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  A Chameleon - From their pens to...

  Anton Chekhov

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  Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born on 29th January 1860 in Taganrog, on the south coast of Russia.  
  His family life was difficult; his father was strict and over-bearing but his mother was a passionate story-teller, a subject Chekhov warmed to. As he later said; ‘our talents we got from our father, but our soul from our mother’.  
  At school Chekhov was distinctly average. At 16 his father mis-managed his finances and was declared bankrupt. His family fled to Moscow. Chekhov remained and eked out a living by various means, including writing and selling short sketches to newspapers, to finish his schooling. That completed and with a scholarship to Moscow University obtained he rejoined his family. 
  He was able to help support them by selling satirical sketches and vignettes of Russian lifestyles and gradually obtained further commissions. In 1884, he qualified as a physician and, although it earned him little, he often treated the poor for free, he was fond of saying ‘Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress.’ 
  His own health was now an issue as he began to cough up blood, a symptom of tuberculosis.  Despite this his writing success enabled him to move the family into more comfortable accommodation.  
  Chekhov wrote over 500 short stories which included many, many classics including ‘The Kiss’ and ‘The Lady with a Dog’.  His collection ‘At Dusk’ won him the coveted Pushkin Prize when was only 26.  
  He was also a major playwright beginning with the huge success of ‘Ivanov’ in 1887.   
  In 1892 Chekhov bought a country estate north of Moscow. Here his medical skills and money helped the peasants tackle outbreaks of cholera and bouts of famine. He also built three schools, a fire station and a clinic.  It left him with less time for writing but the interactions with real people gained him detailed knowledge about the peasantry and their living conditions for his stories.  
  His most famous work, ‘The Seagull’ was received disastrously at its premiere in St Petersburg. It was later restaged in Moscow to highlight its psychological aspects and was a huge success. It led to ‘Uncle Vanya’, ‘The Three Sisters’ and ‘The Cherry Orchard’.  
  Chekhov suffered a major lung hemorrhage in 1897 while visiting Moscow. A formal diagnosis confirmed tuberculosis and the doctors ordered changes to his lifestyle.  
  Despite a dread of weddings the elusive literary bachelor quietly married the actress Olga Knipper, whom he had met at rehearsals for ‘The Seagull’, on 25th May 1901. 
  By May 1904 with his tuberculosis worsening and death imminent he set off for the German town of Badenweiler writing cheerful, witty letters to his family and assuring them his health was improving.  
  On 15th July 1904 Anton Chekhov died at Badenweiler.  He was 44.

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  The House Of The Seven Gables

  Nathaniel Hawthorne

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  Hepzibah Pyncheon is a dignified but destitute woman residing in the House of the Seven Gables—a manor with a dark history, and her ancestral home. She lives with her brother Clifford, who has completed a thirty-year sentence for murder, and a lodger named Holgrave, who is writing a book about the history of her family. Long ago, Matthew Maule owned the land that the titular house was later built on; but the scheming Colonel Pyncheon, founder of the Pyncheon family, wrongfully seized the land from him, and Maule was accused of witchcraft and condemned to death. Before his sentence was executed, Maule put a curse on the family—and the curse has followed them all the way to Hepzibah, now an older spinster inhabiting the gloomy, moldering house and desperate to make ends meet. But Hepzibah's prospects brighten considerably when a distant relative, a bright young girl named Phoebe, arrives to stay for a while, helping her set up and run a small shop in a side room of the manor. As the two work to launch their business in the ill-omened house while caring for the withdrawn Clifford, a strange mystery unravels. Hawthorne based his depiction of the House of the Seven Gables on a real house, the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion in Salem, Massachusetts, which was owned by one of his cousins. The Pyncheon family, too, is a real family, ancestors of the novelist Thomas Pynchon—though Hawthorne was unaware of this when he wrote the novel, and was unpleasantly surprised when, on the novel's success, some of them came out of the woodwork to claim a connection. The novel was well-received on publication, earning praise from contemporaries like Longfellow and Melville . It has since become a classic of American literature, often taught in schools alongside The Scarlet Letter .

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  Anne's House of Dreams - Anne...

  L. M. Montgomery

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  Anne marries Gilbert and moves to a small house by the harbour, where the neighbours are a bitter old captain, a woman married to a man who came back from the sea wrong, and a first child who does not live. Montgomery wrote it in 1916, in the middle of the war, and published it the following year. It is the book where the Anne series stops being about a girl and starts being about what a marriage carries.

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  The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - A...

  L. Frank Baum

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  Listen to the classic novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, as you drift off to sleep. This book has been edited, narrated, and produced especially to help you fall asleep. 
  Narrated by Elizabeth Grace for Slumber Studios. 
  Do you find yourself struggling to fall asleep? Perhaps you have insomnia or a racing mind after a long day. No matter what is keeping you up at night, soothing audio stories are one of the most effective ways to help you fall asleep and stay asleep. And that's exactly what we do at Slumber Studios. 
  So close your eyes, relax, and let the soothing voice of Elizabeth Grace guide you into the magical and whimsical Land of Oz, as Dorothy and her dog Toto try to find their way back home to Kansas. 
  Allow your mind wander and get lost in the colorful and surreal landscape of this classic story. Join Dorothy's adventures as she is swept away in a cyclone, makes some very interesting friends, overcomes powerful witches, and follows the yellow brick road to meet with the Wizard of Oz, and much more. 
  Our audiobooks are expertly crafted to help you relax and drift off to sleep. Each episode is designed to instill calm, with a slower pace and soothing background music, ensuring that you will be lulled into a peaceful slumber. 
  So if you're looking for a way to unwind after a long day, you've come to the right place. 
  Simply press play, lay down in bed, and let Elizabeth's calming voice transport you into a world of dreams. You'll wake up feeling refreshed and recharged in the morning.

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  The Complete Novels of H G Wells

  H. G. Wells

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  What if the future could warn us about the present?
  
  The Complete Novels of H. G. Wells brings together the groundbreaking fiction of one of the greatest imaginative minds in literary history. Often called the father of modern science fiction, Wells used speculative ideas not only to thrill readers, but to explore humanity, progress, power, and moral responsibility.
  
  This comprehensive collection includes Wells's visionary novels—stories of time travel, invisible men, alien invasions, and scientific ambition—alongside socially conscious works that examine class, evolution, and the direction of civilization. His clear, provocative storytelling blends imagination with insight in ways that remain strikingly relevant.
  
  Bold, intelligent, and endlessly influential, Wells's novels shaped science fiction and modern thought alike.
  
  Inside this eBook, you'll explore:
  
  All major novels by H. G. Wells in one complete collection
  
  Iconic works such as The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, and The Invisible Man
  
  The foundations of modern science fiction and speculative thought
  
  A cornerstone of British and world literature
  
  Adapted countless times for film, radio, and television, H. G. Wells's novels continue to inspire readers, writers, and dreamers around the world.
  
  Look forward by reading the past. Buy now and experience the complete novels of H. G. Wells.

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  The Man That Was Used Up

  Edgar Allan Poe

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  "The Man That Was Used Up", sometimes subtitled "A Tale of the Late Bugaboo and Kickapoo Campaign", is a short story and satire by Edgar Allan Poe. It was first published in August 1839 in Burton's Gentleman's Magazine.
  The story follows an unnamed narrator who seeks out the famous war hero John A. B. C. Smith. He becomes suspicious that Smith has some deep secret when others refuse to describe him, instead remarking only on the latest advancements in technology. When he finally meets Smith, the man must first be assembled piece by piece. It is likely that in this satire Poe is actually referring to General Winfield Scott, veteran of the War of 1812, the Mexican–American War, and the American Civil War. Additionally, some scholars suggest that Poe is questioning the strong male identity as well as how humanity falls as machines become more advanced.
  An unnamed narrator meets the famous Brevet Brigadier General John A. B. C. Smith, "one of the most remarkable men of the age" and a hero of "the late tremendous swamp-fight, away down South, with the Bugaboo and Kickapoo Indians." Smith is an impressive physical specimen at six feet tall with flowing black hair, "large and lustrous" eyes, powerful-looking shoulders, and other essentially perfect attributes. He is also known for his great speaking ability, often boasting of his triumphs and about the advancements of the age.

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