Un caleidoscopio di incontri inattesi, di racconti folgoranti, di ironiche riflessioni. Con scrittura cristallina e rapidi tratti, Carofiglio disegna personaggi memorabili e, in un gioco di specchi tra verità e finzione, allestisce fulminee messe in scena dove appaiono intensi frammenti di mondo. Un piccolo gioiello in cui si alternano storie amare a situazioni comiche, osservate con impareggiabile sguardo critico e grande umanità.

Passeggeri notturni

In una città stravolta e allucinata, in cui ogni cosa si confonde e chiunque è sostituibile, i protagonisti di queste storie conducono ciascuno un'inchiesta misteriosa e dall'esito imprevedibile. Tutto può cominciare con una telefonata nel cuore della notte, come nel caso di Daniel Quinn (Città di vetro), autore di romanzi polizieschi che accetta la sfida che gli si presenta e si cala nei panni di uno sconosciuto detective. Ma può anche capitare che chi debba pedinare si senta a sua volta pedinato (Fantasmi); o, ancora, che ci sia qualcuno che s'immedesima a tal punto nella vita di un amico da sposarne la vedova e adottarne il figlio (La stanza chiusa). Tre detective-stories eccentriche e avvincenti in cui Paul Auster inventa una sua New York fantastica, un «nessun luogo» in cui ciascuno può ritrovarsi e perdersi all'infinito. Ed è proprio nell'invenzione di questa solitudine che i personaggi della Trilogia misurano il proprio io e scoprono il loro vero destino.

Trilogia di New York

Nelle campagne del New England precipita un meteorite di un metallo alieno dalle proprietà mai viste. Quale terribile influenza avrà sulla gente del posto la misteriosa energia che emana? Il Colore Venuto dallo Spazio è un racconto horror fantascientifico dello scrittore statunitense Howard Phillips Lovecraft che gode di grande popolarità tra gli appassionati dello scrittore di Providence. Howard Phillips Lovecraft, spesso citato come H.P. Lovecraft (Providence, 20 agosto 1890 – Providence, 15 marzo 1937), è stato uno scrittore, poeta, critico letterario e saggista statunitense, riconosciuto tra i maggiori scrittori di letteratura horror insieme ad Edgar Allan Poe e considerato da molti uno dei precursori della fantascienza angloamericana. Le sue opere, una contaminazione tra horror, fantascienza soft, dark fantasy e low fantasy, sono state spesso descritte, anche da lui stesso, col termine weird fiction (dove weird sta per "strano"), venendo riconosciute tra le principali origini del moderno genere letterario del new weird.Autore di numerosi racconti, come Dagon, Il colore venuto dallo spazio, Il richiamo di Cthulhu e L'orrore di Dunwich, e di romanzi, tra cui Il caso di Charles Dexter Ward, Le montagne della follia e La maschera di Innsmouth, oltre ad alcuni racconti in versi, Lovecraft non venne apprezzato in particolar modo dai critici del suo tempo. Ad esempio, il racconto Il richiamo di Cthulhu venne inizialmente rifiutato in quanto definito troppo "straniante" secondo l'espressione di Wright, e non godette mai di buona fama se non dopo la sua morte. Molte delle sue opere sono state fonte di ispirazione per artisti di tutto il mondo, nella letteratura così come nel cinema e nella musica. Uno dei maggiori studiosi lovecraftiani, S. T. Joshi, definisce infatti la sua opera come "un inclassificabile amalgama di fantasy e fantascienza, e non è sorprendente che abbia influenzato in maniera considerevole lo sviluppo successivo di entrambi i generi". Dal punto di vista del pensiero nei suoi racconti e saggi coniò la filosofia del cosmicismo, in conseguenza del suo ateismo e delle nuove scoperte scientifiche, e le sue idee in molti campi furono spesso controverse.

Il colore venuto dallo spazio

La tana è uno degli ultimi racconti di Franz Kafka, scritto durante la sua permanenza a Berlino nel 1923, all'incirca sei mesi prima della morte. Il racconto narra dei continui disperati sforzi intrapresi da un protagonista - per metà umano e per metà animale - di costruirsi un'abitazione perfetta, così da potersi proteggere efficacemente dai suoi nemici invisibili. In tutto il testo (rimasto incompiuto) vi è l'idea ossessiva di riuscir a realizzare una complessa opera architettonica, e dalla paura d'esser attaccato da potenziali nemici i quali però non danno mai prova d'esistenza reale: la tana, creata in questa costante ricerca di perfezione, non produce però quella pace e tranquillità che s'attendeva di trovare ma, piuttosto, ciò gli provoca ansie crescenti. Franz Kafka è uno dei più celebri interpreti della complessità del vissuto umano e delle angosce che turbano la nostra epoca. Nacque a Praga nel 1883, figlio di un agiato negoziante, gretto e autoritario, con cui visse sempre in conflitto. Trascorse un’esistenza apparentemente monotona e priva di grandi avvenimenti. Poco dopo la laurea s’impiegò in un ente pubblico, dove rimase fino a due anni prima della sua prematura scomparsa nel 1924.

World Classics

La Tana

"I know hardly any other writer who seems to be closer, or more continually close, to the Spirit of Christ Himself." So wrote C. S. Lewis of George MacDonald, the Scottish pastor and novelist who had a profound impact on Lewis’ own literary and spiritual career. Here Lewis gathers 365 of MacDonald’s most inspirational lines, prefacing them with details of the effects MacDonald had on Lewis himself. From “Inexorable Love” to “God at the Door”, MacDonald’s words will edify and uplift, just as they did for C. S. Lewis.

George MacDonald

"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

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

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".

A Fragment of Life

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

Sarrasine is a novella by Honoré de Balzac first published in 1830. The tale follows the undulating pathways of Sarrasine the sculptor’s shocking journey to his coming of age. As one of the “fathers of realism” Balzac painted with his words a vivid portrait of life in the swirling salons of Europe at the end of the Bourbon monarchy, and we follow Sarrasine from France to Italy in search of both his métier and his muse. However it is also the story of La Zambinella, an Italian singer with whom Sarrasine falls madly and passionately in love. But that passion holds a secret which Sarrasine spies too late. Total Running Time (TRT): 1 hour, 39 min. Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of short stories, La Comédie humaine. Many of Balzac's works have been made into or have inspired films, and they are a continuing source of inspiration for writers, filmmakers and critics. Before and during his career as a writer, he attempted to be a publisher, printer, businessman, critic, and politician; he failed in all of these efforts. La Comédie humaine reflects his real-life difficulties, and includes scenes from his own experience.

Sarrasine

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

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.

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

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...

Youth

While the town judge was at his window, the son of the washerwoman passed before him. The judge said him unkind words to him about his mother. She drank to keep warm during the long days she spent washing in the freezing water of the river. He even told her son that she was good for nothing. But, not everyone thought so! Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) was a Danish author, poet and artist. Celebrated for children’s literature, his most cherished fairy tales include "The Emperor's New Clothes", "The Little Mermaid", "The Nightingale", "The Steadfast Tin Soldier", "The Snow Queen", "The Ugly Duckling" and "The Little Match Girl". His books have been translated into every living language, and today there is no child or adult that has not met Andersen's whimsical characters. His fairy tales have been adapted to stage and screen countless times, most notably by Disney with the animated films "The Little Mermaid" in 1989 and "Frozen", which is loosely based on "The Snow Queen", in 2013. Thanks to Andersen's contribution to children's literature, his birth date, April 2, is celebrated as International Children's Book Day.

H.C. Andersen's Stories

She Was Good for Nothing

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

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

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

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

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 Necklace by Guy de Maupassant Audiobook is a short story by French writer Guy de Maupassant. It is known for its twist ending (ironic ending), which was a hallmark of de Maupassant's style. The story was first published on 17 February 1884 in the French newspaper Le Gaulois. Plot: Madame Mathilde Loisel has always imagined herself an aristocrat, yearning for wealth and admiration despite having been born into a family of clerks. Her husband is a low-paid clerk who tries his best to make her happy but has little to give. After much effort, he secures for them an invitation to a ball sponsored by the Ministry of Education. Mathilde refuses to go because she has nothing to wear and wishes not to be embarrassed. Upset at her displeasure, Loisel gives her 400 francs (approx. $2,531.20 USD in 2022) – all the money he had been saving to go hunting with his friends – so she can buy a dress. Even after Mathilde does so, she is still unhappy because she has no jewels to wear with it. She spurns Loisel's idea of wearing fresh flowers but takes his suggestion of borrowing some jewelry from her friend, Madame Jeanne Forestier. The only item she borrows is a diamond necklace. Mathilde enjoys herself at the ball, dancing with influential men and reveling in their admiration. Once she and Loisel return home, though, she discovers that she has lost Jeanne's necklace. Unable to find it or anyone who knows where it may have gone, they resign themselves to buying a replacement. At the Palais-Royal shops they find a similar necklace priced at 40,000 francs (approx. $253,141.59 USD in 2022) and bargain for it, eventually settling at 36,000 ($227,827.40 USD). Loisel uses an inheritance from his father to cover half the cost and borrows the rest at high interest. Mathilde gives the necklace to Jeanne without mentioning the loss of the original and Jeanne does not notice the difference. Loisel and Mathilde move into a shabby apartment and live in poverty for ten years, with him taking on night work as a copyist to earn extra money and her sacrificing her beauty to work as a charwoman. After all the loans are paid off, Mathilde encounters Jeanne by chance on the Champs-Élysées; however, Jeanne barely recognizes her owing to her shabby clothing and unkempt appearance. Mathilde tells Jeanne about the loss and replacement of the necklace and of the hard times she has endured on Jeanne's account, blaming her for the misery of the past decade. A horrified Jeanne reveals that the necklace she had lent to Mathilde was made of paste and worth no more than 500 francs ($3,164.26 USD).

The Necklace

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

Essays - Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

'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

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

"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

Anton Chekhov was a Russian physician, playwright, and writer, considered one of the greatest short story writers of all time. In this ebook, as in other editions of the Best Short Stories Collection, you will discover a representative part of his vast work. There are 19 of his best stories written in various stages of the author's life. This ebook is a gift for those who are passionate about short stories and for those who will certainly become so after reading Anton Chekhov's stories.

ANTON CHEKHOV: GREATEST SHORT STORIES

Memory flows like a river, and it is through its constant flow that we come into being. Twelve of our most exciting contemporary writers consider the subject of rivers and how they shape us throughout our lives, demarcating cities as well as moulding our creative consciousness. Tessa Hadley revisits Rumer Godden's The River; Jo Hamya pays homage to Virginia Woolf; Michael Malay goes nightfishing for eels along the River Severn; Marchelle Farrell revisits the tropical waterfalls of her childhood home in Trinidad; and Caleb Azumah Nelson is drawn to the Guadalquivir in Seville. Tender and astute, By the River explores the cultural, social and psychological significance of the rivers that run through our societies and our minds, bringing together writers in a celebration of water and its transformative qualities.

By the River

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

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.

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

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

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 quintessential Jack London is in the on-rushing compulsive-ness of his northern stories," noted James Dickey. "Few men have more convincingly examined the connection between the creative powers of the individual writer and the unconscious drive to breed and to survive, found in the natural world. . . London is in and committed to his creations to a degree very nearly unparalleled in the composition of fiction." This collection includes famous works of Jack London: Call of the Wild White Fang Love of Life

Collected works of Jack London

"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

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

"An Inquiry" (1883) is a story about a country gentleman, who arrives in a city to obtain an inquiry on a case a party of which he is. However, he faces an almost insuperable obstacle on the way to get what he has come for in the form of an officer, whose job functions are to solve these queries actually.

An Inquiry

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

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

Vuk Stefanović Karadžić (1787-1864) was a Serbian philologist, anthropologist and linguist. He was one of the most important reformers of the modern Serbian language. For his collection and preservation of Serbian folktales, the Encyclopædia Britannica labelled Karadžić «the father of Serbian folk-literature scholarship». He was also the author of the first Serbian dictionary in the new reformed language. In addition, he translated the New Testament into the reformed form of the Serbian spelling and language. Literary historian Jovan Deretić summarized his work as «During his fifty years of tireless activity, he accomplished as much as an entire academy of sciences». The Karadžić’s tale The Language of Animals (Немушти језик), which we present to our readers today in the English translation by John Theophilus Naaké, was included by Naaké in the collection Slavonic Fairy Tales, published in London in 1874.

The Language of Animals

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

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

In Suppose a Sentence, Brian Dillon turns his attention to the oblique and complex pleasures of the sentence. A series of essays prompted by a single sentence – from Shakespeare to Gertrude Stein, John Ruskin to Joan Didion – the book explores style, voice, and language, along with the subjectivity of reading. Both an exercise in practical criticism and a set of experiments or challenges, Suppose a Sentence is a polemical and personal reflection on the art of the sentence in literature. Whether the sentence in question is a rigorous expression of a state of vulnerability, extremity, even madness, or a carefully calibrated arrangement, Dillon examines not only how it works and why but also, in the course of the book, what the sentence once was, what it is today, and what it might become tomorrow.

Suppose a Sentence

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

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

From ‘the most powerful book critic in the English-speaking world’ (Vanity Fair) comes an inspiring and beautifully illustrated selection of the life-changing books that none of us should miss ‘Why do we love books so much?’ For legendary literary critic Michiko Kakutani, books have always been an escape and a sanctuary, the characters of some novels feeling so real to her childhood self that she worried they might leap out of the pages at night if she left the book cover open. In Ex Libris, she offers a personal selection of over 100 works of fiction, nonfiction and poetry, with passionate essays on why each has had a profound effect on her life. From Homer’s The Odyssey to The Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale to Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels, Ex Libris covers a rich and vast range of classics, old and new, that will help build a well-rounded reader and citizen of the world. With gorgeous illustrations by lettering artist Dana Tanamachi that evoke vintage bookplates leafed between Kakutani’s inspiring essays, Ex Libris points us to our next great read – and proves an unmissable reminder of why we fell in love with reading in the first place.

Ex Libris

Intimate stories of longing and exile by one of our finest contemporary writers. A lonely housewife fascinated with a famous writer learns to find her own voice in Abu Dhabi; a bus route passing the Christmas lights along Oxford Street is a stark reminder for a female passenger of her brother's tragic death on the eve of his wedding; and a Scottish man working in a kebab shop and his girlfriend try desperately to reconcile Islam's place in their fragile relationship. From the heat of Khartoum at the height of summer to the wintery streets of London, from the concrete high rises in the Gulf to the blustery coast in Aberdeen, this elegant and moving collection vividly evokes the overlapping worlds of Africa, Britain and the Middle East. Beautifully observed and written with empathy, Leila Aboulela's stories deftly capture the search for home in our fast-changing world.

Elsewhere, Home

Holmes is visited by Mrs. Merrilow, a landlady from South Brixton who has an unusual lodger who never shows her face. She saw it once accidentally and it was hideously mutilated. This woman, formerly very quiet, has recently taken to cursing in the night, shouting "Murder, murder!" and "You cruel beast! You monster!" First published in Liberty, January 22, 1927.

Sherlock Holmes

The adventure of the veiled lodger

'This is valuable writing. It has immense vitality. You will encounter a female narrator whose direct and bright-eyed stare at the world, and her self, is without shame or faux modesty. At the same time, it is also a deep study of existence, at various ages and stages in life.' — Deborah Levy 'Swimming is a dreamy, bruised, and carnal book that pretty much no American would write and pretty much every American will thrill to read. Schneck’s “discovery of her body, at the age of fifty” is our encounter with an entrancing mind.' — Lauren Collins From celebrated author Colombe Schneck, in her first translation into English, The Paris Trilogy is three semi-autobiographical takes on a woman’s life, starting with Seventeen, progressing with Friendship, and then Swimming: A Love Story. Exploring questions of sexuality, bodily autonomy, femininity, friendship and loss, The Paris Trilogy is a moving meditation on a lifelong journey to reclaim the female body, accepting it for all its faults and learning to celebrate its strength. The Paris Trilogy is translated into English by award-winning translators Natasha Lehrer and Lauren Elkin.

The Paris Trilogy

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Short Stories

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