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Wonder Tales: Six Stories of Enchantment
By Marina Warner. 1994
Marina Warner has gathered together a magical collection of fairy tales by the great women storytellers of the 17th and…
18th centuries. These are passionate, extraordinary, and occasionally proto-feminist retellings of classic fairy stories by women who ingeniously used the fairy tale genre to comment on their own times and experiences. The stories are all in superb new translations by celebrated writers, including A. S. Byatt, Gilbert Adair and John Ashbery. With a brilliant intorduction by Marina Warner, recognised as one of our greatest experts on myth and fairy tale.Wrong Time, Wrong Place (Quick Reads 2013 #1)
By Simon Kernick. 2013
A gripping Quick Read from the master of the race against time thriller.Have you ever been in the wrong place…
at the wrong time?You are hiking in the Scottish highlands with three friends when you come across a girl.She is half-naked, has been badly beaten, and she can’t speak English.She is clearly running away from someone.Do you stop to help her? Even if it means putting your friends’ lives – and your own - in terrible danger?The Withered Arm and Other Stories 1874-1888
By Thomas Hardy. 1999
"See if she is dark or fair, and if you can, notice if her hands be white; if not, see…
if they look as though she had ever done housework, or are milker's hands like mine."So Rhoda Brook, the abandoned mistress of Farmer Lodge, is jealous to discover details of his new bride in 'The Withered Arm', the title story in this selection of Hardy's finest short stories. Hardy's first story, 'Destiny and a Blue Cloak' was written fresh from the success of Far From the Madding Crowd. Beautiful in their own right, these stories are also testing-grounds for the novels in their controversial sexual politics, their refusal of romance structures, and their elegiac pursuit of past, lost loves. Several of the stories in The Withered Arm were collected to form the famous volume, Wessex Tales (1888), the first time Hardy denoted 'Wessex' to describe his fictional world. The Withered Arm is the first of a new two-volume selection of Hardy's short stories, edited with an introduction and notes by Kristin Brady.The Wisdom of Father Brown (The father Brown Stories Ser. #2)
By G K Chesterton. 2014
The second volume of stories featuring the most unlikely detective in literature - now the basis for a major BBC…
TV adaptation starring Mark Williams. The ingenious amateur detective Father Brown is put to the test again in this second collection of stories, which sees him solve cases featuring bandits, traitors, voodoo and murder, wrong-footing his opponents at every turn with his characteristic blend of mischievous humour and uncanny understanding of human foibles.G. K. Chesterton was born in 1874. He attended the Slade School of Art, where he appears to have suffered a nervous breakdown, before turning his hand to journalism. A prolific writer throughout his life, his best- known books include The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1922), The Man Who Was Thursday (1908) and the Father Brown stories. Chesterton converted to Roman Catholicism in 1922 and died in 1938.Wild Places: Selected Stories
By Katherine Mansfield. 2023
A beautiful new hardback edition of Katherine Mansfield's most vivid and distinctive stories.Katherine Mansfield was the only writer Virginia Woolf…
envied. Mansfield transformed the short story genre with her work, creating stories miraculous in their intensity yet seemingly so simple. The shift of a heart, the beat of a moment, the changing of the light: in these stories emotional universes are contained within glimpses.Mansfield only lived to the age of 34 but in that time wrote stories true to her indomitable spirit. A hundred years on from her death, Mansfield's biographer, Claire Harman, has created this new selection to show us the master of the short story form in full flight.WITH A FOREWORD BY HELEN SIMPSON AND INTRODUCTION BY CLAIRE HARMAN'There is something rapturous about her work...she has the power to distil the apparently inconsequential into frozen moments laden with significance' Guardian'Would you not like to try all sorts of lives - one is so very small - but that is the satisfaction of writing - one can impersonate so many people' Katherine MansfieldWho Among Us? (Penguin Modern Classics)
By Mario Benedetti. 2019
'This novel is a jewel ... one of those books that enters the soul, which it is impossible not to…
be conquered by. It is a masterpiece like few others' Huffington PostMiguel and Alicia fall quietly in love as teenagers, walking back from school together. When Lucas - enigmatic, charismatic - arrives, everything changes, and Miguel is certain he has lost Alicia. Yet, against the odds, she marries him. Now, eleven years later, their marriage has begun to fray, and Alicia sets out to see Lucas again. As each member of this strange love triangle tells their side of what happened, an unforgettable story of desire, deception and tragic misunderstanding unfolds.The White People and Other Weird Stories (Penguin Modern Classics)
By Arthur Machen. 2011
Machen's weird tales of the creepy and fantastic finally come to Penguin Classics. With an introduction from S.T. Joshi, editor…
of American Supernatural Tales, The White People and Other Weird Stories is the perfect introduction to the father of weird fiction. The title story "The White People" is an exercise in the bizarre leaving the reader disoriented and on edge. From the first page, Machen turns even fundamental truths upside-down, as his character Ambrose explains, "there have been those who have sounded the very depths of sin, who all their lives have never done an 'ill deed'" setting the stage for a tale entirely without logic.Vathek and Other Stories
By Malcolm Jack, William Beckford. 1993
Beckford's Gothic novel Vathek, an Arabian tale, was originally written in French when the author was twenty-one. Published in English…
in 1786, it was one of the most successful of the oriental tales then in fashion. This edition makes available to a new generation of scholars and general readers, the originality of Beckford's ideas, and the excellence of his prose.Ward No. 6 and Other Stories, 1892-1895
By Anton Chekhov. 2002
These stories from the middle period of Chekhov's career show him exploring complex, ambiguous and often extreme emotions. Influenced by…
his own experiences as a doctor, 'Ward No. 6', set in a mental hospital, is a savage indictment of the medical profession. 'The Black Monk', portraying an academic who has strange hallucinations, explores ideas of genius and insanity; in 'Murder', religious fervour leads to violence; while in 'The Student', Chekhov's favourite story, a young man recounts a tale from the gospels and undergoes a spiritual epiphany. In all the stories collected here, Chekhov's characters face madness, alienation and frustration before they experience brief, ephemeral moments of insight, often earned at great cost, where they confront the reality of their existence.Candide And Other Stories (Oxford World's Classics Ser.)
By Voltaire, Roger Pearson. 2008
Candide is the most famous of Voltaire's "philosophical tales," in which he combined witty improbabilities with the sanest of good…
sense. First published in 1759, it was an instant bestseller and has come to be regarded as one of the key texts of the Enlightenment. What Candide does for chivalric romance, the other tales in this selection--Micromegas, Zadig, The Ingenu, and The White Bull--do for science fiction, the Oriental tale, the sentimental novel, and the Old Testament. The most extensive one-volume selection currently available, this new edition includes a new verse translation of the story Voltaire based on Chaucer's The Wife of Bath's Tale: What Pleases the Ladies and opens with a revised introduction that reflects recent critical debates, including a new section on Candide.Grandmother's Tale and Selected Stories
By R. K. Narayan. 1994
"It is not too much to compare Mr. Narayan to Chekhov." -The New York TimesThere is no better introduction to…
R.K. Narayan than this remarkable collection of stories celebrating work that spans five decades. Characters include a storyteller whose magical source of tales dries up, a love-stricken husband who is told by astrologers he must sleep with a prostitute to save his dying wife, a pampered child who discovers that his beloved uncle may be an impostor or even a murderer. Standing supreme amid this rich assortment of stories is the title novella. Told by the narrator's grandmother, the tale recounts the adventures of her mother, married at seven and then abandoned, who crosses the subcontinent to extract her husband from the hands of his new wife. Her courage is immense and her will implacable -- but once her mission is completed, her independence vanishes. Gentle irony, wryly drawn characters, and themes at once Indian and universal mark these humane stories, which firmly establish Narayan as one of the world's preeminant storytellers.Adverbs: A Novel
By Daniel Handler. 2006
Hello.I am Daniel Handler, the author of this book. Did you know that authors often write the summaries that appear…
on their book's dust jacket? You might want to think about that the next time you read something like, "A dazzling page-turner, this novel shows an internationally acclaimed storyteller at the height of his astonishing powers."Adverbs is a novel about love -- a bunch of different people, in and out of different kinds of love. At the start of the novel, Andrea is in love with David -- or maybe it's Joe -- who instead falls in love with Peter in a taxi. At the end of the novel, it's Joe who's in the taxi, falling in love with Andrea, although it might not be Andrea, or in any case it might not be the same Andrea, as Andrea is a very common name. So is Allison, who is married to Adrian in the middle of the novel, although in the middle of the ocean she considers a fling with Keith and also with Steve, whom she meets in an automobile, unless it's not the same Allison who meets the Snow Queen in a casino, or the same Steve who meets Eddie in the middle of the forest. . . . It might sound confusing, but that's love, and as the author -- me -- says, "It is not the nouns. The miracle is the adverbs, the way things are done." This novel is about people trying to find love in the ways it is done before the volcano erupts and the miracle ends. Yes, there's a volcano in the novel. In my opinion a volcano automatically makes a story more interesting.Cruisin': A Short Story
By Sarah Mlynowski. 2009
From the critically acclaimed author of Ten Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn't Have) and the Magic in Manhattan series…
comes a fun short story about taking the plunge on the high seas, where not everything is what it seems.Kristin is ready to take the next step. . . . The only problem is she hasn't found the right guy to take it with her. That's why she agreed to go on the ominously named Cruise to Nowhere with her best friend, Liz. There are plenty of cute guys on the ship to choose from if only Kristin can work up the nerve—and stop worrying about the reports in the tabloids that passengers on cruises have been mysteriously disappearing and that someone suspects it has to do with . . . vampires.Epic Reads Impulse is a digital imprint with new releases each month.Limbo, and Other Places I Have Lived: Short Stories
By Lily Tuck. 2002
In an elegant and penetrating first short-story collection, Limbo, and Other Places I Have Lived, Lily Tuck's characters travel to…
unknown, exotic places and, while there, find themselves deeply immersed in observation -- of the natives, the local customs, the foreign landscape -- in an effort to discern some elemental truth about who they themselves are. Instead, these women meet with disorientation, confusion; they are disappointed by the people closest to them -- lovers, husbands, family members. Finally, they arrive at the sometimes heartbreaking but ultimately optimistic realization that the answers they seek lie not in other people or places but within themselves. Limbo, and Other Places I Have Lived is a brilliant collection from a writer of exceptional poise and insight.The Artist of Disappearance: Three Novellas
By Anita Desai. 2011
Finalist for the Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction&“The excellent strength [the novellas] share is a gracefulness and dreamlike sonority, reminiscent of…
writers like Jhumpa Lahiri and W.G. Sebald, wherein strange evolutions of solitary lives are the rule, and readers are held by the stately, hypnotic dignity of the voice that tells them.&” – San Francisco ChronicleSet in modern India, these three novellas move beyond the cities to places still haunted by the past, and to characters who are, each in their own way, masters of self-effacement. An unnamed government official is called upon to inspect a faded mansion of forgotten treasures where he discovers a surprise "relic." A translator blurs the line between writer and translator, and in so doing risks unraveling her desires and achievements. In the title novella, a hermit hidden away in the woods with a secret is discovered by a film crew, which compels him to withdraw even further until he magically disappears . . . Rich and evocative, remarkable in their clarity and sensuous in their telling, these novellas remind us of the extraordinary yet delicate power of this pre-eminent writer. &“Desai, at her best, offers enchanting, subtle, and deeply observed portraits of layered characters trapped between worlds.&” – Daily Beast&“Lingers in the memory the same way these landscapes and people of India prove impossible to forget.&” – Boston GlobeTranslator Translated: A Novella
By Anita Desai. 2011
Distraught by her own lack of accomplishment -- especially in comparison to that of a childhood rival who has become…
a famous and successful publisher -- a middle-aged woman has the opportunity of a lifetime: to translate the work of an unknown literary star and, in the process, impress the woman she most admires.The Museum of Final Journeys: A Novella
By Anita Desai. 2011
Disappointed by his professional and social position, an entitled and officious junior civil servant imagines that his life will change…
when a mysterious old man promises to lead him to a museum filled with priceless treasures.In this very special anthology of beautifully poetic short stories, thirty distinguished authors and illustrators explore the unique and varied…
meanings of home. Their touching words and magnificent art affirm the importance—and joy—of having a place to call one’s own.Culturally diverse, multi-representative, and socially inclusive, this book is nourishment for the young soul.At a time when displacement and homelessness remain painfully present in our society, this classic anthology is indispensable. The distinguished contributors to this collection include:Franz BrandenbergMimi BrodskyLucille CliftonVirginia HamiltonJamake HighwaterKarla KuskinMyra Cohn LivingstonLiz RosenbergCynthia RylantJon ScieszkaLaurence YepJane YolenArthur YorinksAlikiKaren BarbourPat CummingsLisa DesiminiLeo and Diane DillonRichard EgielskiSheila HamanakaJames MarshallJerry PinkneyVladimir RadunskyJames RansomeAminah RobinsonMarc SimontLane SmithMary SzilagyiVera B. WilliamsHome can be. . .playing on the stoop of your building,sitting in your grandmother’s kitchen,or hiding under your back porch stairs.Screen Tests: Stories and Other Writing
By Kate Zambreno. 2019
Best Book of 2019: Nylon, Domino, Bustle, Book Riot, Buzzfeed, Vol. 1 BrooklynA new work equal parts observational micro-fiction and…
cultural criticism reflecting on the dailiness of life as a woman and writer, on fame and failure, aging and art, from the acclaimed author of Heroines, Green Girl, and O Fallen Angel.In the first half of Kate Zambreno’s astoundingly original collection Screen Tests, the narrator regales us with incisive and witty swatches from a life lived inside a brilliant mind, meditating on aging and vanity, fame and failure, writing and writers, along with portraits of everyone from Susan Sontag to Amal Clooney, Maurice Blanchot to Louise Brooks. The series of essays that follow, on figures central to Zambreno’s thinking, including Kathy Acker, David Wojnarowicz, and Barbara Loden, are manifestoes about art, that ingeniously intersect and chime with the stories that came before them."If Thomas Bernhard's and Fleur Jaeggy's work had a charming, slightly misanthropic baby—with Diane Arbus as nanny—it would be Screen Tests. Kate Zambreno turns her precise and meditative pen toward a series of short fictions that are anything but small. The result is a very funny, utterly original look at cultural figures and tropes and what it means to be a human looking at humans.”—Amber Sparks“In Screen Tests, a voice who both is and is not the author picks up a thread and follows it wherever it leads, leaping from one thread to another without quite letting go, creating a delicate and ephemeral and wonderful portrait of how a particular mind functions. Call them stories (after Lydia Davis), reports (after Gerald Murnane), or screen tests (inventing a new genre altogether like Antoine Volodine). These are marvelously fugitive pieces, carefully composed while giving the impression of being effortless, with a quite lovely Calvino-esque lightness, that are a joy to try to keep up with.”—Brian EvensonThe Topiary Garden
By Janni Howker. 1993
One of the most remarkable short stories in Janni Howker's BADGER ON THE BARGE is THE TOPIARY GARDEN, currently under…
option for filming It is the evocative, timeless story of Sally Beck, and the circumstances which led her to become Jack, the gardener's boy, working amongst the topiary bushes of a great country house garden. This powerful story has such impact for readers of any age that we are publishing it in a separate edition, with specially commissioned full colour paintings by Anthony Browne