Showing results for "A Man of Mark" in Short Stories

Delve into the world of moral ambiguity, human frailty, and humor with 'The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories' by Mark Twain. This audiobook presents a collection of Twain's short stories that are as insightful as they are entertaining. With a keen eye for the complexities of human nature, Twain weaves tales that challenge our notions of honesty and integrity. From the enigmatic stranger who brings corruption to a seemingly virtuous town to humorous narratives that explore the human condition, Twain's storytelling prowess shines in this audiobook.

This delightful collection of lesser-known gems by Mark Twain begins with the story of a town called Hadleyburg, which prides itself on the honesty of its citizens. One day a citizen of Hadleyburg offends a stranger passing through, who vows to take his revenge by revealing just how corruptible the sanctimonious town really is. Twain is at his best here, poking fun at common hypocrisy as the self-satisfied pillars of the community are done in by their own greed.

"The Invisible Man" is a detective story written by G. K. Chesterton which concerns the nature of the crimes committed by one James Welkin, who had been harassing Laura Hope and menacing his romantic rival, Isidore Smythe (whom he would later murder), all without ever being seen.

A town that prides itself on its honesty finds itself severely tested. One of the demons Mark Twain always set out to slay was the myth that the citizens of the American republic are inherently more virtuous than others. By the invention of an elaborate hoax, a kind of giant practical joke, Twain has his hero turn the town of Hadleyburg inside out and, in the process, teach the hypocrites who dwell there a lesson in humility and moral realism.

Pete - an impetuous, avowedly self-absorbed writer - and Dave - a pithy banker with a "genius for generosity" - had maintained a close friendship since their first days at college. They stood as Best Man for each other; they are godfathers to each other's sons. That bond cracks during one visit in their mid-30s, and since then neither can say with any satisfaction why. In their ensuing letters, both men begin speaking with a candor they never shared face-to-face,

In this collection on love and loss, hopes and dreams, and memory and regret, The Old Men Who Row Boats and Other Stories takes the listener on an insightful journey through Spain and Portugal. These 14 stories convey real emotion through compelling, simple language and human interaction that resonates in the authentic beauty of small moments.

Richard Garnett C.B. was born on the 27th February 1835. Educated in Bloomsbury he then joined the nearby British Museum as an assistant librarian in 1851, shortly after his father’s death. As an author he wrote several volumes of verse, a book of short stories and several biographies and history books.

The Man Without a Temperament is a 1920 short story by Katherine Mansfield. It was first published in Arts and Letters in Spring 1920, and later reprinted in Bliss and Other Stories. Mrs Jinnie Salesby has tea with her husband, Robert. She receives a letter from Lottie, who is suffering from neuritis. In her letter, she explains it is snowing in London. Then The Honeymoon Couple come back from fishing. The Salesbys go for a turn; she stops and sits while he goes on for a longer walk.

The Crooked Man, one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is one of 12 stories in the cycle collected as The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. Doyle ranked The Adventure of the Crooked Man 15th in a list of his 19 favourite Sherlock Holmes stories. Holmes calls on Watson late one evening to tell him about a case that he has been working on, and also to invite him to be a witness to the final stage of the investigation. Colonel James Barclay, of The Royal Mallows based at Aldershot Camp, is dead, apparently by violence, and his wife, Nancy, is the prime suspect.

Chosen for inclusion in William Evans Burton's Cyclopediae of Wit and Humor of 1857, The Lightning-Rod Man was the one Melville tale to be available throughout his lifetime, thanks to reissues of this volume. More a parable than a character-driven story, the Lightning-Rod man is a charlatan who tries to profit by selling fearful people lightning-rods during thunderstorms. The narrator has a difficult encounter with the Lightning-Rod man in this story about overcoming fear and superstition.

Is the black man who sends his children to a very white private school "a sell out"? Is the black man with a good job and a white wife, a "race betrayer"? The nameless black narrator has done all the above, dragging himself from an impoverished urban ghetto to an upper middle-class life. He has done everything to assimilate into polite white English society, playing strictly by "their rules". As he attends a polo match with "society's finest"; his mask is slipping; cracks are beginning to appear in his apparently perfect life.