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  • "Twas the night before Christmas" (1823) by Clement Moore

    by Clement Moore

    This charming poem, generally attributed to the New York theologian Clement Moore (1779-1863), was first published (anonymously) in an upstate New York newspaper, the Troy Sentinel, on December 23, 1823, with the title "A Visit from St. Nicolas".
    It rapidly gained acclaim and widespread (...)

  • "Lalie’s Story", from Zola’s novel "L’Assommoir" (1877)

    by Emile Zola

    Lalie is an eight-year-old girl living in the room next to Gervaise, the central character of Emile Zola’s novel "L’Assommoir" about life in a working-class district of Paris in the 1850s and 60s.
    She is one of the most unforgettable characters in that masterwork, although she only appears in (...)