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  The Pillow Book

  Sei Shonagon

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  The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon is a fascinating, detailed account of Japanese court life in the closing years of the 10th century. Written by a lady of the court at the height of Heian culture, this book enthrals with its lively gossip, witty observations and subtle impressions. 
   
  Lady Shonagon was an erstwhile rival of Lady Murasaki, whose novel, The Tale of Genji, fictionalized the elite world Lady Shonagon so eloquently relates. Featuring reflections on royal and religious ceremonies, nature, conversation, poetry and many other subjects, The Pillow Book is an intimate look at the experiences and outlook of the Heian upper class. 
   
  Sei Shonagon, born around 965, was lady-in-waiting to Empress Sadako and between the early 990s and 1002, she kept these ‘personal notes', recording what she saw and encountered with wit, accuracy and intelligence. There is immense variety here. There are more than 320 entries, each with its own heading: ‘Birds', Trees', ‘When His Excellency The Chancellor Had Departed', ‘Unreliable Things'.... Some entries are very brief, no more than ‘asides', and there are even concise lists. Some reflect the sensitive Japanese response to nature or patterned silk, and there are longer narratives of incidents involving prominent political figures. Her singular humour is often to the fore: ‘Masahiro really is a laughing stock. I wonder what it is like for his parents and friends.' 
   
  But there are also entries which reflect a considerate nature as shown in ‘One of Her Majesty's Wet-Nurses'. 
   
  While Arthur Waley's classic translation remains well-known it was abridged, and this Ukemi recording presents the translation by Ivan Morris, the first unabridged English version. It is fluent and lively, and reflects the sparkling character of Sei Shonagon's writing which, in the 21st century, belies its ancient origins and its academic standing as one of the great works of Japanese literature. This is perfectly captured by in Georgina Sutton's reading.

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  Les Misérables: Volume 5: Jean...

  Victor Hugo

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  Victor-Marie Hugo (26 February 1802 - 22 May 1885) was a French poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, and dramatist of the Romantic movement. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote abundantly in an exceptional variety of genres: lyrics, satires, epics, philosophical poems, epigrams, novels, history, critical essays, political speeches, funeral orations, diaries, and letters public and private, as well as dramas in verse and prose.BOOK 3: MUD BUT THE SOUL: The transition was an unheard-of one. In the very heart of the city, Jean Valjean had escaped from the city, and, in the twinkling of an eye, in the time required to lift the cover and to replace it, he had passed from broad daylight to complete obscurity, from midday to midnight, from tumult to silence, from the whirlwind of thunders to the stagnation of the tomb, and, by a vicissitude far more tremendous even than that of the Rue Polonceau, from the most extreme peril to the most absolute obscurity.

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  The Mystery of Edwin Drood

  Charles Dickens

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  Edwin Drood is contracted to marry orphan Rosa Bud when he comes of age, but when they find that duty has gradually replaced affection, they agree to break off the engagement. Shortly afterwards, in the middle of a storm on Christmas Eve, Edwin disappears, leaving nothing behind but some personal belongings and the suspicion that his jealous uncle John Jasper, madly in love with Rosa, is the killer. And beyond this presumed crime there are further intrigues: the dark opium dens of the sleepy cathedral town of Cloisterham, and the sinister double life of Choirmaster Jasper, whose drug-fuelled fantasy life belies his respectable appearance. Dickens died before completing The Mystery of Edwin Drood, leaving its tantalising mystery unsolved and encouraging successive generations of readers to turn detective.

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  The Willows

  Algernon Blackwood

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  Perhaps Blackwood's most celebrated story, The Willows was influenced heavily by his own trips down the Danube River. It tells the story of two campers who pick the wrong place to sleep for the night, a place where another dimension impinges on our own. H.P. Lovecraft considered this the finest supernatural tale in English literature.

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  Five Weeks in a Balloon

  Jules Verne

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  Jules Verne was a prolific French writer who greatly influenced the science fiction genre. Verne is the second most-translated author behind only Agatha Christie. A scholar, Dr. Samuel Ferguson, accompanied by his manservant Joe and his friend Richard "Dick" Kennedy, sets out to travel across the African continent — still not fully explored — with the help of a hot-air balloon.

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  Adventure of the Cardboard Box...

  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

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  "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box" is one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is the second of the twelve Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes in most British editions of the canon, and the second of the eight stories from His Last Bow in most American versions. The story was first published in The Strand Magazine in 1893. Miss Susan Cushing of Croydon receives a parcel in the post that contains two severed human ears packed in coarse salt. Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard suspects a prank by three medical students whom Miss Cushing was forced to evict because of their unruly behaviour. The parcel was sent from Belfast, the city of origin of one of the former boarders. Upon examining the parcel himself, Holmes is convinced that it is evidence of a serious crime. He reasons that a medical student with access to a dissection laboratory would likely use something other than plain salt to preserve human remains, and would be able to make a more precise cut than the roughly hacked ears suggest. The address on the package, roughly written and with a spelling correction, suggests to Holmes that the sender lacks education and is unfamiliar with Croydon. The knot in the string suggests to Holmes that they are looking for someone with sailing experience.

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