Stella Benson

Living Alone (Dodo Press)

In the spring of 1916, we meet orphaned sister and brother Jay and Kew Martin in London. Jay (real name Jane Elizabeth) has run away from her strange, claustrophobic, interfering, well-heeled family to the simplicities of the 'Brown Borough' (otherwise Hackney), to live amongst its working-class people, to a job as a bus conductor, and to discover her own wild self. Kew is on recuperative leave from the War, and manages to find Jay in her humble new abode. She begs him to preserve her newfound freedom and not reveal her whereabouts to their family. But nothing can stop their former guardians, the eccentric writer Anonyma Martin and her husband, their dry cousin Gustus, from setting out to try to find her, using clues from Jay's letters. The problem is, Jay's letters have been fabricated from her extraordinary dream-filled imagination; she's set them on a wild goose-chase!

This Is the End

The oddest book you may ever read, both fantastic autobiography and ground-breaking autofiction Count Nicolas de Toulouse Lautrec de Savine was a hero in battle and a legendary lover in bed. A daring adventurer and a shameless swindler. A gambler ready to place the riskiest bets and a coward apt to flee his creditors in the middle of the night. Tsar of Bulgaria and a Chicago streetcar conductor. A racist, a chauvinist, and an antisemite. Was he all of these--or none of them? This is the question Stella Benson struggled with as she tried to shape the Count's wild recollections into a coherent story. Which mattered more: the factual truth or the fictional truth? Her answer anticipates today's field of creative nonfiction ñ while telling a wild, funny, and unique tale. Literary Nonfiction. Autofiction.

Pull Devil, Pull Baker

There were six women, seven chairs, and a table in an otherwise unfurnished room in an unfashionable part of London. Three of the women were of the kind that has no life apart from committees. They need not be mentioned in detail. The names of two others were Miss Meta Mostyn Ford and Lady Arabel Higgins. Miss Ford was a good woman, as well as a lady. Her hands were beautiful because they paid a manicurist to keep them so, but she was too righteous to powder her nose. She was the sort of person a man would like his best friend to marry. Lady Arabel was older: she was virtuous to the same extent as Achilles was invulnerable. In the beginning, when her soul was being soaked in virtue, the heel of it was fortunately left dry. She had a husband, but no apparent tragedy in her life. These two women were obviously not native to their surroundings. Their eyelashes brought Bond Street-or at least Kensington-to mind; their shoes were mudless; their gloves had not been bought in the sales. Of the sixth woman the less said the better.

Original Text

Living Alone

Living Alone is a novella by Stella Benson. Sarah Brown lives an unexciting life of charity committee work, when magic suddenly swings into her life when a witch invites her to join a coven.

The oddest book you may ever read, both fantastic autobiography and ground-breaking autofiction Count Nicolas de Toulouse Lautrec de Savine was a hero in battle and a legendary lover in bed. A daring adventurer and a shameless swindler. A gambler ready to place the riskiest bets and a coward apt to flee his creditors in the middle of the night. Tsar of Bulgaria and a Chicago streetcar conductor. A racist, a chauvinist, and an Antisemite. Was he all of these--or none of them? This is the question Stella Benson struggled with as she tried to shape the Count's wild recollections into a coherent story. Which mattered more: the factual truth or the fictional truth? Her answer anticipates today's field of creative nonfiction ñ while telling a wild, funny, and unique tale.

This book is part of the TREDITION CLASSICS series. The creators of this series are united by passion for literature and driven by the intention of making all public domain books available in printed format again - worldwide. At tredition we believe that a great book never goes out of style. Several mostly non-profit literature projects provide content to tredition. To support their good work, tredition donates a portion of the proceeds from each sold copy. As a reader of a TREDITION CLASSICS book, you support our mission to save many of the amazing works of world literature from oblivion.

Living Alone (1919) is a novel by Stella Benson. Considered a pioneering work of fantasy fiction, Living Alone is a story of magic set in London during the First World War. Benson’s meditative, diaristic prose guides the reader alongside her protagonist, a young woman introduced to a world of witchcraft and wizardry at “the House of Living Alone.” “Nothing else happened in that room. At least nothing more important than the ordinary manifestations attendant upon magic. The lamp had tremulously gone out. Coloured flames danced about the Stranger's head. One felt the thrill of a purring cat against one's ankles, one saw its green eyes glare. But these things hardly counted.” Guided by her political commitments, Sarah Brown dedicates herself to charity work during the First World War. When a witch invites her to stay in a mysterious home, Sarah embarks on the adventure of a lifetime with her loyal dog David. Described by its author in playfully mysterious terms—“This is not a real book.”—Living Alone is a unique and haunting masterpiece that looks upon a tumultuous historical period with fresh perspective, presenting a story of growth and identity in an intoxicating world of magic and mystery. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Stella Benson’s Living Alone is a classic work of British literature reimagined for modern readers.

Reproduction of the original: This is the End by Stella Benson

This is the End

Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - This is the end, for the moment, of all my thinking, this is my unfinal conclusion. There is no reason in tangible things, and no system in the ordinary ways of the world. Hands were made to grope, and feet to stumble, and the only things you may count on are the unaccountable things. System is a fairy and a dream, you never find system where or when you expect it. There are no reasons except reasons you and I don't know. I should not be really surprised if the policeman across the way grew wings, or if the deep sea rose and washed out the chaos of the land. I should not raise my eyebrows if the daily press became the Little Sunbeam of the Home, or if Cabinet Ministers struck for a decrease of wages. I feel no security in facts, precedent seems no protection to me. The wisdom you can find in an Encyclopedia, or in Selfridge's Information Bureau, seems to me just a transitory adaptation to quicksand circumstances.

The Man who Missed the Bus

Reproduction of the original: Living Alone by Stella Benson

Stella Benson (6 January 1892 - 7 December 1933) was an English feminist, novelist, poet, and travel writer. She was a recipient of the Benson Medal. Benson spent the winter of 1913-14 in the West Indies, which provided material for her first novel, I Pose (1915). Living in London, she became involved in women's suffrage, as had her older female relatives. During World War I, she supported the troops by gardening and by helping poor women in London's East End at the Charity Organisation Society. These efforts inspired Benson to write the novels, This Is the End (1917) and Living Alone (1919). Living Alone is a fantasy novel about a woman whose life is transformed by a witch. She also published her first volume of poetry, Twenty, in 1918.

Worlds Within Worlds (Esprios Classics)

L. Frank Baum

William Morris

Rudyard Kipling

E. Nesbit

George MacDonald

Frances Hodgson Burnett

Maurice Hewlett

Hugh Lofting

W. H. Hudson

Louisa M. Alcott

Susan Coolidge

Emerson Hough

Elizabeth Harrison

Mrs. Molesworth

Eleanor Putnam

Selma Lagerloef

William Bowen

Charles E. Carryl

Louise Imogen Guiney

Twilight Land

Carley Dawson

We bring you the very best in classic fantasy. From The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting and The Magic City by E. Nesbit to The Sea Fairies by L. Frank Baum, this ebook content: 1. Hugh Lofting: The Story of Doctor Dolittle 2. Hugh Lofting: The Voyages of Dr. Dolittle 3. Louisa M. Alcott: The Candy Country 4. Frances Hodgson Burnett: The Cozy Lion 5. George MacDonald: The Princess and the Goblin 6. George MacDonald: The Princess and Curdie 7. E. Nesbit: The Story of the Amulet 8. E. Nesbit: The Magic City 9. L. Frank Baum: The Master Key 10. L. Frank Baum: The Sea Fairies 11. Selma Lagerloef: The Wonderful Adventures of Nils 12. Rudyard Kipling: Rewards and Fairies 13. Charles E. Carryl: Davy and the Goblin 14. Emerson Hough: The King of Gee-Whiz 15. Stella Benson: Living Alone 16. Louise Imogen Guiney: Brownies and Bogles 17. Elizabeth Harrison: In Story-Land 18. Eleanor Putnam: Prince Vance 19. William Morris: The Sundering Flood 20. W. H. Hudson: A Little Boy Lost 21. Maurice Hewlett: Lore Of Proserpine 22. Twilight Land: Howard Pyle 23. Mrs. Molesworth: The Carved Lions. 24. William Bowen: The Old Tobacco Shop 25. Susan Coolidge: A Round Dozen 26. Carley Dawson: Mr. Wicker

Stella Benson

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