Books Summary

Source:  gutenberg.org/files/2600/2600-h/2600-h.htm War and Peace ,  historical novel  by  Leo Tolstoy , originally published as  Voyna i mir  in 1865-69. This panoramic study of early 19th-century Russian society, noted for its mastery of realistic detail and variety of psychological analysis, is generally regarded as a masterwork of  Russian literature  and one of the world’s greatest  novels . War and Peace   broadly focuses on Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812 and follows three of the most well-known characters in literature: Pierre Bezukhov, the illegitimate son of a count who is fighting for his inheritance and yearning for spiritual fulfillment; Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, who leaves his family behind to fight in the war against Napoleon; and Natasha Rostov, the beautiful young daughter of a nobleman who intrigues both men. The books focuses on two main topics. One is the Russian-French wars of 1805 and 1812. Tolstoy describes the wars, and in particular the bat

Source:  http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20781/20781-h/20781-h.htm Heidi is  a two-volume novel written by  Johanna Spyri  (born in 1827 in a small village, died in the city of Zurich in 1901), was published in 1879/1880, became a world-wide success story already towards the end of the 19th century and children do still like it today- as a book, as a radio play and as a movie. The orphan child Heidi first lives with her aunt Dete, but Dete would like to concentrate on her career. So she brings Heidi to her grandfather, a queer old man living in an alpine cottage far from the next village (he is therefore called Alm-Uncle, Alpöhi or Almöhi in German). Alm-Uncle is good-hearted but mistrusts anybody and wants to keep the child from all evils of the world. So he refuses to send Heidi to school; instead she goes to the pastures, together with Peter, a shepherd boy looking after the goats (Geissenpeter = goat-Peter in German). This (all too harmonious) apine idyll finds a sud