Twelve stories, one for each month of the year, which first list a few Bible verses then relate how those verses took effect in a young person's life. The first 10 chapters are letters written by Frank Hudson to his cousin Renie. Frank is a boy who gets into trouble when he doesn't think before acting. He receives Bible verses as a kind of "hedge fence" he has to jump through or climb over to do the wrong things; they scratch him and give him a prick, and remind him of what is the right way to go...

Cradock Nowell: a Tale of the New Forest is a three-volume novel by R. D. Blackmore published in 1866. Set in the New Forest and in London, it follows the fortunes of Cradock Nowell who, at the end of Volume 1, is thrown out of his family home and disowned by his father following the suspicious death of Cradock's twin brother Clayton, their father's favorite. In Volume 2, the story picks up with those left behind at Nowelhurst and the question of who is now heir apparent to the Nowell fortune. Meanwhile, Cradock discovers life independent of the Nowell name and fortune is not easy...

A disastrous experiment destroys the moon and kills millions on earth. The invention of artificial flesh lets them return to life as androids, a second and perhaps superior human species. Mounting tensions between the naturals and the “phonies” erupts in violence. Will this scientific advance bring eternal life and the gift of travel to the stars or bring about mankind’s self-destruction?

Fiction, or fact? The narrator asserts it's fact. The narrator is an author, whom her little nieces call "Auntie Belle". There's also an "Auntie Dule" , Grandpa and Grandma, Mama and Papa, and eventually an Uncle Ross . The book is made up of vignettes of the funny sayings or doings of little Minnie and little Gracie, and how these lead to Grandpa's wise lessons for both the little ones and the adults. - Summary by TriciaG

Nick Carter is a fictional detective who first appeared in 1886 in dime store novels. Over the years, different authors, all taking the nom de plume Nicholas Carter, have penned stories featuring "America's greatest detective". One evening, a stranger calls on our hero at home, with a tale of the kidnap of the governor's daughter and theft of some important papers; but when he begins to conceal information, Nick refuses to help and becomes suspicious. As Mr. Snell leaves, the detective's sidekick, Patsy, follows.

Between February and October 1919, Nikola Tesla submitted many articles to the magazine Electrical Experimenter. The most famous of these works is a six part series titled "My Inventions", which is an autobiographical account of Nikola Tesla's life and his most celebrated discoveries. This work has been compiled and republished as a stand-alone book several times under different names, but has been a cause of some controversy due to some versions deviating from the original text without explanation...

The Black Cat was a monthly literary magazine, publishing original short stories, often about uncanny or fantastical topics. Many writers were largely unknown, but some famous authors also wrote original material for this magazine. This seventh issue of volume 2 presents the following five short stories: "The Peacock and the Copper Moon", by Frances Aymar Mathews: a sculptor's plan to save her lover suddenly receives a dramatic twist "Westward Ho !", by J. Wesley Glover: don't launch the party before the guests arrive ! "The Captain's Gray", by Ella F...

New Yorker Robert Pagebrook travels to Virginia to visit relatives. The Civil War has ended and family ties are in order to be re-established. All goes well; the family relationships are as they should be, perhaps even better than expected. Unique character studies develop as Pagebrook finds himself in a financial predicament, becoming indebted and with no resources available, as his bank back home has dissolved. It is up to Robert Pagebrook to find a way to prove to his kin that he is still a Man of Honor.

Published in 1917, this is a collection of a novella and seven short stories by one of the cleverest authors of the early twentieth century. ‘In Queen's Quorum , a survey of crime fiction, Ellery Queen listed Bennett's The Loot of Cities among the 100 most important works in the genre. This collection of stories recounts the adventures of a millionaire who commits crimes to achieve his idealistic ends. Although it was "one of his least known works," it was nevertheless "of unusual interest, both as an example of Arnold Bennett's early work and as an early example of dilettante detectivism".’ - Summary by David Wales

Nick Carter is a fictional detective who first appeared in 1886 in dime store novels. Over the years, different authors, all taking the nom de plume Nicholas Carter, have penned stories featuring "America's greatest detective". The scene is set at an upscale road house not far from New York City. Tucked away in a quiet room, five men sit at a poker game, when one is accused of cheating. A scuffle ensues and the man ends up dead. But surely he wasn't hit that hard? Did he have a heart condition? We can be sure Nick will get to the bottom of the affair. - Summary by Lynne Thompson

collection contains: -The £1,000,000 Bank-Note -Mental Telegraphy -A Cure for the Blues -The Enemy Conquered; or, Love Triumphant -About all Kinds of Ships -Playing Courier -The German Chicago -A Petition to the Queen of England -A Majestic Literary Fossil This Mark Twain short story collection was published in 1893, in a disastrous decade for the United States, a time marked by doubt and waning optimism, rapid immigration, labor problems, and the rise of political violence and social protest. It was also a difficult time for Twain personally, as he was forced into bankruptcy and devastated by the death of his favorite daughter, Suzy...

LibriVox’s Short Story Collection 054: a collection of 20 short works of fiction in the public domain read by a group of LibriVox members.

The Black Cat was a monthly literary magazine, publishing original short stories, often about uncanny or fantastical topics. Many writers were largely unknown, but some famous authors also wrote original material for this magazine. This is the ninth issue of volume 2 with the following five short stories: "The Man-Hunt of Mendocino", by Frank Bailey Millard: no one can stop the revenge of a mother for the murder of her son "Silas Bartle's Snake-Bite Cure", by Winthrop Packard: witness young Norris' dramatic struggle to survive a deadly snake bite "Tunnel Number Six", by Eugene C...

The first in a trilogy of the Reconstruction era - The Leopard's Spots (1902), The Clansman (1905), and The Traitor (1907), parts of this novel were incorporated in the 1915 silent movie classic, "The Birth Of A Nation". Set in North Carolina, the book explores the extreme social and racial tensions of the period as Confederates attempt to fight off "reconstructionist" policy, rebuild the war-torn South's economy, and grapple with the rampant "race question" of the day, whether the black and white races can ever live side by side as equals, i...

World War I stories, as told through the eyes of someone who was there, but leavened with humour and an eye for the ridiculous side of human nature. This is a collection of McNeile's early short stories, drawing on his experiences with the Royal Engineers Corps. These are the memoirs which describe the experiences that made him who he was, and gave him his famous name "Sapper". The first half is made up of separate stories, the second half is selected accounts from the life of "Jim Denver" in Ypres and France.

CHATTERBOXBy J. Erskine Clarke, M.A.CRUISERS IN THE CLOUDS.In the chimney corner of a cottage in Avignon, a man sat one day watching the smoke as it rose in changing clouds from the smouldering embers to the sooty cavern above, and if those who did not know him had supposed from his attitude that he was a most idle person, they would have been very far from the truth. It was in the days when the combined fleets of Europe were thundering with cannon on the rocky walls of Gibraltar, in the hope of driving the English out, and, the long effort having proved in vain, Joseph Montgolfier, of whom we have spoken, fell to wondering, as he sat by the fire, how the great task could be accomplished...

This is a story about the life of a school girl. The story centres around the girls' college of St. Wode's, Wingfield. This is the place in all England where women who wish to distinguish themselves should go to receive training. The girls come from all classes of society, but the tale centres chiefly around the doings of the Gilroy girls and their benefactor, Mr. Parker.

What is a young man to do, when because of his pleasant disposition, and (of course) his considerable wealth, he finds himself besieged by bevies of eligible young women, some beautiful, some less so (some, even, his own cousins)? How on earth is he to protect himself from their onslaught and that of their mothers?

LibriVox’s Short Story Collection 055: a collection of 20 short works of fiction in the public domain read by a group of LibriVox members, including stories by J. M. Barrie, O. Henry, Jerome, Joyce, London, Saki, R. L. Stevenson, Trollope, Wilde and Wodehouse.

The second original tragedy written by Gothic writer Matthew Lewis, Adelgitha; or, The Fruits of a Single Error is a markedly more serious affair than his melodramatic output, dealing as it does with a fallen woman who is mercilessly blackmailed by a ruthless tyrant when she spurns his advances. Set in Otranto during the High Middle Ages, and featuring fictionalized depictions of historical rulers Robert Guiscard and Michael Ducas , Adelgitha is an archetypal Gothic drama that, while not especially refined or meritorious in terms of quality, still manages to thrill in that deliciously overwrought way that Lewis knew how to sell...

CLARA VAUGHAN, the young heroine, narrator, and namesake for R. D. Blackmore’s early detective novel, is determined to solve the mystery of her father’s murder—a crime that occurred when she was only 10 years of age. The third volume of the trilogy concludes the account of Clara’s adventures, romances, and encounters with many eccentric characters while she finally unravels the mystery. As Clara explains to the reader in an early chapter: “How that deed was done, I learned at once, and will tell. By whom and why it was done, I have given my life to learn.” R. D. Blackmore, undoubtedly better known for his later novel Lorna Doone, published this book anonymously in 1864.

Hailed as one of the funniest writers of the 20th century, P. G. Wodehouse cheerfully radiates humor that is both sophisticated and popular. In Bill the Conqueror, Wodehouse creates an array of entertaining characters who gallop around England and America in quest of love and money. Our far-from-perfect hero Bill is a dissipated American former football player and man of action, who tangles with odious relatives, bumbling gangsters, suave white-collar crooks, and even his exasperating but well-meaning friend Judson, as he seeks to become worthy of the woman of his dreams, whichever one she might be. As you might expect, the course of true love never did run smooth.

This Maugham classic is set in England and Hong Kong and in a cholera --ridden Chinese village in the 1920's. A committed, principled, epidemiologist, Dr. Fane, falls in love with the beautiful, but vain and foolish, Kitty Garstin. She agrees to marry him only because she wishes to beat her sister to the altar. She soon commits adultery with a British official in Hong Kong, where they have relocated. Dr. Fane decides that she must accompany him to a small village, deep within China, where cholera is rampant; otherwise, he will reveal the betrayal, with grave consequences for all...

A collection of twenty stories featuring ghoulies, ghosties, long-leggedy beasties and things that go bump in the night. Expect shivers up your spine, the stench of human flesh, and the occasional touch of wonder.

From the Preface: I HAVE written "Impressions and Tales" upon the title-page of this volume, because I have included within the same cover two styles of work which present an essential difference. The second half of the collection consists of eight stories, which explain themselves. The first half is made up of a series of pictures of the past which may be regarded as trial flights towards a larger ideal which I have long had in my mind. It has seemed to me that there is a region between actual story and actual history which has never been adequately exploited...

This 1913 story is far more than a Christmas tale. It is a story about spiritual wisdom; the seeking of wisdom, the getting of wisdom, even when the seeking and the getting is obscure. Henry Collinton is an 81 year old, widowed, Episcopal Church bishop. The story opens on the morning of the Bishop’s last Christmas and ends with his death that night. We see him encounter four to him important people throughout the day, three friends and the Nazarene, the Christ, he has followed all his life...

A lonely, convalescing 12 year-old boy and his attractive mother, who is in a loveless marriage, meet a gentleman while vacationing at a European resort. Seeking an enjoyable way to pass the time, the man schemes to seduce the woman with the unwitting help of the boy. The son, puzzled by the developing relationship, becomes increasingly isolated and suspicious as he loses his childish innocence in this gripping coming-of-age novella. This work is translated from the original German, Brennendes Geheimnis, which has also been recorded for Librivox...

This is a collection of P.G. Wodehouse's short stories published in The Strand from 1918 to 1922. (kirk202) Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE (15 October 1881 – 14 February 1975) was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years, and his many writings continue to be widely read.

Now that the railroad has come through, Christie Tucker's parents have decided to save enough for her to go to her well-to-do Uncle Daniel for a one-day visit, on Christmas, which is also Christie's birthday. It's her first trip away from home -- and on the cars! Of course, the trip doesn't turn out exactly as expected. That one day, and how Christie lived it, has consequences that keep coming! Addressed by the author to girls, it is still a pleasant story for adults, too.

The last of Dickens' Christmas novellas (1848), The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain centres around Professor Redlaw, a teacher of chemistry, whose personal life has been marred by sorrow and, he feels, by wrongs done to him in his past. He is haunted by his ghostly twin, who offers him the opportunity to forget completely all 'sorrow, wrong and trouble', claiming that this will make him happier. Redlaw wavers, but finally accepts this offer, discovering too late that there are conditions attached to it which cause him to infect with this unwanted 'gift' nearly everyone with whom he comes in contact...

Canadian novelist Guy Morton's Rangy Pete is one of a trio of westerns he wrote in the 1920s (the other two being Black Gold and Wards of the Azure Hills). In this one, the Gary Cooper-esque title character, Rangy Pete, goes up against the Dervishers, and outlaw clan that's been stirring up trouble for the peaceable folks of Triple Butte. In so doing, he encounters a beautiful blue-eyed girl-bandit who promptly throws a lasso around his heart. As the action heats up, the grandeur of magnificent western landscape does battle with the picturesqueness of Rangy's colorful cowboy argot, and the reader comes out the winner...

Hans of Iceland was written in 1821 and is the very first novel written by young Victor, years before he became the great Hugo. It has all the ingredients of a gothic novel: dreadful murders by the hand of a human monster, a young hero in love with the destitute heroine, royal court-intrigues and rebellious uprising, all set in dungeons, dark towers and the untamed nature of Norway.This audio-book has been recorded as Dramatic Reading with all the voices performed by one single reader, including laughs, sobs, groans, occasional screams and a lot of growls. I hope you will enjoy listening to this adventurous journey just as much as I enjoyed recording it. - Summary by Sonia