Ten classic short novels appear in this collection by noted editor Neider. The contents include: Benito Cereno by Herman Melville, Notes from Underground by F. M. Dostoyevsky, A Simple Heart by Gustave Flaubert, The Death of Ivan Ilych by L. N. Tolstoy, The Aspern Papers by Henry James, Ward No. 6 by A. P. Chekhov, Death in Venice by Thomas Mann, The Dead by James Joyce (recently made into a musical), The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, and The Fox by D. H. Lawrence. In the introduction, Neider discusses the themes that arise in several of the novels, grouping them by more than just their greatness.
Jane Austen, Leo Tolstoy, Ernest Hemingway, Willa Cather, Jack London, Dorothy Parker, John O’Hara, Elmore Leonard, and a host of other greats past and present have much to show you about how to begin and end a story, structure a plot, create memorable characters, write dialogue, depict settings and action, heighten romance, choose winning titles, and meet all the other challenges of the art of fiction. Barnaby Conrad, a bestselling author as well as one of America’s premier creative writing teachers, has selected key examples from the best of the best to reveal the essential tools of storytelling and demonstrate their use. His book offers fresh inspiration and guidance for all writers of fiction. It is also a joy to read. “Barnaby’s book is a great idea. I am sure it will be exactly what all prospective writers need, but it is more than an idea and more than a book. Actually, it is a correspondence course.”—Charles M. Schulz “This book is a blessing. Barnaby Conrad’s brilliantly organized examples of how fiction is fashioned will be turned to again and again for inspiration and advice.”—Sol Stein “Barnaby Conrad’s Learning to Write Fiction from the Masters is as lively and informative as his Santa Barbara Writers Conference, and that’s saying a lot.”—Joseph Wambaugh
(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) Aanton Chekhov, widely hailed as the supreme master of the short story, also wrote five works long enough to be called short novels–here brought together in one volume for the first time, in a masterly new translation by the award-winning translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. The Steppe–the most lyrical of the five–is an account of a nine-year-old boy’s frightening journey by wagon train across the steppe of southern Russia. The Duel sets two decadent figures–a fanatical rationalist and a man of literary sensibility–on a collision course that ends in a series of surprising reversals. In The Story of an Unknown Man, a political radical spying on an important official by serving as valet to his son gradually discovers that his own terminal illness has changed his long-held priorities in startling ways. Three Years recounts a complex series of ironies in the personal life of a rich but passive Moscow merchant. In My Life, a man renounces wealth and social position for a life of manual labor. The resulting conflict between the moral simplicity of his ideals and the complex realities of human nature culminates in a brief apocalyptic vision that is unique in Chekhov’s work.
This blistering, fearless, and unforgettable literary novel finds a woman with everything on the line and a life-or-death decision waiting for her—perfect for fans of Claudia Rankine and Jenny Offill. Come of age in the credit crunch. Be civil in a hostile environment. Go to college, get an education, start a career. Do all the right things. Buy an apartment. Buy art. Buy a sort of happiness. But above all, keep your head down. Keep quiet. And keep going. The narrator of Assembly is a black British woman. She is preparing to attend a lavish garden party at her boyfriend’s family estate, set deep in the English countryside. At the same time, she is considering the carefully assembled pieces of herself. As the minutes tick down and the future beckons, she can’t escape the question: is it time to take it all apart? Assembly is a story about the stories we live within – those of race and class, safety and freedom, winners and losers.And it is about one woman daring to take control of her own story, even at the cost of her life. With a steely, unfaltering gaze, Natasha Brown dismantles the mythology of whiteness, lining up the debris in a neat row and walking away. "Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway meets Claudia Rankine's Citizen...as breathtakingly graceful as it is mercilessly true.”—Olivia Sudjic, author of Sympathy and Asylum Road A woman confronts the most important question of her life in this blistering, fearless, and unforgettable literary debut from "a stunning new writer." (Bernardine Evaristo) “A quiet, measured call to revolution…This is the kind of book that doesn’t just mark the moment things change, but also makes that change possible.”—Ali Smith, author of Summer "Brilliant. Brown's gaze is piercing."—Avni Doshi, author of Burnt Sugar
A Russian spy and scientist imparts to his paramour interconnected memories detailing his early days as a Bolshevik-era theremin innovator through his Moscow imprisonment and assignments to eavesdrop on Stalin. By the award-winning founder of the Said the Gramophone blog. Original.
For this anthology of mystery stories, Lawrence Block asked a wide range of authors, such as Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Harlan Ellison, and others, to select not only their personal best, but their favorite story from a peer. The result is a stellar showcase of stories by the best of the best.
The first of two volumes of original short novels by some of the greatest writers in fantasy fiction, including Neil Gaiman, Anne McCaffrey, Tad Williams, Robin Hobb, Robert Silverberg, and Raymond E. Feist Legends II picks up where its illustrious predecessor left off. All of the bestselling writers represented in Legends II return to the special universe of the imagination that its author has made famous throughout the world. Whether set before or after events already recounted elsewhere, whether featuring beloved characters or compelling new creations, these masterful short novels are both mesmerizing stand-alones—perfect introductions to the work of their authors—and indispensable additions to the epics on which they are based. ROBIN HOBB returns to the Realm of the Elderlings with “Homecoming,” a powerful tale in which exiles sent to colonize the Cursed Shores find themselves sinking into an intoxicating but deadly dream . . . or is it a memory? ROBERT SILVERBERG spins an enthralling tale of Majipoor’s early history—and remote future—as seen through the eyes of a dilettantish poet who discovers an unexpected destiny in “The Book of Changes.” TAD WILLIAMS explores the strange afterlife of Orlando Gardiner, from his Otherland saga, in “The Happiest Dead Boy in the World.” ANNE McCAFFREY shines a light into the most mysterious and wondrous of all places on Pern in the heartwarming “Beyond Between.” RAYMOND E. FEIST turns from the great battles of the Riftwar to the story of one soldier, a young man about to embark on the ride of his life, in “The Messenger.” NEIL GAIMAN gives us a glimpse into what befalls the man called Shadow after the events of his Hugo Award–winning novel American Gods in “The Monarch of the Glen.”
