Dr. Salva Gordy looked at the radioactive smear thathad been Detroit. Then he looked down at the boilinganthill. Why not, he thought excitedly, why not?...

One wretched November night, Inspector Stanley Hopkins visits Holmes at 221B Baker Street to discuss the violent death of Willoughby Smith, secretary to aged invalid Professor Coram. Coram had dismissed his previous two secretaries. The murder happened at Yoxley Old Place near Chatham, Kent, the fatal weapon being a sealing-wax knife belonging to the professor. Hopkins can identify no motive for the killing, with Smith having no enemies or trouble in his past. Smith was found by Coram's ma...

This story, about a man who wakes up transformed into a bug and the repercussions it has on his life and the people around him, has intrigued me for many years. What does it mean? [Spoiler possibly]In my mind it is not complicated at all and is most probably an autobiography of how Kafka himself had experienced his early life living with his parents. Kafka describes how he had experienced his parents’ financial and emotional exploitations of him, to the point of detaching from them and the...

First compiled in the 6th century BC, The Art of War presents a philosophy of war for managing conflicts and winning battles. It is accepted as a masterpiece on strategy and is frequently cited and referred to by generals and theorists since it was first published, translated, and distributed internationally. The book is not only popular among military theorists, but has also become increasingly popular among political leaders and those in business management. Despite its title, The Art of...

A modern American family move into a traditionally drafty and very haunted English mansion. So far so good but anyone knowing Wilde can expect twists and turns to make it interesting. In this cast the crusty old ghost has a tough time convincing the family he exists and then in frightening them. This is extremely frustrating of course to him and as the protagonist of the story, takes matters (and non-matters) into his hands to deal with the upstart and irreverent new tenants.

Before Conan the Barbarian, Robert E. Howard created Kull the Conqueror, revealed later by Howard to be an ancestor of Conan. Kull, like Conan is a vicious and bloodthirsty barbarian but in some ways is a more contemplative and thoughtful character. In these, the first two Kull stories Howard published, we find Kull dealing with a conspiracy to murder him by a race of shapeshifting lizard people in "The Shadow Kingdom" and we see Kull contemplating his place in the world and even his own r...

Do you like ghost stories? With odd chilling beings coming back from the dead? Here are three classic tales of strange emanations from other realms that seek to do evil and vile things. The first is A Story Told in A Church, then The Ghost's Summons and finally, The Baron's Coffin . Ada Buisson was a Victorian novelist and short story author. This collection includes her three horror stories, all of which were published in the journal Belgravia in 1867-1869.

Pride and Prejudice is the second novel by English author Jane Austen, published in 1813. A novel of manners, it follows the character development of Elizabeth Bennet, the protagonist of the book, who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness.Mr Bennet, owner of the Longbourn estate in Hertfordshire, has five daughters, but his property is entailed and can only ...

The Apology is Plato's version of the speech given by Socrates as he defended himself in 399 BC against the charges of "corrupting the young, and by not believing in the gods in whom the city believes, but in other daimonia that are novel" . "Apology" here has its earlier meaning of speaking in defense of a cause or of one's beliefs or actions. The general term apology, in context to literature, defends a world from attack (opposite of satire-which attacks the world).the text is w...

Judge Carter Gates of the Third Circuit Court finished his chicken salad on whole wheat, thoughtfully crumpled the waxed paper bag and turned to drop it in the waste basket behind his chair—and sat transfixed.Through his second-floor office window, he saw a forty-foot flower-petal shape of pale turquoise settling gently between the well-tended petunia beds on the courthouse lawn. On the upper, or stem end of the vessel, a translucent pink panel popped up and a slender, graceful for...

The name Poe brings to mind images of murderers and madmen, premature burials, and mysterious women who return from the dead What a scary read. Egaeus, the narrator, talks about his relationship to his cousin Berenice. He lives the life of a scholar, prefers the night and is quite sickly. Berenice is the counterpart until she fall ill an decays day by day. There are plans of marriage. Egaeus is obsessed by her teeth. When the day of her interment is over a shadowy shrouded figure is report...

This is the story that inspired and kicked off the Stainless Steel Rat series of stories and novels by Harry Harrison. A slippery con man and thief, frustrating every police force on every planet for years, he finally meets a worthy adversary in the Special Corps. Slippery Jim deGriz, the Stainless Steel Rat himself, goes on to have many adventures but this is the first...and the last in a way. After this, his cunning and crooked mind is put to the bigger task of saving the universe from i...