The Olive Fairy Book contains eight Punjabi tales, five from Armenia, 16 other stories from Turkey, Denmark, the Sudan, and more. An enchanting world of flying dragons, ogres, fairies, and princes transformed into white foxes with illustrations by H.J. Ford. read more »
In this volume there are stories from the natives of Rhodesia, collected by Mr. Fairbridge, who speaks the native language, and one is brought by Mr. Cripps from another part of Africa, Uganda. Three tales from the Punjaub were collected and translated by Major Campbell. Various savage tales, which needed a good... read more »
Our protagonist takes refuge in an abandoned castle and discovers a room with a series of paintings accompanied by a small book describing them. His attention is attracted by an oval portrait depicting a young woman of rare beauty. The book tells of the artist falling in love with the gir and marrying her. It was... read more »
The Overcoat is a short story by author Nikolai Gogol, published in 1842. The story and its author have had great influence on Russian literature, thus spawning Fyodor Dostoyevsky's famous quote: "We all come out from Gogol's 'Overcoat'." The story has been adapted into a variety of stage and film interpretations... read more »
The Pat Hobby Stories are a collection of 17 short stories written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, first published by Arnold Gingrich of Esquire magazine between January 1940 and May 1941. Pat Hobby is a down-and-out screenwriter in Hollywood, once successful as "a good man for structure" during the silent age of cinema... read more »
The Phoenix on the Sword begins with a middle-aged Conan of Cimmeria attempting to govern the turbulent kingdom of Aquilonia. Conan has recently seized the bloody crown of Aquilonia from King Numedides whom he strangled upon his throne; however, things have not gone well, as Conan is more suited to swinging a... read more »
The Piazza Tales were written upon the public indignation over his novel Pierre, which had forced Melville to retire to the piazza of his house in Lenox, Massachusetts. The six tales included here are among Melville's most notable writings. They include the famed tale "Bartleby" a story of slavery, "Benito Cereno... read more »
Pit and The Pendulum is about the torments endured by a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition. The story is especially effective at inspiring fear in the reader because of its heavy focus on the senses, such as sound, emphasizing its reality, unlike many of Poe's stories which are aided by the supernatural. read more »
The Plattner Story and Others is a collection of seventeen short stories written by H.G. Wells, originally published in 1897, offers the reader classic Wells--ranging in theme from the multi-dimensions of time and space in The Plattner Story, to classic science fiction in The Apple and Purple Pileus to the betrayal... read more »
The, self-aclaimed "great", Haskel van Manderpootz has been "cheated" out of the coveted Morrell Award and unable to accept of life of modesty and in the discussion of varying points of view, van Manderpootz sets in motion his next great experiment. One of science fiction's classic duos – wacky inventor Professor... read more »
Poe's short horror story on the theme of being buried alive, which was a common fear in this period and Poe took advantage of the public interest. The first-person unnamed narrator describes his struggle with "attacks of the singular disorder which physicians have agreed to term catalepsy," a condition where he... read more »
The Prussian Officer tells the narrative of a captain and his orderly. Having wasted his youth with gambling, the captain has been left with only his military career, and though he has taken on mistresses throughout his life, he remains single. His young orderly is involved in a relationship with a young woman, and... 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 »
An unnamed protagonist chooses to spend the night in the remote Lorraine Castle, in a room that is said to be haunted; in an effort to disprove the various legends surrounding it. Despite ominous warnings from the three infirm custodians who reside there, he ascends to the "Red Room" to begin his night's vigil... read more »
Take an intergalactic journey with science fiction luminary Harry Harrison. In The Repairman, Harrison recounts the travails of a lone skilled laborer who is charged with the frustrating task of making a crucial repair to malfunctioning equipment on a far-flung planet. read more »
An experimental aviator and a cryogenicist is flying over Siberia when forced to land when they find the body of a caveman frozen into a newly uncovered glacier wall -- Jimber-Jaw awakens to find his world has changed and it is now the twentieth century! read more »
"I don't know how I'm going to say it so you'll understand, but time is just as much a dimension as length and breadth." He frowned. He wanted to talk about Wells's Time Machine but he knew that'd be no use -- these folks didn't read that sort of thing. "If the earth had settled down, we'd have been lower. If it had... read more »
Sapper leads us into a very pleasant world in which the mighty, such as the Oliver Samuelsons, the vulgar nouveaux riches, are turned out of their newly acquired country seat through their terror of a faked ghost, and in which the humble--like Molly Delmont, the pretty little governess—-are exalted by the timely... read more »
Another collection of G.K. Chesterton's ingenious, thoughtful, and lyrically written mystery stories featuring the unassuming little priest who solves crimes by imagining himself inside the mind and soul of criminals, thus understanding their motives. The stories are full of paradox, spiritual insight, and... read more »
This book contains the following stories: The Schoolmaster, Enemies, The Examining Magistrate, Betrothed, From the Diary of a Violent-Tempered Man, In the Dark, A Play, A Mystery, Strong Impressions, Drunk, The Marshal's Widow, A Bad Business, In the Court, Boots, Joy, Ladies, A Peculiar Man, At the Barber's, An... read more »
The Schoolmistress and Other Stories contains twenty-one tales by Russian master of drama and the short story, Anton Chekhov. Among the stories is one of Chekhov's classics, The Bet, in which a greedy banker makes an ill-considered bet regarding capital punishment with a young and impressionable guest. Fifteen years... read more »
A story of the shocking revelation that came to the twenty-first Baron Kralitz. Kuttner's contribution to Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, a dark gothic tale, in which he introduces the lesser known diety; Iod. read more »
Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee is a professor of political economy at Miskatonic University. Following a fainting spell in 1908 he returns to his senses in 1913 with no recollection of the last five years of his life. As he endeavors to discover the truth about his lost years, he becomes increasingly tormented by vivid... read more »
Rumours abound of sinister goings-on in the ancient Massachusetts seaport of Innsmouth. The once prosperous town, which has fallen into a state of decrepitude and decay, is a stopover destination for Robert Olmstead, a young historian on a tour of the region. Despite hearing ominous tales of the town and its... read more »
Prefaced by the famous Atlantic Monthly essay of the same name, in which he argues the virtues of the hard-boiled detective novel, this collection mostly drawn from stories he wrote for the pulps demonstrates Chandler's imaginative, entertaining facility with the form. Contains the following short stories: - Spanish... read more »
A collection of humorous short stories with a diverse set of characters and settings from the vivid imaginations of Connell, that will remind of you The Twilight Zone, with critiques against idle curiosity, arrogance, superficiality, and uninformed decision-making. read more »
This collection of stories from Washington Irving includes some of America's best-known works of fiction-such as the famous Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow-as well as lesser-known works as The Specter Bridegroom, Westminster Abbey, English Writers on America, Stratford on Avon, The Art of Bookmaking... read more »
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 »
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 »
He was afraid -- not of the present or the future, but of the past. He was afraid of the thing tagged Reed Kieran, that stiff blind voiceless thing wheeling its slow orbit around the Moon, companion to dead worlds and silent space.... Hamilton was a thoughtful SF writer, and you can surely see that here: this is the... read more »