Showing results by narrator "Walter Zimmerman" in All Categories

Satirical humor from the master. A group of congressmen are trapped in a snowbound train for two months. When they run out of food, they do what congressmen do - they form a committee to decide who among them should be eaten first.

Pushkin was one of the giants of 19th century Russian literature but, unlike Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, he was most famous for his short stories. The Shot, one of his most anthologized, tells the story of a terrible revenge.

"A Scandal in Bohemia" was the first of Arthur Conan Doyle's 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories to be published in The Strand Magazine. Holmes did not think much of the "fair sex" until the met a character in this story, Irene Adler, who became to him "the woman".

Volume 5 of this popular series consists of the following stories: "The Books of Beasts" by Edith Nesbit, "Prince Sneeze" by Henry Beston, "Kind Little Edmund" by Edith Nesbit, "The Plate of Pancakes" by Maude Lindsey, "The Castle of Life" by Edward Deboulyea, "The Glass Dog" by L. Frank Baum, "The Country Called Nanomia" by Evelyn Sharp, "The Sea Dragon" by Alan McCall, "The Professor of Practical Jokes" by Evelyn Sharp...

In this story, an old witch takes pity on a poor soldier and gives him a box with remarkable powers. As a result, he has many astounding adventures.

Selma Lagerlöf and Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson were two of the greatest nineteenth centurey Nordic authors who were both awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. Lagerlof was a Swedish novelist, who in 1909 became the first woman writer to win the Nobel Prize for literature. Her work is deeply rooted in Nordic legends and history. She turned away from the dominating realistic movement and wrote in a romantic and imaginative manner about the peasant life and landscape of Northern Sweden.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky is considered one of the greatest Russian writers. His works have had a profound and lasting effect on 20th-century literature. His psychological penetration into the human soul had, in novels like Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov, a profound influence on the 20th century novel. He also wrote a number of brilliant short stories along these same lines. "The Wedding" is one of his best.

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

This is the story of the celebrated Pickwick Club. The members are to report to the club on their journeys, adventures, and observations of characters and manners. Dickens creates a vivid picture of England in taking his characters along the nostalgic highways and byways of this majestic isle. This remarkable first novel made Dickens famous and has remained one of the world's best-known works.

The Cossacks is one of the finest depictions of Cossack society in Russian literature. Against that primitive background, Tolstoy examines two psychological problems. The first is that of a young man who wants to love and wants to fit into society. The other is that of the difficulty of a primitive society in accepting the domination of a higher culture. This is a brilliant exploration of the themes of individuality and social identity.

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".

The Phantom of the Opera is a Gothic novel, combining romance, horror, mystery, and tragedy. The story is about a mysterious figure who terrorizes a Paris opera house for the unwitting benefit of a young singer he loves.

This story was first published in McClure's Magazine in 1905. Harvey Merrick, a famous sculptor, died of tuberculosis at the age of 40. As the story begins, a group of townsfolk waits for the arrival of the night train that is bringing his body back from the East for burial in the small Kansas town where he grew up. Only one man, however, understands what Harvey has accomplished since leaving their town. The rest of the town folk seem close minded and provincial.

The Gambler brilliantly captures the strangely powerful compulsion to bet that Dostoevsky, himself a compulsive gambler, knew so well. The hero rides an emotional roller coaster between exhilaration and despair, and secondary characters such as the grandmother, who throws much of her fortune away at the gaming tables, are unforgettable.

Bjornstjerne Bjornson was a Norwegian writer, editor, and theater director, known along with Henrik Ibsen, Alexander Kielland, and Jonas Lie as one of the "four great ones" of 19th-century Norwegian literature. Bjornson campaigned widely for liberal and national ideals, and became an extremely popular national figure. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1903. "The Father" is one of his most widely anthologized stories.

Raised by wolves, young Mowgli is taught the law of the jungle by his animal friends: Old Baloo the wise brown bear, and Bagheera, the sleek, black Panther. Slowly, Mowgli learns the language and ways of the jungle animals and his childhood seems quite idyllic. But looming in the darkness of the jungle is the cunning and sinister tiger, Shere Khan, who silently watches Mowgli, awaiting his moment to pounce.

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.

The writer who did most to establish prose as a force in Russian literary culture was Nikolai Gogol. Gogol's example combined with the pronouncements of the literary critics of the period, established prose as the literary medium of the future. Fyodor Dostoevsky is supposed to have said, referring to himself and his fellow Realists, "We have all come out from under Gogol's "Overcoat".

A Christmas Carol is undoubtedly the most famous supernatural story in English. However, it was not the only supernatural story of the season that Charles Dickens wrote. In Victorian England, Christmas was the time to explore the supernatural in stories, and Charles Dickens was one of the best at it. Included in this volume are a full-cast dramatization of A Christmas Carol, plus three more of Dickens' best stories of the season.

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."