Short Classic Literature

Mark Twain's "Extracts from Adam's Diary" first appeared in 1893. He based Adam and Eve on himself and his beloved wife Olivia ("Livy") to create a humorous counterpoint the traditional Garden of Eden story, this time centered on what life may have been like for the first man. In this story, we hear Adam trying to work out what the "new creature with long hair" is all about. She names things, much to Adam's annoyance. She follows him around. Then suddenly, there's another creature, which eventually Adam decides is his son Cain. It's all about confusion and curiosity, and finally, love for Eve.

What should it be, this whopping terrific exploding shocker for Grandma? This edition of George's Marvellous Medicine, part of The Roald Dahl Classic Collection, is perfect for Dahl fans old and new. So, enter a world where invention and mischief can be found throughout the book and where magic might be at the very tips of your fingers.

Tolstoy brings to these brief tales the same psychological depth and spiritual insight found in his larger works. In fact, his short stories are an excellent place to begin reading this great author. In them, you will find the same challenging themes of morality, forgiveness, redemption and more.

With her delightfully evocative prose, Xu Xiaobin presents us with a collection of stories crawling with fraught power dynamics, strange events, and unsettling images. Not only does she write about women, but the worlds around them, the fears that dog them, and the histories that haunt them. Xu's entangled plots sneak up on the reader and make a lasting impression, from the blind singing sensation with a calculating mother, to the scornful aunt of an aging Miss Asia winner, to the young woman who becomes consumed by filth in the dilapidated house of her in-laws. Each of these mournful ...

Beneath the brilliance that was behind The Age of Innocence and Ethan Frome was a dark side. A dark side which produced magnificent tales of the unseen influences in our lives, such as "Mr. Jones", "The Eyes", "Kerfol", "The Ladie's Maid's Bell", and "The Looking Glass".

A collection of horror/thriller stories with surprise endings to chill you and thrill you to the bone: The creepers include: THE SLASHER: Ben discovers the author of a novel about a serial killer looks just like him. LAST CALL: A stranger claiming to be the devil wants to exchange a wish for a bartender's soul and won't take no for an answer. THE DIARY: Billy doesn’t know why his mother's diary does not mention him after a particular year. ANTLERS: After a horrific accident involving a deer, Martha can't understand how her parents survived catastrophic injuries. THE WIZARD: A billionaire ...

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 ...

A vintage collection of some of the greatest short stories ever written: "The Purloined Letter", by Edgar Allan Poe; "The Nose", by Nikolai Gogol; "The Story of an Hour", by Kate Chopin; "The Gift of the Magi", by O. Henry; "The Apparition of Mrs. Veal", by Daniel Defoe; "The Lifted Veil", by George Eliot; "Life of Ma Parker", by Katherine Mansfield; "The Baron", by Katherine Mansfield; "The Cask of Amontillado", by Edgar Allan Poe; "The Seventh Pullet", by Saki; and more.

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.

Bachelor John Marcher is haunted by the premonition that something terrible lies in store for him, like a "beast in the jungle" lying in wait. So he spends his life in idleness, unable to carry out his dreams or desires, while his friend May Bartram, curious to see how this spectacular fate will manifest, helps watch out for the arrival of the beast.

Miguev, a married, intelligent collegiate assessor, is haunted with anxiety and worry. Miguev has a secret that he doesn't want his wife, the town, or his colleagues to discover. His mistress, after becoming pregnant and having his child, has recently tried to extort money from him in exchange for her silence. She threatens to ruin his reputation and divulge his secret shame to everyone unless he pays her. In the height of his fear and worry about his present situation, his fears seem to come alive....

Far eastern Tales is a collection of Maugham's short stories, all born of his experiences in Malaysia, Singapore, and other outposts of the former British Empire. The stories included on this recording are Footprints in the Jungle, Mabel, P & O, The Door of Oportunity, The Buried Talent, Before the Party, Mr. Know-all, Neil MacAdam, The End of the Flight and The Force of Circumstance.

Rip Van Winkle lived in a quiet colonial town, and had a habit of attending to everyone else's chores. Henpecked and poor, he goes squirrel hunting in the woods one day, only to exit twenty years later.

One of the most common arguments against Christianity is that the God of the Old Testament seemed so drastically different than the God of the New Testament. In the Old, many claim He seemed cruel and capricious, while in the New, He suddenly became a God of love and tolerance. Yet Jesus said, “If you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father”, and the writer of Hebrews tells us that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever”. If God hasn’t changed, how do we explain the apparent difference? The answer lies in a long-forgotten word: covenant.

A collection of horror/thriller stories with surprise endings to chill you and thrill you to the bone. These are my latest stories The creepers include: SCARY NIGHTS: A serial killer goes to an amusement park and kills people for the fun of it. WHO'S BEEN SLEEPING IN MY GRAVE: A son visiting gravesites purchased years ago for his father, mother, and himself discovers a stranger buried in his plot. BOGEYMAN: Ben's elation from moving to a new state is shortlived when he discovers the bogeyman has followed him and is still sleeping under his bed. KILL THE NEXT PERSON YOU MEET: Charles puts a ...

A collection of horror/thriller stories with surprise endings to chill you and thrill you to the bone. The creepers include: THE BLIND MAN: Two career criminals see a blind man with a wad of cash at the mall and follow him home. BAD TO THE BONE: Ted sees a gruesome accident, discovers he can't get enough death and dismemberment, and his graphic videos go viral on the net. DEAL OR NO DEAL: An author who lost his wife in a fatal accident meets a weird man at the bar who says he can bring her back for a price. IDENTICAL: A frightened and confused pregnant woman delivers three identical girls ...

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".

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.

In these seven stories of People from Bloomington, our peculiar narrators find themselves in the most peculiar of circumstances and encounter the most peculiar of people. Set in Bloomington, Indiana, where the author lived as a graduate student in the 1970s, this is far from the idyllic portrait of small-town America.

A collection of horror/thriller stories with surprise endings to chill you and thrill you to the bone. The creepers include: FANGS: Harry wakes up one morning and bites his lip because of the fangs that grew in his mouth during the night. CATHEAD CREEK: Fred inherits property in Cathead Creek, NC and discovers all three of his brothers were the victims of a legendary monster. FRESH: Sam's TV died, and a fellow worker offers him a side job robbing graves for a doctor who pays obscenely well for fresh corpses. THE TOWER: Ever since the anesthesiologist administered the drug ketamine for my ...