Arbuthnot has a sudden urge to travel to the Pacific islands after his wife’s death. He gets on a yacht with two friends, Bickley, a doctor, Bastin, a minister, and Arbuthnot’s dog, Tommy. The craft is then taken by a cyclone after all the crew abandons ship. When the three adventurers awaken, they find themselves shipwrecked on the South Sea island of Orofena.

Mr. Meeson’s Will is the story of mean Mr. Meeson, the greedy and wealthy owner of a publishing house. Augusta Smithers is a young writer who enters into an unfair contract with Meeson. In order to make a fresh start she boards a steamer bound for New Zealand only to find her enemy is on the same ship.

The hero of the story is Alan Vernon, a young retired army major, who, after undergoing financial ruin, decides to travel to Africa to make his fortune, in hopes of eventually winning the hand of beautiful Barbara Champers-Haswell. Vernon has heard of a mysterious kingdom ruled by the priestess and plans to help himself to the gold found there.

The Red Rover presents some of the first serious depictions of characters of African lineage in American literature. The novel follows the activities of the sailor Dick Fid, free black sailor Scipio Africanus and Royal Navy officer James Wilder as they encounter the famous pirate, «The Red Rover».

Written at various times, under various influences, the four stories contained in Within the Tides are linked by Conrad’s treatment of loyalty and betrayal. They range in setting from the Far East via eighteenth-century Spain to England. The tone shifts from the tragic inevitability of The Planter of Malata and the pathos of Because of the Dollars to the gothic The Inn of the Two Witches and the grim humour of The Vartner. The form of the stories was experimental but does not obscure Conrad’s humanity or his search for moral truth.

Joseph Conrad, was a Polish-British writer regarded as one of the greatest novelists to write in the English language. Though he did not speak English fluently until his twenties, he was a master prose stylist who brought a non-English sensibility into English literature. The stories contained in this volume take rank with the most mature and romantic of his work. The charming love and adventure of the life which he depicts in remote places confirm the growing belief that he is among the greatest of living creative writers.

James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the first half of the 19th century. His historical romances of frontier and Indian life in the early American days created a unique form of American literature. Jack Tier; or, the Florida Reefs is a novel by James Fenimore Cooper. Set during the Mexican-American war, the novel relates a untraditional lovestory.

The Crater; or, Vulcan’s Peak: a Tale of the Pacific is a novel in which Cooper incorporated knowledge of ship construction he had acquired while working as a U.S. Navy midshipman in the 1810s. From merely surviving the loss of his shipmates and the embayment of his ship within The Reef, protagonist and role-model Mark Woolston goes on to thrive by his own industry. Following a regional volcanic upheaval which raises new land, he founds a similarly industrious and thriving colony after escaping from, then returning to, The Reef. The outnumbered colonists must defend their new homes and possessions against natives who covet the new land.

James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the first half of the 19th century. His historical romances of frontier and Indian life in the early American days created a unique form of American literature. Satanstoe is novel is the first of a three novel cycle, followed by The Chainbearer and The Redskins. The novel is a fictional autobiography which explores the 18th century colony of New York.

Romance is a novel written by Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Ford, The novel was adapted into the film The Road to Romance. Serafina is captured by Don Balthasar’s pirates on a Caribbean island, when Jose Armando arrives from Spain to the rescue.

In Red Eve Henry Raider Haggard sets a suspenseful love story against some of the most dramatic events in history, including the devastation wrought by the Black Plague. Will dashing protagonist Hugh de Cressi survive long enough to live happily ever after with his true love?

Afloat and Ashore is a nautical fiction novel by James Fenimore Cooper. Set in 1796-1804, the novel follows the maritime adventures of Miles Wallingford Jr. , the son of wealthy New York landowners who chooses to go to sea after the death of his parents. The novel is partially autobiographical, in part by Cooper’s own experiences as a sailor, and is his first full-length novel to fully employ a first-person narrative.

Бурная история России на каждом переломном этапе порождала великих государственный деятелей — мыслителей, идеологов, преобразователей. При этом на отечественной политической авансцене крайне редки персоны, которых можно назвать идеальными исполнителями, способными воплотить в жизнь грандиозные предначертания. К таким личностям, без сомнения, относится военный министр Российской империи граф Алексей Андреевич Аракчеев (1769—1834), чьим геральдическим девизом было «Без лести предан». Уже при жизни Аракчеев стал легендой. Иностранцы видели в нем верховного визиря империи, а по мнению соотечественников, Аракчеев был практически вице-императором. И в годы могущества, и после смерти Аракчеев вызывал страх и неприязнь равно и у «либералов», и у «консерваторов». Ибо он всегда стоял особняком и был истинным символом самодержавия. Основу настоящего издания составляет архивный материал: переписка Аракчеева, охватывающая период с 1796 по 1833 годы: 489 писем — это самая обширная на сегодняшний день подборка, и публикация исторических документов. Предваряет книгу психологический портрет «железного графа», созданный доктором медицины, профессором В. Ф. Чижом. В приложении приводятся многочисленные воспоминания современников, чьи имена на слуху у всех любителей отечественной истории.