Other books that might interest you

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  The House In The Woods

  SULI Daniel Johnson

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  Edmund Blake is diving down a deserted road trying to escape the rigors of his life. A collection of unlikely events and irrational decisions lead him to discover a house in the woods. The house from a time long forgotten competes with him to investigate. The endeavor leads him to one terror-stricken mystery after another.

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  Aepyornis Island

  H. G. Wells

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  Herbert George Wells (1866 – 1946) was a prolific English witer, now best remembered for his science fiction novels, and is often credited as being the father of science fiction."Aepyornis Island" is the strange tale of a naturalist who find himself adrift in a canoe in the Indian Ocean, with three mysterious rare giant eggs which he has collected. He knows they are the eggs of the Aepyornis - a bird which has been extinct for hundreds of years. He is amazed when hunger forces him to try one of the eggs, to find that it is fresh. When he opens the second egg several days later, he is horrified to find a still live embryo inside it. Before he is forced to eat the third and final egg, his canoe is cast up on a deserted atoll, where he finds fresh water and plenty of fish in the lagoon. Then the final egg hatches and the strangest part of the adventure begins.

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  DH Lawrence: The Short Stories -...

  D H Lawrence

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  This collection brings together five of Lawrence's short stories from 1907-13 and ranges across all his major early styles and themes. They portray his distinctive vision of relations between men and woman, as well as social and economic life and human nature in general. The stories here concentrate on the details and dramas of everyday living, yet Lawrence is able to make these familiar things seem both vivid and strange, drawing the listener into intense participation with the thoughts and emotional experiences of his characters.
  
  David Shaw-Parker has worked in theatres throughout Britain. He has acted in many radio plays for both BBC World Service and Radio 4 and has made numerous appearances on both BBC and commercial television.

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  The Cat's Pajamas

  Ray Bradbury

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  From the winner of the National Book Foundation's 2000 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters comes a "sweet, funny...thought-provoking" (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) collection of short stories. As in his most recent major fiction collections, One More for the Road (1999) and Driving Blind (1997), Ray Bradbury has once again pulled together a stellar group of stories sure to delight listeners of all ages. In The Cat's Pajamas we are treated to a treasure trove of Bradbury gems, old and new—eerie and strange, nostalgic and bittersweet, searching and speculative—all but two of which have never been published before. The Cat's Pajamas is a joyous celebration of the lifelong work of a literary legend.

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  The Raven and Other Poems

  Edgar Allan Poe

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  When a modern film script draws inspiration from a poem written more than a century ago, readers can judge its impact on our collective imagination. Such is the resonance of the poem "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe. 
  First published in 1845, "The Raven" is a masterpiece of atmosphere, rhythmic quality and use of language. Constructed in narrative form, it tells the story of a young man who is mourning the loss of his beloved. One December night as he wearily sits up browsing through a classical volume, a mysterious tapping against his window disturbs him. When he opens it to investigate, a strange and mournful raven enters his room and perches on the bust of a Greek goddess inside. The rest of the poem deals with the melancholy and mournful one-sided conversation between the two. The narrator desperately questions the Raven about Lenore, his lost love, but the Raven only gives a single dismal word "Nevermore" in reply. What happens to the narrator in the course of this conversation makes up the rest of the poem. 
  Beside The Raven, there are Alone; A Dream Within A Dream; Annabel Lee; City In the Sea; The Bells; A Dream Within a Dream; Annabel Lee; Dreamland; Evening Star; Lenore; Eldorado; A Valentine and "The Happiest Day".

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  Three Wars

  Emile Zola

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  Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola was born in Paris on 2nd April 1840.  When he was 3 the family moved to Aix-en-Provence in the southeast. At 7 his father died, leaving the family on a meagre pension. In 1858, they returned to Paris. His mother had planned a law career for Émile, but he failed his baccalauréat examination twice. 
   
  He took jobs as a clerk in a shipping firm and then in the sales department for the publisher Hachette. Zola also wrote political, literary and art reviews for newspapers.  
   
  As a writer Zola wrote numerous short stories, essays, plays and novels. When ‘La Confession de Claude’ was published and received the attention of the police Hachette fired him.  He continued to write and after his first major novel, ‘Thérèse Raquin’ (1867), Zola started the series called ‘Les Rougon-Macquart’, a carefully planned twenty-volume history of a single family under the reign of Napoléon III.  
   
  With the publication of ‘L'Assommoir’, Zola became wealthy. His subsequent works, ‘Nana’ and La Débâcle fared even better, increasing both fame and bank balance. He was now a figurehead of the literary bourgeoisie.  However, despite several nominations, he was never elected to the prestigious Académie Française. 
   
  The infamous Dreyfus Affair infuriated Zola who wrote in defence of Alfred Dreyfus.  His plan was to be prosecuted for libel so that the truth would be exposed.  It went badly wrong.  Zola was convicted for criminal libel in February 1898 and removed from the Legion of Honour. The judgment was overturned but a new suit began. Zola fled to England only to return when an Amnesty was granted.  Zola said of the affair, "The truth is on the march, and nothing shall stop it." 
   
  Émile Zola died on 29th September 1902 of carbon monoxide poisoning caused by an improperly ventilated chimney.  
   
  On 4th June 1908 Zola’s remains were transferred to the Panthéon, where he shares a crypt with Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas.

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