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  Belphagor - From their pens to...

  Niccolò Machiavelli

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  The bookshelves of European 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 Niccolò Machiavelli.

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  Inspiration An - From their pens...

  George Gissing

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  George Robert Gissing was born on November 22nd, 1857 in Wakefield, Yorkshire.  
  He was educated at Back Lane School in Wakefield. Gissing loved school. He was enthusiastic with a thirst for learning and always diligent.  By the age of ten he was reading Dickens, a lifelong hero. 
  In 1872 Gissing won a scholarship to Owens College. Whilst there Gissing worked hard but remained solitary. Unfortunately, he had run short of funds and stole from his fellow students. He was arrested, prosecuted, found guilty, expelled and sentenced to a month's hard labour in 1876. 
  On release he decided to start over.  In September 1876 he travelled to the United States. Here he wrote short stories for the Chicago Tribune and other newspapers. On his return home he was ready for novels. 
  Gissing self-published his first novel but it failed to sell.  His second was acquired but never published. His writing career was static.  Something had to change.  And it did. 
  By 1884 The Unclassed was published.  Now everything he wrote was published. Both Isabel Claren-don and Demos appeared in 1886. He mined the lives of the working class as diligently as any capitalist. 
  In 1889 Gissing used the proceeds from the sale of The Nether World to go to Italy. This trip formed the basis for his 1890 work The Emancipated. 
  Gissing's works began to command higher payments. New Grub Street (1891) brought a fee of £250.  
  Short stories followed and in 1895, three novellas were published; Eve's Ransom, The Paying Guest and Sleeping Fires. Gissing was careful to keep up with the changing attitudes of his audience.  
  Unfortunately, he was also diagnosed as suffering from emphysema. The last years of his life were spent as a semi-invalid in France but he continued to write. 1899; The Crown of Life. Our Friend the Charlatan appeared in 1901, followed two years later by The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft. 
  George Robert Gissing died aged 46 on December 28th, 1903 after catching a chill on a winter walk.

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  Bodega Botanica Tales: Jose -...

  Maria Rodriguez Bross

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  Eleven-year-old Jose has always felt invisible, but when a mysterious green-and-yellow bracelet from the local bodega man leads him to a magical world with the power to grant one wish, he must live with the consequences of whether this newfound chance will bring future happiness—or regret. 
  This clean, enchanting short story is the first in a six-part series, each book standing alone as a unique tale of magic, childhood trauma, resilience, and the challenges of growing up. Perfect for teenagers and adults alike, this multicultural coming-of-age journey explores the power of wishes and the prices we pay for them. 
  Look for the next five captivating installments, all set to be published in 2025.

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  The Tree

  H. P. Lovecraft

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  Title: The Tree 
  Author: H. P. Lovecraft 
  Narrator: Jonathan Dunne 
  Original Publication: 1921 
  Public Domain: Yes 
  Series Placement: Number 33 in the Timeless Terrors series 
  Description: 
  The Tree by H. P. Lovecraft is a haunting parable of art, envy, and the quiet vengeance of nature — a story where beauty and death grow from the same root. Set in ancient Greece, it tells of two sculptors, Musides and Kalos, whose friendship and creative genius draw the admiration of all who know them. Yet when jealousy, death, and strange growths intertwine, the boundaries between art and decay dissolve into something both poetic and terrible. 
  Lovecraft’s tale departs from his usual cosmic scale to reveal horror in the natural and the human — a mythic meditation on pride, mortality, and the price of creative rivalry. Beneath its serene surface lies a creeping inevitability, where the living and the dead are bound by the same relentless cycle. 
  Narrated by horror author Jonathan Dunne, this performance evokes the story’s classical rhythm and tragic atmosphere — the stillness of marble, the whisper of leaves, and the final, inescapable judgment of the earth itself. 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 dedicated to resurrecting the great voices of the uncanny, The Tree stands as a tale of eerie beauty and timeless punishment — where the roots of envy reach far deeper than the grave. 
  Prepare for a story carved in stone and shadow, where art becomes epitaph and the living are outlasted by what they create.

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  Two Tales From Oscar Wilde

  Oscar Wilde

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  Oscar Wilde (October 16, 1854 - November 30, 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is best remembered for his epigrams, plays, short stories, and his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. The following includes the pieces "Poems In Prose" and "The Star Child."

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  Top 10 Short Stories The - The...

  Charles Dickens

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  Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart.  A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere. 
   
  In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?  
   
  The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme.  Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature. 
   
  Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made.  If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something. 
   
  In this volume words sparkle and dance with a verve and purpose that other literary talents quite simple do not possess.  Known principally for their novels the short story in their hands is fresh, compelling; a world of wonders.  Genius is written with their names. 
   
  01 - The Top 10 - The Classic Novelists - The Men 
  2 - The Signalman by Charles Dickens 
  3 - Araby by James Joyce 
  4 - The Crocodile. An Extraordinary Incident - Part 1 by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 
  5 - The Crocodile. An Extraordinary Incident - Part 2 by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 
  6 - Winter Dreams by F Scott Fitzgerald 
  7 - Markheim by Robert Louis Stevenson 
  8 - Bartleby the Scrivener - Part 1 by Herman Melville 
  9 - Bartleby the Scrivener - Part 2 by Herman Melville 
  10 - How Much Land Does A Man Need by Leo Tolstoy 
  11 - Malachi's Cove by Anthony Trollope 
  12 - The Million Pound Bank Note by Mark Twain 
  13 - The Matador of the Five Towns - Part 1 by Arnold Bennett 
  14 - The Matador of the Five Towns - Part 2 by Arnold Bennett

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