Short Classics

The Barsoom Collection: Books 1-6 is the collection of the first six novels in Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom series, read by esteemed narrator Christopher Ragland.

Micromegas es un cuento filosófico de Voltaire publicado en 1752. Se trata de las aventuras de un habitante (Micromegas) de un planeta del sistema de Sirio y un habitante de Saturno que se instruyen mutuamente y viajan por el espacio en busca de nuevos conocimientos, llegando finalmente a descubrir a los humanos.

Rip Van Winkle de Washington Irving cuenta la historia de un hombre que se queda dormido en las montañas Catskill y se despierta décadas después en un mundo cambiado. La historia explora temas del tiempo, el cambio y las consecuencias de descuidar las propias responsabilidades.

Considerada por la crítica como una de las novelas ejemplares más logradas, El celoso extremeño es la historia de un marido celoso hasta el punto de encerrar a Leonora, una muchacha con la que se casó, en su propia casa dejándole salir solamente de madrugada para asistir a misa. Finalmente, y pese a toda prevención, Leonora consigue hacer entrar a su amante y encontrarse con él. El asunto, por tanto, es el del marido excesivamente celoso, impotente para mantener encerrada a su joven esposa.

Una señora viaja en una diligencia camino de Italia, para intentar curarse de la grave infección tuberculosa que parece. Un cochero de diligencia, afectado de tuberculosis, acepta regalar a un joven sus magníficas botas, a cambio de que éste le lleve una buena lápida sobre su tumba... En este libro Tolstoi nos narra tres muertes conectadas entre sí por un vínculo natural. Tolstoi refleja en este relato, que hasta para morir hay clases. Tres muertes, dos humanas, la tercera la tendras que descubrir.

Dickens nos traslada una confesión encontrada por azar en una de las prisiones de la época de Carlos II de Inglaterra. De esta forma se ocultaban los autores de miradas y lecturas indiscretas, y así es como Dickens nos cuenta los recuerdos que afloran a la mente de un condenado a muerte que nos dice, que ya desde niño tuvo "una naturaleza desconfiada, reservada y hosca", y que tenía envidia de su hermano por ser "generoso, de corazón abierto, de mejor aspecto físico, más satisfecho de la vida y en general, amado". Todo ventajas.

Nicolás tenía una locura especial, inexplicables malestares que se cuentan en Cláusula testamentaria. En el testamento ha dicho que el cajón donde será enterrado sea fabricado en casa de Joaquim Soares, que dice "es digno de la distinción, uno de los mejores artistas y uno de los hombres más honrados", a pesar que todos sabían que sus cajones eran de pésima calidad. Murió Nicolás a los sesenta y ocho años, no tenía un organismo sano, había en él algún vicio interior o falla orgánica que le llevaba a destruir desde niño los juguetes de otros.

By the time of his early death in 1988, Raymond Carver had established himself as one of the great practitioners of the American short story. Where I'm Calling From, his last collection, encompasses classic stories from Cathedral, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, and earlier Carver volumes, along with seven new works previously unpublished in book form.

The author of outstanding travel books, autobiographical works and novels, including the classic "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", "Mark Twain" (Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835–1910) is regarded by many as America's finest humorist and a major writer of short stories. The four selections in this volume span his entire writing career and are among his best-known stories.

The short stories of Irish writers appeal to audiences far beyond the shores of Eire. These stories, in turn atmospheric, spookily funny, full of intriguing characters, picturesque, and touching, are steeped in the Irish delight in story-telling and cover an intriguing century of Irish city and country life.

Country doctor Kennedy tells the story of Amy Foster, a tender-hearted country girl, who alone takes pity on a starving and bewildered foreign castaway, feared and shunned by the rest of her community. The castaway proves to be amiable and intelligent, but this is not enough to overcome the prejudice aroused by his alienness.

In this, the most memorable of her works, Gertrude Stein paints striking portraits of three women. "The Good Anna" is the story of a sober housekeeper of German stock. "The Gentle Lena" is concerned with a passive German girl who endures her woeful life until she dies in childbirth. "Melanetha" tells of a young, intelligent, half-white girl's sexual searching and tragic love affair.

This audiobook contains two awesome stories. The first story is about a wacky lion cub called Wilburr, and the second story is about a panicky penguin called Pettri.

A superb collection of vintage classic short stories by some of the world's greatest storytellers. The Gold Bug by Edgar Allan Poe. The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad. The Unparalleled Adventures of one Hans Pfaal by Edgar Allan Poe. The Dead by James Joyce. The Venturers by O. Henry. The Telltale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe. The Mezzotint by M. R. James. The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry. Von Kempelen and his Discovery by Edgar Allan Poe. Mesmeric Revelation by Edgar Allan Poe.

In The Dunwich Horror, Lovecraft lays further ground in the Cthulu mythos. Alongside The Dunwich Horror are the stories "Dagon", "The Call of Cthulhu", "The Lurking Fear", "Imprisoned with the Pharoahs", "The Music of Erich Zann", "Randolph Carter", "In the Walls of Eryx", and "The Transition of Juan Romero".

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.

Multiple award-winners Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling have gathered together 22 tales of unearthly temptations wickedly concocted by some of today's most potent literary conjurers - including Neil Gaiman, Jan Yolen, Michael Swanwick, and Joyce Carol Oates. Here are stories of incubi and succubi, of forbidden fruits harvested in erotic gardens, of pleasures that persist beyond death. So heed the sirens' song. Lie back, relax, and submit to the darkest delights you have ever experienced.

The revered author’s definitive collection of short fiction, which explores enduring spiritual and science fiction themes such as space, time, reality, fantasy, God, and the fate of humankind. As powerful, inventive, and profound as his theological and philosophical works, The Dark Tower reveals another side of Lewis’s creative mind and his longtime fascination with reality and spirituality. It is ideal listening for fans of J. R. R. Tolkien, Lewis’s longtime friend and colleague.

Our ‘fight of flight’ response is something hardwired into the primitive part of our brain. Our need to survive, to outlive whatever danger poses, that immediate threat to our lives is little short of a marvel. Everything else is abandoned in order to survive. Whilst in modern times that ability has been somewhat modified and ‘reasoned’ away to an extent, in past years it’s what usually kept you alive. In this volume people struggle valiantly to survive and to exist no matter the extent of the threat they face.

Relish the wonders of Classic Literature in B.J. Harrison’s second season of The Classic Tales Podcast. Experience more of the greatest fiction ever written, as it comes to life in this unprecedented audiobook. Adventure from Jack London and Edgar Rice Burroughs, gothic suspense from Wilkie Collins and Edgar Allan Poe, humor from Mark Twain and P.G. Wodehouse - this collection has it all, complete and unabridged.