Other books that might interest you

• 

  Sunbeams

  George Wilbur Peck

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  George W. Peck was at times a writer, newspaper publisher and politician. Many of the Sunbeam essays had been published in Peck's paper, "The Sun", as amusing and often critical comments on social and political subjects, typically current in the beginning of the 1900's. Topics are often 'small town' United States, and Peck's gentle sarcasm or portrayals much resembles that of Twain.Listeners must be aware that the Spanish American War was a recent event, leading to the "Yankee" involvement in the Philippines. Admiral Dewey, who figures in several of the writings, had the Olympia as his flagship. The Dwight, mentioned in 'A Bear with a Jag', may have been Charles Dwight Sigsbee, Captain of the Maine in 1898. At this time the British Empire was in conflict with the Boers under Kruger, all topics of or mentioned in the early essays.In the slang of that time a "drummer" was a traveling salesman, while a trust was a financial combine with monopolistic powers. The essay title term "bimeatallic" likely is a take-off on the "bimetallic question", which referred to arguments over having gold and silver both as legal tender. Peck suggested, tongue in cheek, that there could be a 'standard' under which horsemeat should be disclosed as an ingredient of sausage. Indeed, many of the essays deal with questionable ingredients for foods, and were probably of high relevance to consumers who were without the regulatory protections and labelling requirements of today. In the same vein, the 'embalmed beef' served as rations to U.S. soldiers became notorious. (Summary by Arnold Banner)

  Show book

• 

  The Dawn of a To-morrow

  Frances Hodgson Burnett

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  A wealthy London business man takes a room in a poor part of the city.He is depressed and has decided to take his life by going the next day to purchase a hand gun he had seen in a pawnshop window. The morning comes with one of those 'memorable fogs' and the adventure he has in it alters his decisions and ultimately his life. (Summary by Linda Andrus)

  Show book

• 

  A Ghost's Revenge

  Lettice Galbraith

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Lettice Galbraith is as mysterious as the stories she wrote. She appeared on the literary scene in 1893 with a rash of short stories and one novel, published another story four years later, and then disappeared without a trace. Yet despite the brevity of her presence on the literary stage, her supernatural stories have remained popular to this day.'The Ghost's Revenge' is a classic gothic horror story about a vengeful ghost which visits a terrible curse upon anyone who attempts to live in the ancient Ravenshill Hall.

  Show book

• 

  Stories of Dangerous Women

  W. F. Harvey, May Sinclair,...

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  A gripping collection of classic stories in which the central figures are highly dangerous female characters - ranging from the creepy and unsettling to the utterly terrifying.• Miss Cornelius by W. F. Harvey• Mrs. Amworth by E. F. Benson• Miss Mary Pask by Edith Wharton• Escape – Three and Sixpence by Winifred Holtby• Skinflint by J. S. Fletcher• The Greatest Good of the Greatest Number by Gertrude Atherton• Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu• Mrs. Raeburn’s Waxwork by Eleanor Smith• Where their Fire is not Quenched by May Sinclair• The Operation by Violet Hunt• Pomegranite Seed by Edith Wharton• Satan’s Circus by Eleanor Smith• The Cold Embrace by Mary E. Braddon• The Devil of the Marsh by H. B. Marriott-Watson• The Death of Halpin Frayser by Ambrose Bierce• The Lovely Lady by D. H. Lawrence• The Snow by Hugh Walpole

  Show book

• 

  Shadows in the Moonlight -...

  Rachel Lawson

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  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 the new highwayman story The Ride of the Highwaymen 
  rework of series in one book

  Show book

• 

  Tales of Natural and Unnatural...

  Patricia Highsmith

  • 1
  • 0
  • 0

  Short stories filled with “satire, mischief, and menace” by the author of The Talented Mr. Ripley (Harper’s Bazaar).   These ten stories chronicle a world gone slightly mad, with dark, inventive takes on environmental degradation, apocalyptic disaster, political chaos, religious conservatism, and more.   From a winner of both an O. Henry Award and a Silver Dagger Award, among other honors, and the author of Strangers on a Train, the basis for the classic Hitchcock film, this collection of short fiction is filled with “afterimages that will tremble—but stay—in our minds” (The New Yorker).   “Whereas we read Stephen King or Ruth Rendell to relish the thrills that come from carefully controlled verbal terror, Highsmith is not to be taken so lightly. She conveys a firm, unshakable belief in the existence of evil—personal, psychological, and political. . . . The genius of Tales—and all of Highsmith’s writing—is that it is at once deeply disturbing and exhilarating.” —The Boston Phoenix   “Combining the best features of the suspense genre with the best of existential fiction . . . The stories are fabulous, in all senses of that word.” —Paul Theroux

  Show book