Was tun, wenn Weihnachten kurz vor der Tür steht und immer noch kein Baum im Haus ist? Oder der Wunschzettel lang ist, aber man »immer so mit dem Pfennig rechnen muss«? Und ob die Tiere draußen auch das Fest feiern können? Der Bestsellerautor Hans Fallada erinnert in seinen Erzählungen an die schönste Zeit des Jahres: »Dies Gefühl aufzuwachen und zu wissen: Heute ist wirklich Weihnachten.

Mitten in den Wirren des Dreißigjährigen Krieges hofft Mutter Courage auf gute Geschäfte: Mit einem Marketenderwagen zieht die alleinerziehende Mutter dreier Kinder verschiedenen Heeren hinterher und verkauft ihre Ware, um ihrer Familie in elenden Zeiten ein Einkommen zu sichern. Doch der Geschäftseifer hat seine Kehrseite: Mutter Courage übersieht, dass für die notleidende Bevölkerung mit dem...

In seiner Bearbeitung des Falls Galilei verschränkt Brecht den historischen Stoff mit Fragestellungen des 20. Jahrhunderts: Das Problem des Widerstands in der Diktatur wird hierin ebenso angesprochen wie die schwierige Rolle von Wissenschaftlern im Zeitalter der Weltkriege.

The Brothers Karamazov is a murder mystery, a courtroom drama, and an exploration of erotic rivalry in a series of triangular love affairs involving the ‘wicked and sentimental’ Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov and his three sons-the impulsive and sensual Dmitri; the coldly rational Ivan; and the healthy, red-cheeked young novice Alyosha. Through the gripping events of their story, Dostoevsky...

Stefan Zweig’s Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman, first published in 1927, is a powerful psychological novella that explores obsession, fate, and the intensity of human emotions. Known for his keen insight into the human psyche, Zweig crafts a gripping story about an elderly woman who, for the first time in her life, confesses a passionate and reckless episode from her past. This brief...

Jaroslav Hasek's The Good Soldier Svejk follows the adventures of Josef Svejk, a boisterous and sometimes bumbling (or brilliantly subversive?) Czech soldier, as he navigates the trials of World War I. Thrust into the Austro-Hungarian Empire's army in 1914, Svejk, ‘one of the great characters of 20th century literature’ (New Republic), embarks on a wild trip through war-ravaged Europe as he...

Jaroslav Hasek's The Good Soldier Svejk follows the adventures of Josef Svejk, a boisterous and sometimes bumbling (or brilliantly subversive?) Czech soldier, as he navigates the trials of World War I. Thrust into the Austro-Hungarian Empire's army in 1914, Svejk, ‘one of the great characters of 20th century literature’ (New Republic), embarks on a wild trip through war-ravaged Europe as he...

Young Dr. Bromgard has come to a small country town to assume a new practice. No sooner has he arrived than he receives word that a colleague, Dr. Polyakov, has fallen gravely ill. Before Bromgard can go to his friend’s aid, Polyakov is brought to his practice in the middle of the night with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and, barely conscious, gives Bromgard his journal before dying. What...

Nietzsche was one of the most revolutionary and subversive thinkers in Western philosophy, and Thus Spoke Zarathustra remains his most famous and influential work. It describes how the ancient Persian prophet Zarathustra descends from his solitude in the mountains to tell the world that God is dead and that the Superman, the human embodiment of divinity, is his successor. Nietzsche's utterance...