Voted by the British Crime Writers’ Association as the ""Best Crime Novel of all Time"" Hercule Poirot comes out of retirement in one of Agatha Christie’s ten favorite novels, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. Roger Ackroyd knew too much. He knew that the woman he loved had poisoned her brutal first husband. He suspected also that someone had been blackmailing her. Then, tragically, came the news that she had taken her own life with an apparent drug overdose. However the evening post brought Roger one last fatal scrap of information, but before he could finish reading the letter, he was stabbed to death. Luckily one of Roger’s friends and the newest resident to retire to this normally quiet village takes over—none other than Monsieur Hercule Poirot.

Hercule Poirot Mysteries

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

This newly discovered story by literary legend Sylvia Plath stands on its own and is remarkable for its symbolic, allegorical approach to a young woman’s rebellion against convention and forceful taking control of her own life. Written while Sylvia Plath was a student at Smith College in 1952, Mary Ventura and The Ninth Kingdom tells the story of a young woman’s fateful train journey. Lips the color of blood, the sun an unprecedented orange, train wheels that sound like “guilt, and guilt, and guilt”: these are just some of the things Mary Ventura begins to notice on her journey to the ninth kingdom. “But what is the ninth kingdom?” she asks a kind-seeming lady in her carriage. “It is the kingdom of the frozen will,” comes the reply. “There is no going back.” Sylvia Plath’s strange, dark tale of female agency and independence, written not long after she herself left home, grapples with mortality in motion.

Mary Ventura and The Ninth Kingdom

Thriller - romanzo breve (82 pagine) - Tutte le famiglie si fondano su un malinteso. Anche quella di Pierina e Antonio, uccisi durante una tentata rapina in villa finita male. Agata Cristi, un nome che evoca il giallo, che cela misteri anche se non si tratta della famosa giallista ma di una libraia. Cos’hanno in comune? La stessa capacità di trovarsi coinvolti in un delitto. Federica Marchetti è scrittrice, freelance, webmaster e art director. È nata a Viterbo il 28 gennaio del 1966: nello stesso giorno, nel 1547, moriva re Enrico VIII Tudor e nel 1813 veniva pubblicato Orgoglio e pregiudizio di Jane Austen. Ha esordito poco più che ventenne con la poesia. Si è laureata in Lingue e Letterature Straniere Moderne con una tesi su Léo Malet. Nel 2000 ha creato la fanzine sul giallo Il Gatto Nero. Oltre a collaborare con siti e riviste con articoli, recensioni e interviste, ha organizzato e curato numerosi (oltre 200) incontri culturali tra cui due edizioni della rassegna Viterbo in Giallo. Nella sua città collabora con Caffeina Cultura, cura club di lettura e organizza cene con delitto scrivendone anche i testi. È autrice di narrativa, di saggistica e di un curioso libro autobiografico.

Delos Crime

Chi ha paura di Agata Cristi?

L'amore è per Hesse un'incessante ricerca esistenziale, uno stato di grazia dello spirito e dei sensi che abbraccia il mondo intero. In un crescendo di intensità e profondità, i testi qui raccolti esplorano tre grandi variazioni sul tema: l'amore adolescenziale, l'esperienza amorosa matura, l'amore per l'umanità.

Sull'amore

Dall'Apocalissi festosa de L'ultimo capodanno dell'umanità alle peripezie del picciotto Albertino protagonista di Fango, i racconti di Niccolò Ammaniti mettono in scena i nuovi eroi di un'umanità borderline e metropolitana, capace di passare con leggerezza da una modesta aspirazione a un efferato delitto. Sono racconti che mescolano tutti i generi, dall'horror alla commedia all'italiana, trovando infine in una grottesca vena comica il vero elemento comune. Storie nelle quali una minuziosa osservazione della realtà si fonde con una scatenata fantasia, per cui anche la morte si trasforma in uno scintillante spettacolo. Grande bravura e superbo senso del ritmo fanno il resto, dando a questo libro l'aspetto di un autentico, irripetibile gioiello. *** «... se il lettore legge per primo L'ultimo capodanno, si trova a piú di un terzo del libro senza essersene accorto. Se gli piace attribuisce le qualità positive del racconto a tutto il libro e prosegue felice. Rispetto è breve e parla di sesso e violenza quindi il lettore butta questo racconto nero in pasto alla sua ombra e passa appresso. Si consolida l'idea che Fango è un buon libro. E cosí il nostro impavido lettore arriva a Ti sogno, con terrore. E qui lo mettiamo alla prova. Se ha nervi saldi, roba di acciaio e filo spinato, lo finisce. È esausto ma si trova di fronte a Lo zoologo, un'oasi nell'orrore. Si rilassa. E noi gli diamo una sprangata in faccia a tradimento con Vivere e morire al Prenestino e lo lasciamo a terra boccheggiante a ripetersi: "Questo libro è un capolavoro!" Se il lettore poi muore per cause naturali, Carta e Ferro non ha alcun peso sulla sua salute mentale, se invece sopravvive ha forza sufficiente per toccare il fondo. Ma io non me ne assumo la responsabilità, se l'è cercata lui». Da una lettera dell'Autore all'Editore

Fango

Youth is a science fiction short novel by Isaac Asimov and one of the rare Asimov stories with alien characters. Slim is a boy whose astronomer father is visiting the country estate of an important industrialist. The industrialist's son, Red, has found two strange animals, and he enlists Slim in a plan to turn the animals into a circus act. The astronomer, meanwhile, tells the industrialist that he has been in contact with space aliens who want to open up their world to interstellar trade. Their world needs help, the astronomer says; for ever since the atomic wars that destroyed their old civilization, their world has been regressing. Unless something is done, their culture may face total collapse. Youth first appeared in the May 1952 issue of Space Science Fiction and was reprinted in the 1955 collection The Martian Way and Other Stories. AUDIO: Read by Gregg Margarite, running Time 1 hour, 6 min. Unabridged full version. Also available as e-book (ePUB). Length 10,400 words, average reading time 50 min. Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov wrote or edited more than 500 books.

Youth

Ariadne is a short story by Anton Chekhov first published in English in 1916 as part of the collection The Darling and Other Stories. The story begins on a steamer bound for Sebastopol, where the narrator meets Shamokhin, who has become a hostage to love. Shamokhin tells the story of his helpless love for Ariadne. She was his neighbor, a beautiful but cold young woman, "a nightingale made of metal," who challenged him to fall in love with her. When Shamokhin refused to elope with her, she eloped with Lubkov, a married man with four children. Months later, Ariadne wrote again to Shamokhin, begging him to join her in Italy. When Shamokhin finally caved in and went to her, he discovered that Ariadne and Lubkov were lovers. A year later, Lubkov had used up all his money and returned to his wife. Shamokhin then became Ariadne's lover. Now his money is almost gone and his life is destroyed, but he feels helpless to leave her. Total Running Time (TRT): 53 min. Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860-1904) was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics. Chekhov had at first written stories only for financial gain, but as his artistic ambition grew, he made formal innovations which have influenced the evolution of the modern short story. His originality consists in an early use of the stream-of-consciousness technique, later adopted by James Joyce and other modernists, combined with a disavowal of the moral finality of traditional story structure. He made no apologies for the difficulties this posed to readers, insisting that the role of an artist was to ask questions, not to answer them.

Ariadne

Conger is in jail and given an opportunity to get out on one condition: he must go back in time and kill a man whose impact changed the world for centuries to come. He receives a skull, which he can use to identify the man when he gets to a different time. Yet upon arriving, he soon discovers that the task will have far more serious consequences than he had ever imagined. The science fiction short story "The Skull" by Philip K. Dick was first published in 1952 and has been republished several times since. Hear the classic as read by B.J. Harrison. B. J. Harrison started his Classic Tales Podcast back in 2007, wanting to breathe new life into classic stories. He masterfully plays with a wide array of voices and accents and has since then produced over 500 audiobooks. Now in collaboration with SAGA Egmont, his engaging narration of these famous classics is available to readers everywhere. Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) was a prolific and influential American writer who worked in the genre of science fiction. His works carry themes such as alternate realities, authoritarian governments and human nature. Dick won several awards, including a Hugo Award for Best Novel for his novel "The Man in the High Castle" (1962). His works have become part of popular culture, including the cult film "Blade Runner" (1982), which is based on Dick’s novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" (1968).

The Classic Tales with B. J. Harrison

B. J. Harrison Reads The Skull

Guy de Maupassant was an absolute master of the short story genre, delighting in clever plotting, concise style, and efficient storytelling, which he used to produce stunning pieces in a very condensed format. Maupassant specialized in realism, with its sharp criticism of lower human nature and society, and fantastic, although his ventures in the supernatural are often used as an implicit symptom of the protagonists' troubled minds - he was absolutely fascinated with psychiatry, which was nascent at the time. He produced more than 300 short stories; we selected for you 9 of the most bizarre, influent, humorous or plain shocking, from chilling horror story to playful essay on the virtue of the male mustache, through moral tale and venture in the mysteries of the unexplained. Enjoy 9 of Maupassant's best short stories: The Englishman of Etretat, The Mustache, A Mother of Monsters, A Portrait, A Widow, Madame Baptiste, The Drunkard, Magnetism, An Uncomfortable Bed.

9 French Short Stories by Guy de Maupassant

One day Krantz comes home to witness his wife being unfaithful to him. In a fit of anger he kills both his wife and her lover, who is also Krantz’s lord. Krantz fears the punishment he will surely receive, so he flees with his three children. His safe haven is the Hartz Mountains. There he meets a beautiful young lady who he marries shortly after. Their marriage however does not go as expected. The bride’s night-outs raise Krantz’s suspicions. Will the story repeat itself or will be taken by surprise this time round? Find out the answers in Frederick Marryat’s mysterious and thrilling short story "The White Wolf". B. J. Harrison started his Classic Tales Podcast back in 2007, wanting to breathe new life into classic stories. He masterfully plays with a wide array of voices and accents and has since then produced over 500 audiobooks. Now in collaboration with SAGA Egmont, his engaging narration of these famous classics is available to readers everywhere. Frederick Marryat was a Navy officer and a novelist who lived in the period 1792-1848. His personal experience of long sea voyages inspired him to write sea stories. He is therefore considered to be an early pioneer of those stories, which combine sea adventures, humor and incidents. He wrote many children’s novels as well. Some of his best known works are "The Children of the New Forest", "The King’s Own" and "The White Wolf".

B. J. Harrison Reads The White Wolf

The Safety Match is a short story by Anton Chekhov first published in English in 1922 as part of the collection The Cook’s Wedding and Other Stories. The Safety Match is a true locked room mystery with a surprise ending. A retired police officer is missing from his room and believed to have been murdered, but the body cannot be found. It appears the killer entered the room through a window and that the dead man was taken from the room through the same window. Suspects are his sister, his mistress, his butler, and his manager who reported the murder. As usual Chekhov will sursprise us with an unexpected ending. Total Running Time (TRT): 46 min. Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860-1904) was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics. Chekhov had at first written stories only for financial gain, but as his artistic ambition grew, he made formal innovations which have influenced the evolution of the modern short story. His originality consists in an early use of the stream-of-consciousness technique, later adopted by James Joyce and other modernists, combined with a disavowal of the moral finality of traditional story structure. He made no apologies for the difficulties this posed to readers, insisting that the role of an artist was to ask questions, not to answer them.

The Safety Match

A Fragment of Life is short novel by Welsh horror writer Arthur Machen. A young couple repudiate the banalities of material life in favour of the spiritual. A Fragment of Life tells of a newlywed couple, the Darnells, living in a London suburb. Machen piles on an enormous amount of fine detail to illustrate the Darnells' life; thus, we learn of their plans to redecorate a bedroom, how much they pay for groceries, the social life of their maid, the problems that Mrs. Darnell's aunt is having, and on and on. It only gradually dawns on the reader, and on Mr. Darnell, that this is, literally, just a fragment of life, indeed; that all this mundane nonsense is just a masklike covering that hides a greater reality. Like many of the characters of Algernon Blackwood and, much later, P. K. Dick, Mr. Darnell seeks to pierce the illusion of our so-called reality, and this initially prosaic story winds up being quite an eerie and mystical ride as a result. A Fragment of Life was written in 1899, but first published in 1904. E-Book: ePUB, 36,000 words, average reading time 3 hours. Unabridged full version. Arthur Machen (1863-1947) was a Welsh author and mystic of the 1890s and early 20th century. He is best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and horror fiction. His novella "The Great God Pan" (1890; 1894) has garnered a reputation as a classic of horror (Stephen King has called it "Maybe the best [horror story] in the English language"). He is also well known for his leading role in creating the legend of the Angels of Mons.

A Fragment of Life

More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary is a collection of ghost stories by English author M. R. James. M. R. James wrote many of his ghost stories to be read aloud in the long tradition of spooky Christmas Eve tales. His stories often use rural settings, with a quiet, scholarly protagonist getting caught up in the activities of supernatural forces. The details of horror are almost never explicit, the stories relying on a gentle, bucolic background to emphasise the awfulness of the otherworldly intrusions. Stories included in this volume are: "A School Story", "The Rose Garden", "The Tractate Middoth", "Casting the Runes", "The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral", "Martin's Close", "Mr Humphreys and His Inheritance" More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary is the second collection of ghost stories by M. R. James, published in 1911. The first volume (Ghost Stories of an Antiquary) was published in 1904. Audiobook read by Peter Yearsley, running time 5 hours. Unabridged full version. Also available as E-Book: ePUB, 48,300 words, average reading time 4 hours. M. R. James published a total of 4 collections of his ghost stories; Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904), More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1911), A Thin Ghost And Others(1919) and A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories (1925). Montague Rhodes James (1862-1936), was an English medieval scholar. He is best remembered for his ghost stories, which are regarded as among the best in the genre. James redefined the ghost story for the new century by abandoning many of the formal Gothic clichés of his predecessors and using more realistic contemporary settings. However, James's protagonists and plots tend to reflect his own antiquarian interests. Accordingly, he is known as the originator of the "antiquarian ghost story".

World Classics

Boule de Suif

"Fat and Thin" is a satirical short story by Anton Chekhov, first published in the No. 40, 1 October 1883 issue of Oskolki magazine, signed A. Chekhonte (А. Чехонте). The plot of the short story "Fat and Thin" in its original version was based on an anecdote, and the conflict between the characters arose accidentally, due to the involuntary oversight of the "Thin". At a railway station the fat one, Mischa, accidentally meets the thin one, Porfiri. The thin man travels accompanied by his wife and son. The two old school friends greet each other in an exuberant and informal manner. A conversation follows, and it is about careers of both of them as government officials.

Chekhov Stories

Fat and Thin

Here are the moments that our fairy tales forgot or deliberately concealed, reimagined by one of the most gifted storytellers of his generation, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Hours. Rarely have our bedtime stories been this dark, this perverse, or this true. The Beast stands ahead of you in line at the convenience store, buying smokes and a Slim Jim, his devouring smile aimed at the cashier. A malformed little man with a knack for minor acts of wizardry goes to disastrous lengths to procure a child. A loutish and lazy Jack prefers living in his mother's basement to getting a job, until the day he trades a cow for a handful of magic beans. In A Wild Swan and Other Tales, the people and the talismans of lands far, far away – the mythic figures of our childhoods and the source of so much of our wonder – are transformed by Michael Cunningham into stories of sublime revelation.

A Wild Swan

In 1834, Ralph Waldo Emerson, formerly a Unitarian minister, began a new career as a public lecturer. Many of those lectures formed the source material for his essays. Nature (1836), his first published work, contained the essence of his transcendental philosophy, which involved viewing the world of natural phenomena as a symbol of the inner life and emphasizing individual freedom and self-reliance. This collection contains eleven of his most celebrated and memorable essays from this period: “Self-Reliance,” “Nature,” “Circles,” “Friendship,” “Heroism,” “Prudence,” “Compensation,” “Gifts,” “Manners,” “Shakespeare; Or, the Poet,” and “The American Scholar.”

Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Dubliners is a collection of fifteen short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914.[1] They form a naturalistic depiction of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century. The stories were written when Irish nationalism was at its peak, and a search for a national identity and purpose was raging; at a crossroads of history and culture, Ireland was jolted by various converging ideas and influences. They centre on Joyce's idea of an epiphany: a moment where a character experiences a life-changing self-understanding or illumination. Many of the characters in Dubliners later appear in minor roles in Joyce's novel Ulysses.[2] The initial stories in the collection are narrated by child protagonists, and as the stories continue, they deal with the lives and concerns of progressively older people. This is in line with Joyce's tripartite division of the collection into childhood, adolescence and maturity.

Dubliners

The Nightingale & The Rose is one of Oscar Wilde's most poignant short stories. A nightingale overhears a student lamenting that he hasn't a red rose to give to his true love, so she sets out to find a rose, but must sacrifice a great deal to get it. The Nightingale & The Rose was first published in The Happy Prince and Other Tales in 1888.

The Nightingale & the Rose

Each day of 2015 Jan Carson wrote a short story on the back of a postcard and mailed it to a friend. Each of these tiny stories was inspired by an event, an overheard conversation, a piece of art or just a fleeting glance of something worth thinking about further. In this collection of highlights, Carson presents a panoramic view of contemporary Belfast – its streets, coffee shops, museums and airports – through a series of small but perfectly formed snapshots of her home.

The Emma Press Prose Pamphlets

Postcard Stories

An “astonishing debut collection, by a writer reminiscent of such greats as Alice Munro, Elizabeth Strout, and even Chekhov” (Sara Gruen, author of Water for Elephants), focusing on women navigating relationships with humans, animals, and the natural world. Exploring the way our choices and relationships are shaped by the menace and beauty of the natural world, Megan Mayhew Bergman’s powerful and heartwarming collection captures the surprising moments when the pull of our biology becomes evident, when love or fear collides with good sense, or when our attachment to an animal or wild place can’t be denied. In “Housewifely Arts,” a single mother and her son drive hours to track down an African gray parrot that can mimic her deceased mother’s voice. A population-control activist faces the conflict between her loyalty to the environment and her maternal desire in “Yesterday’s Whales.” And in the title story, a lonely naturalist allows an attractive stranger to lead her and her aging father on a hunt for an elusive woodpecker. As intelligent as they are moving, the stories in Birds of a Lesser Paradise are alive with emotion, wit, and insight into the impressive power that nature has over all of us. This extraordinary collection introduces a young writer of remarkable talent.

Birds of a Lesser Paradise

Mysticism & Magick of Aleister Crowley offers a profound investigation into the esoteric realms, compiling an eclectic array of works that traverse the boundaries between spirituality and occultism. With a narrative that oscillates between mystical exploration and ceremonial magick, the anthology captures the essence of Crowley's complex spiritual philosophy. The collection's range extends from foundational texts that elucidate the principles of Thelema to enigmatic prose and poetry that challenge the limits of literary expression. Through these works, readers are invited to explore the intricate tapestry of mysticism as expressed through ritual, symbolism, and metaphysical contemplation. This anthology is curated with the expertise of Aleister Crowley and Mary d'Este Sturges, both pioneering figures in the early 20th-century occult renaissance. Their collaborations reflect an era that sought to reconcile ancient wisdom with modern spiritual inquiry, positioning their contributions within a broader historical and cultural context of esoteric revival. Crowley and Sturges' works engage with and expand upon the mystical traditions of the past while offering a distinct voice that resonates with seekers of wisdom. With diverse backgrounds and shared dedication, their writings coalesce into a unified dialogue exploring the depths of human consciousness. Readers are presented with a unique opportunity to immerse themselves in a compendium that harmonizes diverse esoteric ideologies and literary forms. Mysticism & Magick of Aleister Crowley provides a panoramic view into the enigmatic world of the occult, encouraging scholars and enthusiasts alike to delve into its pages for both intellectual engagement and spiritual exploration. This collection not only illuminates the philosophies embedded in mystic and magickal traditions but also fosters a broader understanding of the multifaceted nature of the human experience.

Mysticism & Magick of Aleister Crowley

Virginia Woolf's "A Haunted House and Other Short Stories" showcases her masterful command of modernist literature, offering a collection that intricately blends stream-of-consciousness narrative with a deep exploration of memory and the nuances of the human experience. Through a series of poignant vignettes, Woolf delves into themes of love, loss, and the ethereal nature of existence, all underscored by her distinctly lyrical prose. The titular story, "A Haunted House," serves as a meditation on the juxtaposition between the past and present, illustrating how spaces and memories become intertwined in our consciousness. Virginia Woolf, a central figure in the modernist literary movement, was known for her innovative narrative techniques and her exploration of psychological depth. Drawing from her own experiences as a woman navigating the tumultuous early 20th century, Woolf's writing reflects a profound understanding of personal and societal complexities, informing her thematic focus on identity and existential inquiry. Her keen insights into human relationships and the passage of time resonate throughout this collection, making it a significant contribution to her oeuvre. For readers seeking to immerse themselves in a rich tapestry of emotion and introspection, "A Haunted House and Other Short Stories" is an essential exploration of Woolf's literary genius. This collection not only highlights her unique stylistic traits but also invites the reader to contemplate their own connection to memory and place—an experience that lingers long after the final page is turned.

A Haunted House and Other Short Stories

Mysticism & Magick of Aleister Crowley is a fascinating anthology that delves deep into the mutable world of occult practices as pioneered by Aleister Crowley, with contributions from fellow mystic Mary d'Este Sturges. This collection offers an intricate tapestry of themes including spirituality, ceremonial magic, and esoteric philosophy, woven through the diverse literary styles of essays, poetry, and mystical writings. It stands as a crucial testament to the innovative and often controversial approaches to mystical exploration at the turn of the 20th century. The authors, Crowley and Sturges, are figures entrenched in occult history, shaping the evolution of Western esotericism. Crowley, known for his influence on modern occultism, combined his vast knowledge with experiential practice, providing a unique voice that challenges conventional norms. Sturges, a close associate and collaborator, adds a complementary perspective, enriching the anthology with depth and nuance. Collectively, their contributions illuminate the vibrant spectrum of spiritual and magical themes, reflecting key movements in mysticism and esotericism that resonate with cultural shifts of their time. Readers embarking on this anthology will find a journey through vividly imagined and intellectually stimulating terrains. With its amalgamation of unique voices and perspectives, this collection not only serves as an educational tool for students of the occult but also as a timeless conversation between some of the most intriguing thoughts in mystical literature. It is an indispensable read for anyone eager to explore the enigmatic realm of mysticism and magic, offering profound insights into the spiritual quests and esoteric practices that transcend conventional boundaries.

Welcome to the Essays collection. A special selection of the nonfiction prose from influential and noteworthy authors. This book brings 22 of best essays of Virginia Woolf, across a wide range of subjects, including writing, feminism, Jane Austen, literature, poetry and many more topics.Virginia Woolf was an english writer known for her novels, essays and book reviews. Her fiction and ideas about literature, feminism and art, altered the course of literature. Many of her most relevant works were published by Tacet Books.The book contains the following texts:- Introduction by Edmund Gosse- The Modern Essay- A Room of One's Own- Modern Fiction- How Should One Read A Book?- How It Strikes a Contemporary- Craftsmanship- The Art of Biography- Why?- The Death of the Moth- The Humane Art- The Man at the Gate- The Novels of E. M. Forster- A Letter to a Young Poet- Jane Austen- Joseph Conrad- The Russian Point Of View- "Jane Eyre" And "Wuthering Heights"- George Eliot- American Fiction- The Art Of Fiction- On Re-Reading Novels- The Artist And Politics

Essays

Virginia Woolf - Essays

Welcome to the Essays collection. A special selection of the nonfiction prose from influential and noteworthy authors. This book brings some of best essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson, across a wide range of subjects, including individuality, freedom, society and many more topics. Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American philosopher and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures.Many of his most relevant works were published by Tacet Books. The book contains the following texts: - Introduction by Edmund Gosse - Self-Reliance- The Over-Soul- Circles- Prudence- The Poet- Experience- Society and Solitude- Nature

Essays - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Imagine a type of writing so hard to define its very name means a trial, effort or attempt. An ancient form with an eye on the future, a genre poised between tradition and experiment. The essay wants above all to wander, but also to arrive at symmetry and wholeness; it nurses competing urges to integrity and disarray, perfection and fragmentation, confession and invention. How to write about essays and essayists while staying true to these contradictions? Essayism is a personal, critical and polemical book about the genre, its history and contemporary possibilities. It's an example of what it describes: an essay that is curious and digressive, exacting yet evasive, a form that would instruct, seduce and mystify in equal measure. Among the essayists to whom he pays tribute – from Virginia Woolf to Georges Perec, Joan Didion to Sir Thomas Browne – Brian Dillon discovers a path back into his own life as a reader, and out of melancholia to a new sense of writing as adventure.

Essayism

'The title of journalist is probably very noble, but I lay no real claim to it. I am, I think, a novelist and a musical composer manqué: I make no other pretensions …' Anthony Burgess Despite his modest claims, Anthony Burgess was an enormously prolific journalist. During his life he published two substantial collections of journalism, Urgent Copy (1968) and Homage to Qwert Yuiop (1986); a posthumous collection of occasional essays, One Man's Chorus, was published in 1998. These collections are now out of print, and Burgess's journalism, a key part of his prodigious output, has fallen into neglect. The Ink Trade is a brilliant new selection of his reviews and articles, some savage, some crucial in establishing new writers, new tastes and trends. Between 1959 and his death in 1993 Burgess contributed to newspapers and periodicals around the world: he was provocative, informative, entertaining, extravagant, and always readable. Editor Will Carr presents a wealth of unpublished and uncollected material.

The Ink Trade

Silence A Fable by Edgar Allan Poe Audiobook Demon recounts the story of how he tormented a man in the Congo. The man was seated on a rock on the edge of a churning river. The river was bordered by water lillies and surrounded by a forest of poisonous flowers. The man trembled in fear but did not run from the world he saw. Demon then cast a spell that turned the world into a violent one. The winds raged. The Earth shook, but the man remained still trembling. The Demon then cast a spell of silence. The Earth ceased to move. The wind stopped as did the water. There was complete silence. The man stood and strained to hear something. The man was then overcome with terror and “fled afar off, in haste.” Edgar Allan Poe The name Poe brings to mind images of murderers and madmen, premature burials, and mysterious women who return from the dead. His works have been in print since 1827 and include such literary classics as The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, and The Fall of the House of Usher. This versatile writer’s oeuvre includes short stories, poetry, a novel, a textbook, a book of scientific theory, and hundreds of essays and book reviews. He is widely acknowledged as the inventor of the modern detective story and an innovator in the science fiction genre, but he made his living as America’s first great literary critic and theoretician. Poe’s reputation today rests primarily on his tales of terror as well as on his haunting lyric poetry. Just as the bizarre characters in Poe’s stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself. He is seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles. This is the Poe of legend. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the author’s name.

Silence: A Fable

A refreshingly original debut collection of short stories that grapple with the self-alienation and self-discovery that make us human. 		For fans of Souvankham Thammavongsa, Lynn Coady, and Lisa Moore comes a striking debut collection of short stories that explore bodies both human and animal: our fascination with their strange effluences, growths, and protrusions, and the dangerous ways we play with their power to inflict harm on ourselves and on others. 		Throughout The Whole Animal, flawed characters wrestle with the complexities of relationships with partners, parents, children, and friends as they struggle to find identity, belonging, and autonomy. Bodies are divided, often elusive, even grotesque. In "Porcelain Legs," a pre-teen fixes on the long, thick hair growing from her mother's eyelid. In “Wolf-Boy Saturday,” a linguist grasps for connection with a young boy whose negligent upbringing has left him unable to speak. In “Butter Buns,” a college student sees his mother in a new light when she takes up bodybuilding. 		With strange juxtapositions, beguiling dark humour, and lurid imagery, The Whole Animal illuminates the everyday experiences of loneliness and loss, of self-alienation and self-discovery, that make us human.

The Whole Animal

The Raven A narrative poem by Edgar Allan Poe. Published originally in January 1845, the poem has a musical quality with stylized language and a supernatural atmosphere. It speaks of a mysterious talking raven's visit to a distraught lover, depicting the man's slow fall into madness. The lover is lamenting the loss of his love, Lenore. Sitting on a bust of "Pallas", the raven seems to have a purpose of further instigating his distress with its constant repetition of the word "Nevermore". This poem makes good use of a number of folk and classical references.

The Supernatural Collection

The Raven

A House of Pomegranates is a collection of fairy tales, written by Oscar Wilde, that was published as a second collection after The Happy Prince and Other Tales. Wilde once said that this collection was "intended neither for the British child nor the British public." The stories included in this collection are: The Young King The Birthday of the Infanta The Fisherman and his Soul The Star-Child A House of Pomegranates was first published in 1891. Audiobook read by Noel Badrian, running time 3 hours, 43 min. Unabridged full version. Also available as E-Book, ePUB, length 33,300 words, average reading time 2 hours, 45 min.

A House of Pomegranates

Lord Arthur Savile's Crime is a story written by Oscar Wilde. The main character, Lord Arthur Savile, is introduced by Lady Windermere to Mr Septimus R. Podgers, a chiromantist, who reads his palm and tells him that it is his destiny to be a murderer. Lord Arthur wants to marry, but decides he has no right to do so until he has committed the murder. His first attempted murder victim is his elderly Aunt Clementina, who suffers from heartburn. Pretending it is medicine, Lord Arthur gives her a capsule of poison, telling her to take it only when she has an attack of heartburn. Reading a telegram in Venice some time later, he finds that she has died and victoriously returns to London to learn that she has bequeathed him some property. Sorting through the inheritance, his intended wife Sybil Merton finds the poison pill, untouched; thus Lord Arthur's aunt died from natural causes and he finds himself in need of a new victim. Lord Arthur Savile's Crime was first published in The Court and Society Review, in late 1887. E-Book, ePUB, length 12,800 words, average reading time 1 hour, 5 min. Unabridged full version. Also available as audiobook read by Alex Lau, running time 1 hour, 19 min.

Lord Arthur Savile's Crime

The Portrait of Mr. W. H. is a story written by Oscar Wilde. The story is about an attempt to uncover the identity of Mr. W. H., the enigmatic dedicatee of Shakespeare's Sonnets. It is based on a theory, originated by Thomas Tyrwhitt, that the sonnets were addressed to one Willie Hughes, portrayed in the story as a boy actor who specialized in playing women in Shakespeare's company. This theory rests on the assumption that the dedicatee is also the Fair Youth who is the subject of most of the poems. The only evidence for this theory is the text of a number of sonnets themselves (such as Sonnet 20, that makes puns on the words "Will" and "Hues"). The Portrait of Mr. W. H. was first published in Blackwood's Magazine in 1889. It was later added to the collection Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories, though it does not appear in early editions. Audiobook read by James K. White, running time 1 hour, 12 min. Unabridged full version. Also available as E-Book, ePUB, length 11,700 words, average reading time 1 hour.

The Portrait of Mr. W. H.

"Green Tea" tells the haunting story of a man plagued by a demonic monkey. The unnamed narrator, a trained surgeon who can’t practice because of the loss of two of his fingers, is organising the papers of his deceased mentor, the famous German physician Dr. Martin Hesselius. In doing so, he stumbles upon a strange case, dating back sixty-four years. Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873) was an Irish writer, known for his ghost and paranormal stories. He studied law at Trinity College in Dublin. His first ghost short story, "The Ghost and the Bone-Setter," was published in the Dublin University Magazine in 1838. After the death of his beloved wife in 1858, Le Fanu closed himself off from the world but continued to write. He is mostly remembered today for his "Uncles Silas" (1864) and "Carmilla" which played an important role in the portrayal of vampires in fiction.

Green Tea

El arte de la guerra es un libro sobre tácticas y estrategias militares, inspirado por Sun Tzu, un famoso autor militar.

El Arte de la Guerra

A prominent American sociologist, novelist, short story writer, poet, and lecturer for social reform, Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a "utopian feminist." Her vast achievements, recorded during a period of American history where such feats were quite difficult for women, cast here as a role model for women everywhere. And her unorthodox concepts and lifestyles cast her as a role model for future generations of feminists.This selection specially chosen by the literary critic August Nemo, contains the following stories:When I Was a WitchThe Yellow WallpaperIf I were a manThe Giant Wistaria The Boys And The Butter!The CottagetteA Middle Sized Artist

7 best short stories

7 best short stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Years after a horrific experiment is performed by a scientist determined to make someone able to perceive the supernatural realm, tragedy begins to descend. A woman, Helen Vaughan, travels across the country and leaves nothing but death, tragedy, and unsettling mysteries in her wake, which the tale's protagonists must venture through to end the terror she sows.

The Great God Pan

When strange animals land in Red's yard, he and his friend Slim agree to keep it to themselves. The creatures are unlike any that they've ever seen before, and are - to them - animals that would make a fortune putting on a show at the circus. All the while, their fathers are fretting over the arrival of interstellar diplomats, on whose trade their civilisation may have to rely on to survive. Despite the urgency of the mission, however, neither hide nor hair of them have been seen...

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, generally known as Frankenstein, is a novel written by the British author Mary Shelley. The title of the novel refers to a scientist, Victor Frankenstein, who learns how to create life and creates a being in the likeness of man, but larger than average and more powerful. In popular culture, people have tended to refer to the Creature as "Frankenstein", despite this being the name of the scientist. Frankenstein is a novel infused with some elements of the Gothic novel and the Romantic movement. It was also a warning against the "over-reaching" of modern man and the Industrial Revolution, alluded to in the novel's subtitle, The Modern Prometheus. The story has had an influence across literature and popular culture and spawned a complete genre of horror stories and films. It is arguably considered the first fully realized science fiction novel.

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus

Anne of Green Gables (1908) Anne of Avonlea (1909) Anne of the Island (1915) Anne's House of Dreams (1917) Rainbow Valley (1919) Rilla of Ingleside (1921) Chronicles of Avonlea Furthere Chronicles of Avonlea

Anne of Green Gables (Collection)

"The Tell-Tale Heart" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe first published in 1843. It follows an unnamed narrator who insists on his sanity after murdering an old man with a "vulture eye". The murder is carefully calculated, and the murderer hides the body by cutting it into pieces and hiding it under the floorboards. Ultimately the narrator's guilt manifests itself in the hallucination that the man's heart is still beating under the floorboards. The story was first published in James Russell Lowell's The Pioneer in January 1843. "The Tell-Tale Heart" is widely considered a classic of the Gothic fiction genre and one of Poe's most famous short stories.

The Tell-Tale Heart

Step Carefully For The Night Is Dark Kylie Porter needs a break. Novacore VR's Eternal Night is it - the VR vampire game that her editor wants her to write about. But she's not a gamer, so she's going to have to learn to fake it for her article. With a little help. Johnathan Masters is that help. An old friend who is doing her a favour, he's a lot more confident and good looking in the game, even if they've both touched themselves up. But she's a professional and this is just a game. None of it's really real? Is it? First Steps into the Night is a Vampire LitRPG Short Story (approximately 10k long) written by Tao Wong, the author of the System Apocalypse, Hidden Wishes and A Thousand Li series. It is not a fade-to-black story, set in a VR vampire MMORPG.

Eternal Night

First Steps into the Night

Nerves is a story by Anton Chekhovs, first published: 1895. Three friends, Mayer (a medical student), Rybnikov (a student of the arts), and Vassilyev (a law student), decide to go out one night to get some girls. Mayer and Rybnikov had to spend some time convincing Vassilyev to come along, as he was far more fastidious and cautious than his friends. Vassilyev himself is envious of his friends, who live their lives in a much more carefree fashion. The three friends visit several different houses containing the girls, but Vassilyev finds himself more eager to talk to the girls and treat them to fancy drinks than to pay his money to get something more. He tries to understand the lives the fallen women are living, but he grows more and more disgusted with them...

Nerves

Although well-known for her novels of manners and social critique, such as The House of Mirth and the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton was also a master of the ghost story. Her ghostly characters appear in many different forms, haunting such places as a splendid English country estate, a lonely house on the coast of storm-tossed Brittany, and an isolated New England village. This collection includes eight of Wharton’s best ghost stories, published between 1904 and 1928: “The Lady’s Maid’s Bell,” “The Eyes,” “Afterward,” “Kerfol,” “The Triumph of Night,” “Miss Mary Pask,” “Bewitched,” and “Mr. Jones.”

The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton

A Slander is a very short story that reflects the behavior of society concerning public image. Chekhov basically writes that one should be sure before taking action. A Slander is both somber and funny, demonstrating we are our own worst enemy.

A Slander

Instrumental in revisioning the potential of the short story form, Katherine Mansfield’s ‘Something Childish and Other Stories’ captures the vulnerability of raw emotion in its most charged state. Inviting readers to reflect upon our social experiences, this collection constitutes a deep dive into what it truly means to be human. ‘Something Childish and Other Stories’ is the ideal companion for fans of Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams in ‘The Notebook’. Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923) was a short story writer and poet from New Zealand who was regarded as one of the most influential and important authors of the modernist movement. Her life was turned into a TV series in 1973 called ´A Picture of Katherine Mansfield´, and many of her stories have been made into movies and TV shows, such as ´Winners and Losers´ (1975) based on the story ´The Woman at the Store´ and the most recent from 2021 ´Dill Pickle´ starring Caroline Duncan and Jim Thalman.

Something Childish and Other Stories

"Small Fry" is a short story by Anton Chekhov originally published in Oskolki magazine on March 1885 and signed A. Chekhonte . The petty clerk Nevyrazimov, sitting in his office on the Easter Eve in the company of a cockroach scurrying the table, muses upon what he might do to make it in the world (steal big money or perhaps report on somebody to the secret police) but comes to the conclusion that such deeds would be beyond his abilities. Disgusted with the feeling of his own unworthiness he takes it out on the cockroach and "feels better".

Small Fry

These five stories were collected and published as Tales of Unrest in 1898, shortly before Heart of Darkness, the first of Conrad’s major novels. Ranging from the faraway and unfamiliar, where the acquisitiveness of colonial adventure is damningly exposed, to an ostensibly ordinary London household, these disparate tales display Conrad’s ability to explore and lay bare human nature. Set in Central Africa, ‘An Outpost of Progress’ is suffused with irony and represents a ruthlessly mocking view of European imperialism. ‘Karain’ and ‘The Lagoon’ are exotic tales of the Malay Archipelago, with the former telling of disharmony and discord between Western traders and the indigenous inhabitants. ‘The Return’ recounts the story of, in the author’s own words, “a desirable middle-class town residence which somehow manages to produce a sinister effect”.

Joseph Conrad Collection

Tales of Unrest

Contradictions (both real and apparent), oppositions, enigmas, provocations, challenges——this is the kind of material that makes a life, and is the kind of material that, in fiction, one is never quite sure of. With Pretty Ugly, Kirsty Gunn reminds us again that she is a master of just such stuff, presenting ambiguity and complication as the essence of the storyteller's endeavour. The sheer force of life that Gunn is able to load these stories up with is both testament to her unrivalled skill and an exercise in what she describes as 'reading and writing ugly', in order to pursue the deeper truths that lie at the heart of both the human imagination and human rationality. So here we have all the strange and seemingly impossible dualities that make up real life——and pretty ugly it can be, as well as beautiful, hopeful, bleak, difficult, exhilarating. But never, ever dull.

Pretty Ugly

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Short Stories

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