Other books that might interest you

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  Long Voyage The (Unabridged)

  Charles Dickens

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  The story concerns a man alone on New Year's Eve, who loves to "sit by the fire, thinking of what I have read in books of voyage and travel" while he himself has never been "around the world, never has been shipwrecked, ice-environed, tomahawked, or eaten." Some of the books he has read concern Christopher Columbus, James Bruce who searched for the source of the Nile, John Franklin who made an "unhappy overland Journey" and was lost searching for the northwest passage in the Canadian Arctic, "Men-selling despots" and the Atlantic slave trade, and Mungo Park, a Scottish explorer (1771-1806) who wrote Travels in the Interior of Africa and other adventure stories. He also touches on "one awful creature" by the name of Alexander Pearce who escaped from a penal colony on an island and cannibalized his fellow escapees.

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  Herman Melville 3 Complete Works...

  Herman Melville

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  Herman Melville, born in 1819 in New York City, led a life filled with adventure, literary exploration, and contemplation. His early experiences as a sailor aboard whaling ships provided the inspiration for his most famous work, "Moby-Dick," a literary masterpiece that would later secure his place in literary history. Melville's writings delve into profound themes such as obsession, the human condition, morality, and the conflict between man and nature. 
   
  While Melville's works did not achieve commercial success during his lifetime, his legacy grew in the years following his death in 1891. The publication of "Moby-Dick" in 1851 was met with mixed reviews, but the novel's exploration of existential themes and its rich symbolism garnered appreciation and recognition from later generations of readers and scholars. Today, Melville is considered one of the greatest American writers, with "Moby-Dick" hailed as a monumental achievement in American literature. 
   
  Melville's writings often reflect his own personal struggles and the tumultuous historical context of his time. His novella "Billy Budd, Sailor" explores themes of justice, innocence, and the corrupting influence of authority, drawing parallels to the social and political conflicts of the mid-19th century. His early novels, such as "Typee" and "Omoo," were based on his real-life experiences as a sailor in the South Seas, highlighting the clash between Western civilization and the indigenous cultures he encountered. 
   
  Herman Melville's life and writings continue to resonate with readers, inviting them into a world of adventure, philosophy, and introspection. His works inspire deep reflection on the human condition and the mysteries of existence. Melville's legacy as a literary pioneer, exploring the depths of the human psyche and confronting existential questions, remains enduring.

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  Angèle au Couvent - A young...

  Mary Butts

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  Mary Frances Butts was born on 13th December 1890 in Poole, Dorset. 
   
  Her early years were spent at Salterns, an 18th-century house overlooking Poole Harbour.  Sadly in 1905 her father died, and she was sent for boarding at St Leonard's school for girls in St Andrews. 
   
  Her mother remarried and, from 1909, Mary studied at Westfield College in London, and here, first became aware of her bisexual feelings.  She was sent down for organising a trip to Epsom races and only completed her degree in 1914 when she graduated from the London School of Economics.  By then Mary had become an admirer of the occultist Aleister Crowley and she was given a co-authorship credit on his ‘Magick (Book 4)’. 
   
  In 1916, she began the diary which would now detail her future life and be a constant reference point for her observations and her absorbing experiences. 
   
  During World War I, she was doing social work for the London County Council in Hackney Wick, and involved in a lesbian relationship.  Life changed after meeting the modernist poet, John Rodker and they married in 1918. 
   
  In 1921 she spent 3 months at Aleister Crowley's Abbey of Thelema in Sicily; she found the practices dreadful and also acquired a drug habit.  Mary now spent time writing in Dorset, including her celebrated book of short stories ‘Speed the Plough’ which saw fully develop her unique Modernist prose style. 
   
  Europe now beckoned and several years were spent in Paris befriending many artists and writing further extraordinary stories.   
   
  She was continually sought after by literary magazines and also published several short story collections as books. Although a Modernist writer she worked in other genres but is essentially only known for her short stories.  Mary was deeply committed to nature conservation and wrote several pamphlets attacking the growing pollution of the countryside. 
   
  In 1927, she divorced and the following year her novel ‘Armed with Madness’ was published.  A further marriage followed in 1930 and time was spent attempting to settle in London and Newcastle before setting up home on the western tip of Cornwall.  By 1934 the marriage had failed. 
   
  Mary Butts died on 5th March 1937, at the West Cornwall Hospital, Penzance, after an operation for a perforated gastric ulcer. She was 46. 
   
  In ‘Angèle Au Couvent’ Butts takes up the story of a young school girl desperate for friendships but wrestling with her fluid interpretation of religion.

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  The Lesser Key of Solomon

  Aleister Crowley, S. L....

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  The Lesser Key of Solomon, also known as Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis or simply Lemegeton, is an anonymously authored grimoire on demonology. It was compiled in the mid-17th century, mostly from materials several centuries older. It is divided into five books: the Ars Goetia, Ars Theurgia-Goetia, Ars Paulina, Ars Almadel, and Ars Notoria. 
  ''Like anything else of this nature its interesting from a historical point to see things the way antiquity did''

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  The Facts in the Case of M Valdemar

  Edgar Allan Poe

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  Title: The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar 
  Author: Edgar Allan Poe 
  Narrator: Jonathan Dunne 
  Original Publication: 1845 
  Public Domain: Yes 
  Series Placement: Number 48 in the Timeless Terrors series 
  Description: 
  The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar is one of Edgar Allan Poe’s most macabre and unsettling tales — a dark blend of science, mesmerism, and the boundaries of death itself. 
  Told in the clinical yet horrified voice of a mesmerist, the story recounts an experiment performed on a dying man — one meant to test whether the human spirit can be held between life and death by hypnosis. What follows is a grotesque and unforgettable account of suspended mortality, decomposition, and the terrible price of curiosity. 
  A masterpiece of Gothic horror and proto-science fiction, Poe’s tale remains as shocking today as it was in 1845 — a story that anticipates both modern medical ethics and the existential terror of consciousness trapped beyond the grave. 
  Narrated by Amazon-bestselling horror author Jonathan Dunne, this performance channels Poe’s eerie precision and the suffocating dread of the impossible made real. While the text is in the public domain, this narration is an original performance and copyright © 2025 Jonathan Dunne. 
  Part of Timeless Terrors, a series devoted to resurrecting the masters of the macabre and uncanny, The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar endures as one of Poe’s most chilling studies in the unnatural stillness between death and decay — where science dares to trespass upon the soul.

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  Twenty Thousand Leagues Under...

  Jules Verne

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  Jules Verne is considered to be an important author in France and most of Europe, where he has had a wide influence on the literary avant-garde and on surrealism. His reputation was markedly different in the Anglosphere where he had often been labeled a writer of genre fiction or children's books, largely because of the highly abridged and altered translations in which his novels have often been printed. Since the 1980s, his literary reputation has improved.
  VOLUME 1: The year 1866 was signalised by a remarkable incident, a mysterious and puzzling phenomenon, which doubtless no one has yet forgotten. Not to mention rumours which agitated the maritime population and excited the public mind, even in the interior of continents, seafaring men were particularly excited.

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