Other books that might interest you

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  Why Frau Frohmann Raised Her...

  Anthony Trollope

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  A collection of five stories by Anthony Trollope: Why Frau Frohmann Raised Her Prices; The Lady of Launay;Christmas at Thompson Hall; The Telegraph Girl; and Alice Dugdale - Summary by Nicholas Clifford

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  The Eyes Have It - A seemingly...

  Philip K. Dick

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  Philip Kindred Dick was born in 1928.  Widely considered one of the greatest science fiction writers, his talents were immense but he lived almost his whole life on the edge of poverty. Born prematurely on December 16, 1928 his twin sister died which caused a shadow over the rest of his life.  Many of his works would refer to the ‘phantom twin’.  Bizarrely her tiny body was buried in Colorado where her parents also had Phillips name inscribed on the tombstone. Eventually upon his death in 1982 he too was interred in the same plot. Phillip sold his first short story in 1951 and then became a full time writer selling his first novel in 1955.  He wrote continually and whilst considered a genius of the science fiction genre he was ignored by the mainstream.  Now of course much of his work is turned into films and he is rightly lauded.  All his work is at times visionary, and haunting dealing with many themes. Dick wrote of his work. "In my writing I even question the universe; I wonder out loud if it is real, and I wonder out loud if all of us are real."

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  Two Tales From Algernon Blackwood

  Algernon Blackwood

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  Algernon Henry Blackwood (March 14, 1869 - December 10, 1951) was an English broadcasting narrator, journalist, novelist and short story writer, and among the most prolific ghost story writers in the history of the genre. The following recording includes the short stories, "The Olive" and "Ancient Lights."

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  Four Stories

  Matthew Wayne Selznick

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  The first short story collection from Matthew Wayne Selznick focuses on revelations of clarity and epiphanies of character in the face of emotional challenges. 
   
  	Also included are brief essays exploring the formative experiences and memories that inspired each short story, making this collection Matthew Wayne Selznick's most personal creative work to date. 
   The Stories: 
   
  	The collection opens with “You Got Me,” wherein the way two people each deal with one particularly rough day might have a lot to do with how they spend their days to come. 
   
  	Next, a musician struggles with expectations and understanding when he travels far from home with his new band for “Gig Number Two.” 
   
  	In the third story, he says it’s “Not My Fault,” but his girlfriend is convinced his distractions will drive them apart. Then comes the most unexpected distraction of all... 
   
  	The final story, “The Days of Wine and Roses by The Dream Syndicate,” provides a mental soundtrack for a reluctant walk through memory and pain on the way to save a troubled damsel in distress one last time. 
   
  	Each of the "Four Stories" explore universal themes of responsibility, relationships, honesty, and how we define character.

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  Through the Gates of the Silver Key

  H. P. Lovecraft, E. Hoffmann Price

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  This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice.  
  A group of men gather in New Orleans to distribute the estate of the missing Randolph Carter. One of them claims that Carter is alive and begins to weave an incredible tale of his adventures. 
  E. Hoffman Price, during Lovecraft's visit to his home in New Orleans in June 1931, tried to persuade the Providence writer to create a continuation of Randolph Carter's adventures after the character disappears in the story "The Silver Key." HPL refused to be persuaded, so Price himself, without permission, created a text titled "The Lord of Illusion" in August. He sent the result to Lovecraft, hoping that he would agree to edit the work. 
  HPL struggled for a long time with the editing of the text. Although he radically changed the linguistic layer of the work, he made no major changes to the plot. Indeed, it is evident that the ideas are not his own: a lot of action, poorly thought-out concepts, and little suggestiveness.

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  Two Little Soldiers - From their...

  Guy de Maupassant

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  Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant was born on August 5th, 1850 near Dieppe in France.  
  Maupassant’s early life was badly torn when at age 11 (his younger brother Hervé was then five) his mother, Laure, a headstrong and independent-minded woman, risked social disgrace in order to obtain a legal separation from her husband. 
  After the separation, Laure kept custody of her two boys. With the father now forcibly absent, Laure became the most influential and important figure in the young boy's life.   
  Maupassant’s education was such that he rebelled against religion and other societal norms but a developing friendship with Gustave Flaubert began to turn his mind towards creativity and writing. 
  After graduation he volunteered for the Franco-Prussian war. With its end he moved to Paris to work as a clerk in the Navy Department.  Gustave Flaubert now took him under his wing.  Acting as a literary guardian to him, he guided the eager Maupassant to debuts in journalism and literature.  For Maupassant these were exciting times and the awakening of his creative talents and ambitions. 
  In 1880 he published what is considered his first great work, ‘Boule de Suif’, (translated as as ‘Dumpling’, ‘Butterball’, ‘Ball of Fat’, or ‘Ball of Lard’) which met with a success that was both instant and overwhelming.  Flaubert at once acknowledged that it was ‘a masterpiece that will endure.’ Maupassant had used his talents and experiences in the war to create something unique.  
  This decade from 1880 to 1891 was to be the most pivotal of his career.  With an audience now made available by the success of ‘Boule de Suif’ Maupassant organised himself to work methodically and relentlessly to produce between two and four volumes of work a year.  The melding of his talents and business sense and the continual hunger of sources for his works made him wealthy. 
  In his later years he developed a desire for solitude, an obsession for self-preservation, and a fear of death as well as a paranoia of persecution caused by the syphilis he had contracted in his youth.  
  On January 2nd, 1892, Maupassant tried to commit suicide by cutting his throat.  Unsuccessful he was committed to the private asylum of Esprit Blanche at Passy, in Paris.  It was here on July 6th, 1893 that Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant died at the age of only 42.

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