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  Ann Veronica A Modern Love Story

  H. G. Wells

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  "Ann Veronica: A Modern Love Story" is a novel written by H.G. Wells, first published in 1909. The story revolves around the character Ann Veronica Stanley, a young and independent woman who rebels against the societal norms and expectations of her time. The novel explores themes of feminism, women's rights, and the challenges faced by individuals striving for personal and intellectual freedom.

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  Nathaniel Hawthorne - A Short...

  Nathaniel Hawthorne

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  Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on 4th July 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, a town synonymous with the earlier Salem Witch Trials. It was instrumental in Hawthorne’s later use of American Gothic and dark romanticism in his writing. 
   
  He was a mere four years old when his father died and his mother took him and his two sisters to live with her family and then on to their own home in Raymond, Maine. The young Hawthorne had a passion for fiction and poetry and voraciously read the works of Ann Radcliffe, Henry Fielding and Lord Byron.  
   
  He was sent to college at his maternal uncle’s insistence. During these years he met and befriended Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and future U S president Franklin Pierce. These friendships were lifelong and to have a crucial impact on his writings and career.  
   
  At college Hawthorne had made attempts at writing short stories and essays but without opportunities to publish. It was only in 1828 that he finally published his novel ‘Franshawe’ to little success and so he began work as editor for the American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge.  
   
  Hawthorne’s short stories were first published in magazines but in 1837 were collected and published as ‘Twice-Told Tales’. A steady literary career still did not come his way and so he worked in a good position at Salem’s port and married the love of his life Sophia Peabody. They moved to live in ‘The Old Manse’ at Concord, Massachusetts.   
   
  Finally. in 1850 came spectacular literary and commercial success with ‘The Scarlet Letter’ followed by ‘The House of the Seven Gables’ the following year.  
   
  In 1852, Hawthorne published a biography of presidential candidate Franklin Pierce. After Pierce’s victory he was appointed consul in Liverpool, a position that offered prestige, money and fame. At the end of this appointment he returned several times to Europe before settling in Massachusetts and resuming writing and publication. 
   
  During the early 1860’s his health declined and on 19th May 1864 during a trip to Plymouth, New Hampshire. He was 59 and was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts. 
  1 - Nathaniel Hawthorne - A Short Story Collection - An Introduction 
  2 - Doctor Heidegger's Experiment by Nathaniel Hawthorne 
  3 - The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne 
  4 - Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne 
  5 - Rappaccini's Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

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  The Colour Out of Space

  H. P. Lovecraft

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  Set in the fictional town of Arkham, Massachusetts, an unnamed narrator investigates a local area known as the 'blasted hearth.' After failing to extract any information from the Arkham locals, the narrator encounters an old man, Ammi Pierce, who relates the story of a farmer who once lived there. The hearth, he claims, was caused by a meteorite that fell onto the farmer's field in 1882. The Color Out of Space is one of H.P. Lovecraft's best-loved and most critically acclaimed stories. According to the author, it was also his personal favorite.

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  The Sign of the Four

  Arthur Conan Doyle

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  The Sign of the Four (1890), also called The Sign of Four, is the second novel featuring Sherlock Holmes written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle wrote four novels and 56 short stories featuring the fictional detective.The story is set in 1888. The Sign of the Four has a complex plot involving service in India, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, a stolen treasure, and a secret pact among four convicts ("the Four" of the title) and two corrupt prison guards. It presents the detective's drug habit and humanizes him in a way that had not been done in the preceding novel, A Study in Scarlet (1887). It also introduces Doctor Watson's future wife, Mary Morstan.Mary Morstan is left without the bulk of the Agra treasure, although she will apparently receive the rest of the chaplet. John Watson falls in love with Mary and it is revealed at the end that he proposed to her and she has accepted.Famous works of the author Arthur Conan Doyle: A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of the Four, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, The Valley of Fear, His Last Bow, The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, Stories of Sherlock Holmes, The Lost World.

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  Typee - A Peep at Polynesian Life

  Herman Melville

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  Inspired by Melville’s own experiences on the high seas, this classic adventure tale pits two sailors against an island of cannibals After six months of  relentless battering by the turbulent South Pacific, the whaling ship known as the Dolly is beginning to resemble a swollen and cracking prison. For Tommo, it’s been six months of little to eat but stale biscuits, six months of steady abuse and derision from his shipmates, six months with nothing to distract him from the daily drudgery of life aboard the boat. All that time and not even a hint of land—it’s enough to drive anyone mad. Thousands of miles from home, the Dolly finally chances upon a remote island, and Tommo and fellow sailor Toby resolve to strike out on their own. Intrigue and excitement ensue when they discover their new haven to be inhabited by a tribe of cannibals!   This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.

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  Top 10 Short Stories The - The...

  Edgar Allan Poe

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  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. 
   
  Some of our earliest thrills – and fears – dwell within us because of a ghost story heard in childhood.  Whether fearful or giggling in delight it carries through with us till adult times.  These dark, foreboding works may raise many a goosebump, an unexpected laugh, or, a tinge or two of real fear but then, in these authors hands that may be just the beginning. 
   
  01 - The Top 10 - The Ghost Story 
  2 - The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe 
  3 - The Body Snatcher by Robert Louis Stevenson 
  4 - The Signalman by Charles Dickens 
  5 - The Phantom Rickshaw by Rudyard Kipling 
  6 - The Horla by Guy de Maupassant 
  7 - Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter by Sheridan Le Fanu 
  8 - The Empty House by Algernon Blackwood 
  9 - Oh Whistle and I'll Come to You My Lad by M R James 
  10 - The Eyes by Edith Wharton 
  11 - The Case of Vincent Pyrwhit by Barry Pain

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