Altri libri che potrebbero interessarti

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  The Nose - Gogol uses the absurd...

  Nikolai Gogol

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  Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was born on 1st April 1809 to a father, descended from Ukrainian Cossacks and a mother with a military background in the Ukrainian town of Sorochyntsi, then part of the Russian Empire and rich in Cossack traditions and folklore.   
   
  His father wrote poetry and plays which the young Gogol helped stage at his uncle’s home theatre.  This helped ignite in him a love of literature and blossomed when he attended, what is now, the Nizhyn Gogol State University at the age of 12.  Here he participated in school theatre productions and refined his mastery of his native Ukrainian and also the Russian of his Imperial masters. 
   
  In 1828 he went to St Petersburg and unsuccessfully tried to begin a career as an actor after finding that with no money and no connections the civil service was barred to him. 
   
  Embezzling money from his mother he embarked on a trip to Germany. When the money ran out, he returned to St Petersburg but the experiences were used in a series of stories he contributed to periodicals.  These tales were steeped in his childhood memories of the Ukrainian landscape and peasantry enlivened with the supernatural of its folklore woven with realistic events of the day.  He wrote in Russian in a whimsical, colloquial style with a smattering of Ukrainian words and phrases that provided an authenticity.  Eight stories were published as ‘Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka’.  Seemingly all at once fame and fortune arrived. Gogol was hailed by his contemporaries, including Pushkin, as a pre-eminent writer of Russian literature.   
   
  His success continued with his brilliant plays ‘The Inspector General’ and the comedy ‘The Marriage for the Theatre’, both being highly acclaimed.   
   
  In 1834 he became Professor of Medieval History at the University of St. Petersburg but with little academic or teacher training, failed to adequately fulfil many of his duties and soon resigned this post.  With no obligations and using his earnings from his writing, which now included the impressionistic and immortal ‘Dead Souls’, Gogol travelled around Europe, spending the most time in Rome where he studied art, read Italian literature and developed a passion for opera.  
   
  In the 1840s Gogol became preoccupied with a need to purify his soul and embarked on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. In tandem he fell under the influence of a strict and austere spiritual ascetic who persuaded him to observe strict fasts that, allied with his depression and deteriorating health, contributed to his death on 21st April 1852 at the age of only 43. 
   
  In the Nose Gogol reaches out with the absurd premise that a Nose can have, and enjoy, a life of its own regardless of the complications and consequences to its former owner.

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  The Outcasts of Poker Flat

  Bret Harte

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  A snow-covered mountain pass in the Sierra Nevada. Four rugged figures—two men, two women—huddle around a dwindling campfire outside a rustic log cabin. One man (John Oakhurst) sits apart, looking solemn. The women are cloaked and shivering. Snow falls gently in the cold dawn light, and the mood is a mix of desolation and quiet dignity, evoking the harsh beauty of the Old West. 
  The Outcasts of Poker Flat by Bret Harte is a classic tale of fate, morality, and unexpected redemption set in the American Old West. First published in 1869, this emotionally resonant short story follows a group of gamblers, outlaws, and “improper” individuals who are banished from a California frontier town and forced to journey through a snowy wilderness. 
  Stranded by a brutal snowstorm in the Sierra Nevada mountains, the outcasts—including the infamous gambler John Oakhurst—must grapple with survival, prejudice, and their own humanity. As tensions rise and resources dwindle, moments of grace and selflessness emerge in the unlikeliest characters. 
  This full audiobook brings Harte’s vivid frontier storytelling to life with warm, dramatic narration. Combining humor, pathos, and a deeply American voice, The Outcasts of Poker Flat is a timeless story of compassion, judgment, and redemption in the harshest conditions.

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  A Society - From their pens to...

  Virginia Woolf

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  Adeline Virginia Woolf was born on the 25th January 1882 in South Kensington in London. 
  Although lauded as a founder of modernist writing with such classics as ‘Orlando’, ‘Mrs Dalloway’ and ‘To the Lighthouse’ and, of course, many classic short stories, her background is filled with elements of tragedy that she somehow overcame to become such a revered writer.   Her mother died when she was 13, her half-sister Stella two years later and with it her first of several nervous breakdowns.  Appallingly it was later found that three of her half-brothers had sexually abused her so darkness must have seemed ever present.   
  She began writing professionally at age 20 but her father’s death two years later brought a complete mental collapse and she was briefly institutionalised.  Somehow she found within herself a literary career and with it great innovations in writing; she was a pioneer of “stream of consciousness”.    
  Her tight circle of friends were the founders of the Bloomsbury Group, a movement whose legacy still influences across the arts and society in many way to this day.   
  Whilst the dark periods continued to interrupt her emotional state her rate of work never ceased.  Until, on 28th March 1941, Woolf put on her overcoat, filled up its pockets with stones, and walked into the River Ouse, in Lewes, East Sussex and drowned herself.  Her body was not recovered until the 18th April.  She was 59. 
  She left behind a note which read in part “Dearest, I feel certain that I am going mad again.  I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times.  And I shan't recover this time.  I begin to hear voices, and I can't concentrate.  So I am doing what seems the best thing to do”.

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  The Tell-Tale Heart and Other...

  Edgar Allan Poe

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  Dive into the chilling and captivating The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Stories, an enthralling audiobook collection that showcases the master of macabre, Edgar Allan Poe. This anthology features a selection of some of Poe's most iconic works, each brimming with psychological depth, suspense, and the eerie atmosphere that defines his writing. 
  Experience the haunting tale of The Tell-Tale Heart, where guilt and madness intertwine in the mind of an unreliable narrator. Unravel the mystery of The Purloined Letter, a detective story that showcases Poe's brilliance in crafting intricate plots. Journey through A Descent Into the Maelstrom, where the terror of nature and the human psyche collide, and delve into the curious case of The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, exploring the boundaries between life and death. 
  This collection also includes lesser-known gems like The Thousand and Second Tale of Scheherazade, Von Kempelen and His Discovery, Mesmeric Revelation, and The Black Cat, each bringing its own unique flavor of horror and intrigue. 
  Expertly narrated, this audiobook captures the essence of Poe's language and imagination, making it perfect for fans of gothic literature and anyone seeking a thrilling listening experience. 
  Start listening to The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Stories today and immerse yourself in the dark brilliance of Edgar Allan Poe!

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  Love Daddy

  Margot Scott

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  An ex-con with a secret can't resist his former cellmate's daughter. 
   
   
   
  I never claimed to be a saint. But it wasn't until I found myself in cuffs that I learned the damage I was capable of. The only sunshine on those gray prison days came in the form of letters from a hopeful teenager with a quick wit. 
   
   
   
  But the letters weren't addressed to me. They were meant for my bastard cellmate, who'd sooner toss them on the floor with the rest of his trash. So, I picked them up, read them, and wrote back, signing each letter, Love, Dad. 
   
   
   
  For four years, I kept up the lie, telling myself this girl deserved better than a deadbeat who won't even open her letters. But the truth is, she deserves better than both of us. 
   
   
   
  My first task as a free man is to walk into the salon where she works and admit that I'm a liar. But the pink-haired, tattooed bombshell who greets me is a far cry from the awkward teen I envisioned. 
   
   
   
  Gone are the braces, the pigtails, and picture-day smiles. Tatum Fitzroy is a grown woman with a body like a winding backroad and a dirty-girl lip bite that makes me wonder if coming clean is really worth the destruction. 
   
   
   
  Contains mature themes.

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  A Lesson on a Tortoise - From...

  D H Lawrence

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  David Herbert Lawrence was born on the 11th September 1885 in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, a coal mining town where the reality of a harsh life was only useful as experiences for future literary works. 
  He was educated at Beauvale Board School and became the first local boy to receive a scholarship to attend Nottingham High School. After 3 years he became a junior clerk in Haywood’s surgical appliances factory. He was also attempting a literary career which, in the short term, led to a teacher training position in Eastwood and later a teaching qualification from University College, Nottingham.  
  Lawrence’s first efforts were poems, short stories and a draft of ‘The White Peacock’. Moving to London and a teaching position in Croydon his writing attracted the attention of Ford Madox Ford, editor of The English Review, and he commissioned him to write ‘Odour of Chrysanthemums’.  
  Wanting to write full-time he now began work on what would become ‘Sons and Lovers.   
  In 1912 he met the older and married mother-of-three Frieda Weekley. They eloped to Germany and here Lawrence could see for himself the growing tensions with France.  So keen was his interest that he was arrested and accused of being a British spy.  
  In early 1914 Frieda obtained her divorce and they returned to Britain to be married just days before the outbreak of war. Owing to her German parentage, and his own public dislike of militarism and violence, the couple were treated with contempt and suspicion throughout the war years.  
  Despite this he continued to write but his reputation in England was so tarnished and, mirrored by his own disdain for the country, he and Frieda left England in November 1919, first for Europe and then America via Ceylon and Australia. 
  They bought a ranch in Taos, New Mexico and visited Mexico several times. The third visit in March 1925 caused a near fatal attack of malaria. To convalesce they moved to Florence. Here he continued work on ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ which for many years would cause controversy. A renewed interest in oil painting resulted in an exhibition in 1929 which was raided by the police and several works were confiscated.  
  D H Lawrence died of complications arising from a bout of tuberculosis on the 2nd of March 1930 in Vence, France.  He was 44.

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