Classic Literature Anthology

The greatest short story writers strive to achieve a single, dramatic effect, a feature which the early masters of this genre perfected. Although the short story came from Europe, it was reborn in America and reached a pinnacle of superb form on these shores by the turn of the 20th century. In so many of our best writers, we hear echoes of a pioneer ethos that sustains the heart of a great literature. Here are 12 of America's best.

A Penguin Classic. First published in 1938, this volume of stories collected with the encouragement of his longtime editor Pascal Covici serves as a wonderful introduction to the work of Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck. Set in the beautiful Salinas Valley of California, where simple people farm the land and struggle to find a place for themselves in the world, these stories reflect Steinbeck’s characteristic interests: The tensions between town and country, laborers and owners, past and present.

Guy de Maupassant is widely regarded as the father of the modern short story. As his 13 volumes of short stories attest, he was a prolific writer of this form. He had a simple, efficient style of writing and, like Anton Chekhov, found inspiration for his stories in the day-to-day lives of characters, in which their hidden natures are often revealed. Many of his works also centered on the Franco-Prussian War, in which he served.

In 1938 Maugham wrote, "Fact and fiction are so intermingled in my work that now, looking back on it, I can hardly distinguish one from the other." Maugham also wrote that most of his short stories were inspired by accounts he heard firsthand during his travels to the lonely outposts of the British Empire. In volume three of this series, we present all of the remaining short stories which Maugham published after World War I and which he subsequently caused to be republished in various collections.

When Sergeant Major Morris brings a mummified monkey’s paw to the White family, they embrace it as a morbid curiosity. When they learn that an old Fakir has enchanted the paw, they continue to treat the thing lightly. But the workings of the paw, once set in motion, cannot be undone, no matter what they try.

"Crooken Sands" is a short fantasy/horror tale by the author of Dracula. The story follows a London merchant on a mysterious adventure in Scotland.

In A Few Quick Ones, P. G. Wodehouse brings together some of his oldest friends for a party. Jeeves and Wooster are there, so is Mr Mulliner and the Oldest Member.

Washington Irving paints an effulgent portrait of the New England countryside as Tom Walker walks with the Devil. Would you dare to bargain with the Devil for your soul? This audiobook also includes "Hurst of Hurstcote", by E. Nesbit. Here, a young man is so stricken by the passing of his wife that his sanity begins to stray. And, as madness spreads its paralyzing influence over him, he unearths a shocking conclusion.

A collection of horror/thriller stories with surprise endings to chill you and thrill you to the bone. The nightmares include: THE BLIZZARD: Helen’s Christmas holiday with her husband at her parents’ secluded estate is disrupted by the worst blizzard in over thirty years on the very night a maniac has escaped from the local asylum. RESURRECTION Joseph Hyde is a medical miracle. He's still alive after being pronounced dead, undergoing an autopsy, an embalming, and being buried for forty-eight hours. HANGMAN’S OVERLOOK: A scam artist wagers $800 he will spend the night on Hangman’s ...

This Audiobook contains the following works: "Tom Tit Tot", "Three Sillies", "The Rose-Tree", "The Old Woman and her Pig", "How Jack went to Seek his Fortune", "Mr. Vinegar", "Nix Nought Nothing", "Jack Hannaford", "Binnorie", "Mouse and Mouser", "Cap o' Rushes", "Teeny-Tiny", "Jack and the Beanstalk", "The Story of the Three Little Pigs", "The Master and his Pupil", "Titty Mouse and Tatty Mouse", "Jack and his Golden Snuff-Box", "The Story of the Three Bears", "Jack the Giant-Killer", "Henny-Penny", "Childe Rowland".

Revisit the famous and fantastic realms conjured up by the world's most celebrated authors of fantasy in Legends - the greatest collection of original fantasy short novels ever published, where the best of the best tell all-new original tales set in the lands they created. Each audiobook presents the novels complete and unabridged, and will be sensational listening for the millions of fans of these writers and worlds.

A young mongoose protects his human family from two murderous cobras. English Nobel laureate Kipling's best story from The Jungle Book collection, "Rikki Tikki Tavi" has been adapted many times to film and television.

Discover the lost Seuss! These rarely seen Dr. Seuss stories were published in magazines in the early 1950s and are finally available in audiobook form.

The extraordinarily evocative stories depict the generation born in a small-town America during the Depression and growing up in a world where the old sexual morality was turned around and material comforts were easily had. Yet, as these stories reflect so accurately, life was still unsettling, and Updike chronicles telling moments both joyful and painful. The texts are taken from his recent omnibus, The Early Stories, 1953-1975.

Zora Neale Hurston is best remembered today for her work as a novelist, but she was also an accomplished dramatist, short story writer, and folklorist. That range of interests and styles is on full display in this collection.

A collection of horror/thriller stories with surprise endings to chill you and thrill you to the bone. The creepers include: HOUSE OF HORRORS: Tom and his wife relocate to a house owned by a notorious serial killer to afford the home of their dreams. THE PLAGUE SHIP: Jack and Emma are on a luxury cruise where a virus turns the passengers into ravenous ghouls. THE RANSOM OF RADCLIFF: Two small-time crooks experience obstacles when they kidnap a billionaire vampire's son THE MAN WITH TWO LIVES: After a devastating auto accident, a wealthy man resorts to a full body transplant, but the only ...

Clive Staples Lewis, better known as C.S. Lewis, was a respected academic, writer, and speaker. While he might be best known for his works of fantasy, especially the Chronicles of Narnia and Space Trilogy series, he also wrote many books on Christian apologetics, including Mere Christianity, Miracles, and The Problem of Pain.

When a carousing Englishman disgraces the consecrated effigy of Hanuman, a leprous "Silver Man" marks him with a hideous curse. The ensuing night brings new terrors to the house of the doomed man.

From mystery and crime to romance and tragedy, in this collection you will discover award-winning writing that effortlessly spans genre and style. Witness the excess and luxury of 1920s America in The Great Gatsby, experience profound meditations on death in The Bridge of San Luis Rey, as well as Poirot's very first murder case in The Mysterious Affair at Styles.

O. Henry, the pseudonym of the American writer William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), is best known for writing stories full of wit, wordplay, and warm characterizations, and particularly for their clever twist endings. This volume contains 20 of O. Henry's best and best-loved stories. They are marked by coincidence and surprise endings as well as the compassion and high humor that have made O. Henry's stories popular for the last century.