Showing results by narrator "Walter Zimmerman" in All Categories

Guy de Maupassant is considered one of the fathers of the modern short story as well as one of the form's finest writers. His stories are characterized by their economy of style and efficient, seemingly effortless dénouements

"A Scandal in Bohemia" was the first of Arthur Conan Doyle's 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories to be published in The Strand Magazine. Holmes did not think much of the "fair sex" until the met a character in this story, Irene Adler, who became to him "the woman".

In the wonderful fairy tale, Charles Dickens creates a number of memorable characters, including a King, who also has a regular office job and is always running out of money, his lovely wife, the Queen and their 17 children, as well as an elderly and very cranky fairy who gives their eldest daughter a magic fishbone she can use to grant one wish. However it will only work if the "circumstances are right".

Arguably Turgenev's greatest work and certainly one of the most controversial Russian novels ever written, Fathers and Sons incited protests from all branches of Russian society. Turgenev dramatized the volcanic issues that divided a Russia torn by social unrest and conflict: peasants against masters, generations against generations, and fathers against sons.

By the time Dostoevsky was 40, he had spent four years in prison and a further four years in the army as punishment for his part in a political conspiracy. His health was broken. He was gaunt, fervid, anxiety-ridden, and close to bankruptcy. It was in this state he wrote Notes from the Underground, a masterpiece of the psychology of theoutsider.

If you are looking for advice on money, health, or happy living, look no further than this collection of wisdom from the sages. An extensive gathering of advice from learned men and women throughout the ages.

This is a selection from the "just so" stories. Just So Stories for Children is a collection of highly fantasized origin stories that are among Kipling's best known and, arguably, best works.

"The King of the Golden River" is the magical story of a boy named Gluck, his evil brothers, and a dangerous quest to find treasure lurking in the Golden River. It is a classic tale and the only fairy tale the famous English author and critic ever wrote. It could also be classified as a fable or parable since it it explains "how things came to be".

Two colonial officers extol the benefits they are bringing to an African village in the form of "quays and warehouses, and barracks-and billiard-rooms". A French republican who has fathered three idiot sons makes his peace with the Church: only to have an idiot daughter. A woman chooses not to leave her husband...but he leaves her. Such are the ironies of Conrad's earliest short stories.

Leo Tolstoy is widely regarded as one of the greatest of all novelists for such works as War and Peace and Anna Karenina. He also wrote a number of outstanding short stories. This is one of his best.

The writer who did most to establish prose as a force in Russian literary culture was Nikolai Gogol. Gogol's example combined with the pronouncements of the literary critics of the period, established prose as the literary medium of the future. Fyodor Dostoevsky is supposed to have said, referring to himself and his fellow Realists, "We have all come out from under Gogol's "Overcoat".

The Gambler brilliantly captures the strangely powerful compulsion to bet that Dostoevsky, himself a compulsive gambler, knew so well. The hero rides an emotional roller coaster between exhilaration and despair, and secondary characters such as the grandmother, who throws much of her fortune away at the gaming tables, are unforgettable.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky is considered one of the greatest Russian writers. His works have had a profound and lasting effect on 20th-century literature. His psychological penetration into the human soul had, in novels like Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov, a profound influence on the 20th century novel. He also wrote a number of brilliant short stories along these same lines. "The Wedding" is one of his best.

"Dracula's Guest" is actually the deleted first chapter from the original Dracula manuscript, which the publisher felt was superfluous to the novel. It was later released as a short story.

Raskolnikov, a student in St. Petersburg, murders an old woman, a money-lender, to prove his theory that violence purifies the strong. But no sooner is the deed done than Raskolnikov begins to feel remorse. What follows is one of the greatest psychological studies in world literature.

On a dark and stormy night, three strangers seek shelter at a young girl's christening party. Thomas Hardy was an English poet, novelist, and short story writer. He is famous for his depictions of Wessex, an imaginary county. Many of his stories also reflected his sense of the tragedy in human life.

First published in 1888 in France, this novel is usually considered Maupassant's best. It is a piercing study of jealousy and suspicion. Pierre and Jean are the sons of a retired Parisian jeweler, M. Roland, living at Le Havre. Pierre is a doctor, whose temperament is somewhat nervous and unsteady. Jean, the younger, has a placid nature and is a lawyer. Both love the widowed young Mme. Rosemilly, who seems to prefer Jean. When Jean inherits a fortune from M. Marechal...

Oscar Wilde was one of the most versatile writers who ever lived. He wrote classic plays, including The Importance of Being Ernest; one wildly popular and influential novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray; and a number of inventive and moving stories in The Happy Prince and Other Tales.

Stories included in this volume are: "The Nightingale and the Rose", "The Devoted Friend", "The Happy Prince", "The Remarkable Rocket", and "The Selfish Giant".

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu was one of the major figures of 19th-century supernaturalism. He helped move supernaturalist fiction away from the gothic's emphasis on external sources of terror and toward a focus on the effects of terror, thus helping to create the psychological basis for supernaturalist and horror literature that continues today. "The Familiar" is one of his most terrifying tales.

The Minister's Black Veil was first published in the 1836 edition of The Token and Atlantic Souvenir. It later appeared in Twice-Told Tales, a collection of short stories by Hawthorne published in 1837. Hawthorne's inspiration for this story may have been a true event. A clergyman named Joseph Moody of York, Maine, nicknamed "Handkerchief Moody", accidentally killed a friend when he was a young man and wore a black veil from the man's funeral until his own death.