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  A Scene from the Ghetto of...

  Rainer Maria Rilke

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  René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke was born into a troubled marriage on the 4th December 1875 in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  His mother, having previously lost a baby girl, would dress the young boy up in girl’s clothing.   
  Later his father dispatched him to a military academy at age 10 but after a miserable 5 years the young Rilke left due to illness and instead entered first Prague and then Munich and finally Berlin university to study art history, philosophy and literature. 
  His initial forays into literature was in poetry.  His intense, mystical and lyrical style was much admired and over time inspired many in succeeding generations.    
  His short prose collection ‘Stories of God’, written in an impassioned burst over several nights was published in 1900 and offers a beguiling view of much of Rilke’s influences and outlook.  
  The following year he married the pioneering sculptor and artist Clara Westhoff.  The union produced one child, a daughter Ruth.   
  He lived in Paris for most of the Century’s first decade where he mixed with many great minds of the time.  Although he continued to write he also worked as a secretary to the sculptor, Rodin.   
  It was only after they settled in Switzerland in 1919 that his writing output was in full flow.  Here he wrote profusely in both German and French, which included much on his previous travels, his left-wing sympathies, his religious and existential thoughts, all part of a unique and consummate style. 
  From 1923 on, Rilke increasingly struggled with his health which was now in constant decline and often spent time rehabilitating at a sanatorium.   
  Rainer Maria Rilke died of leukaemia on the 29th December 1926 in Montreux, Switzerland.  He was 51.

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  Tono-Bungay

  H. G. Wells

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  First published in 1909, Tono-Bungay is one of H.G. Wells’s most striking novels, blending sharp social critique with personal reflection. It tells the story of George Ponderevo, a scientifically minded young man who becomes entangled in the world of speculative business through his uncle’s fraudulent patent medicine, Tono-Bungay. Through George’s journey—from an obscure provincial upbringing to the heights of financial success and eventual disillusionment—Wells offers a biting satire of Edwardian capitalism, class mobility, and the moral compromises of ambition. 
  While Tono-Bungay is often read as a critique of reckless entrepreneurship, it is also a deeply personal work, reflecting Wells’s own concerns about progress, empire, and the fleeting nature of wealth. The novel captures the tension between scientific idealism and the chaotic forces of commerce, making it as relevant today as it was over a century ago. 
  At once humorous and tragic, sweeping and intimate, Tono-Bungay remains one of Wells’s finest literary achievements—a novel that continues to provoke thought about the nature of success and the price of modernity.

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  The Open Boat

  Stephen Crane

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  After battling the tempestuous sea, four men in a boat finally spy land. But will the process of getting to the land be their undoing? Based upon Crane’s experience of surviving a shipwreck when traveling to Cuba, The Open Boat is an excellent example of literary Naturalism. H.G. Wells considered it “the crown of all [Crane’s] work”.

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  Gooseberries

  Anton Chekhov

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  In Anton Chekhov’s haunting short story Gooseberries, a rain-soaked evening in the Russian countryside becomes the backdrop for a quietly devastating tale of comfort, delusion, and moral awakening. As Ivan Ivanovitch and his companion seek shelter in a landowner’s estate, a simple conversation unfolds into a powerful monologue about happiness, privilege, and the unseen suffering that underpins contentment. 
  Chekhov masterfully juxtaposes the rustic idyll of country life with a piercing reflection on the ethics of retreating from the world’s troubles. With its melancholic beauty, quiet irony, and philosophical weight, Gooseberries is a profound meditation on the illusion of peace and the price of personal fulfillment. Narrated with eloquent sensitivity by Ian Turrell, this classic resonates more deeply than ever in an age still divided between comfort and conscience.

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  Cambridge - The Dark Masters -...

  M R James, E F Benson, Arthur Gray

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  Cambridge University is esteemed as one of the great learning centres of the world, and has been for many centuries. 
   
  Whatever its gravitas as a seat of learning it should come as no surprise that Cambridge has a malevolent and dark side.  Within the ranks of its Academics and Alumni lurk the strange minds who have created despicable stories with heinous characters. 
   
  M R James, E F Benson, Christopher Blayre and E G Swain are but a few of these transgressors who have lurked within its glittering yet tortured walls. 
   
  1 - Cambridge - The Dark Masters - A Short Story Collection - An Introduction 
  2 - Oh Whistle and I'll Come to You My Lad by M R James 
  3 - Mrs Amworth by E F Benson 
  4 - The Man With The Roller by E G Swain 
  5 - The Necromancer by Arthur Gray 
  6 - The Closed Window by A C Benson 
  7 - A Collector's Company by R H Malden 
  8 - The Thing That Smelt by Christopher Blayre

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  Model Millionaire The (Unabridged)

  Oscar Wilde

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  "The Model Millionaire" First published in The World in June 1887. Hughie Erskine is in love and wants to marry, but the girl's father will not allow it, since Erskine has no money. Erskine's friend Alan Trevor is a painter, and he visits him at his studio one day to find him with a pitiable beggar-the model for his painting. Erskine only has one coin, on which he depends for transportation, but he decides he can walk for a couple of weeks and gives the beggar the coin.

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