Publisher: Adelphi Press
Alexei is hopelessly in love with Polina, the General's stepdaughter. She asks him to go to the town's casino and place a bet for her. After hesitations, he succumbs and ends up winning at the roulette table. He returns to her the winnings but she will not tell him the reason she needs money.
After Nadya, a 16 year old girl, returns home from seeing a play, she is happily consumed with its plot of unrequited love. To Nadya, unrequited love is the most interesting type of love, as love is boring if everyone is happy. Quickly, Nadya's thoughts turn to her two suitors, Gorny and Guzdev. Although they have both declared their love for her, she, more than anything, wants to believe that they do not love her. Trying to emulate the unrequited love from the play, she writes a letter to Gorny, like the heroine in the play, to create tension. But then she wonders if she should instead write to Guzdev, or perhaps both!Show book
Francis Marion Crawford, an only child, was born on 2nd August 1854 at Bagni di Lucca, Italy. He was a nephew to Julia Ward Howe, the American poet and writer of ‘The Battle Hymn of the Republic’. Crawford was educated at St Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire and then on to Cambridge University, the University of Heidelberg and the University of Rome. In 1879 he went to India, to study Sanskrit and then to edit The Indian Herald. In 1881 he returned to America to continue his Sanskrit studies at Harvard University. His family became increasingly concerned about his employment prospects. After an attempt at a singing career as a baritone was ruled out, he was encouraged to write. In December 1882 his first novel, ‘Mr Isaacs’, was published and was an immediate hit as was his second novel ‘Dr Claudius’ in 1883. In October 1884 he married Elizabeth Berdan and encouraged by his excellent start to a literary career they returned to Sant Agnello, Italy to make a permanent home, buying the Villa Renzi that then became Villa Crawford. In the late 1890s, Crawford began work on his historical works which would later include ‘Corleone’, in 1897, the first major treatment of the Mafia in literature. Crawford is also exceedingly popular and anthologized as a short story writer of bizarre and creepy tales. Francis Marion Crawford died at Sorrento on Good Friday 1909 at Villa Crawford of a heart attack. 01 - F Marion Crawford - An Introduction 02 - The Dead Smile by F Marion Crawford 03 - The Screaming Skull by F Marion Crawford 04 - Man Overboard by F Marion Crawford 05 - For the Blood is the Life by F Marion Crawford 06 - The Upper Berth by F Marion CrawfordShow book
In the third installment of the Arsène Lupin series, we find our gentleman burglar up against Isidore Beautrelet, a young but gifted amateur detective who is determined to foil Lupin once and for all. As he hunts down the Hollow Needle, a needle that contains secrets that have been passed down from French kings since Julius Caesar, Beautrelet is never too far behind.Show book
What if your house pet could talk? It has probably seen and heard quite a few things that you would not want spread around at a dinner party of your friends and acquaintances. Well that is exactly what happens in this short story. Listen in to see how quick the conversation can take a bad turn and how a houseful of guests handle the stress of a cat named Tobermory that can speak it's mind.Show book
In this classic historical adventure by the author of The Thirty-Nine Steps, a young monastic scholar is groomed to take the throne from Henry VIII. It is 1536, and powerful men reveal to Peter Pentecost that it is he, and not the tyrannical Henry VIII, who should be on the throne of England. Can they persuade him to risk everything in a treasonable rebellion against the throne? In the hands of John Buchan—one of Alfred Hitchcock’s favorite writers—the dark, dangerous days of Tudor England come alive like never before.Show book
This tale, beloved by children and adults everywhere, follows Alice as she falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world, where she meets The Mad Hatter, the Ugly Duchess, the Mock Turtle, the Queen of Hearts and the Cheshire Cat-each character more eccentric than the last. Lewis Carroll, the master of sublime nonsense, has created one of the most famous and fantastic novels of all time. He plays with logic in ways that have given the story lasting popularity and not only stirred our imagination but revolutionized literature.Show book
