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  Great Detective Stories - The...

  Various Authors

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  An anthology featuring famous sleuths: Edgar Allan Poe's "The Purloined Letter", Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Crooked Man" and G.K. Chesterlon's "The Man in the Passage".

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  The Amateur

  Richard Harding Davis

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  On the steamer on his way to London, Austin Ford meets a young woman, who is going to London to find her missing husband. Being a specialist in finding people, Mr. Ford agrees to help her in her quest. However, something appears to be not quite right about the lady and her story... (Summary by Carolin)

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  Scenes of Clerical Life

  George Eliot

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  Three novellas that brilliantly portray English country and clergy life at the turn of the nineteenth century from the author of Middlemarch.   Initially appearing in Blackwood’s Magazine, this trio of linked stories comprises George Eliot’s first published work. Together they form a portrait of small-town life in Midlands, England, where changes are affecting both society at large and religious beliefs and institutions.   In “The Sad Fortunes of Reverend Amos Barton,” the clergyman struggles to raise funds for church repairs and perform his parochial duties, while a target of gossip—both good and bad. Meanwhile, few in Shepperton can find fault with his shy and hardworking wife, who cares for their six children, stretching Barton’s meager salary—and herself—to the limit.   Set before the arrival of Amos Barton, “Mr. Gilfil’s Love Story” features well-liked parish priest Maynard Gifil, who is known for smoking long pipes and preaching short sermons. Shockingly tumultuous events lead up to his marriage—including a love triangle, deception, and a murder plot.   An argument over religious doctrine splits the market town of Milby into two factions in “Janet’s Repentance.” With the arrival of Reverend Tryan, a rumor spreads that Evangelicalism has invaded the parish, angering local lawyer Robert Dempster. But his long-suffering wife finds in Tryan a kindred spirit, leading her to embark on a new life.  “The exquisite truth and delicacy, both of the humour and the pathos of those stories, I have never seen the like of.” —Charles Dickens “A first-rate novel, and its author takes rank at once among the masters of the art.” —The Times

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  Cheshire cat

  Alexander Tsypkin, Paul Lazarus

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  From acclaimed, Russian writer, Alexander Tsypkin, translated by Paul Lazarus, CHESHIRE CAT tells the hilarious story of a son who loses his father's ashes on the eve of his funeral. From a collection of short stories titled, Sammynolie and Other Stories.

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  Dubliners

  James Joyce

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  The debut of Ireland’s greatest author and one of the most influential voices in modern literature It took nine years for James Joyce to find a publisher for this vivid, uncompromising, and altogether brilliant portrait of Dublin at the turn of the twentieth century. Now regarded as one of the finest story collections in the English language, it contains such masterpieces as “Araby,” “Grace,” and “The Dead,” and serves as a valuable and accessible introduction to the themes that define Joyce’s later work, including the monumental Ulysses.   Elegantly interweaving a moral history of Ireland with profiles of brave, flawed, and utterly realistic individuals—many of them clearly drawn from the author’s own life—experiencing moments of profound insight, Dubliners is an essential work of art.   This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.

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  The Horla

  Guy de Maupassant

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  Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant was born on August 5th, 1850 near Dieppe in France.  
   
  Maupassant’s early life was badly torn when at age 11 (his younger brother Hervé was then five) his mother, Laure, a headstrong and independent-minded woman, risked social disgrace in order to obtain a legal separation from her husband. 
   
  After the separation, Laure kept custody of her two boys. With the father now forcibly absent, Laure became the most influential and important figure in the young boy's life.   
   
  Maupassant’s education was such that he rebelled against religion and other societal norms but a developing friendship with Gustave Flaubert began to turn his mind towards creativity and writing. 
   
  After graduation he volunteered for the Franco-Prussian war. With its end he moved to Paris to work as a clerk in the Navy Department.  Gustave Flaubert now took him under his wing.  Acting as a literary guardian to him, he guided the eager Maupassant to debuts in journalism and literature.  For Maupassant these were exciting times and the awakening of his creative talents and ambitions. 
   
  In 1880 he published what is considered his first great work, ‘Boule de Suif’, (translated as as ‘Dumpling’, ‘Butterball’, ‘Ball of Fat’, or ‘Ball of Lard’) which met with a success that was both instant and overwhelming.  Flaubert at once acknowledged that it was ‘a masterpiece that will endure.’ Maupassant had used his talents and experiences in the war to create something unique.  
   
  This decade from 1880 to 1891 was to be the most pivotal of his career.  With an audience now made available by the success of ‘Boule de Suif’ Maupassant organised himself to work methodically and relentlessly to produce between two and four volumes of work a year.  The melding of his talents and business sense and the continual hunger of sources for his works made him wealthy. 
   
  In his later years he developed a desire for solitude, an obsession for self-preservation, and a fear of death as well as a paranoia of persecution caused by the syphilis he had contracted in his youth.  
   
  On January 2nd, 1892, Maupassant tried to commit suicide by cutting his throat.  Unsuccessful he was committed to the private asylum of Esprit Blanche at Passy, in Paris.  It was here on July 6th, 1893 that  
  Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant died at the age of only 42.

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