The Various Lives of Keats and Chapman: Including The Brother


Flann O'Brien - 1976
    And who is funnier?"- Edna O'BrienThe cream of Flann O'Brien's comic tour-de-force, the Keats and Chapman stories began in O'Brien's column in the Irish Times. He called them "studies in literary pathology" -- monstrously tall tales that explore the very limits of the shaggy dog story. As one critic wrote, they will accumulate the fantasy to the point of sadism, and then cash home with the flat, desolating pun."The Brother" is another of O'Brien's funniest creations. He is the archetypal Dublin man -- an authority on every one of mankind's ills, from the common cold to the court case. Forget the experts, The Brother knows best."The best comic writer I can think of."- S. J. Perelman

Rumpole


John Mortimer - 1990
    No ISBN.A selection of Mortimer's 'Rumpole' stories:“Rumpole and the Younger Generation” (1978).“Rumpole and the Showfolk” (1979).“Rumpole and the Old Boy Net” (1983).“Rumpole and the Bright Seraphim” (1987).“Rumpole and the Tap End” (1988).“Rumpole and the Bubble Reputation” (1988).“Rumpole à la Carte” (1990).“Rumpole and the Children of the Devil” (1992).“Rumpole and the Family Pride” (1992).“Rumpole on Trial” (1992).

The Standard of Living


Dorothy Parker - 1941
    Would they buy a silver fox coat, or mink?

At the Hairdresser's


Anita Brookner - 2011
    Written to be read over a long commute or a short journey, they are original and exclusively in digital form. This is a poignant novella from Anita Brookner. 'I rather hope I shall die at the hairdresser's, for they are bound to know what to do. At least that is what I tell myself.' Solitude is a familiar burden for Elizabeth Warner. She lives in a basement flat near Victoria and leaves the house only to go shopping and to have her hair done - until a chance encounter at the hairdresser's brings unexpected change. At the Hairdresser's is a deeply moving, unflinchingly observed story about trust and betrayal by one of the greatest writers of contemporary fiction.

Departmental Ditties & Barrack Room Ballads


Rudyard Kipling - 1892
    John Whitehead, critic and biographer who himself served with the Indian Army in Burma, has provided this in full measure in his entertaining and scholarly Introduction and comprehensive textual Notes. This Centenary Edition of the ballads is unlikely ever to be superseded.

Jug of Silver


Truman Capote - 1949
    Each book in the series has been designed with today's young reader in mind. As the words come to life, students will develop a lasting appreciation for great literature.The humor of Mark Twain...the suspense of Edgar Allan Poe...the danger of Jack London...the sensitivity of Katherine Mansfield. Creative Short Stories has it all and will prove to be a welcome addition to any library.

Brothers In Law


Henry Cecil - 1955
    

The Monkey's Paw The Lady of the Barge and Others Part 2


W.W. Jacobs - 2012
    

Furious Seasons and Other Stories


Raymond Carver - 1976
    ContentsDummyDistanceThe LieSo Much Water So Close to HomeThe FlingPastoralMineFurious Seasons

October Ferry To Gabriola


Malcolm Lowry - 1971
    It is not a completed novel, however. According to Margerie Lowry, the author's widow, this published version is her "sorting out" of numerous drafts of chapters, paragraphs and even sentences that Lowry began to write in 1946.

From First to Last


Damon Runyon - 1949
    The kind of writing included in this collection clearly shows the reasons for Damon Runyon's world-wide reputation.

Earth's Holocaust


Nathaniel Hawthorne - 1844
    The site fixed upon at the representation of the insurance companies, and as being as central a spot as any other on the globe, was one of the broadest prairies of the West, where no human habitation would be endangered by the flames, and where a vast assemblage of spectators might commodiously admire the show. Having a taste for sights of this kind, and imagining, likewise, that the illumination of the bonfire might reveal some profundity of moral truth heretofore hidden in mist or darkness, I made it convenient to journey thither and be present. At my arrival, although the heap of condemned rubbish was as yet comparatively small, the torch had already been applied. Amid that boundless plain, in the dusk of the evening, like a far off star alone in the firmament, there was merely visible one tremulous gleam, whence none could have anticipated so fierce a blaze as was destined to ensue.

The Crocodile and Other Tales


Fyodor Dostoevsky - 1973
    "This drowsy denison of the realms of the Pharaohs will do us no harm." And he remained by the tank. What is more, he took his glove and began tickling the crocodile's nose with it, wishing, as he said afterwards, to induce him to snort.Fyodor Mikhailovitch Dostoyevsky is best known for his exploration of the human dark side of the psyche, but this collection shows he is equally adept at sarcastic and absurdist commentary.

Diaboliad


Mikhail Bulgakov - 1925
    Full of invention, they display Bulgakov's breathtaking stylistic range, moving at dizzying speed from grotesque satire to science fiction, from the plainest realism to the most madcap of fantasies. Diaboliad is a wonderful introduction to literature's most uncategorisable and subversive genius.

Some Words With a Mummy


Edgar Allan Poe - 1845
    Doctor Ponnonner invites the narrator to his home to take part in a mummy unwrapping.It was first published in American Review: A Whig Journal in April 1845.