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  Necropolis of the Gods

  Christopher Cartwright

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  For centuries, legends have whispered of an extraordinary group of ancient people whose lifespans stretched two or three times longer than ordinary people. Though not truly immortal, these enigmatic individuals amassed lifetimes of unparalleled knowledge, their advancements so astonishing that they were mistaken as gods. 
  They shaped humanity’s most extraordinary achievements: the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Ming dynasty’s Treasure Ships, the lost city of Atlantis, the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacán, and a global communication network – known as the Looking Glass – that linked the world four thousand years before Columbus crossed the Atlantic, earning them the title of Master Builders. 
  When the last of the great ones died, their vast knowledge of the ancient world was buried with them in a secret tomb some believed was never meant to be found. If such a necropolis existed, it would be much larger than even the Great Pyramid of Khufu, its treasures eclipsing those of King Tutankhamun, and guarded by an ancient army more formidable than the Terracotta Warriors who protected the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor. 
  With the location of the Necropolis of the Gods now known, Sam Reilly is on a race to reach its inner sanctum before others – equipped with the Elixir of Life – are able to steal its deadly treasures and unlock an ancient army of unimaginable power.

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  Chelkash by Maxim Gorky - A...

  Maxim Gorky

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  Alexei Maximovich Peshkov was born on 28th March 1868, in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. 
   
  Better known as Maxim Gorky he was orphaned at 11 and ran away from home at 12.  At 19 he had already attempted suicide and thereafter travelled, by foot, across the Russian Empire for 5 years. 
   
  His first book ‘Essays & Stories’ in 1898 was a sensation and so began a long career as an author of short stories, novels and plays.  Gorky saw writing as a moral and political act that would help to change the unjust world around him.  He was an ardent early advocate of the emerging Marxist movement and publicly opposed the Tsarist regime leading several times to his arrest.  
   
  In 1904 he began his own theatre but the censor banned every play and Gorky was forced to abandon the project. 
   
  But Gorky was a financially successful author, editor, and playwright and gave monies to political parties as well as for civil rights and social reform.  The brutal shooting of workers, which set in motion the Revolution of 1905, pushed Gorky more decisively toward radical solutions.  
   
  In 1906 he went to the United States to raise funds for the Bolsheviks. Those experiences including a scandal over travelling with his lover and not his wife deepened his contempt for the ‘bourgeois soul.’ 
   
  Gorky now moved to Capri in Italy, both for health reasons and to escape the increasingly repressive times in Russia.  
   
  An amnesty for the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty saw him return to Russia in 1914. His politics remained close to the Bolshevik cause.  But soon, after the 1918 revolution, his essays referred to Lenin as a tyrant for his senseless arrests and repression.  He was soon appealing to the outside world for food aid after the catastrophic crop failure. 
   
  In October 1921 Gorky returned to Italy, now in Fascist hands, and settled in Sorrento until 1932.  His health worsened with the onset of tuberculosis. 
   
  He wrote several successful books there but now decided to find an understanding with the communist regime. Stalin invited him home and his return was hailed as a major propaganda victory.  He was decorated with the Order of Lenin, and a province, a park, and various streets re-named in his honour. 
   
  But he had his faults too.  In 1933, Gorky co-edited a book on the White Sea-Baltic Canal and denied even a single prisoner died during its construction, but thousands had. As well, knowing that some Nazis were homosexual, a phrase was attributed to him that said ‘exterminate all homosexuals and fascism will vanish’.  Although he was himself was quoting another he was decidedly homophobic. 
   
  With the increase of Stalinist repression in 1935 Gorky was placed under unannounced house arrest. 
   
  Maxim Gorky died on the 18th June 1936 from pneumonia.  He was 68. 
   
  Stalin and Molotov were among those who carried Gorky's urn of ashes at his funeral.  
   
  In Gorky’s story, a thief, Chelkash, ensnares a young man into his scheme to steal silk from a ship.  When he then sells the stolen goods he is set upon by the young accomplice.  What happens then is as unexpected as it is remarkable.

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  Aristocratic Education - From...

  Stephen Leacock

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  Stephen P H Butler Leacock FRSC was born on the 30th December 1869 in Swanmore, near Southampton, England, the third of eleven children. 
  The family emigrated to Canada in 1876 to live on a 100-acre farm in Sutton, Ontario.  There Leacock was home-schooled and later enrolled into the elite private school Upper Canada College in Toronto.  Academically he was very strong and enrolled at the University of Toronto to study languages and literature.  He left there after his alcoholic father abandoned the family and finances were too stretched to continue his attendance.  He now enrolled in a three-month course at Strathroy Collegiate Institute to become a qualified high school teacher and with it a regular income. 
  Leacock published humorous articles in many Canadian and US magazines but his real passion was economics and political theory.  In 1899 he enrolled for postgraduate studies at the University of Chicago and earned his PhD in 1903. 
  His marriage to Beatrix Hamilton produced a single child 15 years later.  Over time father and son developed a love-hate relationship, partially caused by his son’s diminutive stature of only four feet.  
  He accepted a post at McGill University and kept it until he retired in 1936.  His work ‘Elements of Political Science’, was adopted as a standard textbook for two decades and was also his most profitable.  He now also began public speaking and lecturing.  
  In 1910, he privately printed some articles as ‘Literary Lapses’.  It was then released by a recognised publisher, and he became a commercially successful writer.  His collections of light-hearted whimsy, parody, nonsense, and satire were now frequently published along with biographies and several award-winning volumes on Canada. 
  Politically Leacock was a difficult creature.  He opposed women’s right to vote, was a champion of Empire but advocated social welfare legislation and wealth redistribution, but he often caused friction with his racist views. 
  Leacock has been forgotten as an economist, but it’s often said that in 1911 more people had heard of him than had heard of Canada.  For the decade after 1915 Leacock was the most popular humorist in the English-speaking world. 
  Stephen Leacock died on 28th March 1944 of throat cancer in Toronto, Canada.  He was 74.

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  The Schoolmistress - and Other...

  Anton Chekhov

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  Experience life and hardships in turn-of-the-century Russia with this collection of provocative stories by one of the greatest writers of all time. Anton Chekhov captures life in late-nineteenth-century Russia with these evocative tales. For example, in “The Schoolmistress,” a hard-working, underpaid schoolteacher contemplates dating a man she knows is terrible for her. In “A Nervous Breakdown,” an idealistic young law student cannot handle what he witnesses after a night in Moscow’s red light district.  The author of such plays as The Cherry Orchard and Uncle Vanya, Anton Chekhov was also a prolific writer of short stories. His style, as present in this collection, will remind readers of other great nineteenth-century authors such as Guy de Maupassant.

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  First Love

  Ivan Turgenev

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  Russia 1833
   
  When a Royal Princess moves into the country house next-door to sixteen year old Vladímir Petróvitch’s parents, Vladímir is sent into the mysterious world of first love, where he must keep his passion burning and not fall too deep into despair as he is pitted against other suitors in-order to win the princess’s hand.
   
  Though it’s not all as it seems…
   
  Through the chase for the princess’s love Vladímir learns of a scandal that will fall deep into the heart of his family and show him how brutal love can be.

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  Charles Dickens: The Complete...

  Charles Dickens

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  This Audiobook contains The Complete Christmas Collections of Charles Dickens:1. A Christmas Carol Start at Chapters 12. A Message From The Sea Start at Chapters 73. Doctor Marigold Start at Chapters 154. Going Into Society Start at Chapters 175. Mrs Lirripers Legacy Start at Chapters 186. Mugby Junction Start at Chapters 217. No Thoroughfare Start at Chapters 258. A Christmas tree Start at Chapters 389. Nobody's Story Start at Chapters 3910. The Child's Story Start at Chapters 4011. The Poor Relation's Story Start at Chapters 4112. The Schoolboy's Story Start at Chapters 4213. What Christmas is as We Grow Older Start at Chapters 4314. Somebodys Luggage Start at Chapters 4415. The Battle of life Start at Chapters 4816. The Chimes Start at Chapters 5417. The Cricket on the Hearth Start at Chapters 6018. The Haunted Man and the Ghosts Bargain Start at Chapters 6619. The Holly Tree Start at Chapters 7220. The Perils Of Certain English Prisoners Start at Chapters 7521. The Seven Poor Travellers Start at Chapters 8022. The Wreck of The Golden Mary Start at Chapters 8323. Tom Tiddlers Ground Start at Chapters 85

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