Short Classics

A masked man. A night of passion. An unexpected revelation… After months of social distancing Christy has pandemic fatigue. She needs to socialize. She needs to talk to someone who is not on Zoom. She needs…to scratch an itch. A year of isolation is a long time to be alone with nothing but her battery-operated boyfriend to keep her company. When her friend suggests they get together in real life and attend an underground masquerade party downtown, Christy decides it’s worth the risk. She shares an incredible night with a total stranger, but when the masks come off and she realizes ...

A Festive Frolic of Frosty Streets and Fearless Feats! London, 1899: The snowy streets of Victorian London shimmer with holiday cheer, but for Flynn, the spirited Baker Street Irregular, it’s shaping up to be a Christmas calamity. Evicted from his rented room by a greedy landlord, Flynn and his mates are back on the icy cobblestones. Then Sherlock Holmes assigns Flynn a crucial mission: shadow a suspicious stranger. It’s Flynn’s chance to prove himself—but he loses his target in the bustling Christmas shopping crowd, right under Becky’s watchful eye. Determined to redeem himself, ...

From best-selling authors Ilona Andrews, Yasmine Galenorn, Allyson James, and Jeanne C. Stein comes an anthology of four all-new novellas featuring powerful women who know how to handle a hex or two. In "Double Hexed" from Allyson James, a novella of the Stormwalker series, Janet and her friends find themselves locked in her hotel, victims of a hex cast by a very powerful sorcerer.

On the seedy side of Chicago nightlife in the 1930s, Joey Evans is a poor man's Bing Crosby - a big-talking small-time nightclub crooner down on his luck but always on the make. In slangy, error-littered letters signed "Pal Joey", he recounts his exploits with brash nightclub managers, shady business partners, and every pretty girl he meets. Charismatic yet conniving, Pal Joey is a smooth operator whose bravado and big ideas disguise a far less self-assured soul caught up in the rags-to-riches dream of the Jazz Age.

This classic tale and superb short story by Mark Twain is a funny yet blistering indictment of political hypocrisy. A mysterious stranger is treated badly by the town of Hadleyburg—the town that proclaims itself "the most honest and upright town in the region". Through an ingenious sting operation, the stranger sets out to expose Hadleyburg's leading citizens and reveal their greedy, deceitful natures. Twain's burning wit and insight into political posturing and civic cowardice seem more pertinent than ever.

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.

The 30 Nightmares: The CONDOM IN THE COFFIN: A wife finds a condom in the lining of her husband's coffin which triggers suspicions someone at the mortuary is a necrophiliac. THE LOOKER: Kidnappers abduct an unusually beautiful woman to harvest her organs for half a million dollars. THE BEAST OF SPOOKY HOLLOW: A freelance writer goes to his college reunion and decides a legendary beast devouring the locals there may be his ticket to a Pulitzer. THE ALIEN: A man struck by lightning while having an MRI is the only one who can see aliens invading the Big Apple. THE INTRUDER: Mary calls 9-1-1 ...

Including the stories "Lispeth", "Beyond the Pale", and "In the Pride of His Youth", this collection tells of soldiers, wise children, exiles, forbidden romances, and divided identities, creating a rich portrait of Anglo-Indian society. Originally published for a newspaper in Lahore when Kipling was a journalist, the tales were later revised by him to re-create as vividly as possible the sights and smells of India for readers at home.

"In The Falling World", Jade, sister queen of the Indigo Cloud Court, has traveled with Chime and Balm to another Raksuran court. When she fails to return, her consort, Moon, along with Stone and a party of warriors and hunters, must track them down. Finding them turns out to be the easy part; freeing them from an ancient trap hidden in the depths of the Reaches is much more difficult. "The Tale of Indigo and Cloud" explores the history of the Indigo Cloud Court, long before Moon was born.

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.

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 20 stories for readers who love horror and appreciate a good scare. If you are fans of Twilight Zone, Tales From the Crypt, Night Gallery, Outer Limits, One Step Beyond, and horror stories with a plot and a twist ending, look no further. Billy Wells Horror is your ticket to a journey into the macabre if you dare. The nightmares include: WHITE RABBIT: No one believed a rabbit had disabled George's Lincoln Town car and blocked two lanes of traffic. THE SECOND VIRGIN BIRTH: At midnight on Christmas Eve, a nun rescues a baby left on the chapel steps in the freezing cold. ...

Jack London's stories about man's relationship with nature and its creatures remain some of the most beloved American literature ever published. This collection gathers 8 of his greatest short stories: "To the Man on Trail," "Diablé - a Dog," "To Build a Fire," "The Law of Life," "An Odyssey of the North," "Moonface," "The One Thousand Dozen," and "All Gold Canyon."

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.

Represented here are 16 short stories by seven great American writers, dating from the 19th and 20th centuries. Different in atmosphere and writing style, they nevertheless caught the mood and concerns of the day in a way that was distinctly American.

More than 60 stories, poems, and essays are included in this wide-ranging collection by the extravagantly versatile Raymond Carver. Two of the stories - later revised for What We Talk About When We Talk About Love - are particularly notable in that between the first and the final versions, we see clearly the astounding process of Carver's literary development.

Two women isolated on a lonely Cornish farm face an evil greater than all others: A fox has begun carrying off hens and roosters, and nothing they do seems to stop him. And then one day, a mysterious young man appears at the door. Now the women have to fend off not one, but two foxes.

A collection of horror/thriller stories for readers who would enjoy a stroll through a graveyard after midnight. The creepers include: BLOOD: Danagrees to meet a woman claiming to be his half-sister from their father's illicit affair. THE SPIDER WOMAN: Evelyn inherits her mother's abandoned house, which is infested with spiders. DEAD PEOPLE: Jesse's father wants him to go with him to a wake to see his first dead person. THE CEDAR HOLLOW CURSE: Three girls went missing without a trace in 1998. Now, in 2024, three girls with the same names and ages have disappeared. ECHOES OF THE DAMNED: A ...

The stories you’ve dreamed of; the people you crave to meet; or would love to be. The aliens who’d make you shiver, or laugh. The huge risks of guiding your spacecraft here, or there. The adventures you’d have if only you had the nerve… Or the utter romance of doing that… The humour of orbital disasters and alien conflicts; the perils of ill-advised time-interference; the sheer romance of null-gravity love; the terrors of a leaky hull; the fear of a bullying boss when you’re a thousand light years beyond.; the choices you face in the big, black Vac. Mostly a laugh or a satisfied...

A collection of thirteen horror stories for my readers who enjoy no holds barred terror before turning in at night. I have selected my most gruesome nightmares from "Don't Look Behind You" and "Scary Stories-Volume 1." This volume includes stories of zombies, vampires, mummies, ghosts, and a sampling of monsters and deranged maniacs to haunt your dreams all the lonely nights. Enjoy! The nightmares include: SOMETHING IN THE HOUSE: Randolph and Francene have come from the cemetery with some friends to visit a house where they lived when they were alive. FIDO: George lost his job and needs to ...