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  The Million Pound Note - This...

  Mark Twain

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  Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born in Florida, Missouri on the 30th November 1835 and is far better known by his pen name of Mark Twain.  An American writer and humorist of the first order he is perhaps best known for his novels ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’ and its sequel ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ which are often described with that mythic line The Great American Novel. 
   
  Twain grew up in Hannibal, Missouri which would later provide the backdrop to these great novels.  Apprenticed to a printer he also became a typesetter and then a master riverboat pilot on the Mississippi.  Later, heading west with his brother Orion to make his fortune, he failed at gold mining and instead turned to journalism and thence his true calling as a writer of humorous stories where his wit and humor sparkled from every paragraph, his craft evident with every page and punctured target. 
   
  A staunch supporter of copyright protections this helped him keep much of the wealth his writing created, though much money was also lost on investments that he pursued in his love for science and technology as well as investing in his own inventions. 
    
  Twain was born during a visit by Halley’s comet, and he predicted that he would go out with it as well.  He died the day after its subsequent return on 21st April 1910, at his house, Stormfield, located in Redding, Connecticut.   
   
  In this story Twain proposed that coming into possession of a million pound note should solve all of life’s problems, both big and small.  And he’s right.  For a time it does.  But…. Yes, with Twain, there is always a but.

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  Crome Yellow

  Aldous Huxley

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  The renowned author of Brave New World, Aldous Huxley, made his literary debut with the 1921 classic Crome Yellow. Set in post-WWI England, this perennial favorite satirizes the fads and fashions of the time with the tale of a hapless couple who join a colorful mix of British aristocrats attending a party at a rural country estate.

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  Poor Richards Almanac

  Benjamin Franklin

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  A brief biographical sketch of Franklin's life, followed by a collection (published in 1899) of 670 aphorisms, apothegms, or proverbs - short, pithy, instructive sayings - that were scattered throughout the pages of his Poor Richard's Almanack over its 25 years of once-a-year publication (1732-1758). Many of these sayings are familiar to all . . . "a penny saved is a penny earned" . . . "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" . . . but there are many more for you to laugh at, ponder over and learn from! Most were not invented by him, but these little gems of wisdom Franklin gleaned from all over the world are what made his Almanack so wildly popular, and himself a wealthy man.Benjamin Franklin FRS FRSA FRSE was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher.

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  The Virgin in the Rose Bower -...

  Joyce Carol Oates

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  In this first part of her Gothic mystery trillogy, best-selling author Joyce Carol Oates introduces Xavier Kilgarvan: romantic hero and amateur detective. He must discover who has murdered an innocent babe while it slept in his mother’s arms. This turn-of-the-century tale of monstrous deeds and heart-stopping suspense will leave you eagerly looking for the next Kilgarvan case.

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  The Castle of Otranto

  Horace Walpole

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  The Castle of Otranto is a 1764 novel by Horace Walpole. It is generally held to be the first gothic novel, initiating a literary genre which would become extremely popular in the later 18th century and early 19th century. Thus, Castle, and Walpole by extension is arguably the forerunner to such authors as Ann Radcliffe, Bram Stoker, Daphne du Maurier, and Stephen King.

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  Madame Bovary

  Gustave Flaubert

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  Flaubert's first published novel, Madame Bovary is awash in exquisite 19th century realism and detail. Frequently cited as one of the great masterpieces of literature, Madame Bovary is also renown for it's notorious history. Emma Bovary lived in a world of romantic dreams.  Her selfish and demanding ways led to a gradual corruption that showed her to be an utterly shallow and vain woman, but her escapades and caprices draw us into her story.

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