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  A Very Short Romance - From...

  Vsevolod Garshin

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  Vsevolod Mikhailovich Garshin was born on 14th February 1855 in what is now Dnipro in the Ukraine, but then part of the Russian Empire. 
  After attending secondary school he studied at the Saint Petersburg Mining Institute.  
  Wars between and on behalf of Empires were a regular feature of the decades then.  Garshin volunteered to serve in the Russian army at the beginning of the Russo-Turkish War in 1877.  
  He began as a private in the Balkans campaign and was wounded in action.  By the end of the war, in 1878, he had been promoted to officer rank.  
  By now Garshin, having previously published some articles and reviews in newspapers, wished to devote himself to a literary career.  The decision made he resigned his army commission. 
  His time as a soldier provided rich experiences for his early stories. His first ‘Four Days’ was related as the interior monologue of a wounded soldier left for dead on the battlefield for four days, face to face with the corpse of a Turkish soldier he had killed, gained him early admiration as an author of note.  
  He wrote perhaps only 20 stories, but their influence was immense, although in these more modern times he is barely remembered and lives in the more prolific shadows of others.  His characters are superbly worked into stories that come alive in the intensity and reality of his prose.   
  Garshin’s most well-known story is ‘The Red Flower’, also known as ‘Scarlet Blossom’ and is easily amongst the first rank of stories dealing with mental health issues.  
  Despite early literary success, he himself experienced periodical bouts of mental illness.   
  In one such bout Garshin attempted to commit suicide by throwing himself down the stone stairs leading into his apartment building.  Although not immediately fatal, Vsevolod Garshin died as a result of his injuries in a St Petersburg hospital on 5th April 1888.  He was 33.

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  Anna Karenina (Part 1)

  Leo Tolstoy

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  Part 1: Prince Stepan Arkadyevich Oblonsky ("Stiva"), a Moscow aristocrat and civil servant, has been unfaithful to his wife, Princess Darya Alexandrovna ("Dolly"). Dolly has discovered his affair with the family's governess, and the household and family are in turmoil. Stiva informs the household that his married sister, Anna Arkadyevna Karenina, is coming to visit from Saint Petersburg in a bid to calm the situation.
  Anna Karenina is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published in book form in 1878. Many writers consider Anna Karenina the greatest work of literature ever, and Tolstoy himself called it his first true novel. It was initially released in serial installments from 1873 to 1877 in the periodical The Russian Messenger.

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  Her Turn - From their pens to...

  D H Lawrence

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  David Herbert Lawrence was born on the 11th September 1885 in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, a coal mining town where the reality of a harsh life was only useful as experiences for future literary works. 
  He was educated at Beauvale Board School and became the first local boy to receive a scholarship to attend Nottingham High School. After 3 years he became a junior clerk in Haywood’s surgical appliances factory. He was also attempting a literary career which, in the short term, led to a teacher training position in Eastwood and later a teaching qualification from University College, Nottingham.  
  Lawrence’s first efforts were poems, short stories and a draft of ‘The White Peacock’. Moving to London and a teaching position in Croydon his writing attracted the attention of Ford Madox Ford, editor of The English Review, and he commissioned him to write ‘Odour of Chrysanthemums’.  
  Wanting to write full-time he now began work on what would become ‘Sons and Lovers.   
  In 1912 he met the older and married mother-of-three Frieda Weekley. They eloped to Germany and here Lawrence could see for himself the growing tensions with France.  So keen was his interest that he was arrested and accused of being a British spy.  
  In early 1914 Frieda obtained her divorce and they returned to Britain to be married just days before the outbreak of war. Owing to her German parentage, and his own public dislike of militarism and violence, the couple were treated with contempt and suspicion throughout the war years.  
  Despite this he continued to write but his reputation in England was so tarnished and, mirrored by his own disdain for the country, he and Frieda left England in November 1919, first for Europe and then America via Ceylon and Australia. 
  They bought a ranch in Taos, New Mexico and visited Mexico several times. The third visit in March 1925 caused a near fatal attack of malaria. To convalesce they moved to Florence. Here he continued work on ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ which for many years would cause controversy. A renewed interest in oil painting resulted in an exhibition in 1929 which was raided by the police and several works were confiscated.  
  D H Lawrence died of complications arising from a bout of tuberculosis on the 2nd of March 1930 in Vence, France.  He was 44.

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  The Complete Tales & Poems

  Edgar Allan Poe

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  The Complete Tales & Poems by Edgar Allan Poe is offered here in a clean English digital edition prepared for fluent ebook reading. The work stands within horror and gives modern readers direct access to a public-domain classic with navigable structure and a restrained typographic presentation. The opening pages establish the book's atmosphere with this first movement: Pestis eram vivus—moriens tua mors ero. —Martin Luther HORROR and fatality have been stalking abroad in all ages. Why then give a date to this story I have to tell? Let it suffice to say, that at the period of which I speak, there existed, in the interior of Hungary, a settled although hidden belief This edition is suited to readers who want a reliable, uncluttered version of the text for study, rediscovery, and sustained reading.

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  The Adventure of the Retired...

  Arthur Conan Doyle

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  A quiet Sussex village, a once-respectable tradesman, and a crime that refuses to stay buried—The Adventure of the Retired Colourman is one of Sherlock Holmes’s most morally complex cases. When Dr. Watson brings Holmes a troubling mystery involving a retired paint dealer, long-hidden violence, and unsettling domestic secrets, the great detective uncovers a story where justice, guilt, and retribution blur into uneasy shades of gray. Set during Holmes’s later years, this gripping tale showcases his razor-sharp logic tempered by human judgment, making it a compelling entry for readers who enjoy classic detective fiction with psychological depth. Written by Arthur Conan Doyle, this story is essential reading for fans of Sherlock Holmes, golden-age mysteries, and timeless crime literature.

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  History of England

  Jane Austen

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  Jane Austen's existence embodies a profound juxtaposition of her illustrious literary endeavors and an ostensibly mundane public persona. Born in the quaint environs of Steventon, Hampshire, she was the product of a domestically-conducted education under the tutelage of her clerical father. Her life was marked by an unwavering familial devotion. Following a brief sojourn in the cosmopolitan city of Bath, Austen's family circumstances necessitated a return to their ancestral abode in Steventon, where she remained until her demise at the relatively young age of 41. Despite the apparent banality of her daily existence, her literary prowess burgeoned in this very setting, shrouded in secrecy. 
  Austen's nascent fascination with the art of novel-writing manifested early in her life, as she penned narratives that offered a satirical commentary on both the contemporary authors and the social mores of the late 18th century. Her novels, suffused with wit and incisive observation, served as a scathing yet engaging critique of the era's literary landscape. Her corpus is replete with masterpieces such as "Pride and Prejudice" (1813), "Mansfield Park" (1814), and "Emma" (1816), which masterfully dissect the social interactions and foibles of the 19th-century middle class. Her acuity for capturing the absurdities of human conduct is particularly evident in these works, which have endured as timeless reflections of societal norms. 
  In the annals of British letters, Austen stands as an adored and venerated figure, celebrated for her astute social commentary and her unparalleled contribution to the novel form. Her enduring popularity is a testament to the universal appeal of her narratives, which transcend temporal and cultural boundaries to resonate with readers across generations.

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