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  Mercury

  D H Lawrence

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  Lawrence uses the  story of a storm and the deaths it causes to revive the feelings for (if not an actual belief in) the old gods, in this case Mercury whose shrine is ignored by the tourists but who takes his revenge.

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  Summer

  Edith Wharton

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  Summer, set in New England, is a novel by Edith Wharton, published in 1917. The novel details the sexual awakening of its protagonist, 18-year-old, Charity Royall, and her cruel treatment by the father of her child. Only moderately well-received when originally published, Summer, has had a resurgence in critical popularity since the 1960s. 
  Edith Wharton, January 24, 1862-August 11, 1937, was a Pultizer Prize-winning novelist, short story writer, and designer. She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1927, 1928, and 1930. 
  Wharton combined her insider's view of America's privileged classes with a brilliant, natural wit to write humorous, incisive novels and short stories of social and psychological insight. She was well acquainted with many of her era's other literary and public figures, including Theodore Roosevelt. 
  Lyssa Browne started performing in theatre when she was very young. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre and Dance she moved to Seattle where she has performed in many area theatre companies. Lyssa's voice can be heard as many different characters in Nintendo and X-Box games, as well as the narrator of documentaries for the Discovery Channel and others. 
  Public Domain (P)2014 Lyssa Browne

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  M R James - A Short Story...

  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.   
   
  His classic story ‘Whistle and I’ll Come to You My Lad’ exquisitely reveals how a young professor on holiday chances on a buried whistle and folklore becomes terrifying fact. 
  1 - M R James - An Introduction 
  2 - Oh Whistle and I'll Come to You My Lad by M R James 
  3 - Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book by M R James 
  4 - Count Magnus by M R James 
  5 - The Ash Tree by M R James 
  6 - Lost Hearts by M R James

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  Frankenstein - The Lost Manuscript

  Mary Shelley

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  A POWERFUL FULL-CAST DRAMATIC MARATHON  
   
  “Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.”  
   
  Mary Shelley was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus in 1818, which is considered an early example of science fiction. She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet, and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley. Her father was the political philosopher William Godwin and her mother the philosopher and feminist activist Mary Wollstonecraft. 
   
  Shelley's mother died less than a month after giving birth to her. She was raised by her father, who provided her with a rich if informal education, encouraging her to adhere to his own anarchist political theories. When she was four, her father married a neighbor, Mary Jane Clairmont, with whom Shelley came to have a troubled relationship. 
   
  In 1814, Shelley began a romance with one of her father's political followers, Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was already married. Together with her stepsister, Claire Clairmont, she and Percy left for France and traveled through Europe. Upon their return to England, Shelley was pregnant with Percy's child. Over the next two years, she and Percy faced ostracism, constant debt, and the death of their prematurely born daughter. They married in late 1816, after the suicide of Percy Shelley's first wife, Harriet. 
   
  In 1816, the couple and her stepsister famously spent a summer with Lord Byron and John William Polidori near Geneva, Switzerland, where Shelley conceived the idea for her novel Frankenstein. The Shelleys left Britain in 1818 for Italy, where their second and third children died before Shelley gave birth to her last and only surviving child, Percy Florence Shelley.

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  The Dream of a Ridiculous Man

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

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  Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (1821 - 1881), Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist and philosopher. Engaging with a variety of philosophical and religious themes, the works of Dostoevsky explore human psychology in the turbulent political, social, and spiritual atmosphere of nineteenth century Russia. and engage with a variety of philosophical and religious themes. The 1877 short story ‘The Dream of a Ridiculous Man’, examines the experiences of a man who decides that life is worthless. Having fallen into nihilism and despair, he is determined to end his life. To that end, he has acquired a pistol. However, an encounter with a distressed young girl interferes with his plans. Back home he eventually falls asleep, into a long lucid dream …

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  General Custer - Folly At Little...

  Elizabeth Bacon Custer

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  Since the Battle of Little Bighorn, George Armstrong Custer (1839-1876) possessed one of the most unique places in American history. Although he was a capable cavalry officer who served honorably during the Civil War, he remains one of the most instantly identifiable and famous military men in American history due to the fact he was killed during one of the country’s most well known and ignominious defeats, the Battle of Little Bighorn. And yet, this one relatively insignificant battle during America’s Indian Wars has become one of the country’s most mythologized events and continues to fascinate Americans nearly 140 years later. Though he’s now best remembered for “Custer’s Last Stand”, Custer mastered the art of public relations, dressing impeccably and having newspaper correspondents accompany him on the campaign, all in an effort to help cultivate and enhance his legacy. For nearly 58 years, Elizabeth Bacon Custer was probably the most famous widow in the world. In this lively, fascinating, loving portrait of life on the plains with her already-famous husband, Libbie tells a civilized audience of the excitement, fun, and perils endured at a remote frontier post. Intelligent and beautiful, Libbie was a partner, confidant, and booster to the general, as well as an important figure in the social life of the posts he commanded. This book has been used as source material on the general's life as well as the frontier army for well over a century. Celebrated among the prominent people of her day, Libbie never remarried after Custer's death at the Little Bighorn in 1876. She spent the rest of her life writing and lecturing about him, burnishing his reputation and keeping his memory alive. Long a jewel of western Americana, this book continues to find and entertain new audiences in the 21st century.

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