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  Mother Sauvage - From their pens...

  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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  The Shadow-Line

  Joseph Conrad

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  An unsettling tale of plague, drift and terror, The Shadow-Line documents a young seaman’s coming of age after he is recruited to captain a ship for the first time. Bad luck and disease haunt the inexperienced hero and his crew, and the evil legacy of the previous captain overshadows them with a feeling of supernatural menace. Against all odds, the young captain must get his crew through the Gulf of Siam to safety in Singapore, before they succumb to malaria and the curse of his mad predecessor. Written in 1915 and based on Conrad’s own experiences 27 years earlier, The Shadow-Line is a gripping take on the lines between youth and maturity, sanity and madness.

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  Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

  Conan Doyle

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  Delve into the ingenious world of "Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" by Arthur Conan Doyle, where mystery meets masterful deduction. Join the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes and his loyal friend Dr. Watson as they unravel a series of baffling cases. From the perilous "Silver Blaze" to the enigmatic "The Final Problem," each story showcases Holmes' unparalleled intellect and keen observation. Doyle's collection enthralls with cunning puzzles and the timeless battle between good and evil.

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  The Undying One - From their...

  Lafcadio Hearn

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  Lafcadio Hearn was born on the 27th June 1850 on the Ionian isle of Levkás in Greece to a British Army officer and a Greek Mother. 
  His father, fearing for his career prospects at being married to a Greek Orthodox wife, sent them to Dublin whilst he continued to advance his career with further postings.  Life there was difficult for mother and son.  His father returned, wounded and traumatised, when Lafcadio was three.  He annulled the marriage and she remarried but had to give up care of Lafcadio to her sister-in law.   
  After brief periods for Catholic education in England and France he emigrated to Ohio in the United States when he was 19, taking on a series of casual jobs before embarking on a career as a journalist, publishing poems and essays in Cincinnati.  It was whilst here that he began a side-line in translating, starting with Gautier and Flaubert.  He married in 1874 to a 20 year old African-American woman in violation of Ohio's anti-miscegenation law.  The marriage soon failed. 
  In 1877 he relocated to New Orleans to write on a variety of themes before picking up a two year assignment from Harper’s to write in the West Indies, where he also wrote his first novel. 
  In 1890 Harper’s sent him to Japan.  Here he left journalism and took the remarkable decision to become a schoolteacher in the north of Japan.   Enraptured by the culture he was driven to explain it in various Western publications to those who had little, if any, knowledge of its culture.  Within the year he had fallen in love with, and married, a high-born Japanese lady, together they would have four children.   
  In 1895 he became a Japanese national and took the name Koizumi Yakumo, Koizumi being his wife’s family name. 
  The following few years, whilst a professor of Literature at the Imperial University of Japan, were his most creative and admired period.   
  Lafcadio Hearn died of heart failure on the 26th of September 1904, in Tokyo, Japan shortly before leaving to deliver a series of lectures at Cornell University in New York State.  He was 54.

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  The First Men in the Moon

  H. G. Wells

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  London businessman Mr. Bedford is broke. He retreats to a beautifully mundane area of the British countryside to focus on writing a play, which he hopes will bring him financial success. By a stroke of luck, Mr. Bedford quickly reaches new heights…just not in the way he anticipated. 
    
  Mr. Bedford’s countryside retreat is interrupted by a peculiar physicist named Mr. Cavor, who is developing an anti-gravity material called cavorite. The unlikely pair sets sight on the moon and begins planning the first ever lunar expedition. Mr. Bedford sees it as a lucrative business venture. Mr. Cavor sees it as a chance for recognition in his field. But when they are captured by an alien species, they must face a more pressing matter: Will they make it back to earth alive? 
    
  From the father of science fiction H.G. Wells, The First Men in the Moon transports readers to distant worlds while ultimately shedding light on our own human nature and civilization as we know it.

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  Frankenstein: Cinematic Audio...

  Mary Shelley

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  Experience Mary Shelley's Frankenstein original text like never before. 
  Follow the ambitious scientist Victor Frankenstein, whose quest to conquer death unleashes a powerful and tragic creature. From the icy Arctic seas to the lonely mountains of Switzerland, this classic tale explores creation, responsibility, and the cost of playing god. 
  This production is a fully cinematic audio adaptation, featuring expressive performances, dynamic sound design, and cinematic music that brings each scene to life.

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