Altri libri che potrebbero interessarti

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  The Philistine - A touching...

  E M Delafield

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  Edmée Elizabeth Monica Dashwood, née de la Pasture, and more commonly known as E M Delafield, was born in Steyning, Sussex on 9th June 1890.   
   
  Raised in the fading years of the Victorian era with its Empire and strict moral codes Delafield, not yet married at twenty-one, joined a French religious order, in Belgium, but soon decided that this was a totally wrong choice for her.   
   
  Her next challenge was her work during the horror of the First World War.  Delafield decided to take up a position as a nurse in a Voluntary Aid Detachment in Exeter.  It was whilst here that she managed to write her first novel, ‘Zella Sees Herself’.   
   
  With the end of the war new opportunities were sought and she now took up a position for the South-West Region of the Ministry of National Service in Bristol.  With it came enough time to write two more novels: ‘The War Workers’ (1918) and ‘The Pelicans’ (1918).   
   
  On 17th July 1919, she married Colonel Arthur Paul Dashwood, OBE, an engineer responsible for building the massive docks at Hong Kong Harbour.  The marriage produced two children; Lionel and Rosamund.  That same year her fourth novel, ‘Consequences’, was published.   
   
  The couple spent their early years in Malaya but returned to England to live in Croyle, an old house in Kentisbeare, Devon.  Delafield continued to collect responsibilities and organise whatever she could.  At the initial meeting of the Kentisbeare Women's Institute, Delafield was unanimously elected president, and also became a Justice of the Peace, raised the children and, of course, continued to write her best-selling novels.   
   
  Her greatest work is undoubtedly the largely autobiographical ‘Diary of a Provincial Lady’, which is a simply structured journal of the life of an upper-middle class Englishwoman, living mostly in a Devon village of the 1930s.  It spawned several best-selling sequels.  Her works also includes stage and radio plays, film scripts and short stories.  
   
  After the death of her son in 1940, her health began to markedly decline.    
   
  E M Delafield died on 2nd December 1943 after collapsing whilst giving a lecture in Oxford.  She was 53.

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  The Silkworm Keeper - A...

  Deborah Swift

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  Rome 1638 
  Old sins have long shadows ~ Italian Proverb 
  Giulia Tofana never wanted to be a nun, but she is determined to atone for her past misdeeds by making her new monastery a success. 
  When an unexpected disaster closes the convent, Giulia is forced to turn to her old friend Fabio Pasello for help. Giulia still has intense feelings for Fabio and Fabio’s passion for her has never diminished. 
  But they are not the same people they were before. Giulia has taken her vows, and Fabio is apprenticed to Gianlorenzo Bernini the famous sculptor, and has become one of Bernini’s rakish libertines. They could not be further apart. 
  To add to their problems, Giulia cannot escape her reputation as a poisoner, and is soon embroiled in a plot against Fabio’s patron, Pope Urban VIII. Faced with the idea of murder, will Giulia renounce her vows or embrace them? 
  Inspired by true stories, this is a novel of nuns and courtesans, artists and priests, in the shadow and splendour of the Eternal City. 
  'Swift is a consummate historical novelist, basing her books on immaculate research and then filling the gaps between real events and real people with eloquent storytelling, atmospheric scene setting and imaginative plot lines.' - The Visitor

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  Persuasion - Jane Austen’s...

  Jane Austen

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  "Persuasion" by Jane Austen is a novel set in the early 19th century. The story centers around Anne Elliot, the quiet yet perceptive daughter of Sir Walter Elliot, a vain baronet struggling with financial difficulties and the threat to his social status. The novel delves into themes of love, regret, and societal pressures, particularly through Anne's past romance with Captain Frederick Wentworth, a man without fortune or title whom her family disapproved of. 
  At the beginning of the book, we meet Sir Walter Elliot, who is completely absorbed in his vanity and status as a baronet, while ignoring the significant financial problems threatening their estate, Kellynch Hall. The narrative unfolds the dynamics within the Elliot family, especially highlighting Anne's delicate position, which is overshadowed by her more socially ambitious sisters and overlooked by her father.  
  The opening establishes Anne's sense of duty as well as her longing for a life that truly recognizes her character and feelings, setting the stage for the complex emotional struggles she faces as the story progresses and explores her potential reconnection with Wentworth, who is now a successful naval captain. This sets the foundation for Anne's journey of self-discovery amid the entanglements of family, friendship, and social standings.

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  Redburn His First Voyage

  Herman Melville

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  Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his bestknown works are MobyDick (1851); Typee (1846), a romanticized account of his experiences in Polynesia; and Billy Budd, Sailor, a posthumously published novella. Although his reputation was not high at the time of his death, the 1919 centennial of his birth was the starting point of a Melville revival, and MobyDick grew to be considered one of the great American novels. 
   
  Melville's growing literary ambition showed in MobyDick (1851), which took nearly a year and a half to write, but it did not find an audience, and critics scorned his psychological novel Pierre: or, The Ambiguities (1852). From 1853 to 1856, Melville published short fiction in magazines, including "Benito Cereno" and "Bartleby, the Scrivener". In 1857, he traveled to England, toured the Near East, and published his last work of prose, The ConfidenceMan (1857). He moved to New York in 1863, eventually taking a position as United States customs inspector. 
   
  From that point, Melville focused his creative powers on poetry. BattlePieces and Aspects of the War (1866) was his poetic reflection on the moral questions of the American Civil War. In 1867, his eldest child Malcolm died at home from a selfinflicted gunshot. Melville's metaphysical epic Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land was published in 1876. In 1886, his other son Stanwix died of apparent tuberculosis, and Melville retired. During his last years, he privately published two volumes of poetry, and left one volume unpublished. The novella Billy Budd was left unfinished at his death, but was published posthumously in 1924. Melville died from cardiovascular disease in 1891.

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  Into the Suffering City - A...

  Bill LeFurgy

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  A Baltimore Novel of Suspense 
  Baltimore, 1909. Sarah Kennecott is a brilliant young doctor who cares deeply about justice for murder victims. She also has a habit of displeasing powerful men and getting into trouble. After getting fired for looking too closely into the killing of a showgirl, she refuses to back down from the investigation. 
  Sarah forms a promising partnership with Jack Harden, a street-smart private detective struggling with terrible memories. They have much in common: Both defiant. Both independent. Both regarded as a bit unusual. Sarah gathers evidence in gilded mansions and fancy ballrooms. Jack follows leads into Baltimore's seedy underworld, a vitally corrupt realm of saloons, brothels, and burlesque theaters. When Sarah and Jack pull the pieces together, they discover a stunning pair of secrets worth killing to keep.

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  Satan's Circus - An evil couple...

  Lady Eleanor Smith

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  Lady Eleanor Furneaux Smith was born in Birkenhead, Merseyside in England on the 7th August 1902 into a privileged family steeped in titles and politics. 
   
  Part of her education was at Miss Douglas's school at Queen's Gate.  Here she met and befriended several other young women that the British tabloid press would later call the ‘Bright Young Things’, a group of bohemian young aristocrats and socialites in 1920s London. 
   
  Smith's paternal great-grandmother, was said to have been a Gypsy, and this sparked an early and life-long interest with the Romani people, she even went so far as to learn to read and speak the language, which she called ‘musical and broken.’ 
   
  Her life was full of adventure and mishaps.  A mistaken encounter with a man she thought could help her into the film business turned out to threats of marriage and death from a man wanted for the murder of his father.  She was even arrested twice.  Once for listing her career as a journalist and another, in Rome, for walking around in a sleeveless dress. 
   
  Smith began her career writing society gossip columns for various newspapers but later received an offer to write for the newly-formed Great Carmo Circus, with which she travelled for several years and was the source material for many of her books. 
   
  Her first novel, ‘Red Wagon’, was published when she was 28 and it was an immediate bestseller.  A prolific writer several of her works were also adapted for films. 
   
  Smith also wrote ghost stories and others flavoured with evil.  Her support for the Conservative party may be forgiven but her attributed quote to be a ‘warm adherent of General Franco’ less so. 
   
  Lady Eleanor Furneaux Smith died on the 20th October 1945 in Westminster after a long illness. She was 43.

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