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  Middlemarch (Book 7: Two...

  George Eliot

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  Middlemarch (Book 7: Two Temptations), A Study of Provincial Life is a novel by English author George Eliot, the pen name of Mary Ann Evans. It appeared in eight installments (volumes) in 1871 and 1872. Set in Middlemarch, a fictional English Midlands town, from 1829 to 1832, it follows distinct, intersecting stories with many characters. Issues include the status of women, the nature of marriage, idealism, self-interest, religion, hypocrisy, political reform, and education. Leavened with comic elements, Middlemarch approaches significant historical events in a realist mode: the Reform Act 1832, early railways, and the accession of King William IV. It looks at medicine of the time and reactionary views in a settled community facing unwelcome change. Eliot began writing the two pieces that formed the novel in 1869–1870 and completed it in 1871. Initial reviews were mixed, but it is now seen widely as her best work and one of the great English novels.

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  The Judgement - A kafkaesque...

  Franz Kafka

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  Franz Kafka was born on 3rd July 1883 in Prague, then in Bohemia, the eldest of 6, into a middle-class Jewish family. 
   
  Life for the young Kafka and his passion for literature was often made an ordeal by his over-bearing and domineering entrepreneur of a father.   
   
  In 1889 Kafka was sent to the Deutsche Knabenschule, an elementary school in Prague. His father would only allow him to be educated in German-speaking schools and even went so far as to limit visits to the synagogue to four a year. 
   
  In 1901 he graduated from the classics-oriented Altstädter Gymnasium. Kafka did well there and across a large range of subjects.  He now enrolled at the Charles Ferdinand University, to study chemistry, but quickly switched to law for which he obtained his degree in June 1906 and then performed the mandatory year of unpaid service as clerk at the civil and criminal courts. 
   
  A job at an Italian insurance company left him little time to write and after a year he took another job with the Worker's Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia where he stayed until ill health led to his resignation in 1922. 
   
  Although he saw work as a means to pay the bills and to allow him time to write, he received several promotions and was noted as a good employee. 
   
  By 1917 Kafka was suffering from tuberculosis, which required frequent periods of convalescence. Interspersed with this, were several intense affairs before he settled in Berlin with Dora Diamant, a 25-year-old kindergarten teacher who herself having left the ghetto now influenced Kafka's interest in the book of Jewish law, the Talmud. 
   
  Kafka’s on-going health was littered with problems. Apart from TB there were several other ailments, including migraines, insomnia, boils, depression, all usually brought on by excessive stresses and strains. He attempted to counteract all of this by naturopathic treatments, a vegetarian diet and consuming large quantities of unpasteurized milk. 
   
  His tuberculosis still worsened. He returned to Prague, where he died on 3rd June 1924. He was 40. 
   
  His literary works are few in number but towering in influence.  His masterpieces include ‘The Trial’, ‘The Metamorphosis’ as well as a number of short stories which reveal facets of humankind that truthfully could only be born from Kafka’s brain and pen.

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  Legendary Wars of Ancient...

  Travis Hoang

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  This was an era of great powers: the vast territory of Persia, the military power of Sparta, the dominance of trade in Athens, the rising talents of Thebes, the ambitious Macedonia, the two powerful forces of the Western Mediterranean, and the flourishing Rome… 
  This was also an era of shining stars: 
  Agesilaus – the last king of Sparta 
  Epaminondas – the famous general who rose from Thebes 
  Philip – the founder of Macedonian hegemony 
  Dionysius – the tyrant of Syracuse 
  Camillus – the dictator who saved Rome 
  … 
  And this was also an era where hundreds of schools of thought vied for supremacy: the great philosopher Plato, the founder of the Skepticism Antisthenes, the Pythagoreans who considered numbers their sacred objects, the encyclopedic scholar Democritus, the father of Western medicine Hippocrates, the great playwright Aristophanes… 
  The protagonist is reborn through time and arrives in this era as a lowly mercenary. What will he bring to the world? 
  P/S: A historical military masterpiece.

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  Jeeves and the Chump Cyril

  P. G. Wodehouse

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  "A situation of the most extreme delicacy, if you follow me..."
  Bertie Wooster has been sent to New York for a brief breather, largely in an effort to escape the formidable shadow of Aunt Agatha. But his peace is short-lived when he is asked to look after "Chump" Cyril—a young man whose enthusiasm for life is matched only by his complete disregard for common sense.
  In Jeeves and the Chump Cyril, Bertie soon finds himself adrift in a most refined kind of trouble. Between Cyril's theatrical ambitions and a letter of introduction capable of blowing Bertie's quiet life to smithereens, logic has quietly stepped outside for fresh air.
  As well-meaning intentions drift ever closer to mild catastrophe, the incomparable Jeeves remains calm, precise, and several moves ahead. It is a sparkling example of the Wodehouse tradition: a world where polished manners glide smoothly over questionable judgement, and where consequences remain—thanks to Jeeves—delightfully negotiable.
  A perfect listen for those who appreciate elegant mischief, impeccable timing, and the fine art of the narrow escape. 
  In short: everything appears under control—which is usually the first warning sign.

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  The Statement of Randolph Carter

  H. P. Lovecraft

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  Randolph Carter, a recurring character in many of Lovecraft’s stories, begins the story telling the harrowing tale to those who found him stumbling through the swamp. Carter and his friend, the occultist Harley Warren, went to investigate the location of a supposed portal to the underworld – near Big Cypress Swamp in Florida. Upon discovery of a tomb with stairs going deep into the earth, Warren decides to descend them. Only after waiting for what seems an eternity does Carter call down into the tomb, only to be returned with a voice that does not belong to Warren telling him that his friend was dead.  

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  The Daughter of Lilith - From...

  Anatole France

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  François-Anatole Thibault was born on the 16th April 1844 in Paris, France, the son of a bookseller and bibliophile. 
  He studied at the Collège Stanislas, a private Catholic school, and after graduating joined his father in the bookstore, which specialised in works on the French Revolution.  Several years later he secured a position as cataloguer at Bacheline-Deflorenne and at Lemerre before being appointed librarian for the French Senate in 1876. 
  His literary career had begun as a journalist and as a poet before publishing his novel ‘Le Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard’ in 1881.  Praised for its elegant prose, it won him a prestigious prize from the Académie Française, which later elected him to its storied ranks. 
  His works were profound and thoughtful and often couched in surreal and outlandish expressions; whether penguins baptized by a near-blind Abbott transformed themselves into humans or of a guardian angel who becomes an atheist, his stories turned established thought into startling literature. 
  His short stories run in the same vein.  The premise may seem plausible but his distinctive style turns them into an individual viewpoint which invokes both discussion and admiration. 
  In his private life his relationships with women were often turbulent.  A Socialist, he was a fervent supporter of the Russian Revolution and the early years of the French Communist party. 
  He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1921 but the following year his entire canon of works was placed on the prohibited list of the Catholic Church, which he thought of as a credit to his name. 
  Anatole France died on the 12th October 1924 in Tours.  He was 80.

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