Publisher: MuhammadUsman
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist, short story writer, and poet. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde and is regarded as one of the most influential and important authors of the 20th century.
Intricate interior lives are brilliantly explored in these short stories, now presented in one definitive collection as Calvino intended them In Difficult Loves, Italy's master storyteller weaves tales in which cherished deceptions and illusions of love-including self-love-are swept away in magical instants of recognition. A soldier is reduced to quivering fear by the presence of a full-figured woman in his train compartment; a young clerk leaves a lady's bed at dawn; a young woman is isolated from bathers on a beach by the loss of her bikini bottom. Each of them discovers hidden truths beneath the surface of everyday life.Show book
Hector Hugh Munro (1870-1916) is better known by the pen name Saki. He remains hugely popular as a British writer whose witty, mischievous and sometimes macabre stories satirized Edwardian society and culture.The Penance is an edgy and at times horrifying tale about a normally amiable man who has killed the cat belonging to his neighbour's children, on the grounds that he suspected it of attacking his chickens. His efforts to make up for this awful deed are met with hostility, and the children take the opportunity to plan a dire revenge.Show book
"The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" is a novella written by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson and first published in 1886. It is about a London lawyer who investigates strange occurrences between his old friend, Dr Henry Jekyll, and the misanthropic Edward Hyde.The work is known for its vivid portrayal of a split personality, split in the sense that within the same person there is both an apparently good and an evil personality each being quite distinct from each other; in mainstream culture the very phrase "Jekyll and Hyde" has come to mean a person who is vastly different in moral character from one situation to the next. This is different from multiple personality disorder where the different personalities do not necessarily differ in any moral sense. "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" was an immediate success and one of Stevenson's best-selling works.Show book
William Chambers Morrow (1854-1923) was an American writer of horror and suspense stories.'An Original Revenge' is a peculiar and ghoulish tale of a young soldier who commits suicide in order to better avenge himself upon his commanding officer in the form of an avenging spirit.Show book
O. Henry was the pen name of William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), an American writer of outstanding short stories, known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization, and surprise endings. "Between Rounds" is the tale of a lost child, the six-year old son of the owner of a boarding house with a colourful and ecclectic range of boarders. For the brief period of the child's absence the inhabitants pause in their regular activities and relationships. The interlude is described in a warm and gently humorous manner.Show book
First published in 1878, The Suicide Club is a collection of three gruesome adventure stories which combine into a single narrative, recounting the exploits of Floritzel, Prince of Bohemia and his trusty confidante Colonel Geraldine as they infiltrate a secret society of dubious individuals intent on losing their own lives. The stories are: Story of the Young Man with the Cream Tarts The Prince and the Colonel are out incognito in London, when they meet a strange young man giving free cream tarts to all he meets. He introduces them to the Suicide Club, a horrific society whose members gamble with their own lives each night. Our heroes succeed in disbanding the club and its president is sent abroad "for disposal" with Geraldine's brother. Story of the Physician and the Saratoga Trunk In the Latin Quarter of Paris, an unsuspecting American tourist finds himself at the heart of a dastardly plot. He is lured away by an attractive countess, only to discover a dead body in his bed on his return. His kind neighbour, Dr. Noel, arranges to hide the body in a trunk which is smuggled to London in the baggage of Prince Floritzel and Colonel Geraldine. When Floritzel discovers the plot, he also finds that the body is that of Geraldine's brother - and the President of the Suicide Club has escaped. The Adventure of the Hansom Cab In London, Lieutenant Brackenbury Rich is taken by a mysterious hansom cabman to a house where an odd party is underway. The host turns out to be Colonel Geraldine in disguise, who whisks him off to a secret location where Prince Floritzel and the President of the Suicide Club are to fight a final duel to the death.Show book
