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  Russian Short Story The - Volume...

  Maxim Gorky, Ivan Bunin,...

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  The Russian novel has a reputation that is immense, both in narrative and in length.  Unquestionably though the ideas, themes and characters make many novels rightly revered as world class, as icons of literature. 
   
  Perhaps an easier way to enjoy a wider selection of the Russian heritage, with its varied and glorious literary talents, is with the short story.  These gems sparkle and beguile the mind with their characters and narrative, exploring facets of society and the human condition that more Western authors somehow find more difficult to navigate, or to explore, explain and relate to.   
   
  The Russian short story is, in many respects, in a genre of its own.  It is at its captivating best whether it’s an exploration of real-life experiences, through fantasy and fables and on to total absurdity. 
   
  In a land so vast it is unsurprising that it is a world almost unto itself. Cultures and landscapes of differing hues are packed together bound only by the wilful bonds and force of Empire. 
   
  The stories in this collection traverse the decades where one might be a serf under an absolute monarch, and the reality of that was pretty near to slavery, into an emancipation of sorts in the fields, or towns under the despotic will of landowners and the rich into the upheavals of Empire and then the overthrow of the ruling class and its replacement by the communists, who promised equality for all and delivered a society where the down-trodden remained the lowest yet vital cog of the state machine and its will.  
   
  Whilst Tolstoy, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Pushkin and Chekhov are a given in any Russian collection we also explore and include Andreyev, Korolenko, Turgenev, Blavatsky and many others to create a world rich and dense across a sprawling landscape of diverse people, riddled with the class and unfairness in perhaps some of the most turbulent times that Russia has ever experienced. 
   
  01 - The Russian Short Story - Volume 5 - An Introduction 
  02 - About Love by Anton Chekhov 
  03 - Vanka by Anton Chekhov 
  04 - Hide And Seek or Pliatki by Fyodor Sologub 
  05 - In The Steppe by Maxim Gorky 
  06 - Chelkash - Part 1 by Maxim Gorky 
  07 - Chelkash - Part 2 by Maxim Gorky 
  08 - Chelkash - Part 3 by Maxim Gorky 
  09 - Twenty-Six Men and a Girl by Maxim Gorky 
  10 - One Autumn Night by Maxim Gorky 
  11 - Her Lover by Maxim Gorky 
  12 - The Servant by S T Semyonov 
  13 - Son by Ivan Bunin 
  14 - Kasimir Stanislavovitch by Ivan Bunin 
  15 - Gentle Breathing by Ivan Bunin 
  16 - The Outrage by Alexander Kuprin 
  17 - The Park of Kings by Alexander Kuprin

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  Encounters: Get lost in a world...

  Barbara Erskine

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  A captivating volume of over forty short stories full of love, hope, and fear, from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Lady of Hay. 
  Barbara Erskine is a born storyteller. The tales in 'Encounters' illustrate her extraordinary talent for capturing the spirit of a place and drawing us into the hearts and minds of her characters. Some are humorous, some thrilling, while others are unashamedly sentimental. Old-fashioned love stories such as 'A Face in the Crowd' follow ingenious ghost stories, and in 'A Step Out of Time' the past and present come together, drawing back the curtain that separates us from our ancestors. 
  No one who has enjoyed Barbara Erskine’s best-selling novels – Lady of Hay, Kingdom of Shadows, Child of the Phoenix and Midnight is a Lonely Place – will be able to resist this gripping collection. 
  Readers LOVE Barbara Erskine: 
  ‘Atmospheric’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 
  ‘Enthralling’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 
  ‘Spellbinding’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 
  ‘Another fabulous read from the mistress of the genre’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 
  ‘Immensely and deeply immersive fiction’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 
  ‘I loved every minute’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 
  ‘An exceptional writer of great books’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 
  ‘You can rely on this author to keep you wanting more’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 
  ‘A joy to read’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 
  ‘Captivating and engrossing’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 
  For fans of Christina Courtenay (Shadows in the Spring), Lucinda Riley (The Seven Sisters), Santa Montefiore (The Kiss), Elena Collins (The Wicked Lady), and Paula Brackston (The Haunting of Hecate Cavendish).

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  The Grudge

  Rachel Lawson

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  "I can't see you attacking a woman why don't you defend yourself Blake," said Blake's lawyer. "I never said I did, Gabriel," said Blake Alexander, "everyone is accusing me of fighting with her but she started the scuffle messed up herself attacked me and screamed I was attacking her on a crime scene." 
  "I believe you!" said the lawyer. 
  "I pay you to believe me," said Blake gruffly 
  "and yet I still believe you," said Gabriel. 
  "thank you no one else does," said Blake. 
  "Jnr does too we'll help clear your name," said Gabriel. 
  "thank you," said Blake not putting much hope in the help. 
  "Who called for a delivery of chicken," shouted 
  snr after he saw Gabriel in his masked chicken suit at the door. 
  "Hilarious Lance, where is jnr?" said the Chicken. 
  "I had an idea to clear your grandad's name," said the chicken. 
  "what is it?" asked Jnr. 
  "I need some help I found out where the woman who accused Blake of attacking her goes dancing and I need your help," said the chicken. 
  "Hello do you want to dance?" a handsome young man ask a lonely wallflower sitting watching the dancers. 
  "Yes thank you, sir," replied Fiona Lambert standing up. 
  They walked to the dance floor and waltzed.

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  Frederick Cowles - A Short Story...

  Frederick Cowles

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  Frederick Ignatius Cowles was born in 1900 in Cambridge, England. 
   
  This unfamiliar name is one of the gems of English supernatural fiction as well as several other works of travelogues, history, folklore, and children's books.  
   
  When his supernatural short stories, and some are very short indeed, were first published they were compared to the works of M R James and EF Benson, yet unlike those two authors he fell, unfairly, into obscurity. 
   
  In all he wrote perhaps 60 short stories with weird and supernatural themes. 
   
  Frederick Cowles died in 1948 although some accounts offer that it was 1949.

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  Bullet-proof - From their pens...

  Bernard Capes

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  Bernard Edward Joseph Capes was born on the 30th August 1854 in London.  He was one of 11 children. 
  His early work was as a journalist and this developed into writing many short stories for the periodicals of the time including Blackwood's, Cassell's, Cornhill Magazine, Illustrated London News, Macmillan's Magazine, Mall Magazine, Pearson's Magazine, The Idler, and The Queen. 
  It took him many years to decide that writing full-time could be a sustainable career path.  His initial success came with ‘The Mill of Silence’.  As well as being published it garnered second prize at a competition sponsored by the Chicago Record.  He exceeded that by winning it the following year with ‘The Lake of Wine’.   
  Capes quickly became both prolific and popular.  As well as his stories and articles for the periodicals he wrote around 40 volumes across novels, poetry, history as well as romance and mystery novels. 
  Bernard Capes died on 2nd November 1918 in the flu epidemic.

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  None of That

  D H Lawrence

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  'None of That' concerns  itself with the nature of desire. The man in the story is no more than an animal with base instincts but is attractive to women. The woman looks for something deeper, with  imagination but in the end is brought down by the more instinctive man. Lawrence again seems to be saying that a woman cannot exist beyond the control of a man, however crude and can only bring unhappiness on herself if she tries to live on her own terms.

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