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  The Blue Hotel - A Stephen Crane...

  Stephen Crane

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  The Blue HotelThe Blue Hotel is considered one of Crane's finest three short stories, along with the Open Boat and The Bride comes to Yellow Sky. The story starts with the hotel owner trolling for guests at the train station and finding three, the Swede, the Cowboy, and the Easterner. As with many stories the personalities are known by their titles not their names; the two known by their names are the hotel keeper, Scully, and his son Johnny. The first major event is in a play for fun no money card game in which the Swede accuses Johnny of cheating. Johnny skillfully defends himself by saying he won't put up with the accusation, while side stepping the truth of the matter. The Swede is all worked up; no one comes to his rescue; he has a fight with the boy; wins; and leaves. He goes to the local saloon and gets into event number 2 in challenging the gambler after he won't take a drink. As with most Crane stories, the irony is building as the story goes on. Also, in the spirit of the literary times, as reflected in Spoon River by Edgar Lee Masters and Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson, this is the key moment in the story that could change everything. The gambler does not take the free drink; he winds up killing the Swede; he goes to jail and the Swede is dead. He could have just taken the drink and didn't. Later the Easterner tells the Cowboy that no, Johnny wasn't innocent, he was cheating and the Easterner didn't have the guts to stop it by speaking out. Then the Swede would have stayed in the hotel and wouldn't have died. Another landmark story with the last turn of events topping it off.Keywords: Stephen Crane, The Open Boat, The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky, Winesburg, Ohio, Spoon River, Sherwood Anderson, Edgar Lee Masters.

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  The Two Barques

  Arthur Conan Doyle

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  The Two Barques is a short story by Arthur Conan Doyle first published in the Pearson's Magazine in march 1897. 2nd story of the Captain Sharkey saga.In Kingston, an elderly logwood-cutter saw Captain Sharkey's pirate barque, the Happy Delivery, careening at Torbec on the south-west of Hispaniola, as well as Sharkey himself, with four men, buccaneering on the outlying island of La Vache. Stephen Craddock, an adventurer comes to the Governor Sir Edward Compton with a plan for the extirpation of Sharkey. He want to use the sister ship of the Happy Delivery, the White Rose, and set sail for the Island of La Vache, where Sharkey is slaying the wild oxen. When Sharkey will see the White Rose he will surely mistake it for his own vessel which he is awaiting, and he will come on board to his own undoing. The plan is accepted by the Governor and Craddock set sail to La Vache with a crew of volunteers. When they arrive to La Vache, no sign of Sharkey. They search him in the forest for a few days but finally they decide to return to their boat. When they arrive on board something is strange, as if it was not the same ship, and suddenly they are captured by Sharkey on the deck. They are on the pirate ship the Happy Delivery which came back from its careening upon the very day that they left in the forest. Then the White Rose is scuttled in the bay. Craddock, bruised and wounded in soul and body, is thrown into a dark sail-room. For two days, the Happy Delivery set sail to Jamaica. When he arrives to Port-Royal, Sharkey, with that diabolical cunning and audacity which were among his main characteristics, is simulating the part which Craddock would himself have played had he come back victorious. Sharkey exhibits Craddock on the deck so that the other side could fall into the trap but the later has sprung the bulwarks and is swimming for his life. He is hit and hit again by pistol shots but is still swimming. Irritated, Sharkey takes his musket and fired a fatal blow on Craddock.

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  Christmas Tales

  Lucy Maud Montgomery

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  This work is a selection of Christmas stories (or sometimes chapters) of Lucy Maud Montgomery from different sources and different times. The focus is widened a bit to include a few works about Thanksgiving Day and New Year’s Day. LMM was a prolific Canadian author in the early 20th century whose works were very popular in her own country as well as the United States, and indeed around the world. Perhaps her most read novel was her first, Anne Of Green Gables. Lucy Maud Montgomery OBE, published as L. M. Montgomery, was a Canadian author best known for a collection of novels, essays, short stories, and poetry beginning in 1908 with Anne of Green Gables. She published 20 novels as well as 530 short stories, 500 poems, and 30 essays.

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  Merry Wives of Windsor The (Argo...

  William Shakespeare

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  William Collins Books and Decca Records are proud to present ARGO Classics, a historic catalogue of classic prose and verse read by some of the world’s most renowned voices. Originally released as vinyl records, these expertly remastered stories are now available to download for the first time. 
  ‘Why, then the world ’s mine oyster, 
  Which I with sword will open.’ 
  Double-meanings, disguises and dirty laundry abound as Sir John Falstaff sets about improving his financial situation by wooing Mistress Page and Mistress Ford. But the ‘Merry Wives’ quickly cotton on to his tricks and decide to have a bit of fun of their own at Falstaff’s expense. 
  All of the Shakespeare plays within the ARGO Classics catalogue are performed by the Marlowe Dramatic Society and Professional Players. The Marlowe was founded in 1907 with a mission to focus on effective delivery of verse, respect the integrity of texts, and rescue neglected plays by Shakespeare’s contemporaries and the less performed plays of Shakespeare himself. The Marlowe has performed annually at Cambridge Arts Theatre since its opening in 1936 and continues to produce some of the finest actors of their generations. 
  Thurston Dart, Professor of Music at London University and a Fellow of Jesus College Cambridge, directed the music for this production. 
  The full cast includes: Patrick Wymark; Peter Orr; Terrence Hardiman; Gordon Gardner; Frank Duncan; Anthony Arlidge; Dudley Jones; Roy Dotrice; David Buck; Anthony Handy; Tony Church; Philip Strick; Freda Dowie; Norman Mitchell; Raymond Clarke; Geraldine McEwan; Angela Baddeley; Susan Maryott; Beatrix Lehmann. 
  This top performing play is a testament to the best of European theatre, a short but impactful piece that continues to captivate audiences. The Merry Wives are not just characters, but a testament to Shakespeare's comedic genius. 
  For fans of Richard Parsons (GCSE English Shakespeare Text Guide), and Arthur Miller (Incident at Vichy).

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  Sherwood Anderson - A Short...

  Sherwood Anderson

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  Sherwood Anderson was born on 13th September 1876 in Camden, Ohio. 
   
  When his father’s business failed the family was forced to move on a regular basis before finally settling in Clyde, Ohio.   
   
  Anderson, one of 7 children, left school at 14 to take a number of jobs to help with the family finances. These were difficult years. 
   
  He moved to Chicago in search of opportunities before joining the Army for the US-Spanish War of 1898.  He then entered Wittenberg Academy in Springfield, Ohio to complete his education before moving back to Chicago to take up a writing job. 
   
  In 1904 he married Cornelia Lane, her family had resources and Anderson was keen, with this family backing, to run a business. 
   
  The early years of their marriage produced 3 children but a nervous breakdown in 1907 and another in 1912, despite his success as a business entrepreneur, resulted in him abandoning his family and deciding that a literary career would be best for him.   
   
  A move back to Chicago resulted in a job in advertising, a divorce from Cornelia and marriage to Tennessee Mitchell.  
   
  That same year his first book ‘Windy McPherson’s Son’ was released and in 1919, his most famous book, ‘Winesburg, Ohio’, a collection of short stories about life in an Ohio town was released. 
   
  Anderson continued to write short stories, novels and non-fiction but his only true bestseller came with ‘Dark Laughter’.  His influence on writers that followed, from Faulkner to Hemingway, was immense. He also married a further two times.   
   
  Sherwood Anderson died in in Colón, Panama, on the 8th March, 1941. He was 64. An autopsy revealed that a swallowed toothpick had resulted in peritonitis. 
   
  His headstone epitaph reads ‘Life, Not Death is the Great Adventure.’ 
  1 - Sherwood Anderson - A Short Story Collection - An Introduction - Volume 2 
  2 - Seeds by Sherwood Anderson 
  3 - Senility by Sherwood Anderson 
  4 - Adventure by Sherwood Anderson 
  5 - War by Sherwood Anderson 
  6 - The Strength of God by Sherwood Anderson 
  7 - Death by Sherwood Anderson

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  Persuasion

  Jane Austen

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  Persuasion follows the romance of Anne Elliot and naval officer Frederick Wentworth. They were happily engaged until Anne’s friend, Lady Russell, persuaded her that Frederick was “unworthy.” Now, eight years later, Frederick returns, a wealthy captain in the navy, while Anne’s family teeters on the edge of bankruptcy. They still love each other, but their past mistakes threaten to keep them apart.An Author's Republic audio production.

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