LITMIR.BIZ

Jack London was born into abject poverty in the slums of San Francisco during the winter of 1876. His writing was to reflect the hard life he lived, perpetually chronicling men facing the wild as he did throughout his life. After his eighth grade year, poverty forced London to leave school. This did not stop him, as he furthered his literary knowledge and skill at the Oakland Public Library, borrowing books and educating himself. London faced great obstacles, even landing himself in a Niagara Falls prison as a vagrant just shortly after winning a prize from a newspaper for his piece on a Typhoon near Japan. Once he was released, London decided to go back to high school, finishing his education in just a year and got into the University of California. He left after only one semester and began his prolific writing career. «The God of His Fathers and Other Stories» includes: «The God of His Fathers,» «The Great Interrogation,» «Which Make Men Remember,» «Siwash,» «The Man With The Gash,» «Jan,» «The Unrepentant,» «Grit of Women,» «Where The Trail Forks,» «A Daughter of the Aurora,» «At the Rainbow's End,» and «The Scorn of Women.»

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Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) was a master of the short story. The son of a former serf in southern Russia, he attended Moscow University to study medicine, writing short stories for periodicals in order to support his family. What began as a necessity became a legitimate career in 1886 when he was asked to write in St. Petersburg for the Novoye Vremya (New Times), owned by millionaire magnate Alexey Suvorin. Chekhov began paying more attention to his writing, revising and developing his own principles and conceptions of truth, for a time coming under the influence of Leo Tolstoy. As a result of his widespread popularity, Chekhov amassed a vast collection of short stories displaying an early use of stream-of-consciousness writing, as well as his powerful ideas concerning the individual, the tedium of life, and the beauty nature and humanity. This edition contains many stories, including «Enemies,» «In the Dark,» «A Mystery,» «Joy,» «A Peculiar Man,» «The Album,» «Overdoing It,» «In the Graveyard,» and «In a Strange Land.»

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"The Awakening" is the story of Edna Pontellier, an attractive twenty-eight year old woman who is a wife and mother of two sons living in the Creole south in the late 19th century. Edna finds herself trapped in her life as a wife and a mother and feels unable to express her passionate sensuality within the confines of her marriage. She seeks a spiritual and sexual awakening through an affair with a younger man during one summer while her husband is away. Liberated by this experience she sends her children away and is determined to live a more independent and self-determined life. However this new found independence also becomes her downfall as her actions are looked down upon by the members of her society in the late 19th century south. «The Awakening» is a classic modern example of the tragic hero. It illustrates the confines of late 19th century America for women and the beginning of an era of changing social attitudes towards the role of women in society. Chopin's novel was meet with great criticism when it was first published and essentially ended her literary career. The reaction to its publication is indicative of the social attitude towards greater independence and freedom for women at the time. At the same time the novel was a harbinger of the greater independence that was soon to come for women in America. Also contained within this volume is a collection of eight shorter works by the author.

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"The Man Who Would be King and Other Stories" is a classic collection of some of the most loved short stories of Rudyard Kipling. Contained here in this volume are the following short stories: The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes; The Phantom 'Rickshaw; Gemini; A Wayside Comedy; At Twenty-Two; The Education of Otis Yeere; The Hill of Illusion; Dray Wara Yow Dee; The Judgment of Dungara; With the Main Guard; In Flood Time; Only a Subaltern; Baa Baa, Black Sheep; At the Pit's Mouth; Black Jack; On the City Wall; and The Man Who Would be King.

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Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923) is credited alongside James Joyce as the creator of the modern short story. The New Zealand-born Englishwoman embraced a Bohemian lifestyle and became involved in a series of scandalous relationships, which greatly influenced some of her most significant work. Her best-known writings were produced in her final years, as she was plagued by illness. Her fiction is dominated by themes of male-female relationships, sexual ambivalence and gender roles. Most of her work focuses on female protagonists and demonstrates the problems of social relationships. This collection, written between 1920-1922, includes “At the Bay,” a story that proposes there is more to a woman's life than marriage and motherhood; “The Garden Party,” which explores class differences; “The Daughters of the Late Colonel,” a story about life and death; “Marriage à la Mode,” about the dissolution of a relationship; “Miss Brill,” Mansfield's memorable tale of the lonely woman, and several more.

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In «Gothic Tales,» Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865), the eminent Victorian author, brings us nine chilling gothic stories. Collected here are tales that set a precedent for ghost and horror stories of the era. In «The Poor Clare» a young innocent girl named Lucy is haunted by an unrelenting ghost invoked by her aging grandmother. In the novella «Lois the Witch» the young Lois sails to America to join her distant family. She is greeted by a New England engulfed in the fever of the Salem witch trials. Soon all goes wrong when she is deemed one of the cursed. The reader confronts the peaks of suspense in «The Grey Woman» – a terrifying psychological thriller. These among others shape this well rounded collection of one of the most respected Victorian authors. Gaskell was championed and published by Charles Dickens in his literary magazine «Household Words.» Her style, vision, and delivery are seen at its best here in «Gothic Tales.»

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Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932) was an author, essayist and political activist whose works addressed the complex issues of racial and social identity at the turn of the century. Chesnutt's early works explored political issues somewhat indirectly, with the intention of changing the attitudes of Caucasians slowly and carefully. His characters deal with difficult issues of miscegenation, illegitimacy, racial identity and social place. The stories in «The Conjure Woman and Other Conjure Tales» were Chesnutt's first great literary success. This collection of thirteen short stories is told by a former slave named Uncle Julius to a white couple who have recently moved to the South. Uncle Julius's tales feature supernatural elements such as haunting, transfiguration, and conjuring that were typical of southern folk tales. In this collection, «Po' Sandy» recounts how a woman changed her lover into a tree to try and protect him. Another story, «Sis' Becky's Pickaninny,» tells the tragic story of a slave woman who is parted from her baby when the plantation owner sells her for a race horse.

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O. Henry, the pen name of William Sydney Porter, is one of the most famous short story writers of all times whose stories are known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization and clever twist endings. O. Henry is so acknowledged as a great short story writer that his pen name is associated with a prestigious American award given to short stories of exceptional merit. Included in this collection of «The Gift of the Magi and Other Short Stories» is the title story which describes the struggles of a poor young married couple as they strive to secretly buy each other Christmas gifts. Also included in this collection are the following stories: «The Cop and the Anthem», «Springtime À La Carte», «The Green Door», «After Twenty Years», «The Furnished Room», «The Pimienta Pancakes», «The Last Leaf», «The Voice of The City», «While The Auto Waits», «A Retrieved Reformation», «A Municipal Report», «A Newspaper Story», «The Ransom of Red Chief», «A Ghost of a Chance», and «Makes the Whole World Kin».

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By the time Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837) was twenty years old, he was already being recognized in the Russian literary scene as a great talent. He was born in Moscow and educated at home and at the Lyceum, studying Latin and eighteenth century French literature. Often seen as the founder of modern Russian literature and the first important Russian Poet, Pushkin's early works spoke largely to social reform which resulted in his exile to southern Russia until 1826; however, he continued to write unabated for his entire life. His poems and plays incorporated elements of drama, romance and satire that would from then on be associated with Russian literature, and his short stories are deemed by some to be the perfect Romantic tales. This collection of short stories begins with his finest prose story, «The Queen of Spades,» and includes «The Captain's Daughter,» «The Lady Rustic,» «The Pistol-Shot,» «The Snow-Storm,» «The Undertaker,» «The Station-Master,» and «The Moor of Peter the Great.»

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Popular American writer Ambrose Bierce comes alive in the magnificent collection of short stories, «Civil War Stories.» Having been no stranger to the battlefield, Bierce draws upon his experience as a soldier and the stories he heard during the American Civil War in this collection. However, his tales do not happily reminisce about the good times; instead, Bierce's dry wit and love of the macabre guide his stories to much darker places. «Civil War Stories,» includes the tale «Chickamauga», the story of a young boy who fell asleep in the woods after playing alone. When he wakes, he sees a group of soldiers marching back from a battle. In jest, the young boy begins marching with them, and even participates in burning a house to the ground. In Bierce's most famous and chronicled story «An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.» Peyton Farquhar, a Confederate sympathizer, is tricked by the Union soldiers and is hanged in front of his wife and children. Somehow, though he manages to escape his noose and is able to run far away from the frenzied scene. Regardless of which of the sixteen stories included in this collection that you read, you will be amazed at Bierce's ability to spin a short, suspenseful tale about one of the most tumultuous times in American history.

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