Each Fairy Book demands a preface from the Editor, and these introductions are inevitably both mono-tonous and unavailing. A sense of literary honesty compels the Editor to keep repeating that he is the Editor, and not the author of the Fairy Tales, just as a distinguished man of science is only the Editor, not the... read more »
For this collection, Andrew Lang gathered African, Scandinavian, Egyptian and even Babylonian stoires. While they may not be familiar to you, they are an excellent insight into various cultures, to show that despite our skin color, we all share similar belief systems and family values. read more »
These tales are derived from many countries; Lithuania, various parts of Africa, Germany, France, Greece, and other regions of the world. They have been translated and adapted by Mrs. Dent, Mrs. Lang, Miss Eleanor Sellar, Miss Blackley, and Miss Hang. ‘The Three Sons of Hali' is from the last century ‘Cabinet... read more »
Micromegas is an inhabitant of the star Sirius, 120,000 feet tall and accompanied by a dwarf from Saturn who is 6000 feet tall. During a grand tour of the universe they visit Earth in 1737 and, using makeshift microscopes, they detect a boating party of tiny human philosophers. read more »
Vonnegut's short work, "The Big Trip Up Yonder," is a genre science fiction tale originally published in the magazine "Galaxy Science Fiction" in 1959 -- "If it was good enough for your grandfather, forget it ... it is much too good for anyone else!" An insight into one family's struggle in their overcrowded... read more »
If, gentle reader, you will step across this threshold now as the moon rises in the keen Christmas air and will find a place by the ruddy ingle within doors you may hear if you will, a Babel of voices from many lands telling over the adventures of the road and falling into the good fellowship of the happy Christmas... read more »
It's hard to ferret out a gang of fanatics; it would, obviously, be even harder to spot a genetic line of dedicated men. But the problem Orne had was one step tougher than that! Field Agent Lewis Orne must contend with genetic manipulation and dig deep into a complex political situation to untangle deep embedded... read more »
A collection of several Christmas stories including Mrs Perkin's Ball and The Rose and the Ring. Great reading over the festive holiday's. read more »
And this holy time, so hallowed and so gracious, was settling down over the great roaring, rattling, seething life–world of New York in the good year 1875. Who does not feel its on–coming in the shops and streets, in the festive air of trade and business, in the thousand garnitures by which every store hangs out... read more »
Redlaw is a teacher of chemistry who often broods over wrongs done him and grief from his past. He is haunted by a spirit, who is not so much a ghost as Redlaw's phantom twin and is "an awful likeness of himself...with his features, and his bright eyes, and his grizzled hair, and dressed in the gloomy shadow of his... read more »
Santa Claus lives in the Laughing Valley. On one side of the Valley is the mighty Forest of Burzee, home of the fairies. At the other side stands a terrible mountain that contains the caves of the daemons: Selfishness, Envy, Hatred, and Repentance. The daemons, thinking they have great cause to dislike old Santa... read more »
In this charming collection of short stories, Dickens presents a galaxy of beautifully drawn characters. He presents the branches of Christmas tree as ladders which one climbs in the journey from childhood to youth. Going through the book evokes the sweet memories of childhood. read more »
2BR02B is a science fiction short story by Kurt Vonnegut, originally published in the pulp digest magazine Worlds of If Science Fiction, January 1962. The title is pronounced "2 B R naught 2 B" and refers to the telephone number one dials to schedule an assisted suicide with the Federal Bureau of Termination. The... read more »
Brother Jacob is Eliot's literary homage to Thackeray, a satirical modern fable that draws telling parallels between eating and reading. Revealing Eliot's deep engagement with the question of whether there are 'necessary truths' independent of our perception of them and the boundaries of art and the self. read more »
The Sultan Schahriar's misguided resolution to shelter himself from the possible infidelities on his wives leads to an outbreak of barbarity in his kingdoms and a reign of terror in his court, stopped only by the resourceful Scheherazade. The tales with which Scheherazade nightly postpones the muderous intent of the... read more »
Amalgamating futuristic technologies and expeditions into the future, this is a scintillating collection by Verne. This short work combines sights of the future as well as bird’s eye view of the contemporary era. Just as the narrator starts the ascent of his balloon, a stranger jumps into its car. The... read more »
Dracula's Guest follows an Englishman as he wanders around Munich before leaving for Transylvania. It is Walpurgis Night, and in spite of the coachman's warnings, the young man foolishly leaves his hotel and wanders through a dense forest alone. Along the way he feels he is being watched by a tall and thin stranger... read more »
The story of a French military hero of the Napoleonic Wars, long assumed to be dead, tries to recover his fortune and former wife through the help of a famous Parisian lawyer. Colonel Chabert, a Napoleonic War hero supposedly killed in the Battle of Eylau, returns to Paris after a long convalescence to find his wife... read more »
Gallegher And Other Stories Summary: The pity of the whole situation was, that the boy was only a boy with all his man's miserable knowledge of the world, and the reason of it all was, that he had entirely too much heart and not enough money to make an unsuccessful gambler. If he had only been able to lose his... 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 »
While things were in this ferment, discord grew extremely high; hot words passed on both sides, and ill blood was plentifully bred. Here a solitary Ancient, squeezed up among a whole shelf of Moderns, offered fairly to dispute the case, and to prove by manifest reason that the priority was due to them from long... read more »
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald about a man who ages in reverse: He is born a feeble 70-year-old and becomes younger as the years progress. This faithful graphic-novel adaptation chronicles Benjamin Button's many adventures: He falls in love with a woman who ages... read more »
First published in 1920, Flappers and Philosophers marked F. Scott Fitzgerald's entry into the realm of the short story, in which he adroitly proved himself "a master of the mechanism of short story technique" (Boston Transcript). Several of his most beloved tales are represented in this collection of eight... read more »
A miscellaneous collection mostly of stories concerning relationships, sports and household pets. It does not feature any of Wodehouse's regular characters; one however, "Extricating Young Gussie", is remarkable as the first appearance of some of Wodehouse's most well-known and beloved characters, Jeeves and his... 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 »
Tales of Space and Time is a fantasy and science fiction collection of three short stories and two novellas written by H. G. Wells between 1897 and 1898. It was first published by Doubleday & McClure Co. in 1899. read more »
A collection of early short stories that, along with the title story, include The Vagrant, On the Fever Ship, The Man With One Talent, and The Last Ride Together. There were four rails around the ship's sides, the three lower ones of iron and the one on top of wood, and as he looked between them from the canvas... read more »
The Day's Work I by Rudyard Kipling is a collection of short stories featuring mostly non-humans as main characters of each story. It contains some of Kipling's best and worst writings. However, the failures are set among some of his best, including The Bridge Builders and The Brushwood Boy, making this collection... read more »
Full of mischief, valor, ribaldry, and romance, The Arabian Nights has enthralled readers for centuries. These are the tales that saved the life of Shahrazad, whose husband, the king, executed each of his wives after a single night of marriage. Beginning an enchanting story each evening, Shahrazad always withheld... read more »
A collection of 11 classic short stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald, reprinted as they first appeared together in 1922. Included are The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Diamond as Big as the Ritz, May Day, The Camel’s Back, The Jelly-Bean, Porcelain and Pink, Tarquin of Cheapside, O Russet Witch!, The Lees of... read more »