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  Rider on the White Horse The...

  Theodor Storm

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  The Rider on the White Horse (German: Der Schimmelreiter) is a novella by German writer Theodor Storm. It is his last complete work, first published in 1888, the year of his death. The novella is Storm's best remembered and most widely read work, and considered by many to be his masterpiece.The novella tells the story of Hauke Haien, allegedly related to the author by a schoolmaster in a small town in Northern Frisia. Hauke is the son of a farmer and licensed surveyor, and does his best to learn his father's trade. He even learns Dutch so he can read a Dutch print of Euclid's work on mathematics and geometry. Over time, he becomes very familiar with the dykes along the local coast, and begins to wonder if it would not be better to make them flatter on the sea side so as to reduce their windage during floods.

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  Miss Lonelyhearts

  Nathanael West

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  The columnist of the New York Post-Dispatch, Miss Lonelyhearts, is initially cynical about the letters he receives for help. They are a joke. Gradually however, the letters start to move him but he is powerless to do anything. Retreating from the pain into a fantasy world he starts to believe that he is a Christ figure, a universal saviour. But Christ died for the sins of others! The pen may be mightier than the sword but the author wields his like a cleaver, splicing images together to present a savagely grotesque world. Ahead of his time, the novel had to wait another 20 years to find another author to match West's bitter humour. This book is not for the fainthearted.

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  Notes from the Underground

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

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  Dostoevsky's novella " Notes from the Underground" is part embittered monologue and part brief descriptions of anecdotes from the anonymous writer's life. As the author himself states: 
  "The author of the diary and the diary itself are, of course, imaginary. Nevertheless it is clear that such persons as the writer of these notes not only may, but positively must, exist in our society, when we consider the circumstances in the midst of which our society is formed." 
  The Russia of the mid 19th century was a period in which the society was awash with a myriad of philosophical ideas as it became increasingly influenced by the West. The writer instinctively reacts against Utopian ideals and sees in himself the proof that such a philosophy is doomed.   
  Head Stories Audio presents "Notes from the Underground" by Fyodor Dostoevsky, narrated by Simon Hester. With original music.

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  The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll...

  Robert Louis Stevenson

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  On their weekly walk, an eminently sensible, trustworthy lawyer named Mr. Utterson listens as his friend Enfield tells a gruesome tale of assault. The tale describes a sinister figure named Mr. Hyde who tramples a young girl, disappears into a door on the street, and reemerges to pay off her relatives with a check signed by a respectable gentleman. Since both Utterson and Enfield disapprove of gossip, they agree to speak no further of the matter. It happens, however, that one of Utterson’s clients and close friends, Dr. Jekyll, has written a will transferring all of his property to this same Mr. Hyde. Soon, Utterson begins having dreams in which a faceless figure stalks through a nightmarish version of London. 
   
  Puzzled, the lawyer visits Jekyll and their mutual friend Dr. Lanyon to try to learn more. Lanyon reports that he no longer sees much of Jekyll since they had a dispute over the course of Jekyll’s research, which Lanyon calls “unscientific balderdash.” Curious, Utterson stakes out a building that Hyde visits—which, it turns out, is a laboratory attached to the back of Jekyll’s home. Encountering Hyde, Utterson is amazed by how undefinably ugly the man seems as if deformed, though Utterson cannot say exactly how. Much to Utterson’s surprise, Hyde willingly offers Utterson his address. Jekyll tells Utterson not to concern himself with the matter of Hyde. 
   
  A year passes uneventfully. Then, one night, a servant girl witnesses Hyde brutally beat to death an old man named Sir Danvers Carew, a member of Parliament and a client of Utterson. The police contact Utterson, and Utterson suspects Hyde as the murderer. He leads the officers to Hyde’s apartment, feeling a sense of foreboding amid the eerie weather—the morning is dark and wreathed in fog. When they arrive at the apartment, the murderer has vanished, and police searches prove futile. 

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  MS Found In A Bottle

  Edgar Allan Poe

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  MS. Found In A Bottle is an adventure short story by Edgar Allan Poe that first appeared in the May 1833 edition of Baltimore Saturday Visiter. The plot follows an unnamed narrator at sea who finds himself in a series of harrowing circumstances. As he nears his own disastrous death while his ship drives ever southward, he writes an "MS.", or manuscript, telling of his adventures which he casts into the sea. Some critics believe the story was meant as a satire of typical sea tales.

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  God Sees the Truth But Waits

  Leo Tolstoy

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  God Sees the Truth but Waits has the subject matter that Dostoyevsky could have used. The difference is Dostoyevsky would have written it with a fist waving of anger and frustration leaping from the page while Tolstoy writes it with an accepting non-violent attitude relating to those abused with grievances. The protagonist has wrongly been accused of murder, separated from his family for 26 years, and by circumstance meets the real murder in Siberia. The protagonist has come to have an important role in the Siberian community, trusted by Warden and prisoners alike. He spies the murder trying to escape, is threatened, but still does not speak out when asked by the Warden. This profoundly moves the murderer who seeks forgiveness from the protagonist, who says, “Only God can give forgiveness.” The protagonist becomes at peace with himself. The murderer confesses, the protagonist exonerated and ordered released from prison, but is dead when the notice comes. A classic Russian ending.

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