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The dwarf's spectacles, and other fairy tales

Max Simon Nordau

"In peril on the sea" by Montague T. Hainsselin is a collection of fairy tales written in the early 20th century. The work strings together gentle, didactic stories where animals, insects, toys, and a country boy illustrate lessons about kindness, humility, loyalty, and clear-sighted judgment. The opening of this collection unfolds a suite of brief fables: a rose-bush grows thorns after a cat kills a nightingale’s brood, explaining the bird’s mournful song; an aged fly survives winter only to feel out of place among the young and drifts into the fire; a girl learns, through a fairy’s gift, that her cherished white mouse fears her “affection,” and that creatures seek their own kind; a grand doll’s pride leads to ruin while modest dolls endure; sparrows repeatedly save a child—warning her from poisoned candy, diverting a runaway horse, and guiding her home from kidnappers—earning lifelong gratitude; and six glow-worms, pressed into service as lamps by an owl, escape with a young owl’s help and restore light to a meadow’s revelers. Finally, the frame shifts to Michel, a dutiful farmhand who, twice swindled on the road, aids a stranded dwarf and receives spectacles that reveal thoughts; he immediately uses them to avoid undercutting local laborers, who in turn feed, re-clothe, and help him find work. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

The motives of men

George Albert Coe

"In peril on the sea" by Montague T. Hainsselin is a philosophical and social-psychological treatise written in the early 20th century. It probes what truly drives human conduct, arguing that modern cynicism about “human nature” arises from cultural forces rather than immutable defects. Drawing on education, psychology, religion, literature, economics, and recent history, it examines how war, industrialism, and fashionable theories shrink our sense of what we can want and become. It points toward enlarging and better directing our desires as the path to a more generous, cooperative, and meaningful life. The opening of the work frames the author’s purpose in a candid preface: from vantage points in education, the psychology of religion, and public life, he sets out to understand the dynamics of human motivation and why the age doubts itself. He argues that wants shape who we are; meagre desires make meagre lives, and schools and churches often sell what they have instead of cultivating richer aims. Part I surveys the sources of disillusionment: the war’s propaganda and profiteering eroded trust; evolution was misread as degrading humanity; contemporary literature fixates on irrational impulses; competing psychologies cloud the picture; industrialism normalizes profit-first conflict and insincerity; and Christianity, entangled with the economic order, fails to demonstrate the regenerative change it proclaims. The section closes by introducing Part II’s claim that this gloom is itself mistaken, and Chapter IX clarifies the core issue: not nature’s scarcity, but our suspected inability to desire higher ends—setting up an inquiry into whether that suspicion is true. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Narrative of the operations and recent discoveries within the pyramids, temples, tombs and excavations in Egypt and Nubia; vol. 1 : and of a journey to the coast of the Red Sea, in search of the ancient Berenice; and another to the Oasis of Jupiter Ammon

Giovanni Battista Belzoni

"In peril on the sea" by Montague T. Hainsselin is a historical travel narrative written in the early 19th century. It follows a determined European explorer-engineer through Egypt and Nubia as he documents operations among pyramids, temples, and tombs, contends with local politics and dangers, and advances bold claims about ancient architecture. Expect vivid first-person reportage that blends logistics, discovery, and argument, including the attempted removal of a colossal statue and side journeys toward the Red Sea and desert oases. The opening of the narrative presents a frank preface in which the author insists on telling his story himself, outlining his solitary methods, hydraulic expertise, and major finds (from pyramids and royal tombs to famed statues), and stating his aim to correct public misreports. A second preface adds pointed theses—locating the temple of Jupiter Ammon in a specific oasis, dismissing misidentified sites for the Egyptian Labyrinth, and arguing that Egyptians built true arches—while citing new traveler reports to bolster these views. The story then begins in earnest: arrival at Alexandria during the plague and a wary quarantine; a journey up the Nile to Cairo; early visits to the pyramids; an injury and the chaos of a military revolt; and a stint at Soubra building a water-raising machine for the ruler, amid glimpses of courtly pastimes, electricity demonstrations, and village festivities. After an accident and local resistance doom the machine, the traveler resolves to ascend the Nile, accepting instructions to try transporting a colossal head from Thebes. With scant tools, a small crew, and his wife, he sails south, dealing with officials and rough country life, and the section closes with his awed first encounter with the grand, richly carved temple at Dendera. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

En flânant de Messine à Cadix

Eugène Montfort

"In peril on the sea" by Montague T. Hainsselin is a travel narrative written in the early 20th century. It follows a cultivated wanderer and his companion on a Mediterranean journey from Naples through Sicily toward Spain, blending eyewitness reportage with lyrical impressions. The likely focus is coastal ports, seaborne passages, and the human and urban landscape reshaped by disaster—especially around Reggio and Messina—before turning toward North Africa and Andalusia. The opening of the work finds the narrator in Naples hunting passage to Spain, daydreaming of exotic encounters aboard a German liner, then deciding first to cross into Sicily by land to see Calabria. As the train skirts the coast, hints of the recent earthquake sharpen into fields of rubble and a chastened, half-camped Reggio, where the travelers lodge in wooden barracks, wander stunned among ruins at dusk, and sense fear and distrust after dark. At dawn they cross the strait: from afar Messina looks serene, but up close it is a vast carcass of fallen palaces, gutted streets, and silent interiors, with a few eerie survivals—the theater intact, a statue untouched, a lone reinforced house now serving meals. Amid this devastation, a provisional city of shops and barracks hums to life, while water is drawn from hacked pipes and clearance seems impossibly slow. The section closes with a ride to Taormina and a hotelier’s harrowing testimony of the first days—panic, looting, scattered families, and frayed nerves—prompting the narrator’s sober reflection on how survival itself has morally unbalanced the living. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

La chanson de la Bretagne

Anatole Le Braz

In peril on the sea by Montague T. Hainsselin is a poetry collection written in the late 19th century. The work dwells on the Breton coast and its people, blending seafaring life with Celtic legend and Catholic devotion in an elegiac, sea‑swept atmosphere. A nostalgic, exiled narrator evokes fishermen, islanders, and coastal women against winds, tides, chapels, and myths. Readers who enjoy maritime mood, folklore, and lyrical regional portraiture will be at home here. The opening of this work begins with a prologue that lets the “Breton soul” sing through an exile’s voice, invoking saints Jeune and Envel and lamenting a homeland that feels close to silence. It then unfurls vivid lyric tableaux: seaweed‑gathering girls on stormy shores, an enchanted spring of Brocéliande, the harsh land of Armor reborn in spring, wrecks washing in with winter seas, and gulls threading estuaries into quiet, grey towns. Catholic rites (May devotions, Noël, Easter, Saint Yves) mingle with Celtic memory—the drowned city of Ys, the siren Ahès, winds and rocks that speak—while ports like Paimpol, Tréguier, and Quimperlé frame departures, vigils, and the ache of shipwreck. Love and loss recur in brief ballads (a leper set apart, a washerwoman’s despair, doomed young lovers beneath the pines), alongside reflections on exile and the fading of oral song. This is only a summary of the beginning, which establishes a maritime, folkloric, and mournfully tender tone. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

La Carmélite

Ernest Daudet

"In peril on the sea" by Montague T. Hainsselin is a novel written in the late 19th century. It appears to be a dramatic study of faith, sacrifice, and family honor centered on Nicolette, a devout young woman in southern France whose desire to become a Carmelite collides with the world when she shields her sister Irène from scandal. Entangled with Irène’s domineering husband and the sister’s cavalry-officer lover, she is pressed toward a marriage of duty rather than a life in the cloister. The work explores piety versus passion, conscience, and reputation. The opening of the story follows Nicolette as she prays at a Carmelite convent in Beaucaire and confirms to the prioress her wish to enter as a novice. At home, we learn her sister Irène is unhappily married to the hot-tempered Jacques Malivert. One night Jacques surprises Irène with her lover, the hussar Frédéric de Varimpré; Irène drags the officer into Nicolette’s room, and Nicolette claims he came for her to save her sister from ruin and possibly death. Malivert then forces a marriage prospect, and Nicolette’s confessor counsels her to accept this sacrifice as God’s will. Frédéric’s formal suit follows; in a guarded conversation in the garden, Nicolette sets terms—he must respect her vow of chastity until the Church releases it, allow her rigorous religious life, and embrace honorable conduct. She makes a final retreat at the convent, bids a painful farewell to the cloister, and the section closes with the town preparing for the imminent wedding. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Margaret Dashwood : or, Interference

Edith C. (Edith Charlotte) Hubback

"In peril on the sea" by Montague T. Hainsselin is a novel written in the early 20th century. It appears to be a continuation-style tale of manners in the Austen vein, focusing on Margaret Dashwood’s quiet coming-of-age, her unwanted courtship by a vain young clergyman, and a gentler, emerging attachment to a naval officer. The opening of the story presents Margaret, now seventeen at Barton Cottage, as a calm observer amid the meddlesome cheer of Sir John and Mrs. Jennings, the cool propriety of Lady Middleton, and the verbose attentions of the new vicar, Mr. Atherton. John Dashwood schemes to steer Margaret into marriage with Atherton, even dangling a conditional increase to her small fortune, while the Park’s endless jokes and Miss Nancy Steele’s chatter keep gossip alive. Against this bustle, Margaret accidentally meets a courteous naval officer on the downs—later known as Commander Pennington—and a quiet mutual understanding forms, which she initially keeps from her mother to avoid neighborhood talk. A ball brings Willoughby’s return and more social noise; soon after, Pennington dines with the Palmers, receives orders to sea, and privately asks Margaret to wait for him, a scene Mrs. Dashwood interrupts before mother and daughter reconcile in confidence. Atherton later proposes at the parsonage; Margaret declines, John presses in vain, and the timely arrival of Elinor and Edward steadies the household as John departs, his plans thwarted. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Képzelet-királyfiak : Mese

Margit Kaffka

"In peril on the sea" by Montague T. Hainsselin is a literary fairy tale written in the early 20th century. It follows three royal brothers from Imaginationland who, carried by a moonlit Dream-carriage into the realm of Reality, test power, knowledge, and beauty against a resistant world. The tale centers on Acháj the warrior, Námán the seeker of truth, and Yonos the gentle artist, using their paths as an allegory of ambition, wisdom, and inspiration. The opening of the tale stages a luminous night festival in Imaginationland, where musical flowers and firefly lamps celebrate three princes coming of age as the fabled Dream-carriage arrives to bear them to Reality, a journey all call “Álom.” Acháj wakes in harsh mountains, fells a stag, is hailed by cave-dwellers as leader, imposes order, refines weapons, discovers fire, subdues river folk, and plans conquests of the plains until a mysterious voice makes him question the end of power. Námán reaches a vast steppe, is hosted by shepherds, cures a flock’s plague with herbs, introduces counting, weighing, and writing, then publicly teaches natural truths that offend their idol-cult; sentenced to death, he is freed at night by Jezabel and flees with his devoted pupils. At the start of Yonos’s story, he sits by a moonlit sea in an unfinished white city, envisions a serene woman with an olive branch, and, seized by inspiration, sculpts her form from marble as the night declines. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Great commanders of modern times and The campaign of 1815.

William O'Connor Morris

"In peril on the sea" by Montague T. Hainsselin is a collection of military-historical essays written in the late 19th century. It surveys the evolution of the art of war through portraits of major commanders and concludes with studies of the 1815 campaign. The emphasis is on strategy, logistics, and leadership, with sustained attention to figures such as Turenne, Marlborough, Frederick the Great, Napoleon, Wellington, and Moltke. The opening of the volume presents front matter and a preface explaining that these essays, first published in a military periodical, are reissued with minor corrections; the writer, a civilian, defends his right to assess warfare, asserts Napoleon’s clear strategic superiority over his 1815 opponents, and flags two contentious Waterloo points (the timing of La Haye Sainte’s fall and the Guard’s assault). An “Introduction by a Soldier” argues that studying great generals never loses relevance, then spotlights Gustavus Adolphus as the father of modern strategy, summarizing his campaigns from Scandinavia and Poland to the Thirty Years’ War (securing Baltic bases, bold river-line advances, Leipzig, the Lech crossing, and Lützen). Chapter I turns to Turenne: it outlines the constraints of 17th‑century war (bad roads, many fortresses, cavalry‑heavy tactics), sketches his rise, and highlights campaigns that showcase strategic maneuver over sieges (notably the 1646 Danube–Lech operations, the 1658 Dunes with English support, the 1674–75 Rhine/Vosges winter stroke, and his death mid‑campaign). It also credits his reforms that made the French army a modern instrument and offers a balanced appraisal of his strengths (strategic genius, steadiness, humane command) and limits (cautious tempo, second-order tactician). Chapter II begins Marlborough’s story—early service under Turenne, political entanglements, and his first Low Countries campaigns—ending as the narrative sets the stage for the decisive 1704 turn. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

L'esclave du pacha, suivi de Histoire de ma grand'tante

X.-B. (Xavier-Boniface) Saintine

"In peril on the sea" by Montague T. Hainsselin is a novel written in the mid-19th century. Set between Constantinople and the Anatolian interior, it unfolds as an Orientalist romance and adventure centered on Baïla, a Mingrelian odalisque possessed by the formidable pasha Djezzar and coveted by a daring young Frenchman, with intrigue, jealousy, and mortal risk close at hand. It probes captivity, power, and the dangerous pull of forbidden desire. The opening of the story frames a traveler’s tale: a narrator walking near Paris with an Orientalist friend hears of a drama the friend learned in Asia Minor, then the narrative shifts to Sivas and the harem gardens. There, Baïla—lavishly described amid fountains and palms—startles when a young Frenchman slips past the guards, speaks to her, and vanishes, sparking her curiosity and Mariam the nurse’s alarm. A brisk backstory follows: sold in Mingrelia, trained at Trébizonde, nearly bought by a decrepit official in the Constantinople slave bazaar, Baïla is instead claimed by Djezzar Pasha and becomes his volatile favorite, even as his cruelty and his pet lion, Haïder, loom over all. Rumor then hints the pasha has shot a “dog” near the garden; fearing it was the foreigner, Baïla marks his fading footprint with a small cross, yet soon asserts triumphant sway—famously cowing Haïder with a flurry of narghilé canes and drawing Djezzar back to heel. In the city she suddenly glimpses the Frenchman alive, who signals devotion with a shining token pressed to his heart, and her thoughts turn inward: less capricious, more intent on freedom and on learning who he is. She presses Mariam, who reluctantly admits a secret encounter and her terror of discovery, and at last, with the pasha away, a bribed gardener smuggles a man into the garden. The segment closes as Baïla, freshly bathed, trembling yet resolute, goes to meet the clandestine visitor. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

A surgeon in khaki

Arthur Anderson Martin

"In peril on the sea" by Montague T. Hainsselin is a wartime memoir written in the early 20th century. It offers a frontline surgeon’s personal account with the British Expeditionary Force during the opening phase of the Great War, following mobilisation, transport, field ambulances, and early battles such as the Marne and the Aisne. The narrator—a New Zealand hospital surgeon attached to the Royal Army Medical Corps—focuses on medical work under fire and the human toll on both sides. The opening of this work states the author’s aim to record impressions from 1914 and quickly moves from a pre-war surgical tour to Britain’s entry into war, his volunteering, rapid commissioning, and first duties at Aldershot examining and inoculating recruits. He embarks from Southampton to a rapturous welcome at Le Havre, bivouacs at Harfleur, digs emergency defenses against a German raiding force, witnesses enemy aircraft and a probable spy, and is then swept up in a sudden change of base to St. Nazaire amid chaotic loading and badly handled horses. Ordered forward by rail through the Loire to the advanced base, he reaches Coulommiers, joins a field ambulance near the Marne, treats captured Prussian Guard Jägers, and watches British generals driving the crossing and pursuit. A night of continuous triage in a lamplit tent by the river is followed by marching beyond the Marne, where the narrative closes on stark roadside scenes of the German retreat, with shrapnel’s impersonal deadliness etched into fields, ditches, and abandoned cars. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

The history of a pot of varnish

Anonymous

The history of a pot of varnish by Anonymous is an industrial and technical account written in the late 19th century. It explains how varnish is made and used, emphasizing the sourcing of resin gums, the preparation of linseed oil and turpentine, and the manufacturing craft, with special attention to the practices and standards of Murphy & Co. The likely topic is the journey of varnish from raw materials to finished product within a growing American industry. The book opens by celebrating American curiosity about how things are made, then explains varnish’s three essentials—fossil resin (especially gum copal), linseed oil, and turpentine. It tours global resin sources (Zanzibar, Accra, New Zealand’s kauri fields), notes fossil gums with trapped insects, and contrasts fresh versus fossil resins. It then moves inside the factory: sorting and cleaning gum, boiling and refining oils, melting and combining ingredients, filtering, and long “ripening” in tanks, all overseen by testing to prevent the familiar “deviltries” painters face (crawling, specking, blistering). The narrative profiles Murphy & Co.’s Newark and Cleveland works, their meticulous cleanliness, in-house cooperage and tin shop, laboratory, and even a publication office, and explains their prepared “A.B.C. Surfacers” to ensure sound undercoats. It closes by framing the firm’s role in helping American varnishes rival and surpass imported grades, reflecting broader industrial confidence and expansion. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Sea, spray and spindrift : Naval yarns

H. Taprell (Henry Taprell) Dorling

"In peril on the sea" by Montague T. Hainsselin is a collection of naval short stories written in the early 20th century. The tales spotlight sailors, midshipmen, and merchant seafarers facing gun-runners, pirates, accidents at sea, and wartime patrols, with brisk action and sturdy, patriotic spirit. Expect tight, self-contained adventures featuring youthful initiative, peril, and daring rescues. The opening of the collection delivers three complete yarns and the start of a fourth. In Tubby’s Dhow, an Arabic-speaking midshipman overhears a gun-running plot on the Gulf of Oman, escapes a hostile village, then helps a cutter capture the arms-laden dhow after a night fight, earning commendation. The Stranding of the Hoi-Hau follows a merchant steamer that grounds in fog off the Shantung coast, withstands a pirate assault, and is saved when a boy signals HELP in Morse to a sloop that shells the attacking junks. The Gunner’s Luck recounts a torpedo-boat whose shaft snaps off South Africa; her crew rigs makeshift sails and nurses her into Saldanha Bay, after which the skipper is promoted. Finally, in the opening of Horatio Nelson Chivers, a tramp steamer is seized by a German cruiser; with the crew confined and only the steward and a sharp-witted galley boy at large under guard, the boy quietly begins a plan as the captain feigns illness. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

A podolini takácsné : Elbeszélések

Gyula Krúdy

"In peril on the sea" by Montague T. Hainsselin is a collection of short stories written in the early 20th century. The opening suggests atmospheric, Central European tales where memory, longing, and everyday decency meet folklore and the uncanny, following a principled widower, a tireless district clerk, and small-town souls who brush against fate and ghosts. The opening of the work strings together several vignettes. In A podolini takácsné, the upright landowner Pázsmáti János escorts his fragile son to Podolin and is stirred by memories of his youthful love for Irma, only to master the temptation and leave with his integrity intact. A tótok elfogynak follows Haviár József, a devoted county clerk who watches over his district like a father; after his wife’s death and a harsh remarriage, the dead mother’s spirit lures the children away, and Haviár himself declines into drink. A fejnélküli barát relates how a timid spinster, Scholtz Antónia, sees the legendary headless monk and, joyfully reconciled to fate, dies a month later. Jézuska csizmája shows two ruined mercenaries, cheated and cast into the snow, saved only when an austere sister leads them to their stolen boots hanging from a roadside crucifix—too late for one, whom the Christ on the cross wordlessly claims. Finally, Ábrándok begins with Hollós, a young scholar in old Buda, drawn night after night toward a mysterious woman’s song, as the scene freezes on his first close approach. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

In peril on the sea

Montague T. (Montague Thomas) Hainsselin

"In peril on the sea" by Montague T. Hainsselin is a naval novel written in the early 20th century. Set aboard a British light cruiser during wartime, it blends tense sea operations with espionage, rescue-at-sea suspense, and a sudden, fraught romance. The story centers on First Lieutenant Stapleton, Captain Blake, and the rescued Irish cousins Norah, Netta, and Patrick Sheridan, whose arrival brings hidden motives and moral conflict aboard. At the start of the work, a playful preface announces a straightforward naval yarn before the tale opens on a fog-bound cruiser, the Marathon, slowing through danger and recovering a drifting boat with two young women, Norah and Netta, and their cousin Patrick. In the warm bustle of the wardroom, Captain Blake arranges to send them ashore by destroyer, while Stapleton is instantly drawn to Norah and privately declares himself. Shortly after, Netta collapses and, in panic, blurts out a detailed story of a bomb plot—dismissed by the ship’s doctor as delirium—while Patrick simultaneously urges Norah to plant a timed device; she hesitates and is interrupted as they are hurried off to the destroyer. At sea, Norah is racked with remorse and dread, unsure whether Patrick managed to hide the bomb, and back aboard the cruiser officers debate the plausibility of such a device, leaving the opening with a tightening question: is the Marathon already in peril? (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Excursion to the Orkney Islands

Jacob Abbott

"The romance of the Oxford colleges" by Francis Henry Gribble is a historical account written in the early 20th century. It likely blends architectural description with anecdote and legend to trace the origins, traditions, and notable figures of Oxford’s colleges, aiming to capture their atmosphere and cultural significance. The opening of this work follows Mrs. Morelle, her children Florence and John, and their capable cousin Grimkie as they prepare to travel from America to England to meet the children’s father, whose letter arrives from Singapore proposing a summer reunion in London. They book Cunard passages (ultimately via Boston), select adjacent staterooms, and ready practical gear—including a shared “night valise”—while learning how a letter of credit works and purchasing English sovereigns. The narrative then details embarkation, early seasickness, the cautious fog-bound stop at Halifax, the bleak passage over the Banks of Newfoundland, and the return of fair weather, with landfall at Ireland and arrival in Liverpool. Settled at the Waterloo Hotel, the children explore Liverpool’s docks and floating landing-stage, and the family adapts to English hotel customs. Finally, over breakfast, they discuss travel plans; prompted by maps and guidebooks, Grimkie proposes an adventurous journey to the Orkney Islands via Inverness and Wick, explaining the routes by rail, coach, and steamer that would take them north. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Life of John Brown

Michael Gold

Lost Nellie by Pansy is a concise historical biography written in the early 20th century. The book recounts the life and legacy of the American abolitionist John Brown, presenting his rise from a pious, hard-working frontier farmer to a militant foe of slavery; its likely topic is Brown’s moral evolution, his Kansas battles, the Harper’s Ferry raid, and the national reckoning that followed. The narrative opens by framing slavery’s “respectability” in American life, then traces Brown’s youth, deep religious convictions, and early outrage at the abuse of enslaved people. It follows his self-education, family hardships, and business struggles, leading to his activism on the Underground Railroad and his radicalization after the Fugitive Slave Law and the Kansas crisis. In “Bleeding Kansas,” he organizes armed defense, answers Border Ruffian terror with the grim Pottawatomie reprisals, and becomes a guerrilla leader, later freeing enslaved families in a winter raid that he conducts to Canada. The book then details his larger plan to unsettle slavery at its source, his seizure of the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, the siege and deaths of his sons, and his capture by U.S. Marines. It closes with his steadfast trial speech, serene letters from jail, execution, and the powerful aftermath—how his martyrdom galvanized Northern opinion, hastened the nation toward civil war, and forged a lasting legend of courage and justice. (This is an automatically generated summary.)