Short Stories Books - Page 12

Italian Short Stories 1: Parallel Text Edition (Parallel Text, Penguin) (Italian Edition) (v. 1)

Various

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

an excellent, representative sample of Italian short stories 5 out of 5 stars.
30 of 32 people found this review helpful.

The eight stories in this collection by Moravia, Pavese, Pratolini and other modern writers, have been selected as representative of contemporary Italian writing. The book presents the original Italian text and, on the opposite page, an English translation in a literal style, serving as an aid to reading the Italian more than as something to be read for its own sake. there are notes & biographies of the writers to help the student of Italian. The volume can also be used by Italians to improve their English skills.

Editorial Review:

The eight stories in this collection, by Moravian, Pavese, Pratolina, and other modern writers, have been selected as being representative of contemporary Italian writing. The English translations provided are literal rather than literary, and there are notes and biographies to help the student of Italian. However, the volume can also be helpful to Italians, who can improve their English by studying a strict rendering of stories with which thet may already be familiar.

Thirteen at Dinner (Winterbrook Edition)

Agatha Christie

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 28 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A triumph 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

One of my real favorites. Poor "Paris" and Donald Ross !!
A must for the collector.

"Listen to me, and you shall know everything...just a simple story...." 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

When Jane Wilkinson, Lady Edgware, contacts Hercule Poirot to ask him to intercede with her husband so that she can get a divorce and marry another man, Poirot agrees reluctantly. Lord Edgware, it turns out, is surprised by this request since he had written a letter to Jane agreeing to end their marriage three months before. Lord Edgware is soon discovered dead, and a woman identified by witnesses as Jane, his estranged wife, has entered his house late on the night of his death. The problem? Jane Wilkinson has been at a dinner party that night, and twelve other guests have seen her.

In this novel, written in 1933, Hercule Poirot is in his seventh outing as Christie's detective, and, joined by his redoubtable assistant, Capt. Arthur Hastings, he "helps" Inspector Japp of Scotland Yard in the solution to this complicated case. The world of theatre plays an important role--Jane Wilkinson and Carlotta Adams (soon the "late" Carlotta Adams) are actresses, and several other characters, notably Brian Martin, have theatrical careers. The world of art also plays a role in the conclusion, and the lives of aristocrats and would-be aristocrats, such as Jane Wilkinson, along with their servants and staff, keep the action high-toned, but not high-principled.

Poirot rises to the ensuing challenges when two more murders take place. Relying on his "little gray cells" as much as on the clues he finds--in a letter written by a murder victim before death, in an engraved gold case filled with Veronal, in secret loves, and in positive witnesses who may not have witnessed what they think--Poirot provides the reader with much amusement, the result of his affectations, and much suspense, since he does not share his thoughts until the time of his "grand announcement." The clever ending contains a tour de force which adds an extra bit of clever amusement for the reader.

Though the mystery is fun, and the interplay of the characters allows the mystery to develop in a way that keeps the reader off-guard but believing in Poirot, the casual anti-semitism revealed here may undercut the reader's full admiration for the novel. Though this is not a major part of the novel, the fact that it appears at all--in England, just five years before Kristallnacht brought all of Europe to attention--casts a surprising light on English sentiments, at least among the upper classes. n Mary Whipple

The Sittaford Mystery (Agatha Christie Signature Edition)
Dead Man's Mirror (Mystery Masters Series)
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd: A Hercule Poirot Mystery (Hercule Poirot Mysteries)

Editorial Review:

Agatha Christie's famous murder mystery, reissued with a striking new cover designed to appeal to the latest generation of Agatha Christie fans and book lovers. Poirot had been present when Jane bragged of her plan to 'get rid of' her estranged husband. Now the monstrous man was dead. And yet the great Belgian detective couldn't help feeling that he was being taken for a ride. After all, how could Jane have stabbed Lord Edgware to death in his library at exactly the same time she was seen dining with friends? And what could be her motive now that the aristocrat had finally granted her a divorce?

The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories (Hercule Poirot)

Agatha Christie

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Short Stories. 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 10 people found this review helpful.

A must for Agatha Christi fans. Short stories featuring Hercule Poirot, Mr Parker Pyne and (my favorite) Miss Marple. Titles:
The Regatta Mystery, The Mystery of the Bagdad Chest, How Does Your Garden Grow?, Problem at Pollensa Bay, Yellow Iris, Miss Marple Tells a Story, The Dream, In a Glass Darkly, Problem at Sea.

Enjoyed the mix. 4 out of 5 stars.
5 of 8 people found this review helpful.

While I prefer Agatha Christie's longer works, it's sometimes nice just have a sampling. My favorite of the short stories are the ones with Parker Pyne who in one story reluctantly admits that his first name is Christopher. Pyne is the opposite of fastidious and sometimes pompus M. Poirot or the ever congenial Miss Marple. No, he's in his line of work for the money and makes no appoligies for it.

9 Delightful Stories 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Hercule Poirot, Mr. Parker Pyle, and Miss Marple all take turns deftly solving mystery after mystery in this collection of nine short stories. The title story is the best of the bunch - where some thieves dare to steal a gem right under the nose of Parker Pyle, after telling him they were gong to do it! And they almost get away with it... A very clever story from the Mistress of Mystery...and the other 8 are almost as wonderful. I bought this for 90 cents the other day and I couldn't have been happier. I suggest having some wine and reading a few short stories - you will be glad you did.


Relic113

Editorial Review:

A collection of classic stories featuring multiple victims, multiple mysteries, multiple suspects, and a multitude of talent to solve it all: Hercule Poirot, Miss Jane Marple, and Mr. Parker Pyne.

Christmas Books (Everyman's Library)

Charles Dickens

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Very moving stories and a great publishing house 5 out of 5 stars.
19 of 19 people found this review helpful.

Dickens' Christmas Books might be some of his most overlooked works, except for, of course, "A Christmas Carol." But in these stories he has captured the season's spirits of reflection and faith better than any other work I've read. "A Christmas Carol" is an acknowledged masterpiece; "The Chimes" and "The Battle of Life" are particularly moving as well. Four of these five stories bring me to tears by their ends.

I started in 1991 to read one story per year in the published sequence, (for Christmas 2000, I'm reading The Haunted Man again) and this has made December and its holidays more enjoyable and meaningful for me. I hope to continue the cycle and look forward to reading "this year's Christmas story" aloud to my family as my kids grow up.

Oxford Press/World's Classics publishes excellent quality paperbacks, and they do justice here to Dickens' powerful works. I highly recommend this work (and especially this publisher) to anyone; if you're looking for "A Christmas Carol", get this volume of all the Christmas Stories and enjoy even more of Dickens' masterful ability to weave the human condition into such moving short stories.

Editorial Review:

This anthology, described by Dickens himself as "a whimsical sort of masque intended to awaken loving and forebearing thoughts" contains his Prefaces, "A Christmas Carol", "The Chimes", "The Cricket on the Hearth", "The Battle of Life" and "The Haunted Man". This is a study edition.

Heart of Darkness and Selected Short Fiction (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (Barnes & Noble Classics)

Joseph Conrad

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Heart of Darkness and Selected Short Fiction, by Joseph Conrad, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:

New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work Comments by other famous authors Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations Bibliographies for further reading Indices & Glossaries, when appropriateAll editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.

 

One of the most haunting stories ever written, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness follows Marlow, a riverboat captain, on a voyage into the African Congo at the height of European colonialism. Astounded by the brutal depravity he witnesses, Marlow becomes obsessed with meeting Kurtz, a famously idealistic and able man stationed farther along the river. What he finally discovers, however, is a horror beyond imagining. Heart of Darkness is widely regarded as a masterpiece for its vivid study of human nature and the greed and ruthlessness of imperialism.

This collection also includes three of Conrad’s finest short stories: “Youth,” the author’s largely autobiographical tale of a young man’s ill-fated sea voyage, in which Marlow makes his first appearance, “The Secret Sharer,” and “Amy Forster.”

Features a map of the Congo Free State.

A. Michael Matin is a professor in the English Department of Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina. He has published articles on various twentieth-century British and postcolonial writers.

Irish Girls About Town

Maeve Binchy, Marian Keyes, Cathy Kelly, et al

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 31 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Feel-Good Anthology 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Maeve Binchy, Marian Keyes, and a host of other fabulous but unkown-to-this-reviewer Irish women authors pooled their talents to raise money for an Irish charity--and this fabulously wonderful book was the result.

Each short story is a gem unto itself, and absolutely nothing is boring, trite or blah. This is a perfect beach read, and makes me want to look up all the women of whom I knew nothing so that I can order each of their books!!!

This is a real treat for any fan of Brit Lit.

Editorial Review:

An irresistible collection of short stories, some hilarious, some heartbreaking, from the most popular contemporary Irish women writers. Poignant, hilarious, heartwarming in turn, this anthology includes never-before-published short stories by some of the best-known and best-loved Irish writers, including Maeve Binchy, Marian Keyes, Cathy Kelly, Julie Parsons, Deirdre Purcell, Joan O'Neill, Morag Prunty, Colette Caddle and many more. It also includes stories by up-and-coming Irish stars like Annie Sparrow, Catherine Barry and Marisa Mackle. While some stories will have you laughing out loud, others will have you reaching for your hanky: but they all display their own peculiar brand of Irish charm. And it's all in a very good cause: 1 pound from every copy sold will go to Barnardo's children's charity, and the Irish charity, The Society of St Vincent de Paul, which aims to alleviate poverty throughout the world.

The Labours of Hercules: 12 Hercule Poirot Mysteries (Mystery Masters)

Agatha Christie

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Great Service and Good Product 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Can't get enough of the Hercule Poirot Mysteries? You've probably already experienced Hercule Poirot in book form, DVD version and on television, but here's a fourth method. It is great fun. I just pop one of these disks in my car CD player and my tedious communute to and from work becomes a time of pure enjoyment as I roll along the highway. The Labours Of Hercule Poirot is by far my favorite. As usual, Amazon did a great job of processing and mailing me this order in a timely manner. I highly recommend this product.

Editorial Review:

First published in book form in 1947, The Labours of Hercules comprises an even dozen mysteries starring Christie's most popular sleuth, the ever-dignified Hercule Poirot. The introductory chapter of the collection sets up the rest of the book. At a dinner party, another guest compares the labors of Poirot to those of Hercules, and the little Belgian is not amused. He has already decided to retire, but makes up his mind to take on 12 great cases — each somehow reflecting the labors accomplished by Hercules — as a farewell to crime solving. All of the cases are quite different from each other, from searching for a lost poet to hunting down a particularly ferocious murderer, from solving mysterious deaths of religious cult members to saving a young would-be politician from potential blackmailers. Frequent Christie interpreter Hugh Fraser brings stories like "The Cretan Bull" and "The Apples of the Hesperides" to dazzling life.

The Listerdale Mystery and Eleven Other Stories

Agatha Christie

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Twelve very different mysteries come to life 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 9 people found this review helpful.

Agatha Christie's mystery THE LISTERDALE MYSTERY AND ELEVEN OTHER STORIES once again enjoys veteran Hugh Fraser's long-time audio experience bringing Christie's many mysteries to life. Here twelve very different mysteries range from a cottage murder to a missing emerald, with all Christie's patented talent for high drama packed into the short mystery format.

Love the twists. Not typical Christie 4 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

If you're looking for some great, "feel good" atypical mysteries go for it. If you're a classic Christie fan... you may want to give this a pass, but once you get the hang of the general direction, the stories are beautiful, most are well-crafted, some are a little contrived but still enjoyable. Good driving listening.

Editorial Review:

First published in 1934, this collection of Agatha Christie short stories features 12 ingenious tales involving mystery and adventure, from a stolen rajah’s emerald to a necklace discovered in a basket of cherries to a mystery writer’s bizarre near-arrest for murder. Among the stories in this enjoyable early collection are "The Girl on the Train," "Jane in Search of a Job," and "Philomel Cottage," which was made into the film Love from a Stranger.

Man With a Maid: And Other Victorian Stories

Anonymous

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

13 pieces of Victorian variety 4 out of 5 stars.
5 of 7 people found this review helpful.

It is a common stereotype that Victorian [...] was all caning, servants, and beaten children. Granted those are common themes but this collection shows more variety than that. We find old men and rejected men stealing innocence and women who have cast aside the sexual mores of their time to become preedators themselves. There are some hierarchical situations but most of the action takes place between social and age peers. I've removed one star from my rating because there are two important things missing from this book. The first are simple introductions to the pieces; even if we don't know the author we can know when it written and which country it was created in. Victorianism was fairly wide=spread for several decades but how it played out varied. Second the pieces need to be identified when they are only sections from a larger work or a series of stories. This would enable those who find the writting exciting to find other Victorian porn.

Editorial Review:

This omnibus volume combines examples of the best of Victorian erotica, including

* The English Governess

* The Pearl

* The Autobiography of a Flea

* Man With A Maid, the popular Victorian classic which has sold hundreds of thousands of volumes in the 80 years since it first appeared

Man With A Maid tells the story of Jack, a Victorian gentleman, who plots sweet revenge on the fiancee who jilts him, not to mention her maid, a close friend, and his rival's mother-in-law. Setting up residence in the 'Snuggery,' once the soundproof ""mad room"" of an insane asylum, he subjects Alice and the rest of his female company to bondage and orgiastic sexuality, dealing out both pleasure and pain in exacting revenge.

The Complete Father Brown

G. K. Chesterton

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Completely, Father 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

When we first see Father Brown, he's a clumsy, sweet little priest who drops his umbrella, and prattles to his fellow passengers.

But G.K. Chesterton soon reminds readers that appearances are deceptive, when this unassuming little Catholic priest turns out to be a master sleuth. "The Complete Father Brown" collects the first two books featuring Father Brown, and introducing readers to his unusual way of solving bizarre crimes.

The first story opens with French detective Valentin on the hunt for the great thief Flambeau, and along the way encounters a little priest who is telling people about his "silver with blue stones." Turns out that the little priest is the target of Flambeau's crime, and the priceless sapphire cross he's carrying is about to be stolen -- but Valentin discovers that Father Brown is a lot cleverer than he seems.

In the many mysteries that follow, Brown is called on to solve many mysteries -- strange beheadings, burning towers, an invisible murderer, a Christmas crime, voodoo cults, impossible blackmail, the mysterious "Mr. Glass," a lie-detector that can't overcome the faulty human, a murdered actress, murders that may be suicides, religious bigotry, and even a death curse that may be coming true.

G.K. Chesterton had a wonderful knack for creating mysteries that were actually quite simple, but seemed complicated. Sometimes, they even seemed impossible. But in each story -- most of which are standalone -- Father Brown successfully unravels the case, and shows us the startlingly simple answers.

These short stories are written casualyl and a little bit humorously (Brown outpicking a pickpocket), but Chesterton builts up a wall of bizarre clus that don't make sense until Father Brown reveals the motives. And the final touch is an exquisite, shimmering writing style ("Over the black pine-wood came flying and flashing in the moon, a naked sword"), rich in atmosphere.

Father Brown is a likable little guy, who seems very flaky and innocent at first. But under the "innocent goblin" face, he has a shrewd knowledge of human nature, rock-solid principles and some very unusual skills. And don't worry, the religious aspect is rarely brought up, such as when a murder was caused by religious bigotry -- most of the time, Father Brown merely lives his principles rather than preaching them.

"The Complete Father Brown Volume 1" is an enjoyable collection of the first two Father Brown books, and will leave mystery lovers reaching for Volume 2.

Editorial Review:

Includes The Innocence of Father Brown and The Wisdom of Father Brown. Newly designed and typeset in a modern 6-by-9-inch format by Waking Lion Press.