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  Jatadhar Bakshi Samagra :...

  Rajshekhar Basu

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  Jatadharer Bakshi Samagra is a comic anthology (trilogy) based on a facetious cheat, penned by the legendary humorist - Rajshekhar Basu alias Parashuram, whom he constructed as one who used to get people under his spell with his gift of the gab. Spontaneity and imagination were such a natural disposition of this cheat that the gullible fell for his sleight repeatedly and almost happily and voluntarily till they realized it again.  
  One of the leading lights among the Bengal intellectuals of that era, Rajshekhar Basu alias Parashuram, served us well with his characteristic humor-coated sarcasm that made fun of the irrationality and deep superstitions that were plaguing the society and its people. Yet his writings ring as foresight even in this age of information overflow. 
  Discover many more such Bengali audio stories by typing mystorygenie in the search bar without leaving any space between the different English alphabets.

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  Twenty-Six Men and a Girl - From...

  Maxim Gorky

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  Alexei Maximovich Peshkov was born on 28th March 1868, in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. 
  Better known as Maxim Gorky he was orphaned at 11 and ran away from home at 12.  At 19 he had already attempted suicide and thereafter travelled, by foot, across the Russian Empire for 5 years. 
  His first book ‘Essays & Stories’ in 1898 was a sensation and so began a long career as an author of short stories, novels and plays.  Gorky saw writing as a moral and political act that would help to change the unjust world around him.  He was an ardent early advocate of the emerging Marxist movement and publicly opposed the Tsarist regime leading several times to his arrest.  
  In 1904 he began his own theatre but the censor banned every play and Gorky was forced to abandon the project. 
  But Gorky was a financially successful author, editor, and playwright and gave monies to political parties as well as for civil rights and social reform.  The brutal shooting of workers, which set in motion the Revolution of 1905, pushed Gorky more decisively toward radical solutions.  
  In 1906 he went to the United States to raise funds for the Bolsheviks. Those experiences including a scandal over travelling with his lover and not his wife deepened his contempt for the ‘bourgeois soul.’ 
  Gorky now moved to Capri in Italy, both for health reasons and to escape the increasingly repressive times in Russia.  
  An amnesty for the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty saw him return to Russia in 1914. His politics remained close to the Bolshevik cause.  But soon, after the 1918 revolution, his essays referred to Lenin as a tyrant for his senseless arrests and repression.  He was soon appealing to the outside world for food aid after the catastrophic crop failure. 
  In October 1921 Gorky returned to Italy, now in Fascist hands, and settled in Sorrento until 1932.  His health worsened with the onset of tuberculosis. 
  He wrote several successful books there but now decided to find an understanding with the communist regime. Stalin invited him home and his return was hailed as a major propaganda victory.  He was decorated with the Order of Lenin, and a province, a park, and various streets re-named in his honour. 
  But he had his faults too.  In 1933, Gorky co-edited a book on the White Sea-Baltic Canal and denied even a single prisoner died during its construction, but thousands had. As well, knowing that some Nazis were homosexual, a phrase was attributed to him that said ‘exterminate all homosexuals and fascism will vanish’.  Although he was himself was quoting another he was decidedly homophobic. 
  With the increase of Stalinist repression in 1935 Gorky was placed under unannounced house arrest. 
  Maxim Gorky died on the 18th June 1936 from pneumonia.  He was 68. 
  Stalin and Molotov were among those who carried Gorky's urn of ashes at his funeral.

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  The Primrose Path

  D H Lawrence

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  ‘The Primrose Path’ looks at what can be the ephemeral nature of man and woman love and the horror and certainty of death which seems to hang over all the characters in this haunting short story.

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  Top 10 Short Stories The - The...

  Fyodor Dostevesky, Mark Twain,...

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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. 
   
  The Century moves on decade by decade. War once again scars Europe, in America wagons roll west.  Social unrest continues even as conditions improve markedly for the few and only a little for the many.  The list of problems and of challenges described by our authors is long and their stories once again full of valuable and telling insights. 
   
  01 - The Top 10 - The 1870's - The Men - An Introduction 
  02 - Bobok by Fyodor Dostevesky 
  03 - A Ghost Story by Mark Twain 
  04 - God Sees The Truth But Waits by Leo Tolstoy 
  05 - Dickon the Devil by Sheridan Le Fanu 
  06 - The Legend of Saint Julian the Hospitaller by Gustave Flaubert 
  07 - A Strange Story by Ivan Turgenev 
  08 - A Lonely Ride by Bret Harte 
  09 - Coward by Vsevolod Garshin 
  10 - The Man Without a Body by Edward Page Mitchell 
  11 - The Vampire by Jan Neruda

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  Edited Story An - From their...

  Morley Roberts

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  The bookshelves of British literature are incredible collections that have gathered together centuries of very talented authors.  From these Isles their fame spread and whilst among their number many are now forgotten or neglected their talents endure.  Among them is Morley Roberts.

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  The House and Other Stories

  Amit Dasgupta

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  Calcutta is the central character in each of the three stories in this book. As all Bengalis will tell you, even when the city stands quietly in the corner, not saying a word, her presence may be deeply felt by those close to her. The House and Other Stories is also about the many persons we encounter in the everyday. These are the people we pass by without a second thought. Who are these people? What stories lie locked up in each of them? Will they ever be told? Like magic, one question leads to another and soon, they no longer appear anonymous; they come alive. It is as if an entirely new world has been conjured before our eyes. And we are enchanted by the stories that have lain hidden from us for so long. Even if the stories emerge at times from the realm of the dead.

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