Altri libri che potrebbero interessarti

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  A Man with Two Lives - From...

  Ambrose Bierce

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  Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was born on 24th June 1842 at Horse Cave Creek in Meigs County, Ohio. His parents were poor but they introduced him to literature at an early age, instilling in him a deep appreciation of books, the written word and the elegance of language.  
  Growing up in Koscuisko County, Indiana poverty and religion were defining features of his childhood, and he would later describe his parents as “unwashed savages” and fanatically religious, showing him little affection but always quick to punish. He came to resent religion, and his introduction to literature appears to be their only positive effect. 
  At age 15 Bierce left home to become a printer’s devil, mixing ink and fetching type at The Northern Indian, a small Ohio paper. Falsely accused of theft he returned to his farm and spent time sending out work in the hopes of being published. 
  His Uncle Lucius advised he be sent to the Kentucky Military Institute. A year later he was commissioned as an Officer.  As the Civil War started Bierce enlisted in the 9th Indiana Infantry Regiment.  
  In April 1862 Bierce fought at the Battle of Shiloh, an experience which, though terrifying, became the source of several short stories. Two years later he sustained a serious head wound and was off duty for several months. He was discharged in early 1865.  
  A later expedition to inspect military outposts across the Great Plains took him all the way to San Francisco. He remained there to become involved with publishing and editing and to marry, Mary Ellen on Christmas Day 1871.  They had a child, Day, the following year.  
  In 1872 the family moved to England for 3 years where he wrote for Fun magazine. His son, Leigh, was born, and first book, ‘The Fiend’s Delight’, was published.  
  They returned to San Francisco and to work for a number of papers where he gained admiration for his crime reporting. In 1887 he began a column at the William Randolph Hearst’s San Francisco Examiner.  
  Bierce’s marriage fell apart when he discovered compromising letters to his wife from a secret admirer. The following year, 1889 his son Day committed suicide, depressed by romantic rejection. 
  In 1891 Bierce wrote and published the collection of 26 short stories which included ‘An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge’.  Success and further works including poetry followed.  
  Bierce with Hearst’s resources helped uncover a financial plot by a railroad to turn 130 million dollars of loans into a handout. Confronted by the railroad and asked to name his price Bierce answered “my price is $130 million dollars. If, when you are ready to pay, I happen to be out of town, you may hand it over to my friend, the Treasurer of the United States”.  
  He now began his first foray as a fabulist, publishing ‘Fantastic Fables’ in 1899.  But tragedy again struck two years later when his second son Leigh died of pneumonia relating to his alcoholism.  
  He continued to write short stories and poetry and also published ‘The Devil’s Dictionary’.  
  At the age of 71, in 1913 Bierce departed from Washington, D.C., for a tour of the battlefields where he had fought during the civil war. At the city of Chihuahua he wrote his last known communication, a letter to a friend. It’s closing words were “as to me, I leave here tomorrow for an unknown destination,” Ambrose Bierce then vanished without trace.

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  The Red Flower - This deep...

  Vsevelod Garshin

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  Vsevolod Mikhailovich Garshin was born on 14th February 1855 in what is now Dnipro in the Ukraine, but then part of the Russian Empire. 
   
  After attending secondary school he studied at the Saint Petersburg Mining Institute.  
   
  Wars between and on behalf of Empires were a regular feature of the decades then.  Garshin volunteered to serve in the Russian army at the beginning of the Russo-Turkish War in 1877.  
   
  He began as a private in the Balkans campaign and was wounded in action.  By the end of the war, in 1878, he had been promoted to officer rank.  
   
  By now Garshin, having previously published some articles and reviews in newspapers, wished to devote himself to a literary career.  The decision made he resigned his army commission. 
   
  His time as a soldier provided rich experiences for his early stories. His first ‘Four Days’ was related as the interior monologue of a wounded soldier left for dead on the battlefield for four days, face to face with the corpse of a Turkish soldier he had killed, gained him early admiration as an author of note.  
   
  He wrote perhaps only 20 stories, but their influence was immense, although in these more modern times he is barely remembered and lives in the more prolific shadows of others.  His characters are superbly worked into stories that come alive in the intensity and reality of his prose.   
   
  Garshin’s most well-known story is ‘The Red Flower’, also known as ‘Scarlet Blossom’ and is easily amongst the first rank of stories dealing with mental health issues. 
    
  Despite early literary success, he himself experienced periodical bouts of mental illness.   
   
  In one such bout Garshin attempted to commit suicide by throwing himself down the stone stairs leading into his apartment building.  Although not immediately fatal, Vsevolod Garshin died as a result of his injuries in a St Petersburg hospital on 5th April 1888.  He was 33. 
   
  In this captivating story a man is placed into an insane asylum.  Life may be grim within its walls but he has a plan to remove evil from the world.  All it takes is further sacrifice from himself.

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  A Dill Pickle

  Katherine Mansfield

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  "A Dill Pickle" is a 1917 short story by Katherine Mansfield. It was first published in the New Age on 4 October 1917. A revised version later appeared in Bliss and Other Stories. The characters and their relationship possibly were inspired by Mansfield's older sister Vera Margaret Beauchamp and her husband James Mackintosh Bell.
  A man and a woman who used to be romantically involved meet by chance in a tea-house not having seen each other for about six years. We learn that the woman ended their earlier relationship in a letter she wrote to him, but we come to doubt that she expected the letter to do so. They sit together and reminisce about past events – for example, the day they spent at Kew Gardens together. Both initially seem to regret not being friends any longer.

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  A Defenceless Creature

  Anton Chekhov

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  Defenceless Creature - a story by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov. Written in 1887, first published on February 28, 1887 in the magazine Oskolki. The story describes with irony a stubborn man who achieves his goals by relying on the pity of those around him.
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  The classic of German literature...

  Stefan Zweig, Franz Kafka,...

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  German literature comprises those literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German parts of Switzerland and Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, South Tyrol in Italy and to a lesser extent works of the German diaspora.
  Contents:
  Thomas Mann
  Death in Venice
  Hermann Hesse
  Siddhartha
  Franz Kafka
  The Metamorphosis
  Stefan Zweig
  A Summer Novella
  Rainer Maria Rilke
  Poems
  First Poems
  Evening
  Mary Virgin
  The Book of Pictures
  Presaging
  Autumn
  Silent Hour
  The Angels
  Solitude
  Kings in Legends
  The Knight
  The Boy
  Initiation
  The Neighbour
  Song of the Statue
  Maidens I
  Maidens II
  The Bride
  Autumnal Day
  Moonlight Night
  In April
  Memories of a Childhood
  Death
  The Ashantee
  Remembrance
  Music
  Maiden Melancholy
  Maidens at Confirmation
  The Woman who Loves
  Pont du Carrousel
  Madness
  Lament
  Symbols
  New Poems:
  Early Apollo
  The Tomb of a Young Girl
  The Poet
  The Panther
  Growing Blind
  The Spanish Dancer
  Offering
  Love Song
  Archaic Torso of Apollo

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  The Queen of Spades

  Alexander Puschkin

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  Dive deep into the classic story "The Queen of Spades," and prepare to be captivated by its magnetic characters and unpredictable twists that challenge their desires and beliefs. This thrilling literary masterpiece will leave you questioning the fine line between destiny and obsession. Get ready for an immersive experience that will keep you hooked until the very last page. This timeless classic has received a stellar 5-star rating from The Guardian. 

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