Classic Literature Short Stories

A glittering collection of some of the world's finest short stories.

The Great Stone Face and Other Tales presents four haunting, unforgettable pieces, all set in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. One of the giants of American literature, Hawthorne lived in Salem, Massachusetts, and spent his spare time roaming the crooked streets, immersing himself in the legends and superstitions that he learned from other people. Weaving these tales into his own literary style, Hawthorne wrote many remarkable short stories and essays that focused on his favorite themes of spiritual insight, guilt, and the consequences of sin.

Call If You Need Me includes all of the prose previously collected in No Heroics, Please, four essays from Fires, and those five marvelous stories that range over the period of Carver's mature writing and give his devoted fans a final glimpse of the great writer at work. The pure pleasure of Carver's writing is everywhere in his work, here no less than in those stories that have already entered the canon of modern literature.

An unplanned murder during a bank robbery has another sheriff on the trail of those on the lam.

More than 60 stories, poems, and essays are included in this wide-ranging collection by the extravagantly versatile Raymond Carver. Two of the stories - later revised for What We Talk About When We Talk About Love - are particularly notable in that between the first and the final versions, we see clearly the astounding process of Carver's literary development.

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Have you ever wondered how lone wolf Clayton Danvers finally got bitten by the last thing he ever expected: love? Or how the hot-blooded bad-girl witch Eve Levine managed to ensnare the cold, ruthless corporate sorcerer, Kristof Nast in one of the Otherworld’s most unlikely pairings? Now, Otherworld readers can share these moments with some of their favorite characters—as well as catching welcome glimpses into the minds of some of the lesser-known players

A collection of horror/thriller stories for readers who would enjoy a stroll through a graveyard after midnight. The creepers include: BLOOD: Danagrees to meet a woman claiming to be his half-sister from their father's illicit affair. THE SPIDER WOMAN: Evelyn inherits her mother's abandoned house, which is infested with spiders. DEAD PEOPLE: Jesse's father wants him to go with him to a wake to see his first dead person. THE CEDAR HOLLOW CURSE: Three girls went missing without a trace in 1998. Now, in 2024, three girls with the same names and ages have disappeared. ECHOES OF THE DAMNED: A ...

Russian literature exudes an atmosphere of mysticism, which is said to be a natural result of the simplicity of her people. Often, instead of being "about" anything, Russian stories sometimes seem to be the "thing" in itself. Be this as it may, it is an undeniable fact that with hardly any portent of future greatness to come, Russian literature suddenly sprang fully developed into existence in the 19th century.

The Last Hieroglyph is the fifth of the five-volume Collected Fantasies series. Editors Scott Connors and Ron Hilger have compared original manuscripts, various typescripts, published editions, and Smith's notes and letters, in order to prepare a definitive set of texts. The Last Hieroglyph includes, in chronological order, all of Clark Ashton Smith's stories from "The Dark Age" to "The Dart of Rasasfa".

Ryūnosuke Niihara was born in Kyōbashi, Tokyo in Japan on the 1st March 1892. Sadly, his mother suffered severe mental illness after his birth and so, at only eight months old, he was sent to be raised by his maternal uncle and aunt, from whom he received the Akutagawa family name. Akutagawa published "Rashōmon" in 1915 and whilst it was disliked by his friends everyone else knew better. As other short stories followed so did his growing literary reputation as the father of the Japanese short story.

A collection of twenty-six horror/thriller stories with surprise endings to thrill you and chill you to the bone. The creepers include: REST STOP: Martin loved the story The Lady or the Tiger so much he started playing the game with real people and hybrid beasts. THE CURSE: When Rebecca found the pharaoh's tomb, she refused to leave no matter how many perished. TILL DEATH DO US PART: Isabelle discovered her new husband had been married before, and all ten brides had disappeared without a trace. THE EXECUTION: Myers has a crazy dream he's on death row, waiting to be executed. LIFE TO THE ...

Edgar Allan Poe was a writer, poet, editor and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre, and is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and of American literature. Poe was one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story and considered to be the inventor of the detective fiction genre, as well as a significant contributor to the emerging genre of science fiction.

The master storyteller amuses and entertains with a collection of stories which includes: "The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg", "The Double Barrelled Detective Story", "The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County", "The Million Dollar Bank Note", "Benton and Mills", "A Tale", "Cannibalism in the Cars", "The Stolen White Elephant", "The Man Who Put Up at Gadsby's", "The Good Little Boy", "The Bad Little Boy", and "Baker's Blue Jay Yarn".

A collection of 22 horror/thriller stories with surprise endings to chill you and thrill you to the bone. The nightmares include: THE CADAVER: Blanche foolishly risks her career as a university professor to enhance the learning curve of her students by supplying fresher cadavers for them to dissect. THE GOBLIN: A tourist in Vegas steals money from a quadriplegic panhandler who has special powers FEELINGS: A motorist seeks revenge on a TV news reporter whose ambition to be a star causes an accident that takes the life of the man's wife. THE VELVET CAGE: An abusive and destructive marriage ...

This classic tale and superb short story by Mark Twain is a funny yet blistering indictment of political hypocrisy. A mysterious stranger is treated badly by the town of Hadleyburg—the town that proclaims itself "the most honest and upright town in the region". Through an ingenious sting operation, the stranger sets out to expose Hadleyburg's leading citizens and reveal their greedy, deceitful natures. Twain's burning wit and insight into political posturing and civic cowardice seem more pertinent than ever.

In Difficult Loves, Italy's master storyteller weaves tales in which cherished deceptions and illusions of love-including self-love-are swept away in magical instants of recognition. A soldier is reduced to quivering fear by the presence of a full-figured woman in his train compartment; a young clerk leaves a lady's bed at dawn; a young woman is isolated from bathers on a beach by the loss of her bikini bottom. Each of them discovers hidden truths beneath the surface of everyday life.

Following the enormous success of 2004 bestseller and critics' favorite Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke delivers a delicious collection of ten stories set in the same fairy-crossed world of 19th-century England. With Clarke's characteristic historical detail and diction, these dark, enchanting tales unfold in a slightly distorted version of our own world, where people are bedeviled by mischievous interventions from the fairies.

The 30 Nightmares: The CONDOM IN THE COFFIN: A wife finds a condom in the lining of her husband's coffin which triggers suspicions someone at the mortuary is a necrophiliac. THE LOOKER: Kidnappers abduct an unusually beautiful woman to harvest her organs for half a million dollars. THE BEAST OF SPOOKY HOLLOW: A freelance writer goes to his college reunion and decides a legendary beast devouring the locals there may be his ticket to a Pulitzer. THE ALIEN: A man struck by lightning while having an MRI is the only one who can see aliens invading the Big Apple. THE INTRUDER: Mary calls 9-1-1 ...

A collection of classic works by Edgar Allan Poe, American author, poet, editor and literary critic. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.