Over a century and a half after its publication, Moby-Dick still stands as an indisputable literary classic. It is the story of an eerily compelling madman pursuing an unholy war against a creature as vast and dangerous and unknowable as the sea itself. But more than just a novel of adventure, more than an encyclopedia of whaling lore and legend, Moby-Dick is a haunting, mesmerizing, and important social commentary populated with several of the most...

The Piazza Tales (1856) is a collection of short stories by American writer Herman Melville. Before publication, five of its six stories appeared in Putnam's Monthly during a period of productivity with which Melville sought to achieve popular success as a writer of literary fiction. After the failure of his novels Moby-Dick (1851) and Pierre: or, The Ambiguities (1852), Melville struggled to find a publisher who would accept his work, and contemporary...

June 1631 - Baltimore, Ireland

"Malcolm woke up just before dawn broke over the cove. He heard a loud crash and climbed out of bed. He sniffed the air and smelled smoke. He was barely six years old, but he knew something bad was happening. He heard a knock at the door and went to open it. Standing on the threshold was a fierce-looking Turkish janissary wearing a long red tunic and a traditional bork with a jewelled ornament affixed to the

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"No better introduction to William Shakespeare's dramatic masterpieces exists than the delightful prose adaptations of Charles and Mary Lamb. Charles Lamb, perhaps the preeminent essayist in English lierature, and his gifted sister selected twenty of Shakespeare's best-known plays and set out to make them accessible to children and to pay enthusiastic homage to the original works." -- Book jacket.

Extrait : "Lorsque le vent s'est élevé avec trop de violence et que la mer a grossi de manière à empêcher le navire de continuer sa route au milieu des lames dont le choc pourrait l'endommager, on met à la cape, sous une voile que l'on présente obliquement au vent. Dans cette position, le bâtiment, conservant très peu de vitesse, dérive en cédant plutt à l'impression de chaque vague, qu'en y résistant..." À PROPOS DES ÉDITIONS LIGARAN Les...

In thirteen electrifying stories, our very first all-Latin-American issue takes on the crime story as a starting point, and expands to explore contemporary life from every angle-swinging from secret Venezuelan prisons to Uruguayan resorts to blood-drenched bedrooms in Mexico and Peru, and even, briefly, to Epcot Center and the Havana home of a Cuban transsexual named Amy Winehouse. Featuring contemporary writers from ten different countries-including...

This fascinating novel reconstructs the story of Will Adams, a native of Gillingham, in Kent, England, and his voyage to Japan in the seventeenth century. Adams' knowledge of seafaring vessels at the time causes him to be taken into the favor of the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu and, in time, to become recognized as the founder of the Japanese navy. Adams was one of the most picturesque and daring of Britain's maritime traders, and this depiction of him...

Extrait : "Lorsqu'après avoir longtemps couru de nombreuses bordées contre le vent, nous nous trouvâmes rendus à vingt-cinq ou trente lieues par le travers du cap Finistère, sans n'avoir fait aucune rencontre importante, le commandant décacheta les instructions qu'il avait reçu l'ordre de n'ouvrir qu'à cette hauteur. L'accomplissement de cette formalité mystérieuse eut, je me le rappelle, quelque chose de solennel ; c'étaient en quelque...

Une édition de référence des Travailleurs de la mer de Victor Hugo, spécialement conçue pour la lecture sur les supports numériques. « La Christmas de 182... fut remarquable à Guernesey. Il neigea ce jour-là. Dans les îles de la Manche, un hiver o il gèle à glace est mémorable, et la neige fait évènement. Le matin de cette Christmas, la route qui longe la mer de Saint-Pierre-Port au Valle était toute blanche. Il avait neigé depuis...

Extrait: "Les hommes taupes sont assoupis au fond des boyaux. Au ras de la tranchée, des coquelicots se balancent au soleil. De temps en temps, une marmite passe avec un bourdonnement étrange, irrégulier, semblable au roulement d'un railway aérien, et va s'écraser plus loin."