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  Jane Austen's Little Book of...

  Jane Austen

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  The ultimate companion for the Jane Austen fan filled with her penetrating insights and humor on life, love, and death. Jane Austen is one of the most popular female writers in history, best known for her stories of love, loss, and hope, which are cleverly intertwined with her witty insights into the traits and expectations of English Georgian society.   Here, in this stunning little book, you will be able to read hundreds of individual quotes from her famous works—from Pride and Prejudice and Emma to Persuasion and Sense and Sensibility—each prompting an emotional response, thoughtful musing, or even a little snigger at the wise and shrewd perceptions that Austen had of the world around her.   Utterly charming and very profound, fans of Jane Austen can revel in these much-loved quotes, while a new audience will be introduced to the joys that her books have provided since their publication many years ago. With each chapter focusing on a different theme—from Love & Longing to Female Strength—this gorgeous gift book is the perfect compilation of Austen’s funny, moving, and thought-provoking words.   Content of themes:  Love & Longing  Friendship  Society  Female Strength  Life & Death  Faith  Art & Literature “The wit of Jane Austen has for a partner the perfection of her taste.” —Virginia Woolf   

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  Mumu - Turgenev brilliantly...

  Ivan Turgenev

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  Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev was born on 9th November 1818 in Oryol, Russia to parents from the nobility.  He and his two brothers were raised by their mother on the family estate.  Surrounded by foreign governesses he became fluent in French, German, and English.  Their father spent little time with them and this undoubtedly had an effect on him and his brothers.  When he was nine the family moved to Moscow to give their children a better education. 
   
  Turgenev studied for a year at the University of Moscow and then at the University of St Petersburg to study Classics, Russian literature, and philology.  During that time his father died from kidney stone disease.  In 1838 Turgenev studied philosophy and history at the University of Berlin for 3 years before returning to St Petersburg for his master's. 
   
  He started his career with the Russian Civil Service and it was only in 1852, after several earlier publications, that he made his name with his short story collection, ‘A Sportsman's Sketches’, based on his observations of peasant life and nature. 
    
  That same year he wrote an obituary for Nikolai Gogol: "Gogol is dead!... What Russian heart is not shaken by those three words?... He is gone, that man whom we now have the right (the bitter right, given to us by death) to call great."  The St Petersburg censor banned publication but the Moscow censor allowed it.  He was dismissed but Turgenev was held responsible and imprisoned for a month, and then exiled to his country estate.  
   
  Along with many other intellectuals Turgenev left Russia and settled in Paris in 1854.  During this period he wrote his finest stories and four novels.  
   
  Alexander II ascended the Russian throne in 1855, and the political climate relaxed.  Turgenev returned home.  
   
  ‘Fathers and Sons’, Turgenev's most famous and enduring novel, appeared in 1862. Its leading character is considered the first ‘Bolshevik’ in Russian literature. But the hostile reaction prompted Turgenev's decision to again leave Russia.  
   
  His health declined during his later years.  In January 1883, an aggressive malignant tumor was removed but by then it had metastasized in his upper spinal cord, causing him intense pain in his final few months of life.  
   
  Ivan Turgenev died on 3rd September 1883 of a spinal abscess, a complication of the metastatic liposarcoma, in his house near Paris.  He was buried in St Petersburg.  
   
  In Mumu, Turgenev hauntingly tells the story of a Gerasim, a six foot five deaf mute with the menial job of yard-porter who is ostracized by all those around him.  A dog, Mumu, becomes his only true and faithful friend.  One day he is given a dreadful and agonizing choice.

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  Lazarus

  Leonid Andreyev

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  "When Lazarus rose from the grave, after three days and nights in the mysterious thraldom of death, and returned alive to his home, it was a long time before anyone noticed the evil peculiarities in him that were later to make his very name terrible."    One of Andreyev's best-known short stories, "Lazarus" follows the Eastern Orthodox tradition that Lazarus never smiled again, and it explores what happened to the biblical figure after his resurrection from the dead. The unsettling coldness that exudes from the man who cheated death cannot be denied by anyone who meets him. As his notoriety increases, few can resist the chance of an audience with the man who has seen beyond the realms of life, but be they urchin or Emperor, none can stand to be in the presence of Lazarus for long.     "Lazarus", first published in Russian in 1906, deals with themes of faith, mortality and the human condition. This recording is based on a translation by Thomas Seltzer.

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  Empire of the Ants The (Unabridged)

  H. G. Wells

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  "The Empire of the Ants" is a disturbing tale about a new species of giant ants in South America which have evolved to use tools and weapons, wear clothes, communicate and organize themselves as a deadly fighting machine. And their chosen enemy is mankind...

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  At Fault (Unabridged)

  Kate Chopin

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  Widowed at thirty, beautiful, resourceful Therese Lafirme is left alone to run her Louisiana plantation. When Therese falls in love with David Hosmer, a divorced businessman, her strong moral and religious convictions make it impossible for her to accept his marriage proposal. Her determined rejection sets the two on a tumultuous path that involves Hosmer's troubled former wife, Fanny. At Fault is set in the Post-Reconstruction rural South against a backdrop of economic devastation and simmering racial tensions. Written at the beginning of her career, it has parallels to Chopin's own life and contains characters and themes that prefigure her later works, including The Awakening.

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  A Tale of One January

  Albert Maltz

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  Poland, January 1945. Two women and four men escape from a Nazi death march after enduring the horrors of imprisonment at Auschwitz. Despite their individual backgrounds and nationalities, they form their own family caught between the euphoria of freedom and the terror of their circumstances. This is a tale of exploding joy within a hothouse of fear, of human beings erupting into life after breaking free of death’s embrace – an unusual and moving tale that cements Albert Maltz’s reputation as a compassionate observer of character and one of the finest storytellers of his generation.
  Read by the versatile AudioFile Golden Voice, Rupert Degas, and including the music that features within the story.

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