All her life, Lady Isabel Colven has followed the path laid out for her. Her future holds a dutiful, passionless marriage, and she’s content…until the exotic and compelling Lord Rukh Hayle threatens her maidenly reserve. Rumor paints him as a wife-murderer; desire tempts her to look past his aura of danger. Rukh refuses to let his family’s curse kill a third bride, but Isabel awakens the Raven within him, compels him to take her to wife—and to bed—despite the secrets that live under his skin. Their union arouses a curse, entangling Isabel in an erotic tug of war that can only end in her destruction. There is no escape for either of them. Not from his family’s shadowy history. Not from demons imagined and real. And not from the choice Rukh faces to save his bride from a fate worse than death Warning: This gothic contains heady kisses that lead to ruin, passionate sex on a desk chair, a mysterious husband who may be a murderer, a cursed family of raven shifters, and an unspeakable evil hidden in the closet.

What is a dream? Modern science isn't sure. The general belief runs that dreams are illusions: while we sleep, our brains process recent electrical memory into long-term chemical memory, and our minds try to make sense of all the scraps of image and emotion and impression. Some people believe that dreams reveal our innermost desires, or our deepest fears. We pay analysts a fortune to interpret them. Some believe that dreams are visions of the future. They've been known to come true. Some believe that dreams are messages from someone or somewhere beyond our regular senses. Some believe that dreams are glimpses-or even visits-into other realities: the afterlife, or worlds that might have been. Are dreams real? If they exist, even only in our minds, then how can they not be real? So, what is a dream? Here we present one answer, and ten ... dreams, if you will. They were, at least, visions in the minds of the writers. Whether they are real is up to you.

Kafka, Gothic and Fairytale is an original comparative study of the novels and some of the related shorter punishment fantasies in terms of their relationship to the Gothic and fairytale conventions. It is an absorbing subject and one which, while keeping to the basic facts of his life, mind-set and literary method, shows Kafka’s work in a genuinely new light. The contradiction between his persona with its love of fairytale and his shadow with its affinity with Gothic is reflected in his work, which is both Gothic and other than Gothic, both fairytale-like and the every denial of fairytale. Important subtexts of the book are the close connexion between Gothic and fairytale and between both of these and the dream. German text is quoted in translation unless the emphasis is on the meaning of individual words or phrases, in which case the words in question are quoted and their English meanings discussed. This means that readers without German can, for the first time, begin to understand the underlying ambiguity of Kafka’s major fictions. The book is addressed to all who are interested in the meaning of his work and its place in literary history, but also to the many readers in the English and German-speaking worlds who share the author’s enthusiasm for Gothic and fairytale.

The legal institutions of the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BCE) have been vilified by history as harsh and draconian. Yet ironically, many Qin institutional features, such as written statutory law, were readily adopted by subsequent dynasties as the primary means for maintaining administrative and social control. This book utilizes both traditional texts and archeologically excavated materials to explore how these influential Qin legal institutions developed. First, it investigates the socio-political conditions which led to the production of law in written form. It then goes on to consider how the intended function of written law influenced the linguistic composition of legal statutes, as well as their physical construction. Using a function and form approach, it specifically analyses the Shuihudi legal corpus. However, unlike many previous studies of Chinese legal manuscripts, which have focused on codicological issues of transcription and translation, this book considers the linguistic aspects of these manuscripts and thus their importance for understanding the development of early Chinese legal thought. Writing Chinese Laws will be useful to students and scholars of Chinese Studies, as well as Asian law and history more generally.

DigiCat presents to you this unique and meticulously edited collection of the greatest Russian classics: Introduction: The History of the Russian Empire Novels & Novellas: Dead Souls A Hero of Our Time Oblomov Fathers and Sons Fyodor Dostoevsky: Crime and Punishment The Idiot The Brothers Karamazov Leo Tolstoy: War and Peace Anna Karenina The Death of Ivan Ilych The Kreutzer Sonata Anton Chekhov: The Steppe: The Story of a Journey Ward No. 6 Mother (Maxim Gorky) Satan's Diary (Leonid Andreyev) Plays: The Choice of a Tutor (Denis Fonvizin) The Inspector General; or, The Government Inspector (Nikolai Gogol) Anton Chekhov: On the High Road Swan Song, A Play in one Act Ivanoff The Anniversary; or, the Festivities The Three Sisters The Cherry Orchard... Leo Tolstoy: The Power of Darkness The First Distiller Fruits of Culture The Live Corpse The Cause of it All The Light Shines in Darkness Leonid Andreyev: Savva The Life of Man Nikolai Evreinov: A Merry Death The Beautiful Despot Short Stories: The Queen of Spades The Cloak The District Doctor The Christmas Tree and the Wedding God Sees the Truth, but Waits How A Muzhik Fed Two Officials The Shades, a Phantasy The Heavenly Christmas Tree The Peasant Marey The Crocodile Bobok The Dream of a Ridiculous Man Mumu The Viy Knock, Knock, Knock The Inn Lieutenant Yergunov's Story The Dog The Watch... Russian Folk Tales & Legends: The Fiend The Dead Mother The Dead Witch The Treasure The Cross-Surety The Awful Drunkard The Bad Wife The Golovikha The Three Copecks The Miser The Fool and the Birch-Tree The Mizgir The Smith and the Demon Ivan Popyalof The Norka Marya Morevna Koshchei the Deathless The Water Snake The Water King and Vasilissa the Wise The Baba Yaga Vasilissa the Fair The Witch The Witch and the Sun's Sister One-Eyed Likho Woe... Essays: On Russian Novelists Lectures on Russian Novelists

In The Enigma of The Taj Mahal R.H Rizvi takes readers on a mesmerizing journey through the marble corridors of history's most iconic monument. This evocative narrative delves into the hidden stories and timeless mysteries that shroud the majestic edifice, exploring the love, passion, and enigma that have immortalized it as a symbol of eternal devotion. Each page is a poetic unraveling of secrets, echoing with whispers of the past, and inviting readers to uncover the profound legacy of a wonder that transcends time.

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore" by Anonymous. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.