Showing results by narrator "Cate Barratt" in All Categories

Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin (1870-1953) was the first Russian author to receive the Nobel Prize for literature. The theme of the title story, which describes the death of a wealthy American in the island of Capri, has distinct links with the more famous treatment of this subject - "Death in Venice", by Thomas Mann. Bunin wrote: "The idea of a story [called initially] 'Death on Capri' came to me and in four days I finished the piece.

In Lost Man's Lane, Gryce reaches out to Butterworth to help solve the secret behind several persons who have disappeared in a small country village, whose inhabitants happen to be the offspring of her childhood friend.

France's master of the short story was prolific, producing 13 volumes of tales of everyday life.

André Gide met Wilde many times and was one of the small number of celebrities who maintained contact with him until his death in Paris in 1900.

New York-born John Kendrick Bangs was associate editor and then editor of Life and Harper magazines, eventually finding his way into the Humour department. Here, he began to write his own satire and humour. Ghosts I Have Met and Some Others is a delightful humorous collection of short tales relating encounters with ghosts, including "The Mystery of My Grandmother's Hair Sofa", "The Exorcism That Failed", and more.

This essay was written in 1891 after Wilde had become enamored of concepts expressive of a liberal socialism. In his view, the aim of socialism should be "to try to reconstruct society on such a basis that poverty will be impossible". Typically, Wilde stresses the vital role played by art and the imperative significance of the artist.

Guy de Maupassant, French master of the short story, had a simple, efficient style of writing and, like Anton Chekhov, found inspiration for his stories in the daily lives of humans, which often reveal our darker nature. Many of his works also centered on the Franco-Prussian War, in which he served.

Volume V covers France’s history from the rise of Henry IV (Henry of Navarre) in 1589 to the death of Louis XIV in 1715.

Two British members of Parliament - one an elder conservative, the other a younger man with a liberal bent (and an eye on the older man's daughter) face a difficult choice. Some stranger has left each of them a considerable fortune on condition they give up their well-respected family names and adopt that of Wurzel-Flummery.

Edith Nesbit's trilogy about a group of children who encounter a sand fairy and, through his intercession, embark on a wild round of adventures has been a staple of juvenile literature since the first volume was published in 1902. The three books are Five Children and It (1902), The Phoenix and the Carpet (1904), and The Story of the Amulet (1906).

This collection of verse was first published in 1920. It contains 12 poems published in an earlier collection, Prufrock and Other Observations, in 1917, together with 12 later poems, four of which are in French. Both collections were dedicated to Jean Verdenal (1889-1915).

Guy de Maupassant, French master of the short story, had a simple, efficient style of writing and, like Anton Chekhov, found inspiration for his stories in the daily lives of humans, which often reveal our darker nature. Volume IV of his Complete Original Short Stories contains the following: "The Moribund", "The Gamekeeper", "The Story of a Farm Girl", "The Wreck", "Théodule Sabot’s Confession", "The Wrong House", "The Diamond Necklace", "The Marquis de Fumerol", "The Trip of Le Horla", "Farewell!", "The Wolf", and "The Inn".

Credited by many as the mother of the detective novel, Anna Katharine Green published her first mystery novel - The Leavenworth Case - in 1878, almost a decade before Sherlock Holmes made his appearance. Green's intrepid Ebenezer Gryce, a seasoned New York detective, takes up the case of a brutally murdered millionaire philanthropist. One of the murdered man's two nieces is set to inherit an immense fortune, and she and her cousin are high on the suspect list.

Guy de Maupassant is widely regarded as the father of the modern short story. As his 13 volumes of short stories attest, he was a prolific writer of this form. He had a simple, efficient style of writing and, like Anton Chekhov, found inspiration for his stories in the daily lives of humans, which often reveal our darker nature. Many of his works also centred on the Franco-Prussian War, in which he served.

First serialized in the French magazine Je sais tout, The Hollow Needle was released in 1909. It featured the writer’s famed gentleman burglar, Arsene Lupin, who encountered the surprisingly apt amateur-detective qualities of young Isidore Beautrelet. As fans of Lupin would come to expect over subsequent novels, the burglar nonetheless always remained at least one step ahead of his adversaries, until...

The prolific Alexandre Dumas, père, first published his famous eight-volume crime series in Paris in 1839-40. It contained 18 stories, which, as the author notes in the introduction, had “the added value of giving the modern reader a clear picture of the state of semi-lawlessness which existed in Europe, during the middle ages.” In Volume 5, Dumas relates the lengths to which Antoine Derues will go in his pursuit of money, and the consequences of the dark works of Marie Leroux and her partner Claude Perregaud.

The Raven Edition of the works of Edgar Allan Poe (1809 – 1849) presents his complete literary output in five volumes. In addition to 11 prose pieces, volume five contains all of Poe’s verse and also his only play, the unfinished drama, "Politian". Poe’s poetic output consists of 54 pieces, most of them short, but it also includes four longer pieces, The Bells, Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and perhaps Poe’s most iconic poem, The Raven.

Is there somewhere to hide from the past? Dutch Mulvaney, a hero who will spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair, now carves sea creatures from driftwood and signs them as "Beach Bum." His relocation from the East Coast to the small coastal town of Somewhere in Oregon was a desperate attempt to salvage his sanity and dignity. Now, after a year of solitude, he finally feels ready to venture back into society. Taylor Jones enjoys her job as a waitress at Mama Pink's Diner, the most popular eatery in Somewhere. Daily, she thanks the universe for Edna Pink, the owner. Without Edna's help she could very well be six feet under, with her two precious sons being raised by a crime lord. When a disabled man enters the diner she gets a premonition that her life is about to change. Should she remain in the town she loves, or run yet again?

The Works of Edgar Allan Poe (1809 – 1849), The Raven Edition, presents his complete literary output in five volumes. Although best known for his works of macabre fiction, Poe also had a deep interest in scientific discovery and speculative philosophy. This volume contains stories about wild and wonderful experiments and other objects of public curiosity, and essays about language and thought.

Spend your next 30 minutes traveling to a future where first adopters have the most advanced robot butlers or where everyone has a superpower - except the young man you just met. Or perhaps you prefer a good hard-boiled detective story or one about a hardscrabble life in the Australian outback.