Candide and Other Stories

Candide and Other Stories
Author: Voltaire
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2006-06-08
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0191604984

'If this is the best of all possible worlds, then what must the others be like?' Young Candide is tossed on a hilarious tide of misfortune, experiencing the full horror and injustice of this 'best of all possible worlds' - the Old and the New - before finally accepting that his old philosophy tutor Dr Pangloss has got it all wrong. There are no grounds for his daft theory of Optimism. Yet life goes on. We must cultivate our garden, for there is certainly room for improvement. Candide is the most famous of Voltaire's 'philosophical tales', in which he combined witty improbabilities with the sanest of good sense. First published in 1759, it was an instant bestseller and has come to be regarded as one of the key texts of the Enlightenment. What Candide does for chivalric romance, the other tales in this selection - Micromegas, Zadig, The Ingenu, and The White Bull - do for science fiction, the Oriental tale, the sentimental novel, and the Old Testament. This new edition also includes a verse tale based on Chaucer's The Wife of Bath's Tale, in which we discover that most elusive of secrets: What Pleases the Ladies. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Secrets in the Cellar

Secrets in the Cellar
Author: John Glatt
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2009-03-03
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 1429967560

Josef Fritzl was a 73-year-old retired engineer in Austria. He seemed to be living a normal life with his wife, Rosemarie, and their family—though one daughter, Elisabeth, had decades earlier been "lost" to a religious cult. Throughout the years, three of Elisabeth's children mysteriously appeared on the Fritzls' doorstep; Josef and Rosemarie raised them as their own. But only Josef knew the truth about Elisabeth's disappearance... For twenty-seven years, Josef had imprisoned and molested Elisabeth in his man-made basement dungeon, complete with sound-proof paneling and code-protected electric locks. There, she would eventually give birth to a total of seven of Josef's children. One died in infancy—and the other three were raised alongside Elisabeth, never to see the light of day. Then, in 2008, one of Elisabeth's children became seriously ill, and was taken to the hospital. It was the first time the nineteen-year-old girl had ever gone outside—and soon, the truth about her background, her family's captivity, and Josef's unspeakable crimes would come to light. John Glatt's Secrets in the Cellar is the true story of a crime that shocked the world.

Cellar

Cellar
Author: Natasha Preston
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Total Pages: 374
Release: 2014-03-01
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1492600997

"Lily?" My stomach dropped as a tall, dark-haired man stepped into view. Had he been hiding between the trees? "No. Sorry." Gulping, I took a step back. "I'm not Lily." He shook his head, a satisfied grin on his face. "No. You are Lily." "I'm Summer. You have the wrong person." You utter freak! I could hear my pulse crashing in my ears. How stupid to give him my real name. He continued to stare at me, smiling. It made me feel sick. "You are Lily," he repeated. Before I could blink, he threw his arms forward and grabbed me. I tried to shout, but he clasped his hand over my mouth, muffling my screams. My heart raced. I'm going to die. For months Summer is trapped in a cellar with the man who took her—and three other girls: Rose, Poppy, and Violet. His perfect, pure flowers. His family. But flowers can't survive long cut off from the sun, and time is running out...

The Girl in the Basement

The Girl in the Basement
Author: Ray Garton
Publisher: Crossroad Press
Total Pages: 130
Release: 2022-07-31
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

A terrifying tale from a Bram Stoker Award–nominated author who “has consistently created some of the best horror ever set to print” (Cemetery Dance). Foster care is like Russian roulette, says fifteen-year-old Ryan Kettering, who’s spent most of his young life in largely abusive homes. Sometimes the hammer clicks and you’re fine. Sometimes it’s a bullet to the brain. This time it seems the hammer has clicked. Living with the Prestons in a rambling two-story house in Shasta County, the chores are split between Ryan and five other foster kids. Not counting nine-year-old Maddy. Not much is expected of her. She stays in the basement. The other children don’t know much about Maddy. But what they do know, they don’t like. She’s just not right. She speaks in a strange, gravelly adult voice. Maybe Ryan can make a difference. Spend time with her. Get acquainted. He understands what it means to be lonely. That’s when he decides to do what no other child in the house dares: Ryan’s going down to the basement. From the author of Live Girls and The Loveliest Dead, a recipient of the World Horror Convention’s Grand Master Award, this is a chilling story of supernatural terror.

The Old Man in the Mountain and Other Stories

The Old Man in the Mountain and Other Stories
Author: Fairbanks
Publisher: Balboa Press
Total Pages: 285
Release: 2013-10
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1452511497

Exploring widely diverse settings-from the wilds of the Australian Outback to urban adventures to biblical lands-this collection of short stories, poems, and other writings celebrates what it is to be Australian. It encompasses love, revenge, debauchery, wonder, loss, and uncertainty, but a common thread of hope emerges from the colourful and eccentric writings of bush author Fairbanks. An elder Aboriginal storyteller regales a group of eager tourists with an ancient story of betrayal, loss, and clever deception by "The Old Man in the Mountain." In "Tjamiti Ngunytji," an American youth is rescued by a character living in a remote outback Aboriginal community. After the devastating Black Saturday Bushfire destroyed his Victoria home and manuscripts, Fairbanks was inspired to capture the fleeting reflections of such an experience in "The Smouldering Stump." Life is, has always been, and will continue to be a complex thing, shaped by friendship and love bonds, ugliness and conflict, anticipation and uncertainty, comedy and joy, tragedy, mystery, and more. Above all, there is hope and beauty for those who look for it. The Old Man in the Mountain and Other Stories celebrates the many threads in the colourful tapestry of life with the quirky, sometimes irreverent Aussie sense of humour.

The Bedquilt and Other Stories

The Bedquilt and Other Stories
Author: Dorothy Canfield Fisher
Publisher: University of Missouri Press
Total Pages: 262
Release: 1997
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780826211408

Two essays and eleven short stories from a 1930s novelist who wrote on a variety of subjects, from war to the lot of the black man. In An American Citizen, a black man leaves America for another country to escape the humiliation he suffers, Through Pity and Terror is a war story set in France on a woman whose home is invaded by German soldiers, and in the title story the protagonist finally wins recognition as an artist.

The Late Breakfasters and Other Stories

The Late Breakfasters and Other Stories
Author: Robert Aickman
Publisher: Valancourt Books
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2016-10-04
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1943910464

An omnibus collection featuring some of the finest works of a master of weird fiction One of the preeminent writers of weird fiction, Robert Aickman is celebrated for his unsettling and often ambiguous "strange stories," but he once wrote that “those, if any, who wish to know more about me, should plunge beneath the frivolous surface of The Late Breakfasters,” his only novel, originally published in 1964. In The Late Breakfasters, young Griselda de Reptonville is invited by Mrs. Hatch to a house party at her country estate, Beams (which, incidentally, is haunted). There, amidst an array of eccentric characters and bizarre happenings, she will meet the love of her life, Louise. But when their short-lived relationship is cruelly cut short, Griselda must embark on a quest to recapture the happiness she has lost. Never before published in the United States and long unobtainable, Aickman's odd and whimsical novel is joined in this omnibus volume by six of his finest weird tales (two of them making their first-ever American appearance): “My Poor Friend”, “The Visiting Star”, “Larger Than Oneself”, “A Roman Question”, “Mark Ingestre: The Customer's Tale”, and “Rosamund's Bower”, as well as a new introduction by Philip Challinor.

The Missing and Other Stories

The Missing and Other Stories
Author: A. C. Skiffington
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2008-08
Genre: Authors, American
ISBN: 1434387607

It all began in the bloody Vietnam War as two platoons led by Lt. Jack McKeon and Lt. Keith Kirkland united in a joint effort to overpower the North Vietnamese Army on the battle of Hill 57. Many will die and few will survive this dirt-chewing war. Nine years later, a violent tragedy will take the lives of Jack Mckeon's wife and daughter. Trying to live a normal life, Jack McKeon, a natural outdoorsman ventures on an African Safari tour. An unfortunate event in Nairobi, Kenya causes him to run from the law. Innocent, he journeys deeper into the grasslands of the grand Serengeti plains. Confronting big-game hunters and poachers in his expedition, Jack McKeon makes it his mission to stop the ivory-bloodshed that has decimated the rhino and elephant populations. Unbeknownst to Jack, all the poachers' work for Lt. Keith Kirkland, cartel-leader of the ivory-world, and the man who saved his life in the Vietnam War.

The Praetor and Other Stories

The Praetor and Other Stories
Author: Aurel Stancu
Publisher: Wildside Press LLC
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2013-05-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1434446360

The thirty-two stories in this new collection reflect the differences between man's real self and the various masks he has to wear in a Romanian society that vacillates between nostalgia for its communist past and restrained optimism about its capitalist future. The characters, who are taken from all walks of life, face constant political intrigues, moral dilemmas, and/or family crises. They must find a way to fit their own life stories, however insignificant, within the often ruthless history of their native land. Written in a journalistic style, and based very loosely on incidents that the author encountered while working for a local newspaper, these stories are filled with unexpected twists and turns, pathos, and small glimpses of average and extraordinary people coping with real-life crises. Gripping tales from Eastern Europe!

The Ray of Displacement and other Stories

The Ray of Displacement and other Stories
Author: Harriet Prescott Spofford
Publisher: Read Books Ltd
Total Pages: 95
Release: 2015-04-24
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1473373131

A wonderful collection of the short stories by one of America's most underrated authors, Harriet Prescott Spofford. Including the stories, 'In a Cellar' and 'Circumstance'. Spofford was a regular contributor of short stories to the journal, The Atlantic Monthly. She was well known and well liked at the end of the 19th century for her vivid gothic and fantastic tales. We are republishing these stories together with a new introductory biography of the author.