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  The Abbot's Ghost Or Maurice...

  Louisa May Alcott

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  "A haunted estate, a family curse, and a secret that refuses to stay buried."
  
  In this chilling gothic tale, a group of houseguests gathers at the grand, gloomy estate of Christie's Abbey for Christmas. Among them is Maurice Treherne, a man seeking to reclaim his reputation and his rightful inheritance. However, the festivities are overshadowed by the legend of the Abbot's Ghost—a spectral figure said to haunt the Abbey's ruins as an omen of doom. As Maurice navigates a web of romantic rivalry and blackmail, he must face a harrowing temptation that could secure his fortune but cost him his soul.
  
  A Hidden Gem of Suspense: Long before she became famous for wholesome family stories, Alcott mastered the art of the sensational thriller. This story features all the hallmarks of the genre: secret identities, ghostly sightings in moonlit cloisters, and intense psychological drama.
  
  Themes of Honor and Temptation: At its heart, the story is a battle of will. Maurice Treherne stands as a complex hero, struggling against the bitterness of his past and the manipulative schemes of those around him. Alcott expertly balances the supernatural elements with a very human story of greed and redemption.
  
  Step into the shadows of the Abbey. Purchase "The Abbot's Ghost" today.

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  The Affair At Coulter's Creek -...

  Ambrose Bierce

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  Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was born on 24th June 1842 at Horse Cave Creek in Meigs County, Ohio. His parents were poor but they introduced him to literature at an early age, instilling in him a deep appreciation of books, the written word and the elegance of language.  
  Growing up in Koscuisko County, Indiana poverty and religion were defining features of his childhood, and he would later describe his parents as “unwashed savages” and fanatically religious, showing him little affection but always quick to punish. He came to resent religion, and his introduction to literature appears to be their only positive effect. 
  At age 15 Bierce left home to become a printer’s devil, mixing ink and fetching type at The Northern Indian, a small Ohio paper. Falsely accused of theft he returned to his farm and spent time sending out work in the hopes of being published. 
  His Uncle Lucius advised he be sent to the Kentucky Military Institute. A year later he was commissioned as an Officer.  As the Civil War started Bierce enlisted in the 9th Indiana Infantry Regiment.  
  In April 1862 Bierce fought at the Battle of Shiloh, an experience which, though terrifying, became the source of several short stories. Two years later he sustained a serious head wound and was off duty for several months. He was discharged in early 1865.  
  A later expedition to inspect military outposts across the Great Plains took him all the way to San Francisco. He remained there to become involved with publishing and editing and to marry, Mary Ellen on Christmas Day 1871.  They had a child, Day, the following year.  
  In 1872 the family moved to England for 3 years where he wrote for Fun magazine. His son, Leigh, was born, and first book, ‘The Fiend’s Delight’, was published.  
  They returned to San Francisco and to work for a number of papers where he gained admiration for his crime reporting. In 1887 he began a column at the William Randolph Hearst’s San Francisco Examiner.  
  Bierce’s marriage fell apart when he discovered compromising letters to his wife from a secret admirer. The following year, 1889 his son Day committed suicide, depressed by romantic rejection. 
  In 1891 Bierce wrote and published the collection of 26 short stories which included ‘An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge’.  Success and further works including poetry followed.  
  Bierce with Hearst’s resources helped uncover a financial plot by a railroad to turn 130 million dollars of loans into a handout. Confronted by the railroad and asked to name his price Bierce answered “my price is $130 million dollars. If, when you are ready to pay, I happen to be out of town, you may hand it over to my friend, the Treasurer of the United States”.  
  He now began his first foray as a fabulist, publishing ‘Fantastic Fables’ in 1899.  But tragedy again struck two years later when his second son Leigh died of pneumonia relating to his alcoholism.  
  He continued to write short stories and poetry and also published ‘The Devil’s Dictionary’.  
  At the age of 71, in 1913 Bierce departed from Washington, D.C., for a tour of the battlefields where he had fought during the civil war. At the city of Chihuahua he wrote his last known communication, a letter to a friend. It’s closing words were “as to me, I leave here tomorrow for an unknown destination,” Ambrose Bierce then vanished without trace.

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  Shy Neighbourhoods (Unabridged)

  Charles Dickens

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  Charles Dickens was a writer and social critic who created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity.
  SHY NEIGHBOURHOODS: So much of my travelling is done on foot, that if I cherished betting propensities, I should probably be found registered in sporting newspapers under some such title as the Elastic Novice, challenging all eleven stone mankind to competition in walking.

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  The Upper Berth - A sailor...

  F. Marion Crawford

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  Francis Marion Crawford, an only child, was born on 2nd August 1854 at Bagni di Lucca, Italy. He was a nephew to Julia Ward Howe, the American poet and writer of ‘The Battle Hymn of the Republic’.  
   
  Crawford was educated at St Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire and then on to Cambridge University, the University of Heidelberg and the University of Rome.  
   
  In 1879 he went to India, to study Sanskrit and then to edit The Indian Herald. In 1881 he returned to America to continue his Sanskrit studies at Harvard University. 
   
  His family became increasingly concerned about his employment prospects.  After an attempt at a singing career as a baritone was ruled out, he was encouraged to write.  
   
  In December 1882 his first novel, ‘Mr Isaacs’, was published and was an immediate hit as was his second novel ‘Dr Claudius’ in 1883.  
   
  In October 1884 he married Elizabeth Berdan and encouraged by his excellent start to a literary career they returned to Sant Agnello, Italy to make a permanent home, buying the Villa Renzi that then became Villa Crawford.  
   
  In the late 1890s, Crawford began work on his historical works which would later include ‘Corleone’, in 1897, the first major treatment of the Mafia in literature.  
   
  Crawford is also exceedingly popular and anthologized as a short story writer of bizarre and creepy tales.   
   
  In 1908 came his classic ‘The Screaming Skull’. Without doubt its unsettling nature is heightened as the reader/listener is drawn into to the story by its narrator.  Everything is explained and plausible until, of course, it isn’t. 
   
  Francis Marion Crawford died at Sorrento on Good Friday 1909 at Villa Crawford of a heart attack.  
   
  In this classic supernatural story by F Marion Crawford a man takes a room on a liner and discovers that its previous occupants have all committed suicide.  When his room mate on the Upper Berth also disappears the evidence points to some unearthly sequence of happenings.

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  Bambi - A Life in the Woods

  Felix Salten

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  Bambi follows the life of the eponymous roe deer, from birth to maturity. Through the years Bambi meets friends, learns how to survive in the forest, finds love, and learns how to survive "He" - the name animals give to man. The novel gives a glimpse into forest life: dangerous, yet awe-inspiring; unforgiving, yet beautiful.
  Written by Felix Salten and published in 1923 in German, it was translated to English in 1928 by Whittaker Chambers. It is considered one of the first environmental novels, and in 1936 was banned by Nazi Germany for being a parable of the persecution of Jews in Europe.
  Although adapted into multiple movies, ballets, and plays, Bambi is perhaps most popularly remembered as the subject of Walt Disney's famous animated feature of the same name.

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  The Forest Reverie

  Edgar Allan Poe

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  The Forest Reverie: Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories.
  
  ’Tis said that when
  The hands of men
  Tamed this primeval wood,
  And hoary trees with groans of woe,
  Like warriors by an unknown foe,
  Were in their strength subdued,
  The virgin Earth Gave instant birth

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