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  Sherlock Holmes: The Man With...

  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

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  The Man with the Twisted Lip, one of 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by the British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is the sixth of 12 stories in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. It was first published in Strand Magazine in 1891. 
  Neville St. Clair, a respectable businessman, has disappeared, and his wife claims she saw him at the upper window of an opium den. When she entered the room, she found only a beggar. St. Clair's clothes are later found in the room, and his coat, laden with coins, in the River Thames outside the window. The beggar is arrested for murder, but a few days later St. Clair's wife receives a letter from her husband. 
  Holmes considers and watches the beggar to discover that he is actually St. Clair, who confesses that he has been leading a double life as a beggar, as the income is so large, but he promises to stop begging if Holmes will keep his secret from his wife. 
  Public Domain (P)2016 Listen & Live Aud

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  Elizabeth and Her German Garden

  Elizabeth Von Arnim

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  Elizabeth von Arnim, who is best known for her later novel The Enchanted April, married a Prussian aristocrat and, with their five children, lived in Nassenheide, Pomerania. Elizabeth and Her German Garden is a semi-autobiographical novel about the joy that the protagonist finds in the delights of her Pomeranian garden, which provides relief from the stifling environment of her household. The novel was originally published anonymously because von Arnim feared that her husband, whom she satirised in the book, would disapprove.Each season of the year is wittily recorded, bringing new events and visitors, conveyed through von Arnim’s idiosyncratic perspective, while the ‘kingdom of heaven’ of the garden provides a calm place where the author finds solace.

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  Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse

  Herman Hesse

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  Siddhartha, the handsome and respected son of a Brahmin, lives with his father in ancient India. Everyone in the village expects Siddhartha to be a successful Brahmin like his father. Siddhartha enjoys a near-idyllic existence with his best friend, Govinda, but he is secretly dissatisfied. He performs all the rituals of religion, and he does what religion says should bring him happiness and peace. Nonetheless, he feels something is missing. His father and the other elders have still not achieved enlightenment, and he feels that staying with them will not settle the questions he has about the nature of his existence. Siddhartha believes his father has already passed on all the wisdom their community has to offer, but he longs for something more.

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  The Ghost and the Bone Setter -...

  Sheridan Le Fanu

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  Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu was born on 28th August 1814 in Dublin into a literary family with Huguenot, Irish and English roots.   
  For a time he and his siblings were tutored but Le Fanu would often immerse himself in the books of his father’s library. 
  In 1833 Le Fanu began his Law studies at Trinity College, Dublin and graduated in 1839. Although called to the bar he instead began a career in journalism.   
  He was also writing. His first fiction story ‘The Ghost and the Bonesetter’ was published in 1838.  In 1843 came the novella ‘Spalatro: From the Notes of Fra Giacomo’, a hero with a particular necrophiliac passion for an undead blood-drinking beauty, a forerunner to his later female vampire ‘Carmilla’.  
  In 1844 Le Fanu married Susanna Bennett with whom he had 4 children. The following year his first novel ‘The C'ock and Anchor’ was published. Works now flowed from his pen and with a rapid increase in family finances they moved, in 1851, to Merrion Square, Dublin, where he remained until his death.  
  In 1858 Susanna died and Le Fanu became reclusive. It was during this period that he produced some of his best work.  Working only by candlelight he wrote through the night, burnishing his reputation as a major figure of 19th Century supernaturalism with many classics including; ‘Green Tea’, ‘Mr Justice Harbottle’, and ‘In a Glass Darkly’.  
  Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu died in Merrion Square in his native Dublin on February 7th, 1873, at the age of 58.

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  Frankenstein

  Mary Shelley

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  "Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful." 
  Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist, creates a living creature from body parts, only to be horrified by his monstrous creation. Rejected by society and seeking vengeance, the creature embarks on a path of destruction. 
  This classic novel explores themes of ambition, isolation, and the ethical limits of scientific exploration, delving into the darker sides of human nature and the consequences of playing God. 
  "I was the slave, not the master, of an impulse which I detested, yet could not disobey."

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  Dombey and Son

  Charles Dickens

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  A rich man’s obsessive search for an heir blinds him to his own child in this classic Victorian novel of greed, pride, and family ties.  For shipping magnate Paul Dombey, business is the essence of life. He runs his firm and his family with the same calculating efficiency. Showering attention on his sickly son, who is destined to take over the family business, Mr. Dombey diligently ignores his daughter, Florence. In his unloving eyes, she is nothing more than a “base coin that couldn’t be invested.”  In time, despite her father’s neglect, Florence grows into a capable and strong-willed woman. Dombey’s callousness, meanwhile, sets in motion his own eventual downfall. In this classic tale of ambition, pride, and redemption, Charles Dickens presents a rich and sprawling portrait of a man, his dysfunctional family, and the complex times in which they lived.

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