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  The Royal Game - A Chess Story

  Stefan Zweig

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  The fame of the "The Royal Game" is evident in the number of translations. The last work of the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig can be read today in over 60 languages. The first translation into English appeared in New York in 1944. In Germany, the book has become a constant bestseller. The first-person narrator learns of the presence of the world chess champion Mirko Czentovic on a boat trip from New York to Buenos Aires. Together with his acquaintance Mc Connor and other chess players, the first-person narrator manages to challenge the world champion to a game of chess. 
  As expected, Mc Connor and the others clearly lose the first game. In the second game, the only way they can get is with the help of a strange man who later turns himself into Dr. B imagines preventing an embarrassing defeat at the last moment and getting a draw. Fascinated by the talent of Dr. B's, the first-person narrator asks him to take on Czentovic. Dr. B. agrees. During the conversation, Dr. B. under what tragic circumstances he started playing chess. 
  This narration is based on the English translation of the novel, which was created in 2020 by Philip Knueppel for Aureon Verlag GmbH.

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  Alexander Pushkin - A Short...

  Alexander Pushkin

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  Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin was born on 26th May 1799 in Moscow into a family of Russian nobility. 
   
  Raised by nursemaids and French tutors in French he learnt Russian only via the household staff. 
   
  He graduated from the prestigious Imperial Lyceum, near St Petersburg and plunged into the vibrant and raucous intellectual youth culture of what was then the capital of the Russian Empire.  
   
  In 1820, he published his first long poem, ‘Ruslan and Ludmila’, with much controversy about both subject and style.  Pushkin was heavily influenced by the French Enlightenment and gravitated, with other literary radicals, towards social reform angering the Government. 
   
  His early literary work and reputation was poetic and written as he travelled around the Empire or engaged himself in various rebellions against the Ottoman Empire.  A clash with his own government after his poem, ‘Ode to Liberty’, was found among the belongings of the Decembrist Uprising rebels meant two years of internal exile at his mother's rural estate.  His friends and family continually petitioned for his release, sending letters and meeting with Tsar Alexander I and then Tsar Nicholas I.   
   
  In 1825, whilst at his Mother’s estate, Pushkin wrote his most famous play, the drama ‘Boris Godunov’.  
   
  Upon meeting with Tsar Nicholas I, Pushkin obtained his release and began work as the Tsar's Titular Counsel of the National Archives.  However, because of the earlier problems the tsar retained control of everything Pushkin published, and he was banned from travelling at will. 
   
  Around 1828, Pushkin met the 16-year-old Natalia Goncharova, one of the most talked-about beauties of Moscow.  After much hesitation, Natalia accepted his marriage proposal after she received assurances that the government had no intentions to persecute the libertarian poet.  When the Tsar gave Pushkin the lowest court title, Gentleman of the Chamber, he became enraged, feeling that the Tsar intended to humiliate him. 
   
  In the year 1831, during Pushkin's growing literary influence, he met Nikolai Gogol.  Recognising his gifts Pushkin supported him and published his short stories in his own magazine ‘The Contemporary’. 
   
  By the autumn of 1836, Pushkin was falling into greater and greater debt and facing scandalous rumours that his wife was having an affair.  
   
  In January 1837, Pushkin sent a ‘highly insulting letter’ to his wife’s pursuer, Georges-Charles de Heeckeren d'Anthès.  The only answer could be a challenge to a duel. 
   
  It took place on 27th January.  D'Anthès fired first, critically wounding Pushkin; the bullet entered at his hip and penetrated his abdomen.  Two days later Alexander Pushkin died of peritonitis.  He was 37. 
   
  1 - Alexander Pushkin - A Short Story Collection - An Introduction 
  2 - The Queen of Spades by Alexander Pushkin 
  3 - The Blizzard by Alexander Pushkin 
  4 - The Stationmaster by Alexander Pushkin 
  5 - The Shot by Alexander Pushkin 
  6 - The Coffin Maker by Alexander Pushkin 
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  1 - Cornwall - A Short Story Collection - An Introduction 
  2 - Malachi's Cove by Anthony Trollope 
  3 - Ligeia by Edgar Allan Poe 
  4 - The Screaming Skull by F Marion Crawford 
  5 - The Haunted Church by Frederick Cowles 
  6 - The Limping Ghost by Frederick Cowles 
  7 - In the Mist by Mary E Penn 
  8 - The Botathen Ghost from Footprints of Former Men in Far Cornwall by the Reverend R S Hawker 
  9 - Room For One by Frederick Cowles 
  10 - Colonel Benyon's Entanglement by Mary Elizabeth Braddon 
  11 - Christmas Eve at a Cornish Manor House by Clara Venn

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  A Shade of Difference

  Allen Drury

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  Racial tensions threaten to sink the US in this sequel to the Pulitzer Prize–winning Advise and Consent from the #1 New York Times–bestselling author.   From Allen Drury, the twentieth-century grand master of political fiction, comes a novel of the United Nations and the racial friction that could spark a worldwide powder keg.   International tensions rise as ambassadors and politicians scheme, using the independence of a small African nation as the focal point for hidden agendas. A cascade of events begun in the General Assembly Hall of the United Nations could lead to the weakening of the United States, the loss of the Panama Canal, and a possible civil war. Allen Drury paints a vivid and laser-accurate portrait of Washington and international politics, from top secret conferences, to elite cocktail parties, club luncheon rooms, and the private offices of the key players in government.  Praise for Allen Drury and A Shade of Difference   “On every page you hear the drums of jeopardy. This is a measure of Mr. Drury’s mastery. He has a remarkable skill for keeping not only his characters but also his readers in dramatic turmoil. There are hardly any bystanders in his dramatis personae.” —The New York Times   “The market that found Advise and Consent enormously readable will take this in stride. Here is another contemporary-and beyond-novel dealing with the chitchat as well as the more profound thoughts on issues that are with us—yesterday, today, tomorrow.” —Kirkus Reviews   “Drury’s stories are detailed and compelling portraits of the machinery of government as relevant today as when they were first published.” —HuffPost

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  Candide

  Voltaire

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  "Candide, or Optimism" is a satirical novella written by the French philosopher Voltaire, first published in 1759. It follows the adventures of the young Candide, who is raised in a utopian world and taught that “all is for the best.” The narrative takes him through a series of misfortunes, exposing him to the harsh realities of the world, ultimately leading him to question his optimistic beliefs. Voltaire uses Candide’s journey to satirize religion, governments, the military, and the philosophy of optimism, particularly as espoused by Leibniz. "Candide" is considered one of the greatest achievements of Western literature

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  The Battle of Life

  Charles Dickens

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  The Battle of Life: A Love Story is a novella by Charles Dickens, 1st published in 1846. It's the 4th of his five "Christmas Books", coming after The Cricket on the Hearth, followed by The Haunted Man & the Ghost's Bargain.The setting is an English village that stands on the site of a historic battle. Some characters refer to the battle as a metaphor for the struggles of life, hence the title.Battle is the only one of the five Christmas Books that has no supernatural or explicitly religious elements. (One scene takes place at Christmas time, but it isn't the final scene.) The story bears some resemblance to The Cricket on the Hearth in two aspects: it has a non-urban setting & it's resolved with a romantic twist. It's even less of a social novel than is Cricket. As is typical with Dickens, the ending is a happy one.It's one of Dickens' lesser-known works & has never attained any high level of popularity, a trait it shares among the Christmas Books with The Haunted Man.

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  Ilyas

  Leo Tolstoy

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  A story of a successful farmer Ilyas who grew into one of the wealthiest in the area only to loose it all through series of bad accidents. He finds his happiness however only after loosing all his possessions and achieving peace for himself and his wife. Read in English, unabridged.

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