The late eighteenth-century world in which Jane Austen lived was one that combined good sense, elegant manners, intelligence and piety with a liberal dash of spirited fun. Small wonder that she felt so at home in it.
A young man named Dorian Gray has a portrait painted of himself. The artist and another friend convince Dorian that the only important thing in life is beauty, which causes Dorian great distress as he realises that he must age and therefore lose his beauty. To prevent such a catastrophe he sells his soul in exchange for the ability to remain young and attractive forever. But something sinister is lurking in the portrait which he had painted of himself
A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man by James Joyce. (Abridged Audiobook + Texts)
"You have asked me what I would do and what I would not do. I will tell you what I will do and what I will not do. I will not serve in that which I no longer believe whether it call itself my home, my fatherland or my church: and I will try to express myself in some mode of art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can, using for my defence the only arms I allow myself to use-silence, exile, and cunning".
James Joyce - "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man", ch. 5
Londoners: The Days and Nights of London Now--As Told by Those Who Love It, Hate It, Live It, Left It, and Long for It
Five years in the making, and published on the eve of the 2012 Olympics, "Londoners" is a fresh and compulsively readable view of one of the world's most fascinating cities--a vibrant, narrative portrait of contemporary London, featuring unforgettable stories told by the real people who make the city hum.
Charlie Bone awakes one morning to find the city covered with snow and all the animals gone. Where have they gone - and why? Blessed the dog tells Billy there was a terrible shuddering of the earth and immediately after, he saw a witch with two shadows crossing the hall in the Bloor's Academy. Could the discovery of an ancient mirror, and the movement of the shadow in the Red King's portrait have something to do with it? And a strange girl appears outside Charlie's house. She tells him he must follow her to find the animals. Can he trust her, and will she perhaps lead him to find someone he lost long before the animals?
