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  The Gift of the Magi

  O. Henry

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  This is a short story about a poor, young, married couple who both sell their most prized possession in order to purchase a holiday gift for the other. A lesson in sacrifice and the true meaning of giving is beautifully told in this classic tale with a heart wrenching ending.

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  The Horla

  Guy de Maupassant

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  Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant was born on August 5th, 1850 near Dieppe in France.  
   
  Maupassant’s early life was badly torn when at age 11 (his younger brother Hervé was then five) his mother, Laure, a headstrong and independent-minded woman, risked social disgrace in order to obtain a legal separation from her husband. 
   
  After the separation, Laure kept custody of her two boys. With the father now forcibly absent, Laure became the most influential and important figure in the young boy's life.   
   
  Maupassant’s education was such that he rebelled against religion and other societal norms but a developing friendship with Gustave Flaubert began to turn his mind towards creativity and writing. 
   
  After graduation he volunteered for the Franco-Prussian war. With its end he moved to Paris to work as a clerk in the Navy Department.  Gustave Flaubert now took him under his wing.  Acting as a literary guardian to him, he guided the eager Maupassant to debuts in journalism and literature.  For Maupassant these were exciting times and the awakening of his creative talents and ambitions. 
   
  In 1880 he published what is considered his first great work, ‘Boule de Suif’, (translated as as ‘Dumpling’, ‘Butterball’, ‘Ball of Fat’, or ‘Ball of Lard’) which met with a success that was both instant and overwhelming.  Flaubert at once acknowledged that it was ‘a masterpiece that will endure.’ Maupassant had used his talents and experiences in the war to create something unique.  
   
  This decade from 1880 to 1891 was to be the most pivotal of his career.  With an audience now made available by the success of ‘Boule de Suif’ Maupassant organised himself to work methodically and relentlessly to produce between two and four volumes of work a year.  The melding of his talents and business sense and the continual hunger of sources for his works made him wealthy. 
   
  In his later years he developed a desire for solitude, an obsession for self-preservation, and a fear of death as well as a paranoia of persecution caused by the syphilis he had contracted in his youth.  
   
  On January 2nd, 1892, Maupassant tried to commit suicide by cutting his throat.  Unsuccessful he was committed to the private asylum of Esprit Blanche at Passy, in Paris.  It was here on July 6th, 1893 that  
  Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant died at the age of only 42.

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  Don Quixote

  Miguel de Cervantes

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  This is a fantastical comedy about an old man who has read so many books about knights errant that he is convinced that he is one himself. He sets out on a series of adventures with his trusted and true servant Sancho Panza. But with every adventure it is amazing that he is able to survive the story itself.

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  Dracula's Guest

  Bram Stoker

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  Bram (Abraham) Stoker (1847-1912) was born in Dublin. As a sickly child, he spent much of his childhood bedridden, amused by his mother's stories of horror, folklore and real life, including grisly tales of the 1832 cholera epidemic in Sligo. Gradually his health improved, and from the age of seven he went to school, followed by university at Trinity College Dublin. He became famous as a writer of horror and supernatural fiction, including his 1897 best seller Dracula.'Dracula's Guest' was written as an action-packed chapter in Dracula, but it was never included in the final manuscript. It was published in 1914 as a standalone tale after Stoker's death.

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  For Your Eyes Only - A James...

  Ian Fleming

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  A STUNNING COLLECTION OF STORIES THAT SENDS BOND TO BERMUDA, THE BAHAMAS, AND BEYOND 
   “From a View to a Kill” whisks Bond to the French countryside where he must go undercover to expose a deadly secret-intelligence plot, and in “For Your Eyes Only,” 007 is absorbed into a private vendetta of M’s, blurring the lines between the personal and professional. In “Quantum of Solace,” Bond attends a dinner party in the Bahamas and learns how passion can soon twist into cruelty, while “Risico” forces the secret agent to fight for the lesser of two evils in a smuggling war set amid the Mediterranean. Finally, “The Hildebrand Rarity” lands 007 in an old-fashioned murder mystery at sea, where even he has a secret to keep. 
   A collection of both classic intrigue and intrepid self-examination, For Your Eyes Only packs full, vibrant worlds into five classic tales. 
   

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  On the Northern Ice

  Elia W. Peattie

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  Elia Wilkinson Peattie (1862-1935) was an American author, journalist and critic. As a child she was an avid reader, and despite leaving school at 14, she quickly became recognized as a brilliant short story writer.'On the Northern Ice' is an eerie ghost story set around the Great Lakes.

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