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  Finest Story in the World The...

  Rudyard Kipling

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  "The Finest Story in the World" is an short story by Rudyard Kipling: This story was first published in the Contemporary Review of July 1891. It includes the poem "Song of the Galley-slaves".The narrator meets a young bank clerk, Charlie Mears, who longs to be a writer and seeks his advice. Charlie seems a commonplace and not particularly imaginative young man, but - partly written and partly in conversation - he produces strangely powerful accounts of sea voyages in the ancient world, by a Viking adventurer on a voyage to America, and by a Greek galley slave. He gives vivid details, including fragments of script which turn out to be corrupt Greek. The narrator becomes convinced that - rather than creating these stories - Charlie is remembering past lives, and that it is such recollections that feed the mysterious processes of creative 'imagination'. Another friend, a sophisticated Bengali, Grish Chunder, confirms that this must be the case, but warns that when Charlie falls in love the threads from the past will be broken. - This is exactly what happens. Charlie meets a young woman, expresses his love in banal conventional verses, and loses interest in his 'tales' of the past.

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  The Encantadas or Enchanted Isles

  Herman Melville

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  The Encantadas, or Enchanted Isles is a novella by American author Herman Melville. First published in Putnam's Magazine in 1854, it consists of ten philosophical "Sketches" on the Encantadas, or Galápagos Islands. It was collected in The Piazza Tales in 1856. The Encantadas was a success with the critics, and contained some of Melville's "most memorable prose".

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  La Dame aux Camélias

  Alexandre Dumas

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  Dumas’s novel became one of the great love stories from its first publication in 1848. The title role of the consumptive heroine and her ultimate sacrifice inspired actresses from Sarah Bernhardt to Greta Garbo, and led Giuseppe Verdi to write La traviata. In the hands of Nicholas Boulton, the story of passion and conflict is as fresh and moving as when it was first written.

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  About Truth Freedom and Love

  Anton Chekhov

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  This audio book features a trilogy of interlinked stories: "About Truth", "About Freedom", "About Love". Read in English, unabridged, and accompanied by orchestral music based on original compositions of Dvorak. In "About Love", Anton Chekhov explores the theme of love through the lens of unrequited love. The story centres around the character of Olga, who is in love with a man who does not return her affections. Chekhov uses Olga's unrequited love to examine the nature of love itself, and to question whether true love is possible if it is not reciprocated.

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  Mrs Dalloway

  Virginia Woolf

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  Mrs Dalloway is a novel by Virginia Woolf, published on 14 May 1925, that details a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, a fictional upper-class woman in post-First World War England. It is one of Woolf's best-known novels. 
   
  The working title of Mrs Dalloway was The Hours. The novel began as two short stories, "Mrs Dalloway in Bond Street" and the unfinished "The Prime Minister". The book describes Clarissa's preparations for a party she will host in the evening, and the ensuing party. With an interior perspective, the story travels forwards and backwards in time, to construct an image of Clarissa's life and of the inter-war social structure. The novel addresses the nature of time in personal experience through multiple interwoven stories. 
   
  In October 2005, Mrs Dalloway was included on TIME Magazine's list of the 100 best English-language novels written since its first issue in 1923. 
   
  Woolf began writing professionally in 1900. After her father's death in 1904, the Stephen family moved from Kensington to the more bohemian Bloomsbury, where, in conjunction with the brothers' intellectual friends, they formed the artistic and literary Bloomsbury Group. In 1912, she married Leonard Woolf, and in 1917, the couple founded the Hogarth Press, which published much of her work. They rented a home in Sussex and moved there permanently in 1940. Woolf had romantic relationships with women, including Vita Sackville-West, who also published her books through Hogarth Press. Both women's literature became inspired by their relationship, which lasted until Woolf's death. 
   
  A beautifully wrought audiobook exclusive treasure.

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  The Great Gatsby

  F. Scott Fitzgerald

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  Awful, rich people- and the folks who want to be just like them. 
   
  Drawing freely from the real people and actual events of its setting in 1920s Long Island (with literary license, of course), The Great Gatsby looks at the acquisition of the American Dream of wealth, power, and prestige, and what the costs are to those who realize that dream. And if that sounds a bit too highbrow for you, there are speakeasies, a broken nose, wild parties, and a bit of rough and tumble as well. 
   
  The Great Gatsby has made its way into the canon of required reading for many American high schools for its richness of symbolism, its mystery, and its beautiful prose. 

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