Short Story Classics (Foreign) ...


Book Description

In this collection, editor William Patten has assembled some of the finest examples of Italian and Scandinavian short fiction from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Featuring stories from luminaries such as Luigi Pirandello and Selma Lagerlöf, ​Short Story Classics: Foreign: Italian and Scandinavian​ is a must-read for fans of the short story form. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.




The Treasure


Book Description

The Treasure is set in Bohuslän in the 16th century, it tells the story of a group of Scottish mercenaries who escape from prison; they go on to murder a family to steal a treasure chest, after which one of them falls in love with the family's sole survivor.




Short Stories in Swedish for Beginners


Book Description

An unmissable collection of eight unconventional and captivating short stories for young and adult learners of Swedish. "Olly's top-notch language-learning insights are right in line with the best of what we know from neuroscience and cognitive psychology about how to learn effectively. I love his work - and you will too!" - Barbara Oakley, PhD, Author of New York Times bestseller A Mind for Numbers Short Stories in Swedish for Beginners has been written especially for students from high-beginner to low-intermediate level, designed to give a sense of achievement, a feeling of progress and most importantly - enjoyment! Mapped to A1-B1 on the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) for languages, these eight captivating stories are designed to give you a sense of achievement and a feeling of progress when reading. What does this book give you? - Eight stories in a variety of exciting genres, from science fiction and crime to history and thriller - making reading fun, while you learn a wide range of new vocabulary - Controlled language at your level to help you progress confidently - Realistic spoken dialogues to help you learn conversational expressions and improve your speaking ability - Accessible grammar so you learn new structures naturally, in a stress-free way - Pleasure! Research shows that if you're enjoying reading in a foreign language, you won't experience the usual feelings of frustration - 'It's too hard!' 'I don't understand!' Carefully curated to make learning a new language easy, these stories include key features that will support and consolidate your progress, including: - A glossary for bolded words in each chapter - Full plot summary - A bilingual word list - Comprehension questions after each chapter. As a result, you will be able to focus on enjoying reading, delighting in your improved range of vocabulary and grasp of the language, without ever feeling overwhelmed. From science fiction to fantasy, to crime and thrillers, Short Stories in Swedish for Beginners will make learning Swedish easy and enjoyable.







Nordic Italies


Book Description

Because of its history, art, and natural and cultural landscapes, Italy has been a popular destination for North-European travellers since the age of the Grand Tour. Yet, literary images of Italy are not all linked to the tradition of the journey to this country and cannot be labelled as a manifestation of Northerners’ yearning for the Southern sun. The corpus of critical literature which deals with Italy in Nordic literatures is very wide but also fragmentary. While many scholars have written about this topic and chiefly on the relations between individual Scandinavian literatures or well-known authors – such as Henrik Ibsen, Selma Lagerlöf and Hans Christian Andersen – and Italy, few have emphasised their variety, plurality, and complexity. With its comparative approach, this study casts a new light on a selection of nineteenth- and twentieth-century representations of Italy and presents some of these Nordic Italies. Taking into account texts of different genres – poetry, drama and novel – and focusing on theories of representation, genre, and space, this book examines complex and heterogeneous literary representations that cannot be reduced to a single stereotype. In these texts, Italy emerges both as a set of physical spaces and as a series of metaphorical concepts. How are these Italian spaces and identities constructed and what do they stand for? What forms does the broad concept of Italianness take in these literary works? How are the Italian settings and characters, as well as the aspects of Italian politics, history, society, culture, and folklore that populate so many literary texts, shaped and combined? Is there a relationship between specific literary genres and the way in which Italy is represented? These are only some of the questions addressed by this study, which demonstrates how Nordic representations of Italy express much more than unanimous praise for the sun, idyllic landscapes, ruins, and mandolin players.




The Woman Who Borrowed Memories


Book Description

An NYRB Classics Original Tove Jansson was a master of brevity, unfolding worlds at a touch. Her art flourished in small settings, as can be seen in her bestselling novel The Summer Book and in her internationally celebrated cartoon strips and books about the Moomins. It is only natural, then, that throughout her life she turned again and again to the short story. The Woman Who Borrowed Memories is the first extensive selection of Jansson’s stories to appear in English. Many of the stories collected here are pure Jansson, touching on island solitude and the dangerous pull of the artistic impulse: in “The Squirrel” the equanimity of the only inhabitant of a remote island is thrown by a visitor, in “The Summer Child” an unlovable boy is marooned along with his lively host family, in “The Cartoonist” an artist takes over a comic strip that has run for decades, and in “The Doll’s House” a man’s hobby threatens to overwhelm his life. Others explore unexpected territory: “Shopping” has a post-apocalyptic setting, “The Locomotive” centers on a railway-obsessed loner with murderous fantasies, and “The Woman Who Borrowed Memories” presents a case of disturbing transference. Unsentimental, yet always humane, Jansson’s stories complement and enlarge our understanding of a singular figure in world literature.




Library of Congress Subject Headings


Book Description







The True Deceiver


Book Description

In the deep winter snows of a Swedish hamlet, a strange young woman fakes a break-in at the house of an elderly artist in order to persuade her that she needs companionship. But what does she hope to gain by doing this? And who ultimately is deceiving whom? In this portrayal of two women grappling with truth and lies, nothing can be taken for granted. By the time the snow thaws, both their lives will have changed irrevocably.