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Jeremy Garnet, a second-rate novelist, gets talked into joining his old pal Stanley Featheringstonehaugh Ukridge in an insane plan to start a chicken ranch. Garnet should bail out on his crazy friend, but he falls in love with one of Ukridge's neighbors, Phyllis. Soon he is up to his neck in sick chickens, bad debts, a hostile future father-in-law, a sinister plot, and dirty golf. It all gets a bit thick, what? (Summary by Mark Nelson)...

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Comedy

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Framed for a murder he did not commit, John North must rely on his friends to help clear him of the charge. But, are they really his friends? Many have dirty little secrets they wish to keep private, even at the expense of John North’s life. Ironically, those keeping quiet include members of the legal profession. Only one drunken man knows the true identity of the killer but he has mysteriously disappeared. Deceit and betrayal flourish in this story, with a tense conclusion. (Introduction by Tom Weiss)...

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Mystery

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Anna Katharine Green was one of the first female mystery writers to publish under her own name. She was never very successful as an author, but the technical excellence of her books caused several law schools to use The Leavenworth Case as a textbook in some of their classes, as an example of how misleading circumstantial evidence can be....

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Mystery

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Florentin’s Laws are neither Murphy’s (pessimistic) Laws nor Peter’s (optimistic) Laws, but partially pessimistic and partially optimistic, while another part is neutral (ambiguous: neither pessimistic nor optimistic) – as in neutrosophic logic. Therefore, each Florentin’s law includes negatives and positives, unlike Murphy’s law which has only negative attributes, and respectively Peter’s law which has mostly positive attributes or results....

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Florentin’s Laws: To hell with Murphy, deviate! 1. If anything can go wrong, pass it on to someone else! 2. When your team wins, it is thanks to you. If the team looses, it is because of others. 3. Get a reason to award your friends, and a pretext to punish your enemies. 4. Even good things have negative side effects. Moreover, negative things have positive side effects. 5. Don’t play by others’ rules. Build your own rules that allow you to win. If you still don’t win, prove the game is useless. 6. If he’s better than you, deny him. If he’s worse than you, praise him....

Table of Contents Details
Preface: If anything can go wrong, pass it on to someone else! Adventures and Variations in Murphy's Law: 4 What and Why Florentin’s law: 8 Florentin’s Laws: To hell with Murphy, deviate!: 13 Florentin’s Laws: Ignore Peter’s, relax!: 17 Florentin’s Interdisciplinary Laws: 19 More variations in Florentin’s law: 22 Call for Contributions: backcover...

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The Flying Inn is a novel first published in 1914 by G.K. Chesterton. It is set in a future England where a bizarre form of Progressive Islam has triumphed and largely dominates the political and social life of the country. Because of this, alcohol sales are effectively prohibited. The plot centers around the adventures of Humphrey Pump and Captain Patrick Dalroy, who roam the country in their cart with a barrel of rum in an attempt to evade Prohibition, exploiting loopholes in the law to temporarily prevent the police taking action against them. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Fiction, Fantasy

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THAT a secret society, based upon the lines of similar institutions so notorious on the Continent during the last century, could ever have existed in the London of our day may seem impossible. Such a society, however, not only did exist, but through the instrumentality of a woman of unparalleled capacity and genius, obtained a firm footing. A century ago the Brotherhood of the Seven Kings was a name hardly whispered without horror and fear in Italy, and now, by the fascinations and influence of one woman, it began to accomplish fresh deeds of unparalleled daring and subtlety in London. By the wide extent of its scientific resources, and the impregnable secrecy of its organisations, it threatened to become a formidable menace to society, as well as a source of serious anxiety to the authorities of the law. (excerpt from The Brotherhood of the Seven Kings )...

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Mystery

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A quiet backwater outpost on Mars gets a surprise in the form of a new police recruit - in a box! Yep, it's a prototype robot cop sent to the backwater station for testing. And Harrison tells the strange, funny and scary things that begin to happen after that, as only he can....

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Science fiction

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Excerpt: As a testimony to the affection of his brother-in-law?

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This novel is based on the plot that describes the life of a young lady having worked as Assistant Professor at the University level. These days, she is engaged by a Trust, interested in promoting `mental illumination through peace of mind and self-confidence. She is going places to deliver lectures, keep in mind the aims of the organization as well as the composition of the audiences. In fact, since her infancy she is on the move from one part of India to another, even having no idea of the identity of the couple who parented her. Having been reared up by a domestic maid, she was obliged to inherit this type of job to earn for her livelihood. The onset of puberty in the proximity of unrelated men was to be withstood with caution and care for her chastity. These tours of lecturing around, once make her find a known lady in her audience in Delhi. This incident opens her the way to meet many people in this big city and take her to the person who fathered her. Here, she also gets the truthful information about her mother....

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Dear Madhu Ji, On my way back home I recapitulated, as my routine exercise, the discussions at the Coffee House. Can you recall the reaction of Mr Malik to Lal's outburst against the final outcome of Dhananjay Chakrovarty's legal battle to ward off the Capital punishment pronounced on him for rape and murder of a minor girl, when he himself was just 21 years? ……………..." I suppose Mr. Malik came out with some amusing retort, which made almost the entire group at the table giggle and I could not make out anything but only observe Mr. Malik move towards the toilets. Respected Sir, I clearly heard your `Guruji`, I mean Mr Malik, murmur aloud, “Is there any punishment available to your civilized society to punish an errant woman who voluntarily and actively seduces and commits rape on an innocent, uninitiated and in the prime of his youth?” “Do you mean a rape amongst a Lesbian fraternity?” Mr. Lal Singh speaks out smilingly. Mr. Malik simply hung his head down and spoke in his normal pitch, “I mean, on a companion belonging to the opposite sex.” Having uttered these words Guruji peacefully got up and moved in a gentle pace towards pu...

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This story whirls around plot that opens up when two ex-classmates happen to meet inadvertently, one on his official duty, while the other on past-time, enjoying holiday touring alone. Their next meeting, brings a female classfellow of theirs at the hill-station to make them enjoy one another’s company. This re-union continues to grow further during the years that follow. The author portrays just an account of certain events taking shape in the social sectors of these persons, making, breaking or remaking a marriage based on the choice of the persons involved into matrimony. ...

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Hemant's intention in going to the H.P.T.D.C. hotel was, at the moment, influenced by the desire to meet Mr. Manmeet Malhotra, the manager. He also wanted thereby to express his gratitude to Mr. Malhotra who had arranged accommodation for him last night. Hemant was already under obligation of Mr Malhotra for his kind and affectionate treatment of Hemant when three years ago Hemant happened to meet him at the H.P.T.D.C. hotel at Manali where Manmeet Malhotra was working as an Astt Manager, those days. They were seeing each other after almost a decade since their graduation as students of S.R.C.C., Delhi. …………………….. "Well, how is `Bhabhiji`?" Hemant asked. For a few moments Manmeet held up his tongue tightly and only stared at Hemant with a smile on his face. Hemant thought that he had made a mistake. Perhaps, Triplem is still a bachelor like him. "But when I met him in Manali, he had told me that he had got married only three months before.” But Manmeet was quick enough to read the signs of perplexity in his friend's face and lost no time in explaining his position. ……………. He was not interested in knowing more about Ma...

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Valeria Brinton marries Eustace Woodville despite objections from Woodville's family leading to disquiet for Valeria's own family and friends. Just a few days after the wedding, various incidents lead Valeria to suspect her husband is hiding a dark secret in his past and she discovers that he has been using a false name. He refuses to discuss it leading them to curtail their honeymoon and return to London where Valeria learns that he was on trial for his first wife's murder by arsenic. He was tried in a Scottish court and the verdict was 'Not Proven' rather than 'not guilty' implying his guilt but without enough proof for a jury to convict him. Valeria sets out to save their happiness by proving her husband innocent of the crime. In her quest, she comes across the disabled character Miserrimus Dexter, a fascinating but mentally unstable genius, and his devoted female cousin, Ariel. Dexter will prove crucial to uncovering the disturbing truth behind the mysterious death....

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Mystery

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Clotel; or, The President's Daughter is a novel by William Wells Brown (1815-84), a fugitive from slavery and abolitionist and was published in London, England in December 1853. It is often considered the first African-American novel. This novel focuses on the difficult lives of mulattoes in America and the degraded and immoral condition of the relation of master and slave in the USA (Brown). It is about the tragic lives of Currer, Althesea, and Clotel. In the novel, Currer is the former mulatto mistress of President Thomas Jefferson who together have two daughters, Althesea and Clotel. Because she was beautiful and the mistress of Jefferson, Currer and her daughters lived a confortable life, this changed when her master passes away. In the end, Currer and Althesea are auctioned to the notorious slave trader, Dick Walker. Clotel is bought by her lover Horatio Green. The separation of these three women is just the beginning of the injustices they face. It gained notoriety amid the unconfirmed rumors regarding Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings. Brown was still considered someone else's legal property within the borders of the United...

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Historical Fiction

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George Sand (the pen name of Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin 1804-1876) is famous for flaunting the convertions of behaviour expected of women of her standing in France at the time and for her numerous romantic liaisons including her long standing affair with Frederic Chopin. The Devil’s Pool (published in 1846 as La Mare au Diable) is one of several short pastoral novels drawn from her childhood experiences in the rural French region of Berri. It tells the story of a young widower, Germain, who, at the insistence of his father-in-law, sets out to remarry so that he will have someone to help raise his three young children. (Summary by the reader)...

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Literature

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Frederick Schiller Faust (1892-1944), is best known today for his western fiction. Faust was born in Seattle, Washington and at an early age moved with his parents to the San Joaquin Valley in California where he worked as a ranchhand. After a failed attempt to enlist in the Great War in 1917 and with the help of Mark Twain's sister he met Robert Hobart Davis, editor of All-Story Weekly and became a regular contributor writting under his most used pseudonym “Max Brand”. He wrote in many genres during his career and produced more than 300 western novels and stories. His most famous characters were Destry and Dr. Kildare, both of which were produced in film. Faust was killed in Italy in 1944 as a front line war correspondent at the age of 51. He is buried in the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery in Nettuno, Italy. Ronicky Doone (1926) is a hero of the west, respected by the law-abiding citizen and hated by bushwhacking bandits. Bill Gregg is a man in love, not about to be deflected from meeting his lady love for the first time, and willing to stand up to the living legend to reach her. This initial meeting leads to a friendship between th...

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Westerns

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On a journey to Tuscany with her young friend and traveling companion Caroline Abbott, widowed Lilia Herriton falls in love with both Italy and a handsome Italian much younger than herself, and decides to stay. Furious, her dead husband's family send Lilia's brother-in-law to Italy to prevent a misalliance, but he arrives too late. Lilia marries the Italian and in due course becomes pregnant again. When she dies giving birth to her child, the Herritons consider it both their right and their duty to travel to Monteriano to obtain custody of the infant so that he can be raised as an Englishman. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Literature

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Bleak House is the ninth novel by Charles Dickens, published in 20 monthly parts between March 1852 and September 1853. It is widely held to be one of Dickens' finest and most complete novels, containing one of the most vast, complex and engaging arrays of minor characters and sub-plots in his entire canon. Dickens tells all of these both through the narrative of the novel's heroine, Esther Summerson, and as an omniscient narrator. Memorable characters include the menacing lawyer Tulkinghorn, the friendly but depressive John Jarndyce and the childish Harold Skimpole. The plot concerns a long-running legal dispute (Jarndyce and Jarndyce) which has far-reaching consequences for all involved. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Literature

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A contemporary of Arthur Conan Doyle, Maurice Leblanc (1864-1941) was the creator of the character of gentleman thief Arsène Lupin who, in France, has enjoyed a popularity as long-lasting and considerable as Sherlock Holmes in the English-speaking world. This is the delightful first of twenty volumes in the Arsène Lupin series written by Leblanc himself. In an unprecedented act of literary pastiche and cross-over, Sherlock Holmes and Lupin actually meet, briefly in this first volume, and more substantially in the next. But after legal objections from Conan Doyle, the name was changed to Herlock Sholmes. (adapted from Wikipedia by a.r.dobbs)...

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Mystery

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This moderately sized novel opens before the reader, with an episode that took place when, after having driven over a hundred kilometers relating to the pleasure trip from Delhi to Kosani,a tourist resort situated in the Kumayun Hills a range of the Himalayas in the North of India, being undertaken by a group of very intimate three unwed oldies, all retired college teachers, when one of them is accosted by the owner of the roadside `Dhaba` (an indigenous restaurant) where they had halted for refreshment. It triggers one of them to recall his boyhood days. Again, at their destination, the other one is accosted by an ex-girlfriend of his, in the distant past. The `trio` who are given to such type of tours, happen to meet two other ladies, while staying in a very beautiful zone of Goa. Here, each of these women have had been connected with either of the two other Professors, who hasn’t yet met any such female pupil of his, during the various other tours, undertaken by them the `trio` till then. These chance meetings brings forth during the next few years, a bond of a purpose for a meaningful solidarity, eventually turning int...

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Three chronic bachelors, on their way to Kosani (Kumayun Hills), have just completed their breakfast at a roadside modern `Dhaba` and the cashier for this solid group of three looks towards his companions, as if to seek their consent to signal the `boy` to bring the bill. So, in a broader sense, we used to be treating each other as `neighbour`, during those days. He is younger to me by a couple of years, but his physique and mannerism suggested his equaling me in age. Of course, he always remained conscious of my superiority, because at that point of time, I already had schooling for seven years, whereas he was thoroughly illiterate. …………………. Kundan happened to be the only `writer` available, had a brisk business almost for a fortnight. "I think that it was here that I actually began to earn for months at a run. One day, my earnings went to as high as Five Rupees and 14 Annas, I decided to place it before my mother, instead of handing it over to my father, as usual. …………. "Well, Khanna Ji, how long you had to work with this medico, before resuming your interrupted schooling?" This question was asked by Mr Nepali. "Of...

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Законы Флорентина не ЯВЛЯЮТСЯ ни законами Мэрфн (песс имистичны), ни законами Питера (О ПТИМИСТИЧНЫ), часть из них пессимистична, часть оптимистична, они также частично нейтральны (НИ ОПТИМИСТИЧНЫ, ни пессимистичны), ЧТО-ТО вроде нейтрозофическои ЛОГИКИ. Поэтому в каждом законе Флорентина есть негатив и ПОЗИТИВ, в то время как законы Мэрфи негативны, а законы Питера включают позитивные атрибуты. Florentin’s Laws are neither Murphy’s (pessimistic) Laws nor Peter’s (optimistic) Laws, but partially pessimistic and partially optimistic, while another part is neutral (ambiguous: neither pessimistic nor optimistic) – as in neutrosophic logic. Therefore, each Florentin’s law includes negatives and positives, unlike Murphy’s law which has only negative attributes, and respectively Peter’s law which has mostly positive attributes or results....

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ЗАКОН ФЛОРЕНТИНА, ЧТО И ПОЧЕМУ с 1980 года работают законы Флорентина: I.Всё ВОЗМОЖНО, невозможное тожеl 2.Ничто несовершенно,даже совершенное! З.Всё ПЛОХО,включая хорошее.и наоборот. 4 .Смысл включает бессмыслицу, и бессмыслица включает СМЫСЛ. 5.Всё обладает и не обладает величиной. Новая серия законов появилась в 1986- 1989 годах. Starting from the 1980 Paradoxism’s Laws: 1. All is possible, the impossible too! 2. Nothing is perfect, not even the perfect! 3. Everything is bad, the good included – and reciprocally; 4. The sense has a non-sense, and the nonsense a sense; 5. Anything has a value and a non-value; a new series of laws emerged in 1986-1989....

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Selected unexpurgated epigrams.

Table of Contents Details
De Spectaculis:1 The New Colosseum De Spectaculis:2 Rome restored De Spectaculis:6 On display BookI:1 He’s here Book I:32 I don’t love you… Book I:34 Lesbia Book I:77 Charinus, exhausted Book I:91 The critic Book I:94 Changed Book I:115 A certain girl Book II:25 Promises Book II:38 A fine view Book II:87 Amazing Book III:9 A silent critic Book III:26 Possession Book III:27 Dinner invitations Book III:53 Sorry Chloe Book III:79 Incomplete Book III: 90 Uncertainty Book IV: 76 Half measures Book V:34 Erotion the slave-girl Book V:47 It’s logical Book V:58 Carpe diem Book V:64 The Mausoleum of Augustus Book V:66 Ave, Pontilianus Book V:81 It’s a law Book V:83 Contrary Book VI:40 Tempus fugit Book VI:60 My books Book VI:90 Bigamy Book VII:3 No thanks Book VII:14 True loss Book VII:30 Hard to please Book VII:73 Tell me, Maximus Book VII:76 The reality Book VIII:13 False description Book IX:8 Double negative Book X:14 Stop complaining Book X:29 My gifts Book X:32 Marcus Antonius Primus Book X:33 The hidden rule Book X:47 The good life Book X:50 Too soon Book X:97 Expectations dashed Book XI:3 No...