Other books that might interest you

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  Three Men in a Boat (To Say...

  Jerome K.

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  Martyrs to hypochondria and general seediness, J. and his friends George and Harris decide that a jaunt up the Thames would suit them just fine. But when they set off, they can hardly predict the troubles that lie ahead with tow-ropes, unreliable weather forecasts, and tins of pineapple chunks—not to mention the devastation left in the wake of J.'s small fox-terrier Montmorency.  
   
  Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) was an instant success when it appeared in 1889, and, with its benign escapism, authorial discursions, and wonderful evocation of the late-Victorian clerking classes, it hilariously captured the spirit of its age.

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  The Mysterious Key and What It...

  Louisa May Alcott

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  In this delightful short story, we discover the secrets of the Trevlyn family. 'The Mysterious Key and What it Opened' is a mystery entwined with romance

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  Markheim

  Robert Louis Stevenson

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  Occasionally an author appears who, in a short career, emblazons a legacy so bright and so distinct, as well as popular that it is difficult to believe it is the output of only one man. Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was such a talent. 
   
  Stevenson was born on 13th November 1850 in Edinburgh.  Despite a late start to reading and writing he was a voracious story-teller, regularly performing yarns for all those around him.  His health though was poorly, he suffered lifelong bronchial problems and was incapacitated by this and other ailments throughout his life. 
   
  In Grez, France in September 1876 he met the American, Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne. She was married with children but distress and anger at her husband's infidelities led to several separations. By the time she met Stevenson she was already a promising short-story writer. 
   
  In 1880 she was at last free to re marry and life, despite his health issues, was good.  In the ensuing years travel and exploration would be their calling and the source of his literary inspiration. 
   
  Classics flowed; in 1881 ‘The Body Snatcher’.  In 1883 ‘Treasure Island’, followed 3 years later by ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’. 
    
  In 1890, they settled on an estate in Samoa for what would be a last great burst of writing that coincided with his political awakening as the islands moved toward inter-clan warfare as greedy outside powers stoked tensions.    
   
  Over the course of his prolific career Stevenson had not only given his audience many classic novels but beautiful poetry such as ‘A Child’s Garden of Verses’ and many short stories as with his dark classic of Christmas Day ‘Markheim’ (1884). 
   
  Robert Louis Stevenson died at his island home at Valima in Samoa on 3rd December 1894.  He was 44.

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  Talent

  Anton Chekhov

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  Yegor Savvitch, an artist, is sitting in his room feeling depressed. His landlady's daughter, Katya, is visiting him and wants to discuss their future together. Yegor says he cannot marry because artists must be free, but Katya pleads with him not to leave her as she is afraid of her strict mother. Yegor eventually agrees to pay his debts and gives Katya a glass of vodka. He begins to dream of becoming great and imagines a future filled with success and adoration. Read in English, unabridged.

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  Anne's House of Dreams - Unabridged

  Lucy Maud Montgomery

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  Anne's House of Dreams is a novel by the Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery. It was first published in 1917 by McClelland, Goodchild and Stewart. The novel is from a series of books written primarily for girls and young women, about a young girl named Anne Shirley. The books follow the course of Anne's life. It is set principally on Canada's Prince Edward Island, Montgomery's birthplace and home for much of her life.

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  Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness!

  Selma Lagerlöf

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  “Thy Soul shall bear Witness” (Körkarlen) by the Swedish Nobel Laureate Selma Lagerlöf is a kind of spooky Novel. It was first published in 1912 and in English in 1922, the same year as the international release of the Silent Movie “The Phantom Carriage”, today considered a classic movie, and one that strongly influenced the Swedish Director Ingmar Bergman. A second Movie based on the Novel was made again in 1958. In English the Novel is today very rare, very few copies are said to exist.- It is New Years Eve. David Holm who has become a depraved drunkard is sitting with some comrades in a Church-Yard, drinking, and telling a story he has heard some years earlier from a friend, George, about the Death-Cart, and how a person who dies on New-Years eve when the clock strikes Midnight will have to take over the Death-Cart as driver. The Death-Cart is a beaten-down horse-drawn carriage, drawn by a very old, one eyed horse, which travels the earth to pick up the souls of the dead and take them to heaven or hell. And as it happens, after a brawl, David is dying in the Church-Yard just as the clock strikes midnight, and a cart, moving closer and closer, is heard creaking. And at the reins sits David's old friend, George.In another part of the town a little slum sister, Edit, is dying. She has tried to help both David Holm and his family, in vain. Her only wish is to see David before she dies. She can not help it, but she loves him.George has come to introduce David into the job of becoming driver of the Death-Cart, as David is now going to relieve him from the task, and to show David what his life has been, and visiting his past, and also Edith, in her last moments.This story may be quite a bit different from most of Selma Lagerlöf's other Novels. But at the same time it is, as many of her stories, a story about love, forgiveness and redemption, and most captivating. (Summary by Lars Rolander)

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