Best of
Short-Stories

1924

A Hunger Artist


Franz Kafka - 1924
    He edited the manuscript just before his death, and these four stories are some of his best known and most powerful work, marking his maturity as a writer. In addition to "First Sorrow," "A Little Woman," and "Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse People" is the title story, "A Hunger Artist," which has been called by the critic Heinz Politzer "a perfection, a fatal fulfillment that expresses Kafka's desire for permanence." The three volumes Twisted Spoon Press has published: Contemplation, A Country Doctor, and A Hunger Artist are the collections of stories that Kafka had published during his lifetime. Though each volume has its own distinctive character, they have most often appeared in English in collected editions. They are presented here as separate editions, in new translations by Kevin Blahut, each with its own illustrator from the Prague community.

Complete Stories


Dorothy Parker - 1924
    Her stories not only bring to life the urban milieu that was her bailiwick but lay bare the uncertainties and disappointments of ordinary people living ordinary lives.

शतरंज के खिलाड़ी [Shatranj ke Khiladi]


Munshi Premchand - 1924
    Shatranj Ke Khiladi (शतरंज के खिलाड़ी) is a story of two nawabs of Lucknow who are so deeply immersed into playing chess that they forget to protect their city which falls into the hand of the British.

The Rats in the Walls


H.P. Lovecraft - 1924
    Lovecraft. Written in August–September 1923, it was first published in Weird Tales, March 1924.The story is narrated by the scion of the Delapore family, who has moved from Massachusetts to his ancestral estate in England, known as Exham Priory. On several occasions, the protagonist and his cats hear the sounds of rats scurrying behind the walls. Upon investigating further, he finds that his family maintained an underground city for centuries and that the inhabitants of the city fed on human flesh, even going so far as to raise generations of human cattle, who eventually began to de-evolve due to their sub-human living conditions.

Old New York: Four Novellas


Edith Wharton - 1924
    Originally published in 1924 and long out of print, these tales are vintage Wharton, dealing boldly with such themes as infidelity, illegitimacy, jealousy, the class system, and the condition of women in society Included in this remarkable quartet are False Dawn, The Old Maid, The Spark, and New Year's Day.

The Best Early Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald


F. Scott Fitzgerald - 1924
    Scott Fitzgerald, the flapper’s historian and poet laureate of the Jazz Age, wrote the ten stories that appear in this unique collection. Exploring characters and themes that would appear in his later works, such as The Beautiful and Damned and The Great Gatsby, these early selections are among the very best of Fitzgerald’s many short stories. This Modern Library Paperback Classic includes notes, an appendix of nonfiction essays by Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and their contemporaries, and vintage magazine illustrations.

The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes


Arthur Conan Doyle - 1924
    Shreffler, long-time member of the famous Sherlock Holmes society known as 'The Baker Street Irregulars'

The Most Dangerous Game


Richard Connell - 1924
    The Most Dangerous Game features a big-game hunter from New York who becomes shipwrecked on an isolated island in the Caribbean and is hunted by a Russian aristocrat.

How Watson Learned the Trick


Arthur Conan Doyle - 1924
    In this classic story, Watson tries to mimic Holmes's mastery of the art of deduction with very funny results, making this a book for both adults and children to delight in. Alongside the miniature book, which measures just 38.5 x 30 mm, the edition also contains an informative booklet with a transcript of the story and information about the Dolls' House. Queen Mary's Dolls' House is the largest and most famous of its kind in the world, and has a library containing miniature works by all the major writers and artists of the day.

Drenched in Light


Zora Neale Hurston - 1924
    . . like a round-eyed puppy hailing gleefully all travelers. Everybody in the country, white and colored, knew little Isis Watts, Isis the Joyful."

The Beautiful and the Grotesque


Ryūnosuke Akutagawa - 1924
    Most famous for his story Rashomon and the Kurosawa movie it inspired, Akutagawa’s wide range of fiction is beautifully displayed in this newly reissued collection of his stories. With characteristic lyricism and great style, the stories here capture the strange world of Akutagawa, from the slow, gentle death of a haiku master (“Withered Fields”) to a vicious, marauding gang and their bloody fight with samurai (“The Robbers”), and the sly tale told from a dog’s perspective of his escape from home (“The Dog, Shiro”). Throughout these stories, Akutagawa captures the often confused spirit of a Japan undergoing great change and confronting modernity at the turn of the last century. But these stories remain timeless classics, and any reader, whether a fan of Akutagawa or someone discovering him for the first time, will find wonderful delight in these unusual stories. Previously published in a Liveright edition as Exotic Japanese Stories.

When the Bough Breaks, and Other Stories,


Naomi Mitchison - 1924
    Contents Include: The Hostages Vercingetorix and the Others: Cottia went to Bibtacte The Man from Alesia Got to put up with it Now The Triumph of Faith When the Bough Breaks A Note on some Books

Philomel Cottage: A Short Story


Agatha Christie - 1924
    Each time she can see the murderer clearly, and it’s the mild-mannered man she had previously been engaged to, taking his revenge. But, what’s worse is that at the end of the dream she thanks the murderer. Perplexed, Alix tries to calm herself by spending time in the garden of her picturesque cottage. But her gardener confuses her further by wishing her well on her trip to London—a trip which Alix knows nothing about. Now Alix is scared: is the gardener imagining things, or is she?

The Sensible Thing


F. Scott Fitzgerald - 1924
    In this story, George O'Kelly, an aspiring engineer turned insurance salesman, fights to recapture the love of Jonquil Cary. When George receives a letter from Jonquil that sounds "nervous" George quits his insurance job and heads down to Tennessee to convince Jonquil of his love for her. Upon arriving, George finds Jonquil in the company of two younger boys and he knows that something is wrong. After their break-up, George leaves Tennessee to pick up the pieces of his life. We return to George over a year later as he comes back to see Jonquil again. The years have been good to George - he is tan, well dressed and successful. When the two reunite, things have changed.

Classic American Fiction


Herman Melville - 1924
    According to Wikipedia: "Herman Melville (August 1, 1819 - September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist and poet. His first two books gained much attention, though they were not bestsellers, and his popularity declined precipitously after only a few years. By the time of his death he had been almost completely forgotten, but his longest novel, Moby-Dick - largely considered a failure during his lifetime, and most responsible for Melville's fall from favor with the reading public - was recognized in the 20th century as one of the chief literary masterpieces of both American and world literature..."

The Custody of the Pumpkin


P.G. Wodehouse - 1924
    

The White Ship


Aino Kallas - 1924
    'The writer has an extraordinary sense of atmosphere. Stories told convincingly and well, with a keen perception for natural beauty.' [Times Literary Supplement.]