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Guy de Maupassant (1850 - 1893) is recognized as one of the fathers of the modern short story and one of its finest exponents. From the humorous to the tragic to the gruesome, with an economy and precision of language, his stories can delight or disturb. Here are 10 of them.

Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909) was a poet, critic, novelist, and playwright. He was born in London and educated at Eton and Oxford and was a contemporary of the Pre-Raphaelites. "Hymn to Proserpine" was published in 1866 in "Poems and Ballads", Swinburne's first collection of poems which was a great success but which contained subjects that were, at the time, very controversial. Other poems in this collection are: "A Ballad of Dreamland", "A Leave-Taking", "At Parting", "August", "Genesis", "Itylus", "Rococo", "Sapphics", "An Interlude", "The Nightingale", "Three Faces", and "Before the Mirror."

Here is a collection of nine tales of the macabre and the supernatural from the acknowledged master of these genres. They are: "The Black Cat", "The Tell-Tale Heart", "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar", "The Premature Burial", "The Pit and the Pendulum", "The Cask of Amontillado", "The Oval Portrait", "Berenice", and "Ligeia".

The delicious, biting wit of Saki's short stories satirizing Edwardian high society are some of the funniest and most delightful exquisite literary miniatures. In this first volume, there are 22 glittering examples. Saki was the pen name of Hector Hugh Monro. He was born in Burma in 1870, where his father was a senior official in the Burma police. From the age of two, he lived with two maiden aunts and his grandmother in Devon and was educated in Exmouth and at the Bedford Grammar School.

E.F. Benson (1867-1940) is probably best known today for his sparkling, comic Lucia novels. In his own day, it was his ghost stories which were his most popular works. This collection of 10 stories exemplifies Benson's fine literary style and his ability to create the most frightening of ghostly and macabre tales.

Nicholas Goade, the Scotland Yard detective, takes a well earned rest after his recent work in arresting single-handed a notorious criminal who had for five years defied the police forces of New York and London. He has been awarded a cheque for $25,000 and six months leave of absence and is enjoying a touring holiday in the West of England in his ancient Ford car with his companion Flip, a small, fat, white dog. But his holiday soon becomes “a busman's holiday”, as he himself puts it, as at each turn he is called upon to deal with crimes.

The Toys of Peace and Other Papers by "Saki" (H. H. Munro) is a collection of 33 "papers" or short stories, which were originally published separately in various journals and later issued in one volume in 1919, three years after the writer's death in the Great War. They are some of the most delightful of literary miniatures.

Henry Seton Merriman was the pen name of Hugh Stowell Scott (1862-1903). He was a successful and popular Victorian novelist. His only book of short stories, Tomaso's Fortune, was published posthumously in 1904, the stories having appeared originally in various magazines. This recording contains a selection of seven stories from that volume. They are: “Tomaso's Fortune”, “Sister”, “For Juanita's Sake”, “In a Crooked Way”, “The Tale of a Scorpion”, “The Prodigal's Return”, and “Stranded”.

Barry Pain was noted for his humorous tales of “Eliza” and her husband, but his tales of the weird and supernatural are equally noteworthy. This volume, More Tales in the Dark, contains eight of them.

Reginald in Russia and Other Sketches was published in 1910 and was the second of Saki's collections of short stories following Reginald (1904). It consists of 15 stories or “sketches” as the author calls them and contains two of his most famous tales: “Gabriel Ernest” and “The Reticence of Lady Anne”.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) is celebrated for his tales of the macabre and the supernatural. “The Tell-Tale Heart” is one of his most famous. In it, the narrator tells how, without any motive, but merely because he is obsessed with his eye (“The eye of a vulture”), he murders an old man, and of the consequences when the murdered man's heart seeks revenge.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) is celebrated for his tales of the macabre and the supernatural. “The Cask of Amontillado” is one of his terrifying tales of premature burial. In it, the narrator, Montresor, has suffered from “insults and injuries” from his “friend” Fortunato and plans to murder him while he is drunk at the carnival by luring him to a wine tasting in the cellars of his palazzo. He chains him to the wall in a niche that he seals up with mortar, thus entombing him alive.

In this example of the genre, the narrator tells of his adored wife, Ligeia, of her tragic death, and of his remarrying another beautiful woman, Rowena, who after a short and loveless marriage also dies but returns from the dead metamorphosed into his true love, Ligeia.

Edward Lear is justly renowned as a writer of humorous verse. His Nonsense Songs were published in 1871 and include probably his best known and most loved poem, “The Owl and the Pussycat”. Laughable Lyrics (1877) contains other popular rhymes, including “The Dong with a Luminous Nose”, “The Courtship of the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo”, “The Pobble Who Has No Toes”, and more.

“The Thing Invisible” is a story featuring Thomas Carnacki, a detective who investigates cases of an occult or supernatural nature. It is one of five tales of Carnacki's ghost hunting exploits that first appeared serially in The Idler magazine in 1910 and were published together with one more as a collection Carnacki the Ghost-Finder in 1913. After a good dinner, Mr. Carnacki relates his experiences of ghost-finding to his limited circle of four friends whom he has summoned to his home in Chelsea.

The Gentle Grafter contains 14 tales relating the questionable exploits of “Jeff Peters” (the gentle grafter) and his several “partners in graft”.

“The Gateway of the Monster” is a story featuring Thomas Carnacki, a detective who investigates cases of an occult or supernatural nature. It is one of five tales of Carnacki's ghost-hunting exploits that first appeared serially in The Idler magazine in 1910 and were published together with one more as the collection Carnacki the Ghost-Finder in 1913. After a good dinner, Mr. Carnacki relates his experiences of ghost finding to his limited circle of four friends whom he has summoned to his home in Chelsea.

Jerome K. Jerome is of course known for the hilarious adventures of “Three Men in a Boat”. He also wrote many short stories and essays that have all the wit, whimsy, and wisdom of his more famous work. The essays in this volume were published together with “The Diary of a Pilgrimage” in 1891. They are: “Evergreens”, “Clocks”, “Tea-Kettles”, “A Pathetic Story”, “The New Utopia”, and “Dreams”.

Eliza was the first volume of the Eliza Stories by Barry Pain (1864-1928). It was published in 1900 and was the first of these stories that appeared in cheap editions and were sold on railway bookstalls. The stories were hugely popular and made Pain's name. Although the book is titled Eliza, it is her husband who is its comic hero.

This is the first volume of The Travels and Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen by Rudolf Erich Raspe. The Baron relates his fantastical experiences and exploits, telling of the many singular incidents such as climbing to the moon on a beanstalk, riding on a cannon ball, being swallowed by a fish and being rescued from its insides, flying on an eagle from Margate to America, and many other incredible adventures, and challenges anyone who doubts him, asserting he is "a traveler of veracity!"