Showing results for "Humor" in Short Stories

Acclaimed author of The Adults Alison Espach’s short story "In-Depth Market Research Interviews with Dead People" is an at-once hilarious and heart-breaking portrait of a dead woman’s marriage and the Volvo that stood in the middle of it all.

My Man Jeeves, first published in 1919, introduced the world to affable, indolent Bertie Wooster and his precise, capable valet, Jeeves. Some of the finest examples of humorous writing found in English literature are woven around the relationship between these two men of very different classes and temperaments. Where Bertie is impetuous and feeble, Jeeves is coolheaded and poised.

H.H. Munro (Saki) is one of the undisputed masters of the short story. In this complete compendium, the full gamut of his subjects and themes is experienced. His stories are imbued with humorous satire, biting irony, and often the macabre, all of which have one target: the stupidities and hypocrisies of Edwardian upper-class society.

With her husband stranded in a war-torn country halfway around the world, a university professor – on whom the burden of managing their small family has suddenly fallen – tries to maintain order at home. Her young daughter seems not to mind, or even really notice, the father’s absence. But as the weeks go on, mounting pressure on the narrator to balance family and work begins to take a toll.

In this quirky ghost story, a woman endures jury duty by observing the many characters in the room, including a TV crew filming a paranormal presence in the courthouse, a service-dog-in-training, and a man with a "ghost box," a radio to try to communicate with the beyond. As humorous chaos ensues, our protagonist unexpectedly needs to confront the truth about the secret crush she’s been harboring.

In these eight masterful stories, Lorrie Moore, in a perfect blend of craft and bewitched spirit, explores the passage of time and summons up its inevitable sorrows and hilarious pitfalls to reveal her own exquisite, singular wisdom...Gimlet-eyed social observation, the public and private absurdities of American life, dramatic irony, and enduring half-cracked love wend their way through each of these narratives in a heartrending mash-up of the tragic and the laugh-out-loud - the hallmark of Lorrie Moore - land.

Wodehouse introduces us once again to the "wonder butler" Jeeves, who, as usual is able to solve any and all of Bertie Wooster's endless problems with ease and finesse. And he also introduces us to a character not dissimilar to Bertie . . . by name of Reggie. Such fun to follow Jeeves in the hijinks!

Eleven adventures of PG Wodehouse's longest-serving 'hero', Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge: great brain, potential millionaire—and foe of the human race. First, ten scenes of his bachelor days, as (among other things) dog trainer, mastermind of an 'accident' syndicate, boxing promoter, and political campaigner. And then, as a newly married man, embarking upon a foolproof enterprise as a chicken farmer, on a borrowed farm, with 'borrowed' hens, and an entire lack of knowledge.

Just when things have finally cooled down for 88-year-old Maud after the disturbing discovery of a dead body in her apartment in Gothenburg, a couple of detectives return to her doorstep. Though Maud dodges their questions with the skill of an Olympic gymnast a fifth of her age, she wonders if suspicion has fallen on her, little old lady that she is. The truth is, ever since Maud was a girl, death has seemed to follow her....

Do not let Etgar Keret deceive you. The Israeli writer who's worked in film, illustration, animation, and radio, is a storyteller in all senses of the word. Like a conman, he'll promise you a simple story and then the next thing you know your emotional reserves have been completely emptied. It's a literary bait and switch, and he'll get you every time.

Driving with a donkey stuffed in the back seat; jackdaws pecking brains out through the roof of a confessional box; cat piss and astronauts. This is the world not as you see it, but as it is, twisted from the maverick mind of Blindboy Boatclub. These are stories of the strange unsettlings in the souls of men caught in between the past and the possible; stories of heart-blinding rage and disquieting compassion. Topographia Hibernica is a collection that unravels the knotted threads of humanity, nature and colonisation from a contemporary Irish perspective.

Small Bones in a Fist is composed of stories drawn from Blindboy's first two published books: The Gospel According to Blindboy and Boulevard Wren and Other Stories. Curated, narrated and scored by the author, Small Bones in a Fist is a surreal, provocative and darkly funny introduction to one of the most original voices in Irish literature.

Gogol's phantasmagorical tale about a man whose nose decides to abscond and begin living a life of its own is one of the earliest and most celebrated examples of absurdist literature. Apart from its recondite humor, it is remarkable for Gogol's skill in characterization and his ability to paint a picture of contemporary life in Russia in a few verbal brushstrokes.

There were times when Bertie Wooster, the fictional narrator of these stories, was thought of as being at least a trifle feather-brained. However, he had a valet who seemed to know everything about everything. These are among more than 300 short stories written by a man who began a short-lived career in banking after his college days. However, it didn’t take long for P. G. Wodehouse to decide he didn’t like that kind of job, and he began writing in whatever spare time he had.

Wie kann es sein, dass wir in jeder kurzen Pause, die uns der Tag bietet, sofort auf unser Handy schauen und uns ablenken? Sind wir vielleicht einfach zu faul zum Nichtstun geworden? Horst Evers geht dieser Frage nach – in kurzen, sehr lustigen Geschichten aus dem Hier und Jetzt. Dort begegnet er Katzen, die seine Pakete entgegennehmen, und Toastern, die unsere Zukunft planen, sowie Nonnen, die ihm die Künstliche Intelligenz erklären. Er erzählt von seiner Zeit als Band-Bassist, seiner Begegnung mit Steven Spielberg und der lautesten Verkehrsberuhigung der Welt.

Daudet's atmospheric Letters from a Windmill, combined with Jerome K. Jerome's wonderfully idle ramblings. He was indeed the original founder of The Idler and famous for his classic novel Three Men and a Boat.

From money-making schemes involving placing wagers on vicars to poor Bingo having to produce the village school Christmas entertainments, every one of Wodehouse’s superb short stories are guarantee to raise a smile from even the most stony-faced listener!

Muss man die 80-er Jahre erlebt haben, um sie mögen bzw. verstehen zu können? Was macht einen Menschen zu einem Dörflioriginal? Gibt es Ferialjobs, bei denen kein Vitamin B der Welt mehr helfen kann? Was macht Frau, wenn sie überall männliche Nackerte sieht? Mit welchen Mannsbilderprofessionen harmoniert Frau eher nicht bzw. welche sind für eine längerwährende Partnerschaft dann doch nicht geeignet? Und warum kommt eine Bissgurn nur selten allein? Mit diesen und anderen nicht unbedingt lebenswichtigen, aber recht lustigen Fragen beschäftigt sich die Autorin in gewohnt selbstironischer Manier.

Three short stories by Anton Chekhov including "The First-Class Passenger", "The Harmfulness of Tobacco", and "A Transgression".

The sacred and the profane come together with visceral force in two novellas by Bruce Wagner, The Met Gala & Tales of Saints and Seekers. The Met Gala & Tales of Saints and Seekers is an illuminated manuscript of Heaven and Hell.