Publisher: Fantastica
I made the acquaintance of Pyecraft in this very smoking-room. I was a young, nervous new member, and he saw it. I was sitting all alone, wishing I knew more of the members, and suddenly he came, a great rolling front of chins and abdomina, towards me, and grunted and sat down in a chair close by me and wheezed for a space, and scraped for a space with a match and lit a cigar, and then addressed me.
Sir Ralph Richardson reads Dicken's classic Christmas story.Show book
Charles John Cutcliffe Wright Hyne (1866-1944) was a British writer of popular adventure fiction and fantastic literature."The Mummy of Thompson-Pratt" is a strange supernatural tale of Gargrave, a young egyptologist at Cambridge University who manages to reanimate the 3,000-year-old mummy of Menen-Ra via the man he has identified as a direct descendent of the ancient egyptian.The descendent is the young gad-about-town Thompson-Pratt. It would appear that Thompson-Pratt has inherited more than merely the peculiar marks on his torso from his old ancestor.Show book
A foundling of mysterious parentage brought up by Mr. Allworthy on his country estate, Tom Jones is deeply in love with the seemingly unattainable Sophia Western, the beautiful daughter of the neighboring squire though he sometimes succumbs to the charms of the local girls. When Tom is banished to make his own fortune and Sophia follows him to London to escape an arranged marriage, the adventure begins. A vivid Hogarthian panorama of eighteenth-century life, spiced with danger and intrigue, bawdy exuberance and good-natured authorial interjections, Tom Jones is one of the greatest and most ambitious comic novels in English literature.BOOK 5: Peradventure there may be no parts in this prodigious work which will give the reader less pleasure in the perusing, than those which have given the author the greatest pains in composing. Among these probably may be reckoned those initial essays which we have prefixed to the historical matter contained in every book; and which we have determined to be essentially necessary to this kind of writing, of which we have set ourselves at the head.Show book
Set during the Franco-Prussian war, de Maupassant's story tells of a group of German soldiers occupying and gradually vandalising a stately home in Normandy. Bored of the dull location and incessant rain, the group of young officers decide to send to the nearest town for a group of prostitutes, so that they can hold an orgiastic dinner party. Among the women is the spirited young Rachel, whose willingness to fraternize with the Prussians is put to the test, with catastrophic results.Show book
The top 10 short stories of all time written by Edgar Allan Poe. 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. Among those we call the dark masters, one name glimmers with a more ready menace: Edgar Allan Poe who can, in an instant, unleash and surround our fears with unspeakable torment. His words also bring careful consideration as his detective stories reveal the hidden clues. Whatever the genre Poe is almost unrivalled in both story and solution. 1 - The Top 10 - Edgar Allan Poe - An Introduction 2 - The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe 3 - The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe 4 - The Premature Burial by Edgar Allan Poe 5 - By the Facts in the Case of Monsieur Valdemar by Edgar Allan Poe 6 - Hop Frog by Edgar Allan Poe 7 - The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe 8 - The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe 9 - The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe 10 - The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe 11 - The Black Cat by Edgar Allan PoeShow book
The novels of Fyodor Dostoevsky, including the classic Crime and Punishment, secured the great Russian writer an exalted position in the literary pantheon of 20th-century authors. The Gambler stands as one of the literary genius’ most highly regarded shorter works. At the casino in Roulettenburg, Germany, a Russian family awaits word that a wealthy relative from Petersburg has died. But to their dismay, Granny arrives and begins gambling away their inheritance at an alarming rate.Show book
