Showing results by publisher "Spoken Realms" in Short Stories

Eleven sparkling stories from comic master P.G. Wodehouse, of hapless young clubman Bertie Wooster and his unflappable manservant Jeeves, who is always urbanely ready to rescue the young master and his friends from the soup.

A poignant tale of love and loneliness takes place during the 'White Nights' of St. Petersburg: a time in the summer months when the nights do not darken beyond twilight due to the city's northern location. The story is told by an unnamed narrator, a young man of 26, a self-professed dreamer and introvert, who lives alone in St. Petersburg. Wandering the streets at night he meets a young lady, lonely like himself, and they strike up a friendship. Meeting on successive nights the friendship develops and begins to show signs of love.

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.

A collection of 31 tales of mystery and murder from the career of the great scientific detective, Dr John Thorndyke. Including every story from John Thorndyke's Cases (1909), The Adventures of Dr Thorndyke (1912), Percival Bland's Proxy (1913), The Missing Mortgagee (1914), Dr Thorndyke's Case-book (1923), and The Puzzle Lock and Other Stories (1925)

In Gold Rush-era California, Jim Smiley, a minor who loves to gamble and will bet on anything, obtains a frog. Sniley spends three months training this talented amphibian athlete to become a champion jumper. Smiley finds his mark in the form of a stranger who comes to town and shows an interest in the frog, and would love to bet but if he could find his own frog. "No problem, you hold my frog and I'll go find a frog for you." When hustler meets hustler, the results can be interesting. You might say Smiley didn't know his frog was loaded.

Nonsense Novels was first published in 1920 yet a century later remains a huge favorite among Stephen Leacock fans. The British-born Canadian writer was renowned for his humor, and Nonsense Novels epitomizes both this skill and his mastery of the ridiculous. From an ill-fated Middle Ages romance to the dubious skills of a pitiful private eye and the happy outcome of a generations-old Scottish feud, Nonsense Novels is a tremendous listen.

Mr. Mulliner, the irrepressible raconteur and sage of the bar-parlour of the Angler's Rest public house, narrates nine tales of his extraordinary family.

Twelve early stories from the comic master, including the romantic truth behind the odd success of a Soho restaurant; the mysterious ways of a lucky black cat; a tale of three exiled baseball fans; a private detective in love with an actress in a touring company; a policeman in love with a parlor maid in the Battersea Park Road; Mr. Henry Wallace Mills of the two left feet; and the first appearance of Bertie Wooster and Jeeves, as Bertie is sent to New York to rescue his cousin from the clutches of a Vaudeville starlet...

Ogden Ford, a spoiled child of stupidly wealthy divorced parents, is "the Little Nugget"—the El Dorado of the American kidnapping industry. When Peter Burns, the gentleman of leisure, agrees to spirit the boy away from an English preparatory school to reunite him with his doting mother, he finds himself up against professional competition from across the Atlantic. And when penitent ex-playboy Jimmy "Piccadilly Jim" Crocker covertly returns to his native United States, the Nugget is once more involved as Jimmy finds himself enmeshed in plots and schemes of espionage and kidnapping.

The crux of this story lies in the concept of "superiority"--not just in terms of technology but in understanding how that technology can be effectively employed. Clarke explores the hubris inherent in underestimating one's enemies and the danger of overreliance on assumed technological advantages. The protagonist reflects on their miscalculations, emphasizing that true military prowess extends beyond mere possession of advanced weaponry.

Here are short stories by the incomparable Virginia Woolf, including the story that was the original basis for the novel Mrs. Dalloway.

Mathilde Loisel, the lowly born wife of a clerk, has always felt she was meant for greater things. She imagines beautiful gowns, glittering parties, a home of opulence, and a life of comfort. Her only wish is to be flattered and admired, and she is miserable that she will never know that life. But out of the blue, her husband comes home with an invitation to a ball. She buys a new dress but mourns her lack of jewels. But wait!

In this continuation of Pulitzer Prize-winner Edna Ferber's series set at the turn of the 20th century, the magnetic divorcée Emma McChesney faces a new set of challenges. In partnership with T.A. Buck Jr., Emma struggles to keep the T.A. Buck Featherloom Petticoat Company relevant, while her charismatic 21-year-old son takes the NY advertising world by storm. Jock's insistence that his business-savvy mother's methods are outdated leads to a crisis of confidence for Emma. But Jock's charm and ability to "sell ice to an Eskimo" land him in trouble.

In the not-too-distant future, 2185 AD, anti-gerisone is the new drug that stops ageing. People are now living into their hundreds until it's time to take their own big trip up yonder, and in the case of the Ford family and Gramps, the notable patriarch, families are living and fighting together in one home for much longer. Eventually there are no prisons, slums, asylums, poverty, wars, or disease. and 200 years later the population of the US is set at 40 million people. But since no one gets any older, someone must volunteer to die if a baby is born.

The narrator walks the streets of St. Petersburg at night, contemplating how ridiculous his life is.

Nine of Wodehouse's funniest stories, as the Oldest Member reminisces about misadventures among the golf-obsessed. Including the eponymous 'goof' Ferdinand Dibble, a man whose non-success at golf has reduced him to such a state of diffidence as to hamper his romantic aspirations; high-stakes betting on the course among America's tainted millionaires; the heroic Rollo Podmarsh, persevering in the best round of his life under sentence of death; and the saga of William Bates, Jane Packard, and self-confessed vers libre poet Rodney Spelvin.

Poe in Prose is a collection of short stories from one of the original kings of horror, Edgar Allan Poe. One of America's first practitioners of the short story and considered to be the inventor of the detective fiction genre, Poe is the first well-known American writer to earn a living through writing alone.

Queen Marguerite de Navarre was one of the most powerful women of her age. Her masterpiece, The Heptameron, is a collection of some 72 stories told by five gentlemen and five ladies who find themselves stranded in an abbey. Proposed as an edifying way of passing the time while a bridge is being repaired, the tale-telling - as well as the conversations that follow each story - quickly becomes a battle of wits between the sexes, with tales concerning illicit lovers, romantic conquests, lecherous monks, manly honor, and women's virtue.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is the first published collection of short stories featuring the famous consulting detective and his friend and colleague Dr. Watson.

Mark Twain's "Extracts from Adam's Diary" first appeared in 1893. He based Adam and Eve on himself and his beloved wife Olivia ("Livy") to create a humorous counterpoint the traditional Garden of Eden story, this time centered on what life may have been like for the first man. In this story, we hear Adam trying to work out what the "new creature with long hair" is all about. She names things, much to Adam's annoyance. She follows him around. Then suddenly, there's another creature, which eventually Adam decides is his son Cain. It's all about confusion and curiosity, and finally, love for Eve.