Description Leo Tolstoy wrote this short meditation on sadness and the meaning of life when he was middle aged. He had already completed his masterworks, Anna Karenina and War and Peace , reared fourteen children, and gained fame and acclaim in Russia as a man of letters. But despite having attained that success, he still found himself unhappy and always returning to the disturbing idea that all achievement is meaningless. A Confession is his attempt to put these thoughts in words as he
Description Philip K. Dick built an enduring literary reputation writing powerful science fiction in the pulp magazines of the 50s and beyond. This collection of several of his short works, arranged in chronological order and all published in now-defunct science fiction pulp magazines, is a slice from his early career. Many of these stories explore the themes of war and whether humanity is intrinsically violent and conflict-torn. Each of them is a fascinating jewel of speculative fiction.
Description The Wind in the Willows, the story of four animals and their adventures in the idyllic English countryside, started out as bedtime stories Grahame would tell his son. He eventually started writing them down, and finally produced this much-loved childrens classic. In continuous print since 1908, The Wind in the Willows has been illustrated countless times and adapted to stage, radio, and screen.
Description The Gods of Pegāna, Lord Dunsany’s first published book, is a strange and wondrous creation. In it he creates the pantheon of gods who rule over the titular world. The prose alternates between being biblical, high-minded, and childish, with the gods frustrating their human subjects through their single-minded and often completely inscrutable actions. When they’re not busy being mysterious, they’re busy taking revenge on each other. It’s possible these short tales were written to
Description At the time of the release of this ebook edition of The Big Time, it remains the only Hugo Award–winning work in the public domain. That makes it a very special treasure indeed! The Big Time tells the tale of a group of servicemembers who work in facilities isolated from regular space-time. They’re involved in a war conducted by two shadowy groups that spans time itself, with all of humanity as pawns on an ever-changing historical battlefield. It explores a fascinating range of
Description Algis Budrys’ science fiction writing career is long and storied. This collection of his early stories published in science fiction pulp magazines is a window into his imagination and style.
Description Arthur Machen was a Welsh man of letters who wrote his most famous work in the late 1890s and early 1900s. While his body of work is wide, he’s perhaps best known for his supernaturally-flavored proto-horror short stories. The Great God Pan—perhaps his most famous work—along with “The Inmost Light” and The White People deeply influenced later writers like H. P. Lovecraft. Stephen King has gone so far as to call The Great God Pan “maybe the best [horror story] in the English
Description The Duel is one of Chekhov’s longest works, skirting the edge between novel and novella. Like many of Chekhov’s works, it was first published as a serial. Laevsky is a womanizing drunkard, a slave to life’s vices. His wantonness clashes with the moralistic zoologist Von Koren, who grows to despise Laevsky. Their mutual enmity culminates in a duel—though neither they, nor their friends, really want it to happen.
Description A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court is one of Mark Twain’s most enduring novels. During a stay at a modern-day English castle, the narrator meets a mysterious stranger. The stranger, Hank Morgan, is an engineer from Connecticut, and proceeds to weave a satirical, biting, and hilarious tale of how he traveled back in time to find himself in the court of the legendary King Arthur. There he uses his modern-day knowledge to convince the locals that he’s a powerful magician. As
Description Like many of Dickens’ works, David Copperfield was published serially, then as a complete novel for the first time in 1850. Dickens himself thought of it as his favorite novel, writing in the preface that of all his works Copperfield was his favorite child. This isn’t surprising, considering that many of the events in the novel are semi-autobiographical accounts from Dickens’ own life. In David Copperfield we follow the life of the titular character as he makes a life for himself in
Description Leo Tolstoy wrote this short meditation on sadness and the meaning of life when he was middle aged. He had already completed his masterworks, Anna Karenina and War and Peace , reared fourteen children, and gained fame and acclaim in Russia as a man of letters. But despite having attained that success, he still found himself unhappy and always returning to the disturbing idea that all achievement is meaningless. A Confession is his attempt to put these thoughts in words as he
Description Philip K. Dick built an enduring literary reputation writing powerful science fiction in the pulp magazines of the 50s and beyond. This collection of several of his short works, arranged in chronological order and all published in now-defunct science fiction pulp magazines, is a slice from his early career. Many of these stories explore the themes of war and whether humanity is intrinsically violent and conflict-torn. Each of them is a fascinating jewel of speculative fiction.
Description The Wind in the Willows, the story of four animals and their adventures in the idyllic English countryside, started out as bedtime stories Grahame would tell his son. He eventually started writing them down, and finally produced this much-loved childrens classic. In continuous print since 1908, The Wind in the Willows has been illustrated countless times and adapted to stage, radio, and screen.
Description The Gods of Pegāna, Lord Dunsany’s first published book, is a strange and wondrous creation. In it he creates the pantheon of gods who rule over the titular world. The prose alternates between being biblical, high-minded, and childish, with the gods frustrating their human subjects through their single-minded and often completely inscrutable actions. When they’re not busy being mysterious, they’re busy taking revenge on each other. It’s possible these short tales were written to
Description At the time of the release of this ebook edition of The Big Time, it remains the only Hugo Award–winning work in the public domain. That makes it a very special treasure indeed! The Big Time tells the tale of a group of servicemembers who work in facilities isolated from regular space-time. They’re involved in a war conducted by two shadowy groups that spans time itself, with all of humanity as pawns on an ever-changing historical battlefield. It explores a fascinating range of
Description Algis Budrys’ science fiction writing career is long and storied. This collection of his early stories published in science fiction pulp magazines is a window into his imagination and style.
Description Arthur Machen was a Welsh man of letters who wrote his most famous work in the late 1890s and early 1900s. While his body of work is wide, he’s perhaps best known for his supernaturally-flavored proto-horror short stories. The Great God Pan—perhaps his most famous work—along with “The Inmost Light” and The White People deeply influenced later writers like H. P. Lovecraft. Stephen King has gone so far as to call The Great God Pan “maybe the best [horror story] in the English
Description The Duel is one of Chekhov’s longest works, skirting the edge between novel and novella. Like many of Chekhov’s works, it was first published as a serial. Laevsky is a womanizing drunkard, a slave to life’s vices. His wantonness clashes with the moralistic zoologist Von Koren, who grows to despise Laevsky. Their mutual enmity culminates in a duel—though neither they, nor their friends, really want it to happen.
Description A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court is one of Mark Twain’s most enduring novels. During a stay at a modern-day English castle, the narrator meets a mysterious stranger. The stranger, Hank Morgan, is an engineer from Connecticut, and proceeds to weave a satirical, biting, and hilarious tale of how he traveled back in time to find himself in the court of the legendary King Arthur. There he uses his modern-day knowledge to convince the locals that he’s a powerful magician. As
Description Like many of Dickens’ works, David Copperfield was published serially, then as a complete novel for the first time in 1850. Dickens himself thought of it as his favorite novel, writing in the preface that of all his works Copperfield was his favorite child. This isn’t surprising, considering that many of the events in the novel are semi-autobiographical accounts from Dickens’ own life. In David Copperfield we follow the life of the titular character as he makes a life for himself in