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Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad has produced one of the terse wrestles with the darker side of our own minds. Is there anything we are not capable of doing?
If you had lived in this country long, M'seur, you would have heard of _la Maison de Mort Rouge_ "The House of the Red Death, as you would call it. "That is where we are now —deep in the dungeon room. Once upon a time it was a Hudson Bay post, abandoned almost since I can remember. When I was a child the smallpox plague tore through this way and killed all the people in its path. Nineteen years ago the red plague came again, and again, not one person lived through it in this _Poste de Mort Rouge._ "Since then it has been left to the weasels and the owls and even they have died. It is shunned by every living soul between the Athabasca and the bay. And I shall leave you here. Perhaps you will be safe? "At least, no one shall disturb you." I Found King Solomon's Mines by the legendary H. Rider Haggard The Man In The Iron Mask by the great Alexandre Dumas The Black Tulip is another swashbuckler by the great Alexandre Dumas. This one is definitely a rip-roaring success and one for those of mature stalwart character for you will definitely find blood and revenge poured out. Westward, ever westward the tide of "civilization" pushed in 1846. Our two innocents seek a little innocent excitement by riding across the broad prairie all by themselves. They encounter British soldiers, French traders and troubles by the dozen with horses and camps to make this novel a tautly told tale of the old wild west as it really was -- along the Oregon Trail, before "civilization" had tamed it.
My men were children of the dragon's blood, and if they had no outland foe to fight and no outlet for their vigorous and daring energy, there was always the chance of their fighting one another: but the great majority, if given the chance to do hard or dangerous work, availed themselves of it with the utmost eagerness. Theodore Roosevelt... Read the rousing story of The Rough Riders.
A rich man's son has tumbled into the sea. He is picked up by a fishing boat, that pays no mind to his fairy tales of wealth, and puts him to work for ten dollars per month, cleaning fish. Everything he ever knew about life or men is soon cast overboard. The only thing that counts here is hard work and sharp wits. You'll learn a lot about little fishing ships in this book.. ships and grief -- and fish. Tight quarters and penetrating smells, stars to steer by and the threat of death creeping in with the fog every night. This story is not for children, and young adults will scarcely believe their ears if you read this to the The Power of Love by Joseph Conrad. It started out with a simple mistake, made in the throes of darkness. A simple farm boy is thrust into the role of a fighting rogue and either he assumes the character or his life is forfeit. The longer he lives the darker it gets. At last, only the power of love can save John Kemp. *** Lost Tales of Love and Romance From Robin Hood to William Short Nose.
The Day of the Boomer Dukes, by Frederik Pohl Love of Life by Jack London Because Call of the Wild was so wildly successful we sometimes forget that Jack London had many other titles of wildly successful books. At a mere penny per word it is excusable that Jack London produced some work that was less than perfect and fell to the wayside, but as he began to add notches to his belt to accommodate a larger girth, his natural genius was given the time it needed to produce exceedingly great works. The forests of then were not as now they seem. Chestnut trees covered the land from the east coast to the Mississippi. Their spreading boughs sheltered the pigeon, their fruit fed a population of teeming wild life. Even without game trails, walking in almost a straight line was possible for all the trees were old and brush did not cumber a man's way.The savages of that time were said to be more Christian in their attitudes than any nation in Europe. Before the Spaniards unleashed their terrifying religion, before the English seized their claim to turf, there were Frenchmen that could, and did, walk among the savages without arms, and without fear. But, you know what? There is not one of the other Pioneers of this continent whose achievements equal those of the Chevalier Robert de la Salle. He passed over thousands of miles of lakes and rivers in the birch canoe. He traversed countless leagues of prairie and forest, on foot, guided by the moccasined Indian, threading trails which the white man's foot had never trod, and penetrating the villages and the wigwams of natives with unknown names and tongues. |
