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  The Monk and the Hangman's Daughter

  Ambrose Bierce

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  Originally written by Adolphe Danziger De Castro in 1889, but based on an earlier German tale, this story was submitted to Ambrose Bierce for revision. He insisted on reinstating the tragic ending which De Castro had altered in order to cater for the tastes of the day. In reverting to the original plot, the story regains its full importance as a work of great literature. The young monk, Ambrosius, falls in love with the village outcast, Benedicta, who is the daughter of the hangman. The story is the tale of his struggle with himself, as he strives for religious purity against worldly and carnal temptation. When he is sent out into the wilderness to contemplate and finds that Benedicta is living close by, his struggle reaches a head. But Benedicta is in love with the Saltmaster's dashing son, Rochus. Ambrosius has to contend with his own jealousy, confusion and uncertainty as to God's real purpose for him. As one tragic event follow another, the young monk begins to lose his grip on reality... leading to a dramatic denouement which sends the reader reeling in shock. One of the great classics of its age.

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  The Importance of a Piece of...

  Jimmy Santiago Baca

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  “In Jimmy Santiago Baca’s haunting story collection, intricate family dramas . . . play out against the luminous, wide-open backdrop of New Mexico.” —Los Angeles Times   In his first foray into short fiction, award-winning poet and memoirist Jimmy Santiago Baca explores the territory where old-world traditions meet new-world ambitions, and characters try to make something of themselves, while keeping their souls intact. In “Matilda’s Garden,” an old farmer pines for his wife of fifty years who died in her sleep one-night months before. He is lured to the garden in the middle of the night by what he thinks is her presence, only to meet a gruesome fate. In “The Importance of a Piece of Paper,” two siblings must face the brother who has betrayed them by selling his share of the family land, leaving an entire community vulnerable. In “The Three Sons of Julia,” a long-suffering mother whose one request is that all her sons come home for the Fourth of July, watches her dream burst as two of her sons—one a successful businessman and the other a hard-drinking ex-con—nearly destroy her house, and each other. Merging a refreshing innocence with a profound understanding of the world’s brutality, The Importance of a Piece of Paper is a daring and arresting work that is at once fearless, tender, and inspiring.   “[Baca] continues to mine his experience, exploring conflicts between the rich traditions of Chicano culture and a modern world impatient with them.” —Entertainment Weekly   “Inspirational, tragic, and redeeming . . . Baca provides moving poetic imagery and unleashes his gift for finely crafted sensory detail.” —Rocky Mountain News

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  Wailing Well

  M. R. James

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  Montague Rhodes James (1862-1936), who wrote as M. R. James, was an English author, medieval scholar and provost of King's College, Cambridge, and of Eton College.He is best known for his outstanding ghost stories. James reinvented the ghost story for the modern audience by moving away from Gothic elements and using realistic contemporary settings. His protagonists and plots often reflected his own antiquarian interests. Accordingly he is known as the originator of the 'antiquarian ghost story'.'Wailing Well' is the story of a group of boy scouts camping somewhere on the downs in the south of England who are warned not to go into a particular field which contains a single clump of trees. A local shepherd relates a strange story about the place, which he refers to as Wailing Well. He claims to have seen four skeletal figures walking through the field, three women and one man, all walking towards the clump of trees where the well is. One of the young scouts determines to investigate for himself....

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  Stand and Deliver - A Tale of...

  Rachel Lawson

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  Mary Gregory and Sir Justin Beaufort hate each other because they are victims of shotgun marriage and as Road agents, Gentleman John and Silver Buckles love each other truly in spite of their engagement to another who happens to be the other one although they don't know Mary thinks he's stark raving mad. Jack thinks she is not the woman he loves he knows she hates him too. Their love will be their deaths. It is a tale of love on the highways of old. 
  with Shadows in the Moonlight, The Ride of the Highwaymen and Shadows 
  rework of series in one book

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  Mrs Raeburn's Waxwork

  Eleanor Smith

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  Lady Eleanor Furneaux Smith (1902-1945) was an English writer, famous for her supernatural stories.'Mrs. Raeburn's Waxwork' is an eerie tale about Patrick Lamb, who takes a job as custodian of Mugivan's waxwork exhibition. In the part of the exhibition where all the murderers and freaks are displayed, there is one figure which fascinates him. It is the figure of Mrs. Raeburn, the poisoner.Every evening as it gets dark, the figure seems to be alive - its expressions change subtly, its eyes seem to follow him.... Gradually he realises that he is bewitched by this beautiful poisoner. And then one afternoon Patrick meets a strange visitor to the exhibition: an elderly woman who introduces herself to him as Mrs. Raeburn....

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  Big Two-Hearted River - The...

  Ernest Hemingway

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  Ernest Hemingway’s landmark short story of a veteran’s solo fishing trip in Michigan’s rugged Upper Peninsula, featuring a revelatory foreword by John N. Maclean. 
  “A century since its publication in the collection In Our Time, “Big Two-Hearted River” has helped shape language and literature in America and across the globe, and its magnetic pull continues to draw readers, writers, and critics. The story is the best early example of Ernest Hemingway’s now-familiar writing style: short sentences, punchy nouns and verbs, few adjectives and adverbs, and a seductive cadence. Easy to imitate, difficult to match. The subject matter of the story has inspired generations of writers to believe that fly fishing can be literature. More than any of his stories, it depends on his ‘iceberg theory’ of literature, the notion that leaving essential parts of a story unsaid, the underwater portion of the iceberg, adds to its power. Taken in context with his other work, it marks Hemingway’s passage from boyish writer to accomplished author: nothing big came before it, novels and stories poured out after it.” —from the foreword by John N. Maclean

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