Short Classics

Winesburg, Ohio is Sherwood Anderson's masterpiece, a cycle of short stories concerning life in a small town at the end of the nineteenth century. In the perfectly imagined world of Winesburg, an archetypal small American town, Anderson reveals the hidden passions that turn ordinary lives into fonts of unforgettable emotions. Played out against a deceptively placid backdrop, Anderson's loosely connected stories coalesce, like chapters, into a powerful novel of love and loss.

The short story is considered to be one of the most challenging genres because of the need for compact plotlines and the ability to conjure up atmosphere and character in a few sentences and to engage the reader instantly. This collection presents 66 of the greatest examples of the genre - many of them well known, some hidden literary treasures, all of them exquisite examples of the short story at its finest.

This superlative work by Sarah Orne Jewett, a late 19th century writer, shows great literary skill, artistry and charm. The Country of the Pointed Firs depicts the close personal and family relationships in a small New England village. In its appreciation of the natural beauty and restorative powers of a small community, it is similar to Thoreau's Walden.

Introducing Science Fiction Short Stories Vol. 10, a collection of thrilling tales that will transport you to other worlds and challenge your imagination. From the minds of The Shadowplay Collective, these stories will take you on a journey through the vast expanse of space and beyond. Whether you're a die-hard sci-fi fan or just dipping your toes into the genre, this collection is sure to captivate and entertain. In this collection, you'll find stories set in distant galaxies, on alien planets, and in futuristic societies. The Shadowplay Collective has crafted each tale with care, weaving ...

The bloody-minded Montresor leads the pompous Fortunato deep into the catacombs, seeking the famed Amontillado wine. Here we have one of Poe’s most terrifying, and most “beloved” tales. Revenge and pomposity commingle beneath the river’s bed, leading to a delightfully sinister conclusion.

In a remote part of 19th-century Afghanistan, two British adventurers pursue their ambition to rule an empire. Using betrayal, threats, and guns, they win the respect of a primitive tribe and become worshipped as gods until one day they draw blood, and the game is up. "The Man Who Would Be King" is an action-packed tale about the pitfalls of colonialism and the temptations and evils of power.

Return to the amazing worlds created by some of fantasy's most famous authors as they tell all-new, original tales set in their best-selling series with Legends - the greatest anthology of original fantasy short novels ever published!

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 centerd on the Franco-Prussian War, in which he served.

When L. Frank Baum introduced Dorothy and friends to the American public in 1900, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz became an instant, best-selling hit. Today the whimsical tale remains a cultural phenomenon that continues to spawn wildly popular books, movies, and musicals. Now, editors John Joseph Adams and Douglas Cohen have brought together leading fantasy writers such as Orson Scott Card and Jane Yolen to create the ultimate anthology for Oz fans.

H. P. Lovecraft is arguably the most important horror writer of the 20th century. Culled from his 1927 essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature”, Lovecraft acknowledges those authors and stories that he feels are the very finest the horror field has to offer, including Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, Bram Stoker, Robert Louis Stevenson, Guy de Maupassant, Ambrose Bierce, and Arthur Conan Doyle. This chilling collection includes 20 works, each prefaced by Lovecraft's own opinions and insights in each author’s work.

Some of today's greatest storytellers reveal their choices of the ideal grown-up bedtime story: writers such as Margaret Drabble, Ken Follett, Tessa Hadley, Robert Macfarlane, Patrick Ness, Tony Robinson, and Warsan Shire. Fold away your laptop and shut down your mobile phone. Curl up and crash out with the ultimate bedside book, one you'll return to again and again. Full of laughter and tears, moonlight and magic, Bedtime Stories for Grown-ups joyfully provides the dream way to end the day - and begin the night....

This engaging collection of seven classic children’s stories presented by Voices in the Wind Audio Theatre includes Alice In Wonderland, Alice Through the Looking Glass, Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Secret Garden, and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Each story is performed by a full cast of award-winning voice actors enhanced by sound effects and music. Timeless classics that are sure to entice the imagination of the very young and the young at heart!

“I was sick, sick unto death with that long agony,” begins one of the most famous tales from the master of the macabre, Edgar Allan Poe. Through the tortures of the Spanish Inquisition, we follow the straying mind of the unnamed prisoner in his quest for hope in a world of darkness and despair. This episode skyrocketed The Classic Tales Podcast to number 3 on iTunes’ Top 100 Podcasts chart.

Jonathan Cecil, described as having “one of the best-loved voices in audiobooks” by the P. G. Wodehouse Society, narrates this collection of brilliantly entertaining stories featuring Jeeves and Wooster, including: "Jeeves and the Impending Doom", "Jeeves and the Kid Clementina", "The Inferiority Complex of Old Sippy", "The Love That Purifies", "Jeeves and the Yule-Tide Spirit", "Jeeves and the Old School Chum", "Jeeves and the Song of Songs", "Indian Summer of an Uncle", "Episode of the Dog McIntosh", "The Ordeal of Young Tuppy", and "The Spot of Art."

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.

Tus personajes clásicos favoritos—y alguno más que pronto lo será—te invitan a disfrutar de 25 cuentos que duran 5 minutos, que es lo que tú tardas en quedarte dormido.

This holiday bundle features six entertaining and delightful audio stories for the whole family to enjoy year-round. Perfect for the audiobook lovers on your list! Each story is performed by a full cast of voice actors with sound effects and music. Includes Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, The Bell by Hans Christian Andersen, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Cinderella by Charles Perrault, Snow White by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.

Through his imagined journals of Adam and Eve, Mark Twain wrote what has been called “one of the great love stories of all time.” Mandy Patinkin and Betty Buckley bring Adam and Eve to life, capturing the expected humor as well as the tender eloquence of Twain’s most personal, heartfelt writing. In one of his last recordings, Walter Cronkite provides an illuminating commentary on how the author came to reinterpret the Genesis story.

This is volume two of a two-volume omnibus set comprising the complete fictional works of Howard Phillips Lovcecraft. Every story written for publication under his own name is included in this set, from 1927 through 1935. (Poems, ghostwritten material, and stories written in collaboration with other writers are not included.)

The Star Rover is a 1914 collection of science fiction short stories with the theme of reincarnation. It tells the story of Darrell Standing, an inmate of San Quentin’s death row. The narrator escapes the horror of prison life by withdrawing into altered states and the memory of past lives. Forming the body of the work, the accounts of these past lives are vivid but disconnected. They include a desert island survival story, one which involves a Roman perspective on Christ, a tale of medieval Korea, and one which takes place in a prehistoric era.