Other books that might interest you

• 

  Short Stories of Edgar Allan Poe...

  Edgar Allan Poe

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  EDGAR ALLAN POE, is considered the greatest of all writers of macabre stories, was born in Boston, Massachesetts, in 1809. His father, an Irish-American actor, died the following year, and his mother, an English actress, the year after, in Richmond, Virginia. John Allan, a wealthy Richmond merchant, adopted him. When he was 7, the Allans moved to England, sending him to school at Stoke Newington, at age 12 they moved back to Richmond. He wanted to become a writer, but John Allan wanted him to become a lawyer. He failed to finish courses at the University of Virginia and at West Point Military Academy, and John Allan disowned him. Struggling to live by his writing, he became an ill-paid magazine writer, and at 26 married Virginia, the daughter of his aunt, Mrs Clemm, aged 14. They were happy together, and while married he wrote much of his best work. But Virginia contracted tuberculosis, and worry over her illness and their poverty led him to drink heavily. After six years of marriage, she died. Suffering a complete breakdown, he was nursed back to health by Mrs Clemm. Returning to Richmond, he made a determined attempt to give up drinking. In 1849 he got engaged to a Richmond woman he had loved in his youth. Travelling north to collect Mrs Clemm to the wedding, he stopped off in Baltimore, Ohio. Found there lying drunk on a pavement, he was taken to hospital, but died a few hours later. His poems and short stories have influenced scores of writers. He invented the modern detective story, and his tales of terror are as chilling and powerful today as they have ever been.  The stories in this volume are The Tell Tale Heart, Hop Frog and The Premature Burial .  BILL WALLIS plays the title role in the BBC Radio comedy series WINSTON, and performed in the satirical series WEEK ENDING. On stage he appeared in the satirical West End show, MRS WILSON’s DIARY.

  Show book

• 

  Humplebee

  George Gissing

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  George Robert Gissing (1857–1903) was a popular English novelist and short story writer who also worked as a teacher and tutor throughout his life.Humplebee tells the tale of a young man of the same name who, in his youth, saves the life of his schoolfellow, Leonard Chadwick, who falls through thin ice on a winter pond. The gratitude of Chadwick and in particular his friend's wealthy industrialist father lead everyone, in particular Humplebee's parents, to assume he will from then on have a great financial benefactor. Chadwick senior even appears to promise such generosity and initially employs Humplebee as a clerk in his business.As things transpire, the promise of generous patronage is a curse to the Humplebee family. Humplebee hates the clerkship and all the more so because to take up the position he had to forego the opening at the Natural History museum, which he would have truly loved. Humplebee's parents attempt to expand their business on the promise of the Chadwick capital, but their business fails, and Chadwick refuses to bail them out.But Leonard Chadwick reappears on the scene and appears to be about to rescue Humplebee's fortunes. And just in the nick of time because Humplebee is in love and in desperate need of financial stability in order to propose to his beloved. And then something completely unexpected and devastating happens which puts Humplebee's character and relationship to the test....

  Show book

• 

  A Dream of Wild Bees and Other...

  Olive Schreiner

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Olive Schreiner (1855-1920) was a South African author, suffragist and political activist. She is best known for her novel The Story of an African Farm, but some of her most haunting and memorable works are her short stories.This collection presents four drealike short stories with multilayered meaning and allegorical significance: "A Dream of Wild Bees", "Life's Gifts", "The Artist's Secret" and "In a Far-Off World".

  Show book

• 

  Mark Twain: The Short Stories

  Mark Twain

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Mark Twain – An Introduction.  Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born in 1835 and is far better known by his pen name; Mark Twain.  An American author and humorist of the first order he is perhaps most famous for his novels, The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer, written in 1876, and its sequel, The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn, written in 1885 and often described with that mythic line - "the Great American Novel."  Twain grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, which would later provide the backdrop for these great novels. Apprenticed to a printer he also worked as a typesetter but eventually became a master riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River. Later, heading west with his brother, Orion to make his fortune he failed at gold mining and instead turned to journalism and found his true calling as a writer of humorous stories.  It on these shorter stories that this volume dwells.  His wit and humour sparkle from every page, his craft evident with every phase and punctured target.   Twain was born during a visit by Halley's Comet, and predicted that he would "go out with it" as well. He died the day following the comet's subsequent return in 1910. These stories are read for you by Stuart Milligan.

  Show book

• 

  This is All

  Barry Pain

  • 0
  • 1
  • 0

  Barry Eric Odell Pain (1864-1928) was an English journalist, poet, and writer best known for his ghost and horror stories.This Is All tells the story of Alexander Wyatt ,who has a morbid fear of dying. Unfortunately Wyatt is ill with a heart condition which, in combination with his paranoid anxiety and depression, threatens to become life threatening. His doctor prescribes a strict regime of early nights and no caffeine. But when the manservant absent-mindedly brings Wyatt a cup of coffee, a set of terrible events is set in motion.

  Show book

• 

  Library of the World's Best...

  Various Various

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, is a work of enormous proportions. Setting out with the simple goal of offering "American households a mass of good reading", the editors drew from literature of all times and all kinds what they considered the best pieces of human writing, and compiled an ambitious collection of 45 volumes (with a 46th being an index-guide). Besides the selection and translation of a huge number of poems, letters, short stories and sections of books, the collection offers, before each chapter, a short essay about the author or subject in question. In many cases, chapters contemplate not one author, but certain groups of works, organized by nationality, subject or period; there is, thus, a chapter on Accadian-Babylonian literature, one on the Holy Grail, and one on Chansons, for example.The result is a collection that holds the interest, for the variety of subjects and forms, but also as a means of first contact with such famous and important authors that many people have heard of, but never read, such as Abelard, Dante or Lord Byron. According to the editor Charles Dudley Warner, this collection "is not a library of reference only, but a library to be read."This fourth volume contains chapters from "Banim" to "Birrell". (Summary by Leni)

  Show book