In Couchsurfing in Iran, award-winning author Stephan Orth spends sixty-two days on the road in this mysterious Islamic republic to provide a revealing, behind-the-scenes look at life in one of the world’s most closed societies. Experiencing daily the “two Irans” that coexist side by side—the “theocracy, where people mourn their martyrs” in mausoleums, and the “hide-and-seekocracy, where people hold secret parties and seek worldly thrills instead of spiritual bliss”—he learns that Iranians have become experts in navigating around their country’s strict laws. Getting up close and personal with locals, he covers more than 5,000 kilometers, peering behind closed doors to uncover the inner workings of a country where public show and private reality are strikingly opposed.

In Dark Star Safari the wittily observant and endearingly irascible Paul Theroux takes readers the length of Africa by rattletrap bus, dugout canoe, cattle truck, armed convoy, ferry, and train.In the course of his epic and enlightening journey, he endures danger, delay, and dismaying circumstances. Gauging the state of affairs, he talks to Africans, aid workers, missionaries, and tourists.What results is an insightful meditation on the history, politics, and beauty of Africa and its people, and "a vivid portrayal of the secret sweetness, the hidden vitality, and the long-patient hope that lies just beneath the surface" (Rocky Mountain News).In a new postscript, Theroux recounts the dramatic events of a return to Africa to visit Zimbabwe.

Nicht ganz wörtlich darf man diesen Titel sehen, denn das Dorf befindet sich in mächtigen Baumwipfeln im tiefsten Zentralafrika. Ein Forcher, der hier jahrelang lebte, hat hier das Leben der Affen auf sensationelle Weise erforscht und dabei ein ganzes Affenvolk zivilisiert – ein humorvoller, aber doch packender Roman eines genialen Mannes, der über seiner Idee alles andere vergißt.

Der verstorbene Millionär William J. Hypperbone lässt am 3. April seine Beerdigung feiern. Hypperbone war Mitglied des Excentric Clubs, in dem die 50 wichtigsten Mitglieder der Grundstücksmaklerbranche, der Schlachthof- und Pökelindustrie sowie der Eisenbahn-, Öl- und Montangesellschaften von Chicago vertreten sind. Diese treffen sich Abend für Abend in den Räumen des Clubs um die wichtigsten Tages- und Wochenzeitungen zu lesen, sowie mit in der Regel hohen Einsätzen zu spielen. Exzentrisch war in der Vergangenheit allerdings lediglich der Hochzeitsplan Hypperbones, der in einem Alter von weniger als vierzig Jahren das hundertjährige Fräulein Anthonia Burgoyne heiraten wollte. Die betagte Braut verstarb allerdings an einem Keuchhustenanfall, bevor sie Hypperbone ihr Ja-Wort geben konnte. Hypperbone erfreute sich immer bester Gesundheit, verstarb allerdings plötzlich ohne ein vorheriges Anzeichen einer Krankheit. Hypperbone führte im Club das Edle Gänsespiel ein, das in der Regel ebenfalls mit hohen Einsätzen gespielt wurde. Das Spiel erinnert in der Bewegung über die Spielfelder an das von Kindern in Deutschland gespielte Leiterspiel.Mitglieder des Clubs hoffen, dass sie durch des Testament des Verstorbenen für ihre hohen Spieleinsätze in der Vergangenheit entschädigt werden ...

Durch ein Unglück wurde eine Familie zerrissen, und nun sucht die Tochter als Erwachsene ihren vermißten Vater, der sie wiederum für tot hält -mitten im Quellgebiet des unerforschten Orinoco findet man die ersten Spuren. Ein mächtiger Indianderstamm lebt unter der Herrschaft eines weißen Häuptlings, und eine Bande Verbrecher bedroht diesen Stamm, als die Expedition gerade eintriftt. Es kommt zum Kampf, und die Verbrecher werden glücklich besiegt.

Mit 62 Illustrationen von Leon Benett und 1 KarteTitel der Originalausgabe: L'Etoile du sud. Le Pays des diamants (Paris 1884)Nach zeitgenössischen Übersetzungen überarbeitet von Günter Jürgensmeier

Mit 62 Illustrationen von Leon Benett und 1 KarteTitel der Originalausgabe: L'Etoile du sud. Le Pays des diamants (Paris 1884)Nach zeitgenössischen Übersetzungen überarbeitet von Günter Jürgensmeier

The non-fiction book narrates about a horrendous journey of Donner Party. In 1846 a large party of emigrants crossed western plains from Missouri to California. On their way they were blocked in the mountain pass and had to survive a long winter without food. The starvation led to cannibalism. Only a half of the party reached California's lush country.

Known for his brilliantly dark fictional visions, László Krasznahorkai is one of the most respected European writers of his generation and the winner of the 2015 Man Booker International Prize. Here, he brings us on a journey through China at the dawn of the new millennium. On the precipice of its emergence as a global power, China is experiencing cataclysms of modernity as its harsh Maoist strictures meet the chaotic flux of globalism. What remains of the Middle Kingdom’s ancient cultural riches? And can a Westerner truly understand China’s past and present — or the murky waters where the two meet?Destruction and Sorrow beneath the Heavens is both a travel memoir and the chronicle of a distinct intellectual shift as one of the most captivating contemporary writers and thinkers begins to engage with the cultures of Asia and the legacies of its interactions with Europe in a newly globalized society. Rendered in English by award-winning translator Ottilie Mulzet, Destruction and Sorrow beneath the Heavens is an important work, marking the emergence of Krasznahorkai as a truly global novelist.Praise for Krasznahorkai“The contemporary Hungarian master of the apocalypse.”—Susan Sontag“Krasznahorkai delights in unorthodox description; no object is too insignificant for his worrying gaze. . He offers us stories that are relentlessly generative and defiantly irresolvable. They are haunting, pleasantly weird, and ultimately, bigger than the worlds they inhabit.”—New York Times“Krasznahorkai is an expert with the complexity of human obsessions. Each of his books feel like an event, a revelation.”—Daily Beast

Эта книга середины 19 века. Это путевые заметки одной американской иверки, которая путешествовала в 1867 году от Петербурга вниз по Волге до Царицына, и затем через Дон - Ростов - Азовское море через Крым - Одессу - Кишинёв - Бессарабию - в Австрии она вышла из пределов Российской империи. Вы знаете, Уотсон, временами у неё очень интересные зарисовки жизни в России того времени, в том плане что и современные россияне в массе даже не догадываются что и как было в России того времени - всего лишь 150 лет назад! Память российских гоев ирейзана! У современной российской молодёжи весь странные и мутные представления о русской истории, основнанные на столетнем методическом вранье царских, советских, российских властей. Какие бы не были власти в России - в одном они солидарны! Истинную историю России российские гои знать не должны! Вот почему Холмс хочет внести лепту в раскрытие настоящей истории и подать просто факты о России 150 летней давности глазами непредвзятого путешественника по России.

Ein Kapitän von fünfzehn Jahren ist ein weniger bekannter Roman Jules Vernes. Hauptperson ist der 15jährige Waise Dick Sand, der durch tragische Umstände zum Kapitän der Pilgrim wird. Für Humor sorgt Vetter Benedict, ein kleines bebrilltes Männchen mit dem Gemüt eines Kindes. Vetter Benedict ist ein sogenannter „Fachidiot“, der nichts außer seinen Insekten im Kopf hat und ständig mit einer Lupe und einer Insektentrommel herumläuft. Eine entscheidende Rolle spielt auch Dingo, der versucht, Negoro an die Kehle zu springen, als er ihn das erste Mal an Bord der Pilgrim erblickt. Als Jack mit Buchstabenwürfeln spielt, klaut ihm Dingo zwei Würfel mit den Buchstaben S und V, den Initialen seines toten Herrn. Die Frage, was Dingo und Negoro verbindet, wird erst im letzten Kapitel beantwortet.

Eleven charming, delicate sketches of diplomatic life in service of the crown.After decades spent representing Britain around the globe, Antrobus has earned a shirtful of medals and the right to pass afternoons in his London club, musing over old times. His memory is long, and every old embarrassment still rankles — no matter how ridiculous. The incident with the Yugoslav ghost train, for instance, still causes him to clench his fists in fear. When he speaks of Sir Claud Polk-Mowbray, he takes pains to lower his voice — lest an American hear. And his stomach has never recovered from the incident involving the fried flag.Based on Lawrence Durrell’s own experience in the diplomatic corps, Antrobus’s cutting observation is drawn from the strange and humorous truth. Few are those with a better sense of place than Durrell, and even fewer with wit to match.

This book, although it can be read as a separate story, is the third of the trilogy of which Marie and Child of Storm are the first two parts. It narrates, through the mouth of Allan Quatermain, the consummation of the vengeance of the wizard Zikali, alias The Opener of Roads, or “The–Thing–that–should–never–have–been–born,” upon the royal Zulu House of which Senzangacona was the founder and Cetewayo, our enemy in the war of 1879, the last representative who ruled as a king. Although, of course, much is added for the purposes of romance, the main facts of history have been adhered to with some faithfulness.

Flying Colours describes the adventures of Horatio Hornblower and his companions escaping from imprisonment in Napoleonic France and returning to England. It was originally published in 1938 as the third in the series, but is ninth by internal chronology.

On the Tracks of 'The Great Railway Bazaar'.An unmitigated treat for the hundreds of thousands of fans of the first Bazaar.In The New Railway Bazaar, Theroux recreates an epic journey he took thirty years ago, a giant loop by train (mostly) through Eastern Europe, Turkey, the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Indian Subcontinent, China, Japan, and Siberia. In short, he traverses all of Asia top to bottom, and end to end. In the three decades since he first travelled this route, Asia has undergone phenomenal change. The Soviet Union has collapsed, China has risen, India booms, Burma slowly smothers, and Vietnam prospers despite the havoc unleashed upon it the last time Theroux passed through. He witnesses all this and more in a 25,000 mile journey, travelling as the locals do, by train, car, bus, and foot.His odyssey takes him from Eastern Europe, still hungover from Communism, through tense but thriving Turkey, into the Caucasus, where Georgia limps back toward feudalism while its neighbour Azerbaijan revels in oil-driven capitalism. As he penetrates deeper into Asia’s heart, his encounters take on an otherworldly cast. The two chapters that follow show us Turkmenistan, a profoundly isolated society at the mercy of an almost comically egotistical dictator, and Uzbekistan, a ruthless authoritarian state. From there, he retraces his steps through India, Mayanmar, China, and Japan, providing his penetrating observations on the changes these countries have undergone.Brilliant, caustic, and totally addictive, The New Railway Bazaar is Theroux at his very best.

“I felt something alive moving on my left leg … when bending my Eyes downwards as much as I could. I perceived it to be a human Creature not six inches high.”

Shipwrecked and cast adrift, Lemuel Gulliver wakes to find himself on Lilliput, an island inhabited by little people, whose height makes their quarrels over fashion and fame seem ridiculous. His subsequent encounters—with the crude giants of Brobdingnag, the philosophical Houyhnhnms and the brutish Yahoos—give Gulliver new, bitter insights into human behaviour. Swift’s savage satire view mankind in a distorted hall of mirrors as a diminished, magnified and finally bestial species, presenting us with an uncompromising reflection of ourselves.

This text, based on the first edition of 1726, reproduces all its original illustrations and includes an introduction by Robert Demaria, Jr, which discusses the ways Gulliver’s Travels has been interpreted since its first publication.

An extraordinarily beautiful Indian princess and a white Englishman fall in love but suffer deeply because of their feelings. Set mostly in Central America in the 1870s, this is one of Haggard’s more interesting romantic adventure novels in which the protagonists ultimately journey to an inhabited ancient city hidden in the mountains (perhaps in Guatemala). “…crypto-metaphysical work, which is much removed from Haggard’s usual simple adventure stories… Rich in detail, ingenious and well plotted, but weak in characterization at times. The moral message is powerfully conveyed, as is the sense of tragedy. There are occasional minor supernatural elements, but the major prophecy turns out to be false.”

In the words of Jack London, "I have written some novels of adventure in my time, but never, in all of the many of them, have I perpetrated a totality of action equal to what is contained in 'Hearts of Three'."