Publisher: MB Cooltura
Bartleby´s work has to do with the handwritten copying of law documents. Bartleby is very good at it, but one day, unexpectedly, he obstinately refuses to go on doing the sort of writing demanded and turns the office upside down with the enigmatic phrase: "I prefer not to."
O. Henry was the pen name of William Sydney Porter (1862 – 1910), an American writer. O. Henry's short stories are loved for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization, and surprise endings."The Ransom of Red Chief" is a tale of a kidnapping. A couple of desparadoes abduct the ten year old son of the richest man in a village in the deep south. But the pair soon discover that they have taken on far more than they had bargained for. The boy's energy, curiosity, creativity, sense of mischief and total lack of respect for his kidnappers soon has him running rings around them. And it turns out, the boy is a chip off the old block. His father is by no means a soft touch for a ransom and offers them a deal which they cannot refuse....Show book
Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was born on 1st April 1809 to a father, descended from Ukrainian Cossacks and a mother with a military background in the Ukrainian town of Sorochyntsi, then part of the Russian Empire and rich in Cossack traditions and folklore. His father wrote poetry and plays which the young Gogol helped stage at his uncle’s home theatre. This helped ignite in him a love of literature and blossomed when he attended, what is now, the Nizhyn Gogol State University at the age of 12. Here he participated in school theatre productions and refined his mastery of his native Ukrainian and also the Russian of his Imperial masters. In 1828 he went to St Petersburg and unsuccessfully tried to begin a career as an actor after finding that with no money and no connections the civil service was barred to him. Embezzling money from his mother he embarked on a trip to Germany. When the money ran out, he returned to St Petersburg but the experiences were used in a series of stories he contributed to periodicals. These tales were steeped in his childhood memories of the Ukrainian landscape and peasantry enlivened with the supernatural of its folklore woven with realistic events of the day. He wrote in Russian in a whimsical, colloquial style with a smattering of Ukrainian words and phrases that provided an authenticity. Eight stories were published as ‘Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka’. Seemingly all at once fame and fortune arrived. Gogol was hailed by his contemporaries, including Pushkin, as a pre-eminent writer of Russian literature. His success continued with his brilliant plays ‘The Inspector General’ and the comedy ‘The Marriage for the Theatre’, both being highly acclaimed. In 1834 he became Professor of Medieval History at the University of St. Petersburg but with little academic or teacher training, failed to adequately fulfil many of his duties and soon resigned this post. With no obligations and using his earnings from his writing, which now included the impressionistic and immortal ‘Dead Souls’, Gogol travelled around Europe, spending the most time in Rome where he studied art, read Italian literature and developed a passion for opera. In the 1840s Gogol became preoccupied with a need to purify his soul and embarked on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. In tandem he fell under the influence of a strict and austere spiritual ascetic who persuaded him to observe strict fasts that, allied with his depression and deteriorating health, contributed to his death on 21st April 1852 at the age of only 43. Gogol had a profound and enduring impact on literature which can be evidenced from his masterpiece, ‘The Cloak’, more popularly although wrongly translated as ‘The Overcoat’ published in 1841. A hundred years later Vladamir Nabokov called it ‘The greatest Russian short story ever written.’Show book
These intimate stories of South Indian immigrants and the families they left behind center women's lives and ask how women both claim and surrender power—a stunning debut collection from an O. Henry Prize winnerTraveling from Pittsburgh to Eastern Washington to Tamil Nadu, these stories about dislocation and dissonance see immigrants and their families confront the costs of leaving and staying, identifying sublime symmetries in lives growing apart.In "Malliga Homes," selected by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for an O. Henry Prize, a widow in a retirement community glimpses her future while waiting for her daughter to visit from America. In "No. 16 Model House Road," a woman long subordinate to her husband makes a choice of her own after she inherits a house. In "Nature Exchange," a mother grieving in the wake of a school shooting finds an unusual obsession. In "A Life in America," a professor finds himself accused of having exploited his graduate students.Sindya Bhanoo's haunting stories show us how immigrants' paths, and the paths of those they leave behind, are never simple. Bhanoo takes us along on their complicated journeys where regret, hope, and triumph appear in disguise.Show book
'Sun' is a sensual story of a woman rediscovering her sexuality through the power of the sun. But for the unexpected arrival of her businessman husband she was ready to give herself to a local peasant but is finally pulled back to respectability by her husband. But she is free to remain apart from him in the sun.Show book
Pelippé Trueblood is on the voyage of a lifetime and hosting a temperamental, half-man half-horse onboard his ship. He just might end up killing his difficult guest. Or kissing him. Trueblood is descended from giants and poised to be one of the world's great mariners. Raised by his father on the mighty ship Cay, he's chosen at nineteen for a perilous voyage predicted in ancient prophecy: find the lost Tree of Life and anchor her branches back to the sky. Young and unseasoned, Trueblood fears the gods may have picked the wrong man for the job. Worse, scripture demands he be accompanied by the beautiful, brooding Fen il-Kheir. Nothing in Trueblood's life at sea has prepared him for this dangerous new crew member, nor the feelings he plants in Trueblood's heart. Fen is a kheiron--a creature with the ability to shift between man and horse. With his dark past, his distrust of humans and his contempt for prophecy, Fen proves a reluctant passenger who could jeopardize not only the voyage, but the very future of the world. As the journey progresses, Fen finds himself more and more drawn to the Cay's charismatic commander, bringing the kheiron closer to everything his human nature longs for, and everything the beast in him fears. “Every sentence is another piece of a poem, the characters are all heroes in every story you’ve ever loved, and the world–building is absolutely phenomenal.” —Kate Douglas, author of Wolf Tales “A fantastical, magical sort of book… Recommended for anyone who likes beautiful stories that have a lot of heaviness, fantasy worlds, storytelling as a theme, and loving relationships of all kinds.” —Metaphors & MoonlightShow book
Plunge deep into disturbing darkness with 28 terrifying tales. Explore heartache, fleeting happiness, and horror in this fascinating collection. Experience chills as you read these creepy stories and more: A pornographer's horrific early morning ritual A beautiful baby boy who knows what he wants An engineer sees life on the other side of the tracks A drug run goes awry A family's unique Christmas tradition An artist whose paintings become reality A man who longs to rid himself of an annoying companion A child terrified by things that slither and ooze in the night Come join a soldier on the run in the jungle An old man's quest for the perfect photo A woman who sniffs out killers A life coach whose own brand of “therapy” goes way beyond cruel and unusual A young man who can't let go of the past Twisted Reunion is loved by editorial reviewers: "Time-honored frights with innovation infused throughout." - Kirkus Reviews "Disturbing and weird; unflinchingly grim at every turn, TWISTED REUNION shocks and even charms." - IndieReader Even though this was way out of my normal reading genre I loved it! This is a fantastic and thought provoking collection of short stories that surprised me at every turn. Mostly dark horror stories, but all of the stories are a vehicle for Mark Tullius to showcase his skill at writing and bringing his imagination to life. - Thomas Anderson, The Hungry Monster Book ReviewShow book
