English Classic Short Stories

Multi award-winning narrator Carrington MacDuffie brings her signature depth and wit to this delightful collection of Edith Wharton’s New York Stories: Volume II.

In Ma’ame Pelagie, two women inhabit the ruins of their coastal Louisiana plantation, hoarding their pennies so they can restore it to its pre-Civil war glory. Ma’am Pelagie and her younger sister, Pauline sip coffee on the veranda and share stories about the house’s glorious past and their own narrow escape from danger during the war. When their niece arrives from the city for a visit, the sisters are compelled to make a hard choice about the once proud Valmet estate.

Hoffmann, among the greatest and most popular of the German Romantics, is renowned for his humorous and sometimes horrifying tales of supernatural beings. This selection, while stressing the variety of his work, focuses on those stories in which the real and the supernatural are brought into contact and conflict. This new translation includes The Golden Pot, The Sandman, Princess Brambilla, Master Flea, and My Cousin's Corner Window.

English literature may very well be the greatest body of imaginative writing the world has yet seen. The human experience has been understood, interpreted, and conveyed by writers of genius in a tradition stretching through six or more centuries, from Chaucer to Philip Larking, from Defoe to William Golding.

In The Locket, a confederate soldier declines his fellow soldiers’ request to reveal the contents of the locket around his neck. The locket, which holds pictures of his fiancée’s parents and the date of their wedding is found on the battlefield after a battle. Later, the soldier’s fiancée visits the battlefield with the soldier’s father, both shaken with grief. The soldier’s father asks his son’s fiancée to remove her veil, as it contrasts too sharply with the beautiful day and adds that on such a day miracles seem ready to happen.

In The Kiss, a beautiful young woman, Nathalie, has decided to marry the unattractive and uninteresting but very wealthy Mr. Brantain. When an old friend kisses her passionately in front of Mr. Brantain, Nathalie must control the damage done by this kiss in order to reassure Mr. Brantain. This done, the relieved Mr. Brantain proposes to her. At their wedding, her old friend appears and suggests another kiss. Has Nathalie arranged matters perfectly? Or not?

This new Cyanide Publishing edition contains three classic audiobooks by Maurice LeBlanc as well as background articles.Follow the exploits of Arsene Lupin, the greatest of all white-glove thieves and the original gentleman burglar. Mystery and tension build, but humor prevails throughout as Monsieur Lupin and Chief Inspector Guerchard try mightily to outwit each other. Slapstick humor, witty asides, and some unexpected twists.

In A Pair of Silk Stockings, Mrs. Sommers, a once wealthy woman who has fallen on hard times comes into possession of a small fortune of $15. Planning to spend the money on clothing for her children, she becomes sidetracked at a shop counter, entranced by the smoothness of a pair of silk stockings. She goes on to spend the money on the stockings as well as new boots and gloves for herself.

In Désirée’s Baby, the adopted daughter of a wealthy prewar French Creole couple is courted by the son of another wealthy, respected French Creole family. After they marry, their child is born with dark skin and believed to have African ancestry, a problem for a prewar white family. Accused of dishonesty by her husband, the mother, Désirée, and her child walk off into the bayou, never to be seen again. But when the father finds a letter from his mother to his father which reveals an explosive fact about his own ancestry, he learns a sobering truth.

The Dead Witness gathers the finest adventures among private and police detectives from the 19th century and into the early 20th - including a wide range of overlooked gems creating the finest ever anthology of Victorian detective stories. "The Dead Witness", the 1866 title story by Australian writer Mary Fortune, is the first known detective story by a woman, a suspenseful clue-strewn manhunt in the Outback. This forgotten treasure sets the tone for the whole anthology....

Young Alice leads an ordinary sort of life until, one day, she follows a rabbit down a hole and embarks on a series of adventures with some of the most weird and wonderful characters anyone has ever encountered! She soon discovers that nothing is ordinary in Wonderland, least of all the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, the Cheshire Cat, the Duchess, and the Mock Turtle.

In this romance anthology, 10 Austenesque authors sketch Pride and Prejudice heroine Elizabeth Bennet's character through a collection of re-imaginings, set in the Regency through contemporary times. In Elizabeth: Obstinate, Headstrong Girl, she bares her most intimate thoughts, all the while offering biting social commentary about life’s absurdities. Elizabeth overcomes the obstacles of others’ opinions, not to mention her own flaws, to find a love truly worthy of her - her Mr. Darcy - all with humor and her sparkling charm.

A spine-tingling collection of weird and wonderful horror stories, featuring ghosts, curses, strange phenomena, ghouls, black magic, and demonic apparitions. Do you dare to listen?

In the realm of narrative literature, the appeal of the short story is that it provides nearly immediate satisfaction. Here is a collection of wonderful classic short stories by such great authors as Saki, James Joyce, Katherine Mansfield and Kate Chopin.

Dramatisations and readings of EM Forster’s finest works, plus Stephen Wakelam’s radio play A Dose of Fame and the documentary feature Forster in India: Sex, Books and Empire One of the greatest English novelists of the 20th century, EM Forster was also an accomplished short story writer...

A collection of some of the greatest short stories ever written, including works by Kate Chopin, Franz Kafka, Saki, and Katherine Mansfield. Includes: 'A Pair of Silk Stockings', 'A Hunger Artist', 'The Yellow Paint', 'The Model Millionaire', 'The Singing Lesson', 'The Ambitious Guest', 'Tobermory', 'Up in the Gallery', 'Wakefield', and 'The Quince Tree'.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR From the renowned author of “The Lottery” and The Haunting of Hill House, a spectacular volume of previously unpublished and uncollected stories, essays, and other writings. Features “Family Treasures,” nominated for the Edgar Award for...

Wild mustangs, ghosts on the ranch, gun-toting outlaws and trailblazing cowboys roam the pages of this collection of 8 classic stories about the American frontier. Travel down "The Road to Hell" with a mysterious ranch builder, face down the "Yellow Devil" mountain lion, travel "Where the Wind Blows Free," and join in on a herd of other adventures that will keep you reading until long after high noon.

The novels of Jane Austen have been celebrated for centuries. In this unique collection, listeners will be able to experience her wit, irony, and social commentary at its best.

The four stories in this compilation, not by James, are meant to serve as prime illustrations of the best work of a few of his contemporaries and immediate antecedents.