Altri libri che potrebbero interessarti

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  The Final Problem

  Arthur Conan Doyle

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  Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on 22nd May 1859.  His childhood was blighted by his father’s heavy drinking which for some years broke up the family. Fortunately, wealthy uncles were willing to support them by paying for education and clothing.  
   
  He was accepted at the University of Edinburgh to study medicine and also began to write short stories the first, ‘The Haunted Grange of Goresthorpe’, was published in Blackwood’s Magazine.  Despite several other stories and some articles in the British Medical Journal his medical studies took priority. 
   
  When these finished he was appointed as Doctor on the Greenland whaler ‘Hope of Peterhead’ in 1880 and then, after graduation, as ship’s surgeon on the SS Mayumba on its voyage to West Africa. 
   
  1882 saw a move to Plymouth and his own independent practice. With few patients he resumed writing and completed his first novel, ‘The Mystery of Cloomber’, although most of his output was short stories based on his experiences at sea.  
   
  He married Louisa Hawkins in 1885. However, two years later he met and fell in love with Jean Elizabeth Leckie, though they remained platonic out of respect for, and loyalty to, his wife. 
   
  His literary career suddenly burst into life in November 1886 with ‘A Study In Scarlet’, the first of the fabulously successful Sherlock Holmes stories.  
   
  With two children to support he now revisited his haphazard commercial arrangements and curtailed everything save for commissions from the Strand Magazine.  
   
  As a sportsman he was remarkably proficient. He was goalkeeper for Portsmouth Association Football Club and played ten first-class cricket matches for the Marylebone Cricket Club as well as captain of the Crowborough Beacon Golf Club in East Sussex.  
   
  In 1891 tired of writing Holmes stories, he began a series of historical novels and even went so far as to apparently kill off Holmes in a lethal brawl with his arch-nemesis Moriarty. 
   
  Despite heavy and sustained criticism he continued to write in support of the Boer War, a fact he thought contributed to his knighthood in 1902.  The following year to great relief and acclaim he brought Sherlock Holmes back from the dead in his first outing for a decade. 
   
  Sadly, his wife Louisa died from TB in 1906 and, a year later, he at last married Jean.  
   
  During the War and for several years after family deaths had left him depressed. In a search for solace and answers he alighted upon spiritualism and, such was his interest, that he wrote several books on the subject. 
   
  On 7th July 1930 Conan Doyle was discovered in the hall of Windlesham Manor, his house in East Sussex, clutching his chest dying of a heart attack.  He was 71.

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  Top 10 Short Stories The - The...

  Henry James, Mark Twain, Booth...

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  Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart.  A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere. 
   
  In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?  
   
  The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme.  Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature. 
   
  Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made.  If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something. 
   
  A new century dawns, one in which America would become pre-eminent as its industrial might and military power rose above all others.  In literature too its authors tackled new forms and new ideas, they shied away from little, immersing themselves and their readers in the promise of a new Century.   
   
  1 - The Top 10 - The 1900's - The Americans - An Introduction 
  2 - The Great Good Place by Henry James 
  3 - Eve's Diary by Mark Twain 
  4 - To Build a Fire by Jack London 
  5 - Paul's Case by Willa Cather 
  6 - The Gift of the Magi by O Henry 
  7 - The Scapegoat by Paul Laurence Dunbar 
  8 - A Dark Brown Dog by Stephen Crane 
  9 - The Defense of Strikerville by Damon Runyon 
  10 - The Screaming Skull by F Marion Crawford 
  11 - Ariel's Triumph by Booth Tarkington

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  A Connecticut Yankee in King...

  Mark Twain

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  This is the tale of a 19th-century citizen of Hartford, Connecticut who awakens to find himself inexplicably transported back in time to early medieval England at the time of the legendary King Arthur in AD 528.

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  The Tudor Cup

  Neil Munro

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  Neil Munro (1863-1930) was a Scottish journalist, newspaper editor, author and literary critic who is now mainly known for his humorous short stories.'The Tudor Cup' is an amusing tale based on stereotypes. Two crooked London art dealers are set on swindling an eccentric Scottish Laird of a valuable artefact in his collection: a Tudor cup of silver. A similar cup had sold recently at Sotheby's for a small fortune. But the canny Scot sees straight through the swindle and manages to double-cross the duo quite ingeniously.

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  When the Time Comes and Other...

  M.H. Lee

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  A collection of ten speculative fiction stories that explore worlds that don't exist. (Or at least that we hope will never exist.) Includes both fantasy and science fiction stories.

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  Night Terrors Vol 3 - Short...

  Richard Beauchamp, Dustin...

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  Nightfall is the prime time for terror… 
  In the jungles of Vietnam, Hell on earth awaits a troop of unsuspecting GIs. A greedy gravedigger faces deadly repercussions for stealing from the dead. And love comes with a terrible price when a lonely woman turns to a witch to fulfill her heart’s desires… 
  Plunge into darkness with Scare Street’s new collection of bone-chilling terror. This demonic volume contains thirteen sinister tales of supernatural horror. Enough to keep you reading into the darkest hours of the night. 
  Things look different in the moonlight. The branches of a tree become a monster’s claws. The shadows around your window seem like wraiths, rising from the underworld. And the space beneath your bed becomes the perfect spot for a snarling beast to hide… 
  But don’t worry. Soon the sun will rise, and everything will go back to normal. Assuming you make it through the night… 
  This collection contains: 
  1. Search and Destroy by Richard Beauchamp 
  2. As Seen from Above by Dustin Walker 
  3. The Gravedigger by Daniel J. Bickley 
  4. Cuckoo, Cherry Tree by R.G. Evans 
  5. The Sanction by Damir Salkovic 
  6. The Old Man's Neighbor by Gordon Dunleavy 
  7. The Witch of the Woods by Jamie Zaccaria 
  8. Ōsuzumebachi by Matthew McKiernan 
  9. With Lying Tongues, With Words of Hatred by Spencer Koelle 
  10. Silver Maples by Tim Jeffreys 
  11. The Strange Journey of James Booth by Justin Boote 
  12. The Summer with No Tourists by Alethea Avery 
  13. Children's Home by Ron Ripley

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