Short Classics

"To Build a Fire" is the best known of all London's stories. It tells the story of a new arrival to the Klondike who stubbornly ignores warnings about the folly of traveling alone. He falls through the ice into a creek in 70-below weather, and his survival depends on being able to build a fire and dry his clothes - which he is unable to do. The famous version of this story was published in 1908.

When a young couple moves into their new home, they are taken aback by the strange behavior of their new landlord. While at first he bid them to do all of the fixing-up the home needed on their own, he quickly changed his tune and was persistent in his attempts to help them tackle some of the rooms himself. The source of his desire to help lies in the fact that the old tenant may have hidden a fortune within the walls - a fortune that winds up belonging to the young couple after all!

Patrick Lafcadio Hearn, was an Irish writer known also by the Japanese name Koizumi Yakumo. His book Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things, comprises two parts, the first being the "Kwaidan Proper" and the second, "Insect-Studies", which consists of an essay each on ants, butterflies and mosquitos. According to the author, most of the folk tales and ghost stories in the first part were translated from old Japanese texts. The themes encompass resurrection, sacrifice, magic, and the realm of dreams.

The ultimate collection of great short stories by the best Russian classic authors. 1. "Her Lover" by Maxim Gorky 2. "The Empty Drum" by Count Leo Tolstoy 3. "The Hoop" by Fedor Sologub 4. "The District Doctor" by Ivan Turgenev 5. "The White Dog" by Fedor Sologub 6. "The Cloak" by Nikolai Gogol 7. "A Soothing Dream" by Fedor Sologub 8. "The Christmas Tree and the Wedding" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 9. "A Work of Art" by Anton Chekhov 10. "Children Wiser Than Their Fathers" by Count Leo Tolstoy

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde tells the story of the lawyer Gabriel John Utterson as he investigates some disturbing incidents involving his old friend, the talented doctor Henry Jekyll, and his mysterious and sinister new companion, Edward Hyde. The lawyer is worried about his friend after he changes his will to include Hyde in case of his death or disappearance. Fearing that the doctor is being blackmailed by the stranger, the lawyer sets out to confront him.

Bounty hunter Chet Miller has lost everything dear to him. He warned his brother to stay out of the law but Tate loved to look for trouble. And he found it at the hands of notorious outlaw Bert Patton and his gang in an unjust ambush. When word gets to Chet, he rides back to Utah from Colorado, and the memories come crashing down around him. The only blood he had left is gone, and Chet will do whatever it takes to make sure Patton and his gang pay for what they did to his brother.

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.

Ernest Hemingway's first new book of fiction since the publication of A Farewell to Arms in 1929 contains 14 stories of varying length. Some of them have appeared in magazines but the majority have not been published before. The characters and backgrounds are widely varied. "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" is about an old Spanish Beggar.

A prolific writer of Christian romances, Grace Livingston Hill also excelled in creating novels of suspense. These tales highlight three women who, through pluck and cleverness, strive to escape the menace that envelops them. (Of course, being GLH stories, there are always romantic possibilities!)

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 ...

Lotte Lenya reads "Up In The Gallery", "The Cares of a Family Man", "The Bucket Rider", "A Hunger Artist", and "A Fratricide."

Bukowski's mad immortal origins, surfaced from the literary underground, have addicted legions of audiences who've recognized Bukowski as one of America's greatest realist writers and poets. Audible Studios narrator and OBIE winner Will Patton ( Remember the Titans, The Good Wife, Armageddon) gives a tour de force performance of Bukowski's greatest work in his prime.

Kabu kabu - unregistered, illegal Nigerian taxis - generally get you where you need to go. Nnedi Okorafor's Kabu Kabu, however, takes the listener to exciting, fantastic, magical, occasionally dangerous, and always imaginative locations you didn't know you needed. This debut short-story collection by an award-winning author includes notable previously published material, a new novella cowritten with New York Times best-selling author Alan Dean Foster, six additional original stories, and a brief foreword by Whoopi Goldberg.

In this Very Short Introduction audiobook, the renowned philosopher Roger Scruton explores the concept of beauty, asking what makes an object - either in art, in nature, or the human form - beautiful and examining how we can compare differing judgments of beauty when it is evident all around us that our tastes vary so widely.

Alien invaders take one of America’s most contentious issues, Gun Control, and use it for their interest.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland, first published in 1915, is a feminist utopian novel that describes an isolated society composed entirely of women---a progressive, environmentally conscious land where peace and rationality reign and poverty is unknown.

A retrospective collection of S.P, Somtow’s science fiction stories, from Sunsteps which first appeared in Unearth magazine in 1977 to An Alien Heresy from 2007, this book covers thirty years of the wide-ranging author-composer’s career, including numerous award-nominated stories. From comedic zombie protest marches to alien roller coaster cults, from ambiguous utopias to enjoyable dystopias, from a mediaeval inquisitor confronting an alien to an alien inquestor confronting a planet, these are bizarre and wondrous tales, both serious and satiric. With illustrations from the sketches of ...

Groundbreaking for the time in which they were written, the vampire stories of the 1800s have inspired many modern writers. Enjoy the thrilling stories that originated the genre of vampire fiction.

In a war-torn European village, young Mary Harper holds fast to her faith as she supports her widowed mother and sister through humble means. On a frigid Christmas Eve, a selfless act of kindness—rescuing a struggling woman from the icy night—sets Mary on a path of unexpected trials. When a small opal stud, given as a token of gratitude, leads to her wrongful arrest for theft, Mary finds herself in a cold prison cell, clinging to her Bible and trusting in God’s unfailing promises. As her family searches for answers, a compassionate constable and a surprising reunion with her brother, ...

The colonies of Mistria are in turmoil. They face wars between the competing empires and insurrection from natives and colonists alike. Prince Vladamier is a Norillian noble, and Nephew to King Richard. He has little political power, but struggles to ensure the colonists interests are represented back in the court. The one thing he does have is a wurm... one of the few existing "dragons" from a clutch of eggs discovered in the old world, hundreds of years ago.