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  The Lost Reflection - From their...

  E T A Hoffman

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  Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffman was born on the 24th January 1776, the youngest of three children, in Königsberg, then in Prussia but now part of the Kaliningrad Russian enclave. 
  His parents separated when he was two and for many years life was to be provincial and, despite his talents for the creative arts and the classics, much was passing him by. 
  At 20 Hoffman obtained employment as a clerk and to the art that now surrounded him.  Two years later he was in Berlin attempting a career as a composer with an operetta called ‘Die Maske’.  His gift for drawing caricatures and sharing them often got him into trouble that was easier to avoid. 
  The years of Napoleon ravaging Europe were bad for Hoffman; he moved often and took on works as varied as theatre management and music critic.  In this his talents were now more evident.  His works on Beethoven where highly regarded by the master himself. 
  His literary breakthrough came in 1809, with ‘Ritter Gluck’, about a man who believes he has met the composer 20 years after his death.  However the various jobs and the wars continued and plagued any career advancement despite his constant travel for opportunities, often through dangerous territories. 
  In the wake of Napoleon’s defeat in 1814, Hoffmann returned to Berlin where his opera ‘Undine’ was performed by the Berlin Theatre.  Life was now more settled and many of his most famous works were written at his time. 
  From 1819, Hoffmann was struggling with both legal disputes and ill health.  Alcohol abuse and syphilis were physically weakening him and from 1822 paralysis set in.  His last works were dictated to his wife or to a secretary as all around him society descended into an anti-liberal agenda, stifling dissent with threats of legal action and even treason.  The ailing Hoffman was among them. 
  E T A Hoffmann died on the 25th June 1822 in Berlin of syphilis.  He was 46.

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  A Garland of Earth - From their...

  Dorothy Edwards

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  Amelia Ann Blanford Edwards was born on 7th June 1831 in Islington, London.  She was educated at home by her mother and showed early promise as a writer, publishing her first poem at the age of 7 and her first story at 12.  Thereafter several popular periodicals published her poetry, stories and articles. 
  In addition she also illustrated some of her own writings and painted scenes from books she had read.  This talent was not supported by her parents, who saw an artist’s life as scandalous.  Undeterred Amelia took up composing and performing music until a bout of typhus caused throat damage.  Other interests soon followed until, early in the 1850s, Amelia focused exclusively on writing.  Her early novels were well received, and with ‘Barbara's History’ in 1864, a work revolving around bigamy, her reputation was established.  
  Amelia’s pen was also the purveyor of ghost stories for magazines and are still anthologized as classic tales to this day. 
  In January 1851, Amelia became engaged, apparently to please her parents, but she quickly broke it off.  In reality her emotional attachments were almost exclusively with women.  From the early 1860s she lived with Ellen Drew Braysher, a widow 27 years her senior, until both women died in early 1892.  During this relationship other women also entered and left her life.  Her frequent travelling companion, Lucy Renshaw, accompanied her to Egypt in the winter of 1873 and there she found a life-changing interest in Egyptology.  Aware of increasing threats from tourism and modern development she became an advocate for their research and preservation.  
  To advance the work Amelia largely abandoned much of her writing in favour of Egyptology and even took on strenuous lecture tours to raise funds. 
  After catching influenza, Amelia Edwards, ‘the Godmother of Egyptology’ died on 15th April 1892 at Weston-super-Mare.  She was 60.

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  The Happy Tradies - Bushfire

  Faith Charity

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  ‘The Happy Tradies’ is a collection of short animated stories about tradies and what they do in their daily work to solve problems. 
  Their main drive is to get things done for other people who need their skills and in return the tradie have an enriched life. 
  There is always a mystery or crisis for the tradies to solve and they can do it because they have the skills and knowledge and the tools. 

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  The Ancient Minstrel - Novellas

  Jim Harrison

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  New York Times bestselling author Jim Harrison is one of our most beloved and acclaimed writers, adored by both readers and critics. In The Ancient Minstrel, Harrison delivers three novellas that highlight his phenomenal range as a writer, shot through with his trademark wit and keen insight into the human condition. 
  Harrison has tremendous fun with his own reputation in the title novella, about an aging writer in Montana who spars with his estranged wife, with whom he still shares a home; weathers the slings and arrows of literary success; and tries to cope with the sow he buys on a whim and the unplanned litter of piglets that follow soon after. In “Eggs,” a Montana woman reminisces about staying in London with her grandparents and collecting eggs at their country house. Years later, having never had a child, she attempts to do so. And in “The Case of the Howling Buddhas,” retired Detective Sunderson—a recurring character from Harrison’s New York Times bestsellers The Great Leader and The Big Seven—is hired as a private investigator to look into a bizarre cult that achieves satori by howling along with howler monkeys at the zoo.  
  Fresh, incisive, and endlessly entertaining, with moments of both profound wisdom and sublime humor, The Ancient Minstrel is an exceptional reminder of why Jim Harrison is one of the most cherished and important writers at work today.

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  Christmas Every Day - From their...

  William Dean Howells

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  The bookshelves of American literature are incredible collections that have gathered together centuries of very talented authors.  From this continent their fame spread and whilst among their number many are now forgotten or neglected their talents endure.  Among them is William Dean Howells.

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  At the Mountains of Madness —...

  H. P. Lovecraft

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  🎬 Experience the atmospheric visual edition of this tale by searching "Jonathan Dunne Horror" on YouTube. 
  Title: At the Mountains of Madness — Part 9 of 12 
  Author: H. P. Lovecraft 
  Narrator: Jonathan Dunne 
  Original Publication: 1936 
  Public Domain: Yes 
  Series Placement: Timeless Terrors No. 85 — Part 9 of 12 
  Description: 
  In Part Nine of At the Mountains of Madness, the tension that has been steadily mounting finally begins to crystallize into something far more immediate and terrifying. As Dyer and Danforth press onward through the colossal, alien city, the implications of the ancient murals—and the unsettling clues left in their wake—can no longer be dismissed as relics of a vanished age. 
  What was once interpreted as history now feels perilously close to the present. The explorers encounter signs that suggest movement, intention—perhaps even survival. The vast, cyclopean architecture no longer stands as a silent testament to extinction, but as a looming presence filled with unseen possibilities. 
  The Antarctic emptiness offers no refuge. Every corridor and shadowed chamber deepens the sense that the city is not as abandoned as it should be. The boundaries between past and present begin to blur, and the men are forced to confront a chilling question: if the ancient beings of this place were not entirely destroyed, then what might still linger in its depths? 
  In this ninth installment of the 12-part complete audiobook series, Lovecraft intensifies the atmosphere of dread, drawing the explorers—and the listener—closer to a revelation that threatens both reason and sanity.

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