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  Sheridan Le Fanu - A Short Story...

  Sheridan Le Fanu

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  Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu was born on August 28th, 1814, at 45 Lower Dominick Street, Dublin, into a literary family with Huguenot, Irish and English roots 
   
  The children were tutored but, according to his brother William, the tutor taught them little if anything. Le Fanu was eager to learn and used his father's library to educate himself about the world. He was a creative child and by fifteen had taken to writing poetry. 
   
  Accepted into Trinity College, Dublin to study law he also benefited from the system used in Ireland that he did not have to live in Dublin to attend lectures, but could study at home and take examinations at the university as and when necessary. 
   
  This enabled him to also write and by 1838 Le Fanu's first story The Ghost and the Bonesetter was published in the Dublin University Magazine. Many of the short stories he wrote at the time were to form the basis for his future novels.  Indeed, throughout his career Le Fanu would constantly revise, cannabilise, embellish and re-publish his earlier works to use in his later efforts. 
   
  Between 1838 and 1840 Le Fanu had written and published twelve stories which purported to be the literary remains of an 18th-century Catholic priest called Father Purcell. Set mostly in Ireland they include classic stories of gothic horror, with grim, shadowed castles, as well as supernatural visitations from beyond the grave, together with madness and suicide. One of the themes running through them is a sad nostalgia for the dispossessed Catholic aristocracy of Ireland, whose ruined castles stand in mute salute and testament to this history.  
   
  On 18 December 1844 Le Fanu married Susanna Bennett, the daughter of a leading Dublin barrister. The union would produce four children.  Le Fanu was now stretching his talents across the length of a novel and his first was The Cock and Anchor published in 1845. 
   
  A succession of works followed and his reputation grew as well as his income.  Unfortunately, a decade after his marriage it became an increasing source of difficultly. Susanna was prone to suffer from a range of neurotic symptoms including great anxiety after the deaths of several close relatives, including her father two years before.  
   
  In April 1858 she suffered an "hysterical attack" and died in circumstances that are still unclear. The anguish, profound guilt as well as overwhelming loss were channeled into Le Fanu’s work.  Working only by the light of two candles he would write through the night and burnish his reputation as a major figure of 19th Century supernaturalism. His work challenged the focus on the external source of horror and instead he wrote about it from the perspective of the inward psychological potential to strike fear in the hearts of men.  
   
  A series of books now came forth: Wylder's Hand (1864), Guy Deverell (1865), The Tenants of Malory (1867), The Green Tea (1869), The Haunted Baronet (1870), Mr. Justice Harbottle (1872), The Room in the Dragon Volant (1872) and In a Glass Darkly. (1872). 
   
  But his life was drawing to a close.  Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu died in Merrion Square in his native Dublin on February 7th, 1873, at the age of 58.  
   
  01 - Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu - A Short Story Collection - An Introduction 
  02 - The Ghost and the Bone-Setter by Sheridan Le Fanu 
  03 - Sir Dominick's Bargain by Sheridan Le Fanu 
  04 - Dickon the Devil by Sheridan Le Fanu 
  05 - Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter by Sheridan Le Fanu 
  06 - An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street by Sheridan Le Fanu

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  Canon Alberic's Scrap Book -...

  M R James

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  Montague Rhodes James is cited as perhaps the greatest English writer of ghost stories, an opinion few would disagree with. 
  James was born on 1st August 1862 at Goodnestone Parsonage in Kent, where his father was Curate but at age 3 the family went to live at Livermere, near Bury St Edmunds in East Anglia.  
  From early childhood he had a passion for mediaeval books and antiques. He was educated initially as a boarder at Temple Grove School in East Sheen, west London, before gaining a scholarship to Eton and thence Cambridge where he gained a double first, becoming a distinguished linguist and mediaevalist.  
  Before the Great War vacations were usually spent touring Europe absorbing cultures and references for his later writing. 
  A man of enormous knowledge it was said he timed his breakfast egg whilst he completed the Times crossword.  
  Many of his elegant yet terrifying tales were created by discarding the prevailing gothic cliches and placing his characters and narrative in a realistic setting.  Thereby the stories gained atmosphere and menace on a grand scale and he was famed as the originator of the antiquarian ghost story. 
  Although story-telling and writing these 30 or so tales was a hobby, when published their effect transformed the genre and still chill the bones in our more modern times. 
  James was also a medievalist scholar and translator whose work remains highly respected. He was also Provost of Eton College between 1918 and 1936. 
  M R James died on 12th June 1936 at Eton in Buckinghamshire.  He was 73.

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  Shipwreck The (Unabridged)

  Charles Dickens

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  Charles Dickens was a writer and social critic who created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity.
  THE SHIPWRECK: Never had I seen a year going out, or going on, under quieter circumstances. Eighteen hundred and fifty-nine had but another day to live, and truly its end was Peace on that sea-shore that morning.

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  The Red Fairy Book

  Andrew Lang

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  Brought to you by Altrusian Grace Media and narrated by Matthew Schmitz. 
  The Red Fairy Book, compiled by Andrew Lang and first published in 1890, is a richly imaginative collection of classic fairy tales drawn from a wide array of cultural traditions, including Russian, Norse, French, and German folklore. Featuring stories such as “The Twelve Dancing Princesses,” “The Death of Koschei the Deathless,” and “The Master Thief,” the book weaves a tapestry of magical quests, enchanted creatures, clever tricksters, and timeless moral lessons. Each tale is steeped in symbolic resonance—princes undergo trials, maidens are tested, and villains often meet poetic justice—capturing the essence of the mythic imagination. Imbued with the mystique of oral tradition, The Red Fairy Book stands as one of the most enduring volumes in Lang’s influential series, offering readers a glimpse into the enchanted realms of old-world wonder.

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  Dracula – Chapter 2: Jonathan...

  Bram Stoker

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  Still trapped in the remote wilderness of Transylvania, Jonathan Harker continues his journey into the heart of darkness. Welcomed by Count Dracula at his ancient castle, Harker begins to sense that his host’s politeness hides something deeply unnatural. As night falls, the young solicitor’s curiosity turns to unease — and unease to fear. 
  This is Chapter 2 of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, narrated by Amazon bestselling horror author Jonathan Dunne — part of a full chapter-by-chapter audiobook series that brings the classic Gothic nightmare to life with chilling clarity. 
  Experience the dread, mystery, and slow-building terror that made Dracula one of the most enduring horror stories ever told. 
  📖 Public domain text. Original publication: 1897.

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  The Watsons

  Jane Austen

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  The Watsons is an abandoned novel by Jane Austen, probably begun about 1803. There have been a number of arguments advanced as to why she did not complete it, and other authors have since attempted the task. A continuation by Austen's niece was published in 1850. The manuscript fragment itself was published in 1871. Further completions and adaptations of the story have continued to the present day.  
  The timeframe of the completed fragment covers about a fortnight and serves to introduce the main characters. Mr. Watson is a widowed and ailing clergyman with two sons and four daughters. The youngest daughter, Emma, the heroine of the story, has been brought up by a wealthy aunt and is consequently better educated and more refined than her sisters. But after her aunt contracted a foolish second marriage, Emma has been obliged to return to her father's house. There she is chagrined by the crude and reckless husband-hunting of two of her sisters, Penelope and Margaret. One particular focus for them is Tom Musgrave, who had paid attention to all of the sisters in the past. This Emma learns from her more responsible and kindly eldest sister Elizabeth.

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