Jack the Giant-Killer, Tom Thumb, Goldilocks and The Three Bears, Henny Penny, Dick Whittington, The Three Little Pigs, Red Riding Hood and a host of immortal characters are found in this delightful collection of English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs. The book made its first appearance in 1890 and has remained a firm favorite with both young and old ever since. Fairy tales have traditionally emanated from France and Germany. The famous compilations by La Fontaine and the Brothers Grimm have overshadowed children's literature for centuries...

This book is a fine collection of Indian fairy tales, some are folklore, some are from the Jataka tales, and some from panchatantra.

Katherine Mansfield was a prominent Modernist writer of short fiction, and one of New Zealand’s best-known authors. “At the Bay” is a story from her collection The Garden Party.

The first collected volume of short stories of the New Zealand modernist. Inspired by her own travels, Mansfield begins to refine her craft with a series of tales which depict German life at the brink of the first world war. (Introduction by S. Kovalchik)

Here are two stores starring the always unconventional Terrestrial Diplomat, Retief. As a diplomat, Retief does not always follow procedure. Well the truth is that he almost never follows procedure but somehow his wit and strength manage to salvage most situations from the bumbling of his superiors. His sardonic approach to inter galactic negotiations in these two stories is a delight to hear. Despite everything, he manages to save the day and come out on top.

In this chilling short-story by a master of the craft, Kurt Vonnegut creates a fictional world of the future where life and death are no longer matters of individual choice or destiny. The title refers to the famous quote from Hamlet, “To be or not to be....” with “0” being pronounced as “naught.” It also refers to the eternal dilemma of life and death that face every human being at some point in their lives. Written in 1962 it is set in some unspecified time in the future, when earth has become a Utopia...

This is a collection of the following short stories: The Ninth Vibration -- The Interpreter : A Romance of the East -- The Incomparable Lady : A Story of China with a Moral -- The Hatred of the Queen : A Story of Burma -- Fire of Beauty -- The Building of the Taj Majal -- How Great is the Glory of Kwannon! -- The Round-Faced Beauty. Many of them are romantic, some of them are fantasy and others are occult fiction.(Introduction by Linda Andrus)

The “Little Wizard Stories of Oz” are six short stories written by L. Frank Baum in 1913. By all accounts, Baum intended to finish the Oz series with “The Emerald City of Oz,” published in 1910. Following that, he attempted to write non-Oz books, publishing “The Sea Fairies” in 1911 and “Sky Island” in 1912. But, (as Baum himself laments in the prefaces of many of his Oz books,) his “little tyrants” were only interested in hearing more Oz stories. So in 1913, he returned to writing about Oz, putting out both The “Little Wizard Stories” and “The Patchwork Girl of Oz” that year...

This collection of fantasy stories was originally serialized in regional newspapers, prior to being published as a complete volume. The stories, as critics have noted, lack the high-fantasy aspect of the best of Baum’s work, in Oz or out. With ironic or nonsensical morals attached to their ends, their tone is more satirical, glib, and tongue-in-cheek than is usual in children’s stories; the serialization in newspapers for adult readers was appropriate for the materials. (Introduction by Wikipedia and Matthew Reece)

The Magical Monarch of Mo is a set of stories about the titular king, his queen, and his royal children. The stories are uproariously funny, dealing with topics as absurd as a man losing his temper who then tries to find it, an evil midget who steals a princess's big toe, and an entire city filled with highly civilized monkeys! Join the Monarch and all his friends for a rollicking adventure, filled with fun for the whole family!

A charming little book full of the most gorgeous illustrations. We see a number of stories in which kindness is rewarded and selfishness is punished but Brooke squeezes a number of intriguing and quite bizarre twists and turns into the story so it is not nearly so predictable as you might imagine. Victorian moral fairy tales from a delightfully inventive mind.

A beautifully illustrated children’s picture book featuring Johnny Crow who made a garden in which a variety of animals do bizarre things in rhyme.

This collection of 14 stories collected by Lafcadio Hearn, contains Japanese ghost stories, but also several non-fiction pieces. Hearn tries to give a glimpse into the customs of the Japanese, by giving examples of Buddhist Proverbs and explaining the use of incense and the nation wide fascination with poetry. Furthermore, he has again translated several hair-rising ghost stories, like "A Passional Karma" about the truly undying love of a young couple.

Most of the following Kwaidan, or Weird Tales, have been taken from old Japanese books,— such as the Yaso-Kidan, Bukkyo-Hyakkwa-Zensho, Kokon-Chomonshu, Tama-Sudare, and Hyaku-Monogatari. Some of the stories may have had a Chinese origin: the very remarkable "Dream of Akinosuke," for example, is certainly from a Chinese source. But the story-teller, in every case, has so recolored and reshaped his borrowing as to naturalize it… One queer tale, "Yuki-Onna," was told me by a farmer of Chofu, Nishitama-gori, in Musashi province, as a legend of his native village...

Although Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was a wealthy landowner, in his later life he had what was considered a “religious awakening.” This experience went on to inform his writing and his lifestyle in profound ways. His views transcended the specifics of religion, as known in his day – so much so he came to be a helpful guide both to Mohandas Gandhi and to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The four stories in this collection ask profound questions and gently supply helpful, non-dogmatic hints to their...

Written after Tolstoy suffered a spiritual crisis, Ivan the Fool is a fairy tale that offers children instruction in how to live rightly, simply, and generously. The story emphasizes the destructive aspects of materialism and militarism while idealizing manual labor and the peasant life. (Introduction by Dorlene Kaplan)

Prince Stepan Kasatsky experiences a disappointment with his fiancé and decides to become a monk! There is a story line, but beneath it, Father Sergius struggles to find peace and, if not happiness, then at least contentment. But he is always disillusioned and ultimately unsatisfied. Only in the end does he find his way by letting go of what he struggled to attain all his life, i.e. to be better than everyone else in whatever he did, and settle for the mundane.

This is a volume of short works by Leonid Andreyev. - Summary by Carolin

37 short and very short plays for young children - David O Readers: Linette Geisel: Camel, Big Black Dog, First Child, Camel, Grandma, Red Fox, Child, First Pig, Mrs. Dove, Third Chick, Littlest Fir Tree, French Doll, Mary, Camel, Sparrow, Mrs. Sparrow, Sheep, Little Tree, Columbine, Rose, Lobster, Jellyfish, Flowers, Sanja, Tree, Camel Tomas Peter: Lion, Odd Man, Lion, Fisherman, Hans, Fifth Pig, Mr. Jay, First Chick, Santa Claus, Tin Soldier, Old Year, Man, Thrush, Mr. Sparrow, Cow, Woodcutter,...

This is a collection of (each in their own way) romantic short stories by Lily Dougall.

“Come with me, ladies and gentlemen who are in any wise weary of London: come with me: and those that tire at all of the world we know: for we have new worlds here.” – Lord Dunsany, the preface to “The Book of Wonder”

Lord Dunsany (24 July 1878 – 25 October 1957) was a London-born Anglo-Irish writer and dramatist notable for his work in fantasy. He was influenced by Algernon Swinburne, who wrote the line “Time and the Gods are at strife” in his 1866 poem “Hymn to Proserpine”, as well as by the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen. In turn, Dunsany’s influence was felt by H. P. Lovecraft and Ursula K. Le Guin. Arthur C. Clarke corresponded with Dunsany between 1944 and 1956. Those letters are collected in the book Arthur C. Clarke & Lord Dunsany: A Correspondence. Time and the Gods, a series of short stories written in a myth-like style, was first published in 1906.