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  Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story...

  Herman Melville

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  This is a short story about a lawyer with offices on Wall Street in New York City. He runs an advertisement for a scrivener, or professional copyist, for his office and Bartleby responds to his advertisement and comes to work for the lawyer. At first Bartleby appears to be a competent worker, but later he refuses to work when requested, repeatedly uttering the phrase "I would prefer not to." As Bartleby's behavior escalates, the lawyer is confronted with how he will handle and respond to this bizarre behavior. 
  In 2001, the story was adapted into a movie titled "Bartleby".

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  Upon Arrival

  Cassandra R. Fowlie

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  Celeste and Marla are the type of friends who know each others' thoughts without having to hear them spoken. So as the two friends sit and enjoy their weekly tradition of drinking tea in their favorite cafe, Marla knows that Celeste is particularly troubled by the mysterious woman who has appeared at the abandoned train station outside of the cafe, as is her habit. Celeste loses herself in her thoughts about the strange woman, not knowing why, but wanting to know everything about her and developing an inexplicable connection to her.

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  Female Short Story The - A...

  Baroness Orczy, Netta Syrett,...

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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 7 
  02 - The Coach by Violet Hunt 
  03 - Suggestion by Mrs Ernest Leverson 
  04 - Another Freak by Mary Angela Dickens 
  08 - Red Tape by Mary Sinclair 
  06 - An Idyl of London by Beatrice Harraden 
  07 - The Love Germ by Constance Cotterell 
  08 - The Black Crusader by Alicia Ramsay 
  09 - The Lame Priest by Susan Morrow writing as S Carleton 
  10 - A Pen and Ink Effect by Frances E Huntley 
  11 - Far Above Rubies by Netta Syrett 
  12 - My Honoured Master by Catherine Anne Dawson Scott 
  13 - A Knot of Ribbon by Laurence Alma-Tadema 
  14 - The Mysterious Death on

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  The Big Snow

  Berta Hader, Elmer Hader

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  The green leaves on the trees are changing to red and gold. A chilly wind blows from the north. Mrs. Cottontail and her littlest rabbit watch a flock of wild geese in the sky. "Cold winter days are near," she tells him. All through the woods, creatures of every size are busy. Squirrels are storing acorns and seeds under logs. The ground hog is growing a warm fur coat. The blue bird begins his long trip south. They must hurry-soon the big snow is coming. Berta and Elmer Hader have delighted youngsters for decades with this captivating tale of woodland animals preparing for the long winter. Birds flutter and four-legged creatures scamper from the page with John McDonough's sparkling performance.

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  The Blind Man

  D H Lawrence

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  'The Blind Man' is a delicate study of a loving relationship blighted by the man's blindness and disfigurement in the first world war. The arrival of an old friend of the woman brings into the open feelings and fears previously suppressed.

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  Skinflint

  J.S. Fletcher

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  Joseph Smith Fletcher (1863-1935) was a British journalist and author. He wrote more than 230 books on a wide variety of subjects, both fiction and nonfiction. He was one of the leading writers of detective fiction in the Victorian golden age of the short story.Skinflint is a bittersweet tale of an embittered middle-aged woman who has never recovered from being jilted as a young woman. Since that sorry episode she has thrown herself into the micro-management of her grocery and drapery business. Then one day she learns that her former lover is on the brink of ruin...and the memories of her youth come surging back....

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