The Night-Born (Annotated)

Jack London

Summary

This edition includes the following editor's analysis: Jack London, an infinite passion for adventure that drove all his work


First published in 1913, “The Night-Born” is a collection of ten short stories by American author Jack London with no apparent genre connection to place them in a set. Each story collected in "The Night-Born", including the title story, is unique and thought-provoking as they deal with various themes and issues, all more or less bizarre.

The collection includes, among others, War, in which a cavalry scout moves across the landscape as the horrors of war take place before his eyes and in his head and The Mexican, in which a mysterious young man joins a band of revolutionaries fighting in Los Angeles with the task of finding enough money to help the fighting in Mexico.

Available since: 06/27/2022.

Other books that might interest you

Everland

JT Lawrence

A Shirley Jackson-esque tale of a young family who moves to a haunted castle. 
Perfect for fans of Gillian Flynn and Roald Dahl, these stories are guaranteed to get under your skin. 
*** 
"Lawrence makes every word count, telling each story with elegance and emotional punch.” — Patsy Hennessey 
"Each story is masterfully constructed ... Humorous, touching, creepy, but most of all entertaining, this collection is superb." — Tracy Michelle Anderson 
Get it now.

Show book

Dearborn

Ghassan Zeineddine

Spanning several decades, Ghassan Zeineddine’s debut collection examines the diverse range and complexities of the Arab-American community in Dearborn, Michigan. In ten tragicomic stories, Zeineddine explores themes of identity, generational conflicts, war trauma, migration, sexuality, queerness, home and belonging, and more. In Dearborn, a father teaches his son how to cheat the IRS and hide their cash earnings inside of frozen chickens. Tensions heighten within a close-knit group of couples when a mysterious man begins to frequent the local gym pool, dressed in Speedos printed with nostalgic images of Lebanon. And a failed stage actor attempts to drive a young Lebanese man with ambitions of becoming a Hollywood action hero to LA, but Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have other plans. By turns wildly funny, incisive, and deeply moving, Dearborn introduces listeners to an arresting new voice in contemporary fiction and invites us all to consider what it means to be part of a place and community and how it is that we help one another survive.

Show book

The Watsons

Jane Austen

Left impoverished upon the death of her aunt, Emma Watson has no option but to be reunited with her estranged father and siblings. Initially delighted with her new life—including the fashionable society balls to which she now has access—Emma soon realizes that her family harbors many ill feelings, not least those springing from the sisters' hopes—and disappointments—in snaring a husband. So when the eligible and suitably rich Tom Musgrove begins to transfer his affections from her sister Margaret to Emma, the result can only be further sibling rivalry and unrest. A delightful, exquisitely drawn portrait of family life, The Watsons is Jane Austen at her storytelling best. Author of the masterpieces Pride and Prejudice and Emma, Jane Austen (1775–1817) is one of the most beloved novelists of all time.

Show book

Cheek to Cheek

Renee Conoulty

What do you do when the man you love proposes to someone else? 
Nadiene just lost her swing dance partner—and long-term crush—to another woman. Defeated, she sets out on a search for a replacement dance partner. 
She has her eye on the dance teacher but he pairs her up with Derrick. Dancing with a beginner is so beneath her (though she wouldn't mind if this one actually was beneath her). 
Can she train him to dance well enough to reclaim her position at the front of the performance troupe before he sees through her tough façade and challenges her core beliefs? 
Cheek to Cheek is a standalone story in the Got That Swing Series. If you like sweet romance with a dash of humour then you'll love Renee Conoulty's tale of redemption. 
Buy Cheek to Cheek to glide into this dance-themed short story, today!

Show book

Female Short Story The - A...

E M Delafield, Dorothy Parker,...

A wise man once said ‘The safest place for a child is in the arms of his mother’s voice’. This is a perfect place to start our anthology of female short stories.

Some of our earliest memories are of our mothers telling us bedtime stories. This is not to demote the value of fathers but more to promote the often-overshadowed talents of the gentler sex.

Perhaps ‘gentler’ is a word that we should re-evaluate. In the course of literary history it is men who dominated by opportunity and with their stranglehold on the resources, both financial and technological, who brought their words to a wider audience. Men often placed women on a pedestal from where their talented words would not threaten their own.

In these stories we begin with the original disrupter and renegade author Aphra Behn. A peek at her c.v. shows an astounding capacity and leaves us wondering at just how she did all that.

In those less modern days to be a woman, even ennobled, was to be seen as second class. You literally were chattel and had almost no rights in marriage. As Charlotte Smith famously said your role as wife was little more than ‘legal prostitute’. From such a despicable place these authors have used their talents and ideas and helped redress that situation.

Slowly at first. Privately printed, often anonymously or under the cloak of a male pseudonym their words spread. Their stories admired and, usually, their role still obscured from rightful acknowledgement.

Aided by more advanced technology, the 1700’s began to see a steady stream of female writers until by the 1900’s mass market publishing saw short stories by female authors from all the strata of society being avidly read by everyone. Their names are a rollcall of talent and ‘can do’ spirit and society is richer for their works.

In literature at least women are now acknowledged as equals, true behind the scenes little has changed but if (and to mis-quote Jane Austen) there is one universal truth, it is that ideas change society. These women’s most certainly did and will continue to do so as they easily write across genres, from horror and ghost stories to tender tales of love and making your way in society’s often grueling rut. They will not be silenced, their ideas and passion move emotions, thoughts and perhaps more importantly our ingrained view of what every individual human being is capable of.

It is because of their desire to speak out, their desire to add their talents to the bias around them that we perhaps live in more enlightened, almost equal, times.

Within these stories you will also find very occasional examples of historical prejudice. A few words here and there which in today’s world some may find inappropriate or even offensive. It is not our intention to make anyone uncomfortable but to show that the world in order to change must reconcile itself to the actual truth rather than put it out of sight. Context is everything, both to understand and to illuminate the path forward. The author’s words are set, our reaction to them encourages our change.

01 - The Female Short Story. A Chronological History - An Introduction - Volume 10
02 - Decay by Marjorie Bowen
03 - The Lie by Holloway Horn
04 - Joseph by Katherine Rickford
05 - The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield
06 - The Hoodoo by Martha Gruening
07 - The Three Kisses by Violet Quirk
08 - Sophy Mason Comes Back by E M Delafield
09 - The Death Hound by Violet Mary Firth writng as Dion Fortune
10 - After the Funeral by Mary Butts
11 - In No Strange Land by Katharine Butler
12 - Here We Are by Dorothy Parker
13 - Young Magic by Helen Simpson
14 - The Casualty List by Winifred Holtby
15 - Satan's Circus b

Show book

Top 10 Short Stories The - Born...

Herman Melville, Henry James,...

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.

The Big Apple is rightly lauded as the place that if you can make it there you make it anywhere. It’s good advice for a writer. Many of these literary talents became world-wide behemoths, serving up their experiences and characters to a wide-eyed audience forever in their thrall. Genius has many names.

1 - The Top 10 - Born in New York - An Introduction
2 - The Great Good Place by Henry James
3 - Bartleby the Scrivener - Part 1 by Herman Melville
4 - Bartleby the Scrivener - Part 2 by Herman Melville
5 - The Devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving
6 - The Fullness of Life by Edith Wharton
7 - The Outcasts of Poker Flat by Bret Harte
8 - Christmas Eve in War Times by Edward Payson Roe
9 - An Angel in Disguise by T S Arthur
10 - The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell
11 - The Mysterious Card by Cleveland Moffet
12 - The Repairer of Reputations - Part 1 by Robert W Chambers
13 - The Repairer of Reputations - Part 2 by Robert W Chambers

Show book