The stunning collection of short fiction that established Nathaniel Hawthorne as one of the most powerful and provocative artists in nineteenth-century America   Dr. Heidegger invites four friends to witness an experiment. As the impoverished merchant Mr. Medbourne, the gout-ridden sinner Colonel Killigrew, the ruined politician Mr. Gascoigne, and the aged widow Wycherly watch, Heidegger places an old rose in a vase filled with water drawn from the...

Benjamin Disraeli (* 21. Dezember 1804 in London; † 19. April 1881 in Mayfair), 1. Earl of Beaconsfield seit 1876, war ein konservativer britischer Staatsmann und erfolgreicher Romanschriftsteller. Zwei Mal, 1868 und 1874 bis 1880 bekleidete er das Amt des britischen Premierministers. "Sybil" ist ein Roman von Benjamin Disraeli aus dem Jahr 1845. Er beschreibt das Schicksal der englischen Arbeiterklasse und deren zum Teil menschenunwürdigen Lebensumstände....

Justine is the tragic story of a young woman who embarks on a journey to France where she plans to lead a life of uncompromising virtue. Justine watches as her sister, Juliette, becomes corrupted by a wicked Abbess in the nunnery where she was raised. Hoping to escape the same fate, Justine breaks out on her own only to become the victim of many who claim to be charitable and trustworthy, suffering sexual abuse and terror that force her to extreme...

"The Dead" is the final and longest story in the Dubliners, a collection of fifteen short stories by James Joyce. First published in 1904, the stories aim to capture Irish middle class life as it really was around Dublin at the turn-of-the-century. Like many of Joyce's tales in the collection, "The Dead" features a transformative epiphany, where a character experiences a sudden insight into their life that changes the way they see everything. In what...

In the title story, a young girl-out walking with her only friend, a cow named Mistress Moolly-finds the nest of a rare bird. When a handsome young hunter passes by, she must decide whether or not to reveal the nest to him. Other charming, luminous stories of New England village life include "The Gray Man," "Farmer Finch," "Marsh Rosemary," "The Dulham Ladies," and more.

The Music of Erich Zann is a short story by American author H. P. Lovecraft. Written in December 1921, it was first published in National Amateur, March 1922. A university student is forced, by his lack of funds, to take the only lodging he can afford. In a strange part of the city he had never seen before, on a street named "Rue d'Auseil", he finds an apartment in an almost empty building. One of the few other tenants is an old German man named Erich...

William FitzWilliam Delamere Chalmers, Lord Dawlish, is hard-up for money. When he is unexpectedly bequeathed a million pounds by an American he once helped at golf, and furthermore learns that the millionaire left his niece and nephew only twenty pounds, he is uneasy. He endeavours to approach them (in then-rural Long Island) and see if he can fix up something, like giving them half the inheritance. He discovers that it can be difficult to give money...

The Tomb tells of Jervas Dudley, a self-confessed day-dreamer. While still a child, he discovers the entrance to a mausoleum, belonging to the family Hyde, whose nearby family mansion had burnt down many years previously. The entrance to the mausoleum is padlocked and slightly ajar. Jervas attempts to break the padlock, but is unable. Dispirited, he takes to sleeping beside the tomb. Eventually, inspired by reading Plutarch's Lives, Dudley decides...

Pickman's Model is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft, written in September 1926 and first published in the October 1927 issue of Weird Tales. The story revolves around a Bostonian painter named Richard Upton Pickman who creates horrifying images. His works are brilliantly executed, but so graphic that they result in his membership in the Boston Art Club being revoked and himself shunned by his fellow artists.

Flora y Mails, dos niños huérfanos, están bajo la tutela de su tío, un joven adinerado, dueño de la mansión Blay. Éste no desea hacerse cargo de la educación de sus sobrinos, salvo en lo estrictamente material. Para ello contrata los servicios de una joven e inexperta institutriz que viajará hasta la mansión para cuidar y educar a los niños. Con cierto recelo a su llegada, está dispuesta a hacerse respetar. Sin embargo, se verá sorprendida...