Short Classic Literature

Though The Arabian Nights are generally known as stories for children, they were originally tales for adults full of adventure, sexuality, violence, and the supernatural. They certainly inspired the imagination of Sir Richard Burton, the 19th century explorer, linguist, and erotologist who brought all his worldly experience and superbly expressive prose style to bear on the tales of Sindbad the Seaman and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.

Under the Sunset is a fairy tale written by the famous Bram Stoker, writer of Dracula. This little tale is about a land described as 'under the sunset' and the story of what happens when hearts grow cold.

A young boy, Tineboy, is having trouble with his multiplication tables and the number seven. Bored in class one day, he falls asleep and dreams of a story told by his teacher about the number seven going mad. This leads to a world without the number seven and the confusion that comes from getting rid of a number. The schoolhouse bully and Tineboy’s own pet crow play important roles in his vivid daydream, full of intelligent wit and humor.

Theirs was a story of two people from different stations of life - he, poor and she, rich. He worked hard to make a name for himself, and having done so, he returns to her to find out that she had loved him all these years and was waiting for him as well. The poet is so distraught that with it having taken so long for them to be together, it seems even more unfair for them to be separated at the end. Finding out that his love has passed away, he immediately decides to follow after her to the Castle of the King of Death.

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!

Irish Fairy Tales is a collection of 14 Irish stories, edited by W. B. Yeats. Originally published in 1892, this collection is beautifully narrated by John Dunleavy and includes Yeats' notes and his "Classification of Irish Fairies."

"Of the place where he had been a boy he had written well enough. As well as he could then." So thought a dying writer in an early version of The Snows of Kilimanjaro. The writer was, of course, Ernest Hemingway. The place was the Michigan of his boyhood, where he remembered himself as Nick Adams. The now-famous "Nick Adams" stories show a memorable character growing from child to adolescent to soldier, veteran, writer, and parent - a sequence closely paralleling the events of Hemingway's life.

Stalky & Co. is a book published in 1899 (following serialization in the Windsor Magazine) by Rudyard Kipling, about adolescent boys at a British boarding school. It is a collection of linked short stories in format, with some information about the charismatic Stalky character in later life. The character Beetle, one of the main trio, is partly based on Kipling himself. Stalky is based on Lionel Dunsterville, M'Turk is based on George Charles Beresford, and Mr. King is based on William Carr Crofts.

Newly re-mastered for digital formats, this is the definitive recording of Hans Christian Andersen's six best-loved stories. Narrator Diane Wolkstein, the artistic director of the Hans Christian Andersen Center in New York City, tells Andersen stories throughout the world. She is the author of 23 award-winning books of folklore and has been honored by the National Storytelling Network as a recipient of its coveted Circle of Excellence Award, a designation reserved for America's best living storytellers.

Weird Women, edited by award-winning anthologists Lisa Morton and Leslie S. Klinger, collects some of the finest tales of terror by authors as legendary as Louisa May Alcott, Frances Hodgson Burnett, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, alongside works of writers who were the best sellers and critical favorites of their time - Marie Corelli, Ellen Glasgow, Charlotte Riddell - and lesser known authors who are deserving of contemporary recognition.

For centuries, classic fairy tales were the main source of bedtime stories for kids. This audiobook contains nine short stories inspired from these famous classic fairy tales and three bonus stories from Aesop’s Fables. So, you’ll get total of 12 stories.

Edgar Allan Poe may be 150 years beyond this world, but the themes of his beloved works have much in common with modern young adult fiction. Whether the stories are familiar or discovered for the first time, listeners will revel in both Edgar Allan Poe's classic tales, and in the 13 unique and unforgettable ways that they've been brought to life.

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.

Man has always wanted to travel into the unknown and encounter what he has not, and perhaps cannot, experience in the real world. The early 20th century witnessed an explosion of science fiction literature. Authors studied the wonders of scientific and technological progress and imagined worlds that had developed even greater advances. Jules Vernes' and H.G. Wells' fantastic tales well whetted the public's appetite for adventure tales.

Edgar Allen Poe is regarded as one of the greatest American writers and a pioneer of the horror genre, and this collection brings together some of his most celebrated tales. Themes of guilt, fear and revenge abound as the master of gothic horror transports audiences to mysterious worlds, carries them on dangerous sea voyages, and investigates gruesome murders. Exploring the hidden depths of the human mind, these are tales full of thrills and intrigue.

During the hectic Christmas season, slow down with these heartwarming stories from some of literature’s most beloved writers. In this collection, listeners will discover lesser-known but tender stories and poems from classic authors they know and love. Each selection celebrates the beauty, mystery, and joy found in the season that commemorates Christ’s birth. A Vintage Christmas includes stories from Louisa May Alcott, Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mark Twain, and many more great writers....

Three years have passed since Sherlock Holmes and his nemesis Moriarty vanished into the abyss of the Reichenbach Falls. In that time the criminals of London have been able to sleep safe in their beds. But the capital has never been in greater need of its protector.

This book won a World Fantasy Award. It's remarkable: The stories are rich, fascinating stuff - creepy and unsettling and phantasmic. Imagine what Tolkien's Lord of the Rings would have been like if Tolkien had tried to tell that story sympathetically from the point of view of the human denizens of Mordor and you'll have the slightest sense of what you're about to wade into... but only just a sense.

Die schönsten deutschen Sagen über Könige, Ritter und Edelfräulein: von Kaiser Karl bis Lohengrin. Das einfache Volk hat sie bewundert und gefürchtet: Die Könige und Kaiser, die mächtigen Ritter und ihre Burgfräulein. Viele Volks- und Heldensagen erzählen bis heute von ihrem Ruhm und ihren Taten. Und von manchem Herrscher geht die Sage, dass er nicht gestorben sei, sondern nur schlafe, um eines Tages wiederzukehren und dem Volk in großer Not zu Hilfe zu kommen.

The Russian Classics Collection is a wide-ranging collection of 12 classic novels and short stories by Russian authors, read by an award-winning cast of narrators. Included here are stories by some of the greatest writers of all time, including Tolstoy; Dostoyevsky; Chekhov; Gogol; Turgenev; and more.