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  Wise in Her Generation - From...

  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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  The Tale of Peter Rabbit

  Beatrix Potter

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  The children's story The Tale of Peter Rabbit is written by Beatrix Potter. 
  The naughty bunny Peter goes into the garden of Mr. McGregor even though his mother told him not to. He gets lost and he almost gets caught by Mr. McGregor! 
  A short, funny story for young kids. Great story to listen to before going to bed.

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  Collected Works of F Scott...

  F. Scott Fitzgerald

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  The Collected Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald includes the short stories: 
  The Great Gatsby
  The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  The Camel's Back
  The Jelly-Bean 
  May Day
  Porcelain and Pink
  Tarquin of Cheapside
  Oh Russet Witch! 
  The Lees of Happiness 
  Mr. Icky
  Jemina, The Mountain Girl

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  Dracula – Chapter 13: The Shadow...

  Bram Stoker

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  Title: 
  Dracula – Chapter 13: The Shadow of the Un-Dead 
  Subtitle: 
  A Chapter-by-Chapter Reading of Bram Stoker’s Classic 
  Series Name: 
  Dracula (Chapter-by-Chapter Reading) 
  Series Entry: 
  13 
  Description: 
  In this chapter, the heartbreaking finality of death mixes with a growing, unspoken terror. Dr. John Seward chronicles the somber burial of Lucy Westenra and her mother. Yet, even as Lucy is laid to rest, her corpse defies the natural laws of decay, blooming with an unnatural, lifelike beauty that leaves her mourners in disbelief.  
  Professor Van Helsing’s secret preparations to mutilate the body to save Lucy's soul are thwarted when a crucial golden crucifix is mysteriously stolen from her coffin. Meanwhile, the grief-stricken Arthur Holmwood, now bearing his late father's title as Lord Godalming, unwittingly grants Van Helsing permission to read Lucy's private diaries and letters. Miles away in London, Jonathan Harker suffers a terrifying panic attack when he spots a fierce, familiar man in the crowd, signaling that the nightmare of Castle Dracula has finally crossed the sea.  
  Chapter 13 weaves a suffocating web of grief and rising panic. As the Westenra family is buried, the true horrors of the "Bloofer Lady" begin to dominate the local newspapers, and the hunt for the ultimate evil officially begins. [1, 7, 8]  
  This is Chapter 13 of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, narrated by Amazon-bestselling horror author Jonathan Dunne, part of a complete chapter-by-chapter audiobook presentation of this enduring Gothic masterpiece. 
  📖 Public domain text. Original publication: 1897.

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  In A Grove - From their pens to...

  Ryunosuke Akutagawa

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  Ryūnosuke Niihara was born in Kyōbashi, Tokyo in Japan on the 1st March 1892.  Sadly, his mother suffered severe mental illness after his birth and so, at only eight months old, he was sent to be raised by his maternal uncle and aunt, from whom he received the Akutagawa family name.  
  He was fascinated by classical Chinese literature from his early years and began writing after entering what was then the Tokyo Imperial University in 1913 to study English Literature.   
  The following year Akutagawa and his friends revived the literary journal ‘New Currents of Thought’ which published their own works and translations of such icons as W B Yeats and Anatole France. 
  Akutagawa published "Rashōmon" in 1915 and whilst it was disliked by his friends everyone else knew better.  As other short stories followed so did his growing literary reputation as the father of the Japanese short story. 
  Much of his work reinterpreted former classical works and incidents and this, melded with his strong dislike of naturalism, produced a writer of rare and genuine quality.  His character palette featured strong and domineering women, mainly based on his mother and the aunt who helped raise him. 
  In 1921, he spent four months in China as a reporter.  Whilst there his health was compromised by several illnesses and both his physical and mental health spiralled downwards.  He began to suffer from hallucinations and dreaded that he might have inherited his mother’s mental disorders.  
  Although he survived one suicide attempt Ryūnosuke Akutagawa died on the 24th July 1927 in Tokyo from an overdose of Veronal, a barbiturate.  He was 35.

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  The Tragedy Of Macbeth - The...

  William Shakespeare

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  "What’s done cannot be undone." 
   
  The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare. It is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatizes the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those who seek power. Of all the plays that Shakespeare wrote during the reign of James I, Macbeth most clearly reflects his relationship with King James, patron of Shakespeare's acting company. It was first published in the Folio of 1623, possibly from a prompt book, and is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy. 
   
  A brave Scottish general named Macbeth receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan and takes the Scottish throne for himself. He is then wracked with guilt and paranoia. Forced to commit more and more murders to protect himself from enmity and suspicion, he soon becomes a tyrannical ruler. The bloodbath and consequent civil war swiftly take Macbeth and Lady Macbeth into the realms of madness and death. 
   
  Shakespeare's source for the story is the account of Macbeth, King of Scotland, Macduff, and Duncan in Holinshed's Chronicles (1587), a history of England, Scotland, and Ireland familiar to Shakespeare and his contemporaries, although the events in the play differ extensively from the history of the real Macbeth. The events of the tragedy are usually associated with the execution of Henry Garnet for complicity in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. 
   
  In the backstage world of theatre, some believe that the play is cursed, and will not mention its title aloud, referring to it instead as "The Scottish Play". The play has attracted some of the most renowned actors to the roles of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.

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