Other books that might interest you

• 

  The Horla

  Guy de Maupassant

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  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.

  Show book

• 

  Horror Collection - Dracula...

  Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram...

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  This horror collection includes: Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr HydeMary Shelley's FrankensteinBram Stoker's Dracula.

  Show book

• 

  The Mad Kyoto Shoe Swapper and...

  Rebecca Otowa

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  From the unique standpoint of an American woman who married into a Japanese family and has lived in Japan for more than thirty years, Rebecca Otowa weaves enchanting tales of her adopted home that portray the perspective of both the Japanese and the foreigner on the universal issues that face us all—love, work, marriage, death, and family conflict. The collection includes:● "A Year of Coffee and Cake"—A young American wife in the Tokyo suburbs suspects her next-door neighbor of murdering an elderly relative.● "Rhododendron Valley"—An elderly man decides to commit suicide to deal with his terminal illness and to spare his family pain.● "The Mad Kyoto Shoe Swapper"—A reclusive young Japanese man enjoys the strange hobby of stealing shoes from temples, but it gradually consumes him.● "Genbei's Curse"—A downtrodden woman loses her temper with her demanding, sick father-in-law. Years later, old and sick herself, she can now empathize with him.● And other stories.

  Show book

• 

  Short Poetry Collection 065

  Various Various

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  LibriVox's Short Poetry Collection 065: a collection of 20 public-domain poems, chosen and read by Librivox volunteers.

  Show book

• 

  The Dust that was Barren

  P.C. Wren

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Percival Christopher Wren (1875 - 1941) was an English writer of adventure fiction mostly dealing with colonial soldiering in Africa. He is remembered best for Beau Geste, a much filmed book of 1924, involving the French Foreign Legion in North Africa.'The Dust That Was Barren' is a strange tale of a peculiar incident in the French Foreign Legion. Commandant Le Sage comes across a legionnaire who has fallen behind his comrades and has laid himself down in the sand, saying he is dying. But when the Commandant's back is turned, the legionnaire attempts to shoot him in the head. He misses, and Le Sage whips out his pistol and shoots the treacherous man dead.Shortly after this, a tombstone appears on the spot on which is written: On this spot on the 1st of December 19-- Le Légionnaire Barren was murdered by Captain Le Sage.Outraged at the lie, the General orders the stone removed and destroyed. But before long a replica stone is erected. This too is removed...and a third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh stone appear to replace the destroyed one. Nobody knows where the stones come from, who makes them and why they say what they do. And then, one day, the solution to the mystery is explained... and it is a very peculiar tale indeed.

  Show book

• 

  A Group of Noble Dames

  Thomas Hardy

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The pedigrees of our county families, arranged in diagrams on the pages of county histories, mostly appear at first sight to be as barren of any touch of nature as a table of logarithms. But given a clue-the faintest tradition of what went on behind the scenes, and this dryness as of dust may be transformed into a palpitating drama. Out of such pedigrees and supplementary material most of the following stories have arisen and taken shape. (Summary adapted from the preface)

  Show book