Conger is given a chance to be released from prison on the condition that he completes one job—he must travel back in time and kill a man who, if allowed to live, will later change the world. read more »
This is a wonderful story about 'Slippery' Jim DiGriz, later to be known as The Stainless Steel Rat. We first see DiGriz and his two companions in this book when he beats a Casino Planet to win money so they can purchase weaponry to defend themselves against their home planet, the planet Pyrrus. This story is a... read more »
"Missing Link" is vintage Frank Herbert. It tells the story of Lewis Orne, junior I-A field man, on the planet Gienah III. He is there to investigate a missing ship, and the natives are nothing but trouble... Originally published in "Astounding Science Fiction" under the editorship of John W. Campbell, Jr. here is a... read more »
Imagine an advanced spacecraft powered by the human brain. That's the remarkable technology at the heart of this fascinating short story by science fiction mastermind Philip K. Dick. A professor nearing the end of his natural lifespan donates his brain to the cutting-edge research effort -- but will he ultimately... read more »
England, My England is the title of a collection of short stories by D. H. Lawrence. Individual items were originally written between 1913 and 1921, many of them against the background of World War I. Most of these versions were placed in magazines or periodicals. Ten were later selected and extensively revised by... read more »
The stories in Dubliners show us truants, seducers, gossips, rally-drivers, generous hostesses, corrupt politicians, failing priests, amateur theologians, struggling musicians, moony adolescents, victims of domestic brutishness, sentimental aunts and poets, patriots earnest or cynical, and people striving to get by... read more »
Mortal Coils is the famous book of short stories (and a play) by Aldous Huxley. Mortal Coils includes the following stories: The Gioconda Smile Permutations Among the Nightingales The Tillotson Banquet Green Tunnels Nuns at Luncheon Enjoy this wonderful book Mortal Coils by Aldous Huxley today! read more »
While the three ghosts that visited Ebenezer Scrooge was Charles Dickens' most famous apparitions, his interest in the supernatural did not end there. Three Ghost Stories is just that: a collection of three different stories that are true Gothic classics. The three stories, The Signal Man, The Haunted House and The... read more »
Charles Dickens's first book, Sketches by Boz, heralded an exciting new voice in English literature. This richly varied collection of observation, fancy and fiction shows the London he knew so intimately at its best and worst - its streets, theatres, inns, pawnshops, law courts, prisons, omnibuses and the river... read more »
Volume four of the complete works in five volumes from one of the leaders of the American Romantics. Macabre parties in isolated castles … Gruesome bestial murders … Talking ravens, hellish black pits, innocents buried alive … Prepare to be chilled and enthralled by the haunting genius of the acknowledged... read more »
Volume three of the complete works in five volumes from one of the leaders of the American Romantics. Macabre parties in isolated castles … Gruesome bestial murders … Talking ravens, hellish black pits, innocents buried alive … Prepare to be chilled and enthralled by the haunting genius of the acknowledged... read more »
Volume two of the complete works in five volumes from one of the leaders of the American Romantics. Macabre parties in isolated castles … Gruesome bestial murders … Talking ravens, hellish black pits, innocents buried alive … Prepare to be chilled and enthralled by the haunting genius of the acknowledged... read more »
Set and published during the time of the British Raj, a time of subalterns and tea planters, the 40 stories in Plain Tales From The Hills are played out under an unforgiving sun, revealing the deceit, faithlessness, shallowness, despair, mistrust, hate, and petty jealousies rife amongst the British inhabitants of... read more »
Once A Week is a collection of short stories and vignettes by A. A. Milne originally published in Punch. Stories included are; The Heir, Winter Sport, A Baker's Dozen, Getting Married, Home Affairs, Other People's Houses, Burlesques, Merely Players and The Men Who Succeed. The collection was first published on 15... read more »
Follow the macabre events that sweep the narrator into the haunted world of Roderick Usher--a morbid recluse and slave to fear--whose descent into madness inevitably brings the great House of Usher to its most sinister fate. read more »
The Purloined Letter is the third of the three stories featuring the detective C. Auguste Dupin, the other two being The Murders in the Rue Morgue and The Mystery of Marie Roget. These stories are considered important forerunners of the modern detective story. The method Poe's detective, Dupin, uses to solve the... read more »
Ranson's Folly is about the audacious, dare-devil exploits of a junior officer in the U.S. Army, whose position and influence secure a lieutenancy in a Western post. The monotony of the life and its regularity finally drive him into the folly of donning the disguise of a band of notorious highwaymen, and holding up... read more »
A dwarf is taken from his homeland and becomes the jester of a king particularly fond of practical jokes. Taking revenge on the king and his cabinet for striking his friend and fellow dwarf Trippetta, he dresses them as orangutans for a masquerade. In front of the king's guests, Hop-Frog murders them all before... read more »
The Terran system is growing and expanding all the time. But an old and corrupt Centaurian Empire is holding Terra down, as it encircles the Terran system and will not let the humans grow out of their current empire. For this reason Terra is at war with Proxima Centauri and is trying to find a way of breaking free... read more »
The story follows an unnamed narrator who visits a mental institution in southern France known for a revolutionary new method of treating mental illnesses called the "system of soothing." A companion with whom he is travelling knows Monsieur Maillard, the originator of the system, and makes introductions before... read more »
A Tale of the Ragged Mountains highlights scientific theories of Poe's day, engages with British imperial history, and forecasts contemporary interest in psychoactive drugs, the transmigration of the soul, and the dynamics of the doctor-patient relationship. This is a short story partially based on Edgar Allan Poe's... read more »
William Wilson tells the tale of a man who travels around the world pursued by his ghostly double who tries to keep him from sin and vice. This stands out among Edgar Allen Poe's stories for the fact that it is less Gothic, less gruesome, and less melodramatic than most of his other work. You'll find a different... read more »
The room was on the fourth floor, and the door was locked - with the key on the inside. The windows were closed and fastened - on the inside. The chimney was too narrow for a cat to get through. So how did the murderer escape? And whose were the two angry voices heard by the neighbours as they ran up the stairs?... read more »
A thousand of the favored joined their decadent prince behind high walls and welded gates. They engaged in bizarre celebrations while the Red Death raged outside--until one cryptic figure showed them the true horror in The Masque of the Red Death. read more »
From her vacation to the Gulf of Mexico to her return to New Orleans, Edna Pontellier, the wife of Léonce and mother of two boys, embarks on an emotionally fraught journey to discover love and self-fulfillment. Her relationships with her husband, with LeBrun and with Mademoiselle Reisz lead to a battle with... read more »
The Sphinx is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe about a man who decides to visit a relative living near the Hudson River, north of New York City, for two weeks during a cholera epidemic that occurred during the summer of 1832. One day during this visit, the man is reading a book near the window revealing a... read more »
The story follows an unnamed narrator who seeks out the famous war hero John A. B. C. Smith. He becomes suspicious that Smith has some deep secret when others refuse to describe him, instead remarking only on the latest advancements in technology. When he finally meets Smith, the man must first be assembled piece by... read more »
The eight strokes of the clock is a collection of stories of Maurice Leblanc featuring the adventures of Arsene Lupin, all of which have a common thread. To distract and seduce a young woman, Hortense Daniel, Arsene Lupin, with the identity of Prince Serge Renin, will focus on solving eight puzzles. Working with... read more »
The Balloon-Hoax is the title now used for a newspaper article written by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1844. Originally presented as a true story, it detailed European Monck Mason's trip across the Atlantic Ocean in only three days in a hot air balloon. It was later revealed as a hoax and the story was... read more »
A study of the psychology of guilt, often paired in analysis with Poe's \"The Tell-Tale Heart\". In both, a murderer carefully conceals his crime and believes himself unassailable, but eventually breaks down and reveals himself, impelled by a nagging reminder of his guilt. A man overcome by alcohol sinks into wild... read more »