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  The Oblong Box

  Edgar Allan Poe

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  The Oblong Box is a horror short story by Edgar Allan Poe that first appeared in the May 1844 edition of Godey's Lady's Book about a sea voyage and a mysterious box.

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  Selected Works of Edgar Allan Poe

  Edgar Allan Poe

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  Opening with the poem that made Poe a household name overnight, this collection of his short works includes the narrative poem "The Raven", the short story "The Fall of the House of Usher", and the first of Poe's "ratiocination" tales: "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", featuring the first of the fictional detectives: C. Auguste Dupin. From there we encounter the horror classics: The Pit & the Pendulum, the Cask of Amontillado and the Masque of the Red Death, and the Tell Tale Heart, before finishing with another tale of C. Auguste Dupin: The Purloined Letter. 
  Narrated by Michael Ward.

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  The Affair At Coulter's Creek -...

  Ambrose Bierce

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  Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was born on 24th June 1842 at Horse Cave Creek in Meigs County, Ohio. His parents were poor but they introduced him to literature at an early age, instilling in him a deep appreciation of books, the written word and the elegance of language.  
  Growing up in Koscuisko County, Indiana poverty and religion were defining features of his childhood, and he would later describe his parents as “unwashed savages” and fanatically religious, showing him little affection but always quick to punish. He came to resent religion, and his introduction to literature appears to be their only positive effect. 
  At age 15 Bierce left home to become a printer’s devil, mixing ink and fetching type at The Northern Indian, a small Ohio paper. Falsely accused of theft he returned to his farm and spent time sending out work in the hopes of being published. 
  His Uncle Lucius advised he be sent to the Kentucky Military Institute. A year later he was commissioned as an Officer.  As the Civil War started Bierce enlisted in the 9th Indiana Infantry Regiment.  
  In April 1862 Bierce fought at the Battle of Shiloh, an experience which, though terrifying, became the source of several short stories. Two years later he sustained a serious head wound and was off duty for several months. He was discharged in early 1865.  
  A later expedition to inspect military outposts across the Great Plains took him all the way to San Francisco. He remained there to become involved with publishing and editing and to marry, Mary Ellen on Christmas Day 1871.  They had a child, Day, the following year.  
  In 1872 the family moved to England for 3 years where he wrote for Fun magazine. His son, Leigh, was born, and first book, ‘The Fiend’s Delight’, was published.  
  They returned to San Francisco and to work for a number of papers where he gained admiration for his crime reporting. In 1887 he began a column at the William Randolph Hearst’s San Francisco Examiner.  
  Bierce’s marriage fell apart when he discovered compromising letters to his wife from a secret admirer. The following year, 1889 his son Day committed suicide, depressed by romantic rejection. 
  In 1891 Bierce wrote and published the collection of 26 short stories which included ‘An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge’.  Success and further works including poetry followed.  
  Bierce with Hearst’s resources helped uncover a financial plot by a railroad to turn 130 million dollars of loans into a handout. Confronted by the railroad and asked to name his price Bierce answered “my price is $130 million dollars. If, when you are ready to pay, I happen to be out of town, you may hand it over to my friend, the Treasurer of the United States”.  
  He now began his first foray as a fabulist, publishing ‘Fantastic Fables’ in 1899.  But tragedy again struck two years later when his second son Leigh died of pneumonia relating to his alcoholism.  
  He continued to write short stories and poetry and also published ‘The Devil’s Dictionary’.  
  At the age of 71, in 1913 Bierce departed from Washington, D.C., for a tour of the battlefields where he had fought during the civil war. At the city of Chihuahua he wrote his last known communication, a letter to a friend. It’s closing words were “as to me, I leave here tomorrow for an unknown destination,” Ambrose Bierce then vanished without trace.

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  Les Misérables: Volume 1:...

  Victor Hugo

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  Victor-Marie Hugo (26 February 1802 - 22 May 1885) was a French poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, and dramatist of the Romantic movement. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote abundantly in an exceptional variety of genres: lyrics, satires, epics, philosophical poems, epigrams, novels, history, critical essays, political speeches, funeral orations, diaries, and letters public and private, as well as dramas in verse and prose.
  BOOK 5: THE DESCENT: And in the meantime, what had become of that mother who according to the people at Montfermeil, seemed to have abandoned her child? Where was she? What was she doing?

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  The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

  Anne Brontë

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  A mysterious woman arrives at a crumbling mansion—and nothing in the quiet village will ever be the same.
  When Helen Graham moves into Wildfell Hall with her young son, rumors swirl. She is guarded, secretive, and unwilling to explain her painful past. But as one man grows closer to her, the truth slowly emerges: a story of a toxic marriage, personal courage, and a daring escape in an age when women had no right to choose their own fate.
  
  Celebrated today as "one of the earliest and most powerful feminist novels," Anne Brontë's masterpiece still shocks with its honesty and inspires with its strength. Readers praise its emotional depth, gripping suspense, and unforgettable heroine.
  
  If you love dramatic character journeys, forbidden romance, and classics that feel ahead of their time, this novel will captivate you from the first page to the last.
  
  Open the door to Wildfell Hall—start reading now and witness a woman's fight for freedom.

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  Sanditon

  Jane Austen

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  An English coastal town is the setting for this unfinished novel, the inspiration for the ITV series, by the author of Pride and Prejudice.Believed to be influenced by a town visited by Jane Austen herself, Sanditon is the story of Mr. Parker, an ambitious man intent on building a seaside resort town that will attract fashionable society; of Charlotte Heywood, a beautiful young woman who finds herself invited to Sanditon through an accident of fate; Mr. Parker’s extended family, including the handsome Sidney Parker and his three comical siblings; and the wealthy Lady Denham, who aims to marry off her impoverished nephew to an heiress from the West Indies. The final unfinished novel by Austen, Sanditon has inspired numerous adaptations and continuations, including the recent television series by prize-winning screenwriter Andrew Davies.

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