Other books that might interest you

• 

  Edward Lear: The Stories & Rhymes

  Edward Lear

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Ah, Nonsense! The English, it is often said, have a peculiar brand of humour. Along with copious cups of tea and a stiff upper lip it keeps life together in moments of difficulty and strife. One of our most-loved humourists is Edward Lear, famed throughout the world for his nonsense verse and limericks.
  
  Born in Holloway, North London, Lear was the 21st child of Ann and Jeremiah Lear, and raised by his sister, Ann, who was, of course, 21 years older than Edward. His early life was unsettled, prone to illness, especially epileptic fits which gave him a character coloured with guilt and shame. However by his 30s he had published his first book of limericks in which his touching drawings were also displayed.
  
  His early works as an artist are easily recognised, but his later works such as "The Owl and the Pussycat" and "The Jumblies" have established him first and foremost as a writer of humourous verse.
  
  Lear travelled widely during his years and eventually settled in San Remo, in Italy, eventually succumbing to death in 1876. On his headstone are inscribed these lines from Tennyson's "To E.L. [Edward Lear], On His Travels in Greece": "...all things fair. With such a pencil, such a pen. You shadow forth to distant men, I read and felt that I was there."

  Show book

• 

  The Gift of the Magi

  O. Henry

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  "The Gift of the Magi" is a short story by O. Henry first published in 1905. The story tells of a young husband and wife and how they deal with the challenge of buying secret Christmas gifts for each other with very little money. As a sentimental story with a moral lesson about gift-giving, it has been popular for adaptation, especially for presentation at Christmas time. The plot and its twist ending are well-known, and the ending is generally considered an example of comic irony. It was allegedly written at Pete's Tavern on Irving Place in New York City.The story was initially published in The New York Sunday World under the title "Gifts of the Magi". It was first published in book form in the O. Henry Anthology The Four Million in April 1906.Among the most significant works O. Henry: "The Duplicity of Hargraves", "A Retrieved Reformation", "The Cop and the Anthem", "The Gift of the Magi", "The Skylight Room", "After Twenty Years", "Conscience in Art", "The Caballero's Way", "The Last Leaf", "The Third Ingredient", "The Ransom of Red Chief", "Makes the Whole World Kin".

  Show book

• 

  Manhattan Noir 2 - The Classics

  Edith Wharton, Stephen Crane, O....

  • 1
  • 0
  • 0

  This anthology spans more than a century of noir fiction set in the heart of the Big Apple—“17 sure winners” from Edith Wharton, Donald Westlake, and more (Publishers Weekly, starred review).The island of Manhattan has been a breeding ground of crime, longing, and discontent since its earliest days as a city—and a natural setting for noir fiction since the genre was invented. And from Harlem to Greenwich Village to Wall Street, it has also been home to many a great writer. After the success of the first Manhattan Noir, dedicated to all-new stories, Lawrence Block combed through the borough’s long literary history to deliver this stellar collection of classics, even stretching the bounds of noir to include poems by Edgar Allen Poe and others. Manhattan Noir 2: The Classics features entries by Edith Wharton, Stephen Crane, O. Henry, Langston Hughes, Irwin Shaw, Jerome Weidman, Damon Runyon, Evan Hunter, Jerrold Mundis, Edgar Allan Poe, Horace Gregory, Geoffrey Bartholomew, Cornell Woolrich, Barry N. Malzberg, Clark Howard, Jerome Charyn, Donald E. Westlake, Joyce Carol Oates, Lawrence Block, and Susan Isaacs.

  Show book

• 

  The Apology of Socrates

  Plato

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The Apology of Socrates is one of the earliest existing documents of Greek philosophy — everything earlier was lost and is known only through quoted fragments in later works, like those of Plato himself. Rightly so, the Apology is still, all by itself, an excellent introduction to Western philosophy and traditionally the first complete text read in the formal study of Classical Greek. 
  Although the meaning has changed through time, the Greek word apología simply and precisely meant a defense, or a defense speech. At the trial for his life in 399 BC, Socrates astonished his listeners by appearing, despite his vigorous "Defense Speech", to deliberately get himself found guilty and condemned to death. Plato, who's presence at the trial is mentioned twice in the Apology, provides us with the only witnessed recording of the trial proceedings and the historic Apology of Socrates

  Show book

• 

  The Rental Heart and Other...

  Kirsty Logan

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Winner of the Scott Prize
  Winner of the 2015 Polari First Book Prize
  Winner of the Saboteur Award for Best Short Story Collection
  The Herald: Book of the Year 2014
  Shortlisted for the 2014 Green Carnation Prize
  Twenty tales of lust and loss. These stories feature clockwork hearts, lascivious queens, paper men, island circuses, and a flooded world. On the island of Skye, an antlered girl and a tiger-tailed boy resolve never to be friends – but can they resist their unique connection? In an alternative 19th-century Paris, a love triangle emerges between a man, a woman, and a coin-operated boy. A teenager deals with his sister's death by escaping from their tiny Scottish island – but will she let him leave?  In 1920s New Orleans, a young girl comes of age in her mother's brothel. Some of these stories are radical retellings of classic tales, some are modern-day fables, but all explore substitutions for love.

  Show book

• 

  The Terrible Old Man

  H.P. Lovecraft

  • 2
  • 7
  • 0

  The first story set in the fishing village of Kingsport, which is featured in the later works of the one of the greatest horror writers of all time.   It is rumored that the mysterious old man who lives alone in the small New England town was once a sea captain. It is also rumored that he is hoarding a treasure. When three robbers decide to steal it, they will encounter a bloodthirsty evil unlike any they ever imagined . . .   “The Terrible Old Man is the story of three career criminals looking to rob the eponymous character, an eccentric retired mariner so ancient that no one alive remembers his youth. . . . This is also the first story set in the fictional New England geography that Lovecraft will detail over the course of future writing. . . . So, what we see in these stories is Lovecraft beginning to construct the alternate world which will be the home to his most famous works, at least as much a unifying element of the author’s oeuvre as those details subsequent writers and critics have defined as the ‘Cthulhu Mythos.’ As such, The Terrible Old Man is not only an effective piece of eerie storytelling, it is also an important stepping stone in the development of a bigger Lovecraftian world.” —The Blood-Shed   “A piece of minimalist brushwork, with most of the narrative suggested by negative space . . . In sharp contrast to the central Mythos tales, the horror is allusive and oblique, the violence kept off-stage.” —Tor.com

  Show book