Showing results by author "Bret Harte" in All Categories

Bret Harte was an American short-story writer and poet, best remembered for his short fiction featuring miners, gamblers, and other romantic figures of the California Gold Rush. We offer now some samples of his diversity in a collection of his short stories: “The Outcasts of Poker Flats”, “Tennessee’s Partner”, “The Idyl of Red Gulch”, “Brown of Calaveras”, “Muck-A-Muck”, “The Ninety-Nine Guardsmen”, “Mr. Midshipman Breezy”, “The Legend of Monte Del Diablo”, and more.

When a Cherokee Sal dies giving birth to her son in a prospecting camp, the gold miners adopt him as their own. They name him Thomas Luck, as he seems to indicate a change in fortune for the camp. The miners start to turn their lives around in order to be a better example to the shining boy. But just as their ship seems to have come in, disaster hits, and it soon goes out again in this gripping yet tragic work of historical fiction.

This second collection of dramatized stories from the early days of detective fiction includes the following: "The Mystery of Mrs. Dickinson" by Nick Carter; "The Stolen White Elephant" by Mark Twain; "The Red-Headed League" and "The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; "The Purloined Letter" and "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allan Poe; "Mr. Policeman and the Cook" by Wilkie Collins; and more.

Originally published in Harte's 1875 short-story collection The Tales of the Argonauts, "How Santa Claus Came to Simpson's Bar" is set in California in the early 1860s and, like the rest of the tales in that collection, features the gold-seeking Argonauts. In this tale, like many of Harte's others, the folly and grit of human existence balance any good intentions, good cheer, or hope, resulting in a more complicated and somewhat bleak ending than is commonly found in most Christmas tales.

The story is about the birth of a baby boy in a 19th-century gold prospecting camp. The boy's mother, Cherokee Sal, dies in childbirth, so the men of Roaring Camp must raise it themselves. Believing the child to be a good luck charm, the miners christen the boy Thomas Luck. Afterwards, they decide to refine their behavior and refrain from gambling and fighting. At the end of the story, however, Luck and a villager, Kentuck, perish in a flash flood that strikes the camp.

Society has forgiven Jo Corbin for killing a man, but can he forgive himself? Will the Postmistress lose all in a bid to help a friend escape justice? Will the new teaching assistant's unorthodox ways tame the unruly pioneer children? These are just three of the nine wonderful short stories from Bret Harte, set in wild and wooly 19th-century California.

Bret Harte paints a timeless portrait of undesirables who are forced to leave a self-righteous town, and who, in the face of oncoming winter and in the company of a pair of innocents, learn to become bigger than themselves.

Theatre Royal. The very name summons up something of grandeur and eloquence. And it was. Hosted by Laurence Olivier, these big-name productions also included the creme de la creme of acting talents from John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, and Orson Welles to Trevor Howard, Michael Redgrave and Olivier himself. They were based on works by the world's leading authors, among them Charles Dickens, Henry James, Oscar Wilde and Anton Chekhov. These are but a few of whose company we shall be keeping as we raise the curtain on our first instalment of theatrical history.

Although American author Bret Harte is most readily associated with stories about the West, it is his skill with characterization that distinguishes him from the hundreds of others who set fictional tales in the region. The miners, soldiers, gamblers, entrepreneurs, and lost souls who populate these pages are limned with Harte's unique combination of dry wit and tender pathos. This charming collection of Harte's short stories focuses on life in old California.

The story takes place in Sandy Bar, a town of the Old West, where Tennessee - an impulsive gambler - and Tennessee's practical partner live. Their strong friendship overcame all difficulties, even surviving the fact that Tennessee caused the estrangement of his partner’s wife. In the end, his loyal partner buries Tennessee.

From a master storyteller of the Wild West comes Chu Chu, a story about a horse with a fascinating personality who refuses to be tamed.

A Bret Harte Western story about an interesting child, seven-year-old Melons, and his goings-on.

Are you prepared to confront the Invisible Man? Venture into Room 666? Investigate a pair of strange feet? If so, this collection of great short-story mysteries will give you hours of unsettling pleasure.

Bret Harte is best known for his stories of the pioneering days in California, so this humorous parody of English Gothic novels is a delightful departure. Harte sets his unlikely tale in Regency England with all the cliches and plot conventions present in abundance. The two main characters Lady Selina and Edgardo hide their amoral pasts from each other, unaware that they're a perfectly suited couple. In the mix are mysterious villains, dark secrets, past scandals, forbidden romance, hidden panels, murders, ghosts, all ending with the requisite deus ex machina conclusion.

This story, one of Harte's most anthologized, first appeared in The Luck of Roading Camp and Other Stories.

A Chinese boy, an Indian and a wolf-like dog are outcasts, true friends and marvelous pranksters - in a town that's running out of patience.

The story of the siblings Maggie and Jim Culpepper who live in Dedlow Marsh. Close to their home is a fort with government soldiers, and one night, a deserter approaches Maggie asking for supplies. She gives the man some of her brother's clothes and some food. Then the deserter is caught, and things get complicated....

The Man of No Account is the story of a man from the East Coast whose failed California experiment gave him the title. He is returning home aboard a passenger steamer and is often the butt of jokes among the other passengers. Ultimately, the ship is lost at sea.

"A Convert of the Mission" is about a California minister in need of rehabilitation to regain the health of his body and spirit. He follows the orders of his doctor to go somewhere and change his habits and way of life. And he succeeds in his quest, but in a way that displeases his former brothers in the faith.

Bret Harte (1836 - 1902) was an American writer and poet, most famous for his short fiction featuring miners, gamblers, and other romantic figures of the California Gold Rush. The Idyll of Red Gulch portrays an incident in a town in California involving the town drunk, a prostitute, and the schoolmistress.