English Classic Short Stories

This famous story chronicles the end of the lives of the Forty-Seven Ronin, also know as the Forty-Seven Samurai. It is described by one noted Japanese scholar as the country's "national legend". It recounts the most famous case involving the Samurai code of honor, "bushido".

H.G. Wells' classic science fiction-fantasy story, in which a scientist known only as "The Time Traveller" tells the tale of his journey to the year 802,701 A.D. and beyond, where he witnesses the end of human civilization as we know it, as well as the beginning of the end of the world. This original time-travel story has been copied many times, but never improved upon.

In “Two Hundred Thousand Francs Reward!”, it has been a fortnight since the baroness Repstein disappeared from Paris, taking with her a fortune in jewels stolen from her husband. French detectives have chased her all over Europe, following the trail of gemstones like so many precious breadcrumbs, but she has eluded their efforts. When Arsène Lupin finds her, she will not escape so easily. Also featuring “The Wedding-Ring”, “The Sign of the Shadow”, “The Infernal Trap”, “The Red Silk Scarf”, “Shadowed by Death”, “Lupin’s Marriage”, and more.

Come join Holmes and Watson as they solve the mystery of the missing racehorse, Silver Blaze, in child-friendly 21st-century English and with the seamier side of Victorian life left out.

The 1925 New York edition of Ernest Hemingway’s In Our Time trails readers through the years before, during, and after World War I. The collection’s first two stories, “Indian Camp” and “The Doctor and the Doctor’s Wife,” introduce Hemingway’s semiautobiographical character Nick Adams as a child. In total, seven stories portray the young man’s coming of age. All fourteen, including interspersed vignettes, embody the themes that Hemingway would return to throughout his career: alienation, grief, loss, and separation, as well as the regenerative powers of nature.

Once, Hope Payne was a mermaid, performing at the local theme park and captivating audiences young and old. Today, she's married to a pragmatic marine biologist who has filled the pool in their backyard with flounder for a special study. Before he begins, the fish vanish - echoing a loss Hope alone can understand. She senses there's something underwater, something alive and hungry for more, but is she in too deep to ever resurface?

Recently rediscovered in the archives of the New York Public Library, these short stories provide an unparalleled look at Truman Capote writing in his teens and early twenties, before he penned such classics as Other Voices, Other Rooms, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and In Cold Blood. This collection of more than a dozen pieces showcases the young Capote developing the unique voice and sensibility that would make him one of the twentieth century’s most original writers.

Three works of fiction, two by Mary Wollstonecraft, and one by her daughter Mary Shelley, creator of Frankenstein. In Mary Wollstonecraft's Mary, the heroine flees her young husband in order to nurse her dearest friend, Ann, and finds genuine love, while Maria tells of a desperate young woman who seeks consolation in the arms of another man after the loss of her child. And Mary Shelley's Matilda - suppressed for more than a century - tells the story of a woman alienated from society by the incestuous passion of her father.

A selection of Poe’s greatest tales: "The Purloined Letter", "The Thousand and Second Tale of Scheherazade", "A Descent into the Maelstrom", "Von Kempelen and His Discovery", "Mesmeric Revelation", "The Facts in the Case of M. Valedemar", "The Black Cat", "The Fall of the House of Usher", "Silence", "The Mask of the Red Death", "The Cask of Amontillado", and more.

From a variety of masterfully rendered perspectives, these six stories depict people at painful odds with the world around them. A wife can only surrender to a desert night by betraying her husband. An artist struggles to honor his own aspirations as well as society's expectations of him. A missionary brutally converted to the worship of a tribal fetish is left with but an echo of his identity. Whether set in North Africa, Paris, or Brazil, the stories in Exile and the Kingdom are probing portraits of spiritual exile, and man's perpetual search for an inner kingdom.

Here are 23 terrifying tales, dark reflections of the silver screen from both sides of the camera. James Dean gets a second chance at life and death. The Wicked Witch is out of Oz, and she's made some very unlucky friends. When God decides reality needs an editor, what and who gets cut?

Dubliners is a collection of 15 short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. They provide a portrait of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century. Each of the stories offers glimpses into the lives of ordinary Dubliners, and together they paint a portrait of a nation. Ireland was at a crossroads of history and culture at that time, pursuing a search for national identity and purpose.

Set in Southwest England in the late 1800s, Sense and Sensibility follows the lives of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne. When inheritance money from their father does not fall their way, the sisters and their mother must move in with distant relatives. Settling in at Barton Park, the Dashwood sisters discover a new life filled with new acquaintances and different suitors. From these new encounters, their lives are forever changed through a series of love, romance, and heartbreaks.

"To Build a Fire," the best-known of Jack London's many short stories, tells the tale of a solitary traveler on the Yukon Trail accompanied only by his dog as they endure the extreme cold. A classic narrative of a battle for survival against the forces of nature, "To Build a Fire" is London at his best. Also included here are "The Red One," "All Gold Canyon," "A Piece of Steak," "The Love of Life," "Flush of Gold," "The Story of Keesh," and "The Wisdom of the Trail."

As William turns 12, he wonders if Jason is still his best friend. In the past year, Jason has grown a foot taller, while William is still a shrimp. When Jason challenges William to “jump the trains,” William is terrified. How else can he prove himself to Jason? William gets his answer when his former housekeeper sends him a magic token that once again transports him to Sir Simon’s castle in the Middle Ages, this time with Jason.

Dubliners is a collection of 15 short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. The stories comprise a naturalistic depiction of Irish middle-class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century. The stories were written when Irish nationalism was at its peak, and a search for a national identity and purpose was raging; at a crossroads of history and culture, Ireland was jolted by various converging ideas and influences.

The great writings of American transcendentalist philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) are not some distant ponderings on life – they are works of the highest practicality, intended to supply guidance and daily help. Emerson’s ideas arose from his simple observations of human existence, with all its pitfalls and possibilities.

The Diary of a Madman and Other Stories is a bizarre and colorful collection containing the finest short stories by the iconic Russian writer Nikolai Gogol. From the witty and Kafkaesque "The Nose", where a civil servant wakes up one day to find his nose missing, to the moving and evocative "The Overcoat", about a reclusive man whose only ambition is to replace his old, threadbare coat, Gogol gives us a unique take on the absurd.

Aesop's Fables are stories based on analogies and caricatures featuring mostly animals. These stories got the collective name Aesop’s Fables from the person who collected the stories. Aesop, popularly believed to have been a Phrygian slave, collected his fables sometime around the sixth century BC. Whatever his real story may be, the fables he collected feature valuable lessons.

This Nathaniel Hawthorne Collection includes Nathaniel Hawthorne's most notable works: The Scarlet Letter, The House of the Seven Gables, and The Birthmark. Get your copy today!