Books published by Fredonia Books (NL)

CONTENTSHow the Devil Redeemed the Crust of BreadThe Repentant SinnerThe Kernel of the Size of a Hen's EggHow Much Land a Man NeedsThe GodsonThree SonsLabourer Emelyán and the Empty Drum

Originally published in 1886, this was one of Tolstoy's several religious and moral works in that period of his life.

The subject of imposture is always an interesting one, and impostors in one shape or another are likely to flourish as long as human nature remains what it is, and society shows itself ready to be gulled. The histories of famous cases of imposture in this book have been grouped together to show that the art has been practiced in many forms - impersonators, pretenders, swindlers, and humbugs of all kinds; those who have masqueraded in order to acquire wealth, position, or fame, and those who have done so merely for the love of the art. Bram Abraham Stoker (1847-1912) was born in Dublin, Ireland. Although best known for Dracula, Stoker wrote eighteen books. Stoker coined the term "undead," and his interpretation of vampire folklore has powerfully shaped depictions of the legendary monsters ever since.

Leonid Leonov (born 1899) belongs to the generation of Soviet writers who began their literary career during the revolution and the civil war and identified themselves with the new life which the revolution inaugurated. Leonov's first novel Badgers (1924) won unanimous appreciation among his contemporaries as a mature work of artistic merit. He became a writer of outstanding reputation in Soviet literature. Author of such popular novels as The Thief, Sot, Skutarevsky, and The Road to the Ocean, the short novel The Capture of Velikoshumsk and the plays An Ordinary Man, Invasion, and The Golden Carriage, Leonov was the first Soviet wrier to be awarded a Lenin Prize for his novel The Russian Forest, written in 1953. The Russian Forest embodies all the most characteristic features of its author's style and manner. In this novel, which reads like a kaleidoscope of the twentieth-century Russian scene, the author emerges with consummate versatility as artist, philosopher, and citizen.

When the Shabby Genteel Story was first reprinted with other stories and sketches by William Makepeace Thackeray, the following note was appended to it:"It was my intention to complete the little story, of which only the first part is here written. Perhaps novel-readers will understand, even from the above chapters, what was to ensue. Caroline was to be disowned and deserted by her wicked husband; that abandoned man was to marry somebody else; hence, bitter trials and grief, patience and virtue, for poor little Caroline, and a melancholy ending - as how should it have been gay? The tale was interrupted at a sad period of the writer's own life. The colors are long since dry; the artist's hand is changed. It is best to leave the sketch, as it was when first designed seventeen years ago. The memory of the past is renewed as he looks at it - die Bilder froher Tage Und manche liebe Schatten steigen auf." Mr. Brandon, a principal character in this story, figures prominently in The Adventures of Philip, under his real name of Brand Firmin; Mrs. Brandon, his deserted wife, and her father, Mr. Gann, are also introduced; thus The Adventures of Philip can be considered a sequel to A Shabby Genteel Story.

This marvelous book is the sequel to Bellamy's Looking Backward, his utopian novel of several years earlier, where a young man falls asleep in 1887 and wakes in a utopian year 2000, where all social ills are solved. This novel continues the thread of his utopian vision. Equality begins when Julian West returns to the year 2000 to continue his education. The book describes an ideal society in that year. Equality was published just before his death and was not received nearly as well as Looking Backward. Bellamy was born in 1850 in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts. As a young man he studied law and entered the bar, but never practiced. He was a journalist and social theorist as well as a novelist. Bellamy's theory of public capitalism would greatly affect American political thought in the 20th century.

Sir Geoffrey Peveril, an old Cavalier, and Major Bridgenorth, a fanatical Puritan, are neighboring landowners in Derbyshire, and though of widely different opinions and modes of life, have been connected by ties of reciprocal kindness in the days of the Civil War. Julian, the son of Sir Geoffrey, and Alic, the daughter of Bridgenorth, are deeply in love. The recrudescence of bitter political feeling during the period of the 'Popish plot' brings the parents into acute conflict. The author draws elaborate portraits of Charles II and Buckingham, and gives glimpses of Titus Oates, Colonel Blood and Sir Geoffrey Hudson. This edition includes an introduction by the author. Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), began his career writing narrative poetry, and later re-launched his career as a novelist. Deriving most of his material from his native Scotland, its history and its legends, Scott invented and mastered what we know today as the historical novel.

A Tour of the Moon was originally published in 1865 as the sequel to Verne's better known A Trip from the Earth to the Moon. As to the discoveries made by the explorers, it is noteworthy that here Verne has again restrained himself, instead of plunging blindly into inventions as a less conscientious romancer might easily have done. His picture of the moon is hard and cold, confined to just what astronomers actually know or closely surmise. He brings the views and visions of the scientist into a field usually abandoned to the fooleries of extravaganza.

In 1878 appeared Dick Sands, the epic of the slave trade. This picture of the wilds of Africa, its adventures and its dangers, the savage hunting both of beasts and men, has always been a favorite among Verne's readers. It contains no marvels, no inventions, but merely, amid stirring scenes and actions seeks to convey two truthful impressions. One is the traveler's teaching the geographical information, the picture of Africa as explorers, botanists, and zoologists have found it. The other is the moral lesson of the awful curse of slavery, its brutalizing, horrible influence upon all who come in touch with it, and the absolutely devastating effect it has had upon Africa itself.

In this book Verne struck again the bolder note of imagination and creation. Here the daring explorers are represented as actually attaining the pole; and the bold inventions of what they saw and did, rising to the startling climax of the volcano and the madman's climb, are led up to through such a well-managed, well-constructed and convincing story, that many critics have selected this in its turn as the most powerful of Verne's works. It is notable that, with the exception of the open sea and the volcano, the world which our author here penetrates in imagination, coincides closely with that which Peary has discovered to exist in reality. Here are the same barren lands, the same weary sledge journey, the same locations of land and sea, the "red snow," the open leads in the ice. Verne's predictions, wild as they sometimes seem, were all so carefully studied that they shoot most close to truth.

This volume includes all of Verne's earlier stories as he himself thought worth preserving. These he gathered in later years, and had some of them reissued by his Paris publishers. "A Drama in the Air," was, as Verne himself tells us, his first published story. It appeared soon after 1850 in a little-known local magazine called the "Musée des Families." The tale, though somewhat amateurish, is very characteristic of the master's later style. In it we can see, as it were, the germ of all that was to follow, the interest in the new advances of science, the dramatic story, the carefully collected knowledge of the past, the infusion of instruction amid the excitement of the tale. Similarly we find "A Winter in the Ice" to be a not unworthy predecessor of The Adventures of Captain Hatteras and all the author's other great books of adventure in the frozen world. Here, at the first attempt, a vigorous and impressive story introduces us to the northland, thoroughly understood, accurately described, vividly appreciated and pictured forth in its terror and its mystery. "The Pearl of Lima" opens the way to all those stories of later novelists wherein some ancient kingly race, some forgotten civilization of Africa or America, reasserts itself in the person of some spectacular descendant, tragically matching its obscure and half-demoniac powers against the might of the modern world. "The Mutineers" inaugurates our author's favorite geographical device. It describes a remarkable and little-known country by having the characters of the story travel over it on some anxious errand, tracing their progress step by step. Thus, of these five early tales, "The Watch's Soul" is the only one differing sharply from Verne's later work. It is allegorical, supernatural, depending not upon the scientific marvels of the material world, but upon the direct interposition of supernal powers.

This handbook presents both theoretical and practical data pertaining to design methods and procedures for using timing systems and devices. The subjects covered are precision reference timers, electronic timers, mechanical timers, pyrotechnic timers, flueric timers, and a few others. Prepared as an aid to military designers, this handbook should also be of benefit to scientists and engineers engaged in other related research and development programs or who have the responsibility for the planning and interpretation of experiments and tests concerning the performance of materiel related to timers.

A collection of short stories, by the creator of Sherlock Holmes, including the future war story "Danger!" and the science fiction tale "The Horror from the Heights," "The Fall of Lord Barrymore," "The Prisoner's Defence," and "The Surgeon of Gaster Fall." The title story covers 49 pages and was written about eighteen months before the outbreak of The First World War, the author's intention being "to direct public attention to the great danger which threatened this country." . In an introduction, the author makes the case for investing in a Channel Tunnel -- something he would love to ride through today on the Eurostar train!

This manual provides guidance for planning and executing training on the 5.56-mm M16A1 and M16A2 rifles to include the conduct of basic rifle marksmanship and advanced rifle marksmanship. It is a guide for commanders, leaders, and instructors to develop training programs, plans and lessons that meet the objectives/intent of the United States Army rifle marksmanship program. This manual is organized to lead the trainer through the material needed to conduct training. Preliminary subjects include discussions on mechanical training, the weapons' capabilities, and the principles and fundamentals of marksmanship. Live-fire applications are scheduled after the soldier has demonstrated preliminary skills. The procedures and methods used in the Army rifle marksmanship program are based on the concept that soldiers must be skilled marksmen who can effectively apply their firing skills in combat.

Cooper's first novel with a European setting, set in contemporary Venice and written in part as a response to current political upheavals in Europe - an excellent novel with stern republican principles that has, in the past, become embroiled in political controversy. James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) was an American novelist, travel writer, and social critic, regarded as the first great American writer of fiction. He was famed for his action-packed plots and his vivid, if somewhat idealized, portrayal of American life in the forest and at sea.