E. T. A. Hoffmann (1776-1822) was perhaps one of the two or three greatest of all writers of fantasy. His wonderful tales, translated into many languages and adapted into numerous stage works, have delighted readers for a century and a half. They open our eyes to an extraordinary world of fantasy, poetry, and the supernatural. Remarkable characters come vividly to life. With exciting speed, Hoffmann moves from the firm ground of reality to ambig ...
This elegant edition gathers seven spirited Yuletide fables by Charles Dickens. The heartwarming tales tell of people rescued from their own folly by mysterious strangers — including goblins, ghosts, and other supernatural creatures. In addition to the author's most famous holiday tale, «A Christmas Carol,» this collection features «The Cricket on the Hearth,» «The Chimes,» «The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain,» «The Seve ...
With his novels, short stories, and plays, Giovanni Verga (1840–1922) achieved renown in the Italian verismo (realist) school of writing. This outstanding selection of 12 short stories — most from the Sicilian writer's Vita dei campi (Rural Life) and Novelle rusticane (Rustic Stories) — attests to his storytelling skills.Selections include «Nedda,» a short story that initiated Verga's naturalistic depictio ...
One of the most important Latin-American writers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Nicaraguan poet and essayist Rubén Darío (the pen name of Félix Rubén García Sarmiento) is considered the high priest of the modernismo school of literature, known for its dazzling verbal virtuosity and technical perfection. The present volume contains a rich selection of Darío's best p ...
Born in England in 1881, Sir P(elham) G(renville) Wodehouse delighted generations of readers with his whimsical tales of the deliciously dim aristocrat Bertie Wooster and Jeeves, his brainy, imperturbable manservant. Many are unaware, however, that Bertie had a prototype — Reggie Pepper — who stumbled into the same worrying situations involving old school chums with romantic troubles, irate female relatives, threatening suito ...
Wilhelm Busch (1832-1908), endowed with an equipotent facility with sketch-pad and rhyming dictionary, created some of the most arresting sketches and drollest verses the world has yet seen.In addition to the title piece, this book reprints “Ker and Plunk” (Plisch und Plum), “The Egghead and the Two Cut-ups of Corinth” (Diogenes and die bösen Buben von Korinth), “The Raven-robbinR ...
An artist who excelled at the expression of subtle details and concentrated emotion, Katherine Mansfield ranks among the twentieth century's greatest short story writers. Her elegant, ironic tales reflect her own bohemian lifestyle, which involved tempestuous relationships with Bertrand Russell and Virginia Woolf. This collection of a dozen of Mansfield's finest works features compelling tales of fraught relationships and shattering re ...
This illustrated edition of two heartfelt holiday fables abounds in the Yuletide traditions of generosity and friendship, perfect sentiments for a gift book. «The First Christmas Tree» is a tale set during an eighth-century winter festival, where a struggle ensues between foresters worshipping pagan gods and a heroic pilgrim who has come to teach them about Christ's birth. In «The Story of the Other Wise Man,» well-meaning Artaban prepares ...
