Best of
Fiction

1933

Stories and Early Novels: Pulp Stories / The Big Sleep / Farewell, My Lovely / The High Window


Raymond Chandler - 1933
    Now Chandler joins the authoritative Library of America series in a comprehensive two-volume set displaying all the facets of his brilliant talent.In his first novel, The Big Sleep (1939), the classic private eye finds his full-fledged form as Philip Marlowe: at once tough, independent, brash, disillusioned, and sensitive—and man of weary honor threading his way (in Chandler’s phrase) “down these mean streets” among blackmailers, pornographers, and murderers for hire.In Farewell, My Lovely (1940), Chandler’s personal favorite among his novels, Marlowe’s search for a missing woman leads him from shanties and honky-tonks to the highest reaches of power, encountering an array of richly drawn characters. The High Window (1942), about a rare coin that becomes a catalyst by which a hushed-up crime comes back to haunt a wealthy family, is partly a humorous burlesque of pulp fiction. All three novels show Chandler at a peak of verbal inventiveness and storytelling driveStories and Early Novels also includes every classic noir story from the 1930s that Chandler did not later incorporate into a novel—thirteen in all, among them such classics as “Red Wind,” “Finger Man,” The King in Yellow," and “Trouble Is My Business.” Drawn from the pages of Black Mask and Dime Detective, these stories show how Chandler adapted the violent conventions of the pulp magazine—with their brisk exposition and rapid-fire dialogue—to his own emerging vision of 20th-century America.

The Forty Days of Musa Dagh


Franz Werfel - 1933
    The Great War is raging through Europe, and in the ancient, mountainous lands southwest of the Caspian Sea the Turks have begun systematically to exterminate their Christian subjects. Unable to deny his birthright or his people, one man, Gabriel Bagradian—born an Armenian, educated in Paris, married to a Frenchwoman, and an officer doing his duty as a Turkish subject in the Ottoman army—will strive to resist death at the hands of his blood enemy by leading 5,000 Armenian villagers to the top of Musa Dagh, "the mountain of Moses." There, for forty days, in the face of almost certain death, they will suffer the siege of a Turkish army hell-bent on genocide. A passionate warning against the dangers of racism and scapegoating, and prefiguring the ethnic horrors of World War II, this important novel from the early 1930s remains the only significant treatment, in fiction or nonfiction, of the first genocide in the twentieth century's long series of inhumanities. It also continues to be today what the New York Times deemed it in 1933—"a true and thrilling novel ... a story which must rouse the emotions of all human beings." "Musa Dagh gives us a lasting sense of participation in a stirring episode of history.... Magnificent."—The New York Times Book Review "A novel full of the breath, the flesh and blood and bone and spirit of life."—Saturday Review

Beyond Sing the Woods


Trygve Gulbranssen - 1933
    For the 2005 Norwegian edition, see: ISBN13: 9788203189081.The story of three generations of an old-lineage Norwegian family making their life in the northern woods (circa 1750's.) Main themes are the struggle between tradition and innovation, the prejudices of pastoral society, and a study in human nature and man's ability to make peace with it.

Hangman's Holiday: A Collection of Short Mysteries


Dorothy L. Sayers - 1933
    This sumptuous feast of criminal doings and undoings includes a vintage double identity and a horrid incident of feline assassination that will tease the minds of cat-lovers everywhere. Not to be missed are "The Incredible Elopement of Peter Wimsey" (with a lovely American woman-turned-zombie) and eight more puzzlers penned in inimitable style by the mistress of murder.Includes:The image in the mirror --The incredible elopement of Lord Peter Wimsey --The queen's square --The necklace of pearls --The poisoned dow '08 --Sleuths on the scent --Murder in the morning --One too many --Murder at Pentecost --Maher-Shalal-Hashbaz --The man who knew how --The fountain plays.

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes


Vincent Starrett - 1933
    This is a basic book for all afficionados of the great detective. illus.THIS TITLE IS CITED AND RECOMMENDED BY: Books for College Libraries; Catalogue of the Lamont Library, Harvard College.

Company K (The Library of Alabama Classics)


William March - 1933
    Beidler This book was originally published in 1933. It is the first novel by William March, pen name for William Edward Campbell. Stemming directly from the author's experiences with the US Marines in France during World War I, the book consists of 113 sketches, or chapters, tracing the fictional Company K's war exploits and providing an emotional history of the men of the company that extends beyond the boundaries of the war itself. William Edward Campbell served courageously in France as evidenced by his chestful of medals and certificates, including the Croix de Guerre, the Distinguished Service Cross, and the Navy Cross. However, without the medals and citations we would know of his bravery. For it is clear in the pages of Company K that this book was written by a man who had been to war, who had clearly seen his share of the worst of it, who had somehow survived, and who had committed himself afterward to the new bravery of sense-making embodied in the creation of major literary art. It is of that bravery that we still have the record of magnificent achievement, the brave terrible gift of Company K.

Down and Out in Paris and London


George Orwell - 1933
    The Parisian episode is fascinating for its expose of the kitchens of posh French restaurants, where the narrator works at the bottom of the culinary echelon as dishwasher, or plongeur. In London, while waiting for a job, he experiences the world of tramps, street people, and free lodging houses. In the tales of both cities we learn some sobering Orwellian truths about poverty and of society.

The Street of Crocodiles


Bruno Schulz - 1933
    Most memorable - and most chilling - is the portrait of the author's father, a maddened shopkeeper who imports rare birds' eggs to hatch in his attic, who believes tailors' dummies should be treated like people, and whose obsessive fear of cockroaches causes him to resemble one. Bruno Schulz, a Polish Jew killed by the Nazis in 1942, is considered by many to have been the leading Polish writer between the two world wars.Bruno Schulz's untimely death at the hands of a Nazi stands as one of the great losses to modern literature. During his lifetime, his work found little critical regard, but word of his remarkable talents gradually won him an international readership. This volume brings together his complete fiction, including three short stories and his final surviving work, Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass. Illustrated with Schulz's original drawings, this edition beautifully showcases the distinctive surrealist vision of one of the twentieth century's most gifted and influential writers.

The Mother


Pearl S. Buck - 1933
    Buck paints the portrait of a poor woman living in a remote village whose joys are few and hardships are many. As the ancient traditions, which she bases her philosophies upon, begin to collide with the new ideals of the communist era, this peasant woman must find a balance between them and deal with the consequences.

The Tower of the Elephant (Conan, #3) (Weird Tales)


Robert E. Howard - 1933
    A classic of Conan lore, often cited as one of Howard's best tales.

Tales of Jacob


Thomas Mann - 1933
    title The Tales of Jacob)Joseph and His Brothers reinterprets the biblical story as told in the Book of Genesis, employing psychological insight and wide-ranging knowledge of myth, history, and geography.

Business as Usual


Jane Oliver - 1933
    She decides to get a job and moves to London. With shades of Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, this book will charm everyone with its evocative telling of life in a big store in 1930s London.

South Moon Under


Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings - 1933
    Her best known work, The Yearling, about a boy who adopts an orphaned fawn, won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1939 and was later made into a movie of the same title, The Yearling. The book was written long before the concept of young-adult fiction, but is now commonly included in teen-reading lists.

In the Teeth of the Evidence


Dorothy L. Sayers - 1933
    In the driving seat of the burnt-out car were the remains of a body...An accident, said the police. An accident, said the widow. She had been warning her husband about the danger of the car for months. Murder, said the famous detective Lord Peter Wimsey--and proceeded to track down the killer. This is vintage Sayers, a collection of her finest crime and detection stories.

Matched Pearls


Grace Livingston Hill - 1933
    But when she finally meets a man she can't control, her self-centered life is turned upside down! Grace Livingston Hill is the beloved author of more than 100 books. Read and enjoyed by millions, her wholesome stories contain adventure, romance, and the heartwarming triumphs of people faced with the problems of life and love.

Dorothy Parker Stories


Dorothy Parker - 1933
    Filled with the insight into people and their interactions that have made her stories so popular, this recording offers some of the finest examples of her craft. According to the Arizona Journal, "These capsules of satire...are perfect Parker, and Miss Booth is the perfect voice for them."This omnibus was originally published in separate volumes under the titles:Laments for the Living 1930After Such Pleasures 1933

The Beloved Stranger


Grace Livingston Hill - 1933
    When Sherrill finds that the other woman is desperately in love with Carter, she decides the wedding must go on--with the other woman as the bride!Later, as Sherrill arrives at the church to watch the wedding that should have been hers, she stumbles out of the car--and falls into the arms of a passing stranger. When Sherrill looks up to apologize, she sees a tall, handsome man whose piercing eyes seem to see deep within her. Shaken and distressed, Sherrill lets the man help her into the church. He stays close beside her throughout the ceremony and is her encouragement and support through the rest of that painful day.Soon he is no longer a stranger . . . and more than a friend.

The Flowering Thorn


Margery Sharp - 1933
    Yet, on the spur of the moment, Lesley suddenly adopts a four-year-old child."If I'd known what I was taking on I shouldn't have done it. . . ." Little did she realize then that the child, Pat, was to govern the whole course of her life. Leaving her London flat, she takes refuge in a country cottage and here, after an acutely trying period of readjustment, life falls for the first time into its true perspective: Lesley discovers for herself the precious distinction between pleasure and happiness.

Frog, the Horse That Knew No Master


S.P. Meek - 1933
    They form a strong friendship that takes them many places.

As the Earth Turns


Gladys Hasty Carroll - 1933
    

The Herries Chronicles


Hugh Walpole - 1933
    The first two books of the Herries Chronicles in one volume.

Runyon A La Carte


Damon Runyon - 1933
    Here is Ambrose Hammer, the newspaper scribe who tangles with a strip-dancer, a talking parrot, and a character whose noggin meets with the proverbial blunt instrument. Here is Fatso Zimpf, the horse-player who doubles for Santa Claus in Palm Beach and saves the romance of a beautiful but dumb zillionaires. And then there is “The Sky,” King of the galloping dominoes, who bets his soul against a two-dollar bill and winds up as the drummer in a street-corner mission band.In short, here is a collection of swift stories about sentimental toughs with down-to-earth vigor and lusty laughter. Even the briefest acquaintance with them will show why Damon Runyon’s public is so fantastically loyal.

Anthony Adverse


Hervey Allen - 1933
    Conceived in France, born in an Alpine village, reared in a great house of Italy, Anthony never knew his parents, never had a name of his own. But he was born of passion and it filled his blood.Volume 1. The Roots of the Tree Volume 2. The Other Bronze BoyVolume 3. The Lonely Twin

Bird of Dawning


John Masefield - 1933
    Disaster strikes when the ship is struck at night by a passing steamer—only half of the crew manages to escape to the lifeboat while the others perish. Cruiser, the 22-year-old second mate who has always longed to be captain, takes command of the survivors as they plan to sail 700 miles to the island of Fayal. Cruiser and his crew battle all odds, including sharks, potential mutiny, a leaky boat, too few provisions, and the sea herself, in this taut and haunting narrative.

The Flutter of an Eyelid


Myron Brinig - 1933
    One modern-day commentator has observed that the book was "killed by neglect".“Here a fine novelist turns the circus of California life inside out in a novel which is brilliant, incisive, distinguished – and perverse.His people are so exotic, so extraordinary, that at first they seem unreal – yet they can be recognized as the natural outgrowth of the abnormal conditions under which they live. A new Messiah walks on the waters for the new reels; Nudists dance in the moonlight for the Mayor of the city; a woman with a fondness for murdering her men experiments on her latest lover with a delightful new poison; a man kills himself because he has had every other thrill…”This book was, in fact, a scabrously satirical portrait of Southern California's bohemian community, and in particular of prominent L.A. bookman Jake Zeitlin and his circle of friends and associates. Since it was Zeitlin himself who had originally introduced the author to this group -- invited him in, essentially -- he quite justifably viewed the book as an "insulting betrayal", and in fact took steps took legal steps against it. Brinig's caricature of Zeitlin ("Sol Mosier" in the book) was anti-Semitic "even by the most forgiving of standards," and Zeitlin, having seen a set of galleys prior to publication, threatened a lawsuit and thereby succeeded in having the most offensive passages removed from the book prior to publication. In spite of being out of print for over eighty years, the book has achieved a kind of quasi-mythic reputation, and has been cited as both a landmark in Southern California fiction and an early gay novel. David Fine, who discusses it at some length in his excellent book "Imagining Los Angeles: A City in Fiction," describes it as possibly "the strangest novel to come out of the territory -- a novel not set in Hollywood or dealing with the making of movies, but saturated with every fantasy and dream associated with the region." It's also admired for its apocalyptic finale, in which the state is struck by a massive earthquake and falls into the ocean.

Miss Bishop


Bess Streeter Aldrich - 1933
    Her abundant energy and devotion to learning made her a superior student, then a gifted teacher. But her smile concealed more than one youthful tragedy, and tragedy did not stop with youth. A 1941 movie, Cheers for Miss Bishop, was based on the novel.

The Story Of Beowulf (Myths, Legend And Folk Tales From Around The World)


Strafford Riggs - 1933
    This is the story of Beowulf as retold by Strafford Riggs. Beowulf was written in England, but is set in Scandinavia. It has variously been dated to between the 8th and the early 11th centuries. It is an epic poem told in historical perspective; a story of epic events and of great people of a heroic past. This was the time when men were knighted for achieving great feats, and great the feats of Beowulf were. Dismissed by the King's Earls as clumsy, lazy and a sluggard, he was also shunned by his peers for his strength and prowess with the sword and spear. On hearing of the monster, Grendell, he announced his intention to sail for the Daneland to prove his worth and prove his accusers wrong. And this he did, killing not only the monster Grendell but also it's evil moster-mother. On his return home he was proclaimed the greatest hero of the North by the very same who condemned him (sic). In time he becomes king of Geatsland and an extended period of prosperity follows, ended only by a flame-breathing, steam belching dragon. Once again our hero sallies forth. The dragon is defeated but this time so is our hero. In a time when the young servicemen of the western nations are heroically laying down their lives in the seemingly endless battle against terror in order that we may live safely in our homes, �1.30 from the sale of this book will be donated to Help for Heroes a UK charity providing practical and direct support for the UK's wounded servicemen.

The Pink House


Louise Platt Hauck - 1933
    

Drums of Mer


Ion L. Idriess - 1933
    Idreiss. As an authentic picture of life among the head-hunting warriors of the Torres Strait Islands it is probably unsurpassed. At its centre is a story of a white man and two lovely white girls, brought up native fashion, and their struggle to escape from primitive savagery to civilised life.

Yesterday's Burdens


Robert M. Coates - 1933
    Yesterday’s Bur­dens is an informal story of an unconven­tional young man of the 1930s. The cen­tral character, Henderson, typifies the successful young New Yorker, whose life style reflects the restless, seeking, discon­tented mood of his time. With him, the reader crisscrosses Manhattan, visits speak­easies, crashes parties, and participates in Henderson’s sexual activities and his pos­sible suicide (the novel has three end­ings). Frankly experimental in technique, the novel attempts the universal in its ap­peal. Readers today no doubt will appre­ciate the unexpected tenderness and pas­sion with which the author endows his very ordinary characters.

Pollen: A Novel in Black and White


Beresford Egan - 1933
    His work appeared in a number of de-luxe books of the nineteen-twenties and thirties including works by De Sade, Baudelaire, Pierre Louys and Aleister Crowley though Egan also maintained careers as novelist, dramatist, theatre critic and actor. 'Pollen' was his first novel.This 1933 semi-autobiographical novel of 'deco-decadence' concerns the artist Lance Daurimer whose bohemian life brings him into contact with the recherche Anna Forster and the rich, but innocent, Marylyn Irriscourt. His relationships with these opposing characters take him from the club-land of Londons West End to the depths of Parisian Monmartre, while his soul vacillates between Luciferian ecstasy and the rites of the Holy Roman Church. The evocation of the former is the books only fantastic element. Its stylish cynicism and polished prose will find approval from lovers of Wilde and Huysmans, whose clichés of decadence he knowingly (and lovingly) mocks. The novel also has a more caustic edge, satirizing of vacuous 'smart set' of the 'twenties and attacking the hypocracy of establishment morals. Egans illustrations are integral to the work and, as in the original edition, have been separately printed for maximum quality and inserted, by hand, at the appropriate places within the text.The new edition also adds an end piece illustration unused in the original, and the transcript of a previously unpublished Egan lecture 'Black and White Art: What Is it?' given in 1933. The volume is further enhanced by an introduction by Egans friend and biographer Adrian Woodhouse, in which he reveals the story behind the production of the original edition and exposes the autobiographical elements within the text. An overview of Egans life and work by John Hirschhorn-Smith, illustrated with many previously unseen images, is HERE. Contents: • 'Pollen' - An Introduction - Adrian Woodhouse • 'Pollen' - Beresford Egan • 'Black and White Art: What Is It?' - Beresford Egan [Previously unpublished] Offset printed and blocked on the front cover. Full page illustrations seperately printed inserted by hand into the book during production. Silk ribbon marker.

After Such Pleasures


Dorothy Parker - 1933
    Short Stories, includes:Horsie, Here We Are, Too Bad, From The Diary of a New York Lady, The Waltz, Dusk Before Fireworks, The Little Hours, Sentiment, A Young Women in Green Lace, Lady with a Lamp, Glory in Daytime.

Within This Present


Margaret Ayer Barnes - 1933
    Alan was part of this world. Their love was the perfect climax of a totally beautiful life. — But the fairy tale ended there. It ended with a war that tore them apart, with a Depression that brought the mightiest down to earth. For Sally, it exploded with Maisie, a stunning shameless girl who wanted Alan-and didn't give a damn about society's rules.

He Arrived at Dusk


R.C. Ashby - 1933
    . . . It is a piece of living literature, not merely an evening's entertainment." - E. B. Osborn, "Morning Post" "A bang-up ghost-murder-detective story with a background of bleak Northumberland moors, an old house full of haunts, [and] a Roman Centurion who appears . . . with death in his wake." - "Scribner's Magazine" "A well nigh perfect admixture of eerie horror, romance and good detecting." - "Saturday Review" "Truly a little masterpiece of a book. Reminiscent of Christie at the height of her powers in its brilliant use of misdirection. . . . Really a classic of its kind." - J. F. Norris, "Mystery File" From the moment William Mertoun arrives to catalogue the library at Colonel Barr's old mansion on the desolate Northumbrian moors, he senses something is terribly wrong. Barr's brother Ian has just died, mysteriously and violently, and the Colonel himself is hidden away in a locked room, to which his sinister nurse denies all access. As strange and supernatural events begin to unfold, Mertoun learns the local legend of a ghostly Roman centurion, slain on the site sixteen centuries earlier, who is said to haunt the estate. Mertoun is sceptical at first, but after another murder, a harrowing seance, and an actual sighting of the spirit one lonely night on the moor, he realizes that he and everyone at Barr's mansion are in mortal danger. What does the ghost want, and can it be stopped? This first-ever reprinting of "He Arrived at Dusk" (1933), R. C. Ashby's classic tale of mystery and the supernatural, features a new introduction by Mark Valentine and a reproduction of the original jacket art.

Die verschwundene Miniatur


Erich Kästner - 1933
    Written by one of the German writers whose works were burned by the Nazis in 1933.

Lost Horizon, GoodBye, Mr. Chips and Other Stories


James Hilton - 1933
    

King of the Hills


Stephen W. Meader - 1933
    This tale of New Hampshire mountains is full of magic for any boy who loves the woods.Breck Townsend went to New Hampshire in the hunting season, not to shoot deer but to photograph them. His ambition was to get a picture of the biggest and craftiest stag that ranged the hills—called the King by all the woodsmen in recognition of his prowess in leading his herd and escaping the hunters. How Breck set about his task, how he ran into a crew of gangsters who shot deer illegally and sold them to unsuccessful hunters, and how with the aid of Sam, the game warden’s son, he brought the law-breakers to justice and accomplished his purpose—this is the bare outline of a book which no boy will put down unfinished.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: A Play in One Scene


V.A. Pearn - 1933
    Luxuriously illustrated with 92 watercolors, it's a wonderful introduction to Alice's adventures as well as a splendid volume for collectors. Available for sale in the United States only.

Gulliver's Travels with The Battle of the Books & The Tale of the Tub


Jonathan Swift - 1933
    The information above was patched together from the personal experience of the goodreads librarian and from information obtained in an internet search.

The Dawn Shops & Other Stories


Joyce Lankester Brisley - 1933
    The Dawn Shops2. Susan Smutt, Who Slept in the Coal-cellar3. The Little Green Button4. John Henry and the Runaway Toys5. Five6. The Little Old Man Who Lived in a Chimney7. The Joyfuls8. The Thing That Walked Tiptoe9. No Cake for Tea10. The Little Brown Gnome11. Saturday in the Green Woods12. The Princess Who Lived in a PigstyAll but one of these stories (#8) were previously published in newspapers and magazines. Black and white illustrations throughout, and one color plate.