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  The Queen of Spades

  Alexander Pushkin

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  The Queen of Spades by Alexander Pushkin is offered here in a clean English digital edition prepared for fluent ebook reading. The work stands within classics and gives modern readers direct access to a public-domain classic with navigable structure and a restrained typographic presentation. The opening pages establish the book's atmosphere with this first movement: THERE was a card party at the rooms of Naroumoff, a lieutenant in the Horse Guards. A long winter night had passed unnoticed, and it was five o'clock in the morning when supper was served. The winners sat down to table with an excellent appetite; the losers let their plates remain empty before them. This edition is suited to readers who want a reliable, uncluttered version of the text for study, rediscovery, and sustained reading.

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  Sun Also Rises The: The...

  Ernest Hemingway

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  The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway is a landmark novel of the 20th century that captures the disillusionment and aimlessness of the post–World War I generation, often referred to as the "Lost Generation." The story follows Jake Barnes, an American journalist living in Paris, and his circle of expatriate friends—including the charismatic and troubled Lady Brett Ashley—as they travel from the cafés of Montparnasse to the bullfighting arenas of Pamplona. With Hemingway's signature sparse prose and understated emotional depth, the novel explores themes of love, identity, masculinity, and the quest for meaning in a world forever changed by war. A poignant reflection on human resilience and vulnerability, this novel remains one of Hemingway’s most enduring and influential works.

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  Mary Postgate - From their pens...

  Rudyard Kipling

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  Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born in Mumbai, India on 30th December 1865.   
  As was the custom in those days, he and his sister were sent back to England when he was 5.  The ill-treatment and cruelty by the Portsmouth couple they boarded with Kipling said contributed to the onset of his literary life.  
  At 16 he returned to India to work on a local paper where he was soon contributing and writing.  It also exposed him to the issues of identity and national allegiance which pervade much of his work.  
  In 1886, his ‘Departmental Ditties’, collection of verse appeared in print followed by 39 short stories for his newspaper over only 8 months.  These were then published as ‘Plain Tales from the Hills’, shortly after his 22nd birthday.  
  He continued his prolific pace of writing before being dismissed in a dispute and, taking his pay-off and the profits from the sale of some publishing rights, decided to return to London, travelling via Rangoon, Hong Kong, Japan and the United States, all the while writing articles, and arriving at Liverpool in October 1889. 
  Over the next two years he saw further works published as books and in magazines, as well as a nervous breakdown for which he was prescribed a sea voyage, to South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and India.  
  Happier times came with marriage to Caroline Starr Balestier in January 1892.  The honeymoon began in Vermont and ended in Yokahama where they heard their bank had failed.  They returned to Vermont and settled.  Caroline was now pregnant and he was planning the ‘Jungle Books’.  
  A failed arbitration between the US and England resulted in an argument between Caroline’s brother and Kipling, and then his arrest.  At the hearing he was mortified by the exposure of his private life and after settling the matter they returned to England and life in Torquay.  ‘Kim’ was published in 1902, and ‘Just So Stories for Little Children’, a year later.  
  In 1907 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature with the citation “in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration which characterise the creations of this world-famous author”.   
  When the Great War erupted, he scorned those who refused conscription.  His son enlisted and was killed at the Battle of Loos in September 1915, at 18, an exploding shell had ripped his face apart.  This death inspired Kipling’s writing thereafter, but the tragedy broke his life and by 1930 his prolific pen had almost ceased. 
  Rudyard Kipling died on 18th January 1936 from a perforated duodenal ulcer.  He was 70.  His ashes are buried at Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey.

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  Beyond the Wall

  Ambrose Bierce

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  This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. 
  On a stormy night in San Francisco, the narrator visits Mohun Dampier, an old friend he has not seen in years. He finds him living alone in a strange tower on a hill, pale, aged beyond his years and waiting for something. 
   
  Then a soft knocking comes from the wall. Dampier knows that sound well. Long ago, a lonely young woman lived on the other side of a thin wall, and they spoke to each other with gentle taps. Then came the night he chose not to answer. 
   
  First published in 1907, Beyond the Wall is one of Ambrose Bierce's most haunting stories. It is a melancholy ghost story about love, pride and regret that echoes long after the final knock. 
   
  Listen to the complete, unabridged audiobook of this classic tale of supernatural horror by the master of American dark fiction.

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  The Island of Doctor Moreau

  H. G. Wells

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  This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. Edward Pendrick, the sole survivor of a shipwreck, lands on a mysterious island inhabited by the eccentric, brilliant scientist Dr. Moreau and his assistant Montgomery. Dr. Moreau's passion is physiology - he incessantly works on crossbreeding various animal species, simultaneously enriching them with human traits. These horrifying and macabre experiments soon spiral out of control, unleashing true horror on the island. 
   
  "The Island of Doctor Moreau" is not only a commentary on the theory of evolution, divine creation, or the nature-culture dichotomy. Contemporary readers will easily discover that Herbert George Wells' book, despite being over 120 years old since its publication, still seems remarkably relevant. In the face of new discoveries in biotechnology, cloning techniques, and genetic modification of organisms, it takes on a prophetic character. Wells once again demonstrates that the progress of science not only offers humanity hope for a better future but can also lead our species to the brink of destruction.

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  The Parting of the Ways

  Lucy Maud Montgomery

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  Lucy Maud Montgomery (November 30, 1874 – April 24, 1942), published as L. M. Montgomery, was a Canadian author best known for a series of novels beginning in 1908 with Anne of Green Gables. The book was an immediate success. The title character, orphan Anne Shirley, made Montgomery famous in her lifetime and gave her an international following.
  The Parting of The Ways: Mrs. Longworth crossed the hotel piazza, descended the steps, and walked out of sight down the shore road with all the grace of motion that lent distinction to her slightest movement. Her eyes were very bright, and an unusual flush stained the pallor of her cheek. Two men who were lounging in one corner of the hotel piazza looked admiringly after her.

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