In a far, far away land there lived a Bear called Boris who was always grrrumbling and grrrumping. The other animals tried to keep away from him (well you would wouldn't you) and they wondered if he would ever smile. Then one day in a forest he met someone who was even grumpier than he was ... If you read the story you can find out what happened next.....
A novel about an outstanding violinist who gave concerts that were unforgettable. Women of all classes found his music entrancing and, as a result, Boris was given the nickname 'The Devil's Violinist' in Russia.
Ê"Whoever wishes to know how great is the power which the charm of music can exercise over humanity must visit one of Boris Lensky's concerts. "Boris Lensky! The name in itself has a legendary sound--a magic fascination surrounds the man and his violin. For every one who has attended one of his concerts, the longing, listening expression on the faces of the women who hear him is something which remains forever interwoven in remembrance with the complaining sweetness of his art. The best and noblest of women, when they listen to his wonderful violin, fall into a feverish trance which makes them lose all power over themselves. "In Russia they call Boris Lensky the devil's violinist, and in explanation of the godless charm which glows in his art, the following neat little tale is told: "Almost fifty years ago, crept through the poorest quarter of Moscow a neglected, ugly child, who, in order to earn his scanty food, scraped his violin as best he might, and sometimes received a copeck, but never a caress. This child was Boris Lensky. His heart languished for tenderness, like that of all repulsed ones. Then the devil met him, and allured him with splendid temptations. He would lay the whole world at his feet, if the boy would give him his soul for his own in exchange. But the boy felt a terror at this hellish slavery and said: 'No.' Then the devil at first went his way, and gnashed his teeth that he had not succeeded in capturing a human soul. But suddenly he turned back and called to the boy: 'I desire nothing of you; keep your soul; but you shall accept a present from me--a gift. In your art shall dwell a charm which no one can resist.' "Then the boy was astonished at the devil's generosity, and accepted the gift. But the devil rejoiced, for he said to himself: 'If I have lost one soul, I have taken ten thousand others for it.' But the violinist soon noticed what a curse had fallen to his share. "Denying all nobility, and still feeling a horror of the degrading power within him, he now goes through the world, restless, joyless, and without power over his own demoniac art--a resisting tool in the devil's hand. And he longs despairingly to find a being who could resist the fiendish charm, but he finds none.
A fascinating little story for every day of the year! Read about all kinds of animals - lions, horses, jackals, bears, monkeys, rabbits and even tiny honey bees and ants. These delightful tales of animals and their friends make for an enjoyable story reading session
All the readers include literacy activities that are correlated to the Communication, Language and Literacy goals in the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum.
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.
