Other books that might interest you

• 

  British Short Story The - Volume...

  Aphra Behn, Jonathan Swift, Mary...

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  These British Isles, moored across from mainland Europe, are more often seen as a world unto themselves.  Restless and creative, they often warred amongst themselves until they began a global push to forge a World Empire of territory, of trade and of language. 
   
  Here our ambitions are only of the literary kind.  These shores have mustered many masters of literature. So this anthology’s boundaries includes only those authors who were born in the British Isles - which as a geographical definition is the UK mainland and the island of Ireland - and wrote in a familiar form of English. 
   
  Whilst Daniel Defoe is the normal starting point we begin a little earlier with Aphra Behn, an equally colourful character as well as an astonishing playwright and poet.  And this is how we begin to differentiate our offering; both in scope, in breadth and in depth.  These islands have raised and nurtured female authors of the highest order and rank and more often than not they have been sidelined or ignored in favour of that other gender which usually gets the plaudits and the royalties. 
   
  Way back when it was almost immoral that a woman should write.  A few pages of verse might be tolerated but anything else brought ridicule and shame.  That seems unfathomable now but centuries ago women really were chattel, with marriage being, as the Victorian author Charlotte Smith boldly stated ‘legal prostitution’.  Some of course did find a way through - Jane Austen, the Brontes and Virginia Woolf but for many others only by changing their names to that of men was it possible to get their book to publication and into a readers hands.  Here we include George Eliot and other examples. 
   
  We add further depth with many stories by authors who were famed and fawned over in their day.  Some wrote only a hidden gem or two before succumbing to poverty and death. There was no second career as a game show guest, reality TV contestant or youtuber. They remain almost forgotten outposts of talent who never prospered despite devoted hours of pen and brain. 
   
  Keeping to a chronological order helps us to highlight how authors through the ages played around with characters and narrative to achieve distinctive results across many scenarios, many styles and many genres. The short story became a sort of literary laboratory, an early disruptor, of how to present and how to appeal to a growing audience as a reflection of social and societal changes.  Was this bound to happen or did a growing population that could read begin to influence rather than just accept? 
   
  Moving through the centuries we gather a groundswell of authors as we hit the Victorian Age - an age of physical mass communication albeit only on an actual printed page.  An audience was offered a multitude of forms: novels (both whole and in serialised form) essays, short stories, poems all in weekly, monthly and quarterly form.  Many of these periodicals were founded or edited by literary behemoths from Dickens and Thackeray through to Jerome K Jerome and, even some female editors including Ethel Colburn Mayne, Alice Meynell and Ella D’Arcy. 
   
  Now authors began to offer a wider, more diverse choice from social activism and justice – and injustice to cutting stories of manners and principles.  From many forms of comedy to mental meltdowns, from science fiction to unrequited heartache.  If you can imagine it an author probably wrote it.  
   
  At the end of the 19th Century bestseller lists and then prizes, such as the Nobel and Pulitzer, helped focus an audience’s attention to a books literary merit and sales worth. Previously coffeehouses, Imperial trade, unscrupulous overseas printers ignoring copyright restrictions, publishers with their book lists as an appendix and the gossip and interchange of polite society had been the main avenues to secure sales and profits.

  Show book

• 

  Top 10 Short Stories The -...

  Thomas Hardy

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart.  A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere. 
   
  In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?  
   
  The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme.  Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature. 
   
  Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made.  If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something. 
   
  This limb of land extends into the Atlantic Ocean.  It’s fortunes and livelihood based on what its rugged landscape, it’s shores and surrounding seas could bring to its people.  Within the ranks of these locally born authors are some of our greatest talents. 
   
  01 - The Top 10 - Authors of the English South-West - An Introduction 
  2 - The Fiddler of the Reels by Thomas Hardy 
  3 - The Female Husband by Henry Fielding 
  4 - Miss Ogilivy Finds Herself by Radclyffe Hall 
  5 - Private Merrick, Company Idiot by Sapper 
  6 - Lucy Wren by Ada Radford 
  7 - The Omnibus by Arthur Quiller-Couch 
  8 - Betty Brown, the St Giles Orange Girl by Hannah More 
  9 - The Botathen Ghost from Footprints of Former Men in Far Cornwall by the Reverend R S Hawker 
  10 - After the Funeral by Mary Butts 
  11 - Fantomina or Love in a Maze - Part 1 by Eliza Haywood 
  12 - Fantomina or Love in a Maze - Part 2 by Eliza Haywood

  Show book

• 

  Shadow out of Time The (Unabridged)

  H.P. Lovecraft

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The Shadow out of Time is a novella by American horror fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft. Written between November 1934 and February 1935, it was first published in the June 1936 issue of Astounding Stories.The Shadow out of Time indirectly tells of the Great Race of Yith, an extraterrestrial species with the ability to travel through space and time. The Yithians accomplish this by switching bodies with hosts from the intended spatial or temporal destination. The story implies that the effect, when seen from the outside, is similar to spiritual possession.

  Show book

• 

  The Idiot

  Fyodor Dostoyevsky

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  First published in 1869, "The Idiot" is a novel by the renowned Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It tells the story of Prince Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin, who returns to Russia after spending years in a Swiss sanatorium. Despite being genuinely kind, compassionate, and possessing an almost Christ-like innocence, Myshkin is perceived by the society around him as an "idiot." The novel delves into the complexities of the human soul, exploring themes of goodness, love, society's moral degradation, and the repercussions of unbridled ambition. As the narrative unfolds, Prince Myshkin gets entangled in a love triangle and a series of tragic events that underscore Dostoyevsky's critiques of Russian society and his exploration of the nature of good and evil.

  Show book

• 

  A Defenceless Creature

  Anton Chekhov

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Defenceless Creature - a story by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov. Written in 1887, first published on February 28, 1887 in the magazine Oskolki. The story describes with irony a stubborn man who achieves his goals by relying on the pity of those around him.
  .

  Show book

• 

  Letter from Santa Claus A...

  Mark Twain

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, was very enamored with his daughter, Susi, and remained so up to her untimely death at age 24 in 1896. In 1875, at the age of 3, she had written her first letter to Santa Claus. As a writer and loving father, Twain, couldn't stand for his young daughter to feel like her work went unheard, so he penned the following letter to "My Dear Susie Clemens" from "The Man in the Moon" himself.The story has been widely shared since in anthologies as an endearing reminder of the spirit of Christmas and the love of parents for their children, who year after year, in various ways, manage to keep the magic alive.

  Show book