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  The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll...

  Robert Louis Stevenson

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  On their weekly walk, an eminently sensible, trustworthy lawyer named Mr. Utterson listens as his friend Enfield tells a gruesome tale of assault. The tale describes a sinister figure named Mr. Hyde who tramples a young girl, disappears into a door on the street, and reemerges to pay off her relatives with a check signed by a respectable gentleman. Since both Utterson and Enfield disapprove of gossip, they agree to speak no further of the matter. It happens, however, that one of Utterson’s clients and close friends, Dr. Jekyll, has written a will transferring all of his property to this same Mr. Hyde. Soon, Utterson begins having dreams in which a faceless figure stalks through a nightmarish version of London.Puzzled, the lawyer visits Jekyll and their mutual friend Dr. Lanyon to try to learn more. Lanyon reports that he no longer sees much of Jekyll since they had a dispute over the course of Jekyll’s research, which Lanyon calls “unscientific balderdash.” Curious, Utterson stakes out a building that Hyde visits—which, it turns out, is a laboratory attached to the back of Jekyll’s home. Encountering Hyde, Utterson is amazed by how undefinably ugly the man seems as if deformed, though Utterson cannot say exactly how. Much to Utterson’s surprise, Hyde willingly offers Utterson his address. Jekyll tells Utterson not to concern himself with the matter of Hyde.A year passes uneventfully. Then, one night, a servant girl witnesses Hyde brutally beat to death an old man named Sir Danvers Carew, a member of Parliament and a client of Utterson. The police contact Utterson, and Utterson suspects Hyde as the murderer. He leads the officers to Hyde’s apartment, feeling a sense of foreboding amid the eerie weather—the morning is dark and wreathed in fog. When they arrive at the apartment, the murderer has vanished, and police searches prove futile.

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  Araby - From their pens to your...

  James Joyce

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  James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was born on the 2nd February 1882 in Dublin into a middle-class family, and the eldest of ten surviving siblings 
  Admired as a brilliant student he briefly attended the Christian Brothers-run O'Connell School before excelling at the Jesuit schools of Clongowes and Belvedere.  From there he went on to attend University College Dublin from 1898, studying English, French and Italian 
  In 1902, Joyce was now in his early twenties, and went to Paris to study Medicine but soon abandoned his teachings.  Back in Dublin to attend to his dying Mother he met Nora Barnacle. They bonded immediately into a life-long match. Together they decided to emigrate to Europe.  The couple lived in Trieste, Rome, Paris, and finally Zürich where Joyce pursued a variety of jobs and ventures to supplement his literary pursuits but none of these paid off.  
  After publishing a poetry volume, ‘Chamber Music’, in 1907, his short story collection ‘The Dubliners’, in 1914, helped establish his talent in the rapidly changing world.  
  Although far from home Joyce’s literary heart and works were set in his recollections of Dublin.  Characters are close resemblances of family and friends and indeed enemies.  His landmark work ‘Ulysses’, published in 1922, is set in the streets and alleyways of the city as it parallels Homer’s Odyssey in a variety of styles including its famed stream of consciousness. 
  His pen continued to produce classics of the order of ‘A Portrait of the Artist as A Young Man’ and ‘Finnegan’s Wake’ together with several volumes of poetry and a play ‘The Exiles, in 1918.   
  On the 11th January 1941, Joyce underwent surgery in Zürich for a perforated duodenal ulcer. The next day he fell into a coma. On the 13th after a brief period of lucidity in which he called for his wife and son he passed.  He was 58.

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  The Blithedale Romance

  Nathaniel Hawthorne

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  The Blithedale Romance is a compelling and introspective novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne that explores idealism, social reform, and the complexities of human relationships. Inspired by Hawthorne's own brief experience at the Brook Farm utopian community, the novel offers a nuanced and often critical examination of nineteenth-century efforts to create a perfect society.
  
  Narrated by Miles Coverdale, a poet and observer, the story follows a group of individuals who come together at Blithedale, a rural communal experiment founded on principles of equality, cooperation, and moral improvement. Among them are the enigmatic Zenobia, the fragile yet mysterious Priscilla, and the brooding reformer Hollingsworth. As personal ambitions, hidden motives, and emotional entanglements emerge, the dream of utopia gradually gives way to disillusionment and tragedy.
  
  Hawthorne masterfully blends realism with symbolic romance, using the communal setting as a stage on which deeper psychological and moral conflicts unfold. The novel probes themes of idealism versus reality, the dangers of fanaticism, the nature of freedom, and the tension between individual desire and social responsibility. Through Coverdale's reflective narration, readers are invited to question not only the viability of utopian reform but also the reliability of human perception and judgment.
  
  Dark, thoughtful, and richly symbolic, The Blithedale Romance stands alongside The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables as one of Hawthorne's major works. Its subtle critique of reform movements and its penetrating study of character make it a lasting and relevant exploration of social ideals and human limitations.
  
  The Blithedale Romance is an essential read for lovers of classic American literature, offering a powerful meditation on hope, disillusionment, and the enduring complexity of the human heart.

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  The Secret Sense

  Isaac Asimov

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  "The Secret Sense" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov, published in Cosmic Stories in March 1941. It takes place against the background of an ancient and highly developed culture living in large underground cities on Mars.The Martians couldn't taste and their hearing was bad, but they had a secret sense all their own.

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  A Knot of Ribbon - From their...

  Laurence Alma-Tadema

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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 Laurence Alma-Tadema.

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  Escape of the American Frigate...

  James Fenimore Cooper

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  James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789 - September 14, 1851) was an American writer of the first half of the 19th century. His historical romances depicting colonist and Indigenous characters from the 17th to the 19th centuries created a unique form of American literature. He lived much of his boyhood and the last fifteen years of life in Cooperstown, New York, which was founded by his father William Cooper on property that he owned. Cooper became a member of the Episcopal Church shortly before his death and contributed generously to it. He attended Yale University for three years, where he was a member of the Linonian Society.
  THE ESCAPE OF THE AMERICAN FRIGATE ALLIANCE: We cannot detain the narrative, to detail the scenes which busy wonder, aided by the relation of divers marvellous feats, produced among the curious seamen who remained in the ship, and their more fortunate fellows who had returned glory from an expedition to the land.

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