Anthologies

50 Great Short Stories is a comprehensive selection from the world’s finest short fiction. The authors represented range from Hawthorne, Maupassant, and Poe, through Henry James, Conrad, Aldous Huxley, and James Joyce, to Hemingway, Katherine Anne Porter, Faulkner, E.B. White, Saroyan, and O’Connor. The variety in style and subject is enormous, but all these stories have one point in common—the enduring quality of the writing, which places them among the masterpieces of the world’s fiction.

A Splendid collection of 50 stories from Washington Irving's 'The Adventures Of A German Student' to John Updike's 'The Lucid Eye in Silver Town'.Such classic stories as Edgar Allan Poe’s 'Ms. Found in a Bottle', Bret Harte’s 'The Outcasts of Poker Flat', Sherwood Anderson’s 'Death in the Woods', Stephen Vincent Benét’s 'By the Waters of Babylon'. Also some little-known masterpieces as Edith Wharton’s 'The Dilettante', Finley Peter Dunne’s 'Mr. Dooley on the Popularity of Fireman', Charles M. Flandrau’s 'A Dead Issue', and James Reid Parker’s 'The Archimandrite's Niece'.There are also splendid offerings from Melville, Henry James, Dreiser, Faulkner, Hemingway, Steinbeck, McCullers, Irwin Shaw, John Cheever and Erskine Caldwell.

From Kate Chopin’s turn-of-the-century Lousiana, to Gertrude Stein’s war-time Paris, to Alice Walker’s modern-day America, here are twenty-six short stories by the finest women writers of the twentieth century. These well-known and well-loved authors people their stories with vibrant female characters, from all over the world and all walks of life. Separately, each of these stories bears the mark of a skilled writer. Together, they celebrate woman in her many roles—as daughter, mother, worker, wife, lover, sister, and friend. In Tillie Olsen’s classic, “I Stand Here Ironing,” a single mother considers her success in raising a daughter. In Eudora Welty’s “The Worn Path,” an African-American grandmother meets with grace the impudence of a young, white man. In Alice Munro’s “The Office,” a wife who has too many distractions to write at home rents a room in town, only to be constantly interrupted by her landlord. Superbly written, and at once poignant and ironic, these insightful stories capture the essence of being a woman—in all its similarity, and all its diversity.

Signed by Bill Pronzini on the title page and Intro. Signed by Marcia Muller on the title page and Intro. Signed by Maricia Muller and Joyce Carol Oates on their short story. Short story collection. A First edition, First printing, with the corresponding number line. Book is in Fine condition. Boards are clean, not bumped. Interior is clean and legible. Not remaindered. Dust Jacket is in Fine condition. Not chipped or crinkled. Not price clipped. Dust Jacket is covered by Mylar Brodart. All-ways well boxed, All-ways fast service. Thanks.

Gathering together deliciously chilling tales from the three highly-acclaimed volumes of Virago ghost stories, this collection features stories by A. S. Byatt, Angela Carter, Charlotte Brontë, Antonia Fraser, Penelope Lively, Ruth Rendell, Edith Wharton, and many more. Here lost loves, past enmities, and unwanted memories mingle with the inexplicable as unquiet souls return to repay kindnesses, settle scores, and haunt the imagination. All of the writers demonstrate a subtle power to delight and chill at the same time as they explore the ghostly margins of the supernatural.

It was dark by the time Lucas stopped his taxi in the driveway of the Wheeler home and lumbered up the path to the front entrance. He still wore his heavy boots, despite the spring thaw; his mackinaw and knitted cap were reminders of the hard winter that had come and gone. When Geraldine Wheeler opened the door, wearing her lightweight traveling suit, she shivered at the sight of him. "Come in," she said crisply. "My trunk is inside." Lucas went through the foyer to the stairway, knowing his way around the house, accustomed to its rich dark textures and somber furnishings; he was Medvale's only taxi driver. He found the heavy black trunk at the foot of the stairs, and hoisted it on his back. "That all the luggage, Miss Wheeler?" "That's all. I've sent the rest ahead to the ship. Good heavens, Lucas, aren't you hot in that outfit?" She opened a drawer and rummaged through it. "I've probably forgotten a million things. Gas, electricity, phone . . . Fireplace! Lucas, would you check it for me, please?" "Yes, miss," Lucas said. He went into the living room, past the white-shrouded furniture. There were some glowing embers among the blackened stumps, and he snuffed them out with a poker. A moment later the woman entered, pulling on long silken gloves. "All right," she said breathlessly. "I guess that's all. We can go now." "Yes, miss," Lucas said.

Third of these fabulous collections published by Tor during the late 1980s and early 1990s. The contents of this one range from classical writers of the 19th century, to a 1980 Stephen King novella (set in Lovecraft's universe, yet!). Contents: . . Introduction to the series, by the Editor . . Introductio to Volume III, by the editor . . Smoke Ghost [Fritz Leiber] . . Seven American Nights [Gene Wolfe] . . The Signal-Man [Charles Dickens] . . Crouch End [ Stephen King] . . Night-Side [Joyce Carol Oates] . . Seaton's Aunt [Walter de la Mare] . . Clara Militch [Ivan Turgenev] . . The Repairer of Reputations [Robert W. Chambers] . . The Beckoning Fair One [Oliver Onions] . . What Was It? [Fitz-James O'Brien] . . The Beautiful Stranger [Shirley Jackson] . . The Damned Thing [Ambrose Bierce] . . Afterward [Edith Wharton] . . The Willows [ Algernon Blackwood] . . The Asian Shore [Thomas M. Disch] . . The Hospice [Robert Aickman] . . A Little Something For Us Tempunauts [Philip K. Dick]

Twelve tales of the supernatural include "The Screaming Skull" by J. Marion Crawford, "Ligeia" by Edgar Allen Poe, "Consequences" by Willa Cather, and "A Ghost Story" by Mark Twain

Gathers selections from the autobiographical writings of modern American women authors

Thirteen terrifying tales to take you on a heart-pounding journey to the dark side! Including: Bodies of the Dead by Ambrose Bierce: Is it your worst fear to be buried alive? Live your greatest nightmare in these four chilling tales. The Golden Rat by Alexander Harvey: A psychiatrist is haunted by a strange power that allows him to see him patients' worst fear manifested in ghostly images. Kerfol by Edith Wharton: A violent and bitter man is brutally murdered. His wife is accused but she pleads innocent, blaming the ghosts of her slain dogs. And ten more tales of horrifying consequences by Arlo Bates, Elia W. Peattie, Willa Cather, F. Marion Crawford, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Lafcadio Hearn, G. Ranger Wormser, Harriet Prescott, Julian Hawthorne, and Edgar Allan Poe.

From the acclaimed anthologist editor comes an expertly selected array of deceptively innocent moments from which there's no turning back. Ever.

Sixteen spine-tingling tales from the dark side of our nation's literary history include stories by Sarah Orne Jewett, Henry James, Mark Twain, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Edith Wharton, Willa Cather, and other literary luminaries. The collection begins with Edgar Allan Poe’s "Ligeia," a classic Gothic horror tale of a love stronger than death, followed by "The Gray Champion," Nathaniel Hawthorne's fable of a supernatural hero who reappears in times of national danger. Other stories include "Grayling; or, 'Murder Will Out'" by William Gilmore Simms; "The Real Right Thing" by Henry James; "Lady Ferry" by Sarah Orne Jewett; "My Platonic Sweetheart" by Mark Twain; Frank R. Stockton's "The Philosophy of Relative Existences"; "The Upper Berth" by F. Marion Crawford; and "An Itinerant House" by Emma Frances Dawson. Ambrose Bierce's mystery classic, "The Moonlit Road," appears here, along with "The Conquering Will" by Harriet Prescott Spofford; "The Shadows on the Wall" by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman; Edith Wharton's "The Eyes"; "Consequences" by Willa Cather; "Call Me From the Valley" by Manly Wade Wellman; and Parke Godwin's "The Fire When It Comes."

For centuries, readers have enjoyed the delicious terror of stories about ghosts, spirits, phantoms, and things that go bump in the night. But how do women writers approach these spectral tales differently than men? You'll discover the answers in this unique collection of eighteen supernatural fables by female masters of the genre, including Edith Wharton, Joyce Carol Oates, Ruth Rendell, Shirley Jackson, and others. A brief author biography complements each story. Set aside your images of traditional ghosts. The writers in this volume evoke spirits of place and memory instead. As the anthologist notes in his introduction, male authors tend to write stories with avenging ghosts and heart-pounding hauntings. Women are more subtle. Their stories frequently emphasize the psychological aspects of the characters, some of whom may fear going mad. In Wharton's "Kerfol," a woman is falsely accused of murdering her husband, but can she grasp the knowledge of what really killed him? Is the scholarly gent in Oates's "An Urban Paradox" accurately viewing life's dangers . . . or is the world even more perilous than he thinks? Fortified by a firm understanding of the human condition, the authors have imbued these harrowing tales with a generous helping of reality and humanity that make them utterly intriguing.

An anthology of erotic fiction by great female writers, with stories by: Kathy Acker, Isabel Allende, Laila Baalabaki, Simone de Beauvoir, Svetlana Boym, Angela Carter, Kate Chopin, Colette, Elizabeth Cook, Candas Jane Dorsey, Carol Emshwiller, L.A. Hall, Radclyffe Hall, Bessie Head, Siv Holm, Evelyn Lau, La Marquise de Mannoury d'Ectot, Katherine Mansfield, Ann Oakley, Iva Pekárková, Claire Rabe, Alifa Rifaat, Joanna Russ, May Sinclair, Verena Stefan, Gertrude Stein, Nicole Ward Jouve, Anna- Elisabeth Weirauch, Edith Wharton, Amy Yamada. Tales of forbidden lust, illicit desires, the twin hungers of loneliness and lust and the complexities of intimacy: all are explored in this fascinating anthology of stories on erotic themes. Spanning the last hundred years The Penguin Book of Erotic Stories by Women brings together tales that capture the sexual mores of their ages. This is an anthology that acknowledges and confirms a woman's right to shape and define her own sexuality, rather than having it forced on her by men. 'Sexy, scholarly and full of surprises' Independent 'An astounding array of accomplished sexual writing . . . thoughtful and original' Lynne Truss, Sunday Times 'A fascinating collection . . . from fairytale whimsy to postpunk invective, from fables of oppression to those of liberation, it is full of unforeseen delights, surprising us into reshaping our thoughts about familiar writers, about sexual politics and about the meaning of erotica itself' Independent

This chilling collection brings talented female perspectives to the modern dark tales of haunting. It will linger in your nightmares long after you close it.

Oh the weather outside is frightful, so draw up a chair to the fire (an electric heater will do), get the chestnuts roasting, and conjure some festive feeling with the help of this seasonal selection. On Christmas Eve it is traditional to scare yourself witless with ghost stories - classics from Edith Wharton and M.R. James should get you started. Diary entries both real and imagined reveal innocent Christmases past, while tales from P.G. Wodehouse and Damon Runyon show the singular workings of the yuletide spirit. Go carolling with Laurie Lee and the animals of The Wind in the Willows, meet some unruly relations courtesy of Stella Gibbons and Nancy Mitford, feast on Christmas geese and puddings zestfully imagined by Dickens and Edith Nesbit, while O. Henry and John Cheever ruminate on the nature of gift-giving. As the fire is slowly dying, bittersweet and comical Christmas memories from Truman Capote and Dylan Thomas draw your seasonal reading to a close.

‘This is, after all, the season of abandonment, of the suspension of vitality, a long cessation of vigour in which we must cultivate our stoicism. Everything had put on the desolate smile of winter.’ Curl up with Stories for Winter , a collection of seasonal tales to sustain you through the long, dark evenings. Originally written and first published in the twentieth century, the fourteen stories in this new anthology bring together the creative minds of Angela Carter, Edith Wharton, Katherine Mansfield, Elizabeth Berridge, Shirley Jackson, Sylvia Townsend Warner, Elizabeth Taylor, Mary Angela Dickens, Elizabeth Bowen and Kate Roberts. A woman waits for her lover across a flooded landscape; another braves a snowstorm for a stranger; while a young girl’s unseasonal visit to the seaside ends in a shattering revelation. Exploring themes of loss and loneliness, resilience and renewal, this collection brings together many renowned female writers of the short-story form. In the spirit of the Women Writers series, these stories first appeared in books and periodicals in the twentieth century.