Showing results by publisher "Strelbytskyy Multimedia Publishing" in Short Stories

"The Classic Collection of Franz Kafka. Novellas and Stories" brings together a selection of extraordinary works by Franz Kafka, one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. This collection showcases Kafka's unique literary style and his exploration of existential themes, alienation, and the human condition. "The Metamorphosis" is a haunting novella that follows the bizarre transformation of Gregor Samsa into a giant insect, exploring themes of identity, isolation, and the absurdity of human existence.

Before you is a timeless classic that will never cease to warm your heart and fill the long winter evenings with anticipated wonders and merry celebrations. This collection of Christmas stories by famous authors is the best gift for the holidays. These festive stories range from touching and magical to funny and sad. They include the best classic works of literature; whose themes involve the nativity and the magic of Christmas. Prepare yourself to experience true holiday magic and create new Christmas traditions as you read through these classics year after year.

Bulgakov was a Soviet playwright, novelist, and short story writer best known for his humor and penetrating satire. Because of their realism and humor, Bulgakov's works enjoyed great popularity, but their trenchant criticism of Soviet mores was increasingly unacceptable to the authorities. Bulgakov's short stories are a world unto themselves—sharp, witty, and often unsettling. In these pages, the absurdity of Soviet life collides with the supernatural, the grotesque meets the comic, and reality is always just a step away from slipping into nightmare.

A small, dark speck becomes the starting point for a cascade of thought—quiet, precise, wandering. In a room with a fire, a cigarette, and silence thick as dust, a mind drifts from memory to philosophy, from loss to structure, from trees to snails. Virginia Woolf's voice here is both still and restless, charting the motion of consciousness as it moves without hurry or warning.

Irving's stories blend gentle humor, gothic atmosphere, and vivid historical detail, drawing readers into early American life and folklore. In The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, he introduces the unforgettable figure of Ichabod Crane and the spectral Headless Horseman, capturing the eerie charm of a rural New York village. Rip Van Winkle, a whimsical tale of a man who sleeps through decades of change, explores themes of time, identity, and transformation.

In "A Nervous Breakdown", Vasilyev feeling distressed after his visit to few brothels for the first time. Guilt, disgust and shame and of that little voices debating inside his mind that lead him to a symptom of a nervous breakdown. A quirky storytelling, quite distressing but entertaining.

The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs is a classic and chilling short story that delves into the dark consequences of tempting fate. When the White family comes into possession of a mysterious monkey's paw, said to grant three wishes to its owner, they are initially skeptical of its powers. However, curiosity and desperation lead them to make a wish, setting off a chain of events that spiral into a terrifying and unforeseen series of events.

Dubliners is a collection of fifteen short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. They form a naturalistic depiction of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century. The stories were written when Irish nationalism was at its peak, and a search for a national identity and purpose was raging; at a crossroads of history and culture, Ireland was jolted by various converging ideas and influences.

She lived in the shadow of others—quietly, dutifully, without question. Her world was small: a kitchen hearth, the rhythm of chores, a parrot who would outlive most dreams. But in that stillness, something vast took root. A devotion so complete, it blurred the line between the sacred and the simple. This story doesn't shout. It listens. It watches. It waits. And by the time it's done, you'll understand how the softest hearts carry the heaviest truths.

Мир Чехова — как тонкий свет утра: в нём нет ослепительного блеска, но всё видно ясно и правдиво. Здесь нет громких событий, но каждое слово откликается тихим звоном правды. Его герои живут — просто, неловко, часто больно — и в их обыденности открывается подлинная драма человеческого существования. Сдержанный, проницательный, нежно ироничный, Чехов видит человека без прикрас, но с бесконечным состраданием. Он не судит и не оправдывает — лишь вслушивается в паузы между словами, в тишину после смеха, в сердце, которое всё ещё умеет чувствовать.

The Devoted Friend by Oscar Wilde was first published in 1888 in the anthology The Happy Prince and Other Tales. Hans was a little man who owned a beautiful garden, where he grew flowers of all kinds and colours which were sold in the market to make some money. He enjoyed the company of another man called Hugh, a miller who used to visit Hans very often during the summer time and with whom he shared thoughts about friendship and loyalty.

In a quiet farmhouse, the ordinary folds into the unseen. A Jury of Her Peers turns a simple domestic scene into a mirror of justice, conscience, and the unspoken weight of women's lives. With spare, careful strokes, Susan Glaspell reveals how silence can testify and how understanding sometimes takes root where authority fails.

The story is about a family who moves to a castle haunted by the ghost of a dead nobleman, who killed his wife and was starved to death by his wife's brothers. The home of the Canterville Ghost was the ancient Canterville Chase, which has all the accoutrements of a traditional haunted house. Descriptions of the wainscoting, the library panelled in black oak, and the armour in the hallway characterise the setting. Wilde mixes the macabre with comedy, juxtaposing devices from traditional English ghost stories such as creaking floorboards, clanking chains, and ancient prophecies.

The story of The Happy Prince has three major themes. Firstly it shows that apparent beauty is nothing and the real beauty is to bestow love and sacrifice. Secondly, it discusses that love and sacrifice are two saving forces. Thirdly, it shows that there is a large gap between rich and poor people the rulers and the masses. When the happy prince is alive he lives a happy life without sorrows, he is living a care free life but after his death he sees through a tall Colum that life has another view except happiness and that is helplessness poverty, hypocrisy and corruption of elite and ruling class.

The Goophered Grapevine is the first short story from The Conjure Woman, published in The Atlantic in August 1887, told to the narrator by Julius McAdoo, a former enslaved man who lives on the plantation that the narrator, John, and his wife, Annie, visit one day. Set in Patesville, North Carolina, John and Annie moved there for an improvement in his wife's health and to seek other business opportunities. Knowing that the couple wanted to purchase the property, McAdoo advises them not to do so, informing them that when Dugal McAdoo, the previous master, purchased the property, it was very rich in wine production because of its vineyards.

An Episode of Cathedral History is one of M. R. James's most quietly chilling tales—a masterwork of subtle horror, antiquarian mystery, and creeping dread. Behind the stone walls of a venerable English cathedral, the past stirs with a presence that should have remained undisturbed. In this haunting narrative, the mundane slips imperceptibly into the macabre. A scholar's inquiry unlocks a forgotten secret; shadows lengthen; and something long sealed away begins to wake.

What would you trade for the secret to unimaginable fortune? In Alexander Pushkin's The Queen of Spades, an ambitious young officer becomes entangled in a web of greed, mystery, and the supernatural, all centered around the fateful queen of spades. Set in the glittering salons and shadowy streets of St. Petersburg, this story unravels with a mix of elegance and unease. Pushkin's sharp storytelling brings to life characters who are as unpredictable as the hands they're dealt—where ambition collides with madness, and destiny plays its cruelest game.

The Problem of Cell 13 is a short story by Jacques Futrelle. It was first published in 1905 and later collected in The Thinking Machine (1907), which was featured in crime writer H. R. F. Keating's list of the 100 best crime and mystery books ever published. Like Futrelle's other short stories, The Problem of Cell 13 features Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen as the main character, although most of the story is seen through the perspective of a prison warden.

"The Lady with the Dog" is a short story by Anton Chekhov. First published in 1899, it describes an adulterous affair between an unhappily married Moscow banker and a young married woman that begins while both are vacationing alone in Yalta.

The Most Dangerous Game, a short story written by Richard Edward Connell in 1924, is a thrilling tale that explores themes of survival, morality, and the nature of human cruelty. Set against the backdrop of a remote island, the story combines suspense, adventure, and a touch of philosophical inquiry, making it one of the most widely anthologized short stories in American literature.