Publisher: BookRix
The diary of an ageless man, reveals his abundant life-experiences throughout the ages. Delve into a world, that has seen the Middle Ages, the French Revolution, the American Civil War and much more. Please review the book, if you liked it!
Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu was born on August 28th, 1814, at 45 Lower Dominick Street, Dublin, into a literary family with Huguenot, Irish and English roots The children were tutored but, according to his brother William, the tutor taught them little if anything. Le Fanu was eager to learn and used his father's library to educate himself about the world. He was a creative child and by fifteen had taken to writing poetry. Accepted into Trinity College, Dublin to study law he also benefited from the system used in Ireland that he did not have to live in Dublin to attend lectures, but could study at home and take examinations at the university as and when necessary. This enabled him to also write and by 1838 Le Fanu's first story The Ghost and the Bonesetter was published in the Dublin University Magazine. Many of the short stories he wrote at the time were to form the basis for his future novels. Indeed, throughout his career Le Fanu would constantly revise, cannabilise, embellish and re-publish his earlier works to use in his later efforts. Between 1838 and 1840 Le Fanu had written and published twelve stories which purported to be the literary remains of an 18th-century Catholic priest called Father Purcell. Set mostly in Ireland they include classic stories of gothic horror, with grim, shadowed castles, as well as supernatural visitations from beyond the grave, together with madness and suicide. One of the themes running through them is a sad nostalgia for the dispossessed Catholic aristocracy of Ireland, whose ruined castles stand in mute salute and testament to this history. On 18 December 1844 Le Fanu married Susanna Bennett, the daughter of a leading Dublin barrister. The union would produce four children. Le Fanu was now stretching his talents across the length of a novel and his first was The Cock and Anchor published in 1845. A succession of works followed and his reputation grew as well as his income. Unfortunately, a decade after his marriage it became an increasing source of difficultly. Susanna was prone to suffer from a range of neurotic symptoms including great anxiety after the deaths of several close relatives, including her father two years before. In April 1858 she suffered an "hysterical attack" and died in circumstances that are still unclear. The anguish, profound guilt as well as overwhelming loss were channeled into Le Fanu’s work. Working only by the light of two candles he would write through the night and burnish his reputation as a major figure of 19th Century supernaturalism. His work challenged the focus on the external source of horror and instead he wrote about it from the perspective of the inward psychological potential to strike fear in the hearts of men. A series of books now came forth: Wylder's Hand (1864), Guy Deverell (1865), The Tenants of Malory (1867), The Green Tea (1869), The Haunted Baronet (1870), Mr. Justice Harbottle (1872), The Room in the Dragon Volant (1872) and In a Glass Darkly. (1872). But his life was drawing to a close. Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu died in Merrion Square in his native Dublin on February 7th, 1873, at the age of 58. 01 - Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu - A Short Story Collection - An Introduction 02 - The Ghost and the Bone-Setter by Sheridan Le Fanu 03 - Sir Dominick's Bargain by Sheridan Le Fanu 04 - Dickon the Devil by Sheridan Le Fanu 05 - Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter by Sheridan Le Fanu 06 - An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street by Sheridan Le FanuShow book
Thomas Clayton Wolfe was born at the family home, 92 Woodfin Street, in Asheville, North Carolina on October 3rd, 1900. Aged 15, Wolfe began his studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) where he enrolled in a playwriting course. Wolfe graduated in 1920 and enrolled at the Graduate School for Arts and Sciences at Harvard. Here he studied playwriting under the tutelage of George Pierce Baker. In 1922 he received his master's degree from Harvard. Wolfe now began the transition from studying to commercial playwright. He went to New York in November, 1923 trying to sell his plays to Broadway. The Theatre Guild came close to producing Welcome to Our City but in the end declined. Wolfe now believed his style of writing was more suited to fiction. Grasping the opportunity this afforded him he sailed to England in October 1924 to write and from there on to France, Italy and Switzerland. In 1926 Wolfe began writing a novel, O Lost. This would eventually become Look Homeward, Angel. It was based on his years in Asheville. The original manuscript of O Lost was over 1100 pages. Maxwell Perkins, one of the great book editors of the age, worked at his publishers, Scribner’s and he began to focus the book, cutting and re-shaping it to center it on the character of Eugene. The novel was published in 1929. It was a success. Wolfe now committed the next 4 years to writing a multi-volume epic entitled The October Fair. At Scribner’s Perkins once more decided to edit it down to a single volume; Of Time and the River. It was even more successful than his first. It was hailed as the literary event of 1935 and cemented his reputation as one of America’s foremost novelists. In 1938, after submitting his new opus, which ran to an incredible one million words, to his new editor, Edward Aswell, Wolfe left to tour the West, a part of the country he had never before visited. Whilst travelling Wolfe became ill with pneumonia and spent three weeks in a Seattle hospital. Complications arose. The prognosis was serious. He was diagnosed with miliary tuberculosis of the brain. On September 6th, he was sent to Baltimore's Johns Hopkins Hospital for treatment. The ensuing operation revealed that the disease had overrun the entire right side of his brain. Thomas Clayton Wolfe never regained consciousness and died shortly before his 38th birthday on September 15th, 1938.Show book
Many of us are cautious around dogs. However friendly they seem their energy and open panting jaws seem to summon some primitive instinct within us to be aware. Once we advance to wolves those fears become rather more persuasive. Their wild and seemingly vicious, determined natures can induce panic in even the most foolhardy of us. Nature admires winners. From there it is but a short step to the supernatural evil of Werewolves. Now fear is definitely the thing we feel pulsing through our veins summoning a flight response. But no matter what our hopes are werewolves, whether real or in the imaginations of this cast of chilling unrepentant authors, stroke knowing chords of terror into every sentence, as the pages turn our uneasiness begins to escalate. Terror begins to track our every step. With such literary craftsmen as Saki, Hugh Walpole, Ambrose Bierce, Rudyard Kipling, Arthur Conan Doyle and others, that feeling happens time and time again. 1 - Werewolves - A Short Story Collection - An Introduction 2 - Mark of the Beast by Rudyard Kipling 3 - A Pastoral Horror by Arthur Conan Doyle 4 - Gabriel-Ernest by Saki 5 - The Eyes of the Panther by Ambrose Bierce 6 - Tarnhelm or The Death of My Uncle Robert by Hugh Walpole 7 - The She-Wolf by Saki 8 - Vampirismus or Aurelia by E T A Hoffman 9 - TheThing in the Forest by Bernard Capes 10 - A Story of a Weir-Wolf by Catherine Crowe 11 - The Lame Priest by Susan Morrow writing as S Carleton 12 - Alymer Vance & The Vampire by Alice and Claude AskewShow book
A girl immerses herself in the strange, beautiful lives of her best friend’s family.Colleen is a short story from Halle Hill’s Good Women, which delves into the lives of twelve Black women across the Appalachian South. Darkly funny and deeply human, Good Women observes how place, blood ties, generational trauma, obsession, and boundaries―or lack thereof―influence how we navigate our small worlds, and how those worlds so often collide in ways we don’t expect.Show book
The book reflects the cultural and social changes of the Jazz Age, a time characterized by optimism, decadence, and excess. The stories explore themes of love, wealth, ambition, and disillusionment, as well as the disillusionment of the American Dream. Through his characters, Fitzgerald critiques the morality of the wealthy and the emptiness of their lives. The collection provides a unique insight into the era and captures the spirit and essence of the times. From the flappers and their newfound freedom to the stock market boom and eventual crash, Tales from the Jazz Age is a vivid and captivating portrayal of one of the most fascinating periods in American history.Show book
O. Henry, the pen name for William Sydney Porter wrote over 600 short stories. Naturally I have my personal top 20 stories that just seem to stand out because of their form, writing style and ability to convey real personalities in a very few words. From these 20 I've chosen five that seem outstanding examples of the short story art form. Stories like The Gift of the Magi; The Cop and the Anthem; Man about Town; A Cosmopolite in a Cafe and Mammon and the Archer. So this is a collection of just five O.Henry stories that many people, including me, have loved and remembered over the years. And this time, thanks to LibriVox, I have the enormous pleasure of not just reading them to myself, but also the joy of reading them aloud! What fun, eh?Show book
