Alcibiades (ca. 450 BC-ca. 404 BC), was the charismatic and controversial bisexual Athenian general and politician who promoted the Peloponnesian war against rival Sparta, who subsequently inspired Athens's failed Sicilian Expedition, and who later allied himself with two of Athens's biggest enemies: Sparta and Persia. His actions gravely affected the future of Athens and his motives and reasons for acting as he did are indeed the stuff of fascinating biography. Alcibiades's extraordinary beauty, great wealth, ostentatious vanity, male and female amours, debaucheries, and impious revels...

Ghosts and demons haunt the stories of E. F. Benson (1867-1940), but darker still can be what lurks in the depths of the human soul. Hidden murders cry for justice, remorse creeps from the grave, and evil manifests itself to collect the fallen. Benson's tales are a buffet of uneasy delight for the literary supernatural enthusiast.

A collection of the finest short stories by E. F. Benson one of the greatest horror and fantasy writers, and one of H. P. Lovecraft's favourite all-time authors. Including the classic tales 'The Room in the Tower' and 'Bagnell Terrace'"

Reprint of the original from 1927 about the life of Sir Francis Drake.

Lucia and Mapp's adventures in Tilling continue in -Lucia's Progress-, also published as -The Worshipful Lucia.- In this volume both Lucia and Mapp stand for election to the Town Council, and Lucia speculates in gold shares. While re-decorating Miss Mapp's house, Lucia -discovers- and hides the remains of a Roman Villa. Excitements ensue

David Blaize is E. F. Benson's delightfully nostalgic novel of English public school life. Benson follows young David Blaize from his time at preparatory school to his entry to the sixth form at Marchester College. The novel draws heavily on the author's own schoolboy experiences when at Temple Grove and then Marlborough College. Benson, better than most writers in this genre, memorably evokes the trials and tribulations of life in an English public school during the late Victorian period. The pages resonate with wit and humour. The reader is invited to follow young Blaize as he deals with...

Mapp and Lucia was written by E.F Benson in 1931. It is part of a series of novels that feature hilarious incidents in the lives of upper-middle class people in the 1920s and 30s. The characters vie for social standing in an extremely snobby world. In the series the two main characters - sophisticated Lucia and frumpy Miss Mapp compete with each other and have to extricate themselves from a series of social disasters in comical style.

This early work by E. F. Benson was originally published in 1912 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography as part of our Cryptofiction Classics series. 'Caterpillars' is a short story about a man haunted by dreams of enormous caterpillars. Edward Frederic Benson was born at Wellington College (where his father was headmaster) in Berkshire, England in 1867. Nowadays, Benson is principally known for his 'Mapp and Lucia' series about Emmeline "Lucia" Lucas and Elizabeth Mapp. The series consists of six novels and two short stories, and remains popular to this day,...

In compiling the following pages I have had access to certain sources of official information, the nature of which I am not at liberty to specify further. I have used these freely in such chapters of this book as deal with recent and contemporary events in Turkey or in Germany in connection with Turkey: the chapter, for instance, entitled 'Deutschland er Allah, ' is based very largely on such documents

E. F. Benson s beloved Mapp and Lucia novels are sparkling, classic comedies of manners set against the petty snobberies and competitive maneuverings of English village society in the 1920s and 1930s.
Benson s series revolves around two unforgettable characters, both forceful and irrepressible women who dominate their respective villages in southern England and who will eventually end up hilariously at war with each other. Lucia is the more deadly of the two, with her pretentious tastes, treacherous charm, and lust for power. Miss Elizabeth Mapp, on the other hand, is younger and more...