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Pavel Dominik

    Pale fire : a novel
    Glory
    The importance of being earnest
    Povídky / 2 1930-1937
    Tremendous Trifles
    Kaleidoscope and Other Short Stories
    • Kaleidoscope and Other Short Stories

      • 191 pages
      • 7 hours of reading

      Une audio-cassette accompagne le livre (60 mn). Appartient à la collection livre de poche et à la collection les langues modernes. Choix et annotations par William B. Barrie

      Kaleidoscope and Other Short Stories
      4.6
    • Tremendous Trifles

      • 150 pages
      • 6 hours of reading

      The thirty-nine short essays that make up Chesterton's delightful book are the result of "sitting still and letting marvels and adventures settle on him like flies." Actually, the author does move around quite a bit-to Germany, France, and on foot in England when he tires of waiting for a train. Everywhere he goes, Chesterton looks at ordinary things and asks us to see how extraordinary they are: the contents of his pockets, the items in a railway station, pedestrians in the street. What appear to be trifles are actually tremendous, and he uses them as a springboard to expound on Christianity, the nuclear family, democracy, and the like with supreme clarity and wit. The essays gathered here are a testament to G.K. Chesterton's faith-not his faith in religion or a higher power, but in the ability to discover something wonderful in the objects, the experiences, and the people that cross our paths every single day. With his unique brand of humor and insight, he demonstrates how the commonplace adds enormous value to the landscape of daily life. Full of both good sense and nonsense, Chesterton's commentaries-first published nearly a century ago-remain fresh today.

      Tremendous Trifles
      4.5
    • Dvaadvacet próz, jež tvoří druhý ze tří svazků souborného vydání Nabokovovy povídkové tvorby, přesvědčivě dokládá rychlý rozvoj autorova prozaického nadání i schopnost vracet se v nových a nápaditých variacích ke klíčovým tématům a motivům. Vstup do druhého desetiletí berlínského pobytu přináší v Nabokovově díle nové obrazy života v emigraci a reminiscence dětství v předrevolučním Rusku, spolu s nimi však i rostoucí pozornost vůči zostřující se atmosféře nacistického Německa. Přes mimořádnou vnímavost k podrobnostem a proměnám okolního světa ale Nabokov zůstává i v prózách ze třicátých let především tvůrcem bytostně zaujatým obecnými tématy lidské existence a formálním a estetickým potenciálem literárního textu. Čtrnáct z textů svazku vychází česky vůbec poprvé, překlady ostatních byly pro nové vydání revidovány nebo nahrazeny dosud nepublikovanými.

      Povídky / 2 1930-1937
      4.5
    • Englische Literatur in Reclams Roter Reihe: das ist der englische Originaltext – mit Worterklärungen am Fuß jeder Seite, Nachwort und Literaturhinweisen. »A Trivial Comedy for Serious People« lautet der Untertitel zu Wildes berühmtester und meistgespielter Gesellschaftskomödie, die auch unter dem Namen »Bunbury« bekannt ist. Ein brillantes, doppelbödiges Spiel voller Witz und Charme, nach dem Motto: »In matters of great importance, style, not sincerity is the vital thing.« Englische Lektüre: Niveau C1 (GER)

      The importance of being earnest
      4.3
    • Glory

      • 192 pages
      • 7 hours of reading

      A novel by the author of Mary, The Eye, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, Transparent Things and Lolita.

      Glory
      4.2
    • A darkly comic novel of suspense, literary idolatry and one-upmanship, and political intrigue from one of the leading writers of the twentieth century, the acclaimed author of Lolita. "Half-poem, half-prose...a creation of perfect beauty, symmetry, strangeness, originality and moral truth. One of the great works of art of this century." —Mary McCarthy, New York Times bestselling author of The Group An ingeniously constructed parody of detective fiction and learned commentary, Pale Fire offers a cornucopia of deceptive pleasures, at the center of which is a 999-line poem written by the literary genius John Shade just before his death. Surrounding the poem is a foreword and commentary by the demented scholar Charles Kinbote, who interweaves adoring literary analysis with the fantastical tale of an assassin from the land of Zembla in pursuit of a deposed king. Brilliantly constructed and wildly inventive, Vladimir Nabokov's witty novel achieves that rarest of things in literature—perfect tragicomic balance.

      Pale fire : a novel
      4.2
    • Details of a Sunset: and Other Stories

      • 180 pages
      • 7 hours of reading

      Details of a sunset --Bad day --Orache --Return of Chorb --Passenger --Letter that never reached Russia --Guide to Berlin --Doorbell --Thunderstorm --Reunion --Slice of life --Christmas --Busy man.

      Details of a Sunset: and Other Stories
      4.2
    • On the country estate of his art-collecting uncle, Van Veen meets Ada, his beautiful cousin. Their relationship flourishes, but both were born into one of America's illustrious families, a vast over-extended empire, and this causes problems for the lovers.

      Ada
      4.2
    • An automobile accident strands Nero Wolfe and Archie in the middle of a private pasture--and a family feud over a prize bull.The feud is about a restauranteur's plan to buy the stud and barbecue it as a publicity stunt. It may be in poor taste, but it isn't a crime . . . until Hickory Caesar Grindon, the soon-to-be-beefsteak bull, is found pawing the remains of a family scion. Wolfe is sure the idea that Caesar is the murderer is, well, pure bull. Now the great detective is on the horns of a dilemma as a veritable stampede of suspects--including a young lady Archie has his eye on--conceals a special breed of killer who wins a blue ribbon for sheer audacity.A grand master of the form, Rex Stout was one of America's greatest mystery writers, and his literary creation Nero Wolfe is one of the greatest fictional detectives of all time. Together, Stout and Wolfe have entertained--and puzzled--millions of mystery fans around the world. Along with Archie Goodwin, his perambulatory man-about-town, the arrogant, gourmandizing, sedentary sleuth Nero Wolfe stars in seventy-three cases of crime and detection.

      Some buried Ceasar
      4.2
    • 'Vladimir Nabokov was a literary genius' David Lodge'Of all my novels this bright brute is the gayest', Nabokov wrote of King, Queen, Knave. Comic, sensual and cerebral, it dramatizes an Oedipal love triangle, a tragi-comedy of husband, wife and lover, through Dreyer the rich businessman, his ripe- lipped ad mercenary wife Martha, and their bespectacled nephew Franz. 'If a resolute Freudian manages to slip in' - Nabokov darts a glance to the reader - 'he or she should be warned that a number of cruel traps have been set here and there...

      King, Queen, Knave
      4.2
    • When Priscilla Eads, heiress to the fortune of a cotton towel company, implores Nero Wolfe to sort through a case buried in dirty laundry, Wolfe says no. But hours later, Mrs. Eads and her maid get strangled, and the stories of the suspects don't quite wash.To the dismay of a greedy board of directors and Mrs. Eads' gold-digging ex-husband, the astute Wolfe decides to scrub away the stain of murder.6 hrs. 23 min.

      Prisoner's Base
      4.2
    • Nabokov's first novel is now available in a trade paper edition. Here is the dark tale of a handsome officer who lives next door to his lover's husband in a dreary Berlin boarding house.

      Mary
      4.1
    • Speak, Memory

      An Autobiography Revisited

      • 256 pages
      • 9 hours of reading

      From one of the 20th century's great writers comes one of the finest autobiographies of our time. Speak, Memory, first published in 1951 as Conclusive Evidence and then assiduously revised in 1966, is an elegant and rich evocation of Nabokov’s life and times, even as it offers incisive insights into his major works, including Lolita, Pnin, Despair, The Gift, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, and The Luhzin Defense. One of the 20th century’s master prose stylists, Vladimir Nabokov was born in St. Petersburg in 1899. He studied French and Russian literature at Trinity College, Cambridge, then lived in Berlin and Paris, where he launched a brilliant literary career. In 1940 he moved to the United States, and achieved renown as a novelist, poet, critic, and translator. He taught literature at Wellesley, Stanford, Cornell, and Harvard. In 1961 he moved to Montreux, Switzerland, where he died in 1977.

      Speak, Memory
      4.1
    • Midnight's children

      • 463 pages
      • 17 hours of reading

      The life of a man born at the moment of India's independence becomes inextricably linked to that of his nation and is a whirlwind of disasters and triumphs that mirror modern India's course, in a twenty-fifth anniversary edition of the Booker Prize-winning novel

      Midnight's children
      4.0
    • Takes us into the prison-world of Cincinnatus, a man condemned to death and spending his last days in prison not quite knowing when the end will come. schovat popis

      Penguin Modern Classics: Invitation to Beheading
      4.0
    • Following the death of a famous novelist, his half brother sets out to uncover the truth behind the two great loves of the man's life -- and uncovers more than the enigmatic legacy of the writer

      The Real Life of Sebastian Knight
      4.0
    • "Moor" Zogoiby, only son of a wealthy, artistic Bombay family, finds himself at crisis point. After a tragic love affair, he plunges into a life of depravity in Bombay before leaving for involvement in financial scandal in London and, ultimately, violence in Spain

      The Moor's Last Sigh
      4.0
    • Lolita

      • 331 pages
      • 12 hours of reading

      'Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of my tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.' Humbert Humbert is a middle-aged, frustrated college professor. In love with his landlady's twelve-year-old daughter Lolita, he'll do anything to possess her. Unable and unwilling to stop himself, he is prepared to commit any crime to get what he wants. Is he in love or insane? A silver-tongued poet or a pervert? A tortured soul or a monster? Or is he all of these?

      Lolita
      4.0
    • The controversial, erotic and hilarious companion to the legendary 'Tropic of Cancer', in a new Perennial Modern Classics edition.

      Tropic of Capricorn
      3.9
    • Neznámí pachatelé vyhodí do vzduchu jachtu profesora Meyera. Při výbuchu zahynou tři lidé, mezi nimi profesorova neteř, která se před nedávnem vdala. Vypátrat viníky se snaží dlouholetý profesorův přítel Travis McGee, který postupně shromažďuje fakta a rozplétá složitý příběh podvodníka. Nakonec odhaluje prohnaného několikanásobného vraha, jenž pod různými jmény sváděl a zabíjel ženy, aby získal jejich peníze.

      Skořicová pleť
      3.7
    • Pnin

      • 176 pages
      • 7 hours of reading

      In this moving, amusing story of a seeming born loser at odds with the New World, there is all the pathos of a generation cruelly and irrecoverably severed from its past.

      Pnin
      3.9
    • Penguin Modern Classics: Bend Sinister

      • 208 pages
      • 8 hours of reading

      The state has been recently taken over and is being run by the tyrannical and philistine ‘Average Man’ party. Under the slogans of equality and happiness for all, it has done away with individualism and freedom of thought. Only John Krug, a brilliant philosopher, stands up to the regime. His antagonist, the leader of the new party, is his old school enemy, Paduk – known as the ‘Toad’. Grieving over his wife’s recent death, Krug is at first dismissive of Paduk’s activities and sees no threat in them. But the sinister machine which Paduk has set in motion may prove stronger than the individual, stronger even than the grotesque ‘Toad’ himself. The first novel Nabokov wrote while living in America and the most overtly political novel he ever wrote, Bend Sinister is a modern classic. While it is filled with veiled puns and characteristically delightful wordplay, it is, first and foremost, a haunting and compelling narrative about a civilized man caught in the tyranny of a police state. Professor Adam Krug, the country's foremost philosopher, offers the only hope of resistance to Paduk, dictator and leader of the Party of the Average Man. In a folly of bureaucratic bungling and ineptitude, the government attempts to co-opt Krug's support in order to validate the new regime.

      Penguin Modern Classics: Bend Sinister
      3.8
    • The Life and Times of Michael K

      • 192 pages
      • 7 hours of reading

      Coetzee here tells the story of a handicapped young man who has worked as a municipal gardener in Cape Town. His mother is dying, and she wishes to return to her birthplace out in the veldt. Without the required transit passes, mother and son set out on a journey that will end in death for her and in a new but temporary life on an abandoned farm for him. His respite in isolation and peace does not last long, however; grotesque reality soon returns to trouble this quiet new world. Against the solitude of this private drama, Coetzee paints an eloquent and pained picture of his homeland and of the bureaucrats, doctors, army deserters, and camp guards who reveal the stress and qualms of their existence and who uneasily sense that there is no conclusion to their troubles and no future for their lives.

      The Life and Times of Michael K
      3.8
    • Shame

      • 288 pages
      • 11 hours of reading

      "Omar Khayyam Shakil had three mothers who shared the smptoms of pregnancy, as they did everything else, inseparably. At their six breasts, Omar was warned against all feelings and nuances of shame. it was training which would prove useful when he left his mothers' fortress (via the dumb-waiter) to face his shameless future. As captivating fairy-tale, devastating political satire and exquisite, uproarious entertainment, Shame is a novel without rival." -- Back cover.

      Shame
      3.8
    • Freddie Montgomery is a gentleman first and a murderer second. He committed two crimes - he stole a painting from a wealthy family friend and he killed a chambermaid who caught him in the act. Here he tells his story

      The book of evidence
      3.8
    • Соглядатай

      • 112 pages
      • 4 hours of reading

      "Соглядатай" (1930) - повесть выдающегося русского писателя Владимира Набокова, иронично и виртуозно обыгрывающая давнюю литературную тему двойничества. Главный герой повествования, живущий в Берлине русский эмигрант, оскорбительным образом избит ревнивым мужем своей любовницы и, не в силах пережить унижения, решается на самоубийство. Однако и в "послесмертии" его не до конца умершее "я" продолжает существовать среди знакомых ему прежде людей, переживает неразделенную любовь и внимательно соглядатайствует за человеком по фамилии Смуров, загадку личности которого автор раскрывает лишь в самом конце повести.

      Соглядатай
      3.7
    • Smurov, a fussily self-conscious Russian tutor, shoots himself after a humiliating beating by his mistress' husband. Unsure whether his suicide has been successful or not, Smurov drifts around Berlin, observing his acquaintances, but finds he can discover very little about his own life from the opinions of his distracted, confused fellow-emigres.

      The Eye
      3.7
    • Tropic of Cancer

      • 320 pages
      • 12 hours of reading

      Miller's groundbreaking first novel, banned in Britain for almost thirty years. A penniless and as yet unpublished writer, Henry Miller arrived in Paris in 1930. Leaving behind a disintegrating marriage and an unhappy career in America, he threw himself into the low-life of bohemian Paris with unwavering gusto. A fictional account of Miller's adventures amongst the prostitutes and pimps, the penniless painters and writers of Montparnasse, Tropic of Cancer is an extravagant and rhapsodic hymn to a world of unrivalled eroticism and freedom. Tropic of Cancer's 1934 publication in France was hailed by Samuel Beckett as 'a momentous event in the history of modern writing'. The novel was subsequently banned in the UK and the USA and not released for publication for a further thirty years.

      Tropic of Cancer
      3.7
    • With his fortieth birthday receding into the distance, along with his hairline and his most successful novel, the writer Nathan Zuckerman comes down with a mysterious affliction - pure pain, beginning in his neck and shoulders, invading his torso, and taking possession of his spirit. What will it take for the pain to finally leave him alone?

      The Anatomy Lesson
      3.7
    • The Enchantress of Florence

      • 368 pages
      • 13 hours of reading

      A tall, yellow-haired young European traveler, calling himself 'Mogor dell'Amore', arrives at the court of the Grand Mughal, Emperor Akbar, with a captivating tale that soon captivates the entire imperial capital. He claims to be the child of a lost Mughal princess, Qara K z, 'Lady Black Eyes', renowned for her beauty and rumored powers of enchantment. Captured by an Uzbek warlord and later the Shah of Persia, she ultimately becomes the lover of Argalia, a Florentine soldier of fortune and commander of the Ottoman Sultan's armies. When Argalia returns to Florence with his Mughal mistress, her presence mesmerizes the city, leading to a series of troubles. The narrative explores a woman's struggle for autonomy in a patriarchal society, juxtaposing the hedonistic Mughal capital, where Akbar grapples with belief, desire, and familial treachery, with the sensual yet brutal world of Florence, where Niccol Machiavelli learns about the harsh realities of power. Despite their geographical distance, these worlds reveal striking similarities, with the enchantments of women influencing both. The story raises questions about the truth of Mogor's claims and the fate of the lost princess, leaving readers to ponder the consequences of deceit.

      The Enchantress of Florence
      3.6
    • East, West

      • 192 pages
      • 7 hours of reading

      From the Booker Prize-winning author of The Satanic Verses comes nine stories that reveal the oceanic distances and the unexpected intimacies between East and West. Daring, extravagant, comical and humane, this book renews Rushdie's stature as a storyteller who can enthrall and instruct us with the same sentence.

      East, West
      3.6
    • Fury : a novel

      • 272 pages
      • 10 hours of reading

      Malik Solanka, a middle-aged ex-philosophy professor and millionaire creator of a hugely popular doll, seeks refuge from his unwanted fame and disintegrating marriage in New York City.

      Fury : a novel
      3.4