Verlag: HarperCollins e-books
The lives of four unlikely friends intersect on the backstreets of New Orleans. Living amid poverty and violence, these fragile heroes of the American underclass redefine our notions of family, redemption, and love.
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.Zum Buch
Adeline Virginia Woolf was born on the 25th January 1882 in South Kensington in London. Although lauded as a founder of modernist writing with such classics as ‘Orlando’, ‘Mrs Dalloway’ and ‘To the Lighthouse’ and, of course, many classic short stories, her background is filled with elements of tragedy that she somehow overcame to become such a revered writer. Her mother died when she was 13, her half-sister Stella two years later and with it her first of several nervous breakdowns. Appallingly it was later found that three of her half-brothers had sexually abused her so darkness must have seemed ever present. She began writing professionally at age 20 but her father’s death two years later brought a complete mental collapse and she was briefly institutionalised. Somehow she found within herself a literary career and with it great innovations in writing; she was a pioneer of “stream of consciousness”. Her tight circle of friends were the founders of the Bloomsbury Group, a movement whose legacy still influences across the arts and society in many way to this day. Whilst the dark periods continued to interrupt her emotional state her rate of work never ceased. Until, on 28th March 1941, Woolf put on her overcoat, filled up its pockets with stones, and walked into the River Ouse, in Lewes, East Sussex and drowned herself. Her body was not recovered until the 18th April. She was 59. She left behind a note which read in part “Dearest, I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times. And I shan't recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can't concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do”.Zum Buch
Robert Barr was born in Glasgow, Scotland on the 16th September 1849. Five years later the family emigrated to a farm near Muirkirk in Upper Canada. His early years were uneventful as the family settled into their new lives and Barr began his education. A career path as a teacher opened up for him and, by 1874, he had been appointed as headmaster at the Central School at Windsor. Concurrently he also wrote travel and humourous articles for magazines. Within two years their success in the regional periodicals encouraged him to change careers to become a reporter and columnist. In August 1876, at age 27, he married Eva Bennett and they began a family. A half decade later he was the exchange editor of the ‘Free Press’ but decided to relocate to London to establish an English edition and to write fiction, which both met with much success. Over the years he was a prolific writer and in 1892, along with Jerome K Jerome, he established ‘The Idler’ magazine and, just after the turn of the century, became its sole proprietor. Although a number of his crime novels and short stories are parodies on Sherlock Holmes and other best-selling detectives of the time, he also wrote short stories across a whole range of subjects and genres usually with intriguing ideas and many laced with wit and humour. Robert Barr died at his home in Woldingham, Surrey of heart disease on the 21st October 1912. He was 63. 1 - Robert Barr- A Short Story Collection - An Introduction 2 - Purification by Robert Barr 3 - The Vengeance of the Dead by Robert Barr 4 - The Sixth Bench by Robert Barr 5 - Within An Ace of the End of the World by Robert Barr 6 - An Alpine Divorce by Robert BarrZum Buch
Lim Boon Keng. David Marshall. Chandran Nair. Ho Poh Fun. Some Dreams From Now presents 70 defining pieces of writing from the Raffles Institution archives— many brought into the public eye for the first time—that trace the contours of Singapore’s history. From youthful dreams of a freer and more peaceful society, to emerging voices that shaped the aspirations of a new nation, they tell the untold story of a school and its community at the heart of a changing city.Zum Buch
The Russian novel has a reputation that is immense, both in narrative and in length. Unquestionably though the ideas, themes and characters make many novels rightly revered as world class, as icons of literature. Perhaps an easier way to enjoy a wider selection of the Russian heritage, with its varied and glorious literary talents, is with the short story. These gems sparkle and beguile the mind with their characters and narrative, exploring facets of society and the human condition that more Western authors somehow find more difficult to navigate, or to explore, explain and relate to. The Russian short story is, in many respects, in a genre of its own. It is at its captivating best whether it’s an exploration of real-life experiences, through fantasy and fables and on to total absurdity. In a land so vast it is unsurprising that it is a world almost unto itself. Cultures and landscapes of differing hues are packed together bound only by the wilful bonds and force of Empire. The stories in this collection traverse the decades where one might be a serf under an absolute monarch, and the reality of that was pretty near to slavery, into an emancipation of sorts in the fields, or towns under the despotic will of landowners and the rich into the upheavals of Empire and then the overthrow of the ruling class and its replacement by the communists, who promised equality for all and delivered a society where the down-trodden remained the lowest yet vital cog of the state machine and its will. Whilst Tolstoy, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Pushkin and Chekhov are a given in any Russian collection we also explore and include Andreyev, Korolenko, Turgenev, Blavatsky and many others to create a world rich and dense across a sprawling landscape of diverse people, riddled with the class and unfairness in perhaps some of the most turbulent times that Russia has ever experienced. 01 - The Russian Short Story - Volume 1 - An Introduction 02 - The Queen of Spades by Alexander Pushkin 03 - The Stationmaster by Alexander Pushkin 04 - The Blizzard by Alexander Pushkin 05 - The Coffin Maker by Alexander Pushkin 06 - The Shot by Alexander Pushkin 07 - St Johns Eve by Nikolai Gogol 08 - The Cloak by Nikolai Gogol also known as 'The Overcoat' 09 - Old Fashioned Landowners by Nikolai Gogol 10 - The Nose by Nikolai GogolZum Buch
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic tale of faith, temptation, and moral conflict comes to life in this haunting new narration by Christopher Mireider. On a mysterious night in 17th-century Salem, young Goodman Brown ventures into the dark forest, leaving behind his wife Faith and his seemingly pious life. What he encounters on his journey challenges everything he believes about his neighbors, his faith, and even his own soul. Is it a dream, a vision, or a glimpse into the hidden sin of humanity? A masterpiece of American Gothic literature, Young Goodman Brown explores the shadowy line between innocence and corruption, belief and despair. Perfect for fans of classic literature, allegorical fiction, and dark moral tales.Zum Buch
