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  Mother Sauvage - From their pens...

  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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  The Woodlanders

  Thomas Hardy

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  'Such miserable creatures of circumstance are we all!'
  
  Serialised in Macmillan's Magazine from 1886, The Woodlanders is a moving tale of class, unrequited love and misguided commitment; Thomas Hardy's favourite novel that he ever wrote.
  
  Set in the shadowed forests of rural Dorset, The Woodlanders is a rich, poignant drama where love and loyalty are tested while ambition and desire collide. At the heart of Hardy's narrative is Grave Melbury, a young woman torn between her childhood sweetheart, Giles, and a sophisticated doctor, Edred, who promises a far more luxurious life to the one that she inhabits. As the seasons turn and settle, hidden passions rise to the surface and Grace is forced to confront a series of devastating betrayals that will change her future forever. With tender yet unflinching realism, Hardy paints a deeply human portrait of longing, loss and irrevocable choice, resulting in a novel that remains one of his most celebrated works.
  Thomas Hardy (1840 – 1928) was an English poet and novelist. Heavily influenced by the Romantic and Victorian Realist movements, his writing is characterised by evocative language, rich imagery and innovative narrative structures. Hardy was socially conscious and highly critical of Victorian society, often using his writing to depict the lives of people living in deprived rural areas of England.

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  Ice Palace The (version 3)

  F. Scott Fitzgerald

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  The story is about Sally Carrol Happer, a young southern woman from the fictional city of Tarleton, Georgia, who becomes engaged one summer to Harry Bellamy, a man from an unspecified northern town. The following winter, on a visit to Harry's home town to meet Harry's family, Sally Carrol begins to have second thoughts... ( Summary by BellonaTimes, with help from Wikipedia )

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  The Complete Fables

  Aesop Aesop

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  Discover the Wisdom That Shaped the World.
  
  For over 2,500 years, the fables of Aesop have served as the ultimate guide to human nature, ethics, and common sense. This definitive collection brings together every one of these legendary tales—from the race between the Tortoise and the Hare to the hard-learned lesson of the Boy Who Cried Wolf.
  
  Written in a style that is both simple enough for a child and profound enough for a philosopher, these stories use the animal kingdom to mirror the virtues and vices of humanity. Whether it is the Lion and the Mouse teaching us that no act of kindness is ever wasted, or the Fox and the Grapes warning us against "sour grapes," Aesop's insights remain as relevant today as they were in Ancient Greece.
  
  This Complete Fables edition is a must-have for families, educators, and collectors of classic literature. Each story concludes with its famous "moral," making this book an invaluable tool for character building and a delightful journey into the roots of storytelling.
  
  Own the foundation of moral philosophy. Buy "Aesop: The Complete Fables" today and share these timeless lessons with the next generation.

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  A May Night

  Nikolai Gogol

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  "May Night, or the Drowned Maiden", 1831 is the third tale in the collection Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka by Nikolai Gogol. It was made into the opera May Night by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in 1878–79 and also a Ukrainian setting by Mykola Lysenko.
  This story comes from the unnamed story-teller (who was previously responsible for "The Fair at Sorochyntsi").
  In this tale, a young Cossack named Levko, the son of the mayor, is in love with Hanna. He comes to her house to talk about marriage and mentions that his father is not pleased with the idea, though he doesn't say anything directly and merely ignores him. As they are walking on the outskirts of the village, Hanna asks about an old hut with a moss-covered roof and overgrown apple trees surrounding it. He tells her the story of a beautiful young girl whose father took care of her after her mother died and loved her dearly. Eventually, he married another woman who she discovered was a witch when she cut the paw of a cat that tried to kill her and her stepmother appeared soon after with her hand bandaged. The witch had power over her father, however, and eventually she is thrown out of the house and throws herself into the nearby pond in despair. She reigns over a group of maidens who also drowned in the pond, but once, when she got a hold of the witch as she was near the pond, she turned into a maiden and the ghost of the young girl has been unable to pick her out of the group ever since, asking any young man she comes upon to guess for her...

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  Cohen of Trinity - From their...

  Amy Levy

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  Amy Levy was born in London, England in 1861, the second of seven in a fairly wealthy Anglo-Jewish family. The children read and participated in secular literary activities and became firmly integrated into Victorian life. 
  Her education was at Brighton High School, Brighton, before studies at Newnham College, Cambridge; she was the first Jewish student when she arrived in 1879, but left after four terms. 
  Amy’s writing career began early; her poem ‘Ida Grey’ appeared when she was only fourteen. Her acclaimed short stories ‘Cohen of Trinity’ and ‘Wise in Their Generation,’ were published by Oscar Wilde in his magazine ‘Women's World’. 
  Her poetic writings reveal feminist concerns; ‘Xantippe and Other Verses’, from 1881 includes a poem in the voice of Socrates's wife. ‘A Minor Poet and Other Verse’ from 1884 comprises of dramatic monologues and lyric poems. 
  In 1886, Amy began a series of essays on Jewish culture and literature for the Jewish Chronicle, including ‘The Ghetto at Florence’, ‘The Jew in Fiction’, ‘Jewish Humour’ and ‘Jewish Children’. 
  That same year while travelling in Florence she met the writer Vernon Lee. It is generally assumed they fell in love and this inspired the poem ‘To Vernon Lee’. 
  Her first novel ‘Romance of a Shop’, written in 1888 is based on four sisters who experience the pleasures and hardships of running a London business during the 1880s. This was followed by Reuben Sachs (also 1888) and concerned with Jewish identity and mores in the England of her time and was somewhat controversial. 
  Her final book of poems, ‘A London Plane-Tree’ from 1889, shows the beginnings of the influence of French symbolism. 
  Despite many friendships and an active life, Amy suffered for many years with serious depressions and this, together with her growing deafness, led her to commit suicide by inhaling carbon monoxide on September 10th, 1889. She was 27.

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