Outros livros que poderiam interessá-lo

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  British Short Story The - Volume...

  Rudyard Kipling, H G Wells,...

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  These British Isles, moored across from mainland Europe, are more often seen as a world unto themselves.  Restless and creative, they often warred amongst themselves until they began a global push to forge a World Empire of territory, of trade and of language. 
   
  Here our ambitions are only of the literary kind.  These shores have mustered many masters of literature. So this anthology’s boundaries includes only those authors who were born in the British Isles - which as a geographical definition is the UK mainland and the island of Ireland - and wrote in a familiar form of English. 
   
  Whilst Daniel Defoe is the normal starting point we begin a little earlier with Aphra Behn, an equally colourful character as well as an astonishing playwright and poet.  And this is how we begin to differentiate our offering; both in scope, in breadth and in depth.  These islands have raised and nurtured female authors of the highest order and rank and more often than not they have been sidelined or ignored in favour of that other gender which usually gets the plaudits and the royalties. 
   
  Way back when it was almost immoral that a woman should write.  A few pages of verse might be tolerated but anything else brought ridicule and shame.  That seems unfathomable now but centuries ago women really were chattel, with marriage being, as the Victorian author Charlotte Smith boldly stated ‘legal prostitution’.  Some of course did find a way through - Jane Austen, the Brontes and Virginia Woolf but for many others only by changing their names to that of men was it possible to get their book to publication and into a readers hands.  Here we include George Eliot and other examples. 
   
  We add further depth with many stories by authors who were famed and fawned over in their day.  Some wrote only a hidden gem or two before succumbing to poverty and death. There was no second career as a game show guest, reality TV contestant or youtuber. They remain almost forgotten outposts of talent who never prospered despite devoted hours of pen and brain. 
   
  Keeping to a chronological order helps us to highlight how authors through the ages played around with characters and narrative to achieve distinctive results across many scenarios, many styles and many genres. The short story became a sort of literary laboratory, an early disruptor, of how to present and how to appeal to a growing audience as a reflection of social and societal changes.  Was this bound to happen or did a growing population that could read begin to influence rather than just accept? 
   
  Moving through the centuries we gather a groundswell of authors as we hit the Victorian Age - an age of physical mass communication albeit only on an actual printed page.  An audience was offered a multitude of forms: novels (both whole and in serialised form) essays, short stories, poems all in weekly, monthly and quarterly form.  Many of these periodicals were founded or edited by literary behemoths from Dickens and Thackeray through to Jerome K Jerome and, even some female editors including Ethel Colburn Mayne, Alice Meynell and Ella D’Arcy. 
   
  Now authors began to offer a wider, more diverse choice from social activism and justice – and injustice to cutting stories of manners and principles.  From many forms of comedy to mental meltdowns, from science fiction to unrequited heartache.  If you can imagine it an author probably wrote it.  
   
  At the end of the 19th Century bestseller lists and then prizes, such as the Nobel and Pulitzer, helped focus an audience’s attention to a books literary merit and sales worth. Previously coffeehouses, Imperial trade, unscrupulous overseas printers ignoring copyright restrictions, publishers with their book lists as an appendix and the gossip and interchange of polite society had been the main avenues to secure sales and profits.

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  The Ugliest House in the World -...

  Peter Ho Davies

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  Short stories from the author of A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself—“a writer to behold with real pleasure” (Gish Jen).   In tales that travel from Coventry to Kuala Lumpur, from the past to the present, and from hilarity to tragedy, American bandits herd ostriches in Patagonia, British soldiers confront Zulus in Natal, and John Wayne leads the way for local revolutionaries in Southeast Asia.   These are stories in which small lives are affected by consequential events. In “A Union,” a prolonged strike at a Welsh slate quarry plays mystifying tricks of time on a couple expecting a baby. In “The Silver Screen,” ragtag rebels join a communist revolution with all the flair of the Keystone Kops. In the heartbreaking title story, a rural community in North Wales copes with the accidental death of a child and learns the reaches of guilt. With its deep vein of humanism and pointed humor, this collection was a winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys and PEN/Macmillan Awards, and includes two entries that were selected for The Best American Short Stories.   “A quiet clarity and an all-encompassing empathy that is without borders.” —Elle   “Astounding . . . Peter Ho Davies has left a unique, definitive footprint in the soil of contemporary short fiction.” —The Washington Post

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  The Bold Frontier - Stories

  John Jakes

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  Stories of the American West by the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of North and South, “the best historical novelist of our time” (Patricia Cornwell). In these timeless stories of the untamed American West, John Jakes thrillingly portrays the harsh realities of life on the frontier with tales of lawmen in the Sierra Nevada, railroad workers in Kansas, and gamblers on the steamboat River Queen. From a saloon showdown unlike any other and outlaws double-crossing each other to a fur trapper hell-bent on vengeance and a power struggle between medicine men, Jakes’s frontier stories capture the same sweeping historical drama and unforgettable characterizations as his epic novels in the Crown Family Saga, the Kent Family Chronicles, and the North and South Trilogy.   “At the very heart of every Jakes saga is a story that throbs to the beat of history.” —The Cleveland Plain Dealer  This ebook features an illustrated biography of John Jakes including rare images from the author’s personal collection.

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  The House of Pride

  Jack London

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  The House of Pride, written by iconic American author Jack London (1876-1916), was first published in December 1910 issue of The Pacific Monthly. Author Jack London wrote The Call of the Wild and many other books. A pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction, he was one of the first Americans to make a lucrative career exclusively from writing. 
  Narrator Patrick Girard Lawlor, a classically trained stage actor, has performed on-stage throughout the United States and Europe. He has appeared in several feature films, as well as on the TV series L.A. Heat. His extensive work as an audio-book narrator has garnered numerous awards, including the Audie Award nomination. 
  (P)2011 Listen & Live Audio, Inc.

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  Ashes - and other stories

  Naomi Shepherd

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  Naomi Shepherd is a prize-winning historian and biographer; here she turns her hand to fiction, revealing a razor-sharp eye, a finely attuned ear, and a keen sense of cultural dissonance. In each of these thirteen stories we see a different facet of a fast-changing country where the clash of cultures and of expectations creates situations rich in humour, poignancy, disappointment, and tragedy. 'The short stories in Naomi Shepherd's collection Ashes are a delight. In them we encounter themes of adultery, love, jealousy, loss, guilt, encroaching age, et cetera, set in an Israel of many modes, and Israel shaped by its heritage, its history, and, above all, its inhabitants, Jew and Arab, all gathered together not so much in a melting pot as in a stew concocted of intractable, discordant elements. We are presented, in short, with an anatomy of Israeli society, a species of social tragic-comedy.' Alan Isler, author of The Prince of West End Avenue

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  The Mummer's Curse

  Gillian Roberts

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  Gillian Roberts is the nom de mystEre of mainstream novelist Judith Greber. Winner of the Anthony Award and a favorite of mystery fans across the country, the Amanda Pepper mysteries are an irresistible combination of wit and intrigue. English teacher and part-time sleuth Amanda Pepper is enjoying Philadelphia's famous Mummers' Parade-reveling in costumes that rival Mardi Gras and cheering for a brigade of ornately costumed clowns passing close by. Her festive spirit is shattered, however, when one of the costumed revelers sinks to the ground, and the amateur sleuth finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation in which the prime suspect is a fellow teacher at Philly Prep. Filled with feisty characters, humorous dialogue and a light touch of romance, The Mummer's Curse will keep you guessing as Amanda's investigation leads her deeper into the many rivalries and traditions of Philadelphia's famous folk celebration.

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