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  Bizeban - From their pens to...

  Moritz Jokai

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  Móric Jókay de Ásva was born on the 18th February 1825 in Komárom, then in the Kingdom of Hungary but now part of Slovakia.  
  Due to his timid and delicate constitution he was educated at home until the age of 10 and then sent away to complete his studies at the Calvinist college at Pápa. 
  At 12 his father died, and he was pushed to honour him by replicating his career as a lawyer.  He studied hard and completed the curriculum at Kecskemét and Pest.  He won his first case as a newly graduated lawyer. 
  But he found a career in law to be dull and, encouraged by the positive reaction to his first play, he moved to Pest in 1845.  There he published, first in a newspaper, and then as a novel ‘Hétköznapok’ (‘Working Days’).  It was acclaimed as a masterpiece.  To add to his promise he was appointed as the editor of Életképek, the leading Hungarian journal. 
  In 1848 he married the actress, Róza Laborfalvi.  That same year Europe was awash with revolutions and Jókai, a moderate Liberal, enthusiastically supported the nationalist cause and its decision to depose the Habsburg dynasty.  The attempt failed. 
  He was now classed as a political suspect and threw himself into his literary career, writing dozens of novels, many of them masterpieces, stories, essays and the like.  In total he wrote several hundred volumes, many of them in the local Magyar language which helped arrest its declining relevance in society.  
  By 1867 the political temperature had cooled, and he entered parliament as well as becoming the editor a government journal he had founded.   His skills were much admired and helped the government navigate through several difficult matters.   
  His wife died in 1886 but although grief-stricken he continued to work and to write.  
  In 1897 the king appointed him a member of the upper house.  Two years later he caused a minor scandal by marrying the young 20-year-old actress, Bella Nagy.  At the time he was 74.

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  The Phantom Rickshaw And Other...

  Rudyard Kipling

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  Rudyard Kipling’s The Phantom Rickshaw and Other Ghost Stories conjures colonial India’s spectral shadows to expose human vice and imperial hubris. In the titular tale, John Holderness, a British officer, is tormented by the vengeful ghost of Bessie Slane—a woman he abandoned—manifesting as an unstoppable phantom rickshaw, symbolizing guilt and moral rot. Stories like The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Noul trap characters in surreal horrors, while My Own True Ghost Story blends dark humor with existential dread. The Man Who Would Be King critiques imperial ambition through two adventurers’ doomed quest for power. Kipling’s evocative prose merges Gothic terror with sharp social critique, using the supernatural to mirror colonial fragility and the inescapable echoes of sin. This anthology hauntingly reveals how personal and imperial pasts linger as spectral judges of human folly.

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  Mr And Mrs Dove

  Katherine Mansfield

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  Mr. and Mrs. Dove is a 1921 short story by Katherine Mansfield. It was first published in The Sphere on 28 November 1921, and later reprinted in The Garden Party and Other Stories.
  Reginald is returning to Rhodesia the next day; it is his last day in England. Again he thinks of Anne; then he goes to Colonel Proctor's to say goodbye, and he is greeted by Anne, her parents being away. On seeing him she laughs, then he tells her he is leaving. They both look at her pet doves. She remarks how "Mr. Dove" is always running after "Mrs. Dove". Reginald asks her if she likes him, and she says she cannot marry him. He's unhappy at the rejection, and tries to depart. She asks why he's upset, but he persists in leaving. As he's walking away, she calls him again, and he goes back to her.

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  Beryl the Croucher and the Rest...

  Thomas Burke

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  Thomas Burke was born Sydney Thomas Burke on November 29th, 1886 in Eltham, London (at the time it was part of Kent). 
  An author in the early years of the 20th Century Burke brought his skills of pen and eye to parts of London, specifically the Limehouse district of the East End, to write with drive and vigour about the characters he met and the places that he knew.  Whether he turned that material into fiction or non-fiction the words seep quality.  His publications ranged from these wonderful vignettes of down-at-heel London to writings on homosexuality and the English Countryside. 
  Thomas Burke died in the Homeopathic Hospital in Queens Square, Bloomsbury on 22 September 1945.

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  Wapping Workhouse (Unabridged)

  Charles Dickens

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  Charles Dickens was a writer and social critic who created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity.
  WAPPING WORKHOUSE: My day's no-business beckoning me to the East-end of London, I had turned my face to that point of the metropolitan compass on leaving Covent-garden, and had got past the India House, thinking in my idle manner of Tippoo-Sahib and Charles Lamb, and had got past my little wooden midshipman.

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  Jane Eyre - Audiobook

  Charlotte Brontë, Classic...

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  Jane Eyre is a timeless novel by Charlotte Brontë that tells the story of an orphaned girl who rises above adversity to find her own voice and identity. From her harsh upbringing at Gateshead and the oppressive atmosphere of Lowood School, Jane emerges as a strong-willed and intelligent young woman determined to live with integrity and independence.Her journey takes a dramatic turn when she becomes the governess at Thornfield Hall, where she meets the enigmatic Mr. Rochester. Their deep and complicated relationship forms the heart of the novel, as Jane grapples with love, morality, and the struggle to remain true to herself in a world that seeks to silence her. Jane Eyre is a powerful exploration of passion, resilience, and the enduring quest for self-respect and freedom.

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