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  Young Man on a Bicycle and The...

  Victor Canning

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  Victor Canning’s light-hearted and cleverly plotted novella set on the beautiful French Riviera 
   
  Young Paul Ashcroft has travelled to the beautiful French Riviera. His goal: to make a lot of money. His methods: more than questionable. Following his motto ‘the world owes me a living’, he steals and swindles – using what he needs for himself and passing on the rest to those less fortunate. 
   
  After coming across the beautiful Villa Triton, he disguises himself as M. Durobat, a middle-aged Frenchman, to inspect the villa and to pawn the owner’s ornaments and paintings. At the local Casino, he becomes acquainted with the rich ladies of the resort. As he steals their jewellery, he blames the robberies on 'Gringo the Greek', a small crook he knew a long time ago.  
   
  But just as Paul's schemes and tricks start to be fruitful and he falls in love with the intriguing Elise Benoit, the real Gringo the Greek appears on the scene, ready to take on the cunning thief who has been blaming him all this time… 
  Praise for Victor Canning: 
   
  ‘Quite delightful … with an atmosphere of quiet contentment and humour that cannot fail to charm’ Daily Telegraph 
   
  ‘What counts for most in the story … is his mounting pleasure in vagabondage and the English scene’ The Times 
   
  ‘A paean to the beauties of the English countryside and the lovable oddities of the English character’ New York Times 
   
  ‘His delight at the beauties of the countryside and his mild astonishment at the strange ways of men are infectious’ Daily Telegraph 
   
  ‘A swift-moving novel, joyous, happy and incurably optimistic’ Evening Standard

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  An Outcast of the Islands

  Anonyme

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  A man disgraced. A chance for escape. A temptation that destroys what little he has left.
  After a scandal ends his career, Peter Willems seeks refuge in a remote trading outpost deep in the Eastern archipelago. But when passion and ambition collide, he becomes entangled in betrayal—of friends, of trust, and of the very people who offered him a second chance. As lies tighten around him, Willems spirals into a darkness of his own making.
  
  Praised as "a haunting early masterpiece by Conrad," this novel explores isolation, corruption, and the fragile line between weakness and wickedness. Its lush atmosphere and psychological depth make it a gripping study of human fallibility.
  
  If you enjoy intense moral drama, exotic settings, and stories where character becomes destiny, this classic will stay with you long after the final page.
  
  Open the book—and witness the downfall of a man who cannot escape himself.

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  The Phantom of the Opera

  Gaston Leroux

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  "The Opera Ghost really existed. He was not, as was long believed, a creature of the imagination."
  
  Beneath the gilded splendor of the Paris Opera House lies a labyrinth of dark corridors and a vast, subterranean lake. Here dwells Erik—the "Opera Ghost"—a masked musical genius with a face so hideous he is forced to live in the shadows. His obsession with the beautiful young soprano Christine Daaé leads him to manipulate the theater's managers, terrorize the cast, and eventually kidnap his "Angel of Music." Far more terrifying and complex than the adaptations suggest, Leroux's novel is a gripping journalistic-style investigation into a man who was both a monster and a misunderstood artist.
  
  A Masterclass in Gothic Atmosphere: Leroux, a former investigative reporter, presents the story as a "true" account, utilizing letters, testimonies, and architectural history. This grounded approach makes the supernatural elements—the falling chandelier, the voice through the walls, and the "Red Death" at the masquerade—feel hauntingly real. The Palais Garnier itself becomes a character, its opulence masking a hollow, decaying heart.
  
  The Beauty and the Beast of Paris: While the romance between Christine and the Vicomte de Chagny provides the emotional stakes, the true soul of the book is Erik. Leroux explores the tragedy of a man gifted with divine talent but cursed by nature, trapped in a cycle of cruelty and a desperate hunger for love. It is a chilling exploration of how isolation can warp the mind into something truly predatory.
  
  Unmask the legend. Purchase "The Phantom of the Opera" today and go deeper into the darkness than ever before.

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  Aloysha the Pot - From their...

  Leo Tolstoy

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  Leo Tolstoy was born in 1828 in the Russian province of Tula to a wealthy noble family. As a child, he had private tutors but he showed little interest in any formal education. When he went to the University of Kazan in 1843 to study oriental languages and law, he left without completing his courses.  Life now was relaxed and idle but with some writing also taking place.  Gambling debts forced an abrupt change of path and he joined the army to fight in the Crimean War.  He was commended for his bravery and promoted but was appalled at the brutality and loss of life.  He recorded these and other earlier experiences in his diaries which formed the basis of several of his works. 
  In 1852 ‘Childhood’ was published to immediate success and was followed by ‘Boyhood’ and ‘Youth’. 
  His experience in the army and the horrors he witnessed resulted in ‘The Cossacks’ in 1862 and the trilogy ‘Sevastopol Tales’. After the war he travelled around Europe, visiting London and Paris and meeting such luminaries as Victor Hugo and Charles Darwin.  
  It was now that Tolstoy began his masterpiece, ‘War and Peace’. Published in 1869 it was an epic work that changed literature. He quickly followed this with ‘Anna Karenina’.  
  These successes made Tolstoy rich and helped him accomplish many of his dreams but also brought problems as he grappled with his faith and the lot of the oppressed poor. These revolutionary views became so popular that the authorities now kept him under surveillance.  
  He led a life of asceticism and vegetarianism and put his socialist ideals into practice by establishing numerous schools for the poor and food programmes. He also believed in giving away his wealth, which caused much discord with his wife.  
  His writing continued to bring forth classics such as ‘The Death of Ivan Ilyich’ and many brilliant and incisive short stories such as ‘How Much Land Does A Man Need’.  
  In 1901 Tolstoy was excommunicated from the Church and controversially deselected for the Nobel Prize for Literature. 
  Whilst undertaking a pilgrimage by train in October 1910 with his daughter Aleksandra he caught pneumonia in the nearby town of Astapovo.  Leo Tolstoy died on November 9th, 1910, he was 82.

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  The Grammar of Love Nobel Prize...

  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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  The Advanced Lady

  Mansfield Katherine

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  The Advanced Lady is a short story by Katherine Mansfield: “Do you think we might ask her to come with us,” said Fräulein Elsa, retying her pink sash ribbon before my mirror. “You know, although she is so intellectual, I cannot help feeling convinced that she has some secret sorrow. And Lisa told me this morning, as she was turning out my room, that she remains hours and hours by herself, writing; in fact Lisa says she is writing a book! I suppose that is why she never cares to mingle with us, and has so little time for her husband and the child.”

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