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  The Stalled Ox

  Hector Hugh Munro

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  When Theophil Eshley, the bovine painter, is called upon by his neighbour Adela Pingsford to remove a stray ox from her garden things go inevitably and comically wrong. No oxen are harmed in the course of this story, but sadly the same cannot be said of assorted chrysanthemums, drawing rooms and egos.

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  The Picture of Dorian Gray

  Oscar Wilde

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  The Picture of Dorian Gray is a philosophical novel by Irish writer Oscar Wilde. A shorter novella-length version was published in the July 1890 American periodical Lippincott's Monthly Magazine issue. The novel-length version was published in April 1891.The story revolves around a portrait of Dorian Gray painted by Basil Hallward, a friend of Dorian's and an artist infatuated with Dorian's beauty. Through Basil, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton and is soon enthralled by the aristocrat's hedonistic worldview: beauty and sensual fulfillment are the only things worth pursuing. Newly understanding that his beauty will fade, Dorian desires to sell his soul to ensure that the picture, rather than he, will age and fade.The wish is granted, and Dorian pursues a libertine life of varied amoral experiences while staying young and beautiful; all the while, his portrait ages and visually records every one of Dorian's sins.

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  Annabel Lee

  Edgar Allan Poe

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  Title: Annabel Lee 
  Author: Edgar Allan Poe 
  Narrator: Not included / Various Public Domain Recordings Available 
  Original Publication: 1849 
  Public Domain: Yes 
  Series Placement: Timeless Terrors No. 61 
  Description: 
  Annabel Lee is Edgar Allan Poe’s final completed poem — a haunting ballad of love so powerful it defies even death. Set in a “kingdom by the sea,” the narrator recounts a romance with the beautiful Annabel Lee, a bond so pure and radiant that even celestial powers grow jealous. What follows is a tragic tale of loss, longing, and eternal devotion, as the speaker clings to the memory of his beloved despite the grave’s cold claim. 
  Poe weaves together the gothic and the ethereal, transforming grief into lyrical beauty. The sea becomes both a backdrop and a specter — its tides echoing the relentless pull of memory and the undying heartbeat of the narrator’s love. 
  A cornerstone of American Romanticism, Annabel Lee endures as one of literature’s most poignant meditations on love’s refusal to fade, reminding us that some bonds remain unbroken, “in this kingdom by the sea.”

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  Demir-Kaya - From their pens to...

  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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  The Lame Priest - Settlers and...

  Susan Morrow writing as S Carleton

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  Susan Morrow was born in Halifax in Nova Scotia in 1864.   
   
  Little is known of her life although she preferred to write under pseudonyms, one of which she shared with her sister, or as S Carleton, an abbreviated version of her name which gave the illusion of a male identity presumably to give her books a more rugged and male personality given their content. 
   
  Her books only seem to have been published from 1900 onwards when she was in her mid-30’s by which time she had married and became Susan Carleton Jones. 
   
  She died in 1926.   
   
  In ‘The Lame Priest, a story of life on harsh terrain is amplified by the possibility that a werewolf lurks nearby.

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  Bedtime Stories - Hans Christian...

  Hans Christian Andersen

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  The emperor is intrigued by the beautiful songs of a nightingale but swiftly forgets when he received a glittering mechanical bird as a gift. He casts away the nightingale but soon suffers...

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