['Four Beasts in One' Ebook Reader]
Four Beasts in One, subtitled Four Beasts in One - The Homo-Cameleopard, is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe first published in March 1836. Translated into French by Charles Baudelaire, it is part of the collection New Extraordinary Stories.

Summary :
Let us suppose, gracious reader, that we are in the year of the world three thousand eight hundred and thirty, and, for a few minutes, transported into the most fantastic of human habitations, in the remarkable city of Antioch. It is certain that there were in Syria and other countries sixteen cities of this name, without counting the one with which we have special concern. But ours is the one called Antiochia Epidaphne, because it was very close to the small village of Daphne, where a temple dedicated to this divinity stood. It was built (although this is controversial) by Seleucus Nicator, the first king of the country after Alexander the Great, in memory of his father Antiochus, and immediately became the capital of the Syrian monarchy. In the prosperous times of the Roman Empire, it was the ordinary residence of the prefect of the eastern provinces; and several emperors of the queen city (among whom may be specially mentioned Verus and Valens), spent the greater part of their lives there. But I realize that we have arrived at the city. Let us climb onto this platform, and cast our eyes on the city and the surrounding country...(Audiobook)