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xii, 361 p. 25 cm

This is the first of three novels which Edith Somerville and her cousin Violet Martin wrote about the English Major Sinclair Yates who leaves the army to take up a position of Resident Magistrate in the West of Ireland in about 1895. The tales tell in a humorous way of his struggles with a new job, new culture, and with his landlord and neighbour Mr. ‘Flurry’ Knox whose prime, if not only, interest is in hunting, which forms the background to all the stories. Miss Somerville was herself the first woman anywhere to become an M.F.H.<br />(Summary by A.J.M.)

2Florentine Tragedy and La Sainte Courtisane

By Robert Baldwin Ross and Oscar Wilde

Two short fragments: an unfinished and a lost play. A Florentine Tragedy, left in a taxi (not a handbag), is Wilde’s most successful attempt at tragedy – intense and domestic, with surprising depth of characterisation. It was adapted into an opera by the Austrian composer Alexander Zemlinsky in 1917. La Sainte Courtisane, or The Woman Covered in Jewels explores one of Wilde’s great idées fixes: the paradox of religious hedonism, pagan piety. Both plays, Wildean to their core, revel in the profound sadness that is the fruit of the conflict between fidelity and forbidden love. Written towards the end of his tragic life, these fragments give us a glimpse of a genius at his best: visceral, passionate, personal, poetic. (Summary by Simon Larois)<br><br> A Florentine Tragedy - cast:<BR> Narrator: <a href="https://catalog.librivox.org/people_public.php?peopleid=3157">TriciaG</a><br>GUIDO BARDI, A Florentine prince: <a href="https://catalog.librivox.org/people_public.php?peopleid=1492">mb</a><br>SIMONE, a merchant: <a href="https://catalog.librivox.org/people_public.php?peopleid=2986">Simon Larois</a><br>BIANNA, his wife: <a href="https://catalog.librivox.org/people_public.php?peopleid=2607">Ruth Golding</a><br> <BR> La Sainte Courtisane - cast:<BR> Narrator: <a href="https://catalog.librivox.org/people_public.php?peopleid=2607">Ruth Golding</a><br>First man: <a href="https://catalog.librivox.org/people_public.php?peopleid=1492">mb</a><br>Myrrhina: <a href="https://catalog.librivox.org/people_public.php?peopleid=2297">Philippa</a><br>Second man: <a href="https://catalog.librivox.org/people_public.php?peopleid=3332">L.French</a><br>Honorius: <a href="https://catalog.librivox.org/people_public.php?peopleid=3098">woggy298</a><br> <BR> Edited by <a href="https://catalog.librivox.org/people_public.php?peopleid=2607">Ruth Golding</a>

3Book of Cats

By Charles Henry Ross

One day, ever so long ago, it struck me that I should like to try and write a book about Cats. I mentioned the idea to some of my friends: the first burst out laughing at the end of my opening sentence, so I refrained from entering into further details. The second said there were a hundred books about Cats already. The third said, “Nobody would read it,” and added, “Besides, what do you know of the subject?” and before I had time to begin to tell him, said he expected it was very little. “Why not Dogs?” asked one friend of mine, hitting upon the notion as though by inspiration. “Or Horses,” said some one else; “or Pigs; or, look here, this is the finest notion of all:—<p> <br><br>‘THE BOOK OF DONKIES, <br>BY ONE OF THE FAMILY!’” <br><br>Somewhat disheartened by the reception my little project had met with, I gave up the idea for awhile, and went to work upon other things. I cannot exactly remember what I did, or how much, but my book about Cats was postponed sine die, and in the meantime I made some inquiries. <br><br>I hope I have not been very prosy, and I hope, in the somewhat large collection of Cat anecdotes here brought together, “the only one worth the trouble of relating” has not been omitted. If this has been the case, allow me to assure you it has not been because I have spared any trouble in gathering together my materials. (C.H.Ross)

4Selected Poems of Oscar Wilde

By Robert Baldwin Ross and Oscar Wilde

This is a selection of the early poetry of Oscar Wilde, selected by Robert Ross. As he puts it, "It is thought that a selection from Oscar Wilde’s early verses may be of interest to a large public at present familiar only with the always popular Ballad of Reading Gaol, also included in this volume. The poems were first collected by their author when he was twenty-six years old, and though never, until recently, well received by the critics, have survived the test of NINE editions. Readers will be able to make for themselves the obvious and striking contrasts between these first and last phases of Oscar Wilde’s literary activity. The intervening period was devoted almost entirely to dramas, prose, fiction, essays, and criticism." - Summary by Carolin and Robert Ross

5Philosophies

By Ronald Ross

This is a volume of poetry by Ronald Ross. It was composed in India during Ross' intensive research of malaria. Ross was first to discover how mosquitoes transmit malaria and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for this work in 1902. While this research is still well-known today, it is not very well-known that Ross also wrote poetry. This volume contains some of his poems, composed during his stay in India. - Summary by Carolin