Altri libri che potrebbero interessarti

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  Christmas Every Day - From their...

  William Dean Howells

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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 William Dean Howells.

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  Wicked Captain Walshawe of Wauling

  Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

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  "He was a man who feared neither God nor Devil, but he feared a life without gold even more."
  
  Captain Walshawe is a man of legendary cruelty and even greater debt. Living in the decaying Wauling Manor, he views his pious and suffering wife not as a companion, but as a financial obstacle. When she dies, the Captain's avarice leads him to commit a chilling act of spiritual sacrilege involving a "soul candle"—a ritual intended to secure her fortune for himself, regardless of the cost to her eternal rest. But as the shadows lengthen in the drafty halls of Wauling, the Captain discovers that some bargains cannot be undone, and the spirit he thought he had extinguished is far from gone.
  
  The Horror of Character: Unlike many Gothic tales that rely on external monsters, the primary horror here is Captain Walshawe himself. Le Fanu paints a portrait of a man so consumed by selfishness that he becomes more frightening than the specters that haunt him. His "wickedness" is a tangible force that stains the very walls of his home.
  
  The Symbolic "Soul-Candle": Le Fanu utilizes a unique and terrifying supernatural device in this story—the candle that represents the life or soul of the deceased. This element introduces a tactile, ticking-clock tension to the haunting, as the Captain's fate becomes literally tied to a flickering flame in the dark.
  
  A Masterclass in the Uncanny: The haunting of Wauling is subtle and psychological. It manifests in the sound of a silk dress brushing against a door, the smell of a guttering candle, and the oppressive feeling of a presence that refuses to leave. It is Le Fanu at his most focused, proving that the most terrifying ghosts are those created by our own transgressions.
  
  The Inevitability of Justice: As with much of Le Fanu's work, the story serves as a grim reminder that one cannot cheat the afterlife. The Captain's attempt to manipulate the spiritual world for material gain results in a haunting that is both a punishment and a mirror of his own moral vacuum.
  
  Face the darkness of Wauling. Purchase this classic of psychological horror today.

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  This is the End

  Stella Benson

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  It is the story of a Family halfheartedly searching for a missing relation who does not want to be found, while just off-stage, World War I is raging on the continent. It is a story about ordinary people trying to live ordinary lives in extraordinary times. The things they do are less important than the ways in which they do them: often comic, occasionally tragic, but always touching and true to life. It reminds us that Poetry and Romance can be found anywhere, hidden beneath the surface of the most commonplace things.

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  Ligeia

  Edgar Allan Poe

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  "Ligeia" is an early short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1838. The story follows an unnamed narrator and his wife Ligeia, a beautiful and intelligent raven-haired woman. She falls ill, composes "The Conqueror Worm", and quotes lines attributed to Joseph Glanvill (which suggest that life is sustainable only through willpower) shortly before dying.
  After her death, the narrator marries the Lady Rowena. Rowena becomes ill, and she dies as well. The distraught narrator stays with her body overnight and watches as Rowena slowly comes back from the dead – though she has transformed into Ligeia. The story may be the narrator's opium-induced hallucination, and there is debate whether the story was a satire. After the story's first publication in The American Museum, it was heavily revised and reprinted throughout Poe's life.
  The story is told by an unnamed narrator who describes the qualities of Ligeia: a beautiful, passionate and intellectual woman, raven-haired and dark-eyed. He thinks he remembers meeting her "in some large, old decaying city near the Rhine." He is unable to recall anything about the history of Ligeia, including her family's name, but remembers her beautiful appearance.

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  The House of Mirth

  Edith Wharton

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  "The House of Mirth" is one of Edith Wharton's most critically acclaimed novels, shedding light on the opulent and superficial high society of New York in the Gilded Age. It follows the life and struggles of Lily Bart, a beautiful and intelligent woman of the upper class, as she navigates societal expectations, relationships, and her own aspirations in a world where appearances matter more than one's character. The novel presents a satirical and tragic look at the constraints placed upon women in the 19th and early 20th centuries and is a poignant critique of wealth and class.

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  At Christmas Time - From their...

  Anton Chekhov

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  Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born on 29th January 1860 in Taganrog, on the south coast of Russia.  
  His family life was difficult; his father was strict and over-bearing but his mother was a passionate story-teller, a subject Chekhov warmed to. As he later said; ‘our talents we got from our father, but our soul from our mother’.  
  At school Chekhov was distinctly average. At 16 his father mis-managed his finances and was declared bankrupt. His family fled to Moscow. Chekhov remained and eked out a living by various means, including writing and selling short sketches to newspapers, to finish his schooling. That completed and with a scholarship to Moscow University obtained he rejoined his family. 
  He was able to help support them by selling satirical sketches and vignettes of Russian lifestyles and gradually obtained further commissions. In 1884, he qualified as a physician and, although it earned him little, he often treated the poor for free, he was fond of saying ‘Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress.’ 
  His own health was now an issue as he began to cough up blood, a symptom of tuberculosis.  Despite this his writing success enabled him to move the family into more comfortable accommodation.  
  Chekhov wrote over 500 short stories which included many, many classics including ‘The Kiss’ and ‘The Lady with a Dog’.  His collection ‘At Dusk’ won him the coveted Pushkin Prize when was only 26.  
  He was also a major playwright beginning with the huge success of ‘Ivanov’ in 1887.   
  In 1892 Chekhov bought a country estate north of Moscow. Here his medical skills and money helped the peasants tackle outbreaks of cholera and bouts of famine. He also built three schools, a fire station and a clinic.  It left him with less time for writing but the interactions with real people gained him detailed knowledge about the peasantry and their living conditions for his stories.  
  His most famous work, ‘The Seagull’ was received disastrously at its premiere in St Petersburg. It was later restaged in Moscow to highlight its psychological aspects and was a huge success. It led to ‘Uncle Vanya’, ‘The Three Sisters’ and ‘The Cherry Orchard’.  
  Chekhov suffered a major lung hemorrhage in 1897 while visiting Moscow. A formal diagnosis confirmed tuberculosis and the doctors ordered changes to his lifestyle.  
  Despite a dread of weddings the elusive literary bachelor quietly married the actress Olga Knipper, whom he had met at rehearsals for ‘The Seagull’, on 25th May 1901. 
  By May 1904 with his tuberculosis worsening and death imminent he set off for the German town of Badenweiler writing cheerful, witty letters to his family and assuring them his health was improving.  
  On 15th July 1904 Anton Chekhov died at Badenweiler.  He was 44.

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