Short Classic Literature

Men Without Women is Ernest Hemingway's second collection of short stories and his first publication since the blockbuster debut of The Sun Also Rises. Here, Hemingway revisits and explores several of his familiar genres and locales (including the bullfighting and boxing rings) and adds two stories involving his favorite protagonist, Nick Adams.

Les contes fantastiques de Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893) comptent parmi les meilleures du genre en littérature française. Cet extrait de "La Peur" (seconde version) dans lequel l’auteur parle du romancier russe Tourgueniev, s’appliquerait parfaitement à lui-même : "Avec lui, on la sent bien, la peur vague de l’Invisible, la peur de l’inconnu qui est derrière le mur, derrière la porte, derrière la vie apparente. Avec lui, nous sommes brusquement traversés par des lumières douteuses qui éclairent seulement assez pour augmenter notre angoisse."

The fifth volume in CSA Word's massively popular complete and unabridged ‘Short Stories’ collection is bound to please. With something for everyone this collection of classic stories read by only the best-suited and most established readers will delight the ears as a vintage wine excites the gullet; The Vintage Collection is audible gold. Features eye-catching typographical series design.

Depuis l’Antiquité, le mythe de Pygmalion et Galatée n’a de cesse de fasciner et d’inspirer des artistes. Mais ce récit millénaire du sculpteur misanthrope, épris de la statue qu’il vient de réaliser, demeure inachevé : lorsque Galatée est transformée en être vivant par les dieux, elle est réduite au silence par les hommes. Enfin, il est temps pour elle de devenir la narratrice de sa propre histoire et ainsi de choisir elle-même son destin.

For The Penguin Book of Murder Mysteries, writer and anthologist Michael Sims did not summon the usual suspects. He sought the unfamiliar, the unjustly forgotten, and little-known gems by writers from outside the genre. This historical tour of one of our most popular literary categories includes stories never before reprinted, features rebellious early “lady detectives," and spotlights former stars of the crime field—Austrian novelist Auguste Groner and prolific American Geraldine Bonner among them.

A drunken Englishman disgraces the consecrated effigy of Hanuman,a sacred religious figure to the Hindus. As results a leprous "Silver Man" marks him with a hideous curse. The ensuing days and nights bring strange terrors to the now repentant Englshman.

An intimate, evocative, often funny, and always vital portrait of India at the peak of the British Raj. Written at the age of 22, they immediately show Kipling's natural and prodigious talent. Timeless, they can be listened to forever.

English literature may very well be the greatest body of imaginative writing the world has yet seen. The human experience has been understood, interpreted, and conveyed by writers of genius in a tradition stretching through six or more centuries, from Chaucer to Philip Larking, from Defoe to William Golding.

When local newspapers report strange things seen floating in rivers during a historic Vermont flood, Albert Wilmarth becomes embroiled in a controversy about the reality and significance of the sightings. However it isn’t until he receives communication from Henry Wentworth Akeley that he is offered the proof he requires.

An excellent collection of creepy ghost stories from some of the most notable names of early horror fiction, including: “The Willows” by Algernon Blackwood, “The Shadows On The Wall” by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, “The Messenger” by Robert W.Chambers, “Lazarus” by Leonid Andreyev, “The Beast With Five Fingers” by W.F. Harvey, “The Mass Of Shadows” by Anatole France, “What Was It” by Fitz-James O’brien, “The Middle Toe Of The Right Foot” by Ambrose Bierce, “The Shell Of Sense” by Olivia Howard Dunbar, and more!

Jack London was one of the most notable authors of his time, and this collection showcases some of his most popular short stories. Filled with reflections on the human condition, our interactions with wilderness, and the chance of underlying magic that surrounds us all, these short stories offer a brief respite from the bustling world around us. This collection of short stories contains "A Thousand Deaths", "An Odyssey of the North", "A Relic of the Pliocene", "The Law of Life", "The Minions of Midas", "To Build a Fire", "Grit of Women", "That Spot", "Flush of Gold", and "Lost Face".

Inside this classic kids collection, you’ll find a mixture of some of the most famous folklore and fairy tales ever written. From short stories by Aesop and Hans Christian Andersen to folklore from The Brothers Grimm, these timeless masterpieces have endured centuries to resonate deep in the hearts of adults and children alike.

The Last Leaf is an endearing story about many forms of love and our interdependency upon one another and most importantly ourselves. In it a young woman dying from pneumonia despite the best efforts of her loving roommate, a doctor, and a mature resident in the building who has appointed himself guardian to the young lady and her housemate, soon learns that she is the key to her own life or death and in that discovery she helps a friend rise to their true greatness.

In his only work of political satire, The Short Reign of Pippin IV, John Steinbeck turns the French Revolution upside down as amateur astronomer Pippin Héristal is drafted to rule the unruly French. Steinbeck creates around the infamous Pippin the most hilarious royal court ever: Pippin's wife, Queen Marie, who "might have taken her place at the bar of a very good restaurant"; his uncle, a man of dubious virtue; and his glamour-struck daughter and her beau, the son of the so-called "egg king" of Petaluma, California.

The literary world was shocked when, in 1890, at the height of his career, Robert Louis Stevenson announced his intention to settle permanently in Samoa. His readers were equally shocked when he began to use the subject material offered by his new environment not to promote a romance of empire but to produce some of the most ironic and critical treatments of imperialism in 19th-century fiction.

From the vast lore surrounding King Arthur, Camelot, and the Knights of the Round Table comes an anthology of gender-bent, race-bent, LGBTQIA+ inclusive retellings.

This a handpicked collection of some of the greatest Christian stories ever written. When we speak of these works as Christian stories, we mean that each story has a powerful Christian message based on Jesus' teachings. Three of the stories are from Jesus himself. Others were written by devout believers like Henry Van Dyke and Johanna Spyri. Yet, one of the authors, Mark Twain, was not a Christian himself, but his story reveals profound insights into the teachings of Christ.

As a dense yellow fog swirls through the streets of London, a deep melancholy has descended on Sherlock Holmes, who sits in a cocaine-induced haze at 221B Baker Street. His mood is only lifted by a visit from a beautiful but distressed young woman - Mary Morstan, whose father vanished 10 years before. Four years later, she began to receive an exquisite gift every year: a large, lustrous pearl. Now she has had an intriguing invitation to meet her unknown benefactor and urges Holmes and Watson to accompany her.

Lotte Lenya reads "Up In The Gallery", "The Cares of a Family Man", "The Bucket Rider", "A Hunger Artist", and "A Fratricide."

Here is the preface to 12 magnificent stories, originally part of The John Cheever Audio Collection, in which John Cheever celebrates - with unequaled grace and tenderness - the deepest feelings we have.