Otros libros que te pueden interesar

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  The Art of Bookmaking - From...

  Washington Irving

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  Washington Irving was born on 3rd April, 1783, the youngest of 11, in New York.  
  Irving found his real interests away from school in literature and the theatre.  An outbreak of yellow fever at 15 moved him away from Manhattan and into the surrounding countryside providing valuable settings for later works such as ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’. 
  By 19 Irving was writing regularly to the New York Morning Chronicle, commenting on the theatrical and social scenes.  When his health began to fail, he was sent on the Grand Tour of Europe.  Bizarrely he ignored most of the great sights on offer to concentrate on developing his social and conversational powers.  His health, though, did improve.  
  In 1806, back in New York to study law, he scraped a pass at the bar and then founded with several others the literary magazine Salmagundi. Irving nicknamed the city ‘Gotham City’, a name still in use today.  Moderately successful, the magazine spread Irving’s reputation beyond New York. 
  In 1809 while mourning the death of his teenage fiancée Irving finished his first significant book, ‘A History of New-York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynsasty, by Diedrich Knickerbocker’.  It satirised local history, local historians and politics.  It received great critical acclaim. 
  Unfortunately his family’s established trading company was now facing great upheavals and Irving was dispatched to England to try to sort it out.  After two years he could see no way out but bankruptcy.  This left him in England with no real employment prospects, and so he returned to writing.  
  He sent some short stories back to New York to be published as ‘The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent’.  The first part included ‘Rip Van Winkle’ and was extremely successful.  The sixth part contained ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’.  
  Beset by literary piracy, with no copyright law at the time, he set about publishing legitimate copies in England to outwit the bootleggers.  From now on Irving published concurrently in America and England in order to render piracy obsolete.  
  In August 1824, he published ‘Tales of a Traveller’, which included the famed ‘The Devil and Tom Walker’.  
  In 1826, the American Minister to Spain, invited him to Madrid where he could examine the many historical documents that he had access to.  Irving reveled in both the size of the libraries he was granted access to and their rich quality.  Historical works flowed from his pen further enhancing his reputation and fortune.   
  Following the completion of ‘Tales of the Alhambra’ in 1832, Irving returned to America after 17 years abroad. He was now a figurehead of American literature and dispensed advice to Edgar Allan Poe amongst others.  Irving also became an advocate for American copyright legislation.  
  A later appointment as Minister to Spain in 1842 left him disheartened at the antics of the various political factions he encountered.  It also afforded him no time to write as he had hoped.  
  On his return home he began an ‘Author’s Revised Edition’ of his works agreeing an unprecedented deal for 12 per cent of the retail profits.  
  Washington Irving died of a heart attack at his ‘Sunnyside’ home on the 28th November 1859 at the age of 76, a few months after completing his five volume George Washington biography, in whose honour he had been named.

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  Another Freak - From their pens...

  Mary Angela Dickens

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  The bookshelves of British literature are incredible collections that have gathered together centuries of very talented authors.  From these Isles their fame spread and whilst among their number many are now forgotten or neglected their talents endure.  Among them is Mary Angela Dickens.

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  Eben Holden - A Tale of the...

  Irving Bacheller

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  Eben Holden - A Tale of the North Country. Having lost both parents and his home in northern Vermont, orphan Willie Brower is taken in by Eben Holden, "Uncle Eb" who transports him westward to save him from being sent to an orphanage. Through the Adirondacks and into the St. Lawrence valley they travel. Eben is kind, happy, and loves to tell stories to the youngster, many of which were to shape the life and ideals of Willie during his life.This story follows Willie as a young orphan, later as a journalist, and finally as a soldier who enlists in the army at the outset of the American Civil War. The book was immensely popular when it was published in 1900 and the years to follow, as the characters were all drawn from people who the author had known himself. (Summary by Roger Melin)

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  Middlemarch (Book 6: The Widow...

  George Eliot

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  Middlemarch (Book 6: The Widow and the Wife), A Study of Provincial Life is a novel by English author George Eliot, the pen name of Mary Ann Evans. It appeared in eight installments (volumes) in 1871 and 1872. Set in Middlemarch, a fictional English Midlands town, from 1829 to 1832, it follows distinct, intersecting stories with many characters. Issues include the status of women, the nature of marriage, idealism, self-interest, religion, hypocrisy, political reform, and education. Leavened with comic elements, Middlemarch approaches significant historical events in a realist mode: the Reform Act 1832, early railways, and the accession of King William IV. It looks at medicine of the time and reactionary views in a settled community facing unwelcome change. Eliot began writing the two pieces that formed the novel in 1869–1870 and completed it in 1871. Initial reviews were mixed, but it is now seen widely as her best work and one of the great English novels.

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  Count of Monte Cristo The -...

  Alexandre Dumas, Classic...

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  The Count of Monte Cristo is a gripping story of revenge, justice, and transformation set in 19th-century France. It follows Edmond Dantès, a young sailor whose promising future is destroyed by betrayal. Wrongfully imprisoned for years in the Château d'If, he escapes, uncovers a hidden treasure, and returns to society with a new identity: the mysterious Count of Monte Cristo.With patience, brilliance, and immense wealth, Dantès carefully orchestrates the downfall of those who wronged him. But as his plan unfolds, he must face the consequences of vengeance and decide whether redemption is still possible.Rich in suspense, emotion, and philosophical depth, this timeless novel explores the human thirst for justice and the power of forgiveness.

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  The Two Barques

  Arthur Conan Doyle

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  The Two Barques is a short story by Arthur Conan Doyle first published in the Pearson's Magazine in march 1897. 2nd story of the Captain Sharkey saga.In Kingston, an elderly logwood-cutter saw Captain Sharkey's pirate barque, the Happy Delivery, careening at Torbec on the south-west of Hispaniola, as well as Sharkey himself, with four men, buccaneering on the outlying island of La Vache. Stephen Craddock, an adventurer comes to the Governor Sir Edward Compton with a plan for the extirpation of Sharkey. He want to use the sister ship of the Happy Delivery, the White Rose, and set sail for the Island of La Vache, where Sharkey is slaying the wild oxen. When Sharkey will see the White Rose he will surely mistake it for his own vessel which he is awaiting, and he will come on board to his own undoing. The plan is accepted by the Governor and Craddock set sail to La Vache with a crew of volunteers. When they arrive to La Vache, no sign of Sharkey. They search him in the forest for a few days but finally they decide to return to their boat. When they arrive on board something is strange, as if it was not the same ship, and suddenly they are captured by Sharkey on the deck. They are on the pirate ship the Happy Delivery which came back from its careening upon the very day that they left in the forest. Then the White Rose is scuttled in the bay. Craddock, bruised and wounded in soul and body, is thrown into a dark sail-room. For two days, the Happy Delivery set sail to Jamaica. When he arrives to Port-Royal, Sharkey, with that diabolical cunning and audacity which were among his main characteristics, is simulating the part which Craddock would himself have played had he come back victorious. Sharkey exhibits Craddock on the deck so that the other side could fall into the trap but the later has sprung the bulwarks and is swimming for his life. He is hit and hit again by pistol shots but is still swimming. Irritated, Sharkey takes his musket and fired a fatal blow on Craddock.

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