Other books that might interest you

• 

  Ineligible - A Simon Iff Occult...

  Aleister Crowley

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Edward Alexander Crowley was born on 12th October 1875 to wealthy parents in Royal Leamington Spa in Warwickshire. 
   
  He was educated at Malvern College, Tonbridge School, Eastbourne College and finally Trinity College, Cambridge where he focused on his passions of mountaineering and poetry and published several volumes. 
   
  Life for Crowley was to abandon his parents’ Christian faith and instead to inject himself into Western esotericism.  In 1898, he joined the esoteric Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and was trained in ceremonial magic before studying both Hindu and Buddhist practices in India. 
   
  On his Egyptian honeymoon in 1904 he claimed contact with an entity―Aiwass―who gave him the sacred Book of the Law which served as the basis for the Thelema religion where he identified as its prophet.  During the Great War, which he spent in the United States, he claimed to be working for British Intelligence but by the 1920s he had decamped to pursue a libertine lifestyle in Sicily, and in the ensuing scandals was evicted by the Italian Government. 
   
  He divided the following two decades between France, Germany, and England, and the continuing promotion of Thelema. 
   
  During his life he gained widespread notoriety for his drug use, his bisexuality, and his alarming views on society.  In short, polite society frowned on his ways, his thoughts and his influence but to many others his stance had much of value.  Even after death he was a darling for the 60’s counterculture but his influence has since waned.   
   
  His literary works were both prolific and covered many topics.  In the early part of his career he published many poetry books, even plays, before his darker and more forceful works came to dominate his output. 
   
  Aleister Crowley died on 1st December 1947 at Hastings in England. He was 72.

  Show book

• 

  The Chimes - A Lost Christmas...

  Charles Dickens

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In, commonly referred to as The Chimes, is a novella written by Charles Dickens first published in 1844, one year after A Christmas Carol. It is the second in his series of "Christmas books," five novellas with strong social and moral messages he published during the 1840s. In addition to A Christmas Carol and The Chimes, the Christmas books include The Cricket on the Hearth (1845), The Battle of Life (1846), and The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain (1848). 
   
  Charles John Huffam Dickens FRSA was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.

  Show book

• 

  The Murders in the Rue Morgue

  Edgar Allan Poe

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The Murders in the Rue Morgue is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe published in Graham's Magazine in 1841. It has been recognized as the first modern detective story; Poe referred to it as one of his "tales of ratiocination". Two works that share some similarities predate Poe's stories, including Das Fräulein von Scuderi (1819) by E. T. A. Hoffmann and Zadig (1747) by Voltaire. C. Auguste Dupin is a man in Paris who solves the mystery of the brutal murder of two women. Numerous witnesses heard a suspect, though no one agrees on what language was spoken.     At the murder scene, Dupin finds a hair that does not appear to be human. As the first fictional detective, Poe's Dupin displays many traits which became literary conventions in subsequent fictional detectives, including Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. Many later characters, for example, follow Poe's model of the brilliant detective, his personal friend who serves as narrator, and the final revelation being presented before the reasoning that leads up to it. Dupin himself reappears in "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt" and "The Purloined Letter".

  Show book

• 

  The Making of a Marchioness

  Frances Hodgson Burnett

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The Making of a Marchioness is Frances Hodgson Burnett’s delightful take on the Cinderella story. Born into an aristocratic family, Emily Fox-Seton is left penniless and must fend for herself after the death of her parents. Then one summer, everything changes.  This audio edition is read by Lucy Scott. Emily rents a room in a boarding house in London where she makes a modest  living as an assistant to aristocratic ladies. One summer, Lady Maria Bayne asks Emily to her country estate and it’s there that Emily receives a very surprising offer of marriage from a wealthy widower in need of a wife. But Emily’s new life is not without its own obstacles and challenges.The Making of a Marchioness is part of the Persephone Audiobook Collection, a series of forgotten classics including neglected fiction and non-fiction by women writers. First published in 1901, this edition includes a preface by Isabel Raphael and an afterword by Gretchen Gerzina.

  Show book

• 

  Catriona

  Robert Louis Stevenson

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  "Catriona, also known as David Balfour, is an 1893 novel written by Robert Louis Stevenson as a sequel to his earlier work, Kidnapped (1886) 1. The novel continues the story of the central character, David Balfour.    The plot unfolds in two distinct parts:      Edinburgh    Edinburgh, Scotland (1751): The book begins precisely where Kidnapped ends, at 2 pm on August 25, 1751, outside the British Linen Company in Edinburgh, Scotland. David Balfour endeavors to seek justice for James Stewart (James of the Glens), who has been arrested and charged with complicity in the Appin Murder. Despite his efforts, David is once again kidnapped and confined on the Bass Rock, an island in the Firth of Forth, until James' trial concludes, resulting in James being condemned to death. During this time, David falls in love with Catriona MacGregor Drummond, the daughter of James More, also held in prison. Catriona engineers her father's escape 1.    Holland    Holland: In the second part, David and Catriona travel to Holland, where David studies law at the University of Leyden. Catriona, having no money, is under David's protection. James More eventually arrives but proves to be a disappointment, living off David's largesse. David learns of his uncle Ebenezer's death and discovers that he has inherited a substantial fortune. Despite misunderstandings, David and Catriona remain fast friends. James and Catriona eventually find their way to Dunkirk in northern France. Meanwhile, Alan Breck joins David in Leyden and imparts his wisdom on understanding women 1.  Catriona weaves together adventure, romance, and the complexities of human relationships, making it a captivating continuation of David Balfour's journey"

  Show book

• 

  To Build A Fire

  Jack London

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  To Build A Fire is the best known of all London's stories. It tells the story of a new arrival to the Klondike who stubbornly ignores warnings about the folly of traveling alone. He falls through the ice into a creek in seventy-below weather, and his survival depends on being able to build a fire and dry his clothes, which he is unable to do. The famous version of this story was published in 1908.

  Show book