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At least one battalion of flame-throwers is swinging around like a pack of crazy wild boars. Long, flaming red tongues of fire are hissing from the towers, charring every living thing. From the GPU-prison stream shoals of red prisoners. A barrage of incredible dimensions is hammering down behind the Germans. It seems like the Russians have guessed that they are pondering an escape and want to stop it with an impenetrable wall of fire, spreading as far as the eye can see.

Set in the mid-twentieth century and told with beauty and tenderness, Robert Seethaler's A Whole Life is a story of man's relationship with an ancient landscape, of the value of solitude, of the arrival of the modern world, and above all, of the moments, great and small, that make us who we are. Andreas Egger knows every path and peak of his mountain valley, the source of his sustenance, his livelihood, his home.

On a dark, brooding evening on the Isle of Wight, Agnes Raybould and her companion find themselves an empty first-class compartment on the train. But before long a middle-aged man, clearly in high spirits after dining at his club, joins them, and begins a conversation. His name is Edwin Blanchard – and within moments of the train leaving the station, Agnes and her accomplice strangle him.

Evening Star: Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories. 'Twas noontide of summer, And midtime of night, And stars, in their orbits, Shone pale, through the light Of the brighter, cold moon.

The Coliseum: Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories. Type of the antique Rome! Rich reliquary Of lofty contemplation left to Time By buried centuries of pomp and power!

"The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether" is a dark comedy short story by the American author Edgar Allan Poe. First published in Graham's Magazine in November 1845, the story centers on a naïve and unnamed narrator's visit to a mental asylum in the southern provinces of France. The story follows an unnamed narrator who visits a mental institution in southern France (more accurately, a "Maison de Santé") known for a revolutionary new method of treating mental illnesses called the "system of soothing".

Fairy-Land: Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories.

"The Queer Feet" deals with Flambeau wanting to steal the silverware of the members of the Twelve True Fishermen having their annual club dinner at Vernon Hotel. The Vernon Hotel is an exclusive hotel and a "topsy-turvy product" (Chesterton 1994, p. 51).

The Sleeper: Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories. I stand beneath the mystic moon. An opiate vapour, dewy, dim, Exhales from out her golden rim, And, softly dripping, drop by drop, Upon the quiet mountain top.

"The Gold-Bug" is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe published in 1843. The plot follows William Legrand, who becomes fixated on an unusual gold-colored bug he has discovered. His servant Jupiter fears that Legrand is going insane and goes to Legrand's friend, an unnamed narrator, who agrees to visit his old friend. Legrand pulls the other two into an adventure after deciphering a secret message that will lead to buried treasure.

"The Oval Portrait" is a horror short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, involving the disturbing circumstances of a portrait in a château. It is one of his shortest stories, filling only two pages in its initial publication in 1842. The tale begins with an injured narrator seeking refuge in an abandoned mansion in the Apennines. The narrator spends his time admiring the paintings that decorate the strangely shaped room and reading through a reference book, found on a pillow, that describes them.

"The Mystery of Marie Rogêt", often subtitled A Sequel to "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe written in 1842. This is the first murder mystery based on the details of a real crime. Poe's detective character C. Auguste Dupin and his assistant, the unnamed narrator, undertake the unsolved murder of Marie Rogêt in Paris.

The Haunted Palace: Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories. In the greenest of our valleys By good angels tenanted, Once a fair and stately palace— Radiant palace— reared its head.

Eldorado: Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories. Gaily bedight, A gallant knight, In sunshine and in shadow, Had journeyed long, Singing a song, In search of Eldorado.

"A Predicament" is a humorous short story by Edgar Allan Poe, usually combined with its companion piece "How to Write a Blackwood Article". The paired stories parody the Gothic sensation tale, popular in England and America since the early 19th century. The story follows a female narrator, Signora Psyche Zenobia. While walking through "the goodly city of Edina" with her 5-inch-tall (130 mm) poodle and her 3-foot-tall (0.91 m) black servant, Pompey, she is drawn to a large Gothic cathedral.

"The Devil in the Belfry" is a satirical short story by Edgar Allan Poe. It was first published in 1839. In an isolated town called Vondervotteimittiss (wonder-what-time-it-is), the punctilious inhabitants seem to be concerned with nothing but clocks and cabbage. This methodical, boring and quiet little borough is devastated by the arrival of a devilish figure playing a big fiddle who comes straight down from a hill, goes into the bell tower, brutally attacks the belfry-man and rings thirteen o'clock, to the horror of the town's inhabitants.

Dream-Land: Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories. By a route obscure and lonely, Haunted by ill angels only, Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT, On a black throne reigns upright, I have reached these lands but newly From an ultimate dim Thule— From a wild weird clime that lieth, sublime, Out of SPACE—out of TIME.

"The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall" (1835) is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. The story is regarded as one of the early examples of the modern science fiction genre. The story traces the journey of a voyage to the Moon. The story opens with the delivery to a crowd gathered in Rotterdam of a manuscript detailing the journey to the moon by Hans Pfaall. The manuscript sets out in detail how Hans Pfaall, a mender of bellows, contrived to reach the Moon by benefit of a revolutionary new balloon and a device which compresses the vacuum of space into breathable air.

Lion-izing (A Tale): I am — that is to say, I was, a great man. But I am neither the author of Junius, nor the man in the mask — for my name is Thomas Smith, and I was born somewhere in the city of Fum-Fudge. The first action of my life was the taking hold of my nose with both hands. My mother saw this and called me a genius. My father wept for joy, and bought me a treatise on Nosology.

An Enigma: Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories. "Seldom we find," says Solomon Don Dunce, "Half an idea in the profoundest sonnet. Through all the flimsy things we see at once As easily as through a Naples bonnet— Trash of all trash!—how can a lady don it?