Thomas Dekker was a playwright, pamphleteer and poet who, perhaps, deserves greater recognition than he has so far gained. Despite the fact only perhaps twenty of his plays were published, and fewer still survive, he was far more prolific than that. Born around 1572 his peak years were the mid 1590's to the 1620's - seven of which he spent in a debtor's prison. His works span the late Elizabethan and Caroline eras and his numerous collaborations with Ford, Middleton, Webster and Jonson say much about his work. His pamphlets detail much of the life in these times, times of great change, of plague and of course that great capital city London a swirling mass of people, power, intrigue.

Edgar Rice Burroughs was born on September 1, 1875, in Chicago, Illinois. His early career was unremarkable. After failing to enter West Point he enlisted in the 7th Calvary but was discharged after heart problems were diagnosed. A series of short term jobs gave no indication as to a career path but finally, in 1911, married and with two young children, he turned his hand to writing. He aimed his works squarely at the very popular pulp serial magazines. His first effort 'Under The Moons Of Mars' ran in Munsey's Magazine in 1912 under the pseudonym Norman Bean. With its success he began writing full time. A continuing theme of his work was to develop series so that each character had ample opportunities to return in sequels. John Carter was in the Mars series and there was another on Venus and one on Pellucidar among others. But perhaps the best known is Tarzan. Indeed Burroughs wanted so much to capitalise upon the brand that he introduced a syndicated Tarzan comic strip, movies and merchandise. He purchased a large ranch north of Los Angeles, California, which he named "e;Tarzana."e; The surrounding communities outside the ranch voted in 1927 to adopt the name as their own. By 1932 Burroughs set up his own company to print his own books. Here we publish the fourth in the Barsoom series and its enduring hero John Carter 'Thuvia, Maid of Mars'. Another cultural classic.

Victor Marie Hugo was born on 26th February 1802 and is revered as the greatest of all French writers. A poet, novelist, dramatist and painter he was a passionate supporter of Republicanism and made a notable contribution to the politics of his Country.His life was paralleled by the immense political and social movements of the 19th Century. When he was two Napoleon was proclaimed Emperor but before he was eighteen the Bourbon Monarchy was restored.It was only with his Mother's death in 1821 that he felt confident enough to marry Adele Foucher, a relationship he had kept secret from his mother. Their first child was born inside a year but died in infancy. Leopoldine was born the following year, followed by three further siblings.Hugo published his first novel the year following year, Han d'Islande, (1823). Three years later his second, Bug-Jargal (1826).Between 1829 and 1840 he would publish five further volumes of poetry solidifying his reputation as one of the greatest elegiac and lyric poets of his time. His reputation was growing not only in France but across Europe.In 1841 he was elected to the Academie Francaise, cementing his position in the world of French arts and letters. Hugo also now began to turn his attention to an involvement in French politics.Elevated to the peerage by King Louis-Philippe in 1841 he spoke eloquently and at length against the death penalty and social injustice as well as passionately in favour of freedom of the press and self-government for Poland.When Napoleon III seized power in 1851, and established an anti-parliamentary constitution, Hugo openly declared him a traitor to France and began a long exile, based mainly in Guernsey.In exile, Hugo published his famous political pamphlets; Napoleon le Petit and Histoire d'un crime. Although the pamphlets were banned in France, they nonetheless made a strong impact there. His exile also seemed to have a creative impetus. He composed or published some of his greatest work including Les Miserables, and three widely honoured collections of poetry (Les Chatiments, 1853; Les Contemplations, 1856; and La Legende des siecles, 1859).In 1870 the Third Republic was established and Hugo finally returned home, where he was elected to the National Assembly and the Senate. That same year War erupted between France and Prussia and the French were badly beaten.With the end of the War Hugo began his campaign for a great valuation and protection for the rights of artists and copyright. He was a founding member of the Association Litteraire et Artistique Internationale, which led to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.Victor Hugo's death on 22nd May 1885, at the age of 83, generated intense nation-wide mourning. Revered not only as a towering figure in literature, he was a statesman who had helped to shape the Third Republic and democracy in France. Index of ContentsDRAMATIS PERSONTIME: 1638MARION DE LORMEACT ITHE MEETINGSCENE ISCENE IISCENE IIISCENE IVACT IITHE ENCOUNTERSCENE ISCENE IISCENE IIISCENE IVSCENE VACT IIITHE COMEDYSCENE ISCENE IISCENE IIISCENE IVSCENE VSCENE VISCENE VIISCENE VIIISCENE IXSCENE XACT IVTHE KINGSCENE ISCENE IISCENE IIISCENE IVSCENE VSCENE VISCENE VIISCENE VIIIACT VTHE CARDINALSCENE ISCENE IISCENE IIISCENE IVSCENE VSCENE VIVICTOR HUGO - A SHORT BIOGRAPHYVICTOR HUGO - A CONCISE BIBLIOGRAPHY

If ever a writer needed an introduction Arthur Conan Doyle would not be considered that man. After all, Sherlock Holmes is perhaps the foremost literary detective of any age. Add to this canon his stories of science fiction and his poems, his historical novels, his political campaigning, his efforts in establishing a Court Of Appeal and there is little room for anything else. Born in Arthur Conan Doyle was born on 22 May 1859 at 11 Picardy Place, Edinburgh, Scotland. From 1876 - 1881 he studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh following which he was employed as a doctor on the Greenland whaler Hope of Peterhead in 1880 and, after his graduation, as a ship's surgeon on the SS Mayumba during a voyage to the West African coast in 1881. Arriving in Portsmouth in June of that year with less than GBP10 (GBP700 today to his name, he set up a medical practice at 1 Bush Villas in Elm Grove, Southsea. The practice was initially not very successful. While waiting for patients, Conan Doyle again began writing stories and composed his first novel The Mystery of Cloomber. Although he continued to study and practice medicine his career was now firmly set as a writer. And thereafter great works continued to pour out of him. Here we one of those pieces for which his fame does not spread quite so far but which is an essential part of his work - 'The Duet'.

Henrik Ibsen (20th March, 1828 - 23rd May, 1906) is often referred to as the father of realism and ranked just below Shakespeare as Europe's greatest ever playwright especially as his plays are performed most frequently throughout the world after Shakespeare's. He was Norwegian and although set his plays in Norway, he wrote them in Danish and lived most of his professional life in Italy and Germany. His affect on the theatre is still evident today and shapes the distinction of plays being art as opposed to entertainment since he broke down all previous traditions and explored issues, developed characterisation, revealed uncomfortable truths, challenged assumptions and brokedown facades in ourselves as well as society. These factors are clearly demonstrated in The Lady from the Sea, the lady being Ellida, the daughter of a lighthouse keeper who therefore grew up by the open sea and has a deep love for it. She married Dr Wangel who had two daughters by his former wife, Bolette and Hilda and they had a son who died as a baby. Her husband recognises the strains put on the marriage by the infant death and is concerned for Ellida's mental health but more important to Ellida is the return of her former love who she had promised to wait for. She does decide between the two men and her reasons make for good reading in this symbolic play.

What Katy Did At School (1873) by Sarah Chauncey Woolsey (aka Susan Coolidge) (1835-1905) is the sequel to the classic childrens novel What Katy Did which is based on a young 12 year tomboyish type of girl named Katy Carr who endures an accident by falling off a swing and becomes an invalid. Her cousin Helen also an invalid teaches Katy how to be a happier and kinder person by appreciating and making the most of what she has and how to be optimistic and cheerful especially around her siblings. At the end of the story, Katy learns to walk.Mermaids Classics, an imprint of Mermaids Publishing brings the very best of old classic literature to a modern era of digital reading by producing high quality books in ebook format. All of the Mermaids Classics epublications are reproductions of classic antique books that were originally published in print format, mostly over a century ago and are now republished in digital format as ebooks. Begin to build your collection of digital books by looking for more literary gems from Mermaids Classics.

Oliver Twist, (also known as The Parish Boys Progress) by Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was first published in 1838. The story is about an orphan, Oliver Twist, who endures a miserable existence in a workhouse and then is placed with an undertaker. He escapes and travels to London where he meets the Artful Dodger, leader of a gang of juvenile pickpockets. Naively unaware of their unlawful activities, Oliver is led to the lair of their elderly criminal trainer Fagin. (Citation from Wikipedia)Mermaids Classics, an imprint of Mermaids Publishing brings the very best of old classic literature to a modern era of digital reading by producing high quality books in ebook format. All of the Mermaids Classics epublications are reproductions of classic antique books that were originally published in print format, mostly over a century ago and are now republished in digital format as ebooks. Begin to build your collection of digital books by looking for more literary gems from Mermaids Classics.

The Pickwick Papers (1836), by Charles Dickens (1812-1870) follows the travelling adventures of Samuel Pickwick. Samuel is the president of the Pickwick Club and along with a few other members they set out on a journey to discover anything interesting about life and report it back to those remaining members of the Club.Mermaids Classics, an imprint of Mermaids Publishing brings the very best of old classic literature to a modern era of digital reading by producing high quality books in ebook format. All of the Mermaids Classics epublications are reproductions of classic antique books that were originally published in print format, mostly over a century ago and are now republished in digital format as ebooks. Begin to build your collection of digital books by looking for more literary gems from Mermaids Classics.

The Scarlet Letter (1850) is a historical romantic fiction novel written by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864). It is considered to be his magnum opus. Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston, Massachusetts during the years 1642 to 1649, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an adulterous affair and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. Throughout the book, Hawthorne explores themes of legalism, sin and guilt. (Citation from Wikipedia: The free Encyclopaedia)Mermaids Classics, an imprint of Mermaids Publishing brings the very best of old classic literature to a modern era of digital reading by producing high quality books in ebook format. All of the Mermaids Classics epublications are reproductions of classic antique books that were originally published in print format, mostly over a century ago and are now republished in digital format as ebooks. Begin to build your collection of digital books by looking for more literary gems from Mermaids Classics.

Using a trajectory of 20th century Anglican approaches to mission in rural Africa, the book tells the story of the development of an educational institution by tracing the faith journey of Eelin Beardall, a woman who dedicated thirty years of her life to the people of Nyamandlovu in Matabeleland region in Zimbabwe. Eelin and her husband Frank played a pioneering role in the development of Nyamandlovu's first secondary school. One of her greatest contributions to humanity was to carry out a vision for education both in the days of guerrilla warfare and in the context of post-independence troubles in rural Matabeleland. Eelin's bravery, resilience and care for African children earned her long-lasting love and respect among educationists and ordinary people alike. Her legacy continues today as an inspiration to those whose lives are dedicated to the service and welfare of others.

Choking Back the Devil by Donna Lynch is an invocation, an ancient invitation that summons the darkness within and channels those lonely spirits looking for a host. It's a collection that lives in the realm of ghosts and family curses, witchcraft and urban legends, and if you're brave enough to peek behind the veil, the hauntings that permeate these pages will break seals and open doorways, cut throats and shatter mirrors. You see, these poems are small drownings, all those subtle suffocations that live in that place between our ribs that swells with panic, incubates fear. Lynch shows her readers that sometimes our shadow selves--our secrets--are our sharpest weapons, the knives that rip through flesh, suture pacts with demons, cut deals with entities looking for more than a homecoming, something better, more intimate than family. It's about the masks we wear and the reflections we choose not to look at, and what's most terrifying about the spells is these incantations show that we are the possessed, that we are our greatest monster, and if we look out of the corner of our eyes, sometimes--if we've damned ourselves enough--we can catch a glimpse of our own burnings, what monstrosities and mockeries we're to become. So cross yourselves and say your prayers. Because in this world, you are the witch and the hunter, the girl and the wolf. "Lynch mixes in childhood fables with waking nightmares, the result is electrifying; sometimes in a few razor sharp words; sometimes in longer numbered verses counting down the cycle of a damaged life. The silent cries of souls tormented to healthiness by pills and poultices, force fed by imperfect humans, echo in the silhouette of these poems. I smiled at the shadows unexpectedly delivered by her words, as will you."--Linda D. Addison, award-winning author of How to Recognize a Demon Has Become Your Friend and HWA Lifetime Achievement Award winner "This collection is not for the chronically disturbed, as fear is doled out in terse, potent portions. I got the shivers reading these unsettling poems."--Marge Simon, Bram Stoker Award winner, SFPA Grand Master Poet "Choking Back the Devil is unlike any other poetry collection you've ever read. Donna Lynch crafts beautifully terrifying worlds, packed with dense imagery and horrifying yet lush details. This collection will get your blood racing even as it breaks your heart." --Gwendolyn Kiste, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Rust Maidens "Some dark poets use their verse as a means to exorcise their demons. Lynch instead embraces her torment, nurtures it, and transforms it into equal parts hideous and heavenly. With a mix of wicked wit, carnal fury, and commentary that has sharpened its fangs to drain you until you're left with nothing but despair, Choking Back the Devil is essential sustenance for harrowed souls."--Chad Stroup, author of Secrets of the Weird and Sexy Leper

Hold your screams and enter a world of seasonal creatures, dreams of bones, and confessions modeled from open eyes and endless insomnia. Christina Sng’s?A Collection of Nightmares?is a poetic feast of sleeplessness and shadows, an exquisite exhibition of fear and things better left unsaid. Here are ramblings at the end of the world and a path that leads to a thousand paper cuts at the hands of a skin carver. There are crawlspace whispers, and fresh sheets gently washed with sacrifice and poison, and if you’re careful in this ghost month, these poems will call upon the succubus to tend to your flesh wounds and scars.?? ?These nightmares are sweeping fantasies that electrocute the senses as much as they dull the ache of loneliness by showing you what’s hiding under your bed, in the back of your closet, and inside your head. Sng’s poems dissect and flower, her autopsies are delicate blooms dressed with blood and syntax. Her words are charcoal and cotton, safe yet dressed in an executioner’s garb.?? ?Dream carefully.?? ?You’ve already made your bed.?? ?The nightmares you have now will not be kind.?? ?And you have no one to blame but yourself.

When Patrick McGoohan first starred in “Danger Man” in 1960 and as ‘Number 6’ in cult show “The Prisoner”, industry insiders hailed the arrival of an enigmatic genius and Hollywood beckoned. But who was this man who worked as a chicken farmer and bank clerk before becoming a hugely successful actor simply by chance? In this up-to-date biography Rupert Booth reveals the true character of a man whose off-screen behaviour matched his fiery on-screen persona. Why was he so puritanical, refusing even to kiss a woman for any part he played? Why was he so controlling over his work in “The Prisoner” and other productions? A timely exploration of the man whose declaration ‘I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, de-briefed or numbered!’ continues to resonate with audiences decades after it was first uttered with such conviction.

Twelve Years A Slave is subtitled Narrative of Solomon Northup, citizen of New York, kidnapped in Washington city in 1841, and rescued in 1853 from a cotton plantation near the Red River in Louisiana. This subtitle accurately describes the book which is entirely based on the true story of Solomon Northup as told to and edited by David Wilson. The book was published in 1853 and became a bestseller following Uncle Tom's Cabin which was set in the same kind of Louisiana cotton plantation that some of Twelve Years A Slave is set, but the book subsequently faded until the sixties and is now universally acclaimed following the award winning film. Solomon was born in 1808 to a father who had been a slave to the Northup family of Rhode Island but then freed and grew up in Minerva New York State. He married Anne who he had three children with and worked as a raftsmen, farmer and fiddle player. He gained a good reputation as a fiddle player and was tricked accepting an engagement that led to his kidnap and was subsequently taken to a slave market in Washington D.C. and then by ship to New Orleans in horrific conditions that resulted in the death of one of his fellow travellers. The injustice and indignity he suffered under a range of masters, some of whom beat him badly for alleging he was a free man, is accurately recounted in this truly remarkable story which relates the misery and inhumane treatment that so many slaves received in the South by their white masters. Finally through a Canadian abolitionist Solomon's plight was communicated to his family who struggled to locate him as no one knew him by his real name and he was being sold by one master to another but finally after 12 long years he was a free man again and reunited with his family. Whether you see the film or not, do not miss this unique and compelling narrative that captures the intensity of events, the characters and locations of Solomon Northup's enslavement.

Algernon Charles Swinburne was born on April 5th, 1837, in London, into a wealthy Northumbrian family. He was educated at Eton and at Balliol College, Oxford, but did not complete a degree. In 1860 Swinburne published two verse dramas but achieved his first literary success in 1865 with Atalanta in Calydon, written in the form of classical Greek tragedy. The following year "e;Poems and Ballads"e; brought him instant notoriety. He was now identified with "e;indecent"e; themes and the precept of art for art's sake. Although he produced much after this success in general his popularity and critical reputation declined. The most important qualities of Swinburne's work are an intense lyricism, his intricately extended and evocative imagery, metrical virtuosity, rich use of assonance and alliteration, and bold, complex rhythms. Swinburne's physical appearance was small, frail, and plagued by several other oddities of physique and temperament. Throughout the 1860s and 1870s he drank excessively and was prone to accidents that often left him bruised, bloody, or unconscious. Until his forties he suffered intermittent physical collapses that necessitated removal to his parents' home while he recovered. Throughout his career Swinburne also published literary criticism of great worth. His deep knowledge of world literatures contributed to a critical style rich in quotation, allusion, and comparison. He is particularly noted for discerning studies of Elizabethan dramatists and of many English and French poets and novelists. As well he was a noted essayist and wrote two novels. In 1879, Swinburne's friend and literary agent, Theodore Watts-Dunton, intervened during a time when Swinburne was dangerously ill. Watts-Dunton isolated Swinburne at a suburban home in Putney and gradually weaned him from alcohol, former companions and many other habits as well. Much of his poetry in this period may be inferior but some individual poems are exceptional; "e;By the North Sea,"e; "e;Evening on the Broads,"e; "e;A Nympholept,"e; "e;The Lake of Gaube,"e; and "e;Neap-Tide."e; Swinburne lived another thirty years with Watts-Dunton. He denied Swinburne's friends access to him, controlled the poet's money, and restricted his activities. It is often quoted that 'he saved the man but killed the poet'. Algernon Charles Swinburne died on April 10th, 1909 at the age of seventy-two.

If ever a writer needed an introduction Arthur Conan Doyle would not be considered that man. After all, Sherlock Holmes is perhaps the foremost literary detective of any age. Add to this canon his stories of science fiction and his poems, his historical novels, his political campaigning, his efforts in establishing a Court Of Appeal and there is little room for anything else. Born in Arthur Conan Doyle was born on 22 May 1859 at 11 Picardy Place, Edinburgh, Scotland. From 1876 - 1881 he studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh following which he was employed as a doctor on the Greenland whaler Hope of Peterhead in 1880 and, after his graduation, as a ship's surgeon on the SS Mayumba during a voyage to the West African coast in 1881. Arriving in Portsmouth in June of that year with less than GBP10 (GBP700 today to his name, he set up a medical practice at 1 Bush Villas in Elm Grove, Southsea. The practice was initially not very successful. While waiting for patients, Conan Doyle again began writing stories and composed his first novel The Mystery of Cloomber. Although he continued to study and practice medicine his career was now firmly set as a writer. And thereafter great works continued to pour out of him. Here we one of those pieces for which his fame does not spread quite so far but which is an essential part of his work - 'The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard'.

Eugene Gladstone O'Neill was born on October 16, 1888 in a hotel bedroom in what is now Times Square, New York. Much of his childhood was spent in the comfort of books at boarding schools whilst his actor father was on the road and his Mother contended with her own demons. He spent only a year at University - Princeton - and various reasons have been given for his departure. However whatever his background and education denied or added to his development it is agreed amongst all that he was a playwright of the first rank and possibly America's greatest. His introduction of realism into American drama was instrumental in its development and paved a path for many talents thereafter. Of course his winning of both the Pulitzer Prize (4 times) and the Nobel Prize are indicative of his status. His more famous and later works do side with the disillusionment and personal tragedy of those on the fringes of society but continue to build upon ideas and structures he incorporated in his early one act plays. Eugene O'Neill suffered from various health problems, mainly depression and alcoholism. In the last decade he also faced a Parkinson's like tremor in his hands which made writing increasingly difficult. But out of such difficulties came plays of the calibre of The Iceman Cometh, Long Day's Journey Into Night, and A Moon for the Misbegotten. Eugene O'Neill died in Room 401 of the Sheraton Hotel on Bay State Road in Boston, on November 27, 1953, at the age of 65. As he was dying, he whispered his last words: "e;I knew it. I knew it. Born in a hotel room and died in a hotel room."e;

William Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage is generally considered to be an autobiographical fiction where the different events happening to the protagonist, Philip, stand for the hardships that Maugham himself faced throughout his life. The story begins when Phillip successively loses both parents and is sent to stay in his uncle's vicarage in a small Kent village named Blackstable. Being taken from one of Spinoza's works, the title alludes to the novel's deeply-philosophical aspect and pressing existential and theological questions. The narrative recounts Phillip's different experiences with women, mainly his rather masochistic love for the hospital waitress, Mildred, who keeps on disappointing him. It also speaks about his constant wavering between different fields of study, namely theology, art and medicine. His uncle's collection of books provides him with continuous flights into the world of fiction and helps him enrich his imagination and worldly experience. By the end of the novel, Phillip seems to give up his philosophical idealism and to finally apprehend that life should be taken simply in order to be lived fully and happily. The happy resolution parallels Maugham's life achievements as a wealthy and prized playwright and novelist.

In this foundational classic play, Christopher Marlowe beautifully retells the legend of Doctor Faustus in a masterful combination of verse and prose. The celebrated moral of the play is about how excessive ambition and unlimited lust for knowledge and power lead to self-destruction and damnation. The protagonist in the story is a talented lower-class man who is obsessed with the study of sciences and the secrets of life. His excessive academic ambition and his reliance solely on logic and reason lead him to cogitate about the nature of the world and its existence and to question the utility of the "e;doctrine of Divinity."e; Unsatisfied with the knowledge that pure and experimental sciences can offer, he eventually decides to explore the curious world of Black Magic. Through the recital of a strange incantation, Faustus succeeds in summoning a devil called Mephistopheles who informs him that he will only obey his orders once a pact is signed between Faustus and the devil's master: Lucifer. The pact is signed by Faustus' own blood and stipulates that in return of Mephistopheles' services, which unexpectedly turn to be unworthy by the end, he must give his soul over to Lucifer. The denouement of the play opens the floor for different speculations about Faustus' damnation or salvation.

Thomas Middleton was born in London in April 1580 and baptised on 18th April. Middleton was aged only five when his father died. His mother remarried but this unfortunately fell apart into a fifteen year legal dispute regarding the inheritance due Thomas and his younger sister. By the time he left Oxford, at the turn of the Century, Middleton had and published Microcynicon: Six Snarling Satirese which was denounced by the Archbishop of Canterbury and publicly burned. In the early years of the 17th century, Middleton wrote topical pamphlets. One - Penniless Parliament of Threadbare Poets was reprinted several times and the subject of a parliamentary inquiry. These early years writing plays continued to attract controversy. His writing partnership with Thomas Dekker brought him into conflict with Ben Jonson and George Chapman in the so-called War of the Theatres. His finest work with Dekker was undoubtedly The Roaring Girl, a biography of the notorious Mary Frith. In the 1610s, Middleton began another playwriting partnership, this time with the actor William Rowley, producing another slew of plays including Wit at Several Weapons and A Fair Quarrel. The ever adaptable Middleton seemed at ease working with others or by himself. His solo writing credits include the comic masterpiece, A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, in 1613. In 1620 he was officially appointed as chronologer of the City of London, a post he held until his death. The 1620s saw the production of his and Rowley's tragedy, and continual favourite, The Changeling, and of several other tragicomedies. However in 1624, he reached a peak of notoriety when his dramatic allegory A Game at Chess was staged by the King's Men. Though Middleton's approach was strongly patriotic, the Privy Council silenced the play after only nine performances at the Globe theatre, having received a complaint from the Spanish ambassador. What happened next is a mystery. It is the last play recorded as having being written by Middleton. Thomas Middleton died at his home at Newington Butts in Southwark in the summer of 1627, and was buried on July 4th, in St Mary's churchyard which today survives as a public park in Elephant and Castle.

Diana, Princess of Wales is one of the most recognisable figures in history. However how much do you really know about the woman who stole a nation's heart? This quick-read eBook gives you all the information you need in easy to digest sections which cover her life from a young child through her ill-fated marriage and subsequent divorce, her relationships, charity work plus much more. Find out everything there is to know about the people's princess whose life was tragically cut short.