Classic Literature Short Stories

Virginia Woolf once called Thomas Hardy "the greatest tragic writer among English novelists". His atmospheric novels were often considered shocking upon their publication. In this classic, Clym Yeobright returns to Egdon Heath from Paris, intending to settle down and improve the lives of his townspeople. But the alluring and mysterious Eustacia Vye has other plans. Like so many of Hardy’s masterpieces, The Return of the Native is both a rich character study and a critical examination of Victorian society.

At the turn of the century, the short story form gained enormous popularity. Against the frozen Alaskan landscape of "To Build a Fire", a miner struggles to survive the splintering whiteness of sub-zero temperatures. "Isle of Voices" captures the Hawaii of old, where magic transports a young man to an island of powerful spirits. "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" pits a mongoose against a cobra in the steamy beauty of an Indian garden. Recorded Books’ award-winning narrators turn these stories into absorbing productions.

What would you call people who steal the newly buried dead and sell their bodies for medical dissection? In Stevenson's day, they were sometimes called "resurrectionists" - but he calls them "Body-Snatchers" and tells a grisly, memorable story about them. A master of terror and suspense, Stevenson lets his imagination explore the depths of human superstitions. Also included on this recording are the stories "Isle of Voices" and "The Waif Woman."

Welcome to Travers Corners, a dusty Montana town, where nothing much has happened since Herbert Hoover stopped for gas. Travers Corners, like most small towns, has no newspaper, no radio station; but here, large trout - no better than large trout, fictitious trout - await the angler. And apart from spreading gossip outside the McCraken’s General Store, the residents of Travers Corners love nothing more than fly fishing. Scott Waldie’s delightful cast of characters breathes life into this tiny, out-of-the-way town.

Before he gained wide fame as a novelist, Ernest Hemingway established his literary reputation with his short stories. Set in the varied landscapes of Spain, Africa, and the American Midwest, this definitive audio collection traces the development and maturation of Hemingway's distinct and revolutionary storytelling style - from the plain bold language of this first story to his mastery of seamless prose that contained a spare, eloquent pathos, as well as a sense of expansive solitude.

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.

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.

All of Edgar Allan Poe’s great short stories in one 16-hour collection.

A shape-shifting trickster on a quest for eternal life, Monkey King is one of the most memorable superheroes in world literature. High-spirited and omni-talented, he amasses dazzling weapons and skills on his journey to immortality: a gold-hooped staff that can grow as tall as the sky and shrink to the size of a needle; the ability to travel 108,000 miles in a single somersault. A master of subterfuge, he can transform himself into whomever or whatever he chooses and turn each of his body's 84,000 hairs into an army of clones.

FEAT DESC

A mysterious island, shrouded in fear, evil, and darkness. Here the amoral General Zaroff hunts. And what, you ask, is the most dangerous game? It is the manner and substance of his nightly killings.

This dark story, set in medieval Austria, hinges on unearthly and hidden mental powers. It also gives an insight to the author's psyche during his final days.

The other stories in this edition include "The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg", "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County", "The Story of the Bad Little Boy", "The Diary of Adam and Eve", "Edward Mills and George Benton", "The Joke That Made Ed's Fortune", and "A Fable".

A collection of twenty-six horror/thriller stories with surprise endings to thrill you and chill you to the bone. The creepers include: REST STOP: Martin loved the story The Lady or the Tiger so much he started playing the game with real people and hybrid beasts. THE CURSE: When Rebecca found the pharaoh's tomb, she refused to leave no matter how many perished. TILL DEATH DO US PART: Isabelle discovered her new husband had been married before, and all ten brides had disappeared without a trace. THE EXECUTION: Myers has a crazy dream he's on death row, waiting to be executed. LIFE TO THE ...

This collection of nine short stories by Flannery O'Connor was published posthumously in 1965. The flawed characters of each story are fully revealed in apocalyptic moments of conflict and violence that are presented with comic detachment.

A collection of horror/thriller stories for readers who would enjoy a stroll through a graveyard after midnight. Hark! Don’t read this book if a deranged maniac has escaped from the local asylum. Otherwise, enjoy the horror.The creepers include: BELOW: A young woman lures men into a cave, abandons them to die, and stages them in a maniacal tableau. BLOOD ON THE MOON: A scientist creates a serum to cure his wife’s violent outbursts, unaware it awakens a dormant mutation tied to the blood moon. WHISKERS: A group of college friends returns to a campsite once beloved by one of the parents, ...

A collection of 22 horror/thriller stories with surprise endings to chill you and thrill you to the bone. The nightmares include: THE CADAVER: Blanche foolishly risks her career as a university professor to enhance the learning curve of her students by supplying fresher cadavers for them to dissect. THE GOBLIN: A tourist in Vegas steals money from a quadriplegic panhandler who has special powers FEELINGS: A motorist seeks revenge on a TV news reporter whose ambition to be a star causes an accident that takes the life of the man's wife. THE VELVET CAGE: An abusive and destructive marriage ...

In the eight years since his first full-length novel, Gridlinked, was published by Pan Macmillan, Neal Asher has firmly established himself as one of the leading British writers of science fiction, and his novels are now translated in many languages. Most of his stories are set in a galactic future-scape called The Polity, and with this collection of marvellously inventive and action-packed short stories, he takes us further into the manifold diversities of that amazing universe.

A collection of horror/thriller stories with surprise endings to chill you and thrill you to the bone. The creepers include: THE OTHER SIDE: After Gerald dies and is resuscitated, something evil comes back with him from the other side. THE PAINTING: Ellen buys a creepy painting at an antique shop that keeps changing and not for the better. THE GRIZZLY OR THE ZOMBIE: Two hikers are attacked by a grizzly bear and then a zombie twenty years after the apocalypse has ended. THE BOX WITH RED AND BLUE RIBBONS: A surly humpback slips an identical-looking box among a counter full of surprise ...

Marcovaldo is an unskilled worker in a drab industrial city in northern Italy. He is an irrepressible dreamer and an inveterate schemer. Much to the puzzlement of his wife, his children, his boss, and his neighbors, he chases his dreams - but the results are never the expected ones.

Showcasing the best of Ernest Hemingway’s short stories including his well-known classics - as featured in the magnificent three-part, six-hour PBS documentary by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick - this new collection is introduced by award-winning author Tobias Wolff.