Short Classic Literature

Members of the 'Old Coast-Guard' are sent to put down pirates in the Straits of Malacca. A young boy, named Tempest, finds himself often criticized for being a coward by the crew, but he proves his mates wrong during the thick of battle. Tempest allows the crew to defeat the pirates in the Red Stockade due to his bravery and willingness to sacrifice.

Young Zaya was very sad and lonely when her mother died, but she eventually found solace in the company of birds, who proved to be her only friends. When Zaya sees the form of the Giant-Plague, she immediately tries to warn her the people in her city about what is coming, but almost everyone disregards her as crazy. The only who doesn't is a kind old man, Knoal, who believes Zaya and joins her cause of trying to warn about the Giant. Zaya's birds help protect her and Knoal from the Giant, but they can't stay safe forever.

When a young couple moves into their new home, they are taken aback by the strange behavior of their new landlord. While at first he bid them to do all of the fixing-up the home needed on their own, he quickly changed his tune and was persistent in his attempts to help them tackle some of the rooms himself. The source of his desire to help lies in the fact that the old tenant may have hidden a fortune within the walls - a fortune that winds up belonging to the young couple after all!

On an early October morning, Psyekoff, the right hand-man to Lieutenant Marcus Ivanovitch Klausoff, informs the inspector of police that he suspects Klausoff has been murdered. Immediately, the inspector and his team head to Klausoff’s home to investigate the matter. After examining the outside of the house, the inspector sends word to the magistrate, asking him to come investigate the case. When the magistrate and his assistant arrive, they check Klausoff’s room, only to find that he is not in there.

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!

When Stepan Ivanovitch Kutsyn, the mayor of a town, learns that a Persian magnate is visiting, he instantly becomes intrigued. The mayor had already received various medals and badges, such as the badge of the Red Cross and the badge of the Society of Saving from Drowning. He also had made an impressive looking badge for himself to add to his jacket. The presence of the Persian magnate, Rahat-Helam, created the possibility that the mayor could receive the order of the Lion and the Sun, without having to perform any of the services generally required to receive such an honor.

After Nadya, a 16 year old girl, returns home from seeing a play, she is happily consumed with its plot of unrequited love. To Nadya, unrequited love is the most interesting type of love, as love is boring if everyone is happy. Quickly, Nadya's thoughts turn to her two suitors, Gorny and Guzdev. Although they have both declared their love for her, she, more than anything, wants to believe that they do not love her. Trying to emulate the unrequited love from the play, she writes a letter to Gorny, like the heroine in the play....

An old man recounts the story of a death he witnessed as a young boy working in the theater: His boss, Mr. Haliday, had married a pretty young lady from the theater, much to the chagrin of the other women working in the company. It was a marriage of convenience, but in the beginning they got along well enough. After a handsome younger man, Henry Mortimer, joins the theater company, Mrs. Haliday and Mortimer start up a romance that everyone but Mr. Haliday seem to notice.

About Love is the musings of several friends about love and the great mystery surrounding it. After trying to figure out the love existing between an abusive, ugly cook and the lovely girl that doted on him, one of the men, Alehin, begins sharing his story of love and heartbreak. He recounts the tale of his love for the beautiful Anna Alexyevna, a young woman married to his friend. Alehin describes the way in which their relationship developed, returning again and again to the strange mysteries of love.

Young Prince Zaphir, son of King Mago, was a kind young man much beloved by his people and all the animals around the kingdom. He is also quite taken with a young princess, the Princess Bluebell, who feels the same way for him. When a giant descends on the land and the army and other brave men who volunteer to fight him are defeated, Zaphir decides to face the Giant one on one, before more men risk their lives.

Young Claribel was a girl taught goodness by her parents and lived a happy life, especially when she went to school. Claribel loved her teacher, a kindly woman who taught her students the importance of honesty above all else. Her teacher taught them of the Beautiful City where the Good and Honest children would go one day, and Claribel wanted nothing more. One day in class, whilst working on her math, she became bored and distracted and began to draw a lily that she saw out the classroom window.

The Gombeen Man is an evil moneylender who several peasants owe money to. When the peasants find themselves unable to repay the wicked man on time, he is quick with his desire to take their land from them, refusing to take the payment from them in the future if they should be able to come up with it. The poor peasants are then forced to come up with a plan to keep their land from the evil Gombeen Man. This short story is actually a chapter from Stoker’s novel The Snake’s Pass, about a romance between an English tourist and an Irish peasant.

When several employees of the bank are arrested for corruption, the merchant Avdeyev doesn't give the ordeal much thought, figuring the men going to jail deserve it. His opinion changes however when he returns home to find his wife and son very upset - his house had just been searched by officials in connection to the bank corruption. Avdeyev had signed papers for the bankers without knowing what they were and so had essentially signed his life away by his carelessness.

Three men, Mihailo the porter, Nikandr the fish merchant, and Stepan the coachman, sit around a table in the coach-house playing a game of "kings" with Stepan's eight-year old grandson, Alyoshka. While each card player competitively tries to win the coveted position of "king" in the game, a more serious atmosphere casts a sad shadow over the estate in which the coach-house is situated. The man of the house, for whom the porter and coachman work, has attempted suicide, and he lies in the estate house struggling somewhere between life and death.

Hans Christian Andersen was the profoundly imaginative writer and storyteller who revolutionized literature for children. He gave us the now standard versions of some traditional fairy tales—with an anarchic twist—but many of his most famous tales sprang directly from his imagination. The 30 stories here range from exuberant early works such as "The Tinderbox" and "The Emperor's New Clothes" through poignant masterpieces such as "The Little Mermaid" and "The Ugly Duckling", to more subversive later tales such as "The Ice Maiden" and "The Wood Nymph".

With the help of the most iconic children’s stories of all time—including Aesop’s fables, The Three Little Pigs, Hansel and Gretel, and so many others—bedtime stories are proven to help foster a bond between parents and children, lower kids' stress levels, and reinforce their literacy skills and mastery of language.

French literature may be said to begin with the ninth century "Song of Roland," and it has since then churned out masterpiece after masterpiece in every century right up to the present. Beginning with Balzac and Dumas in the early part of the nineteenth century and proceeding to Sartre and Camus at the midpoint of the twentieth, the stories in this collection showcase the talents of some of the greatest French masters of the short story.

A thoroughly engaging collection of classic short stories from some of the greatest writers who lived.

Most readers are familiar with Jack London's stories of the frozen northland, such as White Fang and To Light a Fire, but many critics feel he should be equally acknowledged for his fascinating stories of the South Pacific. Here is another remote corner of the world, a background for his magnificently colorful and entertaining Tales of the South Pacific.

Hawthorne approached the Romantic notion of the ability of science to destroy art (or beauty) in the form of fictive "horror stories" of biological research out of control. This story is the best of that group. A devoted scientist marries a beautiful woman with a single physical flaw: a birthmark on her face. Aylmer becomes obsessed with the imperfection and his attempts to remove it via his scientific skills, thus rendering his bride perfect.