Clau-Clau-Claudius the stammerer was known as a buffoon and a pitiful fool.He made it his business to watch from the sidelines and record the antics, funny, violent and lustful, of the imperial household as its members vied with each other for power. Then he found himself Emperor.From the great days of Augustus and the cruelties of Tiberius to the deified insanity of Caligula, he records a story breathtaking in its murderousness, greed and folly. Throughout the swings of fortune, his own disastrous love affair with the depraved Messalina and surprisingly successful reign, his voice sometimes puzzled, sometimes rueful, always sane, speaks to us across the centuries in two great, classic historical novels.

Into the 'autobiography' of Clau-Clau-Claudius, the pitiful stammerer who was destined to become Emperor in spite of himself, Graves packs the everlasting intrigues, the depravity, the bloody purges and mounting cruelty of the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius, soon to culminate in the deified insanity of Caligula.I, Claudius and its sequel, Claudius the God, are among the most celebrated, as well the most gripping historical novels ever written.Cover illustration: Brian Pike

American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet

Dostoevsky’s most revolutionary novel, Notes from Underground marks the dividing line between nineteenth- and twentieth-century fiction, and between the visions of self each century embodied. One of the most remarkable characters in literature, the unnamed narrator is a former official who has defiantly withdrawn into an underground existence. In complete retreat from society, he scrawls a passionate, obsessive, self-contradictory narrative that serves as a devastating attack on social utopianism and an assertion of man’s essentially irrational nature.Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, whose Dostoevsky translations have become the standard, give us a brilliantly faithful edition of this classic novel, conveying all the tragedy and tormented comedy of the original.

Kim is set in an imperialistic world; a world strikingly masculine, dominated by travel, trade and adventure, a world in which there is no question of the division between white and non-white.Two men - a boy who grows into early manhood and an old ascetic priest, the lama - are at the center of the novel. A quest faces them both. Born in India, Kim is nevertheless white, a sahib. While he wants to play the Great Game of Imperialism, he is also spiritually bound to the lama. His aim, as he moves chameleon-like through the two cultures, is to reconcile these opposing strands, while the lama searches for redemption from the Wheel of Life. A celebration of their friendship in a beautiful but often hostile environment, 'Kim' captures the opulence of India's exotic landscape, overlaid by the uneasy presence of the British Raj.

Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer (1850-1894)

English short-story writer, poet, and novelist (1865-1936)

In this dizzyingly rich novel of ideas, Mann uses a sanatorium in the Swiss Alps, a community devoted exclusively to sickness, as a microcosm for Europe, which in the years before 1914 was already exhibiting the first symptoms of its own terminal irrationality. The Magic Mountain is a monumental work of erudition and irony, sexual tension and intellectual ferment, a book that pulses with life in the midst of death.

White Fang, Jack London White Fang is a novel by American author Jack London (1876–1916) — and the name of the book's eponymous character, a wild wolfdog. First serialized in Outing magazine, it was published in 1906. The story takes place in Yukon Territory and the Northwest Territories, Canada, during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush and details White Fang's journey to domestication. It is a companion novel (and a thematic mirror) to London's best-known work, The Call of the Wild, which is about a kidnapped, domesticated dog embracing his wild ancestry to survive and thrive in the wild. Much of White Fang is written from the viewpoint of the titular canine character, enabling London to explore how animals view their world and how they view humans. White Fang examines the violent world of wild animals and the equally violent world of humans. The book also explores complex themes including morality and redemption.تاریخ نخستین خوانش: سال 1974 میلادیعنوان: سپید دندان؛ نویسنده: جک لندن؛ مترجم: محمد قاصی؛ تهران، بنگاه مطبوعاتی صفیعلیشاه، 1332، در 221 ص؛ چاپ دوم: تهران، نیل، 1335، در 223 ص؛ چاپ دیگر: سازمامان کتابهای جیبی، 1340؛ در 207 ص؛ چاپ پنجم 1343؛ چاپ نهم: فرانکلین، 1354، در 258 ص؛ چاپ دیگر: هدایت، 1369، در 275 ص؛عنوان: سپید دندان؛ نویسنده: جک لندن؛ مترجم: شاپور رزم آزما؛ تهران، آرمان، ؟، در 256 ص؛ عنوان: سپید دندان؛ نویسنده: جک لندن؛ مترجم: محمد شاطرلو؛ تهران، دادجو، 1364، در 206 ص؛ چاپ دیگر: 1388، در 159 ص، شابک: 9789642621569؛ چاپ دیگر: تهران، راستی نو، پر پرواز، 1388، در 159 ص، شابک: 9789642646340؛ چاپ دیگر: تهران، یزدانیار، 1393؛ در 159 ص؛ شابک: 9786009184811؛عنوان: سپید دندان؛ نویسنده: جک لندن؛ مترجم: خسرو شایسته؛ تهران، سپیده، 1364؛ چاپ چهارم 1370، در 111 ص؛ عنوان: سپید دندان؛ نویسنده: جک لندن؛ مترجم: مژگان حائری؛ تهران، نهال نویدان، 1374؛ در 128 ص؛ عنوان: سپید دندان؛ نویسنده: جک لندن؛ مترجم: بهار اشراق؛ ویراستار: پریسا همایون روز؛ تهران، قدیانی، 1386؛ در 302 ص؛ شابک: 9789645361981؛ چاپ سوم 1394؛ با همان شابکعنوان: سپید دندان؛ نویسنده: جک لندن؛ مترجم: مهدی علوی؛ تهران، دبیر، اکباتان، 1389؛ در 112 ص؛ شابک: 9789642621743؛ عنوان: سپید دندان؛ نویسنده: جک لندن؛ مترجم: کیومرث پارسای؛ تهران، چلچله، 1392؛ در 226 ص؛ شابک: 9789648329438؛ عنوان: سپید دندان؛ نویسنده: جک لندن؛ مترجم: سیدرضا مرتضوی؛ تهران، آفرینگان، 1394؛ در 64 ص؛ شابک: 9786006753881؛دنباله ی کتاب آوای وحش است، داستان در جریان تب طلای کلوندایک رخ می‌دهد. جک لندن زندگی سگی را که خون گرگی دارد، دنبال می‌کند. ایشان در این رمان به مسائل اخلاقی و تقابل وحشی‌گری و تمدن انسانی می‌پردازند. ا. شربیانی

First published in 1903, The Call of the Wild is regarded as Jack London's masterpiece. Based on London's experiences as a gold prospector in the Canadian wilderness and his ideas about nature and the struggle for existence, The Call of the Wild is a tale about unbreakable spirit and the fight for survival in the frozen Alaskan Klondike.

Nikolai Gogol was born in the Ukraine in 1809. Vladimir Nabokov wrote of his work that "after reading Gogol one's eyes may become gogolized, and one is apt to see bits of his world in the most unexpected places." He died in 1852 after subjecting himself to a severe regime of fasting. "The Overcoat" and "The Nose" are two of Gogol's finest works. "The Nose" is a masterpiece of comic art, and "The Overcoat" is considered one of the greatest short stories ever written. Cover painting: Paul Cezanne,  Portrait of the Painter Achille Empereur, c. 1869. Musee d'Orsay, Paris. Erich Lessing/Art Resource, N.Y.

Classic Fiction Writers

author

book

I Remember

1979 American war film directed by Francis Ford Coppola

1987 war drama film directed by Stanley Kubrick

1970 film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner

War Films

When we were young!  Tv and British films from the late 60's to the 90s with a few classics thrown in. 

British TV and Films 

Conspiracy  Political Thriller Films

English writer, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer (1832-1898)

High Fantasy Literature

Exceptional Books

Anarcho Punk UK Music

American rapper, record producer, and businessman (born 1965)

G Funk/Gangsta Hip Hop Old School 

Film Noir

Investment Books I have read. Only includes books that I personally think are particularly useful or interesting, as a lot of them have variations on themes. 