Other books that might interest you

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  The Cabala

  Thornton Wilder

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  "Thornton Wilder's 1926 debut novel probes the inscrutable mystery of the ancient, fabulous wealth that confers a kind of immortality on its custodians, allowing their natures to form without concession or compromise to life beyond their privileged enclave.... [It] established Wilder as one of the most accomplished stylists of his generation." (The Guardian) 
  In The Cabala, Samuele, an American student, spends a year in the fabulously decadent world of post-World War I Rome. He experiences firsthand the waning days of a secret community—a “cabala” composed of decaying European royalty, eccentric expatriate Americans, even a great cardinal of the Roman Church. The vivid portraits he paints of these characters, whom he views as the vestigial representatives of the gods and goddesses of ancient Rome, launched Wilder’s career as a celebrated storyteller and literary stylist.

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  The Christmas Angel

  Abbie Farwell Brown

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  Disagreeable old Miss Terry spends her Christmas Eve getting rid of toys from her childhood toy box. One by one she tosses them onto the sidewalk in front of her house, then secretly watches the little scenes that occur, which seem to confirm her belief that true Christmas spirit does not exist. Then the Angel from her childhood Christmas tree appears to show Miss Terry that she has not yet witnessed the final act of each of those little dramas …

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  Top 10 Short Stories The - Men...

  O Henry, Maxim Gorky, Algernon...

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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. 
   
  In this new century expansion and turbulence are competing forces. Society is ripe for change, the elite are not.  In this fertile ground these very talented authors grabbed literature by the scruff of the neck and dragged it into new directions and new forms. 
   
  1 - The Top 10 - The  1900's - The Men - An Introduction 
  2 - Gift of the Magi by O Henry 
  3 - Her Lover by Maxim Gorky 
  4 - Oh Whistle and I'll Come to You My Lad by M R James 
  5 - To Build a Fire by Jack London 
  6 - The Fly In The Ointment by D H Lawrence 
  7 - The Scapegoat by Paul Laurence Dunbar 
  8 - The Kit Bag by Algernon Blackwood 
  9 - The Voice in the Night by William Hope Hodgson 
  10 - Silence by Leonid Nikolaevich Andreev 
  11 - The Diary of a God by Barry Pain

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  The Alchemist - The Original...

  Ben Jonson

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  An outbreak of plague in London forces a gentleman, Lovewit, to flee temporarily to the country, leaving his house under the sole charge of his butler, Jeremy. Jeremy uses the opportunity given to him to use the house as the headquarters for fraudulent acts. He transforms himself into 'Captain Face', and enlists the aid of Subtle, a fellow conman and Dol Common, a prostitute. In The Alchemist, Jonson unashamedly satirizes the follies, vanities and vices of mankind, most notably greed-induced credulity. People of all social classes are subject to Jonson's ruthless, satirical wit. He mocks human weakness and gullibility to advertising and to "miracle cures" with the character of Sir Epicure Mammon, who dreams of drinking the elixir of youth and enjoying fantastic sexual conquests. The Alchemist focuses on what happens when one human being seeks advantage over another. In a big city like London, this process of advantage-seeking is rife. The trio of con-artists - Subtle, Face and Dol - are self-deluding small-timers, ultimately undone by the same human weaknesses they exploit in their victims. 
   
  Benjamin Jonson was an English playwright and poet. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence upon English poetry and stage comedy.

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  Heidi

  Johanna Spyri

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  Hear Heidi if you’ve ever longed to see the Swiss mountain slopes. This story transports the listener from the fine air and freedom of the mountaintop to the confines of Frankfurt, back to the peaks again, bounding in flowered fields with goats at your heels and sky utterly surrounding you. We meet Heidi when she is 5, led up the mountain by her aunt who has raised the orphan but must leave now for a position in Frankfurt. In a mountain cottage overlooking the valley is Heidi’s grandfather, and there with him the girl’s sweet, free nature expands with the vista. The author’s voice is straightforward, and so is our reader’s, with the child’s wonder, devotion, and sometimes humorous good intentions. When Heidi is taken from the mountains and nearly doesn’t make it back again, the most humorous as well as most heart-wringing scenes occur. All she learns during her absence from the mountain she brings back as seeds that will grow to benefit everyone around her.

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  Space Viking

  H. Beam Piper

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  Space Viking is a sci-fi novel set in his Terro Human future history. It tells the story of one man's search for his wife's murderer and its unexpected consequences. Ten thousand refugees from the losing side of The Big War (The System States War of The Cosmic Computer) fled far beyond the boundaries of the Terran Federation and colonized the planet Excalibur. By the beginning of Space Viking, they had expanded to a handful of Sword Worlds (so-called because they are named after legendary swords) and had grown to a total population of three and a half billion, organized in a feudal system of kingdoms, duchies, and other small states, ruled by frequently warring noblemen. Despite their isolation and the political instability, the inhabitants managed to retain a high level of technology, including space flight...

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