Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was an enthusiastic proponent of British imperialism and writer of poetry, short stories and novels. He was also the first English-language author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907. Born in Bombay, India, Kipling was taken by his family to England when he was five years old. These contrasting environments preserved in the author nostalgia for the Eden-like setting of India, where he recalled family ...
Written during the early Qing Dynasty, «Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio» is a collection of nearly 500 mostly supernatural tales by Chinese author Pu Songling. The work, which was published posthumously sometime between 1740 and 1766, is comprised of stories varying in length. While the main characters of this book apparently are ghosts, foxes, immortals and demons, Pu Songling is more focused on the real life of commoners. Four main themes ...
Henry James (1843-1916) was an America-born writer whose novels, short stories and letters established the foundation of the modernist movement in twentieth century fiction and poetry. His career, one of the most significant and influential in English literature, spanned over five decades and resulted in a body of work that has had a profound impact on generations of writers. Born in New York, but educated in France, Germany, England and Switzer ...
"In a Glass Darkly", which was first published in 1872, collects together five classic gothic horror and mystery short stories by J. Sheridan Le Fanu. In «Green Tea» we have the story of Jennings, a clergyman who believes he is being followed by a demon in the form of a monkey. In «The Familiar» we have the tale of a sea captain who is stalked by 'the watcher'. «Mr. Justice Harbottle», the third installment of the work, relates th ...
Leo Tolstoy's «Walk in the Light and Twenty-Three Tales» contains the religious parable «Walk in the Light While Ye Have Light», a story set in the ancient Roman Empire which tells the story of Pamphylius and his conversion to Christianity, as well as twenty-three other short stories by the author. Those twenty-three tales include the following: God Sees the Truth, but Waits; A Prisoner in the Caucasus; The Bear-Hunt; What Men Live By; A Sp ...
"The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories" is a collection of short stories that includes «The Invaders» (or «The Raid»),"The Wood-Cutting Expedition," «Three Deaths,» «Polikushka,» «The Death of Ivan Ilyich,» «After the Ball,» and «The Forged Coupon.» The most famous and superbly written of these is «The Death of Ivan Ilyich,» which Tolstoy wrote later in his life. It tells a tale revolving around a man in his 40s who has spent his entir ...
"Best Ghost Stories of Algernon Blackwood" is a collection of supernatural stories by one of the greatest writers of such stories to have ever lived. This collection contains the story, «Ancient Sorceries», which is the tale of a tourist who becomes enchanted by a strange French town and the ancient secrets that are hidden there. Also included in this collection is one of Blackwood's most celebrated stories, «The Willows», the story of ...
American writer Stephen Crane is best known for his classic depiction of the American Civil War in his novel «The Red Badge of Courage». It is the story of a 19-year-old boy named Henry Fleming who struggles to overcome his fear in battle. «The Red Badge of Courage» is widely regarded for its realistic depiction of a young man in battle and of the true meaning of courage. In addition to this classic novel several other of Crane's more popul ...
After a brief military career, the illustrious Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky quickly turned to writing as a profession with the publication of his first novel, Poor Folk, in 1846. This novel sparked a literary career that would eventually cement Dostoyevsky's reputation as one of the greatest novelists of the nineteenth century. Early participation in a literary/political group landed the writer in exile in Siberia for nearly a decade, ...