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  Shadow - A Parable

  Edgar Allan Poe

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  Title: Shadow – A Parable 
  Author: Edgar Allan Poe 
  Narrator: Jonathan Dunne 
  Original Publication: 1835 
  Public Domain: Yes 
  Series Placement: Number 42 in the Timeless Terrors series 
  Description: 
  “Shadow – A Parable” by Edgar Allan Poe is a brief yet profound meditation on death, memory, and the fragile line between the living and the departed. Set amid the aftermath of pestilence, seven figures gather in a dimly lit chamber, haunted by the ghostly presence of a shifting shadow that speaks not to the ear but to the soul. 
  First published in 1835, this early work reveals Poe’s mastery of atmosphere and allegory — a fusion of Biblical solemnity and gothic despair. The story’s vision of mortality and the dissolution of self foreshadows the existential darkness that would come to define Poe’s later works. 
  Narrated by Amazon bestselling horror author Jonathan Dunne, this performance imbues Poe’s haunting prose with a spectral intensity — a voice that rises from the silence of the grave to whisper of humanity’s inevitable end. While the text is in the public domain, this narration is an original performance and copyright © 2025 Jonathan Dunne. 
  Part of Timeless Terrors, a series devoted to resurrecting the masters of the macabre, Shadow – A Parable stands as an eerie meditation on the universality of death — a moment when even the proudest voices of the living fall silent beneath the eternal shadow.

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  The Big Four

  Agatha Christie

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  Detective Hercules Poirot is put to the test in this fast-moving tale of skulduggery and intrigue. He needs all his skills to not only solve murder but to survive as well! Accompanied and supported by the inimitable Captain Hastings, Poirot once again shows why he is considered the greatest detective in the world!

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  Before the Law - From their pens...

  Franz Kafka

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  Franz Kafka was born on 3rd July 1883 in Prague, then in Bohemia, the eldest of 6, into a middle-class Jewish family. 
  Life for the young Kafka and his passion for literature was often made an ordeal by his over-bearing and domineering entrepreneur of a father.   
  In 1889 Kafka was sent to the Deutsche Knabenschule, an elementary school in Prague. His father would only allow him to be educated in German-speaking schools and even went so far as to limit visits to the synagogue to four a year. 
  In 1901 he graduated from the classics-oriented Altstädter Gymnasium. Kafka did well there and across a large range of subjects.  He now enrolled at the Charles Ferdinand University, to study chemistry, but quickly switched to law for which he obtained his degree in June 1906 and then performed the mandatory year of unpaid service as clerk at the civil and criminal courts. 
  A job at an Italian insurance company left him little time to write and after a year he took another job with the Worker's Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia where he stayed until ill health led to his resignation in 1922. 
  Although he saw work as a means to pay the bills and to allow him time to write, he received several promotions and was noted as a good employee. 
  By 1917 Kafka was suffering from tuberculosis, which required frequent periods of convalescence. Interspersed with this, were several intense affairs before he settled in Berlin with Dora Diamant, a 25-year-old kindergarten teacher who herself having left the ghetto now influenced Kafka's interest in the book of Jewish law, the Talmud. 
   
   
  Kafka’s on-going health was littered with problems. Apart from TB there were several other ailments, including migraines, insomnia, boils, depression, all usually brought on by excessive stresses and strains. He attempted to counteract all of this by naturopathic treatments, a vegetarian diet and consuming large quantities of unpasteurized milk. 
  His tuberculosis still worsened. He returned to Prague, where he died on 3rd June 1924. He was 40.

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  Elenora - An oddity of a romance...

  Edgar Allan Poe

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  Edgar Poe was born in Boston Massachusetts on 19th January 1809. His father abandoned his family the following year and within a year his mother had died leaving him an orphan.   
   
  He was taken in by the Allan family but never formally adopted although he now referred to himself as Edgar Allan Poe.  His father alternatively spoiled or chastised him and tension was frequent over gambling debts and monies for his education.  His university years to study ancient and modern languages was cut short by lack of money and he enlisted as a private in the army claiming he was 22, it is more probable he was 18. After 2 years he obtained a discharge in order to take up an appointment at the military academy, West Point, where he failed to become an officer. 
   
  Poe had released his 1st poetry volume in 1827 and after his 3rd turned to prose and placing short stories in several magazines and journals.  At age 26 he obtained a licence to marry his cousin.  She was a mere 13 but they stayed together until her death from tuberculosis 11 years after. 
   
  In January 1845 ‘The Raven’ was published and became an instant classic.  Thereafter followed the prose works for which he is now so rightly famed as a master of the mysterious and the macabre. 
   
  Edgar Allan Poe died at the tragically early age of 40 on 7th October 1849 in Baltimore, Maryland. Newspapers at the time reported Poe's death as ‘congestion of the brain’ or ‘cerebral inflammation’, common euphemisms for death from disreputable causes such as alcoholism but the actual cause of death remains a mystery.

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  Count of Monte Cristo The: Book...

  Briefly Summaries

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  This is a concise summary and analysis of The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas.
   
  It is not the original book and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Alexandre Dumas.
   
  Ideal those seeking a quick and insightful overview.
   
  Betrayed and wrongfully imprisoned, a young sailor spends years plotting his escape and revenge against those who conspired against him. With a hidden fortune and a new identity, he reemerges as the enigmatic Count of Monte Cristo, weaving a complex web of justice, vengeance, and redemption. Set against the backdrop of post-Napoleonic France, this timeless tale of betrayal, adventure, and retribution explores the limits of human resilience and the price of revenge.

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  The Young Girl

  Katherine Mansfield

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  “The Young Girl” is a 1920 short story written by Katherine Mansfield. Mrs. Raddick’s and her beautiful daughter waited on the steps of the casino. The daughter was incredibly beautiful with flushed cheeks, blue eyes, and golden curls. She “might have just dropped from this radiant heaven” (79), and Mrs. Raddick seemed to think so too - if her appreciative glances were any indication. The girl; however, appeared only bored as if heaven had been full of casinos and they no longer held any interest for her.

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