Best of
Short-Stories

1946

The Complete Stories


Franz KafkaEithne Wilkins - 1946
    With the exception of his three novels, the whole of Kafka’s narrative work is included in this volume. --penguinrandomhouse.comTwo Introductory parables: Before the law --Imperial message --Longer stories: Description of a struggle --Wedding preparations in the country --Judgment --Metamorphosis --In the penal colony --Village schoolmaster (The giant mole) --Blumfeld, and elderly bachelor --Warden of the tomb --Country doctor --Hunter Gracchus --Hunter Gracchus: A fragment --Great Wall of China --News of the building of the wall: A fragment --Report to an academy --Report to an academy: Two fragments --Refusal --Hunger artist --Investigations of a dog --Little woman --The burrow --Josephine the singer, or the mouse folk --Children on a country road --The trees --Clothes --Excursion into the mountains --Rejection --The street window --The tradesman --Absent-minded window-gazing --The way home --Passers-by --On the tram --Reflections for gentlemen-jockeys --The wish to be a red Indian --Unhappiness --Bachelor's ill luck --Unmasking a confidence trickster --The sudden walk --Resolutions --A dream --Up in the gallery --A fratricide --The next village --A visit to a mine --Jackals and Arabs --The bridge --The bucket rider --The new advocate --An old manuscript --The knock at the manor gate --Eleven sons --My neighbor --A crossbreed (A sport) --The cares of a family man --A common confusion --The truth about Sancho Panza --The silence of the sirens --Prometheus --The city coat of arms --Poseidon --Fellowship --At night --The problem of our laws --The conscripton of troops --The test --The vulture --The helmsman --The top --A little fable --Home-coming --First sorrow --The departure --Advocates --The married couple --Give it up! --On parables.

This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen


Tadeusz Borowski - 1946
    In spare, brutal prose he describes a world where where the will to survive overrides compassion and prisoners eat, work and sleep a few yards from where others are murdered; where the difference between human beings is reduced to a second bowl of soup, an extra blanket or the luxury of a pair of shoes with thick soles; and where the line between normality and abnormality vanishes. Published in Poland after the Second World War, these stories constitute a masterwork of world literature.

The Portable Faulkner


William Faulkner - 1946
    No single volume better conveys the scope of Faulkner's vision than The Portable Faulkner. Edited by Malcolm CowleyContents:The Old PeopleThe UnvanquishedThe Last WildernessThe PeasantsThe End of an OrderMississippi FloodModern TimesThe Undying Past

The Neon Wilderness


Nelson Algren - 1946
    They don't fade away. - Studs Terkel, from the AfterwordOnce more I have been impressed by Algren's talent, his probity and his command of a tough language that he transforms into a raw and bleeding poetry. - Malcolm Cowley in The NationSince the publication on The Neon Wilderness... Nelson Algren has been acknowledged as a master of that American Realism touched with poetry, which attempts to give voice to the insulted and injured. He is a philosopher of deprivation, a moral force of considerable dimensions and a wonderful user of the language - Donald BarthelmeMr Algren, boy you are good - one of the two best authors in America - Ernest Hemingway

Selected Stories


Stefan Zweig - 1946
    He spends a day at the races and an evening in the seedy but thrilling company of the dregs of society. His experiences jolt him out of his languor and give him a newfound relish for life, which is then cut short by the Great War. The Invisible Collection and Buchmendel, two of Zweig's most powerful works, explore lives led in the single minded pursuit of art and literature against a backdrop of poverty and corruption. Letter from an Unknown Woman is a poignant and heartbreaking tale of the strength and madness of unrequited love. This story was made into a film by Max Ophuls starring Joan Fontaine (1948). In The Fowler Snared, it is the man whose passion remains unrequited. Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman is the story of a middle-aged English widow who travels to escape loneliness and boredom. One evening while enjoying the elegant atmosphere of the Monte Carlo Casino, she becomes mesmerised by the obsessive gambling of a young Polish aristocrat. This fateful encounter leads to passion, despair and death, changing their lives forever.Translated from the German by Eden and Cedar Paul, Stefan Zweig's Selected Stories is published by Pushkin Press.

Hawthorne's Short Stories


Nathaniel Hawthorne - 1946
    Introduction by Professor Newton Arvin of Smith College.The gray champion -- The minister's black veil -- The may-pole of Merry Mount -- Wakefield -- The great carbuncle -- The prophetic pictures -- Lady Eleanore's mantle -- Old Esther Dudley -- The ambitious guest -- The white old maid -- Peter Goldthwaite's treasure -- Endicott and the red cross -- The birthmark -- Young Goodman Brown -- Rappaccini's daughter -- The celestial railroad -- Feathertop : a moralized legend -- Egotism, or, The bosom serpent -- The artist of the beautiful -- The great stone face -- Ethan Brand -- The wives of the dead -- The antique ring -- Alice Doane's appeal.

The Homecoming


Ray Bradbury - 1946
    The resulting offspring of this union are captivating, full-color illustrated editions of timeless classics that readers will want to savor and collect. For the first time ever, the series makes selected popular short works previously offered only in collections available in a unique, stand-alone format. Also for the first time, WISPs harness the talents of top illustrators for the benefit and delight of a new, older audience. This WISP presents RAY BRADBURY’S THE HOMECOMING, a little boy’s tale of his family reunion of vampires. This story was initially published in 1946 and later refashioned into further stories. Bringing this story to life are the wondrous illustrations of Dave McKean, whose delightful artwork perfectly matches the tale. These one-of-a-kind, attractively priced and invitingly formatted illustrated editions will make a great impulse buy and appeal to a broad audience.

The Collected Writings Of Ambrose Bierce


Ambrose Bierce - 1946
    The Devil's Dictionary, Can Such Things Be? Negligible Tales, and more.

Famous Science-Fiction Stories: Adventures in Time and Space


Raymond J. HealyWilly Ley - 1946
    HeinleinForgetfulness (1937) by John W. Campbell, Jr.Nerves (1942) by Lester del ReyThe Sands of Time (1937) by P. Schuyler MillerThe Proud Robot (1943) by Henry KuttnerSeeds of the Dusk (1938) by Raymond Z. GallunBlack Destroyer (1939) by A. E. van VogtSymbiotica (1943) by Eric Frank RussellHeavy Planet (1939) by Milton A. RothmanTime Locker (1943) by Henry KuttnerThe Link (1942) by Cleve CartmillMechanical Mice (1941) by Eric Frank RussellV-2: Rocket Cargo Ship (1945) essay by Willy LeyAdam & No Eve (1941) by Alfred BesterNightfall (1941) by Isaac AsimovA Matter of Size (1934) by Harry BatesAs Never Was (1944) by P. Schuyler MillerQ.U.R. (1943) by Anthony BoucherWho Goes There? (1938) by John W. Campbell, Jr.The Roads Must Roll (1940) by Robert A. HeinleinAsylum (1942) A. E. van VogtQuietus (1940) by Ross RocklynneThe Twonky (1942) by Henry Kuttner & C. L. MooreTime-Travel Happens! (1939) essay by A. M. PhillipsRobot's Return (1938) by Robert Moore WilliamsThe Blue Giraffe (1939) by L. Sprague de CampFlight into Darkness (1943) by J. Francis McComasThe Weapons Shop (1942) by A. E. van VogtFarewell to the Master (1940) by Harry BatesWithin the Pyramid (1937) by R. DeWitt MillerHe Who Shrank (1936) by Henry HasseBy His Bootstraps (1941) by Robert A. HeinleinThe Star Mouse (1942) by Fredric BrownCorrespondence Course (1945) by Raymond F. JonesBrain (1932) by S. Fowler Wright

Evidence


Isaac Asimov - 1946
    It was first published in the September 1946 issue of Astounding Science Fiction and reprinted in the collections I, Robot (1950), The Complete Robot (1982), and Robot Visions (1990).Many people choose to see Asimov's treatment of technophobia as an allegory to the antisemitism with which he was bitterly familiar; he wrote Evidence during Army service shortly after World War II.

The Creatures That Time Forgot


Ray Bradbury - 1946
    but it was more than half an hour distant--perhaps the limit of life itself! From the author of Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man. Originally published in the Fall 1946 issue of Planet Stories. It was later reprinted under the title Frost and Fire.

Rescue Party (When the World Ends, #1)


Arthur C. Clarke - 1946
    With time rapidly ticking down, the crew desperately searches a now-desolate planet for any possible human survivors.This is a dramatisation of the very first short story written by one of the world's most prominent Science Fiction authors.Originally published in Astounding (May, 1946).

The Portable Mark Twain


Mark Twain - 1946
    This delightful collection of Twain's favorite and most memorable writings includes selected tales and sketches, excerpts from his novels and travel books, autobiographical and polemical writings, as well as selected letters and speeches.

The Old Country


Sholom Aleichem - 1946
    Stories

Enoch


Robert Bloch - 1946
    Enoch. The thing that lives on the top of my head. I can't see him. I can't catch him. I can only feel him, and hear him, and obey him..."

Every Good Deed


Dorothy Whipple - 1946
    No reader, however, in enjoying all the gentle points that Mrs. Whipple makes about two of her most lovable characters will agree with such impatience. The experiment they made, and the girl with whom they made it, perhaps brought them much distress, but the characteristic happiness that they finally achieved was due entirely to themselves. Mrs. Whipple's gentle methods impress with their human exactness and with a naturalness that is its own emphasis. This quiet story is an intimate creation, but how complete in its characters and atmosphere!(Flap copy from 1946 First Edition, John Murray Publishers, London)

Love in a Bottle


Antal Szerb - 1946
    This selection of his stories and novellas, set variously in mythical times and in the London and Paris of the twenties and thirties, reflects his love of life and the irrepressible irony that is his trademark.Pushkin Collection editions feature a spare, elegant series style and superior, durable components. The Collection is typeset in Monotype Baskerville, litho-printed on Munken Premium White Paper and notch-bound by the independently owned printer TJ International in Padstow. The covers, with French flaps, are printed on Colorplan Pristine White Paper. Both paper and cover board are acid-free and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified.

Slight Rebellion off Madison


J.D. Salinger - 1946
    

On Exactitude in Science


Jorge Luis Borges - 1946
    "On Exactitude in Science" or "On Rigor in Science" (the original Spanish-language title is "Del rigor en la ciencia") is a one-paragraph short story by Jorge Luis Borges, about the map-territory relation, written in the form of a literary forgery.

And the Darkness Falls


Boris Karloff - 1946
    Classic anthology of stories picked by Karloff and which in his words include "fables, truly nightmarish tales, and an outright shocker or two!" Authors include Turgenev, de Maupassant, Tennyson, Bierce, Buchan, Doyle, Sayers, Maugham, Poe, Browning, Conrad, Lovecraft and many more.

Neither Man Nor Dog


Gerald Kersh - 1946
    Kersh (1911-1968) published more than thirty books, including the noir classic Night and the City (1938) and Fowlers End (1957), which Anthony Burgess called "one of the great comic novels of the century," as well as hundreds of short stories which were once ubiquitous in British and American magazines. But though he has been championed by Angela Carter, Harlan Ellison, Ian Fleming, Michael Moorcock and others, Kersh has undeservedly fallen into neglect since his death. This is the first-ever reprint of Neither Man Nor Dog (1946), one of the author’s scarcest volumes. Kersh’s novels Fowlers End and The Great Wash and the short story collections Nightshade and Damnations, On an Odd Note, and Clock Without Hands are also available from Valancourt.CONTEMPORARY REVIEWS“[B]rutal but highly talented ... at least one [story] is ... a little masterpiece, and all of them possess the virtue of being highly readable.” – J.D. Beresford, The Guardian “[E]xplosive with violence . . . The best of them are very good. The unfailing fertility of his imagination is indeed to be wondered at . . . For entertainment of a strong kind, Mr. Kersh would be hard to beat.” – Times Literary Supplement “Kersh tells a story, as such, rather better than anybody else.” – Pamela Hansford Johnson, Daily Telegraph

Midnight Tales: 20 Tales of the Uncanny


William Fryer Harvey - 1946
    

The Portable Ring Lardner


Ring Lardner - 1946
    A collection of short stories by Ring Lardner.

The Dancing Detective


William Irish - 1946
    Contains the stories:-The Dancing Detective-Two Fellows in a Furnished Room-The Light in the Window-Silent as the Grave-The Detective's Dilemma-Fur Jacket-Leg Man-The Fingernail

Confessions of a Book Reviewer


George Orwell - 1946
    . . He is a man of 35, but looks 50. He is bald, has varicose veins and wears spectacles, or would wear them if only his pair were not chronically lost.”http://www.newstatesman.com/books/200...

The Hard-Boiled Omnibus


Joseph T. Shaw - 1946
    Contents: Lester Dent, “Sail” (1936); Reuben Jennings Shay, “Taking His Time” (1931); Ramon Decolta (Raoul Whitfield), “Death in the Pasig” (1930); Raymond Chandler, “The Man Who Liked Dogs” (1936); Dashiell Hammett, “Fly Paper” (1929); Raoul Whitfield, “Inside Job” (1932); Norbert Davis, “Red Goose” (1934); Paul Cain (Peter Ruric), “Red 71” (1932); Thomas Walsh, “Best Man” (1934); Ed Lybeck, “Kick-Back” (1932); Roger Torrey, “Clean Sweep” (1934); and Theodore Tinsley, “South Wind” (1932).

The Smiling People


Ray Bradbury - 1946
    A short story.

Why the North Star Stands Still


William R. Palmer - 1946
    Contains myths, legends and folk tales from primarily the Pahute people of the Zion national park area--trickster tales, star stories and creation lore.