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  She - Audiobook

  H. Rider Haggard, Classic...

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  She tells the mesmerizing tale of Ayesha, an immortal queen ruling a lost African kingdom, and the men who encounter her. When Professor Holly and his ward Leo Vincey follow an ancient clue, they discover not only a hidden civilization but a woman whose beauty and power defy time itself.This novel mixes fantasy, mythology, and philosophical themes. Both mysterious and tragic, She is one of Haggard's most influential works—an exploration of immortality, obsession, and colonial imagination. Ayesha remains one of the most iconic figures in adventure literature.

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  Gabriel-Ernest - From their pens...

  Saki Saki

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  Hector Hugh Munro, more familiarly known by his pen-name ‘Saki’ was born in what was then Akyab in British Burma on 18th December 1870. His father was an Inspector General for the Indian Imperial Police, and his mother the daughter of a Rear Admiral. 
  When he was 2 his mother died and he and his siblings were sent back to England to be raised by their grandmother and paternal maiden aunts in a strict, puritanical household near Barnstaple, Devon. Educated by governesses Saki used many of these women as character models for his later writing. 
  At 17 his father retried and returned to England and then embarked on a series of European travels with Saki and his siblings. 
  After a short stint working in Burma with the Indian Imperial Police Saki decided to move to London to make a living as a writer. Initially he wrote as a journalist for a number of newspapers and magazines before attempting an historical study, ‘The Rise of the Russian Empire’, whose real value lay in directing him to writing short stories instead, the first of which, ‘Dogged’, he published in 1899. 
  From here it was a short stab of the pen to writing political satire before in 1902 he became the foreign correspondent for The Morning Post, first in the Balkans, then Russia, Paris and back to London in 1908, where 'the agreeable life of a man of letters with a brilliant reputation awaited him.'  
  Collections of his short stories full of witty, mischievous and often macabre stories that satirized Edwardian society and two novels now appeared in the years up to the Great War.  At its’ outbreak he was 43 but managed to join as an ordinary trooper. More than once he returned to the battlefield when officially too sick or injured.  
  On 14th November 1916 Hector Hugh Munro was sheltering in crater during the Battle of the Ancre, when he was shot and killed by a German sniper. According to several sources, his last words were "Put that bloody cigarette out!"

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  The Gentleman from San Francisco...

  Ivan Bunin

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  Ivan Bunin received the 1933 Nobel Prize in Literature "for the strict artistry with which he has carried on the classical Russian traditions in prose writing." Aristocrat to the core, Bunin somehow remained connected to the land and people and keenly felt their pulse of life. His acute observations resulted in the accurate and unforgettable characters who populated his writing. His love for punctuation and punctilious choice of words is legendary. Reading Bunin's stories is one of the best ways to understand the mysterious Russian soul and begin to understand one of Russia's greatest periods of literature.

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  Emma

  Jane Austen

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  Albeit that she is not yet 21, Emma Woodhouse foresees a future as a spinster dabbling in matchmaking. Charming and infuriating, she almost ruins the marriage prospects of Harriet Smith, her protégée, after misguidedly attempting to match Harriet with the local rector, who is in fact in search of a wealthy wife. Reprimanded by her friend, George Knightly, and misled by Frank Crawford, whom she saw as a potential suitor, Emma learns some valuable lessons in humility and about love and marriage.

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  Imaginative Woman An - From...

  Thomas Hardy

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  Thomas Hardy was born in the hamlet of Upper Bockhampton about three miles east of Dorchester in Dorset, England, on 2nd June 1840.  
  Despite a fairly wide education and being an avid reader his parents thought it unlikely he would lead a successful scholarly or clerical career and he was apprenticed in 1856, at age 16, to a local architect whose speciality was in church restoration.  Hardy’s only opportunity to read was in the morning before work between the hours of five and eight.  
  On the back of a failed love affair he moved to London and spent five years working as an assistant to the architect Arthur Blomfield, also a restorer and designer of churches. Hardy though had by now become disillusioned with institutionalised forms of Christianity and abandoned any lingering hopes of ordination in the Anglican Church.  However, his writing of poetry was now flourishing, although it was still rejected for publication.  
  His novel ‘Desperate Remedies’, was published anonymously in 1871 and he now resolved to write full time though he was not yet in a position to achieve financial security or literary success. His second novel, ‘Under the Greenwood Tree’, appeared in 1872 and in 1873 ‘A Pair of Blue Eyes’, the most autobiographical of his works arrived. With ‘Far From the Madding Crowd’ in 1874, came critical acclaim, public attention and financial success. This was repeated in 1878 with ‘The Return of the Native’, and the ensuing years saw him rise to ever greater popularity.  
  His classic ‘The Mayor of Casterbridge’ arrived in 1886 and 5 years later ‘Tess of the d’Urbervilles’. The latter only saw publication after extensive alterations to its plot and the deletion of long passages to lessen the shock to the prudish Victorian audience who were dismayed by the seduction and ruin of a young girl by a rakish aristocrat.  
  ‘Jude the Obscure’, his last novel, suffered the same fate when it was published in 1895.  The uproar so disturbed him that he returned to poetry. In 1898 he had an earlier poetry collection, ‘Wessex Poems’ published. 
  Hardy spent the years between 1903 and 1908 writing ‘The Dynasts’, an epic poem on the Napoleonic Wars. 
  In his twilight years came honours and awards from the great and the good in recognition of his stature as one of the most outstanding of British authors across novels, short stories and poetry. George V conferred on him the Order of Merit in 1910. 
  From 1920 to 1927 he worked, in secret, on his autobiography, which was later published after his death as the work of his second wife, Florence Hardy.  
  Thomas Hardy OM died on the 11th January 1928. 
  His heart was buried alongside his first wife in Stinsford churchyard, Dorchester.

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  Whispers from the Abyss - 18...

  Edgar Allan Poe

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  Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic, best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre. Born in Boston, Poe was orphaned young and raised by a foster family in Richmond, Virginia. He attended the University of Virginia but left due to financial issues, later joining the U.S. Army. Poe's literary career began with poetry, but he gained fame with his short stories, particularly with "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Tell-Tale Heart," and "The Cask of Amontillado." He's also celebrated for his poem "The Raven," which became an instant success. Poe pioneered the detective fiction genre with "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," introducing C. Auguste Dupin. His works often explore themes of death, loss, and the human psyche. Poe's life was marked by poverty, alcoholism, and personal tragedy, and he died under mysterious circumstances at the age of 40. His influence on literature, especially in horror and detective genres, remains profound. 
  Frank Marcopolos lives in Florida with his beloved dog, Sparky. 
  "A Turn for the Worse - Sadness," "I Feel You," and "Lone Harvest" by Kevin MacLeod are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) 
  Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/?keywords=worse 
  Artist: http://incompetech.com/ 
  "Cold Morning" by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) 
  Artist: http://audionautix.com/ 
  All other music and sound effects are in the public domain.

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