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  The Diary of A Plain Girl - A...

  Amy Levy

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  Amy Levy was born in London, England in 1861, the second of seven in a fairly wealthy Anglo-Jewish family. The children of the family read and participated in secular literary activities becoming firmly integrated into Victorian life. 
   
  Amy was educated at Brighton High School, Brighton, and studied at Newnham College, Cambridge; she was the first Jewish student when she arrived in 1879, but left after four terms. 
   
  But her writing career was to begin early; her poem "Ida Grey" appearing when she was only fourteen. Her stories "Cohen of Trinity" and "Wise in Their Generation," were published by Oscar Wilde in his magazine “Women's World," and are considered among her best. 
   
  Her first novel Romance of a Shop, written in 1888 is based on four sisters who experience the pleasures and hardships of running a business in London during the 1880s. This was followed by Reuben Sachs (also 1888) and concerned with Jewish identity and mores in the England of her time and therefore somewhat controversial); 
   
  Her other writings reveal feminist concerns; Xantippe and Other Verses, from 1881 includes a poem in the voice of Socrates's wife; the volume A Minor Poet and Other Verse from 1884 has dramatic monologues and lyric poems. 
   
  In 1886, Levy began a series of essays on Jewish culture and literature for the Jewish Chronicle, including The Ghetto at Florence, The Jew in Fiction, Jewish Humour and Jewish Children. 
   
  That same year while travelling in Florence she met writer Vernon Lee. It is generally assumed they fell in love and this inspired the poem ‘To Vernon Lee’. 
   
  Her final book of poems, A London Plane-Tree from 1889, shows the beginnings of the influence of French symbolism. 
   
  Despite many friendships and active life, Amy had suffered for a long time with major depression and this, together with her growing deafness, led her to commit suicide by inhaling carbon monoxide on September 10, 1889, at the age of twenty-seven

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  The Black Tulip

  Alexandre Dumas

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  "The Black Tulip" is a historical novel and a work of Romantic poetry written by Alexandre Dumas, père, first published in 1850. The story unfolds in 1672 during the time of tulip mania in the Netherlands. Dumas' last major historical novel is a tale of romantic love, jealousy and obsession, interweaving historical events surrounding the brutal murders of two Dutch statesman in 1672 with the phenomenon of tulipomania that gripped seventeenth-century Holland.

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  A Complete Recovery - From their...

  Barry Pain

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  Barry Eric Odell Pain was born at 3 Sydney Street in Cambridge on 28th September 1864. He was one of 4 children. 
  He was educated at Sedbergh School and then Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. 
  In 1889, Cornhill Magazine published his short story ‘The Hundred Gates’.  This opened the way for Pain to advance his literary career on several fronts. He became a contributor to Punch and The Speaker, as well as joining the staff of both the Daily Chronicle and Black and White.  
  Pain was also a noted and prominent contributor to The Granta and from 1896 to 1928 a regular contributor to the Windsor Magazine. 
  It is often said that Pain was discovered by Robert Louis Stevenson, who compared his work to that of Guy de Maupassant.  It’s an apt comparison. Pain was a master of disturbing prose but was also able to inject parody and light comedy into many of his works.  A simple premise could in his hands suddenly expand into a world very real but somehow emotionally fraught and on the very edge of darkness. 
  Barry Pain died on 5th May 1928 in Bushey, Hertfordshire.

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  The Alchemist

  HP Lovecraft

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  Title: The Alchemist 
  Author: H. P. Lovecraft 
  Narrator: Jonathan Dunne 
  Original Publication: 1908 
  Public Domain: Yes 
  Series Placement: Number 36 in the Timeless Terrors series 
  Description: 
  The Alchemist by H. P. Lovecraft is a tale of vengeance, decay, and the relentless hand of destiny. In a crumbling French château, generations of an ancient noble family are doomed to die before reaching their thirty-second year — victims, it seems, of a centuries-old curse. As the last heir wanders through the ruins of his lineage, he uncovers the truth behind the curse — and the grim figure who has carried it through time. 
  Written when Lovecraft was just seventeen, The Alchemist reveals the early foundations of his fascination with ancestral guilt and cosmic inevitability. The story’s gothic atmosphere, shadowed corridors, and sense of doomed inheritance foreshadow the cosmic horror that would later define his work. 
  Narrated by Amazon bestselling horror author Jonathan Dunne, this performance captures Lovecraft’s blend of decay and dread — the echo of old oaths, the dust of forgotten laboratories, and the whisper of a fate that will not be denied. While the text itself is in the public domain, this narration is an original performance and copyright © 2025 Jonathan Dunne. 
  Part of Timeless Terrors, a series devoted to resurrecting the masters of the macabre, The Alchemist endures as a reminder that even youth’s first nightmares can echo through eternity — and that some legacies are written not in ink, but in blood and time.

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  Germinal

  Emile Zola

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  'There is a germ of revolt in every injustice.'
  
  Part of Zola's ambitious twenty-volume series Les Rougon-Macquart, Germinal is one of the most notable novels written in the French tradition and is often considered Zola's masterpiece.
  
  First serialised in the periodical Gil Blas in 1884, Germinal is a profoundly gripping novel that explores the harsh realities of industrial life in nineteenth century France. When Étienne Lantier arrives in the town of Montsou in search for work, he is confronted by the brutal conditions endured by the coal miners: gruelling shifts, meagre wages and backbreaking labour. As Étienne immerses himself in the community, he takes it upon himself to become a voice for the labourers and a leader in their fight for justice. As tensions rise and a minor's strike begins to brew, Zola candidly depicts a devastating spiral into violence and despair. Through vivid characters and uncompromising realism, Zola movingly captures the human cost of capitalism with a blossoming hope for revolution. This audiobook edition is beautifully narrated by David Rintoul.
  Émile Zola (1840 – 1902) was a French novelist, playwright and journalist. He was also a keen adopter of naturalism, famed for his realistic depictions of characters and their environments. Nominated for the first and second Nobel Prizes in Literature in 1901 and 1902, Zola's work is still widely read and respected today.

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  Bernard Capes - A Short Story...

  Bernard Capes

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  Bernard Edward Joseph Capes was born on the 30th August 1854 in London.  He was one of 11 children. 
   
  His early work was as a journalist and this developed into writing many short stories for the periodicals of the time including Blackwood's, Cassell's, Cornhill Magazine, Illustrated London News, Macmillan's Magazine, Mall Magazine, Pearson's Magazine, The Idler, and The Queen. 
   
  It took him many years to decide that writing full-time could be a sustainable career path.  His initial success came with ‘The Mill of Silence’.  As well as being published it garnered second prize at a competition sponsored by the Chicago Record.  He exceeded that by winning it the following year with ‘The Lake of Wine’.   
   
  Capes quickly became both prolific and popular.  As well as his stories and articles for the periodicals he wrote around 40 volumes across novels, poetry, history as well as romance and mystery novels. 
   
  Bernard Capes died on 2nd November 1918 in the flu epidemic. 
   
  1 - Bernard Capes - A Short Story Collection - An Introduction 
  2 - A Danse Macabre by Bernard Capes 
  3 - A Voice From The Pit by Bernard Capes 
  4 - Bullet-Proof by Bernard Capes 
  5 - The Strength of the Rope by Bernard Capes 
  6 - The Thing in the Forest by Bernard Capes 
  7 - An Ugly Customer by Bernard Capes 
  8 - Dark Dignum by Bernard Capes 
  9 - The Voice by Bernard Capes

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