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Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author's brain, their soul and heart. A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere.In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens'across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author? The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme. Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature.Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made. If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something.The Emerald Isle is home to literary talent on a grand scale. And amongst their ranks are women of quite extraordinary ability who refuse to take second place to the men. Their voice is strong, their words beguiling, entrancing but often with a will of iron as they create works of character, of narrative and of quite sumptuous literature. Genius has many names.

A wise man once said ‘The safest place for a child is in the arms of his mother's voice'. This is a perfect place to start our anthology of female short stories.Some of our earliest memories are of our mothers telling us bedtime stories. This is not to demote the value of fathers but more to promote the often-overshadowed talents of the gentler sex.Perhaps ‘gentler'is a word that we should re-evaluate. In the course of literary history it is men who dominated by opportunity and with their stranglehold on the resources, both financial and technological, who brought their words to a wider audience. Men often placed women on a pedestal from where their talented words would not threaten their own. In these stories we begin with the original disrupter and renegade author Aphra Behn. A peek at her c.v. shows an astounding capacity and leaves us wondering at just how she did all that.In those less modern days to be a woman, even ennobled, was to be seen as second class. You literally were chattel and had almost no rights in marriage. As Charlotte Smith famously said your role as wife was little more than ‘legal prostitute'. From such a despicable place these authors have used their talents and ideas and helped redress that situation. Slowly at first. Privately printed, often anonymously or under the cloak of a male pseudonym their words spread. Their stories admired and, usually, their role still obscured from rightful acknowledgement.Aided by more advanced technology, the 1700's began to see a steady stream of female writers until by the 1900's mass market publishing saw short stories by female authors from all the strata of society being avidly read by everyone. Their names are a rollcall of talent and ‘can do'spirit and society is richer for their works. In literature at least women are now acknowledged as equals, true behind the scenes little has changed but if (and to mis-quote Jane Austen) there is one universal truth, it is that ideas change society. These women's most certainly did and will continue to do so as they easily write across genres, from horror and ghost stories to tender tales of love and making your way in society's often grueling rut. They will not be silenced, their ideas and passion move emotions, thoughts and perhaps more importantly our ingrained view of what every individual human being is capable of. Within these stories you will also find very occasional examples of historical prejudice. A few words here and there which in today's world some may find inappropriate or even offensive. It is not our intention to make anyone uncomfortable but to show that the world in order to change must reconcile itself to the actual truth rather than put it out of sight. Context is everything, both to understand and to illuminate the path forward. The author's words are set, our reaction to them encourages our change.It is because of their desire to speak out, their desire to add their talents to the bias around them that we perhaps live in more enlightened, almost equal, times.

Charlotte Eliza Lawson Cowan was born in Carrickfergus, County Antrim, Ireland, on 30th September 1832, the youngest daughter of James Cowan, a High Sheriff for the County of Antrim, and Ellen Kilshaw from Liverpool, England.In the winter of 1855, four years after her father's death, she and her mother moved to London. Sadly, within the year, her mother also passed.In 1857, she married Joseph Hadley Riddell, a civil engineer. The marriage was happy by all accounts but produced no children.Her first novel, ‘The Moors and the Fens', was published in 1858 under the pseudonym of F. G. Trafford, which she used until publishing under the moniker ‘Mrs Riddell'from 1864.Charlotte was a prolific, respected and popular author. In her literary career she published over 50 novels and short stories. The most notable is perhaps ‘George Geith of Fen Court'(1864), for which she was paid £800. It was later dramatised in 1883 by Wybert Reeve.From 1867, Charlotte ventured into new territory, becoming the co-proprietor and editor of the well-regarded St. James's Magazine, which had begun publishing 1861. She also edited the magazine ‘Home in the Sixties', and wrote short stories and tales for the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge and Routledge's Christmas annuals. Charlotte was a prominent writer of ghost stories; ‘Fairy Water', ‘The Uninhabited House', ‘The Haunted River', ‘The Disappearance of Mr Jeremiah Redworth'and ‘The Nun's Curse', all deal with buildings occupied by supernatural phenomena. Charlotte also wrote several short ghost stories, such as ‘The Open Door'and ‘Nut Bush Farm', which are regularly anthologised.In 1880 Joseph died. She now withdrew from society and became a recluse. From 1886 this was in Upper Halliford, Middlesex. In 1901 Charlotte became the recipient of the first pension, £60 a year, from the Society of Authors.Charlotte Riddell died from cancer in Ashford, Kent, on 24th September 1906.

Charlotte Eliza Lawson Cowan was born in Carrickfergus, County Antrim, Ireland, on 30th September 1832, the youngest daughter of James Cowan, a High Sheriff for the County of Antrim, and Ellen Kilshaw from Liverpool, England.In the winter of 1855, four years after her father's death, she and her mother moved to London. Sadly, within the year, her mother also passed.In 1857, she married Joseph Hadley Riddell, a civil engineer. The marriage was happy by all accounts but produced no children.Her first novel, ‘The Moors and the Fens', was published in 1858 under the pseudonym of F. G. Trafford, which she used until publishing under the moniker ‘Mrs Riddell'from 1864.Charlotte was a prolific, respected and popular author. In her literary career she published over 50 novels and short stories. The most notable is perhaps ‘George Geith of Fen Court'(1864), for which she was paid £800. It was later dramatised in 1883 by Wybert Reeve.From 1867, Charlotte ventured into new territory, becoming the co-proprietor and editor of the well-regarded St. James's Magazine, which had begun publishing 1861. She also edited the magazine ‘Home in the Sixties', and wrote short stories and tales for the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge and Routledge's Christmas annuals. Charlotte was a prominent writer of ghost stories; ‘Fairy Water', ‘The Uninhabited House', ‘The Haunted River', ‘The Disappearance of Mr Jeremiah Redworth'and ‘The Nun's Curse', all deal with buildings occupied by supernatural phenomena. Charlotte also wrote several short ghost stories, such as ‘The Open Door'and ‘Nut Bush Farm', which are regularly anthologised.In 1880 Joseph died. She now withdrew from society and became a recluse. From 1886 this was in Upper Halliford, Middlesex. In 1901 Charlotte became the recipient of the first pension, £60 a year, from the Society of Authors.Charlotte Riddell died from cancer in Ashford, Kent, on 24th September 1906.

These British Isles, moored across from mainland Europe, are more often seen as a world unto themselves. Restless and creative, they often warred amongst themselves until they began a global push to forge a World Empire of territory, of trade and of language.Here our ambitions are only of the literary kind. These shores have mustered many masters of literature. So this anthology's boundaries includes only those authors who were born in the British Isles - which as a geographical definition is the UK mainland and the island of Ireland - and wrote in a familiar form of English.Whilst Daniel Defoe is the normal starting point we begin a little earlier with Aphra Behn, an equally colourful character as well as an astonishing playwright and poet. And this is how we begin to differentiate our offering; both in scope, in breadth and in depth. These islands have raised and nurtured female authors of the highest order and rank and more often than not they have been sidelined or ignored in favour of that other gender which usually gets the plaudits and the royalties.Way back when it was almost immoral that a woman should write. A few pages of verse might be tolerated but anything else brought ridicule and shame. That seems unfathomable now but centuries ago women really were chattel, with marriage being, as the Victorian author Charlotte Smith boldly stated ‘legal prostitution'. Some of course did find a way through - Jane Austen, the Brontes and Virginia Woolf but for many others only by changing their names to that of men was it possible to get their book to publication and into a readers hands. Here we include George Eliot and other examples.We add further depth with many stories by authors who were famed and fawned over in their day. Some wrote only a hidden gem or two before succumbing to poverty and death. There was no second career as a game show guest, reality TV contestant or youtuber. They remain almost forgotten outposts of talent who never prospered despite devoted hours of pen and brain.Keeping to a chronological order helps us to highlight how authors through the ages played around with characters and narrative to achieve distinctive results across many scenarios, many styles and many genres. The short story became a sort of literary laboratory, an early disruptor, of how to present and how to appeal to a growing audience as a reflection of social and societal changes. Was this bound to happen or did a growing population that could read begin to influence rather than just accept?Moving through the centuries we gather a groundswell of authors as we hit the Victorian Age - an age of physical mass communication albeit only on an actual printed page. An audience was offered a multitude of forms: novels (both whole and in serialised form) essays, short stories, poems all in weekly, monthly and quarterly form. Many of these periodicals were founded or edited by literary behemoths from Dickens and Thackeray through to Jerome K Jerome and, even some female editors including Ethel Colburn Mayne, Alice Meynell and Ella D'Arcy.Now authors began to offer a wider, more diverse choice from social activism and justice – and injustice to cutting stories of manners and principles. From many forms of comedy to mental meltdowns, from science fiction to unrequited heartache. If you can imagine it an author probably wrote it. At the end of the 19th Century bestseller lists and then prizes, such as the Nobel and Pulitzer, helped focus an audience's attention to a books literary merit and sales worth. Previously coffeehouses, Imperial trade, unscrupulous overseas printers ignoring copyright restrictions, publishers with their book lists as an appendix and the gossip and interchange of polite society had been the main avenues to secure sales and profits. Within these volumes are 151 authors and 161 miniature masterpieces of a few pages that contain story arcs, narratives, cha

Charlotte Riddell was one of the first women to write fiction about London City life and the world of business. She also wrote children's stories, tales of her native Ireland, and supernatural tales. In this book you will find seven short stories specially selected by the critic August Nemo: - A Strange Christmas Story - Walnut-Tree House - The Open Door - Nut Bush Farm - The Old House in Vauxhall Walk - Sandy the Tinker - Old Mrs. Jones

This book contains 70 short stories from 10 classic, prize-winning and noteworthy authors. The stories were carefully selected by the critic August Nemo, in a collection that will please the literature lovers. For more exciting titles, be sure to check out our 7 Best Short Stories and Essential Novelists collections. This book contains: Sheridan Le Fanu: - Carmilla - Green Tea - Mr. Justice Harbottle - The Familiar - The Room in the Dragon Volant - Jim Sulivan's Adventures in the Great Snow - HauntedH. Heron and E. Heron: - The Story of Saddler's Croft - The Story of Baelbrow - The Story of Yand Manor House - The Story of Konnor Old House - The Story of the Spaniards, Hammersmith - The Story of Sevens Hall - The Tale of the Moor RoadCharlotte Riddell: - A Strange Christmas Story - Walnut-Tree House - The Open Door - Nut Bush Farm - The Old House in Vauxhall Walk - Sandy the Tinker - Old Mrs. JonesFlora Annie Steel: - Sir Buzz - The Rat's Wedding - The Faitful Prince - The Bear's Bad Bargain - Prince Lionheart and HisThree Friends - Princess Aubergine - Valiant Vicky, The Brave WeaverAmelia B. Edwards: - A Night on the Borders of the Black Forest - The Story of Salome - In the Confessional - Was it an illusion? - How the Third Floor Knew the Potteries - The Tragedy in the Palazzo BardelloMargaret Oliphant: - A window's tale. - Queen Eleanor and fair Rosamond - Mademoiselle - The Lily and the thorn - The strange adventures of John Percival - A story of a wedding-tour - JohnMaria Edgeworth: - The Grateful Negro - The Prussian Vase - The Good Aunt - The Good French Governess - The Orphans - The False Key - TarltonS. Baring-Gould: - Jean Bouchon - Pomps and Vanities - McAlister - The Leaden Ring - The Mother of Pansies - The Red-haired Girl - A Professional Secret Edward Bellamy: - The Blindman's World - An Echo Of Antietam - The Old Folks'Party - The Cold Snap - Two Days'Solitary Imprisonment - Potts's Painless Cure - A Summer Evening's Dream Arnold Bennett: - The Lion's Share - The Burglary - News of the Engagement - Beginning the New Year - From One Generation to Another - The Death of Simon Fuge - In a New Bottle

Welcome to the 3 Books To Know series, our idea is to help readers learn about fascinating topics through three essential and relevant books. These carefully selected works can be fiction, non-fiction, historical documents or even biographies. We will always select for you three great works to instigate your mind, this time the topic is: Ghost Stories. - 7 Best Short Stories Of Ghost, edited by August Nemo - A Phantom Lover by Vernon Lee - The Uninhabited House by Charlotte Riddell A ghost story may be any piece of fiction, or drama, that includes a ghost, or simply takes as a premise the possibility of ghosts or characters'belief in them.The'ghost'may appear of its own accord or be summoned by magic. Linked to the ghost is the idea of'hauntings', where a supernatural entity is tied to a place, object or person. In 7 Best Short Stories of Ghost the critic August Nemo selected seven tales that perfectly illustrate this concept. A Phantom Lover has been compared to The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, in that there is a question about whether the ghost of the story was merely a figment of the imagination of two of the characters. In An Uninhabited House, the hauntings are seen through the perspective of the solicitors who hold the deed of the property. Slowly the safer world of commerce and law gives way as the encounter with the supernatural entity becomes more and more unavoidable. This is one of many books in the series 3 Books To Know. If you liked this book, look for the other titles in the series, we are sure you will like some of the topic.

This book contains 350 short stories from 50 classic, prize-winning and noteworthy authors. Wisely chosen by the literary critic August Nemo for the book series 7 Best Short Stories, this omnibus contains the stories of the following writers: - Sheridan Le Fanu - H. and E. Heron - Charlotte Riddell - Flora Annie Steel - Amelia B. Edwards - Margaret Oliphant - Edward Bellamy - Arnold Bennett - S. Baring-Gould - Daniil Kharms - E.F. Benson - John Buchan - Ella D'Arcy - Jacques Futrelle - Frank Richard Stockton - John Kendrick Bangs - Kenneth Grahame - Julian Hawthorne - A. E. W. Mason - Richard Middleton - Pierre Louÿs - Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole - Ethel Richardson - Gertrude Stein - E. Phillips Oppenheim - Arthur Quiller-Couch - Mór Jókai - Andy Adams - Bertha Sinclair - Fitz James O'Brien - Eleanor H. Porter - Valery Bryusov - John Ulrich Giesy - Otis Adelbert Kline - Paul Laurence Dunbar - Frank Lucius Packard - Barry Pain - Gertrude Bennett - Francis Marion Crawford - William Pett Ridge - Gilbert Parker - Harriet Elizabeth Prescott Spofford - Elizabeth Garver Jordan - Richard Austin Freeman - Alice Duer Miller - Leonard Merrick - Anthony Hope - Ethel Watts Mumford - Anne O'Hagan Shinn - B. M. Bower

Veintiún cuentos de fantasmas escritos por algunas de las maestras victorianas del relato escalofriante. Un regalo perfecto para Navidad y para leer al amor de la lumbre. ¿Qué hace que las historias victorianas de fantasmas sean tan perfectas para leer al calor de una chimenea en una noche oscura? Historias de mansiones abandonadas, de viajes en coches de caballos por páramos desolados, de castillos en acantilados, de bellas mujeres sepulcrales, de oscuras historias familiares en las que los antepasados no acaban de irse del todo… Un género en el que algunas eminentes damas novelistas, especialistas en lo escalofriante, marcaron tendencia. Las veintiuna historias incluidas en este volumen abarcan el reinado de la reina Victoria y cuentan con aportaciones de autoras clásicas como Charlotte Brontë, Elizabeth Gaskell, Margaret Oliphant o Willa Cather, junto con otras no tan conocidas pero no por ello menos especialistas en lo tenebroso y lo sobrenatural. Ambientados en las montañas de Irlanda, en una villa mediterránea o en una tétrica mansión de Londres, estos relatos evidencian la fascinación victoriana por la muerte y por lo que había más allá, con atmósferas sugerentes, ingenio y mucho, mucho humor.

Charlotte Riddell aka Mrs J.H. Riddell was born Charlotte Eliza Lawson Cowan on September 30th 1832 in Carrickfergus, County Antrim, Ireland. Charlotte married Joseph Hadley Riddell in 1857 and moved to London. The following year her first novel, The Moors and the Fens, appeared issued under the pseudonym of F. G. Trafford, a name she kept until 1864. She was a prolific writer, authoring 56 books, novels and short stories. From 1867, she was the co-proprietor and editor of the prestigious St. James's Magazine and also edited a magazine called Home, and wrote short tales for the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge and Routledge's Christmas annuals. Charlotte was also considered a prominent writer of ghost stories and several of her novels, Fairy Water, The Uninhabited House, The Haunted River, The Disappearance of Mr. Jeremiah Redworth and The Nun's Curse are based on supernatural occurrences. Joseph died in 1880 and brought 23 years of a happy but childless marriage to an end. From 1886, she lived in seclusion at Upper Halliford, Middlesex. She was the first pensioner of the Society of Authors, receiving a pension of £60 a year in May 1901. Charlotte died from cancer in Ashford, Kent, England on 24 September 1906.

After the death of her mother and the loss of her family's fortune, it falls to young Glen Westley to do what she can for herself and her ailing father. Determined to make her own way in the world, she moves from the West of Ireland to London and works tirelessly to succeed as a novelist, despite the limitations her sex and nationality represent. Having struggled so long for fame, it is at last thrust upon her – but fame always comes at a price. A Struggle for Fame is a brilliant novel of astute and surprisingly familiar observations, still relevant over a century after it was first published. Gender, class, affluence and ability are all laid bare under the author's exacting eye. This is the first edition of Riddell's classic three-volume novel to be published in a single unabridged edition.