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  A Profitable Weakness - From...

  George Gissing

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  George Robert Gissing was born on November 22nd, 1857 in Wakefield, Yorkshire.  
  He was educated at Back Lane School in Wakefield. Gissing loved school. He was enthusiastic with a thirst for learning and always diligent.  By the age of ten he was reading Dickens, a lifelong hero. 
  In 1872 Gissing won a scholarship to Owens College. Whilst there Gissing worked hard but remained solitary. Unfortunately, he had run short of funds and stole from his fellow students. He was arrested, prosecuted, found guilty, expelled and sentenced to a month's hard labour in 1876. 
  On release he decided to start over.  In September 1876 he travelled to the United States. Here he wrote short stories for the Chicago Tribune and other newspapers. On his return home he was ready for novels. 
  Gissing self-published his first novel but it failed to sell.  His second was acquired but never published. His writing career was static.  Something had to change.  And it did. 
  By 1884 The Unclassed was published.  Now everything he wrote was published. Both Isabel Clarendon and Demos appeared in 1886. He mined the lives of the working class as diligently as any capitalist. 
  In 1889 Gissing used the proceeds from the sale of The Nether World to go to Italy. This trip formed the basis for his 1890 work The Emancipated. 
  Gissing's works began to command higher payments. New Grub Street (1891) brought a fee of £250.  
  Short stories followed and in 1895, three novellas were published; Eve's Ransom, The Paying Guest and Sleeping Fires. Gissing was careful to keep up with the changing attitudes of his audience.  
  Unfortunately, he was also diagnosed as suffering from emphysema. The last years of his life were spent as a semi-invalid in France but he continued to write. 1899; The Crown of Life. Our Friend the Charlatan appeared in 1901, followed two years later by The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft. 
  George Robert Gissing died aged 46 on December 28th, 1903 after catching a chill on a winter walk.

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  Charlotte Mew - Chapter & Verse...

  Charlotte][AUTHOR Mew

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  Literature is a world of words and wonder, able to take us on almost unimaginable journeys from the wild and fantastic to the grind and minutiae of life. 
   
  An author’s ideas are his building blocks, his architecture of the mind, building a structure on which all else will rest; the narrative, the characters, the words - those few words that begin the adventure. 
   
  In this series we look at some of our leading classic authors across two genres: the short story and the poem.  In this modern world there is an insatiable need to categorise and pigeon-hole everyone and everything.  But ideas, these grains and saplings of the brain, need to roam, to explore and find their perfect literary use vehicle.  Our authors are masters of many literary forms, perhaps known for one but themselves favouring another. 
   
  Story. Poems. Story.  Within these boundaries come all manner of invention and cast of characters.  And, of course, each author has their own way of revealing their own chapter and verse.    
   
  1 - Chapter & Verse - Charlotte Mew - An Introduction 
  2 - Some Ways of Love by Charlotte Mew 
  3 - Fin de Fete by Charlotte Mew 
  4 - The Fete by Charlotte Mew 
  5 - In the Fields by Charlotte Mew 
  6 - Moorland Night by Charlotte Mew 
  7 - The Farmer's Bride by Charlotte Mew 
  8 - The Forest Road by Charlotte Mew 
  9 - On the Road to the Sea by Charlotte Mew 
  10 - Sea Love by Charlotte  Mew 
  11 - Madeline in Church by Charlotte Mew  
  12 - Ken by Charlotte Mew 
  13 - The Centoaph by Charlotte Mew 
  14 - In Nunhead Cemetery by Charlotte Mew 
  15 - Passed by Charlotte Mew

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  The Overtone

  D H Lawrence

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  'The Overtone' looks at a sterile marriage with no children and no spontaneous sexual feeling between the couple. Lawrence seems to lose interest in the story, although he introduces a younger woman, who walks away baffled at the end. His purpose seems to be to analyse the relationship between men and women in religious terms - Christianity for the women and the old Pan religion for the men. Lawrence produces some fine writing but the argument at the end of the story seems contrived.

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  The Snow Bridge and Other Stories

  Philip Chatting

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  The settings of the stories in The Snow Bridge and Other Stories are drawn from a life spent in many countries. Several focus intently on a particular relationship: that between a husband and wife, mother and daughter, brothers, friends, partners, climbing-buddies, employer and employee; the relationship with an inner self; putative relationships that never quite begin, and relationships with a location, or the inhabitants of a small town. Other stories explore the long-term expatriate’s dilemma of engaging with a place not his or her own at the price of diminishing intimacy with the country of his or her birth. Described in Philip Chatting’s, ‘Author’s Introduction’, as, “entertainment”, the impact of the collection may prompt readers to reflect on the nature of their own relationships and the place we each occupy in our own worlds.“Philip Chatting is a master stylist…. He invests himself in the traumatic conflict, character identification, and ethical complication that sit at the heart of the heart of necessary and affecting social fiction.”--Jason S Polley (from his 'Advance Response' to 'The Snow Bridge and Other Stories')“The range of locations and…variety of characters…rarely come together in a single volume…. A unique collection reflecting the author’s varied history and his interests in the countries and cultures of the people among whom he has lived and travelled. It will appeal to those who share or would like to share similar experiences, as well as those who are curious to know about them.”--Mike Rowse (from his 'Preface' to 'The Snow Bridge and Other Stories')

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  The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

  F Scott itzgerald

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  "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a fantastical tale with some Poe-like overtones. It's about a baby born at age 70 who then lives life in reverse, with his hair turning from white to iron-gray over the dozen years of his life and the network of wrinkles on his face becoming less pronounced. The ramifications of this create fantastical situations in Benjamin's relationships with his father, his wife, and his son.

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  Bodies from the Library 6:...

  Tony Medawar

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  Bodies from the Library brings into the daylight the forgotten, the lost and the unknown, and the 2023 volume is another indispensable collection for crime fans. 
  The sixth volume of Bodies from the Library includes the usual eclectic mix of pre- and post-war stories by classic crime and thriller writers. Unearthed from ephemeral publications, newspapers and magazines, some of these ‘lost’ stories are by authors who have appeared in previous volumes, with others who are new to the series: 
  We welcome back to the Library familiar Golden Age detective writers in the form of stories by Christianna Brand, Alice Campbell, Joseph Commings and Cyril Hare, a previously unknown novella by Anthony Gilbert, and a short novel by Margery Allingham. 
  We also welcome for the first time George Bellairs, Victor Whitechurch and Andrew Garve, with E. C. Bentley’s ‘Greedy Night’ providing a humorous parody of Dorothy L. Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey, before five thriller writers including Geoffrey Household and Dennis Wheatley round off the collection with an unusual and exciting round-robin novella. 
  And, whether this is your first encounter with Bodies or a return to the Library, we welcome you, the reader. Complete with revealing biographies of all 16 featured authors by Tony Medawar, we hope you will find this to be an indispensable collection for your bookshelf. 
  This anthology, curated by Tony Medawar, is a treasure trove of the best and top thrillers from the historical and traditional crime fiction genre. Each story is a testament to the author's unique storytelling prowess, making it a must-have for every aficionado's bookshelf. 
  For fans of Tony Medawar (Ghosts from the Library), Mike Ripley (Mr Campion's Memory), Ann Cleeves (The Raging Storm), and Cecily Gayford (Murder under the Christmas Tree). 
  HarperCollins 2023

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