Download or read book Behind the Mirror Valancourt 20th Century Classics written by Robin Maugham and published by . This book was released on 2016-02-16 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A film company is making a movie about Daphne Moore, a famous actress of the 1920s, but to proceed they must secure the permission of Norman Hartleigh, a former diplomat once deeply involved with the star. So far, the reclusive Hartleigh has ignored all communications, so scriptwriter David Brent is sent to East Africa to track him down. When Hartleigh refuses to cooperate, Brent resolves to learn why and must uncover the details of his relationship with Daphne Moore, the real reason for his abrupt resignation from the Foreign Office in 1928, and the true nature of his involvement with his young companion, Bill Wayne. In a dramatic climax, the whole truth of what lies "behind the mirror" is exposed, with shattering consequences ... Robin Maugham (1916-1981), who at the height of his career was one of the most popular authors in England, is best known today for his novella "The Servant" (1948), "The Wrong People" (1967), a controversial novel and classic of gay fiction, and his writings about his famous uncle, W. Somerset Maugham. "Behind the Mirror" (1955), the first of his explicitly gay-themed novels, is both a page-turning mystery and an acutely insightful psychological thriller. This new edition reproduces the original jacket art by John Minton. "One of Lord Maugham's best novels." - Francis King, "Spectator" "Never ceases to be entertaining." - "New Yorker" "Exciting and compelling ... This is one of those small books that says a lot more than many bulkier volumes." - "Saturday Review"
Download or read book The Valancourt Book of Horror Stories Volume Three written by James Purdy and published by . This book was released on 2018-10-02 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since 2005, Valancourt Books has earned a reputation as one of the foremost publishers of lost and rediscovered classics, reissuing more than 400 unjustly neglected works from the past 250 years. In this third volume of horror stories, the editors of Valancourt Books have selected fifteen tales (and one macabre poem) - all by Valancourt authors - for this new collection featuring horror from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. This volume features a previously unpublished contributions by Steve Rasnic Tem, Eric C. Higgs, and Hugh Fleetwood, as well as thirteen other tales that have never or seldom been reprinted. In this volume, you will encounter tales of ghosts, haunted houses, black magic, monsters, demonic babies, and vengeful spirits. Stories of the strange and sinister, of a boy who unwisely disobeys his grandfather's warning never to go up the stairs, a man whose apparently irrational terror of fire proves all too justified, an unpopular man who discovers a shocking new way of making friends, an ancestor who exerts a chilling influence from beyond the grave. With stories ranging from frightening to horrific to weird to darkly humorous, by a lineup of authors that includes both well-known masters of horror fiction and acclaimed authors of literary fiction, this is a horror anthology like no other.
Download or read book Jubb Valancourt 20th Century Classics written by Keith Waterhouse and published by . This book was released on 2015-04-28 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: C. L. Jubb is thirty-six, married, gainfully employed, and active in his community, both in local government and as a volunteer youth leader working with disadvantaged boys. But as he narrates the story of his downfall, we begin to see that he is other things as well: a voyeur, a fetishist, a racist, an admirer of Mussolini, and above all, a man obsessed by his sexual fantasies. With its unforgettable protagonist - odious yet pitiable, vile yet oddly sympathetic - Keith Waterhouse's third novel is both a gripping case study of a social and sexual misfit and an unsettling but wickedly funny social satire. "Jubb" (1963) was a departure from Waterhouse's first two novels, the classic of childhood "There is a Happy Land" and the comic masterpiece "Billy Liar," but like those works it was widely acclaimed by critics, who compared it favorably with Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita." This edition, the first in decades, features a new introduction by Alice Ferrebe and a reproduction of the original dust jacket art. 'Magnificent ... an achievement that puts Mr. Waterhouse above all his contemporary novelists.' - "Washington D.C. Star" 'An important book and one of the finest in months ... a fascinating novel.' - "Cleveland Plain Dealer" '[A]dmirable . . . indeed a very funny book.' - "New York Times"
Download or read book The Servant written by Robin Maugham and published by . This book was released on 1989-01 with total page 94 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Islanders written by Christopher Priest and published by Titan Books (US, CA). This book was released on 2014-04-08 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A stunning literary SF novel from the multiple award winning Christopher Priest. A tale of murder, artistic rivalry and literary trickery; a Chinese puzzle of a novel where nothing is quite what it seems; a narrator whose agenda is artful and subtle; a narrative that pulls you in and plays an elegant game with you. The Dream Archipelago is a vast network of islands. The names of the islands are different depending on who you talk to, their very locations seem to twist and shift. Some islands have been sculpted into vast musical instruments, others are home to lethal creatures, others the playground for high society. Hot winds blow across the archipelago and a war fought between two distant continents is played out across its waters. THE ISLANDERS serves both as an untrustworthy but enticing guide to the islands, an intriguing, multi-layered tale of a murder and the suspect legacy of its appealing but definitely untrustworthy narrator.
Download or read book Billy Liar on the Moon Valancourt 20th Century Classics written by Keith Waterhouse and published by . This book was released on 2015-02-24 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this sequel to Waterhouse's Billy Liar, Billy Fisher may be thirty-three but still hasn't grown out of his propensity for lying. Stuck in a loveless marriage in a dismal town, where he has a dead-end job in local government, Billy seeks escape through his affair with Helen, who is also unhappily married. But once again he finds himself in danger of being undone by his lies: vodka martinis charged to his expense account, a wise-cracking alter ego named Oscar, a false police report about a stolen set of nonexistent golf clubs, an imaginary cat named 'Mr Pussy-paws' . . . Now the all-important town festival is approaching, but instead of doing the planning, Billy is busy trying to keep ahead of the suspicions of his wife, the police, and Helen's jealous husband.
Download or read book The Great White Space written by Basil Copper and published by 20th Century. This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The best writer in the genre since H. P. Lovecraft." - Los Angeles Herald-Examiner "Outstanding in the genre." - August Derleth "In the same class as M.R. James and Algernon Blackwood." - Michael and Mollie Hardwick "One of the last great traditionalists of English fiction." - Colin Wilson Frederick Plowright, a well-known scientific photographer, is recruited by Professor Clark Ashton Scarsdale to accompany his research team in search of "The Great White Space," described in ancient and arcane texts as a portal leading to the extremities of the universe. Plowright, Scarsdale, and the rest of their crew embark on the Great Northern Expedition, traversing a terrifying and desolate landscape to the Black Mountains, where a passageway hundreds of feet high leads to a lost city miles below the surface of the earth. But the unsettling discoveries they make there are only a precursor of the true horror to follow. For the doorway of the Great White Space opens both ways, and something unspeakably evil has crossed over-a horrifying abomination that does not intend to let any of them return to the surface alive . . . One of the great British horror writers of the 20th century, Basil Copper (1924-2013) was best known for his macabre short fiction, which earned him the World Horror Convention's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010. The Great White Space (1974) is a tale in the mode of H. P. Lovecraft and is recognized as one of the best Lovecraftian horror novels ever written. This edition, the first in more than 30 years, includes a new introduction by Stephen Jones.
Download or read book The Valancourt Book of Horror Stories Volume One written by John Blackburn and published by Valancourt Books. This book was released on 2016-10-04 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this volume, you will encounter tales of ghosts, haunted houses, witchcraft, vampirism, lycanthropy, and sea monsters. Stories of cruelty and vengeance, of a body that refuses to be cremated, a deranged performer with one last shocking show, a frozen corpse that may not be dead. With stories ranging from frightening to horrific to weird to darkly funny, by a lineup of authors that includes both masters of horror fiction and award-winning literary greats, this is a horror anthology like no other. Spanning two hundred years of horror, this new collection features seventeen macabre gems, including two original tales and many others that have never or seldom been reprinted, by: Charles Birkin • John Blackburn • Michael Blumlein • Mary Cholmondeley • Hugh Fleetwood • Stephen Gregory • Gerald Kersh • Francis King • M. G. Lewis • Florence Marryat • Richard Marsh • Michael McDowell • Christopher Priest • Forrest Reid • Bernard Taylor • Hugh Walpole 'The things were there and they were hiding in the slime; waiting ... waiting to clutch and claw and savage’ - AUNTY GREEN by John Blackburn ‘The sound that came from her throat, a small, pleading cry of terror, was cut off before she’d hardly had a chance to utter it’ - OUT OF SORTS by Bernard Taylor ‘The words filled her with an indescribable fear, and she turned to run; but her way was blocked by a figure, gigantic in stature – and its monstrous shape moved towards her, and she knew it was the incarnation of evil itself ’ - THE TERROR ON TOBIT by Charles Birkin
Download or read book The Thirty First of June written by J. B. Priestley and published by . This book was released on 2014-06-24 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Arthurian characters from the medieval world and the personnel of a modern advertising agency switch back and forth in a burlesque involving magic mirrors and television.
Download or read book Night and the City written by Gerald Kersh and published by . This book was released on with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Amulet written by Michael McDowell and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When a rifle range accident leaves Dean Howell disfigured and in a vegetative state, his wife Sarah finds her dreary life in Pine Cone, Alabama made even worse. After long and tedious days on the assembly line, she returns home to care for her corpselike husband while enduring her loathsome and hateful mother-in-law, Jo. Jo blames the entire town for her son's mishap, and when she gives a strange piece of jewelry to the man she believes most responsible, a series of gruesome deaths is set in motion. Sarah believes the amulet has something to do with the rising body count, but no one will believe her. As the inexplicable murders continue, Sarah and her friend Becca Blair have no choice but to track down the amulet themselves, before it's too late . . .
Download or read book Once Upon Atari written by Howard Scott Warshaw and published by . This book was released on 2020-12-14 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ONCE UPON ATARI is an intimate view into the dramatic rise and fall of the early video game industry, and how it shaped the life of one of its key players. This book offers eye-opening details and insights, delivered in a creative style that mirrors the industry it reveals. An innovative work from one of the industry's original innovators.This is a detailed look behind the scenes of the early days of video games, with particular attention to the causative factors leading up to the video game crash of the early 1980s. It is also the journey of one industry pioneer, and how his experience creating some of the world's most noted pieces of interactive entertainment reverberates throughout his life. It is a compelling and dramatic tale of innocence, greed, exuberance, hubris, joy, devastation and ultimately redemption, told in a fresh voice and an unorthodox style.
Download or read book Dark Entries written by Robert Aickman and published by Faber & Faber. This book was released on 2014-06-03 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Reading Robert Aickman is like watching a magician work, and very often I'm not even sure what the trick was. All I know is that he did it beautifully.' Neil Gaiman For fans of the BBC's Inside Number 9 and The League of GentlemenAickman's 'strange stories' (his preferred term) are constructed immaculately, the neuroses of his characters painted in subtle shades. He builds dread by the steady accrual of realistic detail, until the reader realises that the protagonist is heading towards their doom as if in a dream. Dark Entries was first published in 1964 and contains six curious and macabre stories of love, death and the supernatural, including the classic story 'Ringing the Changes'. Robert Aickman (1914-1981) was the grandson of Richard Marsh, a leading Victorian novelist of the occult. Though his chief occupation in life was first as a conservationist of England's canals he eventually turned his talents to writing what he called 'strange stories.' Dark Entries (1964) was his first full collection, the debut in a body of work that would inspire Peter Straub to hail Aickman as 'this century's most profound writer of what we call horror stories.'
Download or read book Billy Liar written by Keith Waterhouse and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2015-10-06 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The classic comedy of a 50s youth trapped inside a Walter Mitty fantasy-world, published as a Penguin Essential for the first time. Keith Waterhouse's Billy Liar was published in 1959, and captures brilliantly the claustrophobic atmosphere of a small town. It tells the story of Billy Fisher, a Yorkshire teenager unable to stop lying - especially to his three girlfriends. Trapped by his boring job and working-class parents, Billy finds that his only happiness lies in grand plans for his future and fantastical day-dreams of the fictional country Ambrosia.
Download or read book The Expendable Man written by Dorothy B. Hughes and published by New York Review of Books. This book was released on 2012-07-03 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “It was surprising what old experiences remembered could do to a presumably educated, civilized man.” And Hugh Denismore, a young doctor driving his mother’s Cadillac from Los Angeles to Phoenix, is eminently educated and civilized. He is privileged, would seem to have the world at his feet, even. Then why does the sight of a few redneck teenagers disconcert him? Why is he reluctant to pick up a disheveled girl hitchhiking along the desert highway? And why is he the first person the police suspect when she is found dead in Arizona a few days later? Dorothy B. Hughes ranks with Raymond Chandler and Patricia Highsmith as a master of mid-century noir. In books like In a Lonely Place and Ride the Pink Horse she exposed a seething discontent underneath the veneer of twentieth-century prosperity. With The Expendable Man, first published in 1963, Hughes upends the conventions of the wrong-man narrative to deliver a story that engages readers even as it implicates them in the greatest of all American crimes.
Download or read book The Cadaver of Gideon Wyck written by Alexander Laing and published by . This book was released on 1934 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
