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  The Deserter

  Stacy Aumonier

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  Stacy Aumonier (1877–1928) was a British writer, best known for his outstanding short stories. Nobel Prize-winner John Galsworthy described Aumonier as "one of the best short story writers of all time" and predicted that he would "outlive all the writers of his day."Aumonier wrote over 85 short stories in his lifetime. He has been described as the "British Maupassant" owing to his captivating plots and his ability to create complex characters with just a few lines of carefully selected prose.His intensely visual prose meant his works were readily adaptable to the cinema screen, and several of his short stories were adapted by Alfred Hitchcock."The Deserter" is a multi-layered story about a young man, Wainwright,  who is called up to the Great War, but decides instead to desert. It is not that he is a coward, but he cannot identify with the cause of the Great War. He goes into hiding in the best possible place he can think of... and all seems to be going well. But then, one day, he meets Emma and falls in love. Suddenly he has a cause which he does believe in... somebody worth fighting for. Wainwright suddenly finds himself engaged in his own personal "Great War" and fighting just as formidable an enemy as the Germans. But like in the "Great War" outside, Wainwright's is a bitter victory.

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  Stop All Interference—Stories

  A. J. Payler

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  The expert touch of master storytelling—entirely different from anything you have ever tried! 
    
  From A. J. Payler, master of modern fiction behind The Killing Song, Bank Error in Your Favor, and Terror Next Door comes Stop All Interference—seven stories of struggle against overwhelming odds and unstoppable fear, people pushed beyond betrayal and forgiveness, of the world we live in and what people will let themselves do just to survive in it. 
  Featuring: 
  "Sometimes, People Just Have Things They Have to Do": Everyone—everyone said that getting the Artery Boys back together was impossible… and once, high-powered music manager Alec Rodenbaugh might even have agreed. But nothing in this world is truly impossible for someone who wants it badly enough. And even if what seemed like the perfect cover might instead turn out to be the perfect crime… well, sometimes, people just have things they have to do. 
  "Default Admin Credentials": It seemed like the perfect crime… that should have been his first warning. Nothing could go wrong, or that was how it seemed… but in the end, he couldn't honestly blame anyone but himself for not seeing it coming 
  "The Rumble of Heat Lightning Above the Deep Midwestern Woods": A mysterious figure stalks the murky backwoods of the Midwest on an unrelenting mission for revenge, with nothing but a Bowie knife to protect him against the monsters that haunt the forest. And even if he's able to find what he needs… it's already too late. 
  Also featuring "Sonata of Fear", "Dictated, Never Read" (as seen in Twenty-two Twenty-eight), "An Ideal for Living" and "Telemarketing in Reverse", available here and nowhere else.

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  Female Short Story The - A...

  Vernon Lee, Edith Nesbit,...

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  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 5 
  02 - The Death Mask by H D Everett writing as Theo Parker 
  03 - The Story of 'The Spaniards', Hammersmith by Kate and Hesketh Pritchard 
  04 - A New England Nun by Mary E Wilkins Freeman 
  05 - A Dream of Wild Bees by Olive Schreiner 
  06 - The Hired Baby, A Romance of the London Streets by Mary Mackay writing as Marie Corelli 
  07 - The Runaway by Marion Hepworth-Dixon 
  08 - Amour Dure by Violet Paget writing as Vernon Lee 
  09 - My Flirtations by Ella Hepworth Dixon writing as Margaret Wynham 
  10 - Irremediable by Ella D'Arcy 
  11 - When the Devil Was Well by Gertrude Ather

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  The Silver Key

  H. P. Lovecraft

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  Randolph Carter, the alter ego of Lovecraft, is now an adult and has lost the ability to vividly dream. Despite considering the waking world as dull and mundane, he desires to reconcile with it. He tries to enrich it with literature and art, and eventually with physical pleasures. However, nothing brings him satisfaction. Finally, he returns to the regions where he grew up. There, he will find what he was looking for, and even more.

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  A House to Let

  Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins,...

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  When an elderly widower takes up lodgings in London she develops an interest in the mysterious house to let across the way. What follows are a collection of stories and poetry of the houses previous occupants, that gradually build up the history of the house before the mystery is revealed. "A House to Let" is a short story by Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell and Adelaide Anne Procter. It was originally published in 1858 in the Christmas edition of Dickens' Household Words magazine. Narrated by Michael Ward.

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  Oscar Wilde's Stories for...

  Oscar Wilde

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  Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born on the 16th October 1854 in Dublin, Ireland.  The son of Dublin intellectuals Oscar proved himself an outstanding classicist at Trinity College and then at Oxford.  
   
  Wilde then moved to London and its fashionable cultural and social circles.  With his biting wit, flamboyant dress, and glittering conversation, Wilde became one of the most well-known personalities of his day. 
   
  His only novel, ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ was published in 1890 and he then moved on to writing for the stage with ‘Salome’ in 1891.  His society comedies were enormous hits and turned him into one of the most successful writers of late Victorian London. 
   
  Whilst his masterpiece, ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’, was on stage in London, Wilde had the Marquess of Queensberry, the father of his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, prosecuted for libel.  The trial unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and trial for gross indecency. He was convicted and imprisoned for two years hard labour. It was to break him. 
   
  On release he left for France. There he wrote his last work, ‘The Ballad of Reading Gaol’ in 1898.  He died destitute in Paris at the age of forty-six sipping champagne a friend had brought with the line ‘Alas I am dying beyond my means’. 
   
  One of his most beloved legacies has been his five children’s stories which are gathered here in this volume.   
   
  Much of the writing is very modern, even for today.  He explores a range of themes in his own inimitable way, from friendship, generosity and sacrifice through bravado and bragging to the religious overtones of death.   
   
  Whilst they are firm children’s favourites they also enchant parents and adults.

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