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  The Crock of Gold

  James Stephens

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  One of the great novels in the Irish comic tradition, The Crock of Gold (1912) consists of six parts. Bringing together pagan gods, policemen, prisoners, leprechauns and animals, the narrative concerns a philosopher and his quest to find the most beautiful woman in the world, Cáitilin Ni Murrachu, who has been abducted by the god Pan. His journey takes him from dark forests to the spectacular heights of pagan gods, as he experiences encounters that will change him forever.With its unique combination of philosophy and Irish folklore, The Crock of Gold is full of humour, its central themes including the battle of the sexes and the difference between men and women.

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  In the Wilds of Florida

  W. H. G. Kingston

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  A turn-of-the-century book, In the Wilds of Florida is a tale of an Irish schoolboy who leaves school and his struggling family in Ireland to come to America. He experiences a Florida where fighting still erupts between Cherokee and Seminole Indians, where white people are under threat of Indian attack, and the landscape is mostly swamp or plains of dense brush.

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  The Oval Portrait

  Edgar Allan Poe

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  "The Oval Portrait" is a horror short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, involving the disturbing circumstances of a portrait in a château. It is one of his shortest stories, filling only two pages in its initial publication in 1842.
  The tale begins with an injured narrator (the story offers no further explanation of his impairment) seeking refuge in an abandoned mansion in the Apennines. The narrator spends his time admiring the paintings that decorate the strangely shaped room and reading through a reference book, found on a pillow, that describes them.

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  The Daughter of Pontius Pilate -...

  Ivan Vazov

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  Ivan Minchov Vazov was born on the 9th July 1850 (although that date is disputed) in the town of Sopot, in Bulgaria, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire.  
   
  After primary education at the local school he was sent to Kalofer to continue his studies and work as an assistant teacher.  He later spent a short time in Plodiv where he began to write poetry. 
   
  Fascinated by literature he abandoned work as an apprentice to move to Brăila, in Romania, where he lived with exiled revolutionaries and befriended the poet Hristo Botev. 
   
  By 1874, he had joined the struggle for independence from the Ottomans and returned to Sopot. After the failure of the 1876 uprising he had to flee the country, going back to Galaţi, in Romania, where most of the surviving revolutionaries were exiled. There he was appointed a secretary of the committee. 
   
  In 1876 he published his first work, ‘Priaporetz and Gusla’, followed by ‘Bulgaria's Sorrows’ in 1877. 
   
  Bulgaria regained its independence in 1878 as a result of the Russo-Turkish War and Vazov wrote the famous ‘Epic of the Forgotten’.  He now became the editor of the political reviews Science and Dawn.  
   
  Exile was forced upon him once again due to the persecution of the Russophile political faction. Later he returned to Bulgaria with his mother’s help, and started teaching and then became a civil servant. 
   
  He moved to Sofia in 1889 where he started publishing the review Dennitsa. 
   
  His 1888 novel ‘Under the Yoke’, depicting Ottoman oppression, is his most famous work and has been translated into over 30 languages. 
   
  During his life he became a prominent and widely respected figure in the social and cultural life of Bulgaria.  
   
  In 1917, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature. 
   
  Ivan Vazov died on September 22nd, 1921.  He was 71.

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  American Notes - For General...

  Charles Dickens

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  In January of 1842, Charles Dickens and his wife, Kate, traveled from Liverpool to Boston. At the time, Dickens had already attained a tremendous level of literary success and fame, and the author hoped his travels would help him gain insight into the New World that had captivated the English imagination. Over the ensuing 6 months, Dickens explored the East Coast and Great Lakes regions of the United States and Canada, observing life on the opposite side of the Atlantic from a distinctly British viewpoint. By turns humorous, critical, witty, and incisive, this travelogue is a unique and keen look at 19th-century North America.

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  Devereux's Last Smoke - From...

  Izola Forrester

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  The bookshelves of American literature are incredible collections that have gathered together centuries of very talented authors.  From this continent their fame spread and whilst among their number many are now forgotten or neglected their talents endure.  Among them is Izola Forrester.

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