Other books that might interest you

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  Boots

  Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

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  Classic short story about a man who wakes up to find his shoes missing.

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  Behind the Wall - From their...

  Violet Jacob

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  The bookshelves of British literature are incredible collections that have gathered together centuries of very talented authors.  From these Isles their fame spread and whilst among their number many are now forgotten or neglected their talents endure.  Among them is Violet Jacob.

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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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  The Mantle

  Nikolai Gogol

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  With his sense of humor and ability to observe, Nikolai Gogol presents the world with stories of little people: the weak and fragile people who try to hold on to life in the gloomy cities of Russia. "The Mantle", which is listed among his masterpieces, describes how Russian bureaucracy turns everyone into a ghost of each other. It tells the tragicomic story of a poor low-ranking official named Akakiy Akakiyevich Bashmachkin, a faint character living on the margins of society who spends all his time diligently copying documents. Drawn into bureaucratic mechanisms of modern life, humiliated, and despised, hе finds solace in his fondest dream: a mantle that will protect him from the cold in the winter. This humble dream, however, will cost him way too much and will turn his life upside down...Adapted into a variety of stage and film interpretations, the story is a major milestone in Russian literature, as expressed by in a quote often attributed to Fyodor Dostoyevsky: "We have all come out from under Gogol's Mantle".

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  3 Stories - Success at What Cost...

  Leo Tolstoy, Anthony Hope, Amy Levy

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  There is something about the number 3.    
   
  The Ancient Greeks believed 3 was the perfect number, and in China 3 has always been a lucky number, and they know a thing or two.   
   
  Most religions also have 3 this and 3 that and, of course, in these more modern times, three’s a crowd may be too many, except when it’s a ménage à trois.  It seems good things usually come in threes. 
   
  Whatever history and culture says WE think 3, a hat-trick of stories, is a great number to explore themes and literary avenues that classic authors were so adept at creating. 
   
  From their pens to your your ears.  
   
  01 - 3 Stories - Success At What Cost 
  02 - How Much Land Does A Man Need by Leo Tolstoy 
  03 - Cohen of Trinity by Amy Levy 
  04 - A Sucessful Rehearsal by Anthony Hope

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  O Russet Witch!

  F. Scott Fitzgerald

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  O Russet Witch! - one of the stories, which entered in a collection of eleven short stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald "Tales of the Jazz Age" (1922). 
  This story was written just after the author completed the first draft of his second novel. However it may seem, the story was supposed to be in the present time/tense. It was published in the "Metropolitan".
  At the end of the story, Merlin deeply regrets not following his dreams. Caroline represents the life that Merlin always wanted, but he chooses to ignore these dreams. Merlin convinces himself that Caroline is nothing more than a witch that appears only to tempt him away from the safe life he has chosen. However, as soon as this false illusion of Caroline is shattered, Merlin falls apart. As an old man, Merlin finally realizes that he has not pursued any of his dreams and therefore his whole life has been a waste.

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