Publisher: Charles River Editors
Edith Wharton was one of the most famous American authors of the early 20th century. Wharton’s writings were known for their witty presentation on upper class society in America. This edition of The Hermit and the Wild Woman, and Other Stories includes a table of contents.
A wise man once said ‘The safest place for a child is in the arms of his mother’s voice’. This is a perfect place to start our anthology of female short stories. Some of our earliest memories are of our mothers telling us bedtime stories. This is not to demote the value of fathers but more to promote the often-overshadowed talents of the gentler sex. Perhaps ‘gentler’ is a word that we should re-evaluate. In the course of literary history it is men who dominated by opportunity and with their stranglehold on the resources, both financial and technological, who brought their words to a wider audience. Men often placed women on a pedestal from where their talented words would not threaten their own. In these stories we begin with the original disrupter and renegade author Aphra Behn. A peek at her c.v. shows an astounding capacity and leaves us wondering at just how she did all that. In those less modern days to be a woman, even ennobled, was to be seen as second class. You literally were chattel and had almost no rights in marriage. As Charlotte Smith famously said your role as wife was little more than ‘legal prostitute’. From such a despicable place these authors have used their talents and ideas and helped redress that situation. Slowly at first. Privately printed, often anonymously or under the cloak of a male pseudonym their words spread. Their stories admired and, usually, their role still obscured from rightful acknowledgement. Aided by more advanced technology, the 1700’s began to see a steady stream of female writers until by the 1900’s mass market publishing saw short stories by female authors from all the strata of society being avidly read by everyone. Their names are a rollcall of talent and ‘can do’ spirit and society is richer for their works. In literature at least women are now acknowledged as equals, true behind the scenes little has changed but if (and to mis-quote Jane Austen) there is one universal truth, it is that ideas change society. These women’s most certainly did and will continue to do so as they easily write across genres, from horror and ghost stories to tender tales of love and making your way in society’s often grueling rut. They will not be silenced, their ideas and passion move emotions, thoughts and perhaps more importantly our ingrained view of what every individual human being is capable of. It is because of their desire to speak out, their desire to add their talents to the bias around them that we perhaps live in more enlightened, almost equal, times. Within these stories you will also find very occasional examples of historical prejudice. A few words here and there which in today’s world some may find inappropriate or even offensive. It is not our intention to make anyone uncomfortable but to show that the world in order to change must reconcile itself to the actual truth rather than put it out of sight. Context is everything, both to understand and to illuminate the path forward. The author’s words are set, our reaction to them encourages our change. 01 - The Female Short Story. A Chronological History - An Introduction - Volume 10 02 - Decay by Marjorie Bowen 03 - The Lie by Holloway Horn 04 - Joseph by Katherine Rickford 05 - The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield 06 - The Hoodoo by Martha Gruening 07 - The Three Kisses by Violet Quirk 08 - Sophy Mason Comes Back by E M Delafield 09 - The Death Hound by Violet Mary Firth writng as Dion Fortune 10 - After the Funeral by Mary Butts 11 - In No Strange Land by Katharine Butler 12 - Here We Are by Dorothy Parker 13 - Young Magic by Helen Simpson 14 - The Casualty List by Winifred Holtby 15 - Satan's Circus bShow book
This is the third volume of short stories shortlisted for the Chawton House Library Short Story Award. It takes as its inspiration minor characters from the famous novels and tells the tales that continued behind the scenes, at Pemberly, Mansfield Park and elsewhere. Award winner, 'The Wedding Planner' takes the characters from Austen's novella Lady Susan and transports them to the 21st century. Other stories focus on the less well known of the Bennet sisters,Kitty and Lydia, and of deceased Mary Price. There are tales of George Wickham and Charlotte Collins. Some are contemporary to Austen others contemporary to current readers. All are an intriguing insight into the inner lives of one of our most loved authors' best loved works.Show book
This has the distinction of being the only magazine piece ever written in a New York hotel. The business was done in a bedroom in the Knickerbocker, and shortly afterward that memorable hostelry closed its doors forever. When a fitting period of mourning had elapsed it was published in the "Smart Set." This short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald was published in his Tales of the Jazz Age collection.Show book
A hypnotic collection of speculative fiction about compassion, love, and human resilience in the technological hyper-age, from Alexander Weinstein, author of Children of the New World. Universal Love welcomes listeners to a near-future world where our everyday technologies have fundamentally altered the possibilities and limits of how we love one another. In these gripping stories, a young boy tries to understand what keeps his father tethered to the drowned city they call home. A daughter gets to know her dead mother's hologram better than she ever knew her living mother. And, at a time when unpleasant memories can be erased, a man undergoes electronic surgery to have his depression, and his past, forever removed. In an age when technology offers the easiest cures for loneliness, the characters within these stories must wrestle with what it means to stay human in an increasingly cybernetic future, and how love can endure even the most alluring upgrades. In the vein of Weinstein’s critically-acclaimed first collection, Universal Love is a visionary audiobook, written with one foot in the real world and one stepping bravely into the future.Show book
Classic stories collected by America's Storyteller, Joe Wheeler. This audio collection contains nine separate short stories: Nearest His Heart, by Josephine DeFord Terrill A Promise and a Ski Run (author unknown) The Song of Songs by Mabel McKee The Unmousing of Jean, by Edna Geister An Hour of Victory, by Earl Reed Silvers Shop Around A While, by Mae Foster Jay The Boy Who Couldn't Be Saved (author unknown) Between Strokes, by Walter R. Schmidt Harvest Home Harmony, by Margaret E. SangsterShow book
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. The Victorian era ceases but England strides on. Confident, bestriding the globe as policeman and enforcer of her Imperial ways. In literature her authors create majestic works that beguile an ever growing audience that now covers the world. 01 - The 20th Century - The English - An Introduction 02 - The Matador of the Five Towns by Arnold Bennett 03 - Kew Gardens by Virginia Woolf 04 - The Rocking Horse Winner by D H Lawrence 05 - Count Magnus by M R James 06 - Gabriel-Ernest by Saki 07 - The Kit Bag by Algernon Blackwood 08 - The Salvation of a Forsythe - Part 1 by John Galsworthy 09 - The Salvation of a Forsythe - Part 2 by John Galsworthy 10 - August Heat by W F Harvey 11 - The Diary of a God by Barry Pain 12 - The Voice in the Night by William Hope HodgsonShow book
