Other books that might interest you

• 

  The Watsons

  Jane Austen

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Left impoverished upon the death of her aunt, Emma Watson has no option but to be reunited with her estranged father and siblings. Initially delighted with her new life—including the fashionable society balls to which she now has access—Emma soon realizes that her family harbors many ill feelings, not least those springing from the sisters' hopes—and disappointments—in snaring a husband. So when the eligible and suitably rich Tom Musgrove begins to transfer his affections from her sister Margaret to Emma, the result can only be further sibling rivalry and unrest. A delightful, exquisitely drawn portrait of family life, The Watsons is Jane Austen at her storytelling best. Author of the masterpieces Pride and Prejudice and Emma, Jane Austen (1775–1817) is one of the most beloved novelists of all time.

  Show book

• 

  Trinidad Noir

  Robert Antoni, Elizabeth Nunez,...

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Eighteen authors share dark mysteries set on the sunny Caribbean island in this anthology. 
   
  Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each book is compromised of all-new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the geographic area of the book. As reflected herein, the Caribbean provides no shelter from the delicious terror of noir fiction. 
   
  Features brand-new stories by Robert Antoni, Elizabeth Nunez, Lawrence Scott, Ramabai Espinet, Shani Mootoo, Kevin Baldeosingh, Vahni Capildeo, Willi Chen, Lisa Allen-Agostini, Keith Jardim, Reena Andrea Manickchand, Tiphanie Yanique, and more. 
   
  Praise for Trinidad Noir 
   
  “The volumes in Akashic’s locale-based noir anthology series set outside North America (Dublin Noir, etc.) offer more variety than those set in different major U.S. cities, and this one is no exception. The editors’ brief but insightful introduction makes clear that the sun and sea tourist image of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is at odds with the country’s political climate of excess and corruption and an element of society afloat in drugs and guns . . . . The two standouts are Keith Jardim’s mystical “The Jaguar” and Lawrence Scott’s “Prophet,” in which a series of child disappearances in a small but corrupt community builds to an appropriately bleak ending.” —Publishers Weekly

  Show book

• 

  Three Wars

  Emile Zola

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola was born in Paris on 2nd April 1840.  When he was 3 the family moved to Aix-en-Provence in the southeast. At 7 his father died, leaving the family on a meagre pension. In 1858, they returned to Paris. His mother had planned a law career for Émile, but he failed his baccalauréat examination twice. 
   
  He took jobs as a clerk in a shipping firm and then in the sales department for the publisher Hachette. Zola also wrote political, literary and art reviews for newspapers.  
   
  As a writer Zola wrote numerous short stories, essays, plays and novels. When ‘La Confession de Claude’ was published and received the attention of the police Hachette fired him.  He continued to write and after his first major novel, ‘Thérèse Raquin’ (1867), Zola started the series called ‘Les Rougon-Macquart’, a carefully planned twenty-volume history of a single family under the reign of Napoléon III.  
   
  With the publication of ‘L'Assommoir’, Zola became wealthy. His subsequent works, ‘Nana’ and La Débâcle fared even better, increasing both fame and bank balance. He was now a figurehead of the literary bourgeoisie.  However, despite several nominations, he was never elected to the prestigious Académie Française. 
   
  The infamous Dreyfus Affair infuriated Zola who wrote in defence of Alfred Dreyfus.  His plan was to be prosecuted for libel so that the truth would be exposed.  It went badly wrong.  Zola was convicted for criminal libel in February 1898 and removed from the Legion of Honour. The judgment was overturned but a new suit began. Zola fled to England only to return when an Amnesty was granted.  Zola said of the affair, "The truth is on the march, and nothing shall stop it." 
   
  Émile Zola died on 29th September 1902 of carbon monoxide poisoning caused by an improperly ventilated chimney.  
   
  On 4th June 1908 Zola’s remains were transferred to the Panthéon, where he shares a crypt with Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas.

  Show book

• 

  Top 10 Short Stories The - The...

  Edgar Allan Poe

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart.  A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere. 
   
  In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?  
   
  The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme.  Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature. 
   
  Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made.  If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something. 
   
  Some of our earliest thrills – and fears – dwell within us because of a ghost story heard in childhood.  Whether fearful or giggling in delight it carries through with us till adult times.  These dark, foreboding works may raise many a goosebump, an unexpected laugh, or, a tinge or two of real fear but then, in these authors hands that may be just the beginning. 
   
  01 - The Top 10 - The Ghost Story 
  2 - The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe 
  3 - The Body Snatcher by Robert Louis Stevenson 
  4 - The Signalman by Charles Dickens 
  5 - The Phantom Rickshaw by Rudyard Kipling 
  6 - The Horla by Guy de Maupassant 
  7 - Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter by Sheridan Le Fanu 
  8 - The Empty House by Algernon Blackwood 
  9 - Oh Whistle and I'll Come to You My Lad by M R James 
  10 - The Eyes by Edith Wharton 
  11 - The Case of Vincent Pyrwhit by Barry Pain

  Show book

• 

  What Burns

  Dale Peck

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The first collection of short fiction from Lambda Award–winning novelist Dale Peck spans twenty-five years of writing, including two O. Henry award-winners and the recipient of a Pushcart Prize. 
  The stories in What Burns examine the extremes of desire against a backdrop of family, class, and mortality. 
  In "Bliss," a young man befriends the convicted felon who murdered his mother when he was only a child. In "Not Even Camping Is Like Camping Anymore," a teenage boy fends off the advances of a five-year-old his mother babysits. And in "Dues," a man discovers that everything he owns is borrowed from someone else including his time on earth. 
  Walking the tightrope between tenderness and violence that has defined Peck's work since the publication of his first novel, Martin and John, through his most recent, Night Soil, What Burns reveals Peck's mastery of the short form.

  Show book

• 

  Damon Runyon Theater - Touching...

  Damon Runyon

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The Damon Runyon Theatre Hour.  Damon Runyon is acknowledged as one of the great writers to come out of twentieth century America.  Runyon's short stories are almost always told in the first person by a narrator who is never named, and whose role is unclear; he knows many gangsters and has no job that can be gleaned from his musings, nor does he admit to any criminal involvement; He’s a bystander, an observer, an average street-corner Joe.  Runyon described himself as "being known to one and all as a guy who is just around".  That line seems to say a lot about Runyon and his life.  It was like you were with him on some street corner hustle or some shady dive and he was filling you in on all the angles, all the gossip, all of life. He was who so many people wanted to be with……or so many people wanted to be.  Of course, the cliché about newspapermen and writers is that they are heavy drinkers, chain-smokers, gamblers and obsessively chase women with a sideline in the gathering of stories and facts and actually getting something written just before the deadline hits. That seems like Damon Runyon and his life summed up in one sentence.  His stories became legendary ways of looking that bit differently at America, of soaking up the atmosphere of a glamorous and rip-roaring age and distilling it into black and white type or, in our case, The Damon Runyon Theatre Hour.

  Show book