The Fine Arts

Nature and the muses are finally awakening in May. What kind of artistic feelings do the following 10 gems from our catalog awaken in you?

Building all kinds of housing – nests, burrows, hives – is a major occupation throughout the animal kingdom. One of the biggest achievements of man in this art is certainly the high gothic style, described in detail by John Ruskin in The Seven Lamps of Architecture.

What to do when huddled together in a drafty cave? Talking of course. The step to singing is but a tiny one. How to do it properly, is taught in How to Sing by Lilli Lehmann, considered one of the best singers of her time.

No great voice? You can learn an instrument instead! Clumsy fingers? In that case, the last resort is to become a critic. In How to Appreciate Music, Gustav Kobbé explains all you’ll need for the job.

A well versed and highly dangerous critic hides behind the mask of The Phantom of the Opera. Read the famous novel by Gaston Leroux and glimpse behind the scenes of the theater at their artists and patrons.

Homer De Vere has worked as an actor for ages, but now his voice is failing. The solution for his family is quickly found in the new – silent – film industry. Laura Lee Hope describes in The Moving Picture Girls how they adjust to the new medium.

Paintings cannot move or change. Except for The Picture of Dorian Gray of course, which records every little transformation of its motive, who instead lives on in eternal beauty. Have fun with our dramatic reading of Oscar Wilde’s horror story; or listen to a German translation of it.

William Blake is known for his dark and scary paintings, but also for his Poems. This collection contains his Songs of Innocence and of Experience.

Collecting famous paintings can be a very pricey hobby – and also a dangerous one. The lives of a nurse, a pawn shop owner and an art collector meet in The Pagan Madonna, an intriguing novel by Harold MacGrath, set in Shanghai.

Austria is where The Street of Seven Stars is located. Harmony studies violin to become a professional musician. When money runs out, Peter is determined to protect her. But who of them will have to sacrifice their passion? Find out in the love story by Mary Roberts Rinehart.

Sarrasine, a young French sculptor, is also madly in love – with La Zambinella, an Italian singer. Honoré de Balzac describes the winding roads the youth is willing to travel in search for his art and his muse.

Enjoy – and be creative!