s poem about his portrait company might be an exception to the rule. I have (un)fortunately excluded all the longer though important and well-known poems, since I have my deep and well-grounded doubts whether they would ever get read. Sigh. Again, Ode to Youth by Adam Mickiewicz is an exception and hopefully some will read it. I do realize that for the Modern Reader, it may come as a very odd practice to use the thou-thee-thy forms even in translations of classical poetry. I have made use of them, but only in the earlier poems i.e. since the beginnings...

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To the Young by Adam Asnyk (1838–1897) The brightening flame of truth pursue, Seek to discover ways no human knows. With every secret now revealed to you, The soul of man expands within the new. And God still bigger grows! Although you may the flowers of myths remove, Although you may the fabulous dark disperse, And tear the mist of fancy from above; There’ll be no shortage of new things to love, Farther in the universe. Each epoch has its special goals in store, And soon forgets the dreams of older days. So, bear the torch of learning in the fore, And join the making of new eras’ lore. The House of the Future raise! But trample not the altars of the past! Although you shall much finer domes erect. The holy flames upon the stones still last, And human love lives there and guards them fast, And them you owe respect! Now with the world that vanishes from view, Dragging down the perfect rainbow of delight, Be gently reconciled in wisdom true. Your stars, oh, youthful conquerors, they, too, Will fade into the night!...

Table of Contents Details
Translator’s note Mother of God Song XXV On Health God’s Plaything Man Fickle To a Corpse When God Is Born, No Power Prevails Vanity My Testament [In Sophie’s Diary] In Verona My Little Song (II) The Tempest To*** Upon the Alps in Splügen 1829 Uncertainty To My Cicerone Ode to Youth [Defend Me from Myself] To the Young Oh, Void Complaints No, Nothing Happened There A Sonnet (One Heart) The End of the 19th Century Hymn to Nirvana Welcome My Beloved Mountains A Portrait Company [I Want No Weeping at My Grave] About the translator...

Description Details
With no written language, Native Americans living in the Lake Superior region passed their cultural identity down through the generations by way of stories. Far more than mere tales to amuse children, they passed along the collective wisdom of the tribes. In the 1830s, government Indian Agent and ethnologist Henry R Schoolcraft learned the language of these people and went out to collect and preserve their stories before the tribes disappeared under the westward rush of American civilization. Though these stories were recast as children’s fairy tales in the 1920s, they contain much of the old wisdom of a culture which has largely disappeared. (Summary by Chip)...

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Fairy tales, Children, Short stories

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Preface: In making this abridgement of Boswell?s Life of Johnson I have omitted most of Boswell?s criticisms, comments, and notes, all of Johnson?s opinions in legal cases, most of the letters, and parts of the conversation dealing with matters which were of greater importance in Boswell?s day than now. I have kept in mind an old habit, common enough, I dare say, among its devotees, of opening the book of random, and reading wherever the eye falls upon a passage of especial interest. All such passages, I hope, have been retained, and enough of the whole book to illustrate all the phases of Johnson?s mind and of his time which Boswell observed....

Description Details
“Who can help laughing when an ordinary journalist seriously proposes to limit the subject-matter at the disposal of the artist?” “We are dominated by journalism.... Journalism governs for ever and ever.” One of the nastiest of the British tabloids was founded a year too late to join in the moral panic generated to accompany Oscar Wilde’s court appearances in 1895. Yet there was no shortage of hypocritical journalists posing as moral arbiters to the nation, then as now. This compendium work - skilfully assembled by the editor, Stuart Mason - ends with transcript of Wilde’s first appearance in the Old Bailey, when he was cross-examined on the alleged immorality of his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. The disastrous outcome of these trials provides an ironic conclusion to the earlier knockabout exchanges between Oscar and his reviewers. In these he is at his flamboyant best, revelling in the publicity he pretends to disdain. His brave performances in the dock did nothing, however, to save him from hard labour, the treadmill and complete physical and moral breakdown which the law found it necessary to inflict on him. In contrast to th...

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Literature, Biography, Philosophy

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The story begins in 1846, at Combe-Raven in West Somersetshire, the country residence of the happy Vanstone family. When Andrew Vanstone is killed suddenly in an accident and his wife follows shortly thereafter, it is revealed that they were not married at the time of their daughters' births, making their daughters Nobody's Children in the eyes of English law and robbing them of their inheritance. Andrew Vanstone's elder brother Michael gleefully takes possession of his brother's fortune, leaving his nieces to make their own way in the world. Norah, the elder sister, accepts her misfortune gracefully, but the headstrong Magdalen is determined to have her revenge. Using her dramatic talent and assisted by wily swindler Captain Wragge, Magdalen plots to regain her rightful inheritance. (Summary adapted from Wikipedia)...

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Literature, Mystery

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Alexander Pope (1688-1744) is widely considered to be the best poet of the Augustan age, and perhaps English verse’s best satirist ever. Pope was mostly self-taught having been denied a formal protestant education because of his family’s Roman Catholic beliefs; he also suffered from the effects of Pott’s disease his entire life, which left him deformed and of small stature never growing past the height of four feet six inches. Despite these challenges, Pope flourished in English society and was likely its first professional literary writer having garnered significant income from the sales of books to the public as opposed to traditional patronages, capitalizing mostly on his excellent translations of Homer and an edited edition of Shakespeare. A close friend of Jonathan Swift in their famous Scriblerus Club, he was quite famous in his time, and while his reputation declined in the 19th century, he is now considered the most canonical poet of his era and the true master of the heroic couplet (followed closely by his predecessor, John Dryden) and English poetic satire. This edition of his poems collects all of his major work, and most...

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from "Essay on Criticism" “Tis hard to say if greater want of skill Appear in writing or in judging ill; But of the two less dangerous is th’ offence To tire our patience than mislead our sense: Some few in that, but numbers err in this; Ten censure wrong for one who writes amiss; A fool might once himself alone expose; Now one in verse makes many more in prose.     ’Tis with our judgments as our watches, none Go just alike, yet each believes his own. In Poets as true Genius is but rare, True Taste as seldom is the Critic’s share; Both must alike from Heav’n derive their light, These born to judge, as well as those to write. Let such teach others who themselves excel, And censure freely who have written well; Authors are partial to their wit, ’tis true, But are not Critics to their judgment too? “    Yet if we look more closely, we shall find Most have the seeds of judgment in their mind: Nature affords at least a glimm’ring light; The lines, tho’ touch’d but faintly, are drawn right: But as the slightest sketch, if justly traced, Is by ill col’ring but the more disgraced, So by false learning is good sens...

Table of Contents Details
Introduction Ode on Solitude A Paraphrase (On Thomas à Kempis) To the Author of a Poem Entitled Successio The First Book of Statius’s Thebais Imitation of Chaucer Imitation of Spenser: The Alley Imitation of Waller: On a Lady Singing to Her Lute Imitation of Waller: On a Fan of the Author’s Design Imitation of Abraham Cowley: The Garden Imitation of Abraham Cowley: Weeping Imitation of Earl of Rochester: On Silence Imitation of Earl of Dorset: Artemisia Imitation of Earl of Dorset: Phryne Imitation of Dr. Swift: The Happy Life of a Country Parson Pastorals I. Spring; or, Damon II. Summer; or, Alexis III. Autumn; or, Hylas and Ægon IV. Winter; or, Daphne Windsor Forest Paraphrases from Chaucer January and May; or, The Merchant’s Tale The Wife of Bath The Temple of Fame Translations from Ovid Sappho to Phaon The Fable of Dryope Vertumnus and Pomona An Essay on Criticism Part I Part II Part III Ode for Music on St. Cecilia’s Day Argus The Balance of Europe The Translator On Mrs. Tofts, a Famous Opera-Singer Epistle to Mrs. Blount, with the Works of Voiture Adriani Morientis Ad Animam Epistle to M...

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Audiobook (Part 1) available - fbthompson3.com What would America look like in 2050, if the liberals ultimately prevail? Pushing discourse down to the same high-sounding, muddled thinking of the geniuses on 'the left;' through vapid, touchy-feely, non-erudite, irrational conclusions and illogical, logical sounding arguments. The book the publishing houses would never let see the light of day....

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The year is 2020 when Professor Felix Schwartz, your typical, garden variety, liberal college professor, steps out in front of a Mack truck and the lights go out. Thirty years pass by, all the while Schwartz remains a walking vegetable and ward of the state. By 2050 the country has gone through some changes thanks to a dramatic shift in the makeup in the country's populace giving liberals (referred to as assclowns, moonbats, goofnads, or asshats) control over Washington. In that thirty years the country becomes the veritable paradise moonbats have long sought to create, but more resembling a third-world, banana republic where English is replaced by twenty-five variations of gang slang, no one gets beyond third grade, rioting and something resembling football with hockey sticks are the national pastimes. There is now a "Forever President," welfare moms have replaced small business, corn is the cornerstone of industry, and people drive around in either battery-powered, bubble cars, or Latino lowriders. While nonthinking, Schwartz is led around on a doggie leash, has become something called a 'pinball,' has names ranging from V...

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Note from Author i Dedication 4 Part One Forward 1 Early Background 2 Current Times 8 A New Day 16 Great Escape 50 Rude Awakening 72 Taste of Metamorphosis 88 The Corn Field 126 Closing Remarks 150 Part Two Opening Dialog 153 NMASA Headquarters 156 Vocal “Reader” is Back 166 Trouble Spotted 175 White Trash Gertrude 185 Back in Waycross 196 Santa Clause FEMA 217 TheTVInterview 228 Glossary 233 Upcoming Books 242 About the Author 245...

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A new Anthology of 1400 Quotations from the complete works arranged by theme.

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Commands Compassion, Empathy, Mercy and Forgiveness Compliments and their Opposites Conscience and Doubt Constancy, Trust and Faith Courage and Cowardice Crime, Punishment, Justice and the Law Death and Fate Dishonour, Dishonesty, Inconstancy and Betrayal Doctors, Illness, Medicine England and Elsewhere Freedom and Imprisonment Friendship Good Advice and Bad Good Wishes and their Opposites Happiness and Sadness, Humour and Gravity Honour and Honesty Kings and Kingship Journeys and Travel Language and the Arts Learning, Literature, Wit, Wisdom and Foolishness London Love and Jealousy, Hatred and Envy Lust, Desire, Passion, Sexuality Madness and Sanity Magic, Astrology, Superstition, and the Supernatural Men Music, Song and Dance Myths and Fables Nature , Trees, Flowers, Creatures Ownership, Money and Possession Prayers, Pleas, Curses, Threats and Promises Pride and Humility Rank and Status, Power, Order, Custom and Authority Service and Slavery Sleep, Waking, Dreams, Visions and Imagination Sons and Daughters Theatre, Drama and the Stage Time Truths, Truisms, Proverbs and Philosophy War and Co...

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Having lost her mother, and virtually rendered `orphan`, in the absence of `father`, a little girl Named Bhoomika, by dint of sheer circumstances, happens to reach a virgin teacher. Here, the `blessed opportunity for education` awaits her, as she is inspired and guided by this benevolent lady towards higher education. Once, she was offered a part-time job of `a reader for a blind class-fellow` of hers at Khadi Degree College, Guwahati: and she gladly accepted it. Of course, some nascent opportunities came to her, even in Delhi, when she was staying in a Working Women’s Hostel, while doing some odd jobs to support self, economically. But the travails of life also came her way; and she coped up with every sort of situation, by way of `fine-tuning` the responses from her brain and heart, every time, with an objective to attaining a quality decision from within. Having once been requested by very senior colleague to stay with one spinster Professor, during her illness, she served the lady so dutifully that the Professor persistently requested her to live with her till the young girl is married off. Having attained some extraordinary ...

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"In fact, I had never spoken to her even a single word, though she continued to send me signals for initiating a dialogue with her. I had to go to fetch my daily quota of water from the water-tap, provided at the back of her tenement, for all the four segments, in the vicinity. Almost every time, we had to place our buckets or utensils, in a queue, while waiting for our turn. Being shy of passing through the front lane, while approaching the water-tap, I preferred to walk along the back of the segment, in our front. God knows, how she could spot me from such a long distance that I had come out of my room, with buckets in my hands. Quite often, I marked her busy in looking towards me with furtive glances, while waiting for her turn, as she would deliberately waste her time, simply to ignore the fact of my arrival there and would thus make room for me to place my buckets before hers.” .......... It pains him to recall his last meeting with that `unfortunate girl`, who was destined to spend a spinster's life and breathe her last, while resting her head at Bihari's knee, who kept caressing her forehead, in the presence of her trusted ...

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Table of Contents IN THE HOTEL 8 LOOKING FOR HAPPINESS 10 WE MUST THINK MORE DEEPLY—AND UNDERSTAND OUR THINKING 20 OUR BASIC ASSUMPTIONS 24 -- THE FOUNDATIONS OF OUR VALUES -- 24 SELF-CENTEREDASSUMPTIONS 32 GODBASEDASSUMPTIONS 41 CONCEPTS OF GOD 45 3 WHAT IS GOD LIKE? 46 THEISM 49 PROOFS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 53 IS AMERICA A CHRISTIAN NATION? 57 WHO GETS TO GO TO HEAVEN? 63 DEISM 65 PANTHEISM AND PANENTHEISM 67 AGNOSTICISM 68 ATHEISM 71 SATANISM 96 AN IDEA OF A BETTER SOCIETY AS A BASIC ASSUMPTION 97 THE SOURCE OF POWER IN A SOCIETY 104 FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF A SOCIETY 104 TYPE OF GOVERNMENT108 USING GOD’S LAWS FOR SOCIETY 112 SOCIAL CONCERNS—DO UNTO OTHERS 114 ECONOMIC CONCERNS WHEN ESTABLISHING YOUR IDEAL SOCIETY 115 ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY117 THE WELFARE STATE—CRADLE TO GRAVE BENEFITS 119 RETIREMENT PENSIONS 125 HEALTH CARE128 HEALTH CARE AND AGING POPULATIONS 130 WORKING AND RESTING IN THE WELFARE STATE 131 POVERTY IS RELATIVE 134 PENSIONS 134 SICK LEAVE 135 HIGH TAXES 137 BALANCING THE BUDGET—TAXES FOR YOUR IDEAL SOCIETY 138 ECONOMIC GROWTH RATE 146 REAL WEALTH PER PERSON 147 BORROWING 147 BUDGET DEFICITS AND NATIONAL DEBTS 1...

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Having lost her mother, and virtually rendered `orphan`, in the absence of `father`, a little girl Named Bhoomika, by dint of sheer circumstances, happens to reach a virgin teacher. Here, the `blessed opportunity for education` awaits her, as she is inspired and guided by this benevolent lady towards higher education. Once, she was offered a part-time job of `a reader for a blind class-fellow` of hers at Khadi Degree College, Guhahati: and she gladly accepted it. Of course, some nascent opportunities came to her, even in Delhi, when she was staying in a Working Women’s Hostel, while doing some odd jobs to support self, economically. But the travails of life also came her way; and she coped up with every sort of situation, by way of `fine-tuning` the responses from her brain and heart, every time, with an objective to attaining a quality decision from within. Having once been requested by very senior colleague to stay with one spinster Professor, during her illness, she served the lady so dutifully that the Professor persistently requested her to live with her till the young girl is married off. Having attained some extraordinary ...

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"In fact, I had never spoken to her even a single word, though she continued to send me signals for initiating a dialogue with her. I had to go to fetch my daily quota of water from the water-tap, provided at the back of her tenement, for all the four segments, in the vicinity. Almost every time, we had to place our buckets or utensils, in a queue, while waiting for our turn. Being shy of passing through the front lane, while approaching the water-tap, I preferred to walk along the back of the segment, in our front. God knows, how she could spot me from such a long distance that I had come out of my room, with buckets in my hands. Quite often, I marked her busy in looking towards me with furtive glances, while waiting for her turn, as she would deliberately waste her time, simply to ignore the fact of my arrival there and would thus make room for me to place my buckets before hers.” .......... It pains him to recall his last meeting with that `unfortunate girl`, who was destined to spend a spinster's life and breathe her last, while resting her head at Bihari's knee, who kept caressing her forehead, in the presence of her trusted ...

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Noli Me Tangere (Latin for Touch Me Not) is a novel by the National Hero of the Philippines, Dr. José Rizal. It was originally written in Spanish, and first published in Germany in 1887. Noli Me Tangere exposed the corruption and abuse of the Spanish government and clergy towards the Philippine people and the ills of the Philippine society. This novel, and its sequel El Filibusterismo were banned in many parts of the Islands. Rizal was later arrested for inciting rebellion, based largely on his writings, and was excuted in Manila. Noli Me Tangere, and the execution of Rizal, indirectly influenced the Philippine revolution from Spain. Today, Noli Me Tangere is required reading in all Philippine Schools. (Summary by JoeD)...

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Literature, Politics

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Introduction: Francois Marie Arouet, who called himself Voltaire, was the son of Francois Arouet of Poitou, who lived in Paris, had given up his office of notary two years before the birth of this his third son, and obtained some years afterwards a treasurer?s office in the Chambre des Comptes. Voltaire was born in the year 1694. He lived until within ten or eleven years of the outbreak of the Great French Revolution, and was a chief leader in the movement of thought that preceded the Revolution. Though he lived to his eighty-fourth year, Voltaire was born with a weak body....

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Contents LETTER I.?ON THE QUAKERS .............................................................................................................................. 6 LETTER II.?ON THE QUAKERS .......................................................................................................................... 10 LETTER III.?ON THE QUAKERS ......................................................................................................................... 12 LETTER IV.?ON THE QUAKERS......................................................................................................................... 16 LETTER V.?ON THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND .................................................................................................. 20 LETTER VI.?ON THE PRESBYTERIANS............................................................................................................ 23 LETTER VII.?ON THE SOCINIANS, OR ARIANS, OR ANTITRINITARIANS ............................................. 24 LETTER VIII.?ON THE PARLIAMENT ............................................................................................................... ...

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AGAINST THE WAR follows the intertwined lives of four friends, rowing team mates, who graduate from college at the height of the Vietnam War and struggle to make decisions about the war and the military draft. Two become involved in the war, one as a combat pilot and one as a medic. The other two of the four friends, in trying to avoid the war, become involved in the “war on poverty,” the anti-war movement, and the counterculture that arises from the anti-war movement. In the course of the four and a half years covered in the novel, the four men also meet and court the women who become their eventual spouses. These women become part of the story as they position themselves with respect to the war and the women's liberation movement. In the course of this, also, the eight young people of the novel find themselves within an ever growing phenomenon involving thousands of American youths like themselves reacting to the same far-reaching dynamics of the counterculture and the war. "Menge's book reminds me of both Theodore Dreiser and John Dos Passos. It's a vast panorama with enormous attention to detail." David Willson, Vietnam War F...

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234. Morris is relocated from Sam Neua to a Lao village From Sam Neua, the group that included prisoner of war James Morris headed southwest, so far as he could determine from occasional glimpses of the sun through the canopy of leaves above the road on which the caravan was traveling. Then the shield of leaves dropped away briefly and Morris saw that the wagon was moving along on a road about 400 feet above a town with narrow streets and Chinese-style pagoda roofs. Some of the buildings were demolished and others were in flame. “That is Sam Neua, the actual town,” the third passenger informed. “Where was the camp then?” “Place called Xanthon. Just a few miles away.” “The damage here is from bombing?” “Yes, American planes.” “You’re a soldier?” Morris asked. The man was an American, Morris had already decided, based on the easy informality that he had learned set Americans off from other English-speaking people overseas. “No, I’m a clergyman. Catholic priest.” “Is that so?” “Yes. I’ve been working up in the mountains north of Long Thiueu for about five years. My name is Leonard Blair.” “Well, pleased to meet you, Father....

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PART I: UP AGAINST THE DRAFT 1. Steward brings his 1-A letter to the boat club 2. Brandt and Morris argue about the Vietnam war 3. O’Rourke steps in to bring the crew on task 4. Morris offers Steward a way out of the draft 5. Brandt asks about his dad’s experience in World War Two 6. Brandt struggles to accommodate to Mary Kass’s cultural interests 7. Brandt leaves Mary behind to avoid an audience discussion 8. Mary goes after Matt; they come upon Morris in uniform 9. Brandt rescues Morris in a fight with an antiwar demonstrator 10. Steward gets some heartfelt advice from Barbara Carpenter 11. Steward visits his draft board to ask about his status 12. Steward bores Mary’s sister, Ellen; she winds up with Morris 13. Matt and Mary discuss their relationship and make a commitment 14. VISTA trainee Brandt learns about social problems, meets Dennis Kelly 15. Steward starts Air Force ROTC camp with roommate Orin Brown 16. Steward gives the Air Force camp his sincere best effort 17. Steward “orientates” with Air Force social worker Gary Hansard 18. Brandt arrives at his assigned VISTA worksite in Crabtree, Kentucky 19. B...

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The whole paradoxist distich should be as a geometric unitary parabola, hyperbola, ellipse at the borders between art, philosophy, rebus, and mathematics – which exist in complementariness. The School of Paradoxist Literature, which evolved around 1980s, continues through these bi-verses closed in a new lyric exact formula, but with an opening to essence. For this kind of procedural poems one can elaborate mathematical algorithms and implement them in a computer: but, it is preferable a machine with … soul!...

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I M M O D E S T With the shame Shamelessness U N D E C I D E D Fighting Himself J A Z Z ( I ) Melodious Anarchy J A Z Z ( I I ) Anarchic Melody...

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Fore/word and Back/word _________ 3 The making of the distich : _____ 3 Characteristics: ______________ 3 Historical considerations: _____ 5 Types of Paradoxist distiches ___ 8 1. Clichés paraphrased: ___ 8 2. Parodies: _____________ 8 3. Reversed formulae: ____ 8 4. Double negation _______ 8 5. Double affirmation, ____ 8 6. Turn around on false tracks: _________________ 8 7. Hyperboles (exaggerated): __________________ 8 8. With nuance changeable from the title: ________ 8 9. Epigrammatic: ________ 8 10. Pseudo-paradoxes: ___ 8 11. Tautologies: ________ 9 12. Redundant: _________ 9 13. Based on pleonasms: _ 9 14. or on anti-pleonasms: 9 15. Substitution of the attribute in collocations ___ 9 16. Substitution of the complement in collocations 9 17. Permutation of various parts of the whole: ___ 9 18. The negation of the clichés ______________ 10 19. Antonymization (substantively, adjectively, etc.) ________________ 10 20. Fable against the grain: _________________ 10 21. Change in grammatical category (preserving substitutions’ homonymy): ________________ 10 22. Epistolary or colloquia style: _________...