Publisher: Starlit Publishing
Winter is a time of reflection and cultivation for the Verdant Green Waters Sect. For Wu Ying, this peaceful interlude is interrupted by a new assignment that pits him against the mortal world’s conventions of class and privilege. A short story in the world of A Thousand Li by Tao Wong.
The Iliad is one of the two great epics of Homer, and is typically described as one of the greatest war stories of all time, but to say the Iliad is a war story does not begin to describe the emotional sweep of its action and characters: Achilles, Helen, Hector, and other heroes of Greek myth and history in the tenth and final year of the Greek siege of Troy.Show book
William Chambers Morrow (1854-1923) was an American author famed for his short stories of horror and suspense.'The Permanent Stiletto' is the story of a young man who has been stabbed close to the heart with a stiletto. The blade has pierced the aorta and come out the other side.To withdraw the blade would mean the man would bleed to death...but so long as the blade is in place, it is blocking off the wound. The only solution is to leave the blade in place...after which the young man will live his life on a knife edge. Any excitement, sudden movement or emotion could cause the blade to slip and kill him instantly.Show book
Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton (1857-1946) was a prominent and prolific American author of novels, short stories, essays, and articles for magazines and newspapers on such issues as feminism, politics and war.'The Greatest Good of the Greatest Number' (1905) tells the story of a doctor wrestling with the dilemma of allowing the drug-addicted wife of a close friend to die under his care, knowing that her passing would vastly improve the lives of his friend, their children, and the woman the husband would marry if his wife were gone.Show book
Food. One of the overpowering needs that we all hunger for. Whether to use as basic fuel or sophisticated tasting, food and its providers, its servers, its guests and our authors are here to converse, deliberate as courses are served, some savoury, some sweet but always to be enjoyed.Show book
Four tales from popular children storytellersShow book
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 MelvilleShow book
