Other books that might interest you

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  The Gospel of Content

  Frederick Greenwood

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  Frederick Greenwood was born on the 25th March 1830 in Kensington, London, the eldest of eleven. 
   
  His working career began at a printing house and his literary career with small pieces in periodicals of the day. In 1853 he contributed a sketch of Napoleon III to ‘The Napoleon Dynasty’ volume.  
   
  His work ‘An Essay Without End’ was published by Cornhill Magazine and with it an introduction to its editor, William Makepeace Thackeray.  In 1862 Greenwood became its joint editor and later sole editor. 
   
  In 1864 the magazine serialised his ‘sensation’ novel ‘Margaret Denzil's History’ and, following the death of Elizabeth Gaskell, he completed her unfinished novel ‘Wives and Daughters’. 
   
  Greenwood was highly regarded both for his politics and journalistic abilities and was able several times during his career to attract both funds and resources for new magazines and newspapers.  The first, in 1865, was his conception of an evening newspaper containing news, original articles, public affairs and culture and was launched as the Pall Mall Gazette. 
   
  Within a few years he was also an influential and admired Tory. It was on his suggestion that the British Government purchased, in 1875, the Suez Canal shares of the Khedive Ismail. 
   
  His continued work in various new publications also saw him keep an influential voice in the politics of the day.  His ideas and works as editor included hiring new and brave writers who would later have writing careers that would in many cases eclipse his but not the wide spectrum of his interests and abilities. 
   
  His career as a writer was marked by several novels, ‘The Loves of an Apothecary’ (1854), ‘The Path of Roses (1859)’, short stories and other works.  The short story, ‘The Gospel of Content’, is a little gem of philosophy that is still, even today, remarkably modern. 
   
  Frederick Greenwood died at Sydenham on the 14th December 1909.

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  Stories of Your Life and Others

  Ted Chiang

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  This new edition of Ted Chiang's masterful first collection, Stories of Your Life and Others, includes his first eight published stories. Combining the precision and scientific curiosity of Kim Stanley Robinson with Lorrie Moore's cool, clear love of language and narrative intricacy, this award-winning collection offers listeners the dual delights of the very, very strange and the heartbreakingly familiar.Stories of Your Life and Others presents characters who must confront sudden change-the inevitable rise of automatons or the appearance of aliens-while striving to maintain some sense of normalcy. In the amazing and much-lauded title story (the basis for the 2016 movie Arrival), a grieving mother copes with divorce and the death of her daughter by drawing on her knowledge of alien languages and non-linear memory recollection. A clever pastiche of news reports and interviews chronicles a college's initiative to "turn off" the human ability to recognize beauty in "Liking What You See: A Documentary." With sharp intelligence and humor, Chiang examines what it means to be alive in a world marked by uncertainty and constant change, and also by beauty and wonder.

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  Russian Short Story The - Volume...

  Anton Chekhov, Helena Blavatsky,...

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  The Russian novel has a reputation that is immense, both in narrative and in length.  Unquestionably though the ideas, themes and characters make many novels rightly revered as world class, as icons of literature. 
   
  Perhaps an easier way to enjoy a wider selection of the Russian heritage, with its varied and glorious literary talents, is with the short story.  These gems sparkle and beguile the mind with their characters and narrative, exploring facets of society and the human condition that more Western authors somehow find more difficult to navigate, or to explore, explain and relate to.   
   
  The Russian short story is, in many respects, in a genre of its own.  It is at its captivating best whether it’s an exploration of real-life experiences, through fantasy and fables and on to total absurdity. 
   
  In a land so vast it is unsurprising that it is a world almost unto itself. Cultures and landscapes of differing hues are packed together bound only by the wilful bonds and force of Empire. 
   
  The stories in this collection traverse the decades where one might be a serf under an absolute monarch, and the reality of that was pretty near to slavery, into an emancipation of sorts in the fields, or towns under the despotic will of landowners and the rich into the upheavals of Empire and then the overthrow of the ruling class and its replacement by the communists, who promised equality for all and delivered a society where the down-trodden remained the lowest yet vital cog of the state machine and its will.  
   
  Whilst Tolstoy, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Pushkin and Chekhov are a given in any Russian collection we also explore and include Andreyev, Korolenko, Turgenev, Blavatsky and many others to create a world rich and dense across a sprawling landscape of diverse people, riddled with the class and unfairness in perhaps some of the most turbulent times that Russia has ever experienced. 
   
  01 - The Russian Short Story - Volume 4 - An Introduction 
  02 - The Sentry by Nikolai Lyeskov 
  03 - A Witch's Den by Helena Blavatsky 
  04 - The General's Will by Vera Jelihovsky 
  05 - The Old Bell Ringer by Vladimir Korolenko 
  06 - The Shades, A Phantasy by Vladimir Korolenko 
  07 - The Signal by Vsevolod Garshin 
  08 - Dethroned by I N Potapenko 
  09 - The Kiss by Anton Chekhov 
  10 - The Lady with the Dog by Anton Chekhov 
  11 - The Bet by Anton Chekhov 
  12 - Gooseberries by Anton Chekhov

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  Top 10 Short Stories The - The...

  Charles Dickens

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  Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart.  A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere. 
   
  In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?  
   
  The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme.  Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature. 
   
  Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made.  If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something. 
   
  In this small corner of England, just across from Europe, some of England’s finest literary talent was born, raised and created short stories that still thrill the soul and ravish the brain with a verve and talent that is second to none.  In their words true genius is often found. 
   
  1 - The Top 10 - English Authors of the South-East - An Introduction 
  2 - The Signalman by Charles Dickens 
  3 - The Man Who Could Work Miracles by H G Wells 
  4 - Oh Whistle and I'll Come to You My Lad by M R James 
  5 - The Death Room by Edgar Wallace 
  6 - The Unfortunate Bride or The Blind Lady a Beauty by Aphra Behn 
  7 - Pink Flannel by Ford Maddox Ford 
  8 - Sophy Mason Comes Back by E M Delafield 
  9 - Mrs Amworth by E F Benson 
  10 - Freckles by William Pett Ridge 
  11 - Frida, or The Lover's Leap, A Legend of the West Country by R D Blackmore

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  The Tree

  H.P. Lovecraft

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  "The Tree" is told in past tense in the third person. The story takes place in Mount Meanalus in Arcadia, Greece. This mountain is considered to be haunted by Greek God Pan. The story begins with a description of the live grove and a fearful olive tree, looked like a human. Then it goes to a story from centuries ago, recalling famous sculptors Kalos and Musides whose works were well-known all over the world. One day the Tyrant of Syracuse invited Kalos and Musides to complete the creation of a “wonder of nations and a goal of travelers”. Read this exciting story to find out what happened in ancient Greece.A SmartTouch Media production.

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  God's Gym - Stories

  John Edgar Wideman

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  In God's Gym, the celebrated author John Edgar Wideman offers stories that pulse with emotional electricity. The ten pieces here explore strength, both physical and spiritual. The collection opens with a man paying tribute to the quiet fortitude of his mother, a woman who "should wear a T-shirt: God's Gym." In the stories that follow, Wideman delivers powerful riffs on family and fate, basketball and belief. His mesmerizing prose features guest appearances by cultural luminaries as diverse as the Harlem Globetrotters, Frantz Fanon, Thelonious Monk, and Marilyn Monroe. As always, Wideman astounds with writing that moves from the intimate to the political, from shock to transcendence.

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