Other books that might interest you

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  The Story of the Treasure Seekers

  Edith Nesbit

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  "The Story of the Treasure Seekers" by Edith Nesbit follows the spirited Bastable siblings on their quest for wealth to alleviate their family's financial struggles. Through ingenious schemes and misadventures, the children navigate the challenges of London, learning valuable lessons about perseverance, family bonds, and the true meaning of treasure. Nesbit's classic tale combines humor and heart, capturing the essence of childhood dreams and the enduring power of imagination.

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  Bartleby

  Herman Melville

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  "Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street" is a short story by the American writer Herman Melville, first serialized anonymously in two parts in the November and December 1853 issues of Putnam's Magazine.

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  Exchange is Robbery - From their...

  Richard Marsh

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  Richard Bernard Heldmann was born on 12th October 1857, in St Johns Wood, North London.  
  By his early 20’s Heldmann began publishing fiction for the myriad magazine publications that had sprung up and were eager for good well-written content.  
  In October 1882, Heldmann was promoted to co-editor of Union Jack, a popular magazine, but his association with the publication ended suddenly in June 1883.  It appears Heldman was prone to issuing forged cheques to finance his lifestyle.  In April 1884 he was sentenced to 18 months hard labour. 
  In order to be well away from the scandal and the damage that this had caused to his reputation Heldmann adopted a pseudonym on his release from jail.  Shortly thereafter the name ‘Richard Marsh’ began to appear in the literary periodicals.  The use of his mother’s maiden name as part of it seems both a release and a lifeline. 
  A stroke of very good fortune arrived with his novel ‘The Beetle’ published in 1897.  This would turn out to be his greatest commercial success and added some much-needed gravitas to his literary reputation.   
  Marsh was a prolific writer and wrote almost 80 volumes of fiction as well as many short stories, across many genres from horror and crime to romance and humour.   His unusual characters, plotting devices and other literary developments have identified his legacy as one of the best British writers of his time.   
  Richard Marsh died from heart disease in Haywards Heath in Sussex on 9th August 1915.  He was 57.

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  Goodbye to All That

  Robert Graves

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  In 1929 Robert Graves went to live abroad permanently, vowing never to make England his home again. This is his superb account of his life up until that bitter leave-taking from his childhood and desperately unhappy school days at Charterhouse, to his time serving as a young officer in the First World War that was to haunt him throughout his life.
  
  It also contains memorable encounters with fellow writers and poets, including Siegfried Sassoon and Thomas Hardy, and covers his increasingly unhappy marriage to Nancy Nicholson. Goodbye to All That, with its vivid, harrowing descriptions of the Western Front, is a classic war document, and also has immense value as one of the most candid self-portraits of an artist ever penned.

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  Lifted Veil The (Unabridged)

  George Eliot

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  The tale of a man who is incapacitated by visions of the future and the cacophony of overheard thoughts, and yet who can't help trying to subvert his vividly glimpsed destiny, it is easy to read The Lifted Veil as being autobiographically revealing of Eliot's sensitivity to public opinion and her awareness that her days concealed behind a pseudonym were doomed to a tragic unveiling (as indeed came to pass soon after this novella's publication). But it is easier still to read the story as the exciting and genuine precursor of a moody new form, as well as an absorbing early masterpiece of suspense.

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  For the Blood is the Life - A...

  F. Marion Crawford

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  Francis Marion Crawford was born on August 2nd, 1854 at Bagni di Lucca, Italy. An only son and a nephew to Julia Ward Howe, the American poet and writer of ‘The Battle Hymn of the Republic’.  
   
  His education began at St Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire, then to Cambridge University; University of Heidelberg; and the University of Rome.  
   
  In 1879 Crawford went to India, to study Sanskrit and then edited The Indian Herald. In 1881 he returned to America to continue his Sanskrit studies at Harvard University. 
   
  At this time in Boston he lived at his Aunt Julia house and in the company of his Uncle, Sam Ward. His family was concerned about his employment prospects.  After a singing career as a baritone was ruled out, he was encouraged to write.  
   
  In December 1882 his first novel, ‘Mr Isaacs’, was an immediate hit which was amplified by ‘Dr Claudius’ in 1883.  
   
  In October 1884 he married Elizabeth Berdan. They went on to have two sons and two daughters. 
   
  Encouraged by his excellent start to a literary career he returned to Italy with Elizabeth to make a permanent home, principally in Sant' Agnello, where he bought the Villa Renzi that then became Villa Crawford.  
   
  In the late 1890s, he began to write his historical works: ‘Ave Roma Immortalis’ (1898), ‘Rulers of the South’ (1900) and ‘Gleanings from Venetian History’ (1905). The Saracinesca series is perhaps his best work. ‘Saracinesca’ was followed by ‘Sant’ Ilario’ in 1889, ‘Don Orsino’ in 1892 and ‘Corleone’ in 1897, that being the first major treatment of the Mafia in literature.  
   
  Francis Marion Crawford died at Sorrento on Good Friday 1909 at Villa Crawford of a heart attack.  
   
  Set in Italy, ‘For Blood is the Life’ draws us into a world usually beyond our senses.  With Crawford’s pen the uneasy, horrific world of vampires is now upon us.

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