Best of
Short-Stories

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.

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 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 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.

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.

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 Horror in the Museum


H.P. Lovecraft - 1933
    P. Lovecraft, others he revised, two he co-authored – but all bear the mark of the master of primordial terror.The Horror in the Museum –Locked up for the night, a man will discover the difference between waxen grotesqueries and the real thing.The Electric Executioner – Aboard a train, a traveler must match wits with a murderous madman.The Trap – This mirror wants a great deal more than your reflection.The Ghost-Eater – In an ancient woodland, the past comes to life with a bone-crunching vengeance.AND TWENTY MORE STORIES OF UNSPEAKABLE EVIL.

Bacacay


Witold Gombrowicz - 1933
    Stunningly original in both style and content, these stories are often hilarious yet with an undercurrent of profound moral disquiet and horror when the respectable turns slowly but inexorably into the outrageous, conveying both the horrors of upper-class life and the deepest anguish of the human condition.

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.

The First Wife and Other Stories


Pearl S. Buck - 1933
    WalshOld and new:- The first wife- The old mother- The frill- The quarrel- Repatriated- The rainy dayRevolution:- Wang Lung- The communist- Father Andrea- The new roadFlood- Barren spring- The refugees- Fathers and mothers- The good river

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.

Mrs. Egg and other Barbarians


Thomas Beer - 1933