Catalog Search Results
7241) Literary Lapses
Formally trained as a political scientist and economist, Canadian humorist Stephen Leacock produced dozens of books of hilarious and satirical stories, essays, and vignettes in his spare time. The eclectic collection Literary Lapses brings together a merrymaking melange of his witty writing.
Today's impermeable prisons are a matter of impenetrable locks, sky-high electrified fences, and thousands of guards who mean business. But in the future, the powers that be have added another dimension into the equation: time. By jetting inmates into a distant era, they'll have nowhere to go even if they do manage to escape. A brutal prisoner named Adam Slade hatches a plan to bust out. Can he make it work?
7243) The Dope on Mars
In this classic short story from the golden age of science fiction, a down-on-his-luck writer is sent to Mars to get the inside scoop on the Red Planet. In the diary he keeps to document his first impressions, it becomes clear that interplanetary travel is not all it's cracked up to be. Fans of the genre will love this quirky, irreverent and imaginative tale.
7244) Summer Snow Storm
It's no surprise that meteorologists sometimes make less-than-accurate predictions about the day's weather. But when a cadre of top-ranking weather experts fail to catch wind of a freak summer snow storm, all hell breaks loose. Amidst this turmoil, an unusual folk hero emerges who seems to have a preternatural knack for dead-on weather predictions. What's the source of this strange superpower?
7245) The Adventures of Gerard
In a follow-up to the previously published volume The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard, Arthur Conan Doyle presents more of the recollections of the fictional retired French brigadier. Equal parts humor writing and classic adventure tales, these stories are sure to be a hit.
7246) The Mercenaries
7247) Graveyard of Dreams
This classic science fiction tale from H. Beam Piper takes place in the Federation universe that served as the setting for many of his stories. In the distant future, the inhabitants of the strange planet Poictesme have long heard rumors about a remarkably powerful computer that is hidden away right under their noses. They come to believe that finding the device will put an end to the grinding poverty and bleak outlook that have long plagued their
...7249) My Robin
Fans of Frances Hodgson Burnett's novel The Secret Garden will relish this charming anecdote that further expands upon the robin that features in that book. In response to a reader's letter, Burnett reminisces about her love of English robins—and one in particular that changed her life forever.
7250) Minor Detail
Science fiction master Jack Sharkey spent several formative years working at the technology-oriented Sandia Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which at the time was the United States' top repository for nuclear weapons and research. The high level of secrecy and euphemistic double-talk influenced Sharkey's wryly dystopic vision of the military future, which is on full display in the short story Minor Detail.
7251) Freudian Slip
Though it has fallen out of favor in recent years, Freudian psychoanalysis was all the rage in the mid-twentieth century, and science-fiction scribe Franklin Abel puts it to entertaining use as a plot device in this cheeky short story. In one fell swoop, the physical components of the Earth have disappeared, and the task of setting things right falls onto the shoulders of an unlikely hero.
7252) Three Short Works: The Dance of Death, The Legend of Saint Julian the Hospitaller, A Simple Soul
The three works in this book are each strikingly different. Death, Satan and Nero (the fifth Roman emperor) converse in a prose poem; a Medieval saint encounters trial and struggle before attaining divinity; the life of a selfless maid in 19th-century France shows the horror of true altruism.
7255) Four Weird Tales
Algernon Blackwood played a major role in developing and refining the genre known as 'weird' horror fiction. Concerned with the mystical, mysterious, and uncanny, weird horror writing is tailor-made for fans who prefer suspense and psychodrama to blood and gore. This collection brings together four short masterpieces from Blackwood's remarkable body of work.
7256) Tales of Hearsay
Although English was not his native tongue, Polish-born Joseph Conrad honed his language skills over his lifetime and would eventually become enshrined as one of the masters of English literature. As a sailor, he spent his free time during months-long voyages at sea writing stories, letters, and later, novels such as The Heart of Darkness. However, he regarded short stories as his favorite form, and the literary gems collected in Tales
...7257) Orientations
This collection of short stories is sure to please fans of the eminently talented British author W. Somerset Maugham. With details drawn from Maugham's first extended period of living abroad, the stories offer a unique glimpse into the early stages of the author's artistic development.
7258) Cambridge Pieces
One of the leading critics and intellectuals of the Victorian era, Samuel Butler produced literary works in a wide range of genres, ranging from translations of ancient Greek texts to critical essays. This collection of short sketches and stories offers an accessible introduction to Butler's body of work.
7259) The Figure in the Carpet
Like many of Henry James' short stories, The Figure in the Carpet revolves around an artist whose body of work hides a deeper meaning and several other characters who bear the heavy burden of a momentous secret. When a group of friends unlocks the true significance of a misunderstood novelist's oeuvre, the weight of this knowledge bears unforeseen—and terrible—consequences.
7260) The Misplaced Battleship
In this gripping story from twentieth-century science fiction master Harry Harrison, a gigantic battleship has slipped off the proverbial radar. Can wily protagonist Jim diGriz and his intrepid half-humanoid, half-robot crew of comrades retrieve it before it falls into the wrong hands and interstellar war breaks out?