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  The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll...

  Robert Louis Stevenson

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  The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a chilling novella written by Robert Louis Stevenson and published in 1886. The subject matter may be partly that of a shilling shocker, but the whole is executed with great panache and a fine Gothic sensibility. Lawyer Gabriel Utterson leads us apace through the rain-swept streets of Victorian London in pursuit of the diminutive but thoroughly monstrous Mr. Hyde. The upright Dr. Jekyll, inexplicably Hyde's patron and defender, grows increasingly reclusive, and Utterson is further alarmed by the bizarre alterations made by Jekyll to his Last Will and Testament. Robert Louis Stevenson here explores the duality of man, examines concepts of good and evil and the desire to escape the straitjacket of social rectitude whilst keeping up appearances and avoiding the consequences. But like his other enduring classic, Treasure Island, it is much more than that: it is a thrilling tale brilliantly told.

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  The Christening

  D H Lawrence

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  'The Christening' was written by D H Lawrence in 1911. Lawrence is at his best in this story, taken from the scenes of his childhood and based on characters he knew intimately. The theme of the unmarried mother, and the frictions the situation caused in the family and in the local community were further explored in his play ‘The Daughter-in-Law’. In this story, the emphasis moves around each member of the family and the visiting clergyman as the tensions in family life are released.

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  The Pearl of Love

  H. G. Wells

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  Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific English writer, now best remembered for his science fiction novels and often credited as being the father of science fiction.'The Pearl of Love' is a pecular allegorical tale taken from ancient persian literature, telling the story of a bereaved Indian prince whose beloved wife dies young. The prince devotes the rest of his life to creating the perfect memorial for his love - but there is a cruel twist at the end.

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  The Crown Derby Plate

  Marjorie Bowen

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  Written in 1933, this classic ghost story features Bowen's typically superb descriptions of desolation and decay.

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  Dracula

  Bram Stoker

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  ‘Listen to them – the children of the night. What music they make!’ 
    
  Bram Stoker’s masterpiece, in which the instantly recognisable Count Dracula plans to sate his dreadful appetites in England only to be thwarted by an intrepid band of friends, remains an enthralling read. Exploring themes of sexuality, religion, technology and good versus evil, and told through journal entries, letters and telegrams, its cultural and literary significance is undisputed.

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  Transit of Venus

  Rowan Metcalfe

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  The story of the Bounty mutiny is well known. Fletcher Christian's mutineers set Captain William Bligh and others adrift in a ship's boat. Bligh sailed some 5000 kilometres to safety; the mutineers returned to Tahiti before making their way to isolated and uninhabited Pitcairn Island. But what of the Tahitian women who joined the Bounty at Tahiti? Their powerful and compelling story is told in Transit of Venus. Mauatua and her friends and relatives speak directly to us in beautiful and startlingly perceptive ways as they move away from their homeland and pass into the feverish intensity of drunkenness, betrayal and murder that mark the early years on Pitcairn. In so doing they assert their place in a story that has fascinated readers for generations.

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