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In 1877, two gentlemen, Messrs Tonnison and Berreggnog, head into Ireland to spend a week fishing in the village of Kraighten. While there, they discover in the ruins of a very curious house a diary of the man who had once owned it. Its torn pages seem to hint at an evil beyond anything that existed on this side of the curtains of impossibility. This is a classic novel that worked to slowly bridge the gap between the British fantastic and supernatural authors of the later 19th century and modern horror fiction. Classic American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft lists this and other works by Hodgson among his greatest influences....

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Fiction, Horror/Ghost stories

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This is the fifth of Burrough's Tarzan novels. Tarzan finds himself bereft of his fortune and resolves to return to the jewel-room of Opar, leaving Jane to face unexpected danger at home. (Summary written by Sarah Jennings.)...

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Adventure, Fiction

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Il fu Mattia Pascal è un celebre romanzo di Luigi Pirandello che apparve dapprima a puntate sulla rivista Nuova Antologia nel 1904 e pubblicato, nello stesso anno, in volume. Fu il primo grande successo di Pirandello, scritto in un momento difficile della sua vita... (Wikipedia)...

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Fiction, Literature

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A collection of short Christmas works by the author of The Story of the Fourth Wise Man (Summary by D. Leeson).

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Fiction, Holiday

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Voilà cinq ans que Hugues Viane est veuf. Voilà cinq ans qu'il est venu s'installer à Bruges, cette ville qui lui renvoie son image : triste et grise. Au cours d'une de ses promenades nocturnes, il croise sa morte ou, tout au moins, une femme qui lui ressemble. Mais alors qu'il la suit, elle disparait à un carrefour. La retrouvera-t-il ? Est-elle vraiment telle que celle qu'il a perdue autrefois et qu'il pleure encore ? Bruges demeurera-t-elle cette ville morte? (par Ezwa) Bruges-la-Morte is a short novel by the Belgian author Georges Rodenbach, first published in 1892. The title is difficult to translate but might be rendered as The Dead City of Bruges . It tells the story of Hugues Viane, a widower overcome with grief, who takes refuge in Bruges, where he becomes obsessed with a dancer he sees at the opera Robert le diable who is the exact likeness of his dead wife. The book is notable for its poetic evocation of the decaying city and for its innovative form. In 1920, the composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold used the novel as the basis for his opera Die Tote Stadt . Rodenbach interspersed his text with dozens of black-and-white photog...

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Fiction, Literature, Tragedy

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Emma, by Jane Austen, is a novel about youthful hubris and the perils of misconstrued romance. As in her other novels, Austen explores the concerns and difficulties of genteel women living in Georgian-Regency England; she also creates a lively comedy of manners among her characters. Before she began the novel, Austen wrote, I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like. In the very first sentence she introduces the title character as Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich. Emma, however, is also rather spoiled, headstrong, and self-satisfied; she greatly overestimates her own matchmaking abilities; she is blind to the dangers of meddling in other people's lives, and her imagination and perceptions often lead her astray. (Adapted from Wikipedia)...

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Fiction, Romance, Literature

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New Arabian Nights is a collection of short stories which include Robert Louis Stevenson's earliest fiction as well as those considered his best work in the genre. The first and longest story stars Prince Florizel of Bohemia who appears in the later collection of stories More New Arabian Nights: The Dynamiter. (Summary by Don W. Jenkins)...

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Fiction, Short stories

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Further adventures of Nayland Smith and Doctor Petrie as they continue their battles against the evil genius, Dr Fu-Manchu. (summary by Elaine Twiddle)...

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Adventure, Fiction, Mystery

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A compelling love triangle. Marcia is young & sweet. Her older sister Kate is vain & selfish. Marcia deeply admires the man that Kate is to marry: handsome & respected David Spafford. But on the eve of the wedding, Kate elopes with another man. Marcia is there when the note is found...the note that effectively breaks David's heart. Out of pity for his situation, Marcia offers to take Kate's place, in order to save David from humiliation. She grows in love for him, all the while aware that he's still grieving for his lost Kate. What will happen when Kate returns, fully intending to get David back? Will Marcia have the strength to fight for the man she now loves? (Summary by Chloey Winters)...

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Romance, Fiction

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When Mr Henry Dashwood dies, with his estate entailed to his son and grandson, his wife and three daughters are left in reduced circumstances. In their new home at Barton Cottage, the two older sisters, Elinor and Marianne, experience both romance and heartache. Will they find true love? (Introduction by Karen Savage)...

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Fiction, Romance

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Altamirano nos da a creer que este cuento es una historia verídica, que le fue contada por el narrador. Es, simplemente, la historia de un soldado que se encuentra con un cura en las montañas el día de Nochebuena, y pasa con él y con su pueblo la noche de fiestas. (Resumen de Karen Savage)...

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Fiction, Literature, Holiday

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’s Short Mystery Story Collection 007: a collection of 16 short works of mysterious fiction in the public domain read by a group of volunteers.

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Fiction, Mystery

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Madame Butterfly is the story of the young Japanese girl Cho-Cho San, who marries a flighty American naval officer, and is thenceforth outcast from her relatives. Anxiously she awaits the return of her beloved husband, but when he finally anchors in the harbour, Cho-Cho San does not get the happy ending she was hoping for. This short story by John Luther Long has inspired Giacomo Puccini to write the opera of the same name. (Introduction by Availle)...

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Fiction, Literature, Romance

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Radioactive decay is a major theme in the novel The World Set Free, published in 1914. Wells explores what might happen if the rate of decay could be sped up. The book may have encouraged scientists to explore theories of nuclear chain reaction. It also served as a vehicle for Wells to develop his ideas on survival of the human race. (Summary by Bill Boerst)...

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Fantasy, Fiction, Science fiction

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Are you wishing sometimes that you had a good book which you don't know, that you might just read and enjoy? The goal of this collection is to introduce you to as many books as possible. Some are well known, some are not. Summary by Stav Nisser....

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Short stories, Fiction

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Modeste Mignon, a young provincial woman of romantic temperament, imagines herself to be in love with the famous Parisian poet Melchior de Canalis. However, he is not moved by her attentions. He invites his secretary Ernest de la Brière to deal with the matter. Ernest answers Modeste's letters in his name and acts as her lover, disguised as Canalis. The scene changes dramatically when Ernest discoveres that Modest is, in fact, a rich heiress. Would he be able to win her heart despite his lie? (Summary by Wikipedia, revised by Stav Nisser.)...

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Fiction, Literature, Romance

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First Published in 1908, The Elusive Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy is the 4th book in the classic adventure series about the Scarlet Pimpernel. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Adventure, Fiction

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A collection of nine stories - or confessions - of the celebrated gentleman thief Arsene Lupin. (Summary by Cathy Barratt)

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Adventure, Fiction, Mystery

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Las Novelas ejemplares son una serie de doce novelas cortas que Miguel de Cervantes escribió entre 1590 y 1612. En un principio recibieron el nombre de Novelas ejemplares de honestísimo entretenimiento. Su denominación de ejemplares obedece a que son el primer ejemplo en castellano de este tipo de novelas y al carácter didáctico y moral que incluyen en alguna medida los relatos. Se suelen agrupar en dos series: las de carácter idealista y las de carácter realista. Las primeras se caracterizan por tratar argumentos de enredos amorosos con gran abundancia de acontecimientos, por la presencia de personajes idealizados y sin evolución psicológica y por el escaso reflejo de la realidad. Se agrupan aquí: El amante liberal, Las dos doncellas, La española inglesa, La señora Cornelia y La fuerza de la sangre. Las de carácter realista atienden más a la descripción de ambientes y personajes realistas, con intención crítica muchas veces. Son los relatos más conocidos: Rinconete y Cortadillo, El licenciado Vidriera, La gitanilla, El coloquio de los perros o La ilustre fregona. No obstante, la separación entre los dos grupos no es tajante y, por ...

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Short stories, Fiction

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The framing story concerns a man who dreams of speaking to Venus about love while she wears furs. The unnamed narrator tells his dreams to a friend, Severin, who tells him how to break him of his fascination with cruel women by reading a manuscript, Memoirs of a Supersensual Man. This manuscript tells of a man, Severin von Kusiemski, so infatuated with a woman, Wanda von Dunajew, that he requests to be treated as her slave, and encourages her to treat him in progressively more degrading ways. At first Wanda does not understand or relate to the request, but after humouring Severin a bit she finds the advantages of the method to be interesting and enthusiastically embraces the idea; though at the same time, she disdains Severin for allowing her to do so. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Fiction, Erotica