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  Of Conversation and the Anatomy...

  H. G. Wells

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  Herbert George "H. G." Wells (1866 - 1946) was an English writer.
  He was prolific in many genres, including the novel, history, politics, social commentary, and textbooks and rules for war games. Wells is now best remembered for his science fiction novels and is called a "father of science fiction"
  OF CONVERSATION AND THE ANATOMY OF FASHION: This uncle of mine, you must understand, having attained by the purest accident some trifles of distinction and a certain affluence in South Africa, came over at the earliest opportunity to London to be photographed and lionised.

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  After the Race - From their pens...

  James Joyce

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  James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was born on the 2nd February 1882 in Dublin into a middle-class family, and the eldest of ten surviving siblings 
  Admired as a brilliant student he briefly attended the Christian Brothers-run O'Connell School before excelling at the Jesuit schools of Clongowes and Belvedere.  From there he went on to attend University College Dublin from 1898, studying English, French and Italian 
  In 1902, Joyce was now in his early twenties, and went to Paris to study Medicine but soon abandoned his teachings.  Back in Dublin to attend to his dying Mother he met Nora Barnacle. They bonded immediately into a life-long match. Together they decided to emigrate to Europe.  The couple lived in Trieste, Rome, Paris, and finally Zürich where Joyce pursued a variety of jobs and ventures to supplement his literary pursuits but none of these paid off.  
  After publishing a poetry volume, ‘Chamber Music’, in 1907, his short story collection ‘The Dubliners’, in 1914, helped establish his talent in the rapidly changing world.  
  Although far from home Joyce’s literary heart and works were set in his recollections of Dublin.  Characters are close resemblances of family and friends and indeed enemies.  His landmark work ‘Ulysses’, published in 1922, is set in the streets and alleyways of the city as it parallels Homer’s Odyssey in a variety of styles including its famed stream of consciousness. 
  His pen continued to produce classics of the order of ‘A Portrait of the Artist as A Young Man’ and ‘Finnegan’s Wake’ together with several volumes of poetry and a play ‘The Exiles, in 1918.   
  On the 11th January 1941, Joyce underwent surgery in Zürich for a perforated duodenal ulcer. The next day he fell into a coma. On the 13th after a brief period of lucidity in which he called for his wife and son he passed.  He was 58.

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  The Cat That Walked by Himself -...

  Rudyard Kipling

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  'The Cat that Walked by Himself' is one of the most well-loved of Kipling's Just So Stories.
  This is a story about a cat who liked to walk wherever he wanted. Everything happened at those times when the animals were wild. They lived separately from people. The man was also wild. But he met the woman. She found a nice dry cave and made it their house. They were happy there. One evening the wild dog came to the cave. The woman promised the dog tasty bones for guarding her cave. Later the wild cow and the wild horse also came. She promised fresh grass to the cow and the horse for fresh milk and help with the housework. The cat watched it. He also wanted to be near fire and drink warm milk. Still the cat wanted to walk by himself as usual. The woman did not need such an animal. She needed useful animals. So she made a bargain with the cat.

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  The Best of Thomas Hardy

  Thomas Hardy

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  This collection includes two of the most notable titles from author Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Far from the Madding Crowd. Tess Durbeyfield, the daughter of an impoverished family, must navigate a world of desire and romance once she meets Alec d'Urberville. The son of a rich widow, he takes a fancy to her and gets her a position as the poultry keeper on his family's estate. However, her good fortune is soon complicated by Alec's libertine ways, and Tess returns home shamed. Once recovered, she separates herself from the gossip by finding work at a dairy farm outside the village. There, she meets and falls for Angel Clare, the eligible youngest son of the local reverend. But as her life begins to change for the better, she is troubled by a moral dilemma: whether or not to tell Angel about her past. Gabriel Oak is a shepherd struggling to get ahead when Bathsheba Everdene moves next door. Although he loves her, she sees him as a friend and rejects him for two other suitors. After she leaves town, she and Gabriel are reunited years later, once everything has changed. In this classic novel, Thomas Hardy depicts the English countryside as idyllic but also hard and unforgiving, much like the Victorian mindsets of the day.

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  Cursed Curiosities Volume 2 - 10...

  H. T. W. Bousfield, C. P....

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  A second collection of classic works concerning items that harbour sinister secrets and unusual powers. 
  Contents: 
  "The Uncommon Prayer-Book" by M. R. James (London Mercury 1925) 
  Eight unusual copies of the Book of Common Prayer. 
  "The Green Flame" by Donald Wandrei (Weird Tales 1930) 
  The tale of a strange jewel. 
  "The Disinterment of Venus" by Clark Ashton Smith (Weird Tales 1934) 
  A curious statue unearthed in the grounds of a monastery. 
  "The Man Who Made Faces" by C. P. Howard (HorrorBabble 2024) 
  The tale of a man haunted by a past mistake. 
  "The God with Four Arms" by H. T. W. Bousfield (1939) 
  A man takes his frustrations out on a rare bronze idol. 
  "The Ebony Frame" by Edith Nesbit (Longman's 1891) 
  A beautiful and curiously carved picture frame. 
  "The Meerschaum Pipe" by L. A. Lewis (Tales of the Grotesque 1934) 
  A series of strange dreams and mysterious murders. 
  "The Black Stone Statue" by M. E. Counselman (Weird Tales 1937) 
  The story of a weird deception practised on the world by an obscure artist. 
  "Out of the Aeons" by H. P. Lovecraft (Weird Tales 1935) 
  A Boston museum that displays an ancient mummy recovered from a sunken island. 
  "The Mezzotint" by M. R. James (Ghost-Stories of an Antiquary 1904) 
  A strange engraving, with even stranger properties.

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  A Happy Man

  Anton Chekhov

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  "A Happy Man" is a very funny and satiric story that tells us that happiness is easy and everything is in our hands.
  The action happens in the passenger train. One man tries to find his carriage, opening doors and saying "No, wrong again!" every time he misses. But suddenly he hears his name "Ivan Alexyevitch! What brings you here? Is it you?" It was his good mate Pyotr Petrovitch. They start chatting and Pyotr Petrovitch finds out that Ivan Alexyevitch has been married that day and he is coming straight away after the wedding. He describes how happy he is, while his listeners are laughing because Ivan is drunk for a bit and acts really funny. Suddenly he recognizes that he missed not only a carriage, but the train itself! And he moves to Moscow, while his young wife moves to Saint-Petersburg. His happiness disappears and he needs to decide what to do next.

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