English Classic Short Stories

The two strikingly original short novels brought together here - in new translations by award-winning translators - were both literary gambles of a sort for Fyodor Dostoevsky. The first real expression of his genius, The Double is a surprisingly modern hallucinatory nightmare in which a minor official named Goliadkin becomes aware of a mysterious doppelgänger. Written 20 years later under the pressure of crushing debt, The Gambler is a stunning psychological portrait of a young man's exhilarating and destructive addiction.

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.

In the dead gray cold of Starkfield, Massachusetts, farmer Ethan Frome is struggling to scrape out a living. His duties are to his wife, Zeena - an ungrateful, soul-sick hypochondriac as frigid as the New England winter. When Zeena’s cousin Mattie arrives to help with the farm, the ethereal, gentle-natured beauty brings a light and a fugitive affection into Ethan’s life. Yet for Ethan and Mattie, daring to be happy - and together - will have its consequences.

Milly-Molly-Mandy lives in a tiny village in the heart of the countryside, where life is full of everyday adventures! Join the little girl in the candy-striped dress as she goes blackberry picking, gets ready to throw a party and goes to her village fete – whatever Milly-Molly-Mandy and her friends are up to, you're sure to have fun when they're around.

Author, poet, screenwriter, and outstanding member of the legendary Algonquin Round Table, Dorothy Parker was known for her quick wit, keen observations, and remarkable insight into the human condition. Regarded as brilliant, but known to be an alcoholic and often depressed, Parker’s work pushes all buttons at once: humor, anger, love, pity, and everything in between...she pulled no punches, writing with pure, unadulterated passion; her work is timeless and as pertinent to today’s society as it was to that of the time she wrote.

A young boy, Tineboy, is having trouble with his multiplication tables and the number seven. Bored in class one day, he falls asleep and dreams of a story told by his teacher about the number seven going mad. This leads to a world without the number seven and the confusion that comes from getting rid of a number. The schoolhouse bully and Tineboy’s own pet crow play important roles in his vivid daydream, full of intelligent wit and humor.

Tales, metaphors, parables, meditations, anecdotes and reflections for our spiritual growth and personal development. Stories that help us transcend in body, mind and soul. Self help for our personal power. Tales to wake up. - How did you do that which was impossible to do? - I didn't know it was impossible. 'Tales for the Hidden Mind' is a series of more than 100 short stories, based on classic parables. Each story is accompanied by an interpretation. They are metaphors to raise our consciousness and give us tools to improve our life and that of our world. In this book the author Leandro ...

In Désirée’s Baby, the adopted daughter of a wealthy prewar French Creole couple is courted by the son of another wealthy, respected French Creole family. After they marry, their child is born with dark skin and believed to have African ancestry, a problem for a prewar white family. Accused of dishonesty by her husband, the mother, Désirée, and her child walk off into the bayou, never to be seen again. But when the father finds a letter from his mother to his father which reveals an explosive fact about his own ancestry, he learns a sobering truth.

A collection of horror/thriller stories with surprise endings to chill you and thrill you to the bone. The creepers include: OUT OF TIME: An avenging time traveler pursues a mass murderer who has escaped into the future. THE ICE PICK KILLER: The serial killer's last victim was in Rose's neighborhood, and she has flimsy locks. LOTTO MANIA: After thirty-five years, Charles's favorite numbers have won the Powerball jackpot, but evil forces want it all. THE SNALLYGASTER: A flying creature has swooped down and taken Harry's precious daughter, and he is desperate for the authorities to help get ...

This reissue of the 1919 classic combines the immortal stories from Homer's Iliad and Odyssey into one glorious saga of heroism and magical adventure. Beloved by generations, Padraic Colum's masterful retelling of these epic adventures is remarkably fresh, consistently spellbinding, and unmatched for its richness and poetry.

Today, nearly 40 years after his death, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck remains one of America's greatest writers and cultural figures. We have begun publishing his many works for the first time as Penguin Classics. This season we continue with the seven spectacular and influential books East of Eden, Cannery Row, In Dubious Battle, The Long Valley, The Moon Is Down, The Pastures of Heaven, and Tortilla Flat.

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.

Olga Ivanovna, a beautiful young woman floating around in a famous and fabulous social circle, falls in love with a simple man who does not belong to the same social group, Osip Dymov. Dymov worked at the same hospital as her father. When her father fell ill, Dymov was captivated by Olga's dedication to her father, and she soon returned the romantic notions. As they settled into married life, Olga continued to frequent with her artistic friends, visiting them every day and continuing to live a fun, exciting life.

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.

The Invisible Dog is the story of a girl who tries to satisfy her yearning for a dog by introducing an imaginary Great Dane called Henry to the house. Her wish comes true, and she is allowed a real Henry - but there's more than a hint that old Mrs Garrow, with her cackling laugh and black cat, may have been involved.

It was the eye. The dull, sightless, vulture's eye that shredded his final nerve. But the murder was done so carefully, so perfectly, that only one thing could reveal the whereabouts of the body. B. J. Harrison gives a masterful reading of the famous murder that wouldn't keep quiet. This audiobook was the #3 best-selling audiobook in 2008 at the iTunes Music Store!

A treasure-chest of the written and spoken word, this collection is read by brilliant actors who make this audio anthology a genuine treat for the listener.

A collection of fireside stories of short stories and tall tales! Open these pages and read to others, or snuggle into a blanket by the fireside and pick a story that fits your mood!Short stories and tall tales! This is of the fireside collection. A dozen awesome stories you are bound to find a story you really like! Some of the stories are great to tell around a campfire or at any get together! This book includes, Cabin Fever, A Star is Born, Promises Made, Promises Kept, Claire and The Journalist, The Time Traveler, Love Never Dies, This Rugged Land, We Call Home, Queen Dar’keina And ...

Twenty-plus sci-fi stories from the lighter side, many of them illustrated. More from the lighter, laughing side than the dark-dungeoned depths; but they’re all here somewhere, from a satisfied smile; or shed a tear. Maybe a “Yes! Get in there”. Or catch your breath at the trials that some have to face. From crackling two-pagers where someone hasn’t quite read the situation right, to sixty-plus sides chronicling what you really have to do if you want to survive on this planet. Tales of here and now, wondering what’s among us; or what awaits us amid the distant futures and far-...

One winter evening a shoemaker finds a mysterious stranger naked and freezing by a shrine in his small village. The shoemaker rescues the man, and takes him home. Though the stranger won’t say where he came from, Simon invites him to work beside him, and stay with his family. As the story unfolds, the stranger transforms, and ultimately reveals an astonishing and deeply moving secret. Late in Tolstoy’s life, after he had written his great masterpieces War and Peace, and Anna Karenina, he underwent a spiritual transformation.