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  Maxim Gorky - A Short Story...

  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. 
   
  01 - Maxim Gorky - A Short Story Collection - An Introduction 
  02 - Twenty-Six Men and a Girl by Maxim Gorky 
  03 - One Autumn Night by Maxim Gorky 
  04 - In The Steppe by Maxim Gorky 
  05 - Her Lover by Maxim Gorky 
  06 - Chelkash - Part 1 by Maxim Gorky 
  07 - Chelkash - Part 2 by Maxim Gorky 
  08 - Chelkash - Part 3 by Maxim Gorky

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  The Flayed Hand

  Guy de Maupassant

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  Title: The Flayed Hand 
  Author: Guy de Maupassant 
  Narrator: Jonathan Dunne 
  Original Publication: 1875 
  Public Domain: Yes 
  Series Placement: Number 25 in the Timeless Terrors series 
  Description: 
  The Flayed Hand by Guy de Maupassant is a macabre tale of obsession, vengeance, and the supernatural — a chilling exploration of how the dead may reach back to punish the living. When a collector acquires a mummified human hand, said to have belonged to a murderer, he regards it as a mere curiosity. But when the relic’s gruesome history begins to manifest in reality, terror takes hold, and reason gives way to horror. 
  Maupassant’s sharp realism and psychological insight lend the story a disturbing plausibility, transforming a simple ghost tale into a meditation on guilt, possession, and the price of curiosity. 
  Narrated by Amazon bestselling horror author Jonathan Dunne, this performance captures the story’s eerie tension and mounting dread — the quiet unease of an ordinary setting pierced by the inexplicable. While the text itself resides in the public domain, this narration is an original work and copyright © 2025 Jonathan Dunne. 
  This audiobook is part of Timeless Terrors, a series devoted to reviving the dark classics of horror and the uncanny — timeless stories that still chill the blood, rendered in haunting new performances for a modern audience. 
  Listeners should prepare for a tale where curiosity becomes curse, where relics of the past refuse to rest, and where the hand of the dead may yet reach for the living.

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  Learning to Talk - Stories

  Hilary Mantel

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  "The multiple performances in this audiobook are uniformly adept, providing listeners the disarming experience of adults unflinchingly looking back at childhood." -AudioFile on Learning to TalkLearning to Talk is a dazzling collection of short stories from the two-time winner of the Man Booker Prize and #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Wolf Hall Trilogy.With a new foreword by Hilary Mantel.In the wake of Hilary Mantel’s brilliant conclusion to her award-winning Wolf Hall Trilogy, this collection of loosely autobiographical stories locates the transforming moments of a haunted childhood.Sharp and funny, these drawn-from-life stories begin in the 1950s in an insular northern village “scoured by bitter winds and rough gossip tongues.” For the child narrator, the only way to survive is to get up, get on, get out. In “King Billy Is A Gentleman,” the child must come to terms with the loss of a father and the puzzle of a fading Irish heritage. “Curved Is the Line of Beauty" is a story of friendship, faith, and a near-disaster in a scrap-yard. The title story sees our narrator ironing out her northern vowels with the help of an ex-actress with one lung and a Manchester accent. In “Third Floor Rising," she watches, amazed, as her mother carves out a stylish new identity.With a deceptively light touch, Mantel illuminates the poignant experiences of childhood that leave each of us forever changed.“A book of her short stories is like a little sweet treat...Mantel’s narrators never tell everything they know, and that’s why they’re worth listening to, carefully.” —USA Today“Her short stories always recognize other potential realities...Even the most straightforward of Mantel’s tales retain a faintly otherworldly air.” —The Washington PostA Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt and Company.

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  The Cask of Amontillado

  Edgar Allan Poe

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  The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe is a dark and gripping tale of revenge, deceit, and the chilling depths of human malice. Set in the shadowy, wine-filled catacombs of an unnamed Italian city, this short story follows the cunning and vengeful Montresor as he seeks to settle an unnamed insult by luring his unsuspecting friend, Fortunato, into a deadly trap. 
  Poe’s masterful use of suspense and irony unfolds as Montresor, under the guise of friendship, tempts Fortunato with the promise of tasting a rare and exquisite wine—Amontillado. As they descend into the cold, claustrophobic depths of the catacombs, the tension builds, and the true nature of Montresor’s intentions becomes terrifyingly clear. Fortunato, oblivious to the danger he is in, finds himself entangled in a plot that will seal his fate forever. 
  This classic tale of horror delves into themes of pride, revenge, and the darkness within the human soul, showcasing Poe’s unparalleled talent for creating atmospheric and psychological suspense. Perfect for fans of gothic literature and psychological thrillers, this audiobook version of The Cask of Amontillado brings the sinister story to life, immersing listeners in its eerie and chilling world. 
  Start Listening to The Cask of Amontillado today and experience one of Poe’s most haunting works!

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  After Twenty years - From their...

  O Henry

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  William Sydney Porter was born on 11th September 1862 in Greensboro, North Carolina. At age 3 his mother died from tuberculosis. From an early age it was clear Porter had a large appetite for reading as he absorbed the world around him. 
  He first attended at a school run by his aunt before enrolling at the Lindsey Street High School and then worked at his uncle’s drugstore and gained a pharmacists’ license in 1881.  
  A persistent cough took him to Texas in the hope that a change of climate would help his symptoms. He took on various types of work, initially from ranch hand and cook and then as varied as pharmacist, draftsman, bank teller and journalist. He also began to write, though for now, purely as a hobby. 
  He was a member of several singing and dramatic groups when he met 17 year old Athol Estes, daughter of a wealthy Austin family. Despite her mother’s objection owing to Athol’s tuberculosis, they began courting and in July 1887, they eloped and soon married. 
  Athol, impressed by his writing, encouraged him to get them published. A job as a draftsman at the Texas General Land Office paid a healthy $100 dollars per month and life was good. 
  But then life turned cruel. His son died a few hours after birth although a daughter, Margaret, came the following year.  His job had to be vacated but another was found at the First National Bank of Austin. The bank operated informally and Porter was careless in keeping the books. He lost that job but began writing for the humourous weekly The Rolling Stone and the Houston Post. Some time later the federal Bank auditors went through his former accounts and he was arrested on charges of embezzlement. 
  Porter fled the day before his trial to Honduras. Holed up for several months he began to write.  Athol had become too ill to travel to meet him and learning that her health was deteriorating he surrendered to the court in February 1897.  Bail was obtained so that he could stay with Athol during her final days.  
  Porter was sentenced to five years at the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus. His pharmacy qualifications got him the job of night druggist.  His sentence also gave him time to write and publish fourteen short stories. In December 1899 in McClure’s Magazine he published a short story as O Henry.  
  He was released two years early in July 1901, and reunited with Margaret, now 11, in Pittsburgh.  He now began his most prolific period of writing; a short story per week for the New York World, while also publishing works in other magazines.  Eventually over 600 of his short stories were published. 
  Porter was a heavy drinker and in 1908 his health, which had deteriorated for several years, took a dramatic turn for the worse, as did his writing. 
  O Henry died of cirrhosis of the liver complicated by diabetes and an enlarged heart on 5th June 1910.<

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  Giddy Up

  Kameron Claire

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  He’s an ex-military bouncer out on his night off. She’s a single mom letting loose for the first time in four years. Tonight was supposed to be a one-night thing, but can he get her to give him a lifetime instead? 
  Denny: I would never pick up a chick at the bar I manage security at, but it’s my night off and I have nowhere else to go. So when a woman I’ve never seen before throws me eyes from across the dance floor, I have to at least buy her a drink. Could I really meet my angel in this place? 
  Vivi: This is my first child free weekend in over four years—my first chance to cut loose, drink, and dance my cares away—and although my friend is hell-bent on finding me a man, I refuse to believe the hot and broody bear of a man across the room could be interested in my mom bod. 
  Each book in the series is a complete, standalone story. This is a steamy, short story romance, complete with instalove and a guaranteed happily ever-after. If you're looking for a great lunchtime read, or something to spark sexy dreams before bed, you’ll want to pick this one up. 
  Last Stand Saloon Series: Round Up, Making Up, Cowboy Up, and Giddy Up

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