Short Classics

The grand-prize winner of a writing contest sponsored by the Philadelphia Dollar Newspaper, "The Gold-Bug" was one of Poe's most popular stories during his lifetime. Similar to his ratiocination tales - early versions of what we now call detective fiction - "The Gold-Bug" is full of mystery and adventure and includes a cryptogram, invisible ink, a scarab-like bug, and pirate treasure.

The Book of Wonder is one of the most important books in the lineage of fantasy fiction. It introduced themes that Lord Dunsany worked with for the rest of his career, which created tropes that you'll recognise as if you've read and loved this book many times before.

A wonderful collection of 50 of the best classic ghost stories ever written. 'The Missing Model' by Lettice Galbraith, 'Pomegranate Seed' by Edith Wharton, 'The Screaming Skull' by F. Marion Crawford, 'The Ghost in the Cupboard Room' by Wilkie Collins, 'The Shadow on the Blind' by Louisa Baldwin, 'A Ghost's Revenge' by Lettice Galbraith, 'The Lost Ghost' by Mary Wilkins-Freeman, 'On the Northern Ice' by Elia W. Peattie, 'The Cold Embrace' by Mary E. Braddon, 'The Dust Cloud' by E. F. Benson, and many more.

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...

This bundle contains two audiobooks: Classic Fairy Tales Collection 1 and Collection 2. There are nine classic tales in collection 1 and 17 classic tales in collection 2. So, you’ll get total of 26 classic tales with this bundle.

In The Young King, Oscar Wilde weaves a luminous and moving moral fable about beauty, power, and compassion. On the eve of his coronation, a boy—raised as a humble shepherd—dreams three haunting visions that reveal the human suffering behind the treasures prepared for his crown and robe. Confronted with the truth that luxury is purchased by the toil and pain of others, he awakens transformed in spirit.

Guy de Maupassant today remains among France's renowned short story masters. He excels at recounting the banal daily lives of Frenchmen, which yet reveal deep moral truths. The first of these three classic tales is Boule de Suif, which relates the desperate attempts of several French citizens intent on escaping the rule of invading Prussian forces. The coach heading for Havre is conveying people of varying classes—nobility, rich and merchant—to a woman of comfort, whose heart and dignity prove larger than any of her fellow passengers'.

Widely acclaimed as a progenitor of 20th-century Latin American fiction, Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839-1908), the son of a mulatto father and a washerwoman, was hailed in his lifetime as Brazil's greatest writer. His prodigious output of novels, plays, and stories rivaled contemporaries like Chekhov, Flaubert, and Maupassant, but, shockingly, he was barely translated into English until 1963, and still lacks proper recognition today.

“Bewitching … Tokarczuk is an excellent storyteller.” —The New York Times A novel about the rich stories of small places, from the Nobel Prize–winning, New York Times bestselling author of The Books of Jacob and Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead A woman settles in a remote...

The Complete Jane Austen Collection includes all six novels, and Austen's shorter works; Lady Susan, The Watsons, Sandition, and her complete Juvenilia. Jane Austen is famous for her six novels, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion. Her works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature. Her realism, biting irony and social commentary as well as her acclaimed plots have gained her historical importance among scholars and critics.

Filled with the power of love and the beauty of nature, Heidi is a lyrical tale about a little girl sent to live in the mountains of the Swiss Alps with her grandfather. A grumpy recluse, her grandfather has isolated himself from his fellow townspeople and his church. In very little time, Heidi warms his heart; and she quickly charms the whole town and makes new friends, including young Peter, the goatherd. But when Heidi is sent away again to care for a young girl her own age, she must grow wise beyond her years.

Frank Pettingell, Emma Hignett, Siobhan McKenna and Boris Karloff read eight short stories by the literary greats, including Poe, Kipling, Defoe, Chekov, and Wilde.

Brillante y con tintes fantásticos como un Grimm, realista como un O. Henry o despiadado como un Saki, sus historias fueron adaptadas por Alfred Hitchcock para la televisión, y han inspirado a creadores como Steven Spielberg o Quentin Tarantino.

Œuvre la plus connue de Stefan Zweig, cette nouvelle relate une partie d'échecs durant laquelle un inconnu oppose une résistance inattendue à l'un des grands champions de la discipline. Mais qui est cet homme dont on apprendra plus tard qu'il fut prisonnier du régime nazi ? Comment fait-il pour jouer si bien aux échecs ?

Flamboyant, theatrical and ambitious, Margaret Cavendish was one of the 17th century's most striking figures: a woman who ventured into the male spheres of politics, science, philosophy and literature. The Blazing World is a highly original work: part Utopian fiction, part feminist text, it tells of a lady shipwrecked on the Blazing World where she is made empress and uses her power to ensure that it is free of war, religious division and unfair sexual discrimination. This volume also includes 'The Contract' and 'Assaulted and Pursued Chastity'.

A holiday short story anthology with some favorite Austenesque authors, Yuletide is inspired by Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice and the spirit of the season. Regency and contemporary alike, each romance was dreamt to spark love, humor, and wonder while you dawdle over a hot cup of tea this Christmas.

Murder comes in two familiar forms. Whether as a crime of passion with high emotions or a cold dispassionate plot to take life in order to gain in some way, the act strikes us all as somehow inhuman. Beneath us as civilised beings. But however we cloak our animal instincts the need to remove a human being and gain relief from abuse or gain from money, the term is just the same – MURDER. Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle, J M Barrie, W W Jacobs and many others bring their literary heft to bear in as calculating a way as any killer could.

The bloody-minded Montresor leads the pompous Fortunato deep into the catacombs, seeking the famed Amontillado wine. Here we have one of Poe’s most terrifying, and most “beloved” tales. Revenge and pomposity commingle beneath the river’s bed, leading to a delightfully sinister conclusion.

The Call of Cthulhu", written in 1926, is probably Lovecraft's best-known work. Discovering notes left by a deceased relative, the narrator pieces together the whole truth and disturbing significance of the Cthulhu cult. This release also contains the shorter tales "The Festival" and "The Hound", in which gravediggers bring home more than they bargained for!

A cosmic collection of bone-chilling and terrifying short horror stories by Laurie Blake.