DIGITAL FIRE – förlag

Good public speakers are made—not born. Public speaking is an important skill which anyone can acquire and develop. This book that has literally put millions on the highway to greater accomplishment and success can show you how to have maximum impact as a speaker. It will help you to acquire basic public speaking skills, building confidence, earning the right to talk, sharing the talk with the audience.

A classic work on Eastern philosophy, Zen in the Art of Archery is a charming and deeply illuminating story of one man’s experience with Zen. Eugen Herrigel, a German professor of Philosophy in Tokyo, took up the study of archery as a step toward an understanding of Zen Buddhism. This book is the account of the six years he spent as a student of one of Japan’s great kyudo (archery) masters, and of how he gradually overcame his initial inhibitions and began to feel his way toward new truths and ways of seeing.ABOUT THE AUTHOR:Eugen Herrigel was a German philosopher who introduced Zen to large parts of Europe. He used archery in an attempt to further understand Zen. In 1936 he published a 20-page article entitled Die Ritterliche Kunst des Bogenschiessens (The Knightly Art of Archery) in the journal, Zeitshrift für Japanologie, which later formed the core of his most famous work Zen in the Art of Archery.

Demian is a psychological masterpiece of modern literature. This novel explores the duality of human nature and the alienation of man's soul. A powerful coming of age story that continues to inspire generations of readers in its exploration of good and evil, morality, and self-discovery. A young man awakens to selfhood and to a world of possibilities beyond the conventions of his upbringing. Emil Sinclair is a quiet boy drawn into a forbidden yet seductive realm of petty crime and defiance. His guide is his precocious, mysterious classmate Max Demian, who provokes in Emil a search for self-discovery and spiritual fulfillment.

The Richest Man in Babylon has been inspiring readers for generations. It continues to remain a classic bestseller. Revealed inside are the secrets to acquiring money, keeping money, and making money earn more money.The protagonist of the story is Arkad, who has managed to become Babylon's richest man. All financial wisdom in the book is dispensed through his narration. The importance of savings is conveyed through a conversation between Arkad and two of his childhood friends, Bansir, a skilled chariot builder and Kobbi, a gifted musician.From the importance of savings to the essentials on how to become wealthy, this collection of famous Babylonian parables imparts timeless financial wisdom. It offers insights on how to become wealthy and how to attract good luck and discusses the five laws of gold.

My Experiments with Truth' recounts Gandhiji's journey from being Mohandas to becoming the Mahatma and also recollects the various incidents that lead him to develop the ideology of Ahimsa. Starting with his days as a boy, Gandhi takes one through his trials and turmoils and situations that moulded his philosophy of life; going through child marriage, his studies in England, practicing Law in South Africa; and his Satyagraha there; to the early beginnings of the Independence movement in India. The book is divided into 5 parts covering his childhood, his adolescent experiments at drinking, smoking, stealing and eating meat; his early marriage at the age of 13 years; and his education and career which took him to Africa.

When 'In Our Time' was published in 1925, it was praised by Ford Madox Ford, John Dos Passos, and F. Scott Fitzgerald for its simple and precise use of language to convey a wide range of complex emotions, and it earned Hemingway a place beside Sherwood Anderson and Gertrude Stein among the most promising American writers of that period. In Our Time contains several early Hemingway classics, including the famous Nick Adams stories “Indian Camp,” “The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife,” “The Three Day Blow,” and “The Battler,” and introduces readers to the hallmarks of the Hemingway style: a lean, tough prose—enlivened by an car for the colloquial and an eye for the realistic that suggests, through the simplest of statements, a sense of moral value and a clarity of heart.

Philosopher, naturalist, poet and rugged individualist, Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) has inspired generations of readers to think for themselves, to follow the dictates of their own conscience and to make an art of their lives. This representative sampling of his thought includes five of his most frequently cited and read essays: "Civil Disobedience," his most powerful and influential political essay, exalts the law of conscience over civil law. "Life without Principle" distills the essence of Thoreau's philosophy of self-reliance and individualism. "Slavery in Massachusetts" is a searing attack on government condonation of slavery. "A Plea for Captain John Brown" is an eloquent defense of the radical abolitionist, while "Walking" celebrates the joys of that activity and pleads for conservation of the earth's wild places. The latter essay is recognized as one of the pioneer documents in the conservation and national park movement in America.

Originally published in 1872, ‘Around the World in Eighty Days’ is an adventure fiction by Jules Verne, a French novelist, poet, and playwright, whose writings laid much of the foundation of modern science fiction.In the story, Phileas Fogg, a solitary British gentleman of the Victorian era, attempts to go around the world in 80 days or less after a bet with his friends at the Reform Club. He travels via train, elephant, ship, and more in this classic adventure.With his French manservant, Passepartout, Fogg embarks on a great adventure taking him through Egypt, India, the South Pacific, San Francisco, and the Great Plains of the United States. But will he succeed and collect on his bets? This is one of the best-loved works by the French adventure and science-fiction writer Jules Verne.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl' is a powerful and compelling story of Harriet Jacobs whose dauntless spirit and faith carried her from a life of servitude and degradation in North Carolina to liberty and reunion with her children in the North. This is one of the few slave narratives written by a woman. Jacobs writes frankly of the horrors she suffered as a slave, her eventual escape after several unsuccessful attempts, and her seven years in self-imposed exile, hiding in a coffin-like ‘garret’ attached to her grandmother's porch.Slavery is a terrible thing, but it is far more terrible and harrowing for women than for men. Harriet Jacobs was owned by a brutal master who beat his slaves regularly and subjected them to indignations that were far worse. Jacobs eventually escaped her master and moved to a northern state. Though she was unable to take her children with her at the time they were later reunited.

Originally published in May 1897, ‘Dracula’ is a gothic horror novel by Bram Stoker, an Irish author. Bram Stoker introduced the character of Count Dracula and provided the basis of modern vampire fiction in this novel. Written as a series of letters, newspaper clippings, diary entries, and ships’ logs, the story begins with lawyer Jonathan Harker journeying to meet Dracula at his remote castle to complete a real estate transaction. Harker soon uncovers that he is being held prisoner and that Dracula has a rather disturbing nocturnal life. Touching on themes such as Victorian culture, immigration, and colonialism, among others, this timeless classic is sure to keep readers on the edge of their seats.

George Eliot opens her complex study of life in the provincial Midlands with a brilliant portrait of Dorothea Brooke in all her strengths and weaknesses. The novel mirrors the complexity and the calm under the storm of a seemingly simple and boring provincial life. Full of colorful characters, rich in satire and suspense, Middlemarch remains the great English novel, a modern tale, a classic which till this day makes us wonder and question ourselves.Significant themes include the status of women, the nature of marriage, idealism, self-interest, religion, hypocrisy, political reform, and education. The story links the struggles of the individuals with the problems of society as a whole, as it wrestles with the disturbances that are approaching through industrialization and a changing social order.The narrative is variably considered to consist of three or four plots of unequal emphasis: the life of Dorothea Brooke; the career of Tertius Lydgate; the courtship of Mary Garth by Fred Vincy; and the disgrace of Nicholas Bulstrode.

Wuthering Heights is Emily Brontë's first and only published novel, written between October 1845 and June 1846, and published in 1847 under the pseudonym Ellis Bell; Brontë died the following year, aged 30. The decision to publish came after the success of her sister Charlotte's novel, Jane Eyre. After Emily's death, Charlotte edited the manuscript of Wuthering Heights, and arranged for the edited version to be published as a posthumous second edition in 1850.Wuthering Heights is the name of the farmhouse where the story unfolds. The book's core theme is the destructive effect of jealousy and vengefulness both on the jealous or vengeful individuals and on their communities.

The story revolves around Catherine Morland, the young and naive willing victim of the contemporary craze for Gothic literature who is determined to see herself as the heroine of a dark and thrilling romance. In this novel, perceptive social observation and incisive wit are combined with a satire of the Gothic novel, as Catherine’s overactive imagination, stimulated by her extensive reading of these popular books, shapes her view of the world and leads her to jump to incorrect conclusions. Catherine eventually triumphs, blossoming into a discerning woman who learns truths about love, life, and the heady power of literature.Written in 1798, but not published until after Austen's death in 1817, the novel has captivated generations of readers and is still widely read and studied today.

Originally published in 1726, ‘Gulliver's Travels’ is a masterpiece of satire, a predecessor to science fiction, and a critique of modern government and science by Jonathan Swift, an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer, poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, hence his common sobriquet, “Dean Swift”.This is a marvelously imaginative tale of the four voyages of Lemuel Gulliver. The episodic faux-travel tale follows Lemuel Gulliver as he discovers exotic society after exotic society, each imitating an aspect of Swift’s socio-political environment. Published less than a decade after Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, some interpret it to be a direct rebuttal to Defoe’s optimism about human nature and his belief in individuality’s precedence over society. Perhaps most of all, the novel offers a glimpse into English society as it struggled with the Enlightenment’s seismic shift in philosophy.

‘Not Without Laughter’ (1930) is drawn in part from the author’s own recollections of youth and early manhood. This stirring coming-of-age tale unfolds in 1930s rural Kansas. A poignant portrait of African-American family life in the early twentieth century, it follows the story of young Sandy Rogers as he grows from a boy to a man. We meet Sandy's mother, Annjee, who works as a housekeeper for a wealthy white family; his strong-willed grandmother, Hager; Jimboy, Sandy's father, who travels the country looking for work; Aunt Tempy, the social climber; and Aunt Harriet, the blues singer who has turned away from her faith.A fascinating chronicle of a family's joys and hardships, ‘Not Without Laughter’ is a vivid exploration of growing up and growing strong in a racially divided society. A rich and important work, it masterfully echoes the black American experience.

Originally published in April 1899, ‘Heart of Darkness’ is a classic novel that inspired Apocalypse Now by Joseph Conrad, a Polish-British writer viewed as one of the most remarkable novelists to write in the English language.The novel tells the story of Charles Marlow, an English man who journeys into the African jungle. The difference between Conrad’s novella and other classic adventure fiction, like Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, is that it goes beyond classic motifs of discovery and exploration to explicitly deal with questions of racism, exploitation, and colonization. Marlow’s mission in the story is to transport ivory and to take Kurtz, an experienced ivory trader, back to Europe. The occurrences in the African jungle are sandwiched by two scenes aboard a ship anchored in the Thames, where Marlow reveals the details of his adventures to a group of friends. The darkness of the bloody happenings that Marlow witnesses during his journey parallel the fall of dusk on the Thames as the story is being told. In Africa, Marlow is mainly disgusted with white men’s shallowness and mischievous behavior with natives. The readers eventually understand that the darkness of the title does not only stand for the horrors in the African wilderness but mainly for the cruelty of the colonizer’s heart.

Robinson Crusoe is the only man still alive when his ship is destroyed in a terrible storm. Washing up on a deserted island, he realizes that he is stranded, with no immediate hope of rescue. Displaying remarkable ingenuity, Crusoe builds a crude home, raises crops, and keeps track of the passing days with a rudimentary calendar. Loneliness is his greatest adversary until a tribe of cannibals arrives with their intended victims. When one of the prisoners escapes, Crusoe rescues him. The shipwrecked sailor and his newfound companion, Friday—named for the day of the week on which Crusoe first meets him—band together to vanquish the cannibals and leave the Island of Despair forever.

Originally published in October 1851, ‘Moby Dick’ is an adventure novel that narrates the journey of the whaling ship Pequod, under the command of Captain Ahab by Herman Melville, an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period.The book is sailor Ishmael's narrative of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship Pequod, for revenge on Moby Dick, the giant white sperm whale that on the ship's previous voyage bit off Ahab's leg at the knee. A contribution to the literature of the American Renaissance, the work's genre classifications range from late Romantic to early Symbolist. Moby-Dick was published to mixed reviews, was a commercial failure, and was out of print at the time of the author's death in 1891. Its reputation as a "Great American Novel" was established only in the 20th century, after the centennial of its author's birth. William Faulkner said he wished he had written the book himself, and D.H. Lawrence called it “one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the world” and “the greatest book of the sea ever written”.

‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’, originally published in 1848, is onsidered one of the first feminist novels because it challenged the social norms of the Victorian era. It is the second of only two novels written by Anne Bronte. This romantic novel tells the story of the titular character, a beautiful young woman, thought to be recently widowed, suddenly moves into the half ruined Wildfell Hall with her five year old son, young squire Gilbert Markham and the local residents are intrigued. Gilbert meets the aloof newcomer Helen Graham by chance, falls in love with her, and she with him. Their passion is held in check by her mysterious relationship with the handsome but cruel Arthur Huntingdon. Her dramatic flight from him is revealed in her journal—a story within a story.The novel is told through the letters and diaries of several main characters, each embedded in the one that came before. The novel is both written in the first person and at the same time features several different narrators. Probably the most shocking of Bronte’s novels, it had an instant and phenomenal success, but after Anne's death her sister Charlotte prevented its re-publication in England until 1854.

Originally published in January 1934, ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ by Agatha Christie, an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, especially those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.Just after midnight, the renowned Orient Express is prevented in its tracks by a snowdrift. By morning, the millionaire Samuel Edward Ratchett lies dead in his compartment, stabbed a dozen times, his door locked from the inside. Without a shred of suspicion, one of his fellow passengers is the murderer.Isolated by the storm, detective Hercule Poirot must find the killer among a dozen of the dead man's rivals, before the murderer decides to strike again.

It is considered a major nineteenth-century English novel and possibly Hardy's fictional masterpiece. It initially appeared in a censored and serialised version, published by the British illustrated newspaper ‘The Graphic’ in 1891 and in book form in 1892. Set in impoverished rural England, Thomas Hardy's fictional Wessex, during the Long Depression of the 1870s, the novel challenges the hypocrisy and social conventions of the rural Victorian world. It follows the story of Tess Durbeyfield as she attempts to escape the poverty of her background, seeking wealth by claiming connection with the aristocratic D'Urberville family. It is through Tess's relationships with two very different men that Hardy tells the story of his tragic heroine, and exposes the double standards of the world that she inhabits with searing pathos and heart-rending sentiment.

Originally published in 1667, ‘Paradise Lost’ is considered to be one of the most classic epic poems ever written by John Milton, an English poet and intellectual who served as a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England.A classic tale of Biblical legend, the poem relates the stories of the war in heaven, the fall of man, and the temptation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. First represented in Revelation, Milton portrays the angel Lucifer’s denial of God’s authority over him and the failed rebellion that he leads as a consequence of this belief. Lucifer is cast out of Heaven and into Hell by God for his betrayal. The temptation of Adam and Eve by Satan and their subsequent fall from innocence forms the other major narrative arc in this poem. As described in the work by Milton his purpose in writing this remarkable masterpiece was to “justify the ways of God to men.” Milton’s work is one of sublime and extraordinary beauty which has inspired readers and been analyzed by critics.

‘The Analects’ are a collection of Confucius's sayings brought together by his pupils shortly after his death in 497 BC. Together they express a philosophy, or a moral code, by which Confucius believed everyone should live. Upholding the ideals of wisdom, self-knowledge, courage and love of one's fellow man, he argued that the pursuit of virtue should be every individual's supreme goal. And, while following the Way, or the truth, might not result in immediate or material gain, Confucius showed that it could nevertheless bring its own powerful and lasting spiritual rewards.Confucius (551–479 B.C.) was a philosopher, a political figure, an educator, and the founder of one of the major schools of thought in Chinese history. For anyone interested in China—its past, its present, and its future—‘The Analects’ is a must-read.

Dr Aziz is a young Muslim physician in the British Indian town of Chandrapore. One evening he comes across an English woman, Mrs Moore, in the courtyard of a local mosque; she and her younger travelling companion Adela are disappointed by claustrophobic British colonial culture and wish to see something of the 'real' India. But when Aziz kindly offers to take them on a tour of the Marabar caves with his close friend Cyril Fielding, the trip results in a shocking accusation that throws Chandrapore into a fever of racial tension.ABOUT THE AUTHOR:Edward Morgan Forster was born in London in 1879, attended Tonbridge School and went on to King`s College, Cambridge in 1897, where he retained a lifelong connection and was elected to an Honorary Fellowship in 1946.He died in June 1970.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man' is a semi-autobiographical novel chronicling the spiritual and intellectual awakening and rebellion of Stephen Dedalus against the conventions into which he was born. It was ranked by Modern Library as the third greatest English-language novel of the 20th century. Exuberantly inventive in style, the novel subtly and beautifully orchestrates the patterns of quotation and repetition instrumental in its hero’s quest to create his own character, his own language, life, and art: “to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race.”

Ben-Hur is one of the bestselling books of all times. This poignant novel intertwines the life stories of a Jewish charioteer named Judah Ben-Hur and Jesus Christ. It explores the themes of betrayal and redemption. Ben-Hur's family is wrongly accused and convicted of treason during the time of Christ. Ben-Hur fights to clear his family's name and is ultimately inspired by the rise of Jesus Christ and his message. Wallace writes with a freshness and immediacy that brings every action-packed scene to life and illuminates the geography, ethnology and customs of the ancient world.ABOUT THE AUTHOR:Lewis Wallace was an American lawyer, soldier, politician and author. During active duty as a second lieutenant in the Mexican-American War, Wallace met Abraham Lincoln, who would later inspire him to join the Republican Party and fight for the Union in the American Civil War. Following the end of the war, Wallace retired from the army and began writing, completing his most famous work, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ while serving as the governor of New Mexico Territory. Ben-Hur would go on to become the best-selling American novel of the nineteenth century, and is noted as one of the most influential Christian books ever written. Although Ben-Hur is his most famous work, Wallace published continuously throughout his lifetime. Other notable titles include, The Boyhood of Christ, The Prince of India, several biographies and his own autobiography. Wallace died in 1909 at the age of 77, after a lifetime of service in the American army and government.

In the course of his travels and adventures in Europe and South America, Candide saw and suffered such misfortune that it was difficult for him to believe this was "the best of all possible worlds" as Dr. Pangloss had assured him. Indeed, it seemed to be quite the opposite. In brilliantly skewering such naïveté, Voltaire mercilessly exposes and satirizes romance, science, philosophy, religion, and government — the ideas and forces that permeate and control the lives of men.After many trials and travails, Candide is reunited with Cunegonde, his sweetheart. He then buys a little farm in Turkey where he and Cunegonde, Dr. Pangloss and others all retire. In the end, Candide decides that the best thing in the world is to cultivate one's own garden. A selection of the Common Core State Standards Initiative.

Olga Lengyel tells, frankly and without compromise, one of the most horrifying stories of all time. This true, documented chronicle is the intimate, day-to-day record of a beautiful woman who survived the nightmare of Auschwitz and Birchenau. This book is a necessary reminder of one of the ugliest chapters in the history of human civilization. It was a shocking experience. It is a shocking book.

Heidi' is one of the best-selling books of all time, not only a defining work of Swiss literature, but a beloved masterpiece of children’s fiction. When an aunt drops five-year-old Heidi off to live with her grandfather in the Alps—the two of them alone in a small hut on a hill—she's initially very lonely. Soon, however, she comes to appreciate her new, simple life; she loves walking through the pastures with her friend Peter the goatherd and spending quiet time with her grandfather. Three years later, Heidi's aunt returns to take her to the town to become a companion for Clara, a sick little girl of a wealthy family. But even though Heidi bonds with Clara and brings new life to the household, she becomes more and more homesick and wants desperately to return to her grandfather. Since its original publication in Switzerland in 1880, Johanna Spyri's classic story has delighted generations of children. The book has been translated into more than fifty languages and has sold over fifty million copies.