Other books that might interest you

• 

  Humplebee

  George Gissing

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  George Robert Gissing (1857–1903) was a popular English novelist and short story writer who also worked as a teacher and tutor throughout his life.Humplebee tells the tale of a young man of the same name who, in his youth, saves the life of his schoolfellow, Leonard Chadwick, who falls through thin ice on a winter pond. The gratitude of Chadwick and in particular his friend's wealthy industrialist father lead everyone, in particular Humplebee's parents, to assume he will from then on have a great financial benefactor. Chadwick senior even appears to promise such generosity and initially employs Humplebee as a clerk in his business.As things transpire, the promise of generous patronage is a curse to the Humplebee family. Humplebee hates the clerkship and all the more so because to take up the position he had to forego the opening at the Natural History museum, which he would have truly loved. Humplebee's parents attempt to expand their business on the promise of the Chadwick capital, but their business fails, and Chadwick refuses to bail them out.But Leonard Chadwick reappears on the scene and appears to be about to rescue Humplebee's fortunes. And just in the nick of time because Humplebee is in love and in desperate need of financial stability in order to propose to his beloved. And then something completely unexpected and devastating happens which puts Humplebee's character and relationship to the test....

  Show book

• 

  Doug Bradley's Spinechillers...

  H.P. Lovecraft, M. R. James,...

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Doug Bradley's Spinechillers takes you into the world of classic short horror stories read by Hollywood horror icons. 
   
  We get underway with HP Lovecraft, who explores dark deception in "The Terrible Old Man". 
   
  An unearthed, long forgotten artifact, is protected by powers intent on punnishing those who would remove it, in M.R. James' "A Warning to the Curious".  
   
  Ambrose Bierce presents a different take on the werewolf myth with "The Eyes of the Panther".  
   
  The master himself, Edgar Allan Poe, takes us on a voyage of damnation with "MS Found in a Bottle".  
   
  Arthur Conan Doyle weaves a tale of a haunted English doctor in "The Brown Hand". 
   
  New guest reader Jeff 'Reanimator' Combs kicks off the Herbert West six part series with Part 1 "From the Dark". 
   
  We finish up with the last poem Poe wrote, the beautiful and haunting Annabel Lee.

  Show book

• 

  War and Peace (Book Ten: 1812)

  Leo Tolstoy

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  War and Peace is a literary work mixed with chapters on history and philosophy by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy. It was first published serially, then published in its entirety in 1869. It is regarded as one of Tolstoy's finest literary achievements and remains an internationally praised classic of world literature.
  Book 10: 1812: Napoleon began the war with Russia because he could not resist going to Dresden, could not help having his head turned by the homage he received, could not help donning a Polish uniform and yielding to the stimulating influence of a June morning, and could not refrain from bursts of anger in the presence of Kurákin and then of Balashëv.

  Show book

• 

  Classic Short Stories - Volume 3...

  Rudyard Kipling, Jerome K. Jerome

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Stories are one of mankind’s greatest artistic achievements.  Whether written down or spoken they have an ability to capture our imagination and thoughts, and take us on incredible journeys in the space of a phrase and the turn of a page. 
   
  Within a few words of text or speech, new worlds and characters form, propelling a narrative to a conclusion with intricate ease. Finely crafted, perfectly formed these Miniature Masterpieces, at first thought, seem remarkably easy to conjure up. But ask any writer and they will tell you that distilling the essence of narrative and characters into a short story is one of the hardest acts of their literary craft.  Many attempt, but few achieve.

  Show book

• 

  It's a Battlefield

  Graham Greene

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  An "adventurous . . . intelligent . . . ingenious" novel of crime and punishment in pre–World War II London (V. S. Pritchett). 
   
   
    
  During a demonstration in Hyde Park, Communist bus driver Jim Drover acts on instinct to protect his wife by stabbing to death the policeman set to strike her down. Sentenced to hang—whether as a martyr, tool, or murderer—Drover accepts his lot, unaware that the ramifications for the crime, and the battle for his reprieve, are inflaming political unrest in an increasingly divided city. But Drover's single, impulsive act is also upending the lives of the people he loves and trusts. Caught in a quicksand of desperation, sexual betrayal, and guilt, they will not only play a part in Drover's fate, but they'll become agents—both unwitting and calculated—of their own fates as well. 
   
   
    
  Turning the traditional narrative of the police procedural, domestic drama, and political thriller on its head, It's a Battlefield was described by Graham Greene himself as "a panoramic novel of London," one without heroes and villains, only "the injustice of man's justice."

  Show book

• 

  The Bishop of Hell - An abusive...

  Marjorie Bowen

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Margaret Gabrielle Vere Campbell was born on 1st November 1885 on Hayling Island in Hampshire.  
   
  Her childhood was fraught with problems, her alcoholic father left early in her life and was later found dead on a London Street. Life thereafter was poverty with an uncaring mother. 
   
  However, her talents took her to the Slade School of Fine Art and later to study in Paris.  
   
  Her first fiction, written at a mere 16, was a violent medieval historical novel, ‘The Viper of Milan’. Initially rejected by several publishers it went on to become a best-seller  
   
  After this her prolific writings were the main financial support for the family.  Her literary output numbered over 150 volumes, mainly under the pseudonym of Marjorie Bowen but she also used the names Joseph Shearing, George R Preedy, John Winch, Robert Paye and Margaret Campbell.  Within this output she assigned the pseudonyms to the various genres she worked across, from Historical fiction to supernatural short stories.  
   
  Perhaps her best known work is the 1909 book ‘Black Magic’, a Gothic horror novel about a medieval witch. 
   
  Several of her works were also adapted into films.   
   
  She was married twice.  The first to Zefferino Emilio Constanza (they had two children), who died of tuberculosis, and then to Arthur L Long (and another two children) 
   
  Marjorie Bowen died on 23rd December 1952 at St Charles Hospital in North Kensington, London after suffering serious concussion from a fall in her bedroom.  She was 67.

  Show book