Other books that might interest you

• 

  Amy Levy - A Short Story Collection

  Amy Levy

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Amy Levy was born in London, England in 1861, the second of seven in a fairly wealthy Anglo-Jewish family. The children read and participated in secular literary activities and became firmly integrated into Victorian life. 
   
  Her education was at Brighton High School, Brighton, before studies at Newnham College, Cambridge; she was the first Jewish student when she arrived in 1879, but left after four terms. 
   
  Amy’s writing career began early; her poem ‘Ida Grey’ appeared when she was only fourteen. Her acclaimed short stories ‘Cohen of Trinity’ and ‘Wise in Their Generation,’ were published by Oscar Wilde in his magazine ‘Women's World’. 
   
  Her poetic writings reveal feminist concerns; ‘Xantippe and Other Verses’, from 1881 includes a poem in the voice of Socrates's wife. ‘A Minor Poet and Other Verse’ from 1884 comprises of dramatic monologues and lyric poems. 
   
  In 1886, Amy began a series of essays on Jewish culture and literature for the Jewish Chronicle, including ‘The Ghetto at Florence’, ‘The Jew in Fiction’, ‘Jewish Humour’ and ‘Jewish Children’. 
   
  That same year while travelling in Florence she met the writer Vernon Lee. It is generally assumed they fell in love and this inspired the poem ‘To Vernon Lee’. 
   
  Her first novel ‘Romance of a Shop’, written in 1888 is based on four sisters who experience the pleasures and hardships of running a London business during the 1880s. This was followed by Reuben Sachs (also 1888) and concerned with Jewish identity and mores in the England of her time and was somewhat controversial. 
   
  Her final book of poems, ‘A London Plane-Tree’ from 1889, shows the beginnings of the influence of French symbolism. 
   
  Despite many friendships and an active life, Amy suffered for many years with serious depressions and this, together with her growing deafness, led her to commit suicide by inhaling carbon monoxide on September 10th, 1889. She was 27.

  Show book

• 

  The Reluctant Groom and Other...

  Faith L. Justice

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Enjoy historical fiction? Like short stories? 
  Then dive into this collection of historical shorts by an award-winning author. You'll find stories of heroism, love, and adventure such as a panicked bachelor faced with an arranged marriage, a young boy torn between love for his ailing grandmother and duty to an empress, and a runaway Roman Senator’s daughter seeking a new life as a gladiatrix. Whether set in imperial Rome, colonial America, or a Viking raid, these stories bring to life men and women struggling to survive and thrive--the eternal human condition. 
  “The periods are terribly alive, the storytelling wonderful…”–Stephanie Cowell, author of Claude and Camille: A Novel of Monet

  Show book

• 

  The Repairer of Reputations

  Robert W. Chambers

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  This story, first published in 1855, takes place in 1920’s New York City. Chambers creates a utopian future in which America holds colonial power and government-assisted suicide is legal. The story follows Hildred Castaigne, a young man who spent time in a mental asylum following a head injury, and Mr. Wilde, the eponymous “Repairer of Reputations.” Horror and conspiracy work together in this gripping tale featuring a classic example of the unreliable narrator.  

  Show book

• 

  The First Men in the Moon

  H. G. Wells

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  When penniless businessman Mr Bedford retreats to the Kent coast to write a play, he meets by chance the brilliant Dr Cavor, an absent-minded scientist on the brink of developing a material that blocks gravity. Cavor soon succeeds in his experiments, only to tell a stunned Bedford the invention makes possible one of the oldest dreams of humanity: a journey to the moon. With Bedford motivated by money, and Cavor by the desire for knowledge, the two embark on the expedition. But neither are prepared for what they find - a world of freezing nights, boiling days and sinister alien life, on which they may be trapped forever.

  Show book

• 

  The Red Flower - This deep...

  Vsevelod Garshin

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  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.

  Show book

• 

  Scorpius Rising

  Rebecca Zanetti

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  A scientist reunites with her soldier ex-husband to combat a deadly plague in the New York Times bestselling author's romantic adventure novella.Microbiologist Nora Medina knows something is wrong when she gets yanked off a Hawaiian beach and onto her ex-husband's government jet. Her marriage to Deacan Devlin McDougall had taught her plenty about adrenaline, and something more than their unfinished business that has brought the maddeningly sexy Scot back into her life. As a soldier of fortune, Deke has seen just about everything. But the terrifying bacterium sneaking through the highest halls of power isn't his kind of battle. All he can do is keep close to his brilliant, fiery ex-wife and fight like hell to keep her safe. Because if he lets her get sucked down by the horror that's coming, he'll never get another chance at her heart.Contains mature themes.

  Show book