This remarkable book by one of the great writers of our time includes essays on a proposed universal language, a justification of suicide, a refutation of time, the nature of dreams, and the intricacies of linguistic forms. Borges comments on such literary figures as Pascal, Coleridge, Cervantes, Hawthorne, Whitman, Valery, Wilde, Shaw, and Kafka. With extraordinary grace and erudition, he ranges in time, place, and subject from Omar Khayyam to Joseph Conrad, from ancient China to modern England, from world revolution to contemporary slang. Views: 247
First published in 1905, this novel portrays the continuing oppression and racial violence prominent in the South even after the Civil War. The economy of the South was doing very poorly and further limited the opportunities for Black people to work their way up the socioeconomic ladder. By presenting life in Clarendon, Chesnutt illustrates how unfairly Black people were treated in the South during this time. The novel follows Colonel Henry French through the difficulty he faces in trying to reform the southern town, as he meets unfair resistance and violence from the racist people of the town. Although the novel ended up a failure, Chesnutt accurately depicts the hopelessness of reforming the South through the story of Colonel Henry French and the Southern town of Clarendon, North Carolina. Views: 246
In the ruined heart of a shattered empire brute force and spliced magics hold sway, and strangers are suspect. Using this suspicion, Skerin gains the attention of the local gang boss, drawing him into a violent game for a prize once very close to him.A 4900 word short story.Gone Girl meets The Big Sleep: "Flowing prose has the sense of murderous urgency, reminiscent that of classical hard-boiled mysteries." For the longest time, nobody even realized that Richard Barnes had joined the ranks of the 2,000 people who go missing each day in the United States. It is the middle of yet another cloud-free, rain-free, pseudo-idyllic summer in Los Angeles. It’s the heart of the modern depression and NPR is playing interviews with those affected on the hour, every hour. It’s on just such a day that Jack Pelham, a freelance reporter for a paper you haven't heard of, and a man whose personal and professional life is crumbling around him, is sent to interview a woman who reported that her husband went missing - six months ago. Even with that peculiarity, Jack goes in thinking it’s a nothing story, and he keeps thinking that right up until the moment he’s accosted in by men brandishing firearms demanding to know everything he knows about the missing man. It’s from that moment it all becomes something Jack never saw coming. The chase for the story - from the underbelly of LA to the rough and tumble of Baja California - proves all-consuming and damaging - to him, to everyone around him. Before the day is done, Jack is no longer writing the story, he becomes the story - right up to the point of he himself becoming the missing man. Views: 246
A bewitchingly brilliant collection of never-before-published letters from the renowned author of “The Lottery” and The Haunting of Hill Housei must stop writing letters and get to writing a novel.Shirley Jackson is one of the most important American authors of the last hundred years and among our greatest chroniclers of the female experience. This extraordinary compilation of personal correspondence has all the hallmarks of Jackson’s beloved fiction: flashes of the uncanny in the domestic, sparks of horror in the quotidian, and the veins of humor that run through good times and bad.i am having a fine time doing a novel with my left hand and a long story—with as many levels as grand central station—with my right hand, stirring chocolate pudding with a spoon held in my teeth, and tuning the television with both feet.Written over the course of nearly three decades, from Jackson’s college... Views: 246
Jack\'s cowboy life began just as a great change was sweeping over the cattle range. Cattle had first been brought into the country only a few years before—old-fashioned long-horns driven up over the trail from Texas.In those days the people in the West were not many. Towns were small, farms almost unknown, wagon roads few. Except about the pastures of the larger ranches, there were no fences. Over most of the land the cowboy roamed alone.His seemed a life of romance. Free as the birds, he wandered over the wide range, going when and where he pleased. But this romance was only apparent. No man worked harder than he, or for less reward. His toilful days and short broken nights; his small pay and his poor food were recorded in the songs that he sang as he rode about the cattle. This was in the early days of the cattle industry.A little later, on the plains came a change from pioneer conditions to those approaching luxury.The earlier cattlemen in the North—those who ranged their stock on the Platte and the various forks of the Loup River—made great profits. Yet as time went on they saw competition constantly growing sharper and ranges being overstocked. As the news of their profits drifted eastward many young men, allured by the romance of the cowboy\'s life, and ignorant of its actual conditions, came into the cattle country. These believed that success with cattle was to be attained by riding about and watching the cattle increase and grow, and shipping them to market when they had grown. They were glad to be interested in a business at once so agreeable and so profitable; and many a one exchanged his money for a herd, a brand and some log buildings, and rode over the range awaiting the advent of his riches. Many of the early cattlemen sold their herds to the newcomers, who, somewhat later, discovered that with the cattle they had bought also much experience.These changes were in operation when Jack entered on his cowboy life. Views: 245
This collection of literature attempts to compile many of the classic works that have stood the test of time and offer them at a reduced, affordable price, in an attractive volume so that everyone can enjoy them. Views: 245
From Library JournalWilliamson was one of the gods of the old pulp sf/adventure magazines of yesteryear such as Weird Tales, Astounding Stories, Thrilling Mystery, etc., and at age 93 is still writing as well as teaching. The dozen stories included in this fourth volume of his collected works range in publication from 1936 to 1938. In addition to the title piece, there are "The Ice Entity," "The Devil in Steel," "Dreadful Sleep," and "The Legion of Time." This also sports an introduction and afterword by Williamson and an appendix. The series includes Vol. 1: The Metal Man and Others (ISBN 1-893887-02-2), Vol. 2: Wolves of Darkness (ISBN 1-893887-04-9), and Vol. 3: Wizard's Isle (ISBN 1-893887-08-1). Vintage sf at its best. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. Product DescriptionThis second volume continues the publishing program to collect the stories of Science Fiction Grand Master Jack Williamson. Drawn from such classic pulp magazines as Astounding Stories, Wonder Stories, and Amazing Stories, this volume features ten tales, four never published in book form, including novel-length adventure, The Stone from the Green Star. Also included are Williamson's letters and contest entries to the editors of the SF magainzes of the early 30's. The book is smythe-sewn, bound in full cloth, and printed on acid-neutral paper, with full-color endpapers reproducing the original pulp magazine cover art. With a foreword by noted writer Harlan Ellison, Wolves of Darkness imparts the sense of wonder from the early years of American Science Fiction and continues the documentation of Williamson's unparalleled career. Views: 245
The winner and ten special commendations from the firstwriter.com First International Short Story Contest, which ran from 2004 to 2005.Every year, firstwriter.com runs an international short story contest. This chapbook contains the winner and ten special commendations from the firstwriter.com First International Short Story Contest, which ran from 2004 to 2005. The winner, Alexandra Fox, was awarded £200 for her moving story "Cradle Song for Isobel".These stories were first published together in 2006, in firstwriter.magazine issue 8: Turning Leaves. Views: 245
Herman Melville was a well-known American novelist in his day, with best-sellers like Typee, but by the time he died in 1891, he had fallen into obscurity. Although his first few books were popular, they too began to collect dust and be forgotten in the country.Then came the Melville Revival in the early 20th century, which breathed life into his legacy and brought his work back to the forefront. Of course, the book that benefited the most from that revival is now considered one of the greatest American novels ever written: Moby Dick. Views: 245
Newspaperman, short-story writer, poet, and satirist, Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) is one of the most striking and unusual literary figures America has produced. Dubbed "Bitter Bierce" for his vitriolic wit and biting satire, his fame rests largely on a celebrated compilation of barbed epigrams, The Devil's Dictionary, and a book of short stories (Tales of Soldiers and Civilians, 1891). Most of the 16 selections in this volume have been taken from the latter collection.
The stories in this edition include: "What I Saw at Shiloh," "A Son of the Gods," "Four Days in Dixie," "One of the Missing," "A Horseman in the Sky," "The Coup de Grace," "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," "The Story of Conscience," "One Kind of Officer," "Chickamauga," and five more.
Bierce's stories employ a buildup of suggestive realistic detail to produce grim and vivid tales often disturbing in their mood of fatalism and impending calamity. Hauntingly suggestive, they offer excellent examples of the author's dark pessimism and storytelling power. Views: 244
Martin Of Nitendi; and The River Of Dreams - 1901 is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Louis Becke is in the English language, and may not include graphics or images from the original edition. If you enjoy the works of Louis Becke then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. Views: 244
Bride of the Dark One is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Florence Verbell Brown is in the English language, and may not include graphics or images from the original edition. If you enjoy the works of Florence Verbell Brown then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. Views: 244
Avar-Tek #3: For Alexander Sevik, providing for his family is hard enough without losing grip on reality. His dreams are real. When he wakes, he sometimes forgets who he is. His hands tingle for no reason, and the strange man who is following him talks about aliens. When he discovers the key to his dreams, he uncovers a national threat. And he has to choose between his own sanity or saving lives.Avar-Tek #3: For Alexander Sevik, providing for his family is hard enough without losing grip on reality. His dreams are real. One night, he lives the entire life of a deckhand on a Spanish galleon. The next night, it’s life as an ancient Roman senator. Next, he is a cyborg on a space cruiser. When he wakes, he sometimes forgets who he is. His hands tingle for no reason, and the strange man who is following him talks about aliens. When he discovers the key to his dreams, he uncovers a national threat. And he has to choose between his own sanity or saving lives.Cohesion Lost is a is a long short story at 14,000 words. It is the third short story in the Avar-Tek Series. Views: 244
In Pursuit: A Victorian Entertainment, Addison Grimmins, slum-born but ambitious and ruthless, sets out on a quest to bring back the Lord Exchequer of England's missing wife. Now, in Pursued: Lillian's Story, we get the other side of the story from Lillian, the woman being pursued.From boat to stagecoach to train, as Lillian and her questionably reliable companions elude her pursuers throughout Europe, Lillian writes to her daughter-in-law on her honeymoon, warning her of what she may expect marrying into the Ravenglass estate and its cursed male line of descent. Lillian recounts how as a girl she entered a dream marriage to the "golden" son of a great Lord. And how, little by little, one misfortune after another, the dream union threatened to become a nightmare that would destroy her reputation—and her life. Views: 243
