Showing results by narrator "Geoffrey Giuliano" in All Categories

Wuthering Heights is a fierce and haunting tale of love, vengeance, and the wild forces that shape the human heart. Set against the storm-lashed moors of northern England, the story follows the doomed and unforgettable bond between Heathcliff, a brooding foundling of mysterious origin, and Catherine Earnshaw, the restless young woman who becomes both his salvation and his torment.

Dracula is a novel by Bram Stoker, published in 1897. As an epistolary novel, the narrative is related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist but opens with solicitor Jonathan Harker taking a business trip to stay at the castle of a Transylvanian nobleman, Count Dracula. Harker escapes the castle after discovering that Dracula is a vampire, and the Count moves to England and plagues the seaside town of Whitby. A small group, led by Abraham Van Helsing, hunt Dracula and, in the end, kill him.

The story centers on Charles Marlow, who narrates most of the book. He is an Englishman who takes a foreign assignment from a Belgian trading company as a river-boat captain in Africa. Heart of Darkness exposes the dark side of European colonization while exploring the three levels of darkness that the protagonist, Marlow, encounters: the darkness of the Congo wilderness, the darkness of the Europeans' cruel treatment of the African natives, and the unfathomable darkness within every human being for committing heinous acts of evil.

When you dive into Mark Twain’s The Innocents Abroad, you have to be ready to learn more about the unadorned, ungilded reality of 19th-century “touring” than you might think you want to learn. This is a tough literary journey. It was tough for Twain and his fellow “pilgrims”, both religious and otherwise. They set out, on a June day in 1867, to visit major tourist sites in Europe and the near east, including Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, “the Holy Land”, and Egypt. What Twain records are the day-to-day ups and downs of discovering the truth about people and places.

Charles Dickens was an English writer and social critic who lived during the 19th century. He is considered one of the greatest novelists of the Victorian era and is known for his vivid portrayals of the social and economic conditions of the time. His works often addressed issues of poverty, social injustice, and class struggle, and he is credited with helping to raise public awareness of these issues. Some of his most famous works include "Oliver Twist," "A Tale of Two Cities," and "Great Expectations."

Anne of Avonlea is a novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery. It was first published in 1909. Following Anne of Green Gables (1908), the book covers the second chapter in the life of Anne Shirley. This book follows Anne from the age of 16 to 18, during the two years that she teaches at Avonlea school. It includes many of the characters from Anne of Green Gables, as well new ones like Mr. Harrison, Miss Lavendar Lewis, Paul Irving, and the twins Dora and Davy.

Jane Eyre is the story of a young woman who grows up with almost nothing except her own determination, sense of fairness, and desire for dignity. Orphaned as a child and raised in a household where she is unwanted, Jane is sent to a harsh school that teaches her early the realities of struggle, loneliness, and endurance.

Arms and the Man is a comedy by George Bernard Shaw that takes place in 1885, during the Serbo-Bulgarian War. Raina Petkoff is engaged to the gallant Sergius Saranoff, hero of the recent Bulgarian victory over the Serbs. But she is distracted by the abrupt arrival of Captain Bluntschli, a Swiss mercenary who fought for the Serbian army. He takes refuge in her bedroom after the battle and although he is initially threatening, reveals that he carries chocolate creams instead of bullets. Will Raina marry the posturing Sergius or the chocolate cream soldier?

Crime and Punishment, and Notes from Underground are two of the most famous novels written by Fyodor Dostoevsky, a Russian author widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. These three books, in particular, are often cited as among his greatest works.

1984 by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley are two of the most famous and influential dystopian novels ever written. Both books depict a future world in which individual freedom and privacy are subordinated to the demands of a totalitarian state, and citizens are manipulated and controlled through technology, propaganda, and social conditioning. The two novels have often been compared and contrasted, and both are considered to be among the most important works of literature of the 20th century.

Already in midlife noted actor author Geoffrey Giuliano abandoned his rambling 12-acre estate in rural New York and retired from his long, lucrative career as an internationally best-selling biographer to live, love, and be brokenhearted at the hands of the tempestuous young Thai women who would bring him to his knees. This is the intense story of the dramatic, almost unbelievable, and near-fatal romantic adventures of a man searching for love in the throbbing heart of Asia's red-hot Golden Triangle in the post-Covid era of helplessness, hopelessness, and extreme trauma.

The Good Soldier was first published in 1915. The iconic novel might be characterized as a melodrama of English upper-class infidelities, cut into little pieces, then retold out of sequence by a narrator who occasionally appears to be half asleep. That is not wholly wrong, yet many have seen in this novel's beguiling voice, innovative narrative technique, and acute depiction of erotic repression a literary masterpiece. In 2015, the BBC ranked The Good Soldier 13th on its list of the 100 greatest British novels.

Walter Besant was a novelist and historian, and his topographical and historical writings, ranging from prehistoric times to the nineteenth century, were probably best known through the detailed 10-volume Survey of London published after his death. This earlier single volume covers, in less depth, the whole period from prehistory until the 19th century. The book appears originally to have been written for boys, and, indeed, the chapters are called "Lessons".

Walter Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse. His work was controversial in its time, particularly his 1855 poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described as obscene for its overt sensuality. Whitman's own life came under scrutiny for his presumed homosexuality.

Edgar Allan Poe was one of the most important and influential American writers of the 19th century. He was the first author to try to make a professional living as a writer.

Mental Efficiency & Other Hints to Men & Women is a sharp, practical, and surprisingly modern work by English novelist and social commentator Arnold Bennett, who turns his attention to a question that still resonates today: why people devote such care to their physical bodies while neglecting the disciplined training of their minds.

A House to Let is a short story originally published in 1858 in the Christmas edition of Dickens' Household Words magazine. Each of the contributors wrote a chapter (stories within a story, or, in the case of Adelaide Anne Procter, poetry) and the story was edited by Dickens, who also wrote the first and last chapters with Wilkie Collins.

By turns illuminating, infuriating, bewildering, and amusing, Nietzsche's masterwork covers a lot of ground. He rejects most strands of Western thought, especially on the subject of morality, and develops his own theme demanding that individuals embrace their own "will to power" to give life intention and direction. First published in German in 1887, this translation was produced in 1907 by Helen Zimmern, a long-standing acquaintance of Nietzsche.

The journey opens with Old Christmas by Washington Irving, a vivid and affectionate portrait of traditional English Yuletide life. Next comes Classic Christmas Stories by Lucy Maud Montgomery, a tender blend of hope, innocence, and emotional truth from the beloved creator of Anne of Green Gables. The collection concludes with The Christmas Reindeer by Thornton W. Burgess, a warm woodland adventure filled with curiosity, courage, and the gentle moral lessons that made Burgess a generation-spanning favorite.

Washington Irving’s Old Christmas: The Origin of Our Modern Christmas recounts his visit to Bracebridge Hall, the fictionalized but closely based estate modeled on Aston Hall in Birmingham, where he stays as a holiday guest of the benevolent Squire Bracebridge.