Showing results by narrator "Walter Zimmerman" in All Categories

Kate Chopin's novel The Awakening, published 1899, drew a storm of criticism for its "shocking, morbid, and vulgar" story and quickly went out of print. The novel was not resurrected until the 1950s, when participants in the growing women's movement recognized its importance. Today, The Awakening is among the most-read American novels in colleges and universities and is considered an early example of American realism.

The Purloined Letter is one of Edgar Allan Poe's detective stories. It is the third of the three stories featuring the detective C. Auguste Dupin, the other two being The Murders in the Rue Morgue and The Mystery of Marie Roget. These stories are considered important forerunners of the modern detective story. The Method Poes detective, Dupin, uses to solve the crime was quite innovative. He tried to identify with the criminal and to "think like he would."

The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar tells the tale of a mesmerist who puts a man in a suspended hypnotic state at the moment of death to see if he can communicate with him after he is dead. While a tale of suspense and horror, it was also, at the time of its publication, a bit of a hoax since it was published without claiming to be fictional, and many took it to be a factual. Poe toyed with this for a while before admitting it was a work of pure fiction.

Known for his wit and sardonic humor, Ambrose Bierce wrote horror with the intensity of Edgar Allan Poe. Many think Bierce outdid Poe in the genre. Included are nine short stories: "The Eyes of the Panther", "A Watcher by the Dead", "The Death of Halpin Frayser", "The Suitable Surroundings", "An Adventure at Brownville", "Moxon's Master", "Mysterious Disappearances", "The Famous Gilson Bequest", and "The Secret of Macarger's Gulch".

A young man gives a present of "a work of art", or so he thinks, with very interesting consequences. This is one of Chekov's most humorous stories.

A man is sentenced to an unusual punishment for having a romance with a king's beloved daughter. Taken to the public arena, he is faced with two doors, behind one of which is a hungry tiger that will devour him. Behind the other is a beautiful lady-in-waiting, whom he will have to marry if he finds her.

This is a collection of tales of the California Gold Rush era by the Western author, Bret Harte. It's a mix of local color, drama, and humor. Several film versions of "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" have been made, and John Payne and Ronald Reagan starred in an adaptation of "Tennessee's Partner" in 1955. The spaghetti Western Four of the Apocalypse is based on "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" and "The Luck of Roaring Camp".

Saladin Foster and his wife, Electra, are jolted out of their tranquility by the stunning news that a distant relative has left them $30,000. The one condition is that the couple must be able to prove "that they had taken no notice of the gift by spoken word or by letter, had made no inquiries concerning the [ship] Moribund's progress toward the everlasting tropics, and had not attended the funeral." This condition leads to some major difficulties.

Here is Twain's hilarious tale of "Smiley" and his extraordinary frog.

Kipling was a British author and poet, born in India. He is best known for the many children's tales, his Indian spy novel Kim (1901), a number of poems, and many short stories. This gentle supernatural story is one of his best.

Frank Stockton was an American writer and humorist, best known for a series of innovative children's fairy tales that were widely popular. His most famous fable is "The Lady or the Tiger?" (1882), about a man sentenced to an unusual punishment for having a romance with a king's beloved daughter. Other memorable tales are "The Griffin and the Minor Canon", "Old Pypes and the Dryad", and "Mr. Tolman".

Diable - A Dog, first appeared in Cosmopolitan Magazine June, 1902. Unlike Buck in The Call of the Wild, this fiercely independent dog was anything but man's best friend. Most thought he was a devil but, as the story says his master Black Leclère was also a devil, "and the twain were well matched."

The Four Million was written in 1906 when roughly four million people lived in New York City. It opens with a reference to Ward McAllister's "assertion that there were only "400" people in New York City who were really worth noticing.

Kate Chopin was an American author of short stories and novels, mostly with a Louisiana Creole background. Today she is now considered a forerunner of the feminist authors of the 20th century. This powerful little story concerns a Southern gentleman who disowns his wife because he fears she has "negro" blood. The truth makes for a dramatic ending.

This ghost story is a very unusual tale for O. Henry - longer than most and one of the few he wrote that dealt with the supernatural.

Flaubert's genius lay in his infinite capacity for taking pains, and Madame Bovary, so true in it's characterization, so vivid in its setting, is testimony to the realism of his work.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of 12 stories by Arthur Conan Doyle that were originally published in Strand magazine from July 1891 to June 1892. This collection includes some of Holmes' most famous cases.

Joseph Sheridan LeFanu was one of the major figures of 19th centrury supernaturalism. He helped move supernaturalist fiction away from the Gothic's emphasis on external sources of terror and toward a focus on the effects of terror, thus helping to create the psychological basis for supernaturalist and horror lit that continues today.

Two colonial officers extol the benefits they are bringing to an African village in the form of "quays and warehouses, and barracks-and billiard-rooms". A French republican who has fathered three idiot sons makes his peace with the Church: only to have an idiot daughter. A woman chooses not to leave her husband...but he leaves her. Such are the ironies of Conrad's earliest short stories.