F. Scott Fitzgerald makes antebellum Baltimore his setting for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a fantastical tale with some Poe-like overtones about a baby born at age seventy who then lives life in reverse, his hair turning "in the dozen years of his life from white to iron-gray, the network of wrinkles on his face becoming less pronounced." What ramifications that creates for Benjamin's relationship with his father first and then later with his wife and his own son makes for some fantastical situations.
Do lobsters feel pain? Did Franz Kafka have a funny bone? What is John Updike's deal, anyway? And what happens when adult video starlets meet their fans in person? David Foster Wallace answers these questions and more in essays that are also enthralling narrative adventures. Whether covering the three-ring circus of a vicious presidential race, plunging into the wars between dictionary writers, or confronting the World's Largest Lobster Cooker at the annual Maine Lobster Festival, Wallace projects a quality of thought that is uniquely his and a voice as powerful and distinct as any in American letters.
Morley Roberts (1857-1942) was an adventurer who worked on railways and cattle and sheep ranches all over Africa and the Americas and still found time to write a large number of very varied novels and stories with a zest that only real-life experience can give.
'A Comedy of Capricorn' is a humorous romantic tale. When Gwendolen invites the supremely eligible animal lover Lord Bampton to meet her parents so that he can ask permission to court her, she warns her family of the visitor's fondness for pets. Even the butler is warned to allow any strange or exotic animal which might accompany his Lordship into the drawing room without batting an eyelid. So when a stray goat turns up by chance at the same time as Lord Bampton, chaos, confusion and hilarity are predestined.
O. Henry was the pen name of William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), an American writer of outstanding short stories known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization, and surprise endings.
'A Newspaper Story' is an ingenious tale about a lost newspaper blowing through the streets of New York. Each passer-by who comes into contact with any part of it is personally impacted by one of the stories in the paper - but not in the way one would expect.
Timothy Shay Arthur (1809 - 1885) who wrote as T.S. Arthur, was a popular 19th-century American author.
"An Angel in Disguise" is an uplifting story of a childless couple who reluctantly take in a disabled child and discover what joy and fulfillment it brings them.
Edward Frederic Benson (1867-1940) was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, archaeologist, and short story writer, best known for his masterly and uncanny ghost stories. Less well known are his wonderful humorous stories, of which "Aunts and Pianos" is one. Bobby is an accomplished and charming pianist who has befriended a number of rich elderly widows and spinsters, each of which he refers to as "aunt". He already has his own Bechstein grand piano, plus another concert grand which was (touchingly but highly inconveniently) left to him by a late "aunt". Now various of his other "aunts" are also keen to offload their grand pianos on him...
Harry Graham (1874 - 1936) made a great name for himself as a writer of light verse and humorous stories, including the inimitable Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless Homes.
Bats in the Belfry is a humorous short story in the tradition of the Victorian bedroom farce. Percy Biffin, an awkward house-guest at the summer residence of Sir Borwick Trout, is unexpectedly called on in the middle of the night to remove a bat from the beautiful young Julia Trout's bedroom. His presence in the young lady's bedroom is misinterpreted by every person who learns of it...and the more Biffin tries to extricate himself, the worse the situation becomes.
Arthur George Morrison (1863-1945) was an English writer and journalist known for his realistic novels and stories about working-class life in London's East End.
Cap'n Jollyfax, a retired sea captain, has a brass cannon which he likes to fire on special occasions. New Year, Waterloo day, the anniversary of Nelson's funeral, Trafalgar day, everyone's birthdays, weddings, christenings and every other occasion. His neighbour, the widow Mrs Billing, has a great dislike for the gun. So when Cap'n Jollyfax and Mrs Billing become engaged to be married it is perhaps not suprising that there is a dispute about the future of the gun.... a dispute with hilarious consequences.
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (1842-circa 1914) was an American author, journalist, short story writer and satirist who disappeared in 1913 under mysterious circumstances and was never seen again.
"John Bartine's Watch" is the strange and terrifying tale of an evening guest who reacts with horror when his host asks him what is the time. But why is John Bartine so reluctant to look at his own watch?
Joseph Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was an English journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist.
"Little Tobrah" is a disturbing murder story set in India. The eight year old Tobrah stands accused of the murder of his younger blind sister. The evidence is purely circumstantial... and then he recounts his own tale of what happened.
Elinor Mordaunt (1872 - 1942) was an English author, writer and traveller. She lived extensively in Mauritius, Australia and the East Indies, which provided the inspiration and background for many of her works.
Mrs. Scarr is a tense and mysterious ghost story set in Mauritius, a place where local mythology and European morals sit uneasily alongside one another. Mrs. Scarr is a beautiful woman of French origin who defies local cultural norms. She goes out alone at night and wears white rather than the traditional black. And her husband, who is a debauched sea captain, is mysteriously plagued by a single white moth wherever he goes.
John Gordon Brandon (1879-1941) was an Australian-born writer who started life as a professional heavyweight boxer.
He moved to England after the First World War and wrote more than 120 novels, and numerous short stories.
"The Blue Pearl" is an adventure story set in the Dutch East Indies. "Bad Luck" Jim Barton is slaving in a chain-gang and facing five more years penal servitude under the Dutch. Suddenly, on a short break, his neighbour on the chain gang - an evil looking Frenchman - slips something hard and round into his shoe and gives him a Chinese coin with a strange character on it. He whispers quickly that Barton is about to be released and that he must take the mystery object and the coin to Quong Meng, the richest Chinese tycoon in the district. The object turns out to be a breathtaking flawless blue pearl.
There follows a breathless and racy series of daring adventures, brutal murders, narrow escapes and pirate attacks as Barton attempts to deliver the pearl to its destination.
