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The Horror Collection Vol. 2 - In Gaston Leroux's "The Phantom of the Opera" the lights dim at the Paris Opera House. A stand-in, previously relegated to the chorus, is suddenly promoted to center stage. As soon as the beautiful Christine Daae opens her mouth, the audience is enraptured and one member in particular. Count Raoul de Chagny has fallen in love with her at first sight and, as he begins his pursuit of her, he realizes that she is under the spell of the disfigured "opera ghost", who turns out to be disturbingly real. When the phantom abducts Christine and takes her down into the bowels of the opera house, Raoul follows into a place where desire, vulnerability, fear, and violence intersect.
Gaston Leroux was born in 1868 in Paris to a wealthy storeowner. After receiving his law degree, he inherited nearly a million francs, and spent the next several years drinking and gambling. In 1890, finding himself broke, Leroux turned to writing becoming first a reporter, then a novelist. He published "The Phantom of the Opera" in 1910, and it became a critical and commercial hit spawning several films and stage plays, most recently Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical produced in 1987. Leroux went on to form a film company in 1919 and died in 1927.
"Christine, you must love me!"
And Christine''s voice, infinitely sad and trembling, as though accompanied by tears, replied:
"How can you talk like that? WHEN I SING ONLY FOR YOU!"
Gaston Leroux
The Phantom of the Opera
In "The Picture of Dorian Gray" an artist, Basil Hallward paints a beautiful, young man's portrait, and his subject wishes that the picture change while he remain always the same. As the young man, Dorian Gray, descends into a life of depravity, the picture remains unblemished. Only at the end does Dorian come to receive his just deserts.
Oscar Wilde was born in 1854 in Dublin, Ireland to unconventional parents - his mother was a poet and journalist and his father was an antiquarian, writer, and physician After receiving his degree from Oxford, Wilde worked as a writer, married and had two sons. Then, he met Lord Alfred Douglas, an athlete and a poet, who became the love of his life and the cause of his downfall. After publishing a number of well-received works including "The Importance of Being Earnest," Wilde was brought up on charges of homosexuality, then illegal in Britain, and was sentenced to two years hard labor. A ruined man, Wilde was released from Reading Goal in 1897, and died three years later penniless in a cheap Paris hotel at the age of 46.
In "The Lair of the White Worm" a young man is invited by a long-lost uncle to his estate. When Adam Salton arrives, he finds himself at the center of some pretty strange goings on. The new heir to the Caswall estate, Edgar Caswall, appears to be making a mesmeric assault on a young girl, and Adam can't shake the feeling that something is very wrong with Lady Arabella March, something strange and evil. Ken Russell's 1988 film version starring Hugh Grant and Amanda Donohoe as Lady March, became an instant cult classic, that rare combination of sexy horror. A bizarre gothic extravaganza, the movie's got it all: shadows, screams, feverish scientific speculations, guttering candle flames, flowing diaphanous gowns, midnights, dawns and worms.
Bram Stoker was born near Dublin in 1847 and an illness kept him virtually bedridden until age seven. After attending Trinity College, Dublin, Stoker became a civil servant and wrote stories in his spare time. Stoker moved to London to take the position of theater manager of London's Lyceum Theatre and he soon married. In 1897, Stoker published "Dracula" to worldwide acclaim. He died in 1912.
To read an ebook on your Pocket PC, you must have the Microsoft Reader installed. This reader is included with most Pocket PCs, however, if you don't already have it installed, check your Pocket PC's website or the Microsoft website to downloaded the reader. "The Horror Collection Vol. 2" is downloaded in a zipped format and you must unzip it using either Winzip on your PC or Stuffit Expander on your Mac. Then, use your Microsoft desktop software to install the ebook to your Pocket PC and start Microsoft Reader. It's that easy!
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