Other books that might interest you

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  Flowers of Mold - Stories

  Ha Seong-nan

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  On the surface, Ha Seong-nan's stories seem pleasant enough, yet there's something disturbing just below the surface, ready to permanently disrupt the characters' lives.A woman meets her next-door neighbor and loans her a spatula, then starts suffering horrific gaps in her memory. A man, feeling jilted by an unrequited love, becomes obsessed with sorting through his neighbors' garbage in the belief that it will teach him how to better relate to people. A landlord decides to raise the rent, and his tenants hatch a plan to kill him at a team-building retreat.In ten captivating, unnerving stories, Flowers of Mold presents a range of ordinary individuals—male and female, young and old—who have found themselves left behind by an increasingly urbanized and fragmented world. The latest in the trend of brilliant female Korean authors to appear in English, Ha cuts like a surgeon, and even the most mundane objects become menacing and unfamiliar under her scalpel.

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  The Stolen White Elephant

  Mark Twain

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  In this Mark Twain short story an Indian elephant, en route from India to Britain as a gift to Queen, disappears in New Jersey. The local police department goes into high gear to solve the mystery but it all comes to a tragic end.(Summary written by Kristen McQuillin)

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  Four Short Stories by Virginia...

  Virginia Woolf

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  Adeline Virginia Woolf (January 1882-1941) was an English writer and one of the preeminent modernists of the 20th century. Her stories often appear as streams of consciousness as the writer's attention is drawn by things around her, memories and insights which bubble up in her brain and interruptions from the outside world.    'A Haunted House'    'The Mark on the Wall'    'The String Quartet'    'Kew Gardens'

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  The Haunted House

  Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins,...

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  Whilst writer Charles Dickens needs no introduction, his ‘Haunted House’ anthology might, not least because in his role as editor he introduces a formidable array of known and lesser-known literary talents.   
   
  Dickens started a tradition of releasing stories each Christmas with ‘A Christmas Carol’ in 1843.  ‘The Haunted House’ was his 1859 offering and, as the name suggests, is set in a large house which, as his introductory story explains, is desired by John the narrator, as a temporary country retreat for health reasons.   
   
  He is made aware of the terror the house holds for the locals but undaunted, he and his sister, Patty, take residence without any servants, save for the deaf stable hand, who is untroubled by the ghostly goings on.   
   
  John and Patty invite friends to visit and except Patty who keeps her own room, they all draw lots for which rooms they will stay in but agree not to share their experiences of their rooms until the twelfth night. 
   
  On that night they all gather together to feast on their experiences and share them with each other.   
   
  The Haunted House is a skillful portmanteau by Dickens, assembling the best literary talent of his age including Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell, Hesba Stretton, Adelaide Anne Proctor, George Augustus Sala and, of course, the literary leviathan himself to delight us, scare us and occasionally raise a laugh or two before the next moment of fear and dread come calling.   
  1 - The Haunted House - An Introduction 
  2 - The Mortals in the House by Charles Dickens 
  3 - The Ghost in the Cloakroom by Hesba Stretton 
  4 - The Ghost in the Double Room by George Augustus Sala 
  5 - The Ghost in the Picture Room by Adelaide Anne Proctor 
  6 - The Ghost in the Cupboard Room by Wilkie Collins 
  7 -  The Ghost in Master B's Room by Charles Dickens 
  8 - The Ghost in the Garden Room, Part 1 by Elizabeth Gaskell 
  9 - The Ghost in the Garden Room, Part 2 by Elizabeth Gaskell 
  10 - The Ghost in the Corner Room by Charles Dickens

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  Master Zacharius

  Jules Verne

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  Jules Gabriel Verne was born on February 8th, 1828 on Île Feydeau, a small artificial island on the Loire River in Nantes. 
   
  His father wanted his son to take over the family law practice.  Jules started along this course and despite graduating with a licence en droit in January 1851 was soon diverted by the lure of literature and by his own ambitious talents in this direction. 
   
  He wrote for the theatre and for magazines and soon with the publication of his first novel; Five Weeks in a Balloon on January 31st, 1863 he had begun his career as an admired and popular author. 
   
  For many, many years the works flowed, usually no less than and often more than two volumes per year.  His meticulous research and imaginative setting and narratives soon established him as a top selling author and he became both famous and wealthy. 
   
  By publishing firstly as a serialised book and then as a complete book sales swelled as did his reputation. His earnings increased further due to the runaway success from the stage adaptations of Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours (1874) and Michel Strogoff (1876), Strangely he was overlooked for honours. He was not even nominated for membership of the Académie Française.   
   
  After the death of both his mother and Hetzel, Jules began to publish darker works but still at a prodigious rate.  In 1888, Jules entered politics and was elected town councillor of Amiens, and then served for fifteen years.  Jules was now entering the last period of his life.  His works continued to flow albeit at a slower pace. His reconciled with his son, Michel who now became an active contributor to his father’s works and, when the senior Verne died, would continue to contribute and publish his father’s works, ensuring that the work was kept in the public eye and the legacy preserved. 
   
  On March 24th, 1905, while ill with diabetes, Jules Verne died at his home at 44 Boulevard Longueville, Amiens. 
   
  As a legacy Jules Verne is forever remembered as ‘The Father of Science Fiction’.  With his rigorous research Jules was not only able to make his works realistic but also to project forward and predict many new things that would eventually come to pass – either in real life or as the basis for others to use in their own science fiction.  Extraordinary indeed.

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  The Permanent Stiletto

  W. C. Morrow

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  William Chambers Morrow (1854-1923) was an American author famed for his short stories of horror and suspense.'The Permanent Stiletto' is the story of a young man who has been stabbed close to the heart with a stiletto. The blade has pierced the aorta and come out the other side.To withdraw the blade would mean the man would bleed to death...but so long as the blade is in place, it is blocking off the wound. The only solution is to leave the blade in place...after which the young man will live his life on a knife edge. Any excitement, sudden movement or emotion could cause the blade to slip and kill him instantly.

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