Typhoon Off the Coast of Japan by Jack London Jack London’s first story, published at the age of seventeen It was four bells in the morning watch. We had just finished breakfast when the order came forward for the watch on deck to stand by to heave her to and all hands stand by the…
Month: May 2010
NELLY’S HOSPITAL by Louisa May Alcott
NELLY’S HOSPITAL by Louisa May Alcott Nelly sat beside her mother picking lint; but while her fingers flew, her eyes often looked wistfully out into the meadow, golden with buttercups, and bright with sunshine. Presently she said, rather bashfully, but very earnestly, “Mamma, I want to tell you a little plan I’ve made, if you’ll…
The Vampyre by John William Polidori
The Vampyre by John William Polidori (Note this is considered the first Vampire story. It is said this story started the genre). IT happened that in the midst of the dissipations attendant upon a London winter, there appeared at the various parties of the leaders of the ton a nobleman, more remarkable for his singularities,…
THE RED ROOM by H. G. Wells
THE RED ROOM by H. G. Wells “I can assure you,” said I, “that it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me.” And I stood up before the fire with my glass in my hand. “It is your own choosing,” said the man with the withered arm, and glanced at me askance. “Eight-and-twenty…
WITCHES’ LOAVES by O’Henry
WITCHES’ LOAVES by O’Henry Miss Martha Meacham kept the little bakery on the corner (the one where you go up three steps, and the bell tinkles when you open the door). Miss Martha was forty, her bank-book showed a credit of two thousand dollars, and she possessed two false teeth and a sympathetic heart. Many…
MONDAY OR TUESDAY by Virginia Woolf
MONDAY OR TUESDAY by Virginia Woolf Lazy and indifferent, shaking space easily from his wings, knowing his way, the heron passes over the church beneath the sky. White and distant, absorbed in itself, endlessly the sky covers and uncovers, moves and remains. A lake? Blot the shores of it out! A mountain? Oh, perfect?the sun…
EVELINE by James Joyce
EVELINE by James Joyce She sat at the window watching the evening invade the avenue. Her head was leaned against the window curtains and in her nostrils was the odour of dusty cretonne. She was tired. Few people passed. The man out of the last house passed on his way home; she heard his footsteps…
THE CIRCUS MAGICIAN by William Dean Howells
THE CIRCUS MAGICIAN by William Dan Howells A crowd of the fellows had been waiting to know what the boys had been talking about to the circus man, but Jim Leonard said, “Don’t you tell, Pony Baker!” and he started to run, and that made Pony run, too, and they both ran till they got…
REGINALD IN RUSSIA by Saki
REGINALD IN RUSSIA by Saki Reginald sat in a corner of the Princess’s salon and tried to forgive the furniture, which started out with an obvious intention of being Louis Quinze, but relapsed at frequent intervals into Wilhelm II. He classified the Princess with that distinct type of woman that looks as if it habitually…
THE DEVIL AND TOM WALKER by Washington Irving
THE DEVIL AND TOM WALKER by Washington Irving (1783-1859) A few miles from Boston, in Massachusetts, there is a deep inlet winding several miles into the interior of the country from Charles Bay, and terminating in a thickly wooded swamp or morass. On one side of this inlet is a beautiful dark grove; on the…
THE SCARECROW AND THE TIN WOODMAN by L. Frank Baum
THE SCARECROW AND THE TIN WOODMAN by L. Frank Baum There lived in the Land of Oz two queerly made men who were the best of friends. They were so much happier when together that they were seldom apart; yet they liked to separate, once in a while, that they might enjoy the pleasure of…
THREE QUESTIONS by Leo Tolstoy
THREE QUESTIONS by Leo Tolstoy It once occurred to a certain king, that if he always knew the right time to begin everything; if he knew who were the right people to listen to, and whom to avoid; and, above all, if he always knew what was the most important thing to do, he would…
THE APPARITION OF MRS. VEAL by Daniel Defoe
THE APPARITION OF MRS. VEAL Daniel Defoe (1661-1731) This thing is so rare in all its circumstances, and on so good authority, that my reading and conversation have not given me anything like it. It is fit to gratify the most ingenious and serious inquirer. Mrs. Bargrave is the person to whom Mrs. Veal appeared…
A LONELY RIDE by Bret Harte
A LONELY RIDE by Bret Harte As I stepped into the Slumgullion stage I saw that it was a dark night, a lonely road, and that I was the only passenger. Let me assure the reader that I have no ulterior design in making this assertion. A long course of light reading has forewarned me…