LITMIR.BIZ

“The Dead” is the final and longest story in the Dubliners, a collection of fifteen short stories by James Joyce. First published in 1904, the stories aim to capture Irish middle class life as it really was around Dublin at the turn-of-the-century. Like many of Joyce’s tales in the collection, “The Dead” features a transformative epiphany, where a character experiences a sudden insight into their life that changes the way they see everything. In what many consider one of Joyce’s most nuanced and well-written works, the story centers around Gabriel Conroy, his evening attending a Christmas dinner party hosted by his elderly aunts, and the experiences of his wife and various friends. In his signature style, Joyce delves deeply into the inner lives of his characters and the subtle details of their evening together in order to transform a seemingly mundane dinner party into a profound examination of the fleeting nature of life, love, happiness, and regret. At the end of the evening, Gabriel is surprised to learn that even the people he believed he knew well are capable of unseen depths of emotion and hidden experiences. “The Dead” withstands the test of time as one of Joyce’s most thought-provoking and emotionally powerful works. This edition includes a biographical afterword.

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Upon his arrival in Japan in 1890, Lafcadio Hearn found himself enamored with the culture, people, and stories of the country, and would make Japan his home until his death in 1904. His collections of stories published during this time became the most popular of Hearn’s writings, and earned him veneration worldwide as not only a great translator of Japanese mythology, but as a sensational teller of strange and wonderfully macabre tales. “Kwaidan” is most commonly translated as weird or horror tales, but to assign one word to the people, places, ghosts, and gods in this work, one can only use the word strange. This collection of supernatural tales includes twenty stories translated from old Japanese texts. Hearn was made a professor of English literature in the Imperial University of Tokyo in 1895, and is today revered by the Japanese for providing significant insights into their own national character.

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“Thought Vibration” is a classic treatise of new age philosophy by noted American occultist, author, and pioneer of the New Thought movement William Walker Atkinson. In this influential and widely-read work, Atkinson examines the nature of mental thought and its power to affect one’s life. A central tenet of the New Thought movement is the importance of thoughts in creating real change in person’s physical, emotional, and financial life. Negative thoughts will attract negative events and negative people and positive thoughts will bring about positive outcomes. First published in 1906, Atkinson’s work remains a timeless and thought-provoking discourse full of tangible examples that demonstrate the power that positive mental thought can have in changing the direction of one’s life. Full of practical advice and helpful exercises to assist the reader into putting these theories into action, readers will be inspired to apply the power of positive thinking in their daily lives. “Thought Vibration” remains as relevant and encouraging as when it was first published over a century ago. This edition includes a biographical afterword.

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Zitkala-Sa was an important and influential Yankton Dakota Sioux writer, educator, and political activist. Born in 1876 on a Sioux reservation in South Dakota, she spent her life working to bring the history and cultural concerns of Native Americans to the attention of the broader public. “American Indian Stories and Old Indian Legends” collects two of her more important publications that document and preserve the history of her people, as well as the pain caused by the policies of assimilation. “Old Indian Legends”, published in 1901 and early in her professional career, records for posterity and a wider American audience the stories and legends from various tribes that she remembered from her childhood. In “American Indian Stories”, published in 1921, Zitkala-Sa recounts her experience as a Native American child sent away to white boarding schools and forced to face the reality of cultural assimilation and submission. Part autobiography and part allegorical fiction, “American Indian Stories” explores the suffering experienced by Native Americans when they were forced to adapt to white American culture and made to abandon their traditional way of life. Zitkala-Sa’s work endures as an eloquent, engaging, and important personal and historical account of a people whose story is often overlooked.

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First published in 1907, “The Shepherd of the Hills” is Harold Bell Wright’s mostly fictional tale of people living in the foothills of the Ozarks. The story is principally concerned with the relationship of Grant Matthews, Sr., affectionately known in his community as “Old Matt”, and “The Shepherd of the Hills”, a wise old man who has chosen the peace of the backwoods over the hustle and bustle of the city. The Shepherd is a quiet and mysterious character who is trying to recover from a tragic and troubled past. While his reclusiveness has left him largely isolated from others in the settlement, he earns the love and trust of the Matthews clan, which is one of the most respected families in the community. Set against The Shepherd’s story is also the touching and romantic love affair between the pretty young Samantha Lane and Grant “Young Matt” Matthews, Jr. “The Shepherd of the Hills” has become an enduring and often adapted classic of American literature. It is beloved for its portrayal of the life and death concerns of ordinary people and for its commentary on human weaknesses, the strength of community, and the redemptive power of forgiveness and kindness. This edition includes a biographical afterword.

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“The Happy Prince and Other Stories” is a collection of whimsical, fantastical, and deeply moral tales by Oscar Wilde, the renowned nineteenth century Irish poet and playwright. Though best known for his plays and the novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, Wilde was an accomplished and talented author of children’s stories and fairy tales. This collection includes many of his most enduring short stories: the sad and beautiful “The Happy Prince”, where a lonely swallow, left behind by his flock, shows the magical statue of a privileged and wealthy Prince the harsh reality of life for the poor; “The Selfish Giant”, a touching tale of a giant who realizes the importance of love and kindness when he finally allows children to play in his garden, which had turned cold and lonely when the giant closed it off to them; and “The Remarkable Rocket”, the tale of an arrogant and disdainful, but forgotten, firework who alienates everyone and finally explodes with no one there to appreciate him. Those tales along with six other stories are included in this collection. Readers of all ages will be inspired by these beautiful and magical tales which teach the value of kindness and charity. This edition includes a biographical afterword.

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First published in 1917, “Summer” is one of only two novels by Edith Wharton not set in the upper-class society of New York. It is instead set in New England and was very controversial at the time it was published as it is the story of the sexual awakening of a young woman, named Charity Royall. Charity, the daughter of mountain moonshiners, was abandoned by her poor parents and adopted by her small town’s most learned person, Lawyer Royall. Charity is unsatisfied and restless and spends her days yearning for a more exciting and luxurious life outside of North Dormer. She falls for Lucius Harney, an educated young architect visiting North Dormer from the city. Charity and Lucius begin an affair, much to the disapproval of Mr. Royall and Charity’s relationship with her guardian becomes darker and more complicated. “Summer” is a thought-provoking and ambiguous story of a young girl coming to terms with her feelings and sexuality, as well as a commentary on the impossible standards that are often applied to women’s behavior. The war between freedom and repression in the environment of overwhelming social pressure of early 20th century America continues to resonant today. This edition includes a biographical afterword.

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First published in 1865, “From the Earth to the Moon” is Jules Verne’s fantastical tale of an ambitious plan to fly to the moon. Set at the end of the American Civil War, Verne’s novel is a forward-looking and modern tale of space adventure. With the war over and no other pressing tasks to occupy them, the members of the Baltimore Gun Club, at the urging of their President, Impey Barbicane, decide to build a gun large enough to propel a projectile from the Earth to the Moon. Barbicane is certain that, based on his calculations, the group can build a cannon powerful enough to launch a projectile all the way to the moon. Wagers begin to be placed on this incredible plan, great sums of money are raised, and the mission is soon expanded to the idea of sending three people in the projectile with the hope of landing them on the moon. Verne’s tale of grand dreams and enterprising scientists ends on a cliffhanger as the intrepid explorers blast off to the moon and an uncertain fate in this enduring classic of science fiction. This edition includes a biographical afterword.

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As a mathematician, philosopher, logician, historian, socialist, pacifist, and social critic, Bertrand Russell is noted for his “revolt against idealism” in Britain in the early 20th century, as well as his pacifist activism during WWI, a campaign against Adolf Hitler and later the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War. In addition to his political activism, he is considered to be one of the founders of analytic philosophy, receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950 for his various humanitarian and philosophical works. He wrote his “Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy” in order to elucidate in a less technical way the main ideas of his and N. A. Whitehead’s earlier “Principia Mathematica”. The work focuses on mathematical logic as related to traditional and contemporary philosophy, of which Russell remarks, “logic is the youth of mathematics and mathematics is the manhood of logic.” It is regarded today as a lucid, accessible exploration of the gray area where mathematics and philosophy meet. This edition includes a biographical afterword.

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First serialized in 1905, “The Railway Children”, by English author and poet Edith Nesbit, is the entertaining and heart-warming story of three siblings, Roberta, Peter, and Phyllis. The children and their mother move to “The Three Chimneys”, a house near a railway, when their father, who works for the Foreign Office, is wrongly accused and falsely imprisoned for selling government secrets to the Russians. The children pass the time by watching the railcars go by and waving to the passengers riding the trains. Eventually they meet and befriend Perks, the station porter and a kind old gentleman, who may be able to help free their father from his wrongful imprisonment. After the family is reunited, the children and their parents extend their kindness to others and help both a man exiled from Russia find his lost family, and Jim, the grandson of Perks, who suffered from a broken leg in a tunnel accident. Nesbit’s timeless story of family, generosity, and benevolence continues to captivate audiences young and old alike. This edition includes a biographical afterword.

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