Showing results for "Short Stories" in Fairy Tales

More Cumbrian Ghost Stories brings you 16 ghost stories, horror stories, weird tales, and dark fairy tales set in the English county of Cumbria and the Lake District by Tony Walker, author of Cumbrian Ghost Stories and narrator of the Classic Ghost Stories Podcast. From "The Milk-White Child of Ravenglass" to "A Brief Stop in Barrow in Furness", "The Screaming Skulls of Calgarth", and "The Dalston Vampire", these stories dance around the county of Cumbria to horrify, scare, terrify, and also make you smile and even laugh a bit, depending on the tale.

After the loss of her mother, a woman returns to the San Fernando Valley only to uncover a haunting secret about her childhood friend. A visiting professor at a charming but strange California liberal arts college must face her past in order to protect her son. A sister, lost in the woods, confronts the dangerous truth about her brother, her stepmother, and herself. Rose's dog Wolfie has died, and three seductive women offer to help return him to her. But only if she will pay the price.

Magic and myth inhabit these chapters in figures both familiar and strange. Giant trolls and talking animals are everywhere. The winds take human form. A one-eyed old woman might seem reminiscent of the Norse god Odin. We meet sly aunts, resourceful princesses, and devious robbers. These stories, set in Norway's majestic landscape of towering mountains and dense forests, are filled with humor, mischief, and sometimes surprisingly cruel twists of fate. All are rendered in the deceptively simple narrative style perfected by Asbjørnsen and Moe.

Bawdy and exotic, Tales from the Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night features the wily, seductive Scheherazade, who saves her own life by telling tales of magical transformation, genies and wishes, flying carpets and fantastical journeys, terror and passion to entertain and appease the brutal King Shahryar.

This short story collection will take you into the depths of Beck’s dark imagination: from what happens when the deepest bore hole on Earth has just passed nine miles and hits a strange open space – and it's hellishly hot down there; to an Antarctic research team examining fragments from a deep ice glacier and discovers a tiny seed that, once thawed, grows into something terrifyingly unexpected.

Long before maps and kingdoms, when dragons still guarded the skies and elves walked freely beneath the trees, a single act of greed broke the peace that bound them all. Now, the balance of magic and man teeters on the edge of ruin.

"Perfect deadpan marks the opening of Ali Simpson’s The Monster'" writes Susan Merrell of The Southampton Review in her introduction to this issue of Recommended Reading.

Hundreds of years after the end of the world, the Appalachian community of Iron Hollow finds itself beset by demons. Such horrors are common these days in the outlands, where most folks die young—if they don’t turn into monsters first. When a legendary knight is summoned to hunt down the latest unearthly beast to haunt their woods, the town’s new oral historian, Shrike, has more reason than most to be concerned. Because that demon was her wife. And while Shrike is certain that May still recognizes her—that May is still herself, somewhere beneath it all—she can’t prove it.

Small fires start in the hearts of Kathleen Jennings’s characters and irresistibly spread to those around them. Journeys are taken, debts repaid, disguises put on, and lessons offered—although not often learned—in these fantastic tales. Jennings's confident voice lulls listeners into stepping off the known paths to find "Undine Love,” “The Heart of Owl Abbas,” and further unexpected places and people.

Jataka Tales is a compilation of stories from an ancient collection of famous legends about the former lives of the Buddha on his long road to enlightenment. Suggestive of Aesop, these beloved fables are fragments of epics and hero tales arising from deep in the collective Indian past. They present challenging circumstances for humans and animals alike, events which elicit courage and the capacity to love. Centered in one of the world's oldest cities on the Ganges River, these delightful stories tell of dramatic adventures resolved by nonviolent, compassionate means.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, unique tales inspired by traditional literary forms appeared frequently in socialist-leaning British periodicals, such as the Clarion, Labour Leader, and Social Democrat. Based on familiar genres, these stories were meant to entertain readers of all ages - and some challenged the conventional values promoted in children’s literature for the middle class. Acclaimed critic and author Michael Rosen brings together more than 40 of the best and most enduring examples of these stories in one beautiful volume.

Andrew Lang (1844 - 1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, and literary critic. His 12 collections of fairy tales are known as Andrew Lang's Coloured Fairy Books or Andrew Lang's Fairy Books of Many Colors. The third in the series, the Green Fairy Book, contains tales from around the world, from Grimm (“The White Snake” and “Spindle, Shuttle, and Needle”), France de Caylus, Fenelon, Kletke, and D'Aulnoy. The stories include "The Crystal Coffin", "The Three Snake-Leaves", "The Riddle", "Jack My Hedgehog", "The Golden Lads", and many more.

Based on the wildly popular TikTok series, F--ked Up Fairy Tales presents modern retellings of some of the strangest and darkest stories humans have invented. Inspired by sources across the world, “Cosbrarian” Liz Gotauco conjures gossipy animals, homicidal royals, doomed commoners, and shape-shifting beaux—all reckoning with complicated, adult problems that “Disney versions” have sanitized.

Get four fast-paced druid urban fantasy novels in a boxed set featuring magic, mystery, Celtic mythology, and non-stop paranormal action! Reluctant druid, and sole apprentice of the last living master druid on Earth. Heir to Fionn MacCumhaill’s legacy. Hunted and feared by the Fae, and cursed with Cú Chulainn’s ríastrad. All he wants is to live in his junkyard in peace...but the gods have other plans for the young druid apprentice!

Un ragazzo salva una tartaruga e questa per sdebitarsi lo conduce al palazzo del re dei mari. Oppure salva uno squalo, che finisce per annidarsi nello stagno del suo giardino, e infine gli procura un tesoro. Un samurai sposa una bellissima ragazza di origini ignote, finché un giorno non si accorge che dal suo kimono spunta una coda fulva. E come mai quella mosca che ronza in cucina sembra avere proprio le abitudini del nonno, morto poco tempo fa?

From the beaches of Orkney to the Welsh mountains, and the Derbyshire peaks to the Cornish moors, Britain is home to many strange creatures of folklore. Some are ancient, as enduring as the forests and mountains they inhabit. Others live among us, in our cities, creating new legends as they scuttle through the shadows. And none of them are to be trusted.

It's Christmas and Jenny Checkland is beset with problems. The Vicar, who really should know better, has asked to borrow Marilyn the donkey for the nativity play thereby unleashing chaos on the already chaos-laden Frogmorton Farm.

A Frogmorton Farm short story from the million-copy bestselling author of the Chronicles of St Mary's. Perfect for fans of Sarah Addison Allen, Kristen Ashley and Genevieve Cogman.

Kat Howard has already been called a “remarkable writer” by Neil Gaiman, and her “dark and enticing” (Publishers Weekly) debut novel, Roses and Rot, was beloved by critics and fans alike. Now you can experience her collected shorter works, including two new stories. In these stories, equally as beguiling as her novels, Howard expands into the enchanted territory of myths and saints, as well as Arthurian legend, with a novella set upon a college campus, retelling the story of King Arthur through women’s eyes.

Join Joanne Harris on a beautiful journey through her gloriously reimagined take on traditional British folktales. Drawing inspiration from The Child Ballads, this collection brings together her award-winning novellas A Pocketful of Crows, The Blue Salt Road and Orfeia. Published in one beautiful volume for the first time, this collection also includes a brand new introduction by Joanne Harris, and three original short stories.