Publisher: Sheba Blake Publishing
The longish short story "Adieu" is an excerpt from Honore de Balzac's sweeping masterpiece The Human Comedy. A ghost story of sorts, this tragic tale recounts the blossoming romance of two lovers whose relationship is torn asunder by the vagaries of war. When they reunite by chance years later, there is nothing left to be salvaged.
It is the spring of 1800. Captain Alan Lewrie, fresh from victory in the South Atlantic, is back in England and fitting out his new frigate, the HMS Savage. But true to fashion, Lewrie can't stay ashore too long without trouble arising. A Jamaican court has tried him in absentia and sentenced him to hang for the theft of a dozen black slaves. The vengeful slave owner has made his way to London to seek Lewrie's end . . . with or without the majesty of the law! To complicate matters further, Lewrie must also deal with allegations that he is a faithless rakehell, as his wife has been informed through anonymous letters. Despite shoreside legal matters, Lewrie takes the Savage on King's business to Sou'west France to plug the threat of enemy warships, privateers, and neutrals smuggling goods in and out of Bordeaux. It could be dull and plodding dreariness, but a bored Captain Alan Lewrie, safe in his post (for the moment), can be a dangerous fellow to his country's foes . . . if only to relieve the tedium!Show book
Collins brings the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie, to English language learners. Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time and in any language. Now Collins has adapted her famous detective novels for English language learners. These carefully abridged versions are shorter with the language targeted at learners of English. There is a dangerous atmosphere at Stoneygates, a centre for young criminals. When Miss Marple visits her friend there, she can sense the danger, too. One evening during her stay someone shoots at the administrator of the centre. He is not injured, but a visiting relative is shot dead at the same time in another part of the building. Could this be a coincidence? Miss Marple must solve the mystery.Show book
“A powerful, irresistible collection” of short stories about outsiders by the bestselling author of Red Clocks (Publishers Weekly). A teenage boy discovers his blind mother making a pass at his new best friend. A woman works in a factory by day and tends to a menagerie of sick animals by night. An aspiring witch is disillusioned by her spiritual shortcomings. A girl from a town so small it doesn’t exist on any map runs away with a rock band—all the while attempting to chart her way back home. The odds stacked against them, the lovingly rendered outsiders in these stories find connectedness and redemption in the unlikeliest of circumstances. Even the most surreal and ethereal moments take on a surprising familiarity, and the darkest experiences are imbued with unexpected hope. To become engrossed in Zumas’s world is a strange and beautiful delight. “Zumas gives socially awkward, mysteriously gifted and self-destructive outcasts spellbinding, unflinching voice in her debut collection. The heroes in this collection are trapped; some are resigned to years of caregiving, many are institutionalized and nearly all haunt the fringes of normalcy (or disregard the normal altogether).” —Publishers Weekly “Attention unrequited lovers, sisters of suicidal brothers, children of the legally blind: you are not alone. Leni Zumas understands your quiet agony.” —Miranda July, author of No One Belongs Here More Than YouShow book
Rick Moody on John Cheever; Ben Marcus on Dr. Seuss; Mona Simpson on Henry James: Forty-five essays by great writers, about great writers. For Tributes, Conjunctions invited a number of contemporary writers to pay homage to American literary masters who made something possible for them—whether that was the act of writing itself, writing a certain book, writing in a particular manner, or living in a way that was consonant with the act of writing. This is an anthology of personal enthusiasms, a colloquium Whitman might have seen as a progress of vistas. John Sayles offers an appreciation of Nelson Algren, Robert Creeley of Edwin Arlington Robinson, Nathaniel Mackey on Walt Whitman. And then there’s Rick Moody on John Cheever, Ben Marcus on Dr. Seuss, Mona Simpson on Henry James, Ana Castillo on Anaïs Nin, Anne Waldman on Jack Kerouac, Lydia Davis on Edward Dahlberg. All in all, forty-five authors share compelling tales of their adopted literary parentage.Show book
5 Exciting short stories by one of Americas best story tellers.- Chris Farrington: Able Seaman- Typhoon Off the Coast of Japan- The Lost Poacher- The Banks of the Sacramento- In Yeddo BayShow book
Edward Frederic Benson (1867 - 1940) was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, archaeologist, and short story writer, best known as the true master of the gothic occult story.The Horror-Horn tells the story of a skiing holiday in the shadow of the mysteriously named Ungeheuerhorn mountain. Literally the name translates as "Horror-Horn". It appears that a local legend has it that hideous and terrifying monsters live in caves high up on the mountain.These monsters are primitive creatures... possibly an early stage of evolution of human beings, but wild, savage, malevolent. Moreover, the legend has it that they violently rape any human, male or female who they can manage to catch.When the narrator of this story loses his way on the mountain as dusk is falling, he soon finds himself pursued by an abonimable female monster, bent on having her evil way with him.Show book
