Showing results by publisher "MuseumAudiobooks.com" in Anthologies

Andrew Lang (1844-1912) was a poet, novelist, and literary critic. He created the enchanting world of fairyland inhabited by characters like the snow-queen, the mermaid's son, ogres, dwarfs, monsters, magicians, and giants. The Pink Fairy Book contains 41 tales from Africa, Japan, Scandinavia, and Europe. They range from familiar stories like "The Snow-Queen" and "The Fir-Tree" to the obscure tales of the Tanuki. This collection contains stories like "The Cats' Elopement", The "Princess in the Chest", "Snowflake", and more....

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was a reclusive poet whose only friendships were carried out in correspondence. Despite writing almost 1800 poems in her life, very few were published until after her death. Here, the poems are presented in chronological order in their original form, unaltered by editorial revision, in one volume. It offers a wide-angle view of Dickinson's poetic development, from the clunky rhyme schemes of her youth, through valentines she wrote in the early 1850s, to the gloomy, hell-obsessed writings of her last years.

Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (1818-1883) was a Russian author, translator, and popularizer of Russian literature in the West. "Mumu" is about Gerasim, a deaf-mute serf whose life of poverty is brought into sharp relief by his love for a dog he rescues from drowning. His wealthy old mistress sees the dog Mumu and wants it but Mumu bares her teeth at her, and tragedy follows.

Patrick Lafcadio Hearn, was an Irish writer known also by the Japanese name Koizumi Yakumo. His book Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things, comprises two parts, the first being the "Kwaidan Proper" and the second, "Insect-Studies", which consists of an essay each on ants, butterflies and mosquitos. According to the author, most of the folk tales and ghost stories in the first part were translated from old Japanese texts. The themes encompass resurrection, sacrifice, magic, and the realm of dreams.

A Jury of Her Peers deals with the murder of John Wright and the subsequent investigation. Two women, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, accompany the two male investigators. By insight and intuition, they find the only usable evidence but remain silent for good reason.

"The Mansion" by the author, educator, and clergyman Henry Jackson van Dyke Jr. (1852-1933) tells of the life of John Weightman and his reward in heaven. Weightman is a wealthy man who does good deeds like funding a school, a church, and a hospital wing. However, his giving is calculated to bring him a benefit. In a near-death experience, he goes to heaven and is shown the heavenly mansion which was prepared for him. It was nothing more than a little shack!

Twice-Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne is an 1837 collection of stories that had previously appeared in literary journals like Atlantic Souvenir and The Token. The stories explore ideas of pride and sin through allegory in a New England setting. Contemporaries of Hawthorne, including Edgar Allan Poe and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, praised the book. Twice-Told Tales includes stories like "Sunday at Home", "The Wedding-Knell", "The Minister's Black Veil", "The Maypole of Merry Mount", "The Gentle Boy", "Mr. Higginbotham's Catastrophe", and more.

Thomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize laureate. His novel The Magic Mountain was first published in 1924, and is considered to be one of the most significant works of 20th century German literature. Mann uses a sanatorium in the Swiss Alps as a microcosm for Europe, which in the years leading up to 1914 was already displaying symptoms of its destructive and irrational mindset. Hans Castorp, an ordinary young man, arrives for a short visit to the sanatorium and ends up staying for seven years.

A collection of stories from the Land of the Rising Sun. The tales come from a rich folk tradition. Fantasy and horror intermingle in these imaginative narratives.

At 19, Alyosha’s father sends him to live with a merchant's family as a servant where he does everything without complaint. He falls in love with the cook, Ustinja, and eventually asks her to marry him but his father forbids it. Later, he falls while clearing snow from the roof. Three days later he dies calmly.

A classic Christmas story with a special moral, Della Dillingham Young has very little money to buy her husband a present. She sells her beautiful brown hair; a treasure to the couple, to buy her husband a gift. But when he returns home with her gift, she's in for a very heartfelt surprise.

"Luck" was published in 1891 in Harper's Magazine and received little attention at the time. The English military hero, Lord Arthur Scoresby, is an idiot who blunders through life on pure good luck. In the Crimean War, he gets confused between his right and left hand to lead a charge in the wrong direction, which surprises a Russian force and ensures an Allied victory.

Henry van Dyke shares a wonderful morality tale in his 1895 The Other Wise Man, as a metaphor for the life of a true Christian. Telling the story of a fourth king who saw the signs but never reached the Christ child in time, van Dyke introduces us to the values of good deeds and charity while searching for the path to Jesus. Because as Jesus keeps eluding the fourth king, he unknowingly gets closer to him with every righteous act he performs.

This is a story within a story by Mark Twain. The one within is the tale of the gambler Jim Smiley and his jumping frog Dan’l. After many winning bets on Dan’l’s jumping ability, a cunning stranger comes along and that day Jim loses.

American author Nathaniel Hawthorne has astounded critics and the public alike for well over a century with his tales of horror, mystery, darkness, and romance. The short story, "The Haunted Mind", first published in 1835, is a perfect example of Hawthorne delving into the unknown in interesting and unexpected ways. Hawthorn referred to the state between sleep and wakefulness as The Haunted Mind, and discusses the strange, obscure, and mysterious feelings and experiences we have all had in this state or similar somnambulant phases.

The Forged Coupon is a novella in two parts by Leo Tolstoy. In Part One, the schoolboy Mitya is in desperate need of money to pay a debt, but his father refuses to help him. He then changes a 2.50 rouble bond coupon to read 12.50 roubles. This one wicked deed sets off a chain of events which affects the lives of dozens of others. In Part Two, a good deed also sets of a series of events, but to the benefit of many people.

Winesburg, Ohio is a short story cycle by Sherwood Anderson. The plot revolves around the life of George Willard, from his childhood to him leaving the town as an adult. The work comprises 22 stories, with the first, "The Book of the Grotesque", serving as introduction. The book is considered a pioneering work of modernist literature due to the prominence giving to the psychological insight of the characters and the simple prose style.

This delightful short story was the first work of Jules Verne to be translated into English by Anne T. Wilbur in 1852. Just as the balloon starts rising, a stranger jumps in with the intention of taking it as high as possible without regard to his own safety or that of the pilot. During the long journey, this mysterious passenger relates the historical background of the quest for lighter-than-air travel.

"The Story of the Siren" centers around two people, a couple, who have both seen a siren deep in the sea. The couple are to be wed and bear a child who will reveal the siren to the world and thus save it. However, a priest plots to quash this prophecy in a dark and shocking way.

A short story by the Russian author and moral philosopher Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, known as Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910). The story, first published in 1912 as "Notes of a Madman", is written from the perspective of an individual who seemed to not be quite sane, and who was examined by doctors. The opinions of the doctors were divided; they argued among themselves and came at last to the conclusion that he was not mad. But this was due to the fact that he tried hard during the examination not to be himself.