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  The Short Stories of Herman...

  Herman Melville

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  Herman Melville was born in New York City on 1st August 1819.   
   
  At the age of 7 Melville contracted scarlet fever which permanently diminished his eyesight. Add this to a contemporary description of being "very backwards in speech and somewhat slow in comprehension" and his opportunities for success seemed limited. 
   
  His father died when he was 12 leaving the family in very straitened times. 2 years later Melville took a job in a bank and followed up with a failed stint as a surveyor. He went to sea and travelled across to Liverpool and then to the Pacific on adventures which included a mutiny, being jailed and falling in love with a South Pacific beauty. He was also a figure of opposition to the coercion of native Hawaiians to the Christian religion.  These experiences helped provide the novels ‘Typee’, ‘Omoo’, and ‘White-Jacket’. 
   
  By 1851 his ambitious masterpiece, ‘Moby Dick’, was ready to be published.  It never sold out its initial print run of 3,000 and Melville’s earnings on his masterpiece was a mere $556.37. 
   
  In succeeding years his reputation waned, life was increasingly difficult.  His family was growing and a stable income was essential. Melville took the advice of friends to try public lecturing, as others had, to increase his revenues. He embarked on three successful lecture tours, speaking on Roman statuary and sightseeing in Rome.  
   
  In 1876 he was at last able to publish privately his 16,000 line epic poem ‘Clarel’. It was to no avail.  The book had an initial printing of 350 copies, but sales failed miserably. 
   
  It was only in late 1885 that Melville was at last able to retire after his wife inherited several legacies, enough to provide them with a reasonable income. 
   
  Herman Melville, novelist, poet, short story writer and essayist, died at his home on 28th September 1891 from cardiovascular disease. 
  01 - Herman Melville - A Short Story Collection - An Introduction 
  02 - Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville 
  03 - The Lightning Rod Man by Herman Melville 
  04 - The Fiddler by Herman Melville

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  Philosophical Stories - Stories...

  Alexander Kuprin, Ambrose...

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  We love reason, advancing through facts to reach a conclusion that explains exactly where we are at.   
   
  When literary masters create their stories on this theme we are left with some quite brilliant and riveting works that help us gain fascinating insight into both author, story and the world beyond. 
   
  1 - Philosophical Stories - An Introduction 
  2 - In the Penal Colony by Franz Kafka 
  3 - Bartleby the Scrivener - Part 1 by Herman Melville 
  4 - Bartleby the Scrivener - Part 2 by Herman Melville 
  5 - The Dream of a Ridiculous Man by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 
  6 - Parker Adderson, Philosopher by Ambrose Bierce 
  7 - Dickory Cronke, The Dumb Philosopher or Great Britain's Wonder by Daniel D 
  8 - Plato's Dream by Voltaire 
  9 - The Shades, A Phantasy by Vladimir Korolenko 
  10 - Gods in Exile by Heinrich Heine 
  11 - An Evening Guest by Alexander Kuprin 
  12 - Bellerophon To Anteia by Mary Butts 
  13 - Putois by Anatole France 
  14 - The Lightning Rod Man by Herman Melville 
  15 - Moxon's Master by Ambrose Bierce 
  16 - A Country Doctor by Franz Kafka

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  Two Tales From Ambrose Bierce

  Ambrose Bierce

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  Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24, 1842 - 1914) was an American short story writer, journalist, poet, and American Civil War veteran. A prolific and versatile writer, Bierce was regarded as one of the most influential journalists in the United States and as a pioneering writer of realist fiction. In late 1913, Bierce, then age 71, Bierce indicated he was travelling to Mexico to gain first-hand experience of the Mexican Revolution. He disappeared and his death left undocumented. The following recording includes the short stories, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and "The Boarded Window."

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  The Nymph and the Lamp

  Thomas H Raddall

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  From an award-winning, master storyteller, a classic love story set on a barren, post-World War I island known for its shipwrecks.   A Nova Scotia classic, The Nymph and the Lamp is the story of Isabel Jardin, a strong and sensitive woman, and the men in her life—the stoic Matthew Carney, a living legend, the passionate Gregory Skane, and the innocent but infatuated Jim Sargent. Set in the 1920s, the story unfolds against the wild desolation of Marina, a wind-swept island off the coast of Nova Scotia, as the characters come to terms with their personal contradictions and the demands of isolated island life.

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  Jane in Search of a Job - A...

  Agatha Christie

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  A classic Agatha Christie short story from the collection The Golden Ball and Other Stories 
  Jane Cleveland is in desperate need of a job, and when she sees an ad for a woman of her description needed to impersonate a grand duchess, she cannot believe her luck. The royal retainers tell Jane that the job will be dangerous because attempts have been made on the Grand Duchess Pauline's life, but this only serves to make the job more appealing. Jane's disguise initially goes according to plan, but when she is kidnapped and drugged, it appears that her new employers are not all that they seem…

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  The Moabite Cypher

  R. Austin Freeman

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  Coming to the aid of a man kicked by a rearing police horse, R. Austin Freeman's famous forsensic investigator, Dr. John Thorndyke, stumbles upon an anarchist plot to assassinate a visiting Russian grand duke. The key appears to be a cryptogram written in ancient Moabite found on the man's body.

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