The Black Veil One winter’s evening, towards the close of the year 1800, or within a year or two of that time, a young medical practitioner, recently established in business, was seated by a cheerful fire in his little parlor, listening to the wind which was beating the rain in pattering drops against the window…
Month: March 2010
THE REAL THING by Henry James
THE REAL THING CHAPTER I When the porter’s wife, who used to answer the house-bell, announced “A gentleman and a lady, sir,” I had, as I often had in those days?the wish being father to the thought?an immediate vision of sitters. Sitters my visitors in this case proved to be; but not in the sense…
Zadig the Babylonian by Voltaire
Zadig the Babylonian THE BLIND OF ONE EYE FRAN?OIS MARIE AROUET DE VOLTAIRE There lived at Babylon, in the reign of King Moabdar, a young man named Zadig, of a good natural disposition, strengthened and improved by education. Though rich and young, he had learned to moderate his passions; he had nothing stiff or affected…
TOBERMORY by Saki
TOBERMORY by Saki It was a chill, rain-washed afternoon of a late August day, that indefinite season when partridges are still in security or cold storage, and there is nothing to hunt?unless one is bounded on the north by the Bristol Channel, in which case one may lawfully gallop after fat red stags. Lady Blemley’s…
THE Queens of Spades by Alexsandr S. Pushkin
Problems with formatting click here. The Queens of Spades by Alexsandr S. Pushkin I There was a card party at the rooms of Narumov of the Horse Guards. The long winter night passed away imperceptibly, and it was five o’clock in the morning before the company sat down to supper. Those who had won, ate…
THE CHRISTMAS TREE AND THE WEDDING BY FIODOR M. DOSTOYEVSKY
THE CHRISTMAS TREE AND THE WEDDING If you have formatting issues, click here. The other day I saw a wedding? But no! I would rather tell you about a Christmas tree. The wedding was superb. I liked it immensely. But the other incident was still finer. I don’t know why it is that the sight…
HOW MUCH LAND DOES A MAN NEED? by Leo Tolstoy
Painting by Vladimir Makovsky How Much Land Does a Man Need by Leo Tolstoy I An elder sister came to visit her younger sister in the country. The elder was married to a tradesman in town, the younger to a peasant in the village. As the sisters sat over their tea talking, the elder began…
THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY by Edward Everett Hale
THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY “NOLAN. Died, on board U. S. Corvette ‘Levant,’ [Note 3] Lat. 2° 11′ S., Long. 131° W., on the 11th of May, PHILIP NOLAN.” I happened to observe it, because I was stranded at the old Mission House in Mackinaw, waiting for a Lake Superior steamer which did not choose…
BARTLEBY, THE SCRIVENER by Herman Melville
I am a rather elderly man. The nature of my avocations for the last thirty years has brought me into more than ordinary contact with what would seem an interesting and somewhat singular set of men,
Paul’s Case by Willa Cather
It was Paul’s afternoon to appear before the faculty of the Pittsburgh High School to account for his various misdemeanours. He had been suspended a week ago, and his father had called
A FIGHT WITH A CANNON by Victor Hugo
La vieuville was suddenly cut short by a cry of despair, and a the same time a noise was heard wholly unlike any other sound. The cry and sounds came from within