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The Guy Not Taken: Stories
By Jennifer Weiner. 2004
“Eleven marvelous short stories” by the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Summer Place and Mrs. Everything (Entertainment Weekly).In…
these tender and often hilarious stories by Jennifer Weiner, we meet Marlie Davidow, home alone with her new baby late one Friday night when she wanders onto her ex’s online wedding registry and wonders where she’d be if she’d wound up with the guy not taken. We stumble on Bruce Guberman, liquored-up and ready for anything on the night of his best friend’s bachelor party, until stealing his girlfriend’s tiny rat terrier becomes more complicated than he’d planned. We find Jessica Norton listing her beloved New York City apartment in the hope of winning her broker’s heart. And we follow an unlikely friendship between two very different new mothers, and the choices that bring them together—and pull them apart.From a teenager coming to terms with her father’s disappearance to a widow accepting two young women into her home, these stories demonstrate Weiner’s amazing ability to find hope and humor, longing and love in the hidden corners of our common experiences.“Utterly readable.” —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette“Another delightful example of Jennifer Weiner’s tender way with words and emotions.” —Harper’s Bazaar“Very, very funny.” —Philadelphia Inquirer“Puts Weiner on the map as one of her generation’s best literary voices.” —The Boston HeraldSkinny Island: More Tales of Manhattan
By Louis Auchincloss. 1987
Twelve stories contemplating destiny and detailing the life of Manhattan’s upper class over the course of one hundred years, from…
the author of Honorable Men.It’s only twelve miles long and two miles wide, but it has more money for its area, more history packed into its relatively brief settlement, and more emotional and intellectual energy coursing through its streets than any other place on earth. Manhattan is the setting for all of Louis Auchincloss’s fiction, and it is the stage on which those New Yorkers whose roots go down to its bedrock play out the drama of their lives.From the turn of the century to our present urban follies, these stories follow the fortunes of the socially secure and powerful as they try to cope with the changes shaped by the momentous events and growing anxieties of recent decades. Taken together, the tales weave a larger pattern of human strengths and foibles that bemuses the mind and touches the heart.The elegant prose, crystalline dialogue, immense insight into the mores, preoccupations, and afflictions of the rich, and the connoisseur’s sense of both art and life that are characteristic of Auchincloss—all are here, but with a depth of passion and irony exceeding anything he has accomplished in the past.Praise for Skinny Island“Many of Auchincloss’ wealthy and Waspy protagonists, caught in such fine conflict, find it difficult to defend their dwindling kind or, conversely, to rebel against their confining values . . . . With this, his 40th book, Auchincloss has yet to exhaust his art, or his loyal readers.” —Kirkuks ReviewsThe Marquise of O -: And Other Stories
By Heinrich Kleist. 1978
In The Marquise of O-, a virtuous widow finds herself unaccountably pregnant. And although the baffled Marquise has no idea…
when this happened, she must prove her innocence to her doubting family and discover whether the perpetrator is an assailant or lover. Michael Kohlhaas depicts an honourable man who feels compelled to violate the law in his search for justice, while other tales explore the singular realm of the uncanny, such as The Beggarwoman of Locarno, in which an old woman's ghost drives a heartless nobleman to madness, and St Cecilia, which portrays four brothers possessed by an uncontrollable religious mania. The stories collected in this volume reflect the preoccupations of Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811) with the deceptiveness of human nature and the unpredictability of the physical world.Madwoman on the Bridge (Storycuts)
By Su Tong. 2008
The madwoman was wearing a white velvet cheongsam. Standing on the bridge, she revelled in her own faded splendour. Normal…
people pay no attention to madwomen, but one woman from Shaoxing stayed on the bridge that afternoon to talk to this one; what was she coveting?Part of the Storycuts series, this short story was previously published in the collection Madwoman on the Bridge.Madwoman On The Bridge And Other Stories
By Su Tong. 2008
Set during the fall-out of the Cultural Revolution, these bizarre and delicate stories capture the collision of the old China…
of vanished dynasties, with communism and today's tiger economy.The mad woman on the bridge wears a historical gown which she refuses to take off. In the height of summer she stands madly on the bridge. Until a young female doctor, bewitched by the beauty of the mad woman's dress, plots to take it from her, with tragic consequences.The Last Roman in Britain (Storycuts)
By M C Scott. 2011
With the Dumnonii defeat of the Second Legion the Celtic victory is complete. But Hywell, Cunomar and Valerius must still…
find the lost Eagle of the Second and prevent Rome from attempting another attack. To prevent further conflict the Emperor Nero must be overthrown and replaced by someone of their choosing.Part of the Storycuts series.Madame B's White Hot & Wild Whispers
By Ann Summers. 2007
In this second collection of sexy secrets as told to hostess Madame B, we discover a world of delicious and…
dangerous delights. No fantasy is too extreme, no indulgence or scenario off limits.Velvet Underground - an everyday Tube journey takes an erotic turn for a young womanDigits - the telephone provides the ultimate release for two strangersThe Magic Toyshop - a mysterious saleswoman opens a young customer's eyes to new pleasures Buckle My Shoe - Nick is an unashamed foot fetishist; but has he met his match?Hard Cell - the prisoner/guard relationship is taken to extremes of passionStatuesque - Englishwoman Kelly enjoys a very special midnight feast while on a cooking holiday in ItalyThe Lure of the Greasepaint - best friends Jade and Tania get closer than they ever expected as extras in an orgy sceneFourplay - on a second honeymoon in the Seychelles, Alex and Jessica meet attractive Australian couple Laura and Brad, and have a holiday they will never forgetThe Sinner - when her car breaks down, a reporter seeks shelter at a monastery, where she meets the shy Brother Michael...Rockstar 2 - model Anna Lamb and her rockstar boyfriend Joey love taking sexual risks in public, and at a masked club for the rich and famous they show everyone else what they're missing.With private indulgences stripped bare for all to see, Madame B's White Hot & Wild Whispers ensures that nothing remains a secret any more.The Man Who Would Be King: Selected Stories of Rudyard Kipling
By Rudyard Kipling. 2011
Rudyard Kipling is one of the most magical storytellers in the English language. This new selection brings together the best…
of his short writings, following the development of his work over fifty years. They take us from the harsh, cruel, vividly realized world of the 'Indian' stories that made his name, through the experimental modernism of his middle period to the highly-wrought subtleties of his later pieces. Including the tale of insanity and empire, 'The Man Who Would Be King', the high-spirited 'The Village that Voted the Earth Was Flat', the fable of childhood cruelty and revenge 'Baa Baa, Black Sheep', the menacing psychological study 'Mary Postgate' and the ambiguous portrayal of grief and mourning in 'The Gardener', here are stories of criminals, ghosts, femmes fatales, madness and murder.Fall in love with Jilly Cooper, one of Britain's most popular authors, in this wonderful collection of upbeat and hilarious…
short stories. Fans of Jojo Moyes, Marian Keyes, Dolly Alderton and Jane Fallon will love this perfect dose of escapism - guaranteed to have you laughing out loud!'The Jane Austen of our time' -- Harpers and Queen'I've read this book before and it never fails to delight me' -- ***** Reader review'Love it' -- ***** Reader review'Utterly fabulous' -- ***** Reader review'Charming' -- ***** Reader review'A real treat from start to finish' -- ***** Reader review**************************************************************************************From an author who has endeared herself to millions of readers and bewitched them all, comes a sparkling collection of love stories that are both moving and funny.As well as Lisa, we meet Hester, Julia, Helen and Caroline, and a host of other devastating girls, falling in and out of love, finding, losing (and often finding again sometimes in the most unexpected places) the men of their dreams.Lisa & Co could only have been written by the unique Jilly Cooper.The Masque of the Red Death: And Other Stories
By Edgar Allan Poe. 2008
In 'The Masque of the Red Death' and other tales of gothic horror, Edgar Allan Poe writes as no one…
else ever has of creeping, mounting terrors, of malevolent tormentors and of a mind's own sickening madness Outside the abbey's armoured walls, the common poor are ravaged by a grisly pestilence known as the 'Red Death', while within, safe and untroubled, the happy Prince Prospero hosts lavish entertainments. But, in their immodest comfort, the Prince and his guests are not as safe as they hope from the horrors of the outside world ...Lady Susan, the Watsons, Sanditon (Thrift Editions Ser.)
By Jane Austen. 2017
Collecting three lesser-known works by one of the nineteenth century's greatest authors, Jane Austen's Lady Susan, The Watsons and Sanditon…
is edited with an introduction by Margaret Drabble in Penguin Classics.These three short works show Austen experimenting with a variety of different literary styles, from melodrama to satire, and exploring a range of social classes and settings. The early epistolary novel Lady Susan depicts an unscrupulous coquette, toying with the affections of several men. In contrast, The Watsons is a delightful fragment, whose spirited heroine Emma Watson finds her marriage opportunities limited by poverty and pride. Written in the last months of Austen's life, the uncompleted novel Sanditon, set in a newly established seaside resort, offers a glorious cast of hypochondriacs and speculators, and shows an author contemplating a the great social upheavals of the Industrial Revolution with a mixture of scepticism and amusement.Margaret Drabble's introduction examines these three works in the context of Jane Austen's major novels and her life, and discusses the social background of her fiction. This edition features a new chronology.Jane Austen (1775-1817) was extremely modest about her own genius but has become one of English literature's most famous women writers. Austen began writing at a young age, embarking on what is possibly her best-known work, Pride and Prejudice, at the age of 22. She was also the author of Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park.If you enjoyed Lady Susan, The Watsons and Sanditon, you may like Charlotte Brontë's Tales of Angria, also available in Penguin Classics.'In [Sanditon] she exploits her greatest gifts, her management of dialogue and her skill with monologue. The book feels open and modern ... as vigorous and inventive as her earlier work'Carol ShieldsLady Macbeth of Mtsensk And Other Stories
By Nikolai Leskov. 1987
Five great stories from one of the most quintessentially Russian of writers, Nikolai Leskov.In the best of Leskov's stories, as…
in almost no others apart from those of Gogol, we can hear the voice of nineteenth-century Russia. An outsider by birth and instinct, Leskov is one of the most undeservedly neglected figures in Russian literature. He combined a profoundly religious spirit with a fascination for crime, an occasionally lurid imagination and a great love for the Russian vernacular. This volume includes five of his greatest stories, including the masterful Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov was born in 1831 in Gorokhovo, Oryol Province and was orphaned early. In 1860 he became a journalist and moved to Petersburg where he published his first story. He subsequently wrote a number of folk legends and Christmas tales, along with a few anti-nihilistic novels which resulted in isolation from the literary circles of his day. He died in 1895.David McDuff is a translator of Russian and Nordic literature. His translations of nineteenth and twentieth century Russian prose classics (including works by Dostoyevsky,Tolstoy, Bely and Babel) are published by Penguin.The Lady in the Looking Glass (Penguin Modern Classics)
By Virginia Woolf. 2011
'People should not leave looking-glasses hanging in their rooms any more than they should leave open cheque books or letters…
confessing some hideous crime.''If she concealed so much and knew so much one must prize her open with the first tool that came to hand - the imagination.'Virginia Woolf's writing tested the boundaries of modern fiction, exploring the depths of human consciousness and creating a new language of sensation and thought. Sometimes impressionistic, sometimes experimental, sometimes brutally cruel, sometimes surprisingly warm and funny, these five stories describe love lost, friendships formed and lives questioned.This book includes The Lady in the Looking Glass, A Society, The Mark on the Wall, Solid Objects and Lappin and Lapinova.The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories
By Leo Tolstoy. 2004
'The Kreutzer Sonata' is the self-lacerating confession of a man consumed by sexual jealousy and eaten up by shame and…
eventually driven to murder his wife. The story caused a sensation when it first appeared and Tolstoy's wife was appalled that he had drawn on their own experiences together to create a scathing indictment of marriage. 'The Devil', centring on a young man torn between his passion for a peasant girl and his respectable life with his loving wife, also illustrates the impossibility of pure love. 'The Forged Coupon' shows how an act of corruption can spiral out of control, and 'After the Ball' examines the abuse of power. Written during a time of spiritual crisis in Tolstoy's life, these late stories reflect a world of moral uncertainties.Katie Morag Of Course!
By Mairi Hedderwick. 2011
Those who have loved the Katie Morag picture books will be delighted to see that Struay's endearing heroine is back…
in this collection of three ilustrated stories for older children - ideal for building reading confidence.In Saturday Sweets Katie Morag and Liam can't decide which sweets to give Granny Island as a present but they do decide that the best way to make up their minds is to taste all the sweets themselves.In The Pony and the Hamster Katie Morag is thrilled when Granny Island gets a pony called Eriska, but Katie and her friend Agnes soon find out that looking after a pet is a big responsibility. And in The Camping Holiday Katie Morag and the Big Boy Cousins find themselves stranded by the tide but luckily Eriska is on hand to save the day.The Lagoon (Little Clothbound Classics)
By Joseph Conrad. 2023
Introducing Little Clothbound Classics: irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by…
the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith.Celebrating the range and diversity of Penguin Classics, they take us from snowy Japan to springtime Vienna, from haunted New England to a sun-drenched Mediterranean island, and from a game of chess on the ocean to a love story on the moon. Beautifully designed and printed, these collectible editions are bound in colourful, tactile cloth and stamped with foil.On sea, on land, at the edges of the colonial experience, Joseph Conrad's short stories offer a glimpse of the violence, the kindness, and the mystery at humanity's heart. 'The Lagoon' tells of love and its shadow, 'The Typhoon' of the gap between man and nature, while 'The Secret Sharer' provides a brilliant exploration of truth and trust.Kolyma Tales (Penguin Modern Classics)
By Varlan Shalamov. 1980
It is estimated that some three million people died in the Soviet forced-labour camps of Kolyma, in the northeastern area…
of Siberia. Shalamov himself spent seventeen years there, and in these stories he vividly captures the lives of ordinary people caught up in terrible circumstances, whose hopes and plans extended to further than a few hours This new enlarged edition combines two collections previously published in the United States as Kolyma Tales and Graphite.The Jungle Books
By Rudyard Kipling. 2013
The story of the man-cub Mowgli who is raised by wolves in the Indian jungle, guided by his mentors Baloo…
the bear, Bagheera the black panther and the ancient python Kaa, and who confronts his arch-enemy Shere Khan the tiger, is one of the greatest literary myths ever created. Mowgli's adventures are juxtaposed with other animal stories set in the British Empire, ranging from the heroic battle of 'Rikki-tikki-tavi' and the Himalayan pastoral 'Purun Bhagat' to the drama of survival in 'The White Seal'. With The Jungle Books Rudyard Kipling drew on ancient beast fables, Buddhist philosophy and memories of his Anglo-Indian upbringing to create a rich, symbolic portrait of man and nature, and an eternal classic of childhood that has had a lasting impact on our imaginations.Part of a series of new editions of Kipling's works in Penguin Classics, this volume contains a General Preface by Jan Montefiore and an introduction by Kaori Nagai discussing the many imperial, Indian and literary contexts of The Jungle Books.The Lady with the Little Dog and Other Stories, 1896-1904
By Anton Chekhov. 2002
In the final years of his life, Chekhov had reached the height of his powers as a dramatist, and also…
produced some of the stories that rank among his masterpieces. The poignant 'The Lady with the Little Dog' and 'About Love' examine the nature of love outside of marriage - its romantic idealism and the fear of disillusionment. And in stories such as 'Peasants', 'The House with the Mezzanine' and 'My Life' Chekhov paints a vivid picture of the conditions of the poor and of their powerlessness in the face of exploitation and hardship. With the works collected here, Chekhov moved away from the realism of his earlier tales - developing a broader range of characters and subject matter, while forging the spare minimalist style that would inspire such modern short-story writers as Hemingway and Faulkner.I am a Chechen!
By German Sadulaev. 2006
I Am a Chechen! offers a lyrical fusion of exotic legends, stories and memories of Chechnya: a land of wondrous…
beauty, site of genocides past and present, and the author's ancestral home.Haunted by memories of the land he deserted, Sadulaev tells the stories of those who stayed behind. He brings dead friends back to life again, revisiting their first loves, their passion for rock music, their quests for martyrdom. And he immerses us in the intoxicating beauty of his homeland's mountains, blossoms and the flocks of migratory swallows that fill its skies. This is an intensely personal journey through the carnage of the war, exploring the pain, the challenge, and above all the meaning of being a Chechen.