Selected Short Stories

Rabindranath Tagore’s short stories, written mostly towards the end of the 20th century, are relevant even today because of the author’s profound understanding of the human mind. Mostly set in rural and urban pre-partition Bengal, these inherently simple stories have a universal appeal and beautifully portray the intricate aspects of the nature of society and the people in it. They have the capacity to touch your core and leave you thinking deeply about human values. Each and every story in this collection rings of classic Tagore. If you want to delve into the kaleidoscopic universe of India’s greatest writer, poet, and thinker, this is the best place to begin. The stories have been edited and presented for the reading of contemporary audience.

From the Modern Library’s new set of beautifully repackaged hardcover classics by William Faulkner—also available are Snopes, As I Lay Dying, The Sound and the Fury, Light in August, and Absalom, Absalom! William Faulkner was a master of the short story. Most of the pieces in this collection are drawn from the greatest period in his writing life, the fifteen or so years beginning in 1929, when he published The Sound and the Fury. They explore many of the themes found in the novels and feature characters of small-town Mississippi life that are uniquely Faulkner’s. In “A Rose for Emily,” the first of his stories to appear in a national magazine, a straightforward, neighborly narrator relates a tale of love, betrayal, and murder. The vicious family of the Snopes trilogy turns up in “Barn Burning,” about a son’s response to the activities of his arsonist father. And Jason and Caddy Compson, two other inhabitants of Faulkner’s mythical Yoknapatawpha County, are witnesses to the terrorizing of a pregnant black laundress in “That Evening Sun.” These and the other stories gathered here attest to the fact that Faulkner is, as Ralph Ellison so aptly noted, “the greatest artist the South has produced.” Including these stories: “Barn Burning” “Two Soldiers” “A Rose for Emily” “Dry September” “That Evening Sun” “Red Leaves” “Lo!” “Turnabout” “Honor” “There Was a Queen” “Mountain Victory” “Beyond” “Race at Morning”

A selection of short stories including favourites such as Youth, a modern epic of the sea; The Secret Sharer, a thrilling psychological drama; An Outpost of Progress, a blackly comic prelude to Heart of Darkness; Amy Foster, a moving story of a shipwrecked, alienated Pole; and The Lagoon and Karain, two exotic, exciting Malay tales.

Adeline Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) was an English writer. She is widely hailed as being among the most influential modernist authors of the 20th century and a pioneer of stream of consciousness narration. Woolf was a central figure in the feminist criticism movement of the 1970s, her works having inspired countless women to take up the cause. She suffered numerous nervous breakdowns during her life primarily as a result of the deaths of family members, and it is now believed that she may have suffered from bipolar disorder. In 1941, Woolf drowned herself in the River Ouse at Lewes, aged 59. This volume contains 23 exceptional short stories that will not disappoint those who have read and enjoyed other works by this seminal writer. Contents include: “The Mark on the Wall”, “Kew Gardens”, “Solid Objects”, “An Unwritten Novel”, “A Haunted House”, “Monday or Tuesday”, “The String Quartet”, “Society”, “Blue and Green”, “In the Orchard”, “Mrs Dalloway in Bond Street”, “A Woman's College from Outside”, “The New Dress”, etc. Read & Co. Classics is proudly publishing this brand new collection of classic short stories now complete with a specially-commissioned biography of the author.

The nine stories and one poem collected in this volume formed the basis for the astonishingly original film “Short Cuts” directed by Robert Altman. Collected altogether in this volume, these stories form a searing and indelible portrait of American innocence and loss. From the collections Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?, Where I’m Calling From, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, and A New Path to the Waterfall; including an introduction by Robert Altman. With deadpan humor and enormous tenderness, this is the work of “one of the true contemporary masters” (The New York Review of Books).