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  Clarence

  Bret Harte

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  Clarence is a lesser-known but engaging novel by Bret Harte that explores themes of identity, class, and moral dilemmas in post-Civil War America. The story follows Clarence Dermott, a young man of humble origins who discovers he is the heir to a vast estate, thrusting him into a world of wealth, privilege, and social expectations. As he navigates this new life, Clarence must reconcile his modest upbringing with the demands of high society, all while facing romantic entanglements, family secrets, and ethical challenges. Set against the backdrop of small-town America and infused with Harte’s signature blend of sentiment, irony, and regional realism, the novel offers a thoughtful examination of integrity, self-discovery, and the true measure of character in a rapidly changing world.

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  Miss Harriet

  Guy de Maupassant

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  Born on August 5, 1850, in the Château de Miromesnil in Normandy, Guy de Maupassant became one of the most celebrated masters of the short story in world literature. Raised in a bourgeois family and deeply marked by the landscapes of Normandy, he developed early a sharp sense of observation and a taste for realism. His mother, a cultivated and independent woman, encouraged his literary ambitions and introduced him to the renowned novelist Gustave Flaubert, who became his mentor and guided his early writing.    Maupassant first gained fame in 1880 with the publication of "Boule de Suif," included in the collective volume Les Soirées de Médan, alongside writers such as Émile Zola. The story was an immediate success and established him as a leading voice of the Naturalist movement. Over the next decade, he wrote more than 300 short stories, six novels, travel narratives, and numerous articles.    His most famous works include the novel Bel-Ami (1885), a sharp portrayal of ambition and corruption in Parisian society, and Une Vie (1883), which explores the disillusionments of a young woman trapped by social conventions. In his short stories—such as "The Necklace" and "The Horla"—Maupassant displayed remarkable psychological insight, irony, and a deep understanding of human desires, fears, and hypocrisies. His style is characterized by clarity, concision, and an often cruel lucidity about human nature.    Maupassant's life, however, was marked by illness and growing mental distress, partly due to syphilis contracted in his youth. In 1892, after a suicide attempt, he was committed to a private asylum in Passy, Paris, where he died on July 6, 1893, at the age of 42.

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  Black Bartlemy's Treasure

  Jeffery Farnol

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  Martin Conisby, five years a galley slave and living for revenge, gets his enemy, a map, and a woman he did not ask for, on an island where a dead buccaneer's treasure is buried. Farnol painted scenery in New York theatres and wrote his first novel on scraps between shifts after a foundry in Birmingham sacked him for fighting; the sea and the hatred here are both convincing, and the revenge is not the thing he ends up wanting.

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  The Lost World - An Uncharted...

  Yvonne Schaefer

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  Is there any room left in the world for true romance and daring heroics? 
  Young journalist Edward Malone is desperate to prove his worth to the woman he loves. When he begs his editor for the most dangerous assignment available, he is sent to interview the notorious, irascible, and fiercely imposing Professor George Edward Challenger. The Professor has just returned from an isolated plateau deep in the uncharted Amazon basin with claims that defy all modern science: prehistoric life still walks the earth. 
  Met with mockery and outrage by the scientific establishment of London, Challenger dares his detractors to see the truth for themselves. Joined by a cynical rival professor, a fearless big-game hunter, and the eager young Malone, the expedition sets sail for the treacherous jungles of South America. 
  Will they uncover the greatest biological miracle of the twentieth century, or vanish forever into the jaws of a primordial nightmare? Step into a world where time stands still, dinosaurs rule, and every shadow conceals a heart-pounding threat in this masterful tale of exploration and survival.

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  The White Maiden - From their...

  Hanns Heinz Ewers

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  Hanns Heinz Ewers was born on 3rd November 1871 in Düsseldorf, Germany. 
  His first published poem was at 17 on the death, after a reign of only 99 days, of the German Emperor Frederick III. 
  A stint in the German military was cut short after only 44 days because of his myopia.  Writing was to be the way forward for him with a book of satiric verse published in 1901. At the same time he co-founded a literary vaudeville troupe that toured central and eastern Europe before censors and expenses forced its closure.  An inveterate traveller he was in South America when the Great War enveloped Europe and he relocated to New York. 
  From here his story darkens. Although by now a successful and admired author he was arrested in the U S in 1918 as a German Agent on the pretext of his travels and a falsified Swiss passport. Interned, he was released in 1921 and returned to Germany.  He claimed only to be raising money for the German Red Cross. 
  His literary fame is decidedly easier to clarify. His novels beginning with ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ in 1910 are dark, they bristle with evil intent and are littered with characters who have a dubious moral compass and yet, along with his short stories, are brazen, brilliant feats of literary narrative. 
  He also wrote and published plays, fairy tales, opera librettos, critical essays and lectured for many years on ‘The Religion of Satan’ and was one of the first to write scripts for the cinema, which he considered a legitimate art form. 
  As the Weimar republic began its chaotic death throes Ewers became attracted to the rising Nazi Party.  At first he was warmly received despite disagreeing with its anti-semitism (his most famed literary character had a Jewish mistress) and he was even commissioned by Hitler to write a biography of the Nazi martyr Horst Wessel.  This together with his own homosexuality culminated with his works being banned in 1934 and his assets and property seized.  It took him many years to have the ban lifted.  This association rightfully clouds his personal reputation but has meant his literary contributions are also overlooked and neglected. 
  Hanns Heinz Ewers died of tuberculosis on 12th June 1943 in his Berlin apartment.

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  Cain - From their pens to your...

  Alexander Kuprin

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  Alexander Kuprin was born in Narovchat, Penza in Russia on 7th September 1870. 
  At 3 his Father died and he and mother moved to Moscow. By 10 he was enrolled at the Second Moscow Military High School and there his interest in literature began. The Alexander Military Academy followed and two years later he was a sub-lieutenant and posted to an Infantry Regiment for a further four years. 
  Despite his duties he was a now a keen writer and published his first short story at this time. His military duties also garnered him experiences for his breakthrough work ‘The Duel’.  Leaving the military he left for Kiev to work for local newspapers.  He continued to publish both stories and novels and by 1901 he was in St Petersburg becoming part of a group that included Chekhov, Ivan Bunin, Maxim Gorky and Leonid Andreyev.  
  In the years that followed further controversial works and acclaim followed.  His comments on the regime meant he was also put under secret police surveillance.   
  As World War I erupted, Kuprin opened a military hospital but was then given command of an infantry company in Finland. He was soon discharged on grounds of ill health.  
  The October Revolution saw him praise Lenin, but he warned that the Bolsheviks threatened Russian culture and might cause further widespread suffering to the peasants.  As Civil War raged he took his family to Helsinki and then on to Paris. 
  Exile saw his talents decline further and his succumbing to alcoholism. He became lonely and withdrawn. The family's poverty increased his malaise.   
  In May 1937, the Kuprin’s returned to Moscow.  He now saw his work published but wrote almost nothing new.  In 1938 his health rapidly deteriorated.  Already suffering from a kidney problems and sclerosis, he had now developed cancer of the oesophagus.  
  Alexander Kuprin died on 25th August 1938.

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