Best of
Short-Stories

1968

Great Short Works of Fyodor Dostoevsky


Fyodor Dostoevsky - 1968
    The Gambler chronicles Dostoevsky's own addiction, which he eventually overcame. Many have argued that Notes from the Underground contains several keys to understanding the themes of the longer novels, such as Crime and Punishment and The Idiot.Great Short Works of Fyodor Dostoevsky includes:Notes from the UndergroundThe GamblerA Disgraceful AffairThe Eternal HusbandThe DoubleWhite NightsA Gentle CreatureThe Dream of a Ridiculous Man

Blow-Up and Other Stories


Julio Cortázar - 1968
    . . A man reading a mystery finds out too late that he is the murderer's victim . . . In the fifteen stories collected here—including "Blow-Up," which was the basis for Michelangelo Antonioni's film of the same name—Julio Cortazar explores the boundary where the everyday meets the mysterious, perhaps even the terrible.Axolotl House taken over Distances Idol of the Cyclades Letter to a young lady in Paris Yellow flower Continuity of parks Night face up Bestiary Gates of heaven Blow-up End of the game At your service Pursuer Secret weapons.

Welcome to the Monkey House


Kurt Vonnegut Jr. - 1968
    Originally printed in publications as diverse as The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and The Atlantic Monthly, these superb stories share Vonnegut’s audacious sense of humor and extraordinary range of creative vision.Alternative cover edition here

A Necklace of Raindrops and Other Stories


Joan Aiken - 1968
    These stories contain a wealth of wonderful characters and ideas, all with the colorful, dreamlike quality of the very best fairy tales. Illustrations.

Dance of the Happy Shades


Alice Munro - 1968
    In these dazzling stories she deals with the self-discovery of adolescence, the joys and pains of love and the despair and guilt of those caught in a narrow existence. And in sensitively exploring the lives of ordinary men and women, she makes us aware of the universal nature of their fears, sorrows and aspirations.

More Tales of Pirx the Pilot


Stanisław Lem - 1968
    Translated by Louis Iribarne, assisted by Magdalena Majcherczyk and Michael Kandel. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World


Harlan Ellison - 1968
    There is no night where it waits. Only the riddle of which terrible dream will set it loose. It beheaded mercy to take possession of that place. It feasts on darkness from the minds of men. No one has ever seen its eyeless face. When it sleeps we know a few moments of peace. But when it breathes again we go down in fire and mate with jackals. It knows our fear. It has our number. It waited for our coming and it will abide long after we have become congealed smoke. It has never heard music, and shows its fangs when we panic. It is the beast of our savage past, hungering today, and waiting patiently for the mortal meal of all our golden tomorrows. It lies waiting."--Harlan Ellison15 stories by Harlan EllisonContents "Introduction: The Waves in Rio" "The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World" "Along the Scenic Route" "Phoenix" "Asleep: With Still Hands" "Santa Claus vs. S.P.I.D.E.R." "Try a Dull Knife" "The Pitll Pawob Division" "The Place With No Name" "White on White" "Run for the Stars" "Are You Listening?" "S.R.O." "Worlds to Kill" "Shattered Like a Glass Goblin" "A Boy and His Dog"

All the Myriad Ways


Larry Niven - 1968
    Includes: All the Myriad Ways (1968); Passerby (1969); For a Foggy Night (1968); Wait It Out [Known Space] (1968); The Jigsaw Man [Known Space] (1967); Not Long Before the End (1969); Unfinished Story No. 1 (1970); Unfinished Story No. 2 (1971); Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex (essay, 1969); Exercise in Speculation: The Theory and Practice of Teleportation (essay, 1969); The Theory and Practice of Time Travel (essay, 1971) Inconstant Moon (1971); What Can You Say About Chocolate Covered Manhole Covers? (1971); Becalmed in Hell [Known Space] (1965).

Come Along With Me


Shirley Jackson - 1968
    In her gothic visions of small-town America, Jackson, the author of such masterworks as The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, turns an ordinary world into a supernatural nightmare. This eclectic collection goes beyond her horror writing, revealing the full spectrum of her literary genius. In addition to Come Along with Me, Jackson's unfinished novel about the quirky inner life of a lonely widow, it features sixteen short stories and three lectures she delivered during her last years.

Sculptor's Daughter


Tove Jansson - 1968
    Restored to its original form, Sculptor's Daughter gives us a glimpse of the mysteries of winter ice, the bonhomie of balalaika parties, and the vastness of Christmas viewed from beneath the tree.Published in a deluxe hardback edition for Christmas 2013, to mark the centenary of Tove Jansson's birth (1914-2014)

The Lion of Comarre & Other Stories


Arthur C. ClarkeJuliet Mills - 1968
    Clarke is one of the greatest science fiction writers of the century, and surely the most celebrated science fiction author alive. He is -- with H. G. Wells, Isaac Asimov and Robert A. Heinlein -- one of the writers who define the genre. Now, at the dawn of the year 2001, Sir Arthur C. Clarke has cooperated in the preparation of a massive definitive edition of his collected shorter works, which will be made available on audio in four chronological volumes, followed by a 30 cassette gift set, the most ambitious science fiction audio project in history. Brief introductions place each story in the context of Clarke's career. Fantastic Audio has acquired exclusive audio rights to this collection. From early stories like "Rescue Party" and "The Lion of Comarre," to classics like "The Star," "Earthlight," "The Nine Billion Names of God," and "The Sentinel" (kernel of the later novel, and movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey), all the way to later works like "A Meeting With Medusa" and "The Hammer of God," this immense volume encapsulates one of the great SF careers of all time.

The Galosh: And Other Stories


Mikhail Zoshchenko - 1968
    His stories give expression to the bewildered experience of the ordinary Soviet citizen struggling to survive in the 1920's and `30s, beset by an acute housing shortage, ubiquitous theft and corruption, and the impenetrable new ideological language of the Soviet state. Written in the semi-educated talk of the man or woman on the street, these stories enshrine one of the greatest achievements of the people of the Soviet Union—their gallows humor. Housing block tenants who reject electricity because it illuminates their squalor too harshly, a young couple who live in a bathroom, a railway-line manager making a speech against bribery who accidentally mentions his own affinity for kickbacks—in all of Zoschenko's characters, petty materialism is balanced with a poignant faith in the revolutionary project. Zoschenko, the self-described "temporary substitute for the proletarian writer," combines wicked satire and an earthy empathy with a brilliance that places him squarely in the classic Russian comic tradition. Jeremy Hick's translation of The Galosh brings together sixty five of Zoschenko's finest short stories—bringing the choice writings of perhaps Soviet Russia's most humorous and moving writer to American readers for the first time.

The Man With the Heart in the Highlands and Other Early Stories


William Saroyan - 1968
    Offers a selecttion of the master of human comedy's short stories from the 1930s and 1940s.

Hauntings: Tales of the Supernatural


Henry MazzeoRobert Aickman - 1968
    The Lonesome Place by August Derleth c. 1947 by All-Fiction Field, Inc. and c. 1962 by August Derleth. Reprinted by permission of Arkham House.2. In The Vault by H. P. Lovecraft c. 1932 by Popular Fiction Publishing Company, c. 1939, 1945 by August Derleth and Donald Wondrei; c. 1963 by August Derleth. Reprinted by permission of Arkham House.3. The Man Who Collected Poe by Robert Bloch, c. 1951 by Popular Publications, Inc. Reprinted by permission of the author's agent, Harry Altshuler.4. Where Angels Fear by Manly Wade Wellman, from "Unknown". Copyright 1939 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc.; c. renewed 1967 by The Conde Nast Publications, Inc. Reprinted by permission of The Conde Nast Publications, Inc.5. Lot No. 249 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle from "The Conan Doyle Stories". Reprinted by permission of the Trustees of the Estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and John Murray, Ltd.6. The Haunted Doll's House by M. R. James from "The Collected Ghost Stories of M. R. James" by Montagne Rhodes James. Reprinted by permission of Edward Arnold (Publishers) Ltd.7. The Open Door by Mrs. Oliphant8. Thus I Refute Beelzy by John Collier from "Fancies and Goodnights". Copyright 1940 by John Collier. Reprinted by permission of the Harold Matson Company.9. Levitation from "Nine Horrors and a Dream" by Joseph Payne Brennen. Copyright 1958 by Joseph Payne Brennen. Reprinted by permission of Arkham House.10. The Ghostly Rental by Henry James11. The Face by E. F. Benson from "Spook Stories". Reprinted by permission of Reverend K. S. P. McDowall.12. The Whistling Room by William Hope Hodgson. Copyright 1947 by August Derleth. Reprinted by permission of Arkham House.13. The Grey Ones by J. B. Priestley. Reprinted by permission of A. D. Peters & Co.14. The Stolen Body by H. G. Wells. Reprinted by permission of Collins-Knowlton-Wing, Inc.15. The Red Lodge from "They Return at Evening" by H. Russell Wakefield. Copyright 1928 by D. Appleton and Company. Reprinted by permission of Appleton-Century, affiliate of Meredith Press.16. The Visiting Star from "Powers of Darkness" by Robert Aickman. Copyright 1966 by Robert Aickman. Reprinted by permission of William Collins & Sons, Ltd.17. Midnight Express by Alfred Noyes. Reprinted by permission of Hugh Noyes.

In the Heart of the Heart of the Country and Other Stories


William H. Gass - 1968
    In their obsessions, Gass’s Midwestern dreamers are like the "grotesques" of Sherwood Anderson, but in their hyper-linguistic streams of consciousness, they are the match for Joyce’s Dubliners. First published in 1968, this book begins with a beguiling thirty-three page essay and has five fictions: the celebrated novella "The Pedersen Kid," "Mrs. Mean," "Icicles," "Order of Insects," and the title story.

Love Ain't Nothing But Sex Misspelled


Harlan Ellison - 1968
    Vintage paperback

Impossible Object


Nicholas Mosley - 1968
    A mirror is held to the back of the head and one's hand has to move the opposite way from what was intended."In these closing lines from Impossible Object, one has embodied both Nicholas Mosley's subject of love and imagination, as well as his unmatched lyric style. In eight carefully connected stories that are joined by introspective interludes on related subjects, the author pursues the notion, through the lives of a couple seen by different narrators, that "those who like unhappy ends can have them, and those who don't will have to look for them."The impossible object of the title, "the triangle that can exist in two dimensions but not in three," is a controlling symbol for the impossibility of realizing the good life unless one recognizes the impossibility of attaining it: only then can it be possible to realize it, through a kind of renunciation, especially in "a sophisticated, corrupt, chaotic world." Such a provocative theme, comic or tragic by turns, was met by critics in 1968 as brilliant, insightful, intense, and moving, but especially original.

Hue and Cry


James Alan McPherson - 1968
    McPherson's characters — gritty, jazzy, authentic, and pristinely rendered — give voice to unheard struggles along the dividing lines of race and poverty in subtle, fluid prose that bears no trace of sentimentality, agenda, or apology.

Bloodline: Five Stories


Ernest J. Gaines - 1968
    As rendered by Gaines, this country becomes as familiar, and as haunted by cruelty, suffering, and courage, as Ralph Ellison's Harlem or Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County.STORIES INCLUDE:A Long Day in NovemberThe Sky Is GrayThree MenBloodlineJust Like a Tree

Night in Funland and Other Stories From Literary Cavalcade


Jerome BrondfieldBorden Deal - 1968
    

The Selected Works


Cesare Pavese - 1968
    All the rest is misery," wrote Cesare Pavese, whose short, intense life spanned the ordeals of fascism and World War II to witness the beginnings of Italy's postwar prosperity. Searchingly alert to nuances of speech, feeling, and atmosphere, and remarkably varied, his novels offer a panoramic vision, at once sensual and finely considered, of a time of tumultuous change. This volume presents readers with Pavese's major works. The Beach is a wry summertime comedy of sexual and romantic misunderstandings, while The House on the Hill is an extraordinary novel of war in which a teacher flees through a countryside that is both beautiful and convulsed with terror. Among Women Only tells of a fashion designer who enters the affluent world she has always dreamed of, only to find herself caught up in an eerie dance of destruction, and The Devil in the Hills is an engaging road novel about three young men roaming the hills in high summer who stumble on mysteries of love and death.

The O. Henry Omnibus: 272 Short Stories


O. Henry - 1968
    HENRY OMNIBUS contains more than 270 short stories by William Sidney Porter, better known as O. Henry. This collection includes such classics as 'The Ransom of Red Chief,' 'The Cop and the Anthem,' and 'The Gift of the Magi.' Includes an active table of contents for easy navigation.Includes the following O. Henry collections:• Cabbages and Kings• Heart of the West• Options• Roads of Destiny• Rolling Stones• Sixes and Sevens• Strictly Business• The Four Million• The Gentle Grafter• The Trimmed Lamp• The Voice of the City• Waifs and Strays• Whirligigs

Ship the Kids on Ahead


Bill Stokes - 1968
    State Journal

Asimov's Mysteries


Isaac Asimov - 1968
    THE TALKING STONE—A spaceship crew is planning on some illegal uranium mining with the help of on intelligent creature mode of rock. WHAT'S IN A NAME?—Everything. Especially when twin librarians ore involved in a murder. PÂTÉ DE FOIE GRAS—Just how did that goose lay the golden egg? Also included in the collection are: THE DYING NIGHT. THE DUST OF DEATH, A LOINT OF PAW, I'M IN MARSPORT WITHOUT HILDA, MAROONED OFF VESTA and ANNIVERSARY, OBITUARY, STAR LIGHT, THE KEY, and THE BILLIARD BALL.

Tigers are Better-Looking: With a selection from The Left Bank


Jean Rhys - 1968
    In them she encompasses within a few pages both the gaiety and charm of youth and love, and an awareness of all that threatens them.Writing in The New York Times, A. Alvarez has called these stories "extraordinary." The early stories have added value in that they illuminate Jean Rhys's development as a writer. Those written later, when her art was mature, are on the level of her novels and demonstrate that she is one of the most distinguished writers of our time, "the best living English novelist," again to quote Alvarez.The title of this collection comes from the opinion which many of Jean Rhys's characters share, that respectable people are as alarming as tigers, but "tigers are better-looking, aren't they?" It also reflects the astringent humor in her work; an explanation that however sad or even sordid her subject, she is never depressing.--From the book jacket

The God Stealer and Other Stories


F. Sionil José - 1968
    Sionil José's most widely anthologized fiction, is a moving story of a friendship. An American and a Filipino go to the Cordilleras to look at the rice terraces which were built by the Filipino's ancestors. There, they find the meaning of their friendship, how it defines the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized.As the Philippines' most widely translated author, F. Sionil José's reputation rests largely on his epic work—the Rosales novels, which span a hundred years of Philippine history and encompass four generations. His short stories, however, are just as memorable for their unerring depiction of the Filipino condition. This collection includes some of the earliest stories he wrote from the late forties to the early fifties. In these stories, he already maps out the boundaries of his literary geography and plumbs the depths of the Filipino character, at the same time hewing to the continuing theme of almost all of his work: the Filipino's often futile search for social justice and a moral order.F. Sionil José's fiction is now translated into 27 languages including Tagalog. Random House has just completed putting out the Rosales saga. Fayard of France has already released four of his five Rosales novels.

More Tales to Tremble By


Stephen P. Sutton - 1968
     The Red Lodge, by H. R. Wakefield. Sredni Vashtar, by Saki. Thurnley Abbey, by P. Landon. "God grante that she lye stille", by C. Asquith. The voice in the night, by W. H. Hodgson. The extra passenger, by A. Derleth. Casting the runes, by M. R. James. The book, by M. Irwin.

Nightshade & Damnations


Gerald Kersh - 1968
    J. Gahagan] · ss Courier Spr ’38 77 · The Ape and the Mystery [“The Mysterious Mona Lisa Smile”] · ss The Saturday Evening Post Jun 26 ’48 89 · The King Who Collected Clocks [“Royal Impostor”] · nv The Saturday Evening Post May 3 ’47 117 · Bone for Debunkers [“The Karmesin Affair”; Karmesin] · ss The Saturday Evening Post Dec 15 ’62 133 · A Lucky Day for the Boar · ss Playboy Oct ’62 143 · Voices in the Dust of Annan · ss The Saturday Evening Post Sep 13 ’47 161 · Whatever Happened to Corporal Cuckoo? · nv The Brighton Monster, London: Heinemann, 1953; Star Science Fiction Stories #3, ed. Frederik Pohl, Ballantine, 1954

The People Trap


Robert Sheckley - 1968
    Contents:7 • The People Trap • (1968)28 • The Victim from Space • (1957)48 • Shall We Have a Little Talk? • (1965)75 • Restricted Area • (1953)93 • The Odour of Thought • (1953)(aka The Odor of Thought)106 • The Necessary Thing • (1955)119 • Redfern's Labyrinth • (1968)125 • Proof of the Pudding • (1952)134 • The Laxian Key • (1954)146 • The Last Weapon • (1953)156 • Fishing Season • (1953)172 • Dreamworld • (1968)183 • Diplomatic Immunity • (1953)205 • Ghost V • (1954)

The Blush


Elizabeth Taylor - 1968
    Amongst the characters in this collection of short stories are the upright Mrs Allen, who unwittingly provides an alibi for her slackly corseted home help, and Emily, who has written fluent, amusing letters to a distinguished novelist for 10 years but descends into small talk when they meet.

The Curious Facts Preceding My Execution and Other Fictions


Donald E. Westlake - 1968
    Short Stories.

The Hawk's Done Gone: And Other Stories


Mildred Haun - 1968
    Set in the Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee and covering a span of family history from the Civil War to 1940, these tales achieve the forceful, intractable simplicity of the traditional ballads. But one also finds in these twenty-three stories an overview of the forces of nature, the paradoxes inherent in the human condition, and a full acceptance of the real world and the supernatural.Born to the milieu about which she wrote, Mildred Haun recorded a world which combined stark natural phenomena and passionate supernatural forces. And because the supernatural is woven into the dramatic fabric of the stories, it contributes, paradoxically, to the final credibility of events.Few writers in the twentieth century have set down so rich and complex a rendering of folk tradition and such a comprehensive treatment of superstition in the southern Appalachians. In these tales we meet a talking apple tree, a boy with the "hant bleach" of doom upon his brow, a bleeding ghost, a child's winding sheet wet with tears, and God's revelation in a blue bird.No other dialect collection from the South has been as close to the oral tradition or has achieved the same distinctive flavor and natural tonal qualities. The speech strikes the ear directly from the printed page. The language is simple and strong. A sparse, direct economy prevails. The total impact is explosive.Although Miss Haun dramatized themes of cruelty, revenge, and the loss of personal dignity in a harsh world, the comic tales in this volume call to mind the Native American humor of the Old Southwest and demonstrate that a female humorist, without coyness or bawdry, can hold her own alongside Davy Crockett, Sut Lovingood, and the nameless spinners of tall tales.

The Novellas of John O'Hara


John O'Hara - 1968
    They are marked by the meticulous attention to detail and veracious dialogue that are habitual to O'Hara. His style of fiction, which often follows one individual or relationship through an unpredictable and unstable course, is frequently better served by the shorter form.The ten stories presented here were written in the sixties, the last decade of O'Hara's life, when he was as prolific as ever and concerned to record as much of what he had seen in his lifetime as possible. They are set during his adulthood and in the places that he knew, lived in, and always wrote about: Gibbsville (the fictionalized Pottsville, where he had grown up), Philadelphia, New York, and Hollywood. The characters are also familiar: O'Hara's alter ego, the writer Jim Malloy, the mismatched couples and disappointed lovers, the rising and fading stars of Hollywood, the socially aspiring, and the criminal fringe of the Prohibition era.As O'Hara's biographer Frank MacShane notes, the stories are "still extraordinarily alive." O'Hara effortlessly crafts stories that are propelled by his beautifully observed dialogue and studded with his placement of people by what they drink and the way they drink it, their cars, and their clothes. The life in the stories is in this detail, and in the universal applicability that his themes have for the latetwentieth century.

Ship Island and Other Stories


Elizabeth Spencer - 1968
    

The yellow story book


Enid Blyton - 1968
    # Mind Your Own Business# The Little Toy Gun# The Untidy Gnome# The Two Runaways# The Enchanted Book# Big-Eyes the Frog# The Surprising Sister# Greedy Gubbins# The Toy Telephone# Red Button Land# Clever Old Green-Eyes# Pop-Pop-Pop!# She Didn't Want to Go# Poor Dicky Duck# 'My Goodness!'# The Doll on the Christmas Tree# Which Would You Do?# He Would Slam the Door!

Limestone and Other Stories


Adalbert Stifter - 1968
    Contains the stories "Limestone", "Tourmaline", and "The Recluse".

Shattered Like a Glass Goblin


Harlan Ellison - 1968
    But now she lives on The Hill, with a group of drugged-out people. And there are strange noises in the halls and in the basement. Then things got really out of control. Nebula Award(R) Nominee in 1970. Short story published in Orbit 4 magazine.

Mother Earth, And Other Stories


Boris Pilnyak - 1968
    Contents:Mother EarthMahoganyRyazan applesTale of the unextinguished moonForest dachaBridegroom comethThree brothersTales of the seas and mountainsAlwasy on business tripsWolf RavineFirst day of springSeas and mountains

Shamrock & Spear: Tales and Legends from Ireland


Francis Meredith Pilkington - 1968
    Stories include:The Giant and His Royal ServantsThe Little Bull CalfThe Hillman and the HousewifeFair, Brown, and TremblingThe White CatJack and His FriendsThe Kildare PookaThe Red EtinThe Mop ServantPaddy and the LeprechaunThe Well of D'Yerree-In-DowanThe Two BottlesThe Maiden in the Country UndergroundThe Wonderful CakeGobborn SeerThe Princess and the DwarfHow Cormac Mac Art Got His BranchThe Coming of Fionn Mac CoolThe Carl of the Drab CoatFior UsgaThe Hill of the Bellowing OxenThe Shee An Gannon and the Gruagach GaireWind and Wave and Wandering Flame

The Stars And Under A Selection Of Science Fiction


Edmund Crispin - 1968
    

Ferdinand, Including [The Prefatory Piece] It Was


Louis Zukofsky - 1968
    

The Nature of Love


Judith A. Wright - 1968
    The woman many people consider to be Australia's greatest poet has always been a fine writer of prose. Her awareness of human motives, her profound knowledge and love of nature, her command of language - all are at their richest in these stories. Set mainly in Queensland, their range is marvellous - from youth to age, from sea-shore to the bush. Moreover, they all have that rarest quality - they could happen tomorrow. She was born near Armidale, N.S.W. and now lives on Tamborine Mountain in southern Queensland with her husband and daughter. She has published books of verse, criticism and critical essays, a family history, and books for children.This is the first collection of her short stories.

True Adventure Stories Of The Sea


Peter Grey - 1968
    Lone voyages, shipwrecks, unsolved mysteries, gallant battles between nations, fierce fights bewtween deperadoes - they are all here to give you a vivid picture of the true adventures of the sea.

The Works of Lewis Carroll


Lewis Carroll - 1968
    Contents:Alice’s Adventures in WonderlandThrough the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found ThereA Wonderland MiscellanyBruno’s Revenge, and Other StoriesSylvie and BrunoSylvie and Bruno ConcludedLetters to Child-FriendsThe Hunting of the SnarkRhyme? And Reason?Verses and AcrosticsThree Sunsets, and Other PoemsNotes by an Oxford ChielJournal of a Tour in Russia in 1867Original Games and PuzzlesFeeding the Mind

The Wild Cherry Tree


H.E. Bates - 1968
    A collection of ten Bates tales.

Balcony Stories


Grace Elizabeth King - 1968
    And in that country the women love to sit and talk together of summer nights, on balconies, in their vague, loose, white garments, - men are not balcony sitters, - with their sleeping children within easy hearing, the stars breaking the cool darkness, or the moon making a show of light - oh, such a discreet show of light! - through the vines. And the children inside, waking to go from one sleep into another, hear the low, soft mother-voices on the balcony, talking about this person and that, old times, old friends, old experiences; and it seems to them, hovering a moment in wakefulness, that there is no end of the world or time, or of the mother-knowledge; but, illimitable as it is, the mother-voices and the mother-love and protection fill it all, - with their mother's hand in theirs, children are not afraid even of God, - and they drift into slumber again, their little dreams taking all kinds of pretty reflections from the great unknown horizon outside, as their fragile soap-bubbles take on reflec-tions from the sun and clouds.